The Great Mushroom Project

[fjimp]

Francis, sounds to me like the ideal spot would be the basement. If the heat and ac remain that constant, adn the close proximity with your living quarters what more could you ask for.
If a little saw dust won't bother the woman of your life, you truly did marry the right girl. Let's just hope she also got the right guy.

Bob,

My bride keeps suggesting my next shop be either in a separate building or the garage. Thus we have the temperature control discussion repeatedly. Her concern is valid as I have rotten knees and one day will likely find stairs difficult. I am looking for a house with a walkout unfinished basement. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world to convert a finished basement to a shop. Dust really isn't an issue with proper a dust collection system. Having said all of this, a basement shop would be nearly impossible to add onto. A garage or separate building however offers options. Than again once I retire the finances will never allow such pipe dreams. fjimp

[mbcabinetmaker]

Not a lot accomplished today. A trip to the vampires to draw blood work for my yearly checkup then I moved some stuff from one pile to another and back again. The newly relocated air compressor keeps tripping the breaker. Great, more electrical work. I did pick up some plywood to start the upper cabinets above the chop saw. The first piece I ripped was delaminated. I takes me 30 to 45 minutes one way to the suppliers depending on traffic. I'll see how the other cuts before returning it.

[robinson46176]

Bob,

My bride keeps suggesting my next shop be either in a separate building or the garage. Thus we have the temperature control discussion repeatedly. Her concern is valid as I have rotten knees and one day will likely find stairs difficult. I am looking for a house with a walkout unfinished basement. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world to convert a finished basement to a shop. Dust really isn't an issue with proper a dust collection system. Having said all of this, a basement shop would be nearly impossible to add onto. A garage or separate building however offers options. Than again once I retire the finances will never allow such pipe dreams. fjimp

We have discussed installing an elevator or at least a stair lift seat even for it just as house. An elevator would be better since at that point access to the upstairs would also be difficult.
-
I walked down there yesterday doing some honest looking around and I just don't believe I could be happy working down there. It has zero windows and little prospects for adding anything that would afford a decent view out. We will add a large outside access which will be a patio door but even then it will not have a "view". I am extremely claustrophobic and I find lots of glass to be my friend. It is one thing to go down there to watch movies or sit in front of a fireplace reading during the winter evenings and quite another to spend the day working down there in that cave.
-
I have quite a few options and I work very hard at trying to think outside of the box.
One that I have considered is another one of my barns. It is the one we use as a horse stable. It stands straight and has a good level loft with a mile of ceiling height. It is about 1200 sq. ft. which is about 200 sq. ft. smaller than the current shop but it has enough height to add a small open loft for storage over part of it. Also I would then put the western boot and leather shop in the old woodshop area of the farm shop which would eliminate the need for that space which is about 200 sq. ft.
I could install all of the windows I wanted. I have been looking at it for years considering making it into a "bank barn" which would give it a drive in entry for moving stuff in and out. My barn is larger than this one but it shows the idea.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/pressroom/photos/archives/stonefield-bank-barn.jpg
It would be nice to be close to the horses and I spend a lot of time there anyway.
-
I'm calling this one option 4.
Option 1. is staying where I am right now.
Option 2. is the basement shop.
Option 3. is building onto the old chicken house near the house.
I have some other options that I will ramble on about as I get a chance. Maybe one of them will trigger some thoughts for someone else that they had not considered.
We all have slightly different likes, needs and existing possibilities but we also tend to think somewhat alike on a lot of things.

[mbcabinetmaker]

Good progress was made today. I finished up the upper cabinet boxes and built 22 drawers for the new workstation before I ran out of drawer glides. My SLW loaded them up faster than I could build them. She is off on Fridays now that they have cut back to a 28 hr work week. She was a lot of help. I also got started tearing out the old work station. Hopefully tomorrow I will have all the tools setting in their new spots. After that the electrical rework begins. That is the part I hate.

[mbcabinetmaker]

The electrical work has mushroomed into a full scale rewiring of the shop. Sheetrock taken down, holes cut to access wiring, crawling around in the Hot attic. Just ask me if I am having fun yet? I also stripped all wires out of the panel box and started over. The guy that wired it for me originally had a ton of extra wire in the box and I was having trouble tracing them to the breakers. What a mess. On the plus side I have priced 3 small jobs this week. I just hope I can get the shop back up in time if someone pulls the trigger.

[charlese]

I'm still trying to offer moral support! At least I'm feeling your pain although I've never been that deep in a re-org.

Here is a short sentence from post #4. - - "One of the hardest parts of re-organization is to put off projects until a change is made."

Have Fun!!!:D

[kd6vpe]

Electical,
I feel your pain my friend. I have to turn the ac off right now to run the saw and dust collector or I blow a fuse. I am building an air cleaner using the old blower from my house AC unit that went out. Unfortunately I will have to wait until I get an electrician in to get my main power to the shop installed before I can use the air cleaner. Right now I only have 20 amp service to the shop.

[robinson46176]

We have discussed installing an elevator or at least a stair lift seat even for it just as house. An elevator would be better since at that point access to the upstairs would also be difficult.
-
I walked down there yesterday doing some honest looking around and I just don't believe I could be happy working down there. It has zero windows and little prospects for adding anything that would afford a decent view out. We will add a large outside access which will be a patio door but even then it will not have a "view". I am extremely claustrophobic and I find lots of glass to be my friend. It is one thing to go down there to watch movies or sit in front of a fireplace reading during the winter evenings and quite another to spend the day working down there in that cave.
-
I have quite a few options and I work very hard at trying to think outside of the box.
One that I have considered is another one of my barns. It is the one we use as a horse stable. It stands straight and has a good level loft with a mile of ceiling height. It is about 1200 sq. ft. which is about 200 sq. ft. smaller than the current shop but it has enough height to add a small open loft for storage over part of it. Also I would then put the western boot and leather shop in the old woodshop area of the farm shop which would eliminate the need for that space which is about 200 sq. ft.
I could install all of the windows I wanted. I have been looking at it for years considering making it into a "bank barn" which would give it a drive in entry for moving stuff in and out. My barn is larger than this one but it shows the idea.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/pressroom/photos/archives/stonefield-bank-barn.jpg
It would be nice to be close to the horses and I spend a lot of time there anyway.
-
I'm calling this one option 4.
Option 1. is staying where I am right now.
Option 2. is the basement shop.
Option 3. is building onto the old chicken house near the house.
I have some other options that I will ramble on about as I get a chance. Maybe one of them will trigger some thoughts for someone else that they had not considered.
We all have slightly different likes, needs and existing possibilities but we also tend to think somewhat alike on a lot of things.

I said that I would ramble on some more on this so I thought I would mention option 5. It is just a mention since it is an option I could do, I just don't want to... At least not as a retirement shop. I have a building down the road about 700' with another set of barns that if I were younger and wanted to setup a full production shop I could modify that building to put it in there. It is 28' x 64' x 12' with another build on room that is 20' x 20'. The old barn that is about 25' away is about 36' x 60'. While the old barn would be too costly to make over for a comfortable production facility it would certainly store a lot of wood and primary planing could be done in there. Part of it could also become a solar drying kiln. There are 3 other small buildings down there that could be odd storage etc.
The trouble is that I am not wanting to build a full high production facility. I am setting up a retirement shop. I don't need that much room and I don't want a shop that far away from the house.
-
That gets up to option 6 and probably what I will do. One reason I rejected the option of building onto the old chicken house is that it would block a lot of the view from the house. I have considered before building an addition onto the south end of the old farm shop. I could build on there and it would not block any of the view from the house.
That is kind of important since as I look out of the living room windows I am looking at a semi-circle of buildings (mostly smallish). At the road is the old milk-house, a small concrete block building about 8' x 12'. About 50 feet back from it is the farm shop in the old dairy barn about 36' x 50'. about 30 feet back from it is a big round steel bin about 21' in dia. by about 30' tall. 4' from it is another smaller bin about 16' in dia. by 18' tall. 20 feet from it is a 10' x 20 building with a 12' x 20' wing on each side. Its wings are at grade and the center part is up about 3 feet which greatly reduces its usefulness as something like a shop. We plan to make part of it into a small guest house. 40' from it is the old chicken house. Obviously back in the early 1950's my father was not "view" oriented...
If I build a 24' x 36' addition onto the south end of the old farm shop then I can still use most of the original woodshop area of that shop in addition to the new part. It would be kind of nice to have all of my shop stuff back in one place again. It would also be a couple of hundred feet closer to the house than the current "new shop". If I do that I can also function with just one heating system instead of two.
There is another driving factor in considering a shop change "again". If I do move the shop again I can turn the current woodshop back into a part of the other house again as we remodel it for renting and substantially increase the amount of rent we can get out of it. I am not opposed to money.
-
I warned you that I was going to ramble...

[mbcabinetmaker]

I started at 7:00 am and it is now 10:50 pm but all the electrical except for the new wall is finished. All the runs for the new wall are pulled into the panel box and then into junction boxes in the attic. I have also started running the new dust collection and have installed 5 new wall panels on the exterior walls. I am very excited about these new panels. I decided to use the bright white stuff that you see in commercial kitchens and bathrooms. It really is going to brighten up the shop although it is expensive. Due to that fact I will do a wall at a time until finished. I will have some pictures to post on the progress later on. Until now I would not expose anyone to the mess that has been my shop for the past 2 weeks. I now have a wall 18 feet long dedicated to my 520 and Mark 5. I have big plans for a unique storage bench behind the machines for the SPT’s and a new dust collector although I have decided to go with a Jet DC650. I feel guilty that I haven’t started on lesson 5 in the Sketchup class but will catch up next week.

[mbcabinetmaker]

Today has been a good day. This morning I organized some drawers and you can check them out on the thread about drawer organization. I have some pictures of the old and new walls on the left or south side of the shop.





[ATTACH]5363[/ATTACH]

This is the old dated wall.




[ATTACH]5364[/ATTACH]

Gutted for wiring.





[ATTACH]5365[/ATTACH]

This is the new wall system and machinery and dust collection started.






[ATTACH]5366[/ATTACH]

This is where I stopped today.





[ATTACH]5367[/ATTACH]



I had full intension's of ordering snap together metal dust collection pipe for this reset but after pricing it out this run alone was over $1000.00. I chose to go with black ABS and plastic fittings instead. I have a continues ground and grounds going to all equipment.