Starting on the new shop

[tod osier]

It isn’t all that many times in your life that you get to set up a new shop. I’ve been planning my shop setup in WY and this is my first installment. I started with a miter saw station just because that is what I saw myself needing most as we transition to WY. I think I have a pretty solid plan overall. I’ll have a smallsh full shop in the house (heated) and a rough cutting station in the barn with a second miter saw and station to break down panels with the track saw.

I wanted to have the saw be able to cut a 12’er both left and right and this is what I was able to come up with.


For the left cut on a 12’er I’ll have to shoot under the stairs, but that isn’t something I’ll do very often, anyway. I have 8' to the wall now with the access door closed.


I wanted to have some options for “T” bolts in the surface of the table for either a stop or to extend the fence. Rather than routing in an aluminum t track, I thought it would be fun to shop make the "track" and I liked the control this gave me working the the little bit chippy melamine.





I also thought it would look neat to not have any showing fasteners on the table too, so I mechanically fastened the top from below.


Bought a set of these Amana Tool countersinks, glad I did, they work nice.


I cut all the stuff in CT and brought it out here. I brought the carcasses unassembled in the truck (23 pieces 24” x 30-31.5”). I’m happy to say that everything worked out well.


Building carcasses.


Pre built tops came in the boat.


I was craving something fun to work on this winter in CT and my other project was a bunch of birdhouses for Mountain Bluebirds (and Violet-green Swallows) here in WY. I was able to get a dozen houses out of a sheet of ACX and some scrap.


Out in the sage.


Success.

 

[HenryHawthorne]

Good stuff! Congratulations.

 

[Eric Patterson]

Tod

You obviously put some real thought into the new shop including moving it across the country and construction methods. I don't envy starting over with a new workshop but you are making it look easy. Keep the progress and reports coming.

 

[Huntindave McCann]

Tod

You obviously put some real thought into the new shop including moving it across the country and construction methods. I don't envy starting over with a new workshop but you are making it look easy. Keep the progress and reports coming.

Ditto @tod osier
I thought his process was quite resourceful. I will say having 12 foot of support table for his miter saw is a bit of overkill. If I had that much table top, it would take two days to clear the clutter before I could even see the surface.

 

[tod osier]

Tod

You obviously put some real thought into the new shop including moving it across the country and construction methods. I don't envy starting over with a new workshop but you are making it look easy. Keep the progress and reports coming.

I think I'm kinda done for a while on this, having enough to get by for this year. The next step is power and lights and I have some constraints there that I'm not super excited to work on/around. I might work on that in the fall once it gets cold again, but that doesn't seem like as fun of a project.

It is getting nicer and nicer weather here (was in the teens nightly, 12F was the low this week, but the days are in the 40 and on its way up) and I have a lot of outdoor projects, so I'm transiting out there. We are putting the barn up this summer (Morton is anyway), so I have a fair bit of prep there.

I want to build a lot of ability to keep things organized and storage into the space, but I don't see myself doing a similar thing with cutting in CT and bringing it out to WY, so further serious infrastructure work will probably wait until I get all my tools out here.

 

[tod osier]

Ditto @tod osier
I thought his process was quite resourceful. I will say having 12 foot of support table for his miter saw is a bit of overkill. If I had that much table top, it would take two days to clear the clutter before I could even see the surface.

I'm getting neater and neater in my old age and I'm finding what works for me to keep organized is having a place for everything. That is what I'm shooting for anyway.

 

[Huntindave McCann]

I'm getting neater and neater in my old age and I'm finding what works for me to keep organized is having a place for everything. That is what I'm shooting for anyway.

Oh I have a place for everything, inside the building is the place. Getting more specific, is more a matter of recall. I'm seeing the need for labels on boxes. Labels with increasingly larger letters.

 

[tod osier]

Oh I have a place for everything, inside the building is the place. Getting more specific, is more a matter of recall. I'm seeing the need for labels on boxes. Labels with increasingly larger letters.

I have to tell you that I spend a lot of time looking for tools that I just used ("just" being anything from 2 minutes to 6 months). It is getting rough. Another reason to get my act together and get better organized.

 

[HenryHawthorne]

I'm getting neater and neater in my old age and I'm finding what works for me to keep organized is having a place for everything. That is what I'm shooting for anyway.

I'm finding the same about myself. The best advice I ever got in this regard was to minimize things that hide your tool (cabinet doors and drawers, for example) - that keeping them (and the spot for them) visible decreases the likelihood of leaving something out after use. I've found that true. I built a French cleat wall about a year ago - and am slowly building shelves and devices to hold primary tools. Love it, and it's letting me also slowly get rid of unused (and space wasting) storage and transporting cases.

Addressing dust collection and mitigation now, before getting to much stuff in there, is also a good idea. If I had an easy way to install an enclosed a big dust collector on an exterior wall of my shop (along with a compressor) without lengthening collection lines, I would have - but that wasn't possible so settled for an Oneida Supercell. That's been a great investment and reduced a lot of sawdust at major tools. I added a RabbitAire air purifier, which has nearly eliminated the fine dust settling in my garage (and in my lungs).

 

[tod osier]

I'm finding the same about myself. The best advice I ever got in this regard was to minimize things that hide your tool (cabinet doors and drawers, for example) - that keeping them (and the spot for them) visible decreases the likelihood of leaving something out after use. I've found that true. I built a French cleat wall about a year ago - and am slowly building shelves and devices to hold primary tools. Love it, and it's letting me also slowly get rid of unused (and space wasting) storage and transporting cases.

Addressing dust collection and mitigation now, before getting to much stuff in there, is also a good idea. If I had an easy way to install an enclosed a big dust collector on an exterior wall of my shop (along with a compressor) without lengthening collection lines, I would have - but that wasn't possible so settled for an Oneida Supercell. That's been a great investment and reduced a lot of sawdust at major tools. I added a RabbitAire air purifier, which has nearly eliminated the fine dust settling in my garage (and in my lungs).

Good thoughts, thanks. I have a giant wall of cubbies planned for the wall to the right of the miter table. Probably a lower bench with some bench top tools (grinder, sander, foredom, charging station, etc...) below will be cubbies and above at eye level cubbies too. I'm thinking on the order of 15' of them from left to right, so a lot. Some will have shopmade boxes in them and some just open to stuff things in. I have similar now in CT and I like it, but they are too deep and stuff hides in there, I want just deep enough for one tool deep. I'm investigating fastener storage, too. I like collecting fasteners (actually, I like collecting tools to drive fasteners and the fasteners follow along), so I'd like something with a little more organization than I have now. I'm considering a full on hardware store-type setup of the gray durham drawers (maybe I can have Eric find me something at auction ).

I have dust collection planned out now, I think. I'm not a dust collection guy, but I'm trying it, especially since this is an enclosed space (no door to open directly to the outside. I'm planning a big dust collector (put in an adjacent extra bathroom) and an air filter.

 

[HenryHawthorne]

I wasn't either, but am a convert. Duct sizing is important, be careful there... both main lines and for specific tools.

The limitations of my space (1/2 a 2 bay garage) meant that most of my stationary tools ended up along 1 wall (I have a portable table saw, that is used 90% of the time in the aisle in front of other tools). I turned this into an advantage for DC - rather than running multiple ducts, I ran 1 to a central spot, then built a distribution point. I simply slide the main duct to the correct spot for the tool I'm using. This minimized cubic feet of ductwork under pressure and negated the need for gates - more than making up in efficiency for the very minor leakage at the distribution point. Not my design, but I haven't really come up with anything I'd change. The only really disadvantage is that I couldn't run dc on 2 machines at once - but it's a 1 man shop so that doesn't matter to me - and it's not harder to change than messing with gates.



The thing I like about French cleats vs standard shelves or cubbies is that I'm not stuck with square or rectangular spaces. Each tool takes up minimally more space than it's footprint. And I can easily move things around as needs or workflow dictate. Here's a picture, though I've taken down a number of tools for use over at the shop where I'm building the boat - but you'll get the idea. Just something to consider.



Last - look into air purifiers vs air filters. I've found the former better than nothing, but the purifier has been a very pleasant and noticeable upgrade. How many times they "turnover" the air in the shop is key. RabbitAire makes the purifiers that many cigar bars and shops use, so I figured it would work. I do change the filter system (a 6 or 7 piece system) each year for a little over $100... but as I said, it really makes a difference. I have the filter system that is designed also for toxin/chemical removal, and I can tell how well it works when I do a CA finish on one of my calls or use (accelerator smell annoys me).

 

[tod osier]

I wasn't either, but am a convert. Duct sizing is important, be careful there... both main lines and for specific tools.

The limitations of my space (1/2 a 2 bay garage) meant that most of my stationary tools ended up along 1 wall (I have a portable table saw, that is used 90% of the time in the aisle in front of other tools). I turned this into an advantage for DC - rather than running multiple ducts, I ran 1 to a central spot, then built a distribution point. I simply slide the main duct to the correct spot for the tool I'm using. This minimized cubic feet of ductwork under pressure and negated the need for gates - more than making up in efficiency for the very minor leakage at the distribution point. Not my design, but I haven't really come up with anything I'd change. The only really disadvantage is that I couldn't run dc on 2 machines at once - but it's a 1 man shop so that doesn't matter to me - and it's not harder to change than messing with gates.

View attachment 65521

The thing I like about French cleats vs standard shelves or cubbies is that I'm not stuck with square or rectangular spaces. Each tool takes up minimally more space than it's footprint. And I can easily move things around as needs or workflow dictate. Here's a picture, though I've taken down a number of tools for use over at the shop where I'm building the boat - but you'll get the idea. Just something to consider.

View attachment 65522

Last - look into air purifiers vs air filters. I've found the former better than nothing, but the purifier has been a very pleasant and noticeable upgrade. How many times they "turnover" the air in the shop is key. RabbitAire makes the purifiers that many cigar bars and shops use, so I figured it would work. I do change the filter system (and 6 or 7 piece system) each year for a little over $100... but as I said, it really makes a difference. I have the filter system that is designed also for toxin/chemical removal, and I can tell how well it works when I do a CA finish on one of my calls or use (accelerator smell annoys me).

Good stuff, I haven't thought much about dust collection other than I know where the collector can go and that placement is amenable to getting ducts to the tools I use. I have a little more space than you for this shop (just a little), and I think I have room to have the tools I use in place and not move them other to maybe do something out of the ordinary. Not 100%, but I think I'm OK. I'd rather have fewer large tools than move them to use them. Pretty much I use my table saw all the time, use the jointer and drill press less, the planer even less, the bandsaw even less. I'm not seeing adding much, other than upgrading the jointer to one with a loooong bed.

I'll read up on purifier vs filter before I buy, THANKS!

On the french cleat system, that photo convinced me to double down on cubbies. I like my cubbies and the ordered look even if they waste some space.

 

[Dani]

Tod,

If you're interested in air purifiers and think you may be doing a good bit of oil based painting/work inside the shop, look for a purifier that has activated carbon as part of the filtration system.

C700 DLX - Chemicals and Gas Abatement Plus Air Purifier

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Our department bought several of these because of the hellacious marijuana fumes that can sometimes be emanating from the evidence locker room. I did a lot of research into looking for purifiers that could handle VOCs as well as do dust filtering. I could probably find the other option when I was doing my research into purifiers that our department chose not to go with. It was also highly rated for VOC filtering.

The start on your shop looks great

 

[Mark W]

Did I miss your move to Wyoming? Where at if you don't mind me asking

 

[tod osier]

Did I miss your move to Wyoming? Where at if you don't mind me asking

No, we are part-timing it at the moment, plan to move completely in a couple years. We are in Western WY, 2 hours south of Jackson. Big Piney is the town of the street address, but we are way out of town.

 

[Chuck J]

Nice Tod, I like how you incorporated the metal drawers under the bench. A LOT less work than making drawers from scratch! I used a couple of the shortest roll about tool cabinets under my bench but I am always short on skinny drawer space, I might have to steal that idea (but then I'd have to sacrifice some bulky tool space...ugh). Are those the "middle cabinet" for the tool box stacks? You show more shop space in that first pick than my whole dedicated shop.

What are the trees behind the lined up bird houses? Orchard? Maybe you said before...

 

[tod osier]

Nice Tod, I like how you incorporated the metal drawers under the bench. A LOT less work than making drawers from scratch! I used a couple of the shortest roll about tool cabinets under my bench but I am always short on skinny drawer space, I might have to steal that idea (but then I'd have to sacrifice some bulky tool space...ugh). Are those the "middle cabinet" for the tool box stacks? You show more shop space in that first pick than my whole dedicated shop.

What are the trees behind the lined up bird houses? Orchard? Maybe you said before...

Thanks! Yes, those are Grizzly full-depth mid-risers (got them on sale). I just couldn't see how I could beat the space to cost to effort mix they offered. I certainly didn't feel like I could build something that would hold that many tools in a smaller space. Kind of a splurge, but I'm worth it. The space I have is smaller than I'd like and I have my grimy fingers into so many different types of projects, so I want it really functional.

The trees in the birdhouse photo is our little orchard in CT. We had over a dozen trees at one point, but many have gotten old and died. We had a nice mix of peaches, pears and asian pears. We put them in when we first moved into that house and when we didn't travel as much in summer, so they were underutilized except by the squirrels.

 

[Chuck J]

Kind of a splurge, but I'm worth it.

The trees in the birdhouse photo is our little orchard in CT.

Not so sure about that...

And ...ah that makes sense...I was looking at the background thinking if that was Wyoming, someone really did a lot of planting to build up such a buffer around the homestead area. Personal orchards tend to take up a lot of space for a lot of time without a lot of harvest.

 

[tod osier]

Not so sure about that...

And ...ah that makes sense...I was looking at the background thinking if that was Wyoming, someone really did a lot of planting to build up such a buffer around the homestead area. Personal orchards tend to take up a lot of space for a lot of time without a lot of harvest.

We have 35 acres in WY and not a single tree. We do have one sagebrush that is 5' tall.