The making of a woodshop with pictures

[Dave Lessley]

Builder said Monday afternoon he would be there bright and early Tuesday and spend the entire day to finish up the siding. Which would basically put it back to me for the electrical. About 10:30 am he called and said he was running behind trying to get a previous job ready for final inspection. Apparently it took the rest of the day.

I spent a little time cleaning up and making a carousel kind of thing for my roll of wire so it will unroll with out being curly. I need to make a few more modifications. If it works I will take a picture. Then it was inside for Daddy duty while Mom went to a meeting.

[William Cummins]

I spent a little time cleaning up and making a carousel kind of thing for my roll of wire so it will unroll with out being curly. I need to make a few more modifications.

Your new place looks great and is progressing well!

I too needed to make a wire cart/reel spooling deal to cope with the unwinding problem. They wanted a bunch of cash for a commercial model so I whipped one up.
In another post you mentioned that you placed the outdoor light switch behind a door. You can get a locking switch from an electrical supply place, that takes a small key to turn it on and off, and they fit in like a standard switch and use a standard switch plate. I installed one by my doorway to prevent the outside light from getting turned off by accident ....

William...

[Dave Lessley]

Had a full day from the Builder. He was looking for some money and I was not able to get home at lunch so he worked until I got home. I think I learned something there.

The outside is all sided. We are waiting for a window for the bathroom which was an add on,the man and garage doors and the roof on the bathroom. I have started the wiring. Power was re-connected to the panel late Wednesday afternoon.

With the 4th holiday I did not get much done with a picnic breakfast with my church a movie with the kids a BBQ that night. Saturday was a trip to the motorcyle shop for a quick fix on my bike. A trip to the dump and a wedding reception in the evening. After the reception I worked until about 11:00 PM. Sunday is my day of rest, church and time with the family.

My home made wire dispenser worked. I will try to get a picture tonight when I'm out there. I ran out of wire Saturday night. I think it will be easier to see how it works if there is wire on it.

058_Week_23a.jpg

So this is where we are today.

[Dave Lessley]

William,

Great idea thank you, I have seen those before. Actually the lights on our manufacturing floor use that kind of switch. Wonder if the box store carries those or if I will need to go to an electrical supply store?

Thanks again,

DaveL

[Ted Jay]

Had a full day from the Builder. He was looking for some money and I was not able to get home at lunch so he worked until I got home. I think I learned something there.

The outside is all sided. We are waiting for a window for the bathroom which was an add on,...

So this is where we are today.

While your there, you might as well add an exhaust fan with a timer on it, it may come in handy for "hazardous gas venting".... if you know what I mean?

Ted

[Dave Lessley]

Ted,

Good idea

In the post about air cleaners someone mentioned an exhaust fan. Which started me thinking. I had originally planned on putting two attic fans in until reading a bunch of posts on a forum that basically came to the conclusion that attic fans were not as effective as just letting your ridge vent do the work. Supposedly the attic fans suck too much of your conditioning out of your building regardless of how tight you try to make it.

With that said an exhaust fan has a different purpose. I day dreamed up a couple of ideas. One is to put a fan in the attic and with my pull down stairs in the cool of the evening I could open a window or door and the pull down stairs and draw cool air from outside through the shop up the stairs and out of the attic. Which also could exhaust smells as well. Two if we don't want to run fumes up into the attic as in the case of volatile compounds I could just mount an in wall fan and could still draw cool air from outside if I wanted. Just not through the attic. I do have two wall shutters I picked up in a garage sale. I also have an old fan from a dry cleaners that pretty cool and whips up a serious flow of air.

[John Keeton]

Can you look at a whole-house fan to install in the ceiling to push air up into the attic. Of course, you need enough vent in the attic to carry the volumn of air pushed by the fan.

[Dave Lessley]

I have not had any experience with whole house fans. I'll have to look them up on the web. Not knowing anything about them my first concern is when the fan is off how do you keep your heat and A/C in the shop. I'm guessing there is some kind of shutter. Good idea I will go exploring.

Thank you,

[Don Bullock]

I have not had any experience with whole house fans. I'll have to look them up on the web. Not knowing anything about them my first concern is when the fan is off how do you keep your heat and A/C in the shop. I'm guessing there is some kind of shutter. Good idea I will go exploring.

Thank you,

Dave, when I was a Kid in Virginia long before AC in homes we had what was called in those days an attic fan. It was a large fan at one end of the attic that extracted hot air out of the attic space. In our central hall there were shutters that opened automatically when the fan was on due to the change in pressure. As I recall the fan did cool the house some especially if all the windows in the house were open and we started the fan in the morning while it was still cool outside. The system was designed to blow the hot air out and draw in the cooler air. While my memory of those days is not as sharp as it once was, I've wondered why attic fans aren't used much any more.

[Dave Lessley]

Don,

In a previous house I had an attic fan with pull down steps to the attic I had a single pole double throw switch in the traditional off position it went through the thermostat. in the traditional on position it by passed the thermostat and was on all the time. As it cooled off out side in the evening I would open the basement and bedroom windows and put a pop can in the pull down stairs to keep them open. The fan would pull air from the basement and bedroom windows up through the house and out through the attic. When I got up in the morning I would take the can out and flip the switch to the traditional off position and go to work. If the attic heated up during the day the fan would automatically come on and pull air from the attic and soffit vents. It worked great. That was sort of my orginal plan for the shop. Thought I would wait and see what temperatures I maintained once everything was buttoned up and insulated.

[John Keeton]

Dave, in our previous home we had a ceiling whole house fan (from Lowes I think?) that had a louvered cover. We switched the fan on the wall like a light switch. When the fan came on the louvers opened. Of course, like I mentioned, you have to have enough venting in the attic to permit the fan to push the volume it needs to push to get the job done. It was very effective and would have installed one in this home, but the design of the home didn't lend itself to that application.

I would suggest that while you are running copper, you run a switch and a drop for one in the event you want to install one later. You wouldn't need to open your stair well for the ventilation as the louvers will open to pull the air through the shop.

[Ted Jay]

Dave, in our previous home we had a ceiling whole house fan (from Lowes I think?) that had a louvered cover. We switched the fan on the wall like a light switch. When the fan came on the louvers opened. Of course, like I mentioned, you have to have enough venting in the attic to permit the fan to push the volume it needs to push to get the job done. It was very effective and would have installed one in this home, but the design of the home didn't lend itself to that application.

I would suggest that while you are running copper, you run a switch and a drop for one in the event you want to install one later. You wouldn't need to open your stair well for the ventilation as the louvers will open to pull the air through the shop.

John,
At my ex FIL's house he had the same type of setup.

One day we were going to vent the house, (I had refinished the hardwood floors ealier in the afternoon so the smell was strong). He wanted me to turn the fan on when he said, he was going to open a window at the far end of the house. He decided on the way there to yell something to me about something, so I hit the switch. The fan takes a second to power up, the louvers go flying open, UHH the fan was oversized... big time.

Then I see this trail of white come around the corner and straight up and out into the attic. Then I hear him yelling to shut it off... about 3 times. I hit the switch.... seems he never did get to thatwindow, he was almost to the fireplace. When I hit that switch the suction created by that whole house "oversized" fan sucked all the ashes and soot out of that fireplace, down the hall around the corner and up into the attic. I watched it go by... it was pretty!!! Being there was no open window in the house it had to take air from somewhere....

When I stepped around the corner to see what was wrong, he was covered with ashes and soot just on the front of his body, he looked like Al Jolsen in blackface.
Still funny though when I think about it, at least he thought it was funny too, after I started laughing, (missed the in-laws more than I missed the ex after the divorce).

Ted

[David G Baker]

Ted,
A friend of mine had a 36 inch belt driven fan in the center of his house that had the louver set up. He would open windows on the cool side of the house and draw the outside air in. The fan did a great job of cooling the house. He had large screened vents in his attic that moved the air out.
The thing I didn't like about the fan was the noise of the fan and the air movement.
Think the fireplace mishap might have clinched the divorce?

[John Keeton]

Great story Ted!! That would have been great on video. Being right at 60 yrs old, I was raised without air conditioning. I also grew up in Eastern Ky, coal mine country. They used shaft fans to exhaust the gases from mine shafts. The fans were about 4-5 feet in diameter. While they didn't turn super fast, they moved a bunch of air!

The house I grew up in had been pulled together from a Civil War era house that was moved by mules several yards, and built onto somewhere around 1900. In the "new" section, they installed a shaft fan in the gable end away from the weather and against the hill. Actually, everything there was "against the hill" on one side or the other!

When my Mom turned on that fan in the evening, and opened the attic access, you better have everything weighted down. It emptied the whole house in seconds. It really was amazing quiet with virtually no vibration. We would sit in the living room, watching the Lawrence Welk show, with nothing less than a hurricane wind coming thru the house! Ah, the good ol' days!!

[Dave Lessley]

Finally made conact with my builders wife yesterday after not having contact with him for almost two weeks. Granted I'm doing the wiring portion of things at the moment and he is sort of waiting on me but I was expecting my garage and man door and a window for the bathroom. At which point I will be able to secure the building.

I've been told there was a family emergency and he has made arrangements with another builder to finish his jobs and there should be enough money in the account at the building supply to cover the rest of the materials. Is this giving anyone warm fuzzies?

The person who is supposed to be taking over is the guy who subcontracted my roof so I have at least met him and am currently trying to make conact with him.

I guess we'll see how it shakes out.