Shops!

[Paul B]

I agree with the woodstove idea, cant beat a warmed outbuilding.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

With a wood stove, you can make coffee in a old style percolator/coffee pot too
Nuttin like a fresh hot cup o joe while working on sumptin in your heated shop


Just watch out for grounds at the bottom

 

[Old Monkey]

I was being conservative too, I never mentioned the alarm! Lol!

I'd set up the alarm with a woman's voice calmly intoning "Unauthorized entry detected. Auto destruct sequence initiated. Thirty seconds to detonation." Throw in a couple of flashing red lights and an obnoxious alarm tone.

 

[sotc]

Beer fridge!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Hell yeah!

 

[bstewert]

On the halogen light bulbs, "rough service" bulbs hold up much better. I'd try to stay away from FEIT brand (sold at Home Depot).

 

[sawinredneck]

I like the Gray's better than white, a lot easier to keep clean, just a thought. If fire is a concern, I'd put up hardiboard or fiberboard around the welding area. I've had more issues with plywood catching on fire than drywall. Drywall retains moisture to a degree, plywood just dry's out over time.

 

[Cobleskill]

If you have access to 2x4 or 2x6 cutoffs and a nail gun a butcher block style bench top on one area makes a nice bounce resistant work surface. Cheap too.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Around where I mainly work, I have both an air line and and electric plug hanging down from the ceiling in those spring loaded self coilers. It saves having to deal with lines on the floor and putting them away after, even stretches out the shop entrance a ways. I like to use a metal cut-off saw outside, keep the sparks away from a mainly wood shop. Tug on the line and it disappears above, but always within easy reach. No need for separate extension cords or those air hoses that can get kinked up.

I doubt that you really need a dust system, but a good shop vac is useful.

Interesting to hear about the 'rough service' halogen bulbs, never heard of them before.

 

[Greenhorn]

Old metal filing cabinets make nice cheap storage.

 

[squisher]

Great ideas everyone. Eggzactly the stuff I was looking for. I'll be carefully considering how this all goes together as I don't want to create myself a giant mess that doesn't work. It's fairly good sized the new shop but I'm still going to have to be highly organized for it all to work.

I've got power and heat covered. 200amp service to the shop alone and wood and gas heat already installed. It's insulated but I'm guessing by the light that I can see through the overhead doors that they could be fitted or insulated a bit better.

 

[Strikermike]

You can get plywood that is treated with flame retardant. It is usually available at any lumber yards that deal with commercial rather than residential work.

 

[Cobleskill]

Get some of those little drawer/cabinets for small items-grease fittings, tire valves and caps, screws, nuts and bolts. Get some different size ones to tailor the drawer to the part size.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I don't know how much in the way of woodworking that you might be doing, but a band saw is a very useful tool.... Lots of uses, if only for cutting scraps in half to fit into the stove.

 

[Al Smith]

My shop which is basically a small machine shop being 60 by 70 has metal on the inside making it fire retardent but not totaly fire proof .The compressed air is dumped into a steel air header with a drop on every colume plus a recepticle on each with 4 240 drops ,50 amp rating . It's more or less industrial by design .

The lighting is 14 8 foot flourescent high output fixtures with 3 high pressure 600 watt sodiums . The sodiums have a terrible color rendition but a high lumen output . In conjunction with the flourescents the color is tollerable .

I can't give much advice on organization as I'm not the best ,fact most likely the worst .

 

[woodworkingboy]

Sometimes you can score a great bench top at a construction site where they are using laminated beams, the cutoffs. Even short lengths can get bolted together. 2x8s on edge glued together is what I found, almost 22" wide. Pound on it with a vengeance, and an ultimate stability. Just got to keep your eyes peeled.

It occurs that if someone is making those in your area, having a short length made up wouldn't be very expensive. Very low cost in the materials.

 

[Al Smith]

Lam beams are glued together with marine grade glue also making them tough as a nail .

 

[Al Smith]

Oh ,speaking of bench tops .Every so often they either take down a bowling alley or replace the lanes .What they do is actually use a chainsaw and cut up the sections and sell them by the foot .Generally 10 or so bucks per .Talk about one tough bench top .That's hard maple about 3 inchs thick .Graigslist has them sometimes .

 

[Burnham]

Friends of mine back in NC salvaged some alley lanes after a fire destroyed the building. Used it for all the kitchen and bathroom counters in a timber framed house they were putting up...awesome.

 

[sotc]

Wow, I bet that does look nice

 

[squisher]

A local(or loco, it's a cool place!) restaurant floored their place with all the lanes from my hometown Lumby and then they put one lane back together on a outdoor covered deck on the back. So after dinner you can shoot a few pins if you want.

Great ideas from everyone on the shop.

I think I'm going to try and build a bench and some shelving from some big ass old wood in the 1 barn. Some feed troughs I have to rip out anyways are made out of some 2x10 and maybe 2x12's too, in really nice shape.

For now though it's just got most of my tools deposited onto the floor. Lol.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

That sounds cool Squish..

 

[squisher]

The dude that runs it is cool. Always some groovy live music and some really good bands coming through, we've tossed back some brews and such he's a good guy.