Shopsmith - Deserted Island Edition

[a1gutterman]

wre1692,

Charlese has a good idea. You can call Tuff Shed here in WA @ 425 656 9165. Ask for Theo, he is a friend of mine. Tell him that Tim the gutterman sent you. It can't hurt and it might help, who knows. At least it would be worth getting a price. I have installed gutters on many sheds and garages that Tuff Shed builds, including one garage "near you" on Orcas Island. IMHO they build quality stuff. You can get cheaper, but you get what you pay for.

[a1gutterman]

wre1962,

The earlier electrical advise that I gave you would be more ideal then the following advice, but as I thought about it more, I concluded that you may not want to go as far as I was suggesting.

If you do go with this....

After reading all this I am going to set the shed up to accept two plugins for the time I would like to have more electrical capacity.....

then I would make sure that the two cords that you use go to two different circuits in your house. Plugging them both into the same circuit does not separate the lighting from the equipment; a must as far as I am concerned.

Also, for the "lighting circuit", you could use a cord as light as 16 gauge (very common), but for the "equipment circuit", do not use less then a 12 gauge wire extension cord (for up to 50' total length including the shop wiring and equipment cords) and I would recommend a 10 gauge one (Sometimes hard to find: You may have to make your own) regardless of the length (for up to 100' total length including the shop wiring and equipment cords). If you would have more than the 100' total length, I would HIGHLY recommend that you go with my first suggestion in the earlier post.

[charlese]

Tim has given you good advice on the size of wire and How to hook up to the house. I want to add only one more small thing that I have found very helpful in my shop.

If you put an attic in your shed/shop (which would be useful in itself) run a 12 ga. wire through the attic floor joists and install an extra duplex outlet in the ceiling. You may find it very valuable for hand tools, trouble light, as well as the MarkV when in drill press mode. It most likely will not be used at the same time as your most favorite outlet, so there is no circuit breaker problem.

[wre1962]

Thanks Chuck, Tim, Dusty, Paul and Everyone Else

You guys are throwing out great suggestions faster than I can keep up. I am still not quite at the detail level with electrical design but I do know that I have three exterior outlets in my home. One is two feet from where the new shed will be so I will have a short run for the main power source. I will have to run a longer cord for secondary power (maybe 20 ft).

My thought has been to build the shed (probably a kit) on skids and have the interior insulated and finished. My original thoughts was to have one exterior plug in and then wire the entire shed from that plugin. Now I will have two plugins. One for general electrical needs and one dedicated to the Shopsmith / planer loads. There is an chance that this shed might need to be moved at some point so that is why I am working towards a modular system that can be unplugged (that and other restrictions).

I am waiting for some decent weather to do some grading and foundation work but then things should move quickly. Once the shed is up and I start wiring and insulating, all of this great advice will start sinking in.

Thanks, Bill
Lopez Island, WA

[Ed in Tampa]

Thanks Chuck, Tim, Dusty, Paul and Everyone Else

You guys are throwing out great suggestions faster than I can keep up. I am still not quite at the detail level with electrical design but I do know that I have three exterior outlets in my home. One is two feet from where the new shed will be so I will have a short run for the main power source. I will have to run a longer cord for secondary power (maybe 20 ft).

My thought has been to build the shed (probably a kit) on skids and have the interior insulated and finished. My original thoughts was to have one exterior plug in and then wire the entire shed from that plugin. Now I will have two plugins. One for general electrical needs and one dedicated to the Shopsmith / planer loads. There is an chance that this shed might need to be moved at some point so that is why I am working towards a modular system that can be unplugged (that and other restrictions).

I am waiting for some decent weather to do some grading and foundation work but then things should move quickly. Once the shed is up and I start wiring and insulating, all of this great advice will start sinking in.

Thanks, Bill
Lopez Island, WA

Bill
In all likelihood the outside plugs (new code req. GFI breakered) on your house are on the same circuit. So while you may have two or more places to plug in your probably using only one circuit. You need to explore this to make sure you have the power you think you will need.
Ed

[Randy]

Bill,

For what it's worth, if it was me that had to use a small shed I would do away with the windows. Wall space is at a premium even in a larger shop. I would go with skylights.

That said in my shop there is only artificial lighting.

[kd6vpe]

I have to agree with Randy, My shop is a lean too built off the side of a tuff shed single car garage. it is 20'x12' with three 3x4 windows. I wish I had the wall space for hanging things.

[edflorence]

For what it's worth, if it was me that had to use a small shed I would do away with the windows. Wall space is at a premium even in a larger shop. I would go with skylights.

Bill..

This is an idea worth thinking about. My suggestion of two large windows, one in each of the long walls, was sort of an "ideal world" suggestion. You can't beat natural light for sanding and finishing and detail work. But, given the extreme smallness of the proposed shop, it probably would be a good idea to devote more wall space to storage and substitute artificial lighting. Still, if possible, I would attempt to have some degree of natural light. Skylights might be a good idea if there is not be an "attic" space.

As for the "horshoe" over the Shopsmith, your SketchUp drawing captures it pretty well. My idea for the vertical cupboards, which are going to be pretty narrow, never was that they would be used for SPT storage, but would be for all the smaller parts and pieces as well as misc supplies. As I said before, the jointer will probably have to be stored on the SS and the bandsaw could be stored on the bench top if a couple of appropriately sized and spaced holes were drilled in it. In fact, that is how I currently store my bandsaw, only the holes are in the top of a router table instead of a workbench. The bandsaw and jointer swap locations as the work requires.

Best of luck

Ed
Idaho Panhandle
MkV 505, dc3300, bs, jointer

[john]

Bill:

I'm just catching up on some of the posts.

First let me compliment you on the artwork. I tried the free "sketchup" but could not do anything like you have.

If I can comment on your layout, it would be to put the workbench on the back wall. My shop is about the same width as yours, with the SS on one side and the bench on the other. I rarely rip long boards as when I turn the SS around, I cannot easily get around it with the bench in the way. One of the first moves in reorganizing my shop will be to move the workbench so I can have more clearance from side to side. With the bench behind you, you could easily rip long boards, etc. through the open door.

John

[paulmcohen]

I have a bay windows and wish I did not. I ended up putting a workbench in front of it, and store my clamps on the bay wall. The window has to be covered to prevent theft so recently I decided to store many of my long tools (levels, jigs, cutting guide... ) in front of the window suspended on J-hooks.