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Charlie's Shop

5K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  Marco 
#1 ·
It's not big, but it's mine :)
Building is 16x24. At one end I have 6 ft walled off for my wife's gardening stuff and she has her own door(s). So my shop area is 16x18 and it serves as a workshop and art studio. Besides wood projects I also paint and I carve rocks. :)
I still have work to do in terms of organization and insulation. I need more shelves/cabinets and it gets too hot and too cold to work in here sometimes. Being laid off means money is tight. We do what we can with what we have though, right?
 

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#2 ·
The patio just went in last week which is why there's dirt at the edges and the plants are really small. We just put some plants in a few days ago. There will be a pergola coming off the end where my wife's garden stuff is. Hope to start on getting materials for that this week.
For the DC I'm going to build a separator. Probably a Thien separator. I just need SOMETHING because emptying that bottom bag is such a pain in the butt. Not going to run a lot of permanent duct. I looked at doing that and thought..... why? I run one machine at a time. The shop is small. I think one of the expanding hoses and some adapters for the end will be fine. I can always change my mind later, but.... money is tight. Better to do SOMETHING than have it sitting there waiting for fancy.
The clamp rack is a metal, rolling rack I picked up for $49. It will hold a lot of weight and rolls real easy. I hang clamps around 3 sides and use the shelves for storage of other stuff.
 
#9 ·
Good looking shop, one cleaner than mine I'd say. I have the same Ridgid miter saw rack I really like it. Looking forward to seeing some great projects in the future.
 
#11 ·
Finally getting around to insulating the shop. We made it through the summer ok since I was laid off end of March. My wife says she likes having someone making her dinner when she comes home from work and she doesn't want me to look for another job. She says I have enough to do around here to keep me busy :)

Anyways, I went with fiberglass insulation because that's what I can afford. I have the roof insulation a bit more than half done (insulation against roof deck between 2x4 trusses on 2ft centers and using baffles all the way to ridge for air circulation) and about 4 feet to go to finish off the back wall. I can't buy all my insulation at once because I don't have enough room to store it AND move everything around in the shop to actually install it. So I need one more bundle of the wide stuff for the roof, and probably 4 more rolls for the walls.

The hardest part of insulating the walls is taking down cabinets and shelves to get the insulation installed. Then before I put the cabinets and shelves back up I have to cover the insulation with... something ... so it doesn't get tore up. I'm using leftovers as much as I can to panel the walls. So there's some 5/8" T-111 and some 1/2" plywood. Using 1/2" plywood for the bottom 4ft of wall gives me a fairly durable "bump zone". Stuff getting wheeled around inevitably bumps the wall and I'd already have holes in drywall if I had used it down low. I want to get some white paint on the walls before I start covering them up with cabinets and shelves again as I painted one end wall and it really makes a difference in the lighting.

AND.... I'm seeing this as an opportunity to rearrange placement if I want to based on what has worked and what hasn't. I need to build more storage (shelves and cabinets) because things get real messy real fast. I need to be able to put stuff AWAY and not just in boxes under the benches.
 
#14 ·
still insulating and rearranging...

Started organizing into areas. In a large space I guess you could really go crazy, but as big as I THOUGHT this space was when I built it, ..... you all know that song ....

Anyways, I moved my lumber storage over where the saws get "parked". I'll never have as much lumber on hand as many folks, so there's enough space dedicated to that for now. I have a corner where I work on RC airplane stuff. I have batteries and chargers and stuff in the taller skinny cabinet in the corner. I'll use the top of that shorter cabinet next to it as a charging area, and maybe some electronics assembly. I need a task light and a power strip there. That dresser in the photos has my wood carving chisels, planes, plate glass sharpening surfaces, and a bunch of aromatic red cedar destined to become flutes. And some other stuff.

The corner where the power panel is will be my art studio corner and I'm leaning heavily toward moving the stereo and speakers over to the wall above that dresser.
After I insulate the wall where the panel is I'll put some 18 inch deep shelves up high enough that I can still park the saws under them. I'm so glad the saws are on wheels. :) My clamp rack is also on wheels and rolls around easily AND has storage so I want to figure out how to best make use of that storage space without overloading the rack.

I'm getting to a point where I just want to be working *IN* the shop and not working *ON* the shop.... know what I mean? :)
 

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#16 ·
Well my insulation odyssey is nearing completion. South wall is complete. I covered the fiberglass insulation with 1/2" plywood. Just have the front half of the roof trusses to do and the front wall (which is mostly that french door and window so won't take much). If I get some shelves up on that south wall, it will go a long way toward de-cluttering the shop floor so I'll probably do that before the next round of insulation. It's like a big chinese puzzle out there. Move all *this* stuff to get access to this are so I can insulate. Then move it all again AND move *that* stuff so I can get to the next area. Then move it again.
My extension ladder is up between a couple of roof trusses. It's out of the way, but kind of a pain to get it down and put it back up there. Need a step ladder to get it down and put it back. Debating on whether to put it on that south wall instead. It would need to be at the right height to not interfere with other stuff.
Still managing to put a finish on some book shelves I came across, but they're IN THE GARAGE while I work on the shop. hehehehhe.... kind of ironic, huh?
 
#17 ·
FREE Slatwall is great on shop walls especially above 4 foot. It can be had for free if you keep your eye on roll off dumpsters parked in shopping centers and malls. Look for stores being remodeled and ask job superintendent/foreman if you can have leftover material,
I build stores for national retailer and love giving away three or more sheets rather than dumpstering it.
 
#19 ·
It's getting there.
Right now I have the dust collector, table saw, and sliding miter saw kind of parked in a corner when not in use. Because they're all on wheels, this may not be a bad arrangement. The workbench is at a height slightly below the top of the table saw and I can use it for an outfeed table if needed. In warmer months, I can just roll them out through the french doors and use them on the patio area outside the shop.

I still need to get some wall storage up for the multitude of 4 to 6 foot pieces of leftover stock. And I have a half barrel of "shorts" or cut-offs. That takes up too much floor space. Wall space, I have. Floor space is precious. I'm going to work on getting all the small pieces up on a wall somewhere. And I'm probably going to have to go through that half barrel and chuck some of the pieces into the burn pile. I also have some longer pieces of plywood about a foot wide that I'm not yet willing to toss, and a 8ft 2x8, and..... maybe I'll stuff those up in the between the trusses somewhere near an end wall. I don't want to load the trusses by storing too much crap up there. They're just 2x4 trusses.

I know this is all changeable as time goes on, but I want to get it buttoned down for the winter and still be able to work out there occasionally. Lots of projects going on though and getting close to the time where we have to put all the outdoor furniture and garden pots away for the winter as well. So much to do and so little time :)
 
#20 ·
Had a little "forced hiatus". I tweaked my back and it took weeks to get back to normal. But I got the other side of the roof trusses insulated. Now I just have the front wall. Have to move a bench, take down some pegboard, insulate, cover the walls back up and put the bench and pegboard back. It's like a big puzzle. :)

Oh and I need to make some 1x2 back frames for the pegboard so I don't poke hooks through my insulation. I boxed up all the freezable stuff and brought it in the house for the winter.
 
#21 ·
Glad you are healed up and back at it, I feel your pain as I insulated my shop this past summer and by the time you take everything out.... do your work and then put everything back in and half organized you're beat. at least I was. In the long run it was worth it but it was a killer!
 
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