Garage/Workshop Under Construction

[RoadRunner]

We recently moved to the Southwestern NC Mountains from coastal SC, big change in scenery..:thumbs_up.. BTW what is that white stuff all over the ground, in SC that was sand...... Darn its cold outside.....

We are On the Tennessee border and love it here, a very welcomed change. The house is great, but had no garage :no:, so a few months back, with a couple of friends, that issue was addressed. The garage is 32 x 30, with a second floor storage area of 12 x 30. The only parts we did not do was the concrete work, and putting the shingles on the roof. We just finished retaining wall on Tuesday and had the gravel spread (16 tons of it..), so no more mud puddles..... Soon (?) where that barrier is on the porch, that will be a ramp that will connect to the front porch of the house, making for a shorter trip to the garage. We put a 10 x 30 covered porch ot there too so we'd have a place outside to relax if it's raining.....

As for the inside, currently it's a bit of a mess (understatement!). Attached are two shots that show the workshop area (about 13 x 32). As you can see there is a lot of effort to go there. All the 6" S&D PVC pipe and fittings are now here, so some progress can finally be made with the Dust Collector to get that duct off the floor.

Annie already has developed the 'project list' for porch furniture, and a host of other projects.
More progress reports & photo's to come as we move forward.

All suggestions welcomed.....

Henri

 

[FredP]

looks like ya got a fine start.:icon_thum congrats on the new digs.

 

[scsmith42]

Wow - that's looking great! Looks like you have a very cool place too.

The only suggestion that I would make is to get some insulation on the walls and ceiling, so that it's more of an "all season" workshop. I'm working inside of mine every day and it is nice to be comfortable.

 

[Gotcha6]

Wow - that's looking great! Looks like you have a very cool place too.

The only suggestion that I would make is to get some insulation on the walls and ceiling, so that it's more of an "all season" workshop. I'm working inside of mine every day and it is nice to be comfortable.

What he said. :icon_thum:icon_thum

 

[MarkE]

Great looking shop.

+2 on the insulation. Makes a huge difference.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Nice shop, Henri. But I see lots of open floor space. Looks like you need more [STRIKE]toys[/STRIKE] tools. :rotflm:

Bill

 

[ScottM]

Ain't shop building fun. Take the time and money to insulate. It will pay for itself in the long run. I would also had sheathing on the walls. I just used OSB (smooth side out) and a coat of builder's flat white.


Looking good.

 

[toolferone]

Congrats on the [STRIKE]toy[/STRIKE] tool shop.

 

[LeftyTom]

Goodness gracious, that shop is quite spacious!

 

[Splint Eastwood]

"Space....the final frontier"...Star Trek (the series, movie, the legend)

Congrats on getting to the new frontier.....my ulitimate goal! :thumbs_up

Looks great, despite daunting undertaking, it really is alot fun to get something just the way you want it!


Good luck on your WW journey (where this woodworker has not gone before).

M

 

[CaptnA]

Welcome to the site, NC, and the western part of the state!
Looks like the shop is coming along great.

 

[RoadRunner]

The saga continues....:wsmile:

Over the past couple of days, I've been also trying to get the dust collection system installed. The Dust Collector I have is the Grizzley G0548Z which has a 6" inlet. The plan is to run the 6" S&D as close as possible to all the 'stationary' tools (Sliding Comppound Mitre, Band Saw, and Delta Unisaw) to maximize the airflow. The non-stationary tools (Planer Table, Router Table, Floor Sweep, and any plug-in tools) will be connected to one of two 6" 'drops' on each end of the shop. I plan to have a Blast Gate at all of the tool connection points.

I think the biggest pain is getting all the various 'piping' sizes to fit :nah:. An example is transition from the 6" S&D down to the size of the Blast Gates flange(~3 1/2" OD). Since there were going to be about 6 of these around the place, I wanted an easy, yet stable, solution. The following is what I decided on.

First I used a standard 6 x 4 reducer to get 'close' to the size I wanted. That got me to a point where I needed about 1/4 inch all the way around to get to the gates flange size. I thought about epoxy, silicone caulk, and various other solutions to fill that gap. I finally settled on a 'foam' windowseal insulation as a gasket. It is sticky backed, is 5/16" thick, and very flexible, and you don't have to wait for it to dry/cure. I ran a single 'bead' around the top edge of the gate flange, pressing it firmly. Put a bit of dish detergent on your finger, and lightly coat the outside edge of the gasket, then slip the 6 x 4 reducer over the flange gasket (the soap makes it slide on easily). Once it is down against the body of the flange, drill a pair of small (~ 1/8") holes through the reducer and flange, opposite from each other, and run a 3/4" sheet metal screw thru both pieces.
:thumbs_up:thumbs_up:thumbs_up:thumbs_up

The dimensions for the Blast Gate flange are for the Rockler Stablegate, others may have different OD's. One cautionary about the Rockler Gates - I found that they have not adequately glued the pieces together, and they come apart. Every one that I had needed to be repaired. After gluing and clamping, I also drilled for 3 6-32 nuts an bolts along both edges, now they cannot come apart! I did let Rockler know, and I got a very Ho-Hum return.... Oh well.....

 

[Glennbear]

Thanks for sharing your shop construction :thumbs_up DC piping fittings can be a bear but you seem to have found a good solution. Personally I prefer the metal gates. :wsmile:

 

[RoadRunner]

On the subject of insulation - many of you have suggested it...

My thought was to insulate the roof only. I wanted to use the space between the studs (all 2 x 6' in the whole structure) in the walls for shelving (open) and some for cabinets (w/doors). I heat with a MAXX 75K BTU furnace, and it does very well. On a 20 degree day, about 30 minutes to get to 50, then every now and then (maybe 20-minutes or so) a 3-5 minute run. There is no ceiling, so the shop is open all the way to the roof. All three garage doors are insulated, and some of the 'gasketing' around the doors needs to be removed and adjusted for a tighter fit. Other than that, it's pretty tight.

Thoughts????
Henri

 

[Bill Clemmons]

On the subject of insulation - many of you have suggested it...

My thought was to insulate the roof only. I wanted to use the space between the studs (all 2 x 6' in the whole structure) in the walls for shelving (open) and some for cabinets (w/doors). I heat with a MAXX 75K BTU furnace, and it does very well. On a 20 degree day, about 30 minutes to get to 50, then every now and then (maybe 20-minutes or so) a 3-5 minute run. There is no ceiling, so the shop is open all the way to the roof. All three garage doors are insulated, and some of the 'gasketing' around the doors needs to be removed and adjusted for a tighter fit. Other than that, it's pretty tight.

Thoughts????
Henri

I understand the desire for usable space between the studs, but I think you would be much better off insulating between them (w/ a vapor barrier included) and then installing 1/2" plywood (or OSB) on the interior walls. I went w/ the 1/2" plywood and find that I can hang almost anything from it, unlike standard drywall. But unless you heat the overhead, you'll still loose a tremendous amount of heat. If you don't do the insulation now, one day in the not too distant future you'll be out there saying, "I sure wish I'd insulated this place when I had the chance!" :gar-Bi

Bill

 

[charlie jones]

I agree on the insulation and wallboard. I waited and now I am trying to do somthing with all that stuff I had piled between the studs. The shop will be much cleaner now. :wsmile:

 

[RoadRunner]

The weather over the past few days has been GREAT - days in the 60's and nights in the 40's. So inside work on the Dust Collector (about 90% completed, yes pictures will come) was put aside, and we started the ramp. Hopefully the decking will be completed today - SWMBO is happy, no more of that red dirt getting in the house.....
Henri

 

[bobby g]

Neat!

bobby g

 

[alachua1947]

Roadrunner,
Welcome to North Carolina.
Nice shop.
I believe the planer is one of the biggest wood chip producers of your machines.
I would think about connecting it to the main line.

 

[RoadRunner]

Roadrunner, Welcome to North Carolina. Nice shop. I believe the planer is one of the biggest wood chip producers of your machines. I would think about connecting it to the main line.

The Dust Collector is almost complete (pictures on way), there are still two 'drops' to fiinsh. On each side of the shop, there are drops that end in Quick Couplers for connection to the Router Table and Planer (both of these are on 'wheels' so they can be out of the way when not in use. The main line of the system is 6" S&D, and the 6" main lines and drops continue to within 3' to 4' of the tools (except for the Unisaw) and reduce to 4". The drops on each end of the shop will have about 8' to 10' of 4" line for connection to the mobile tools like the planer and router. I think that will handle the planer OK.... Your thoughts?????
Henri