Bye bye spare bedroom, Hello 12×28 (shop)

DeeRay86

Active member
Its been a long time coming but I'm moving out of the ol'spare bedroom. Friday I bought a 12×28 building that should be delivered this week. There's a lot of work ahead. Insulation being the first box to check. I am interested in any heads up, and or advice for moving to a bigger, dedicated shop. I have a building that already houses my compressor and has power run to it. The new building will butt up beside it for power, air, exhaust etc. Look forward to hearing from you fellas.
Located in eastern Nc, hot humid summers, low upper 20's/mid 30's winter.
 

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Not much to say, it's your canvas. Sounds like you got the big stuff figured out (air, power, exhaust).

Insulate it 2x more than you think you need if you live in a climate where it can get below 0. You'll never regret spending a few extra bucks on insulation.

When I built my shop space, I went OVERBOARD with power outlets, dedicated 20a legs for each machine I run, lights on their own circuits, outlets on the walls every 4 feet, duplex outlets for everything. Nothing is more annoying than having a few things sucking power and tripping a breaker or having the lights flicker. I've already found something to use each outlet with. Can't have enough outlets.

Everything else is creature comfort. I threw a smart TV in my shop so I can watch accu-stats in the back ground while roughing out tapers n such. I got a bluetooth radio for listenin to podcasts or tunes when doing work that requires my visual attention. I added some nice shelves that double as light duty tables for assembling parts / cues. Mini fridge so I don't have to walk my ass upstairs for a soda.

What else.... Vintage signs, ads, ephemera from local machine shops is a must, oh, and pin-up gal photos. Then you're set.
 
Its been a long time coming but I'm moving out of the ol'spare bedroom. Friday I bought a 12×28 building that should be delivered this week. There's a lot of work ahead. Insulation being the first box to check. I am interested in any heads up, and or advice for moving to a bigger, dedicated shop. I have a building that already houses my compressor and has power run to it. The new building will butt up beside it for power, air, exhaust etc. Look forward to hearing from you fellas.
Located in eastern Nc, hot humid summers, low upper 20's/mid 30's winter.
Heck yeah! It's low on priorities but I'd suggest putting some speakers in for tunes, audio books or podcasts, it can be nice to listen to something when brainstorming or working. Even while doing the finishing work on the building music makes it more enjoyable.

You probably are already thinking about this but try to make a good plan for dust extraction and such so there are ports where you need them and to allow room for future upgrades.

I'm excited for you and looking forward to progress pics. :)
 
It's great to have your compressor and dust collection in a separate building. There's no way those things filter everything out.
They absolutely don't. Which is why I make sure to wear a respirator appropriately anytime I am in the shop with machinery running cutting wood.

In my opinion, the dust collector just keeps 99% of the mess off the walls and floor. It doesn't keep anything out of my lungs, or not enough to matter. The respirator feels like wearing nothing after you get used to it, so just wear one and don't be that guy that says "I can't breath with it". You'll learn what not being able to breath really means eventually if you don't wear a respirator around fine dusts and fumes from stuff.

Even my buddies who weld in $1,000,000 shops with $20,000 fume extractor systems wear respirators. Too many old dudes walkin around coughing and wheezing for us to not wear a $20 resp.
 
As just said separate compressor and dust collector from you. The noise they make is extremely loud and annoying in small spaces
I couldn't afford to have my DC and compressor outside my shop, so I went with a 1/2 HP dust collector (It's pretty quiet, but underpowered. Only good for one port) and I went with the quietest compressor I could afford.

With the compressor running, you can hold a normal conversation without having to raise your voice. With the dust collector running, you can still hear people if they talk, but you'd want to raise your voice. With the router spinning Mach Jesus roughing out a piece of Ebony? I am putting ear plugs in because that shit flares my tinnitus. I wish there was a quieter router setup lol. At least the good thing is, with all of those machines running, I can walk up stairs into the bedroom directly above my shop and can't hear a single thing besides a faint hum of the router. I double stuffed rockwool insulation in the floor joists and that stuff is doing the lords work for sound absorbing, along with 5/8 drywall.

I am going to add some foam sound panels on the concrete wall so the "loudening" effect of noise hitting the non-absorbent concrete isn't as harsh.
 
As long as we're talking shop PPE, I love these...

 
Heck yeah! It's low on priorities but I'd suggest putting some speakers in for tunes, audio books or podcasts, it can be nice to listen to something when brainstorming or working. Even while doing the finishing work on the building music makes it more enjoyable.

You probably are already thinking about this but try to make a good plan for dust extraction and such so there are ports where you need them and to allow room for future upgrades.

I'm excited for you and looking forward to progress pics. :)
Yeah I currently just use a Bluetooth speaker for music and pods, and my phone for anything I want to watch when I can. I was gonna go with a TV but ended up ordering a projector today. As for dust collection I haven't completely ironed that out.
 
As long as we're talking shop PPE, I love these...

I have the 2.0 and 3.0, and they’re great!
 
I'm not a cuemaker but was wondering do any of you use different setups for dust compared fumes? Or is it all just on one system.
 
Its been a long time coming but I'm moving out of the ol'spare bedroom. Friday I bought a 12×28 building that should be delivered this week. There's a lot of work ahead. Insulation being the first box to check. I am interested in any heads up, and or advice for moving to a bigger, dedicated shop. I have a building that already houses my compressor and has power run to it. The new building will butt up beside it for power, air, exhaust etc. Look forward to hearing from you fellas.
Located in eastern Nc, hot humid summers, low upper 20's/mid 30's winter.
Congrats on the new building. 😎👍
 
I will double down on an earlier post. You can never have enough outlets in a shop. I thought I went overboard and found out I could use even more.
 
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