I am usually terrible at documenting projects and especially taking pics along the way. This is an attempt to be better at both. And I tend to the verbose, so apologies.
When we built our retirement home 12 years ago we didn’t count on the topography supporting a basement until our builder suggested it. We ended up with a full walkout basement, but not the budget to finish it completely. Something else we didn’t plan on were the prefab “Superior Walls” instead of concrete block the builder suggested for the basement walls. Amazing product. What we ended up with though, in unfinished places, are cavities between the insulation wrapped concrete “studs”. Turns out these are perfect spots for inset shelving.
In a large area we use for storage, I carved out a 7x7ish closet to use as my hobby room; or... someplace out of the woodworking shop to do dust averse hobbies. Besides the inset shelves, I plan on a U-shaped work surface with cabinets above and below.
In Sampson County, NC, my grandfather and uncles were farmers in the spring/summer, but loggers in the fall and winter. My father was also a woodworker, and whenever granddaddy found a decent tree, he would set it aside and my dad had it milled. He used some of it, but I ended up with at least 500bf of mostly red oak and over 200bf of, of all things, Atlantic white cedar (beautiful stuff BTW). It’s been air drying for over 30 years. Yes, there is evidence of powder post beetles (PPB), but I can’t determine if it’s recent.
I’m not really a fan of red oak for furniture, but my dad liked it. That, and most of what I’ll do in the room being activities my dad and I shared, inspired me to use his oak to finish the hobby room. With the potential PPB issue, I decided to use new wood for the long bits, and his oak for the shorter ones. I can handle heat treating shorter pieces, most of which will go into the cabinetry, not the inset shelves.
I’ll share my journey in bits. This first post covers my process for breaking down the raw stock into parts for the first two inset shelving units through finishing and setting in place, but not final installation. Three of the units are almost identical except for the number of shelves. The fourth, and narrowest, unit is different and still in the final design stages.
This is the wall for the inset shelves. The cavities are 5-3/4" deep and 19-1/2 wide. The narrow one is 8" wide. The 2x pedestals will support the shelving unit. The boards to the right are scraps of dad’s oak used to test different finishing options.
Long bit raw stock from Steve Wall. Nice stuff!!
Two units planed and ready for final dimensioning.
I decided to try finishing before assembly for this project. With the “studs” encapsulating the entire unit, I have some flexibility with assembly, so I am not using glue in the dadoes. I’ll use screws to pull things together, but everything will be free to float for the most part.
First unit temporarily in place to get it out of the way. Three coats of Waterlox. Covering the steel stud plate is a design challenge. I have it worked out, but it will be a separate process from the carcasses and top/bottom trim. The speaker will move to the ceiling. Shelf spacing is designed for specific items. Each unit is different to match need.
I'll post more as I get there. Except the narrow section, everything is essentially rinse and repeat. With life happening outside the shop, it's taking about a week per section. Most of that taken up with finishing of course.
When we built our retirement home 12 years ago we didn’t count on the topography supporting a basement until our builder suggested it. We ended up with a full walkout basement, but not the budget to finish it completely. Something else we didn’t plan on were the prefab “Superior Walls” instead of concrete block the builder suggested for the basement walls. Amazing product. What we ended up with though, in unfinished places, are cavities between the insulation wrapped concrete “studs”. Turns out these are perfect spots for inset shelving.
In a large area we use for storage, I carved out a 7x7ish closet to use as my hobby room; or... someplace out of the woodworking shop to do dust averse hobbies. Besides the inset shelves, I plan on a U-shaped work surface with cabinets above and below.
In Sampson County, NC, my grandfather and uncles were farmers in the spring/summer, but loggers in the fall and winter. My father was also a woodworker, and whenever granddaddy found a decent tree, he would set it aside and my dad had it milled. He used some of it, but I ended up with at least 500bf of mostly red oak and over 200bf of, of all things, Atlantic white cedar (beautiful stuff BTW). It’s been air drying for over 30 years. Yes, there is evidence of powder post beetles (PPB), but I can’t determine if it’s recent.
I’m not really a fan of red oak for furniture, but my dad liked it. That, and most of what I’ll do in the room being activities my dad and I shared, inspired me to use his oak to finish the hobby room. With the potential PPB issue, I decided to use new wood for the long bits, and his oak for the shorter ones. I can handle heat treating shorter pieces, most of which will go into the cabinetry, not the inset shelves.
I’ll share my journey in bits. This first post covers my process for breaking down the raw stock into parts for the first two inset shelving units through finishing and setting in place, but not final installation. Three of the units are almost identical except for the number of shelves. The fourth, and narrowest, unit is different and still in the final design stages.
This is the wall for the inset shelves. The cavities are 5-3/4" deep and 19-1/2 wide. The narrow one is 8" wide. The 2x pedestals will support the shelving unit. The boards to the right are scraps of dad’s oak used to test different finishing options.
Long bit raw stock from Steve Wall. Nice stuff!!
Two units planed and ready for final dimensioning.
I decided to try finishing before assembly for this project. With the “studs” encapsulating the entire unit, I have some flexibility with assembly, so I am not using glue in the dadoes. I’ll use screws to pull things together, but everything will be free to float for the most part.
First unit temporarily in place to get it out of the way. Three coats of Waterlox. Covering the steel stud plate is a design challenge. I have it worked out, but it will be a separate process from the carcasses and top/bottom trim. The speaker will move to the ceiling. Shelf spacing is designed for specific items. Each unit is different to match need.
I'll post more as I get there. Except the narrow section, everything is essentially rinse and repeat. With life happening outside the shop, it's taking about a week per section. Most of that taken up with finishing of course.
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) I'll also chime in on Superior Walls. My house was built in 2002, using them for the basement. I was unsure at first until the salesman took me on a tour of their plant in Oxford (they've since moved). He also took me to a house that used Superior Walls for all the external walls -- basement and first floor. I was sold. One of the best decisions I made. "Superior" product.