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Workshop Information

Location
United States
Views of my new shop-a standalone building behind the house in the mountains. Broke ground Sept 2020 and moved into the completed shop late April. I'm now in the process of unpacking machines and supplies that have been in storage since 2015 when I moved to north Idaho. I served as the General Contractor for the building, and had all the structure, electrical, plumbing, drywall, foundation, and excavation done by subcontractors. My wife and I painted the interior, and I installed all the wood trim.

The building is 900 sq ft, with a single car garage-for wood storage and an eventual UTV. The workshop area is approximately 670 square feet-double in size from my previous 300 sq ft basement workshop where I used to live.
Siding and roof are metal and maintenance free. It is insulated traditionally with fiberglass and has R30 in floor and walls, and R50 in the roof. Because my acreage slopes upward from the shop, rock retaining walls were installed on two sides to prevent erosion during heavy snowpack spring melts.

It's built over an insulated crawl space, has wood flooring throughout-including the garage. The flooring material is 1 1/8" tongue and groove called Advantech-very solid, but a wood floor is easy on the knees and back. Ceiling is 9ft, not 10. Going 9ft in height lowered the lumber cost by thousands. Vinyl slider windows are on 3 sides of the building, letting in lots of natural light. The east facing windows (wall my woodworker's bench is on) give me a beautiful view of the mountains.

Shop heating is via a Modine Hot Dawg heater 60K BTU's using external air for combustion (and safety), and propane powered from a 500gal tank buried behind the shop. There is a bathroom with toilet and sink, and a large utility sink in the shop.

Walls are drywall over unfaced insulation, with a basic tape job and no skim coat. I installed blocking for cabinets and fixtures before the drywall went up-to accommodate future wall cabinets and base cabinets with counters. The wall paint color is Behr Antique Ivory, helping reflect light for projects. Trim work around doors, window sills, and baseboard are locally sourced small knot clear pine-I installed all the trim after 2 coats of Sherwin Williams Wood Classics Urethane (a great product unfortunately discontinued after SW acquired Minwax).

Lighting is integrated LED strip lighting from Lithonia that's adjustable by lumens and color tone. Fixtures used in the shop put out a total of 100K lumens, which will help my aging eyes as I get even older. Ten fixtures in the shop, and two in the garage use the equivalent of 2 100W incandescent bulbs every hour when all of them are on at once-a huge savings in electricity.

A Delta Unisaw with 52" side table occupies the center-love that machine!
Built the woodworkers bench out of hard maple in 1995. It's my own design, influenced by the Veritas bench. It has 4 rows of bench dog holes, a Jorgenson front vise, and Veritas Twin Screw side vise-this design allows almost unlimited flexibility in holding wood for hand tool and power tool work. A hand tools cabinet is to the right side of the bench with everything in handy reach. A four-drawer chest underneath the bench holds layout tools, bench dogs and hold downs, router bits, etc.-also handy to get at what you need when working at the bench. A drill bit cabinet and charging rack for my drill is mounted in a handy place on the wall.

Next projects will be a new table saw/assembly outfeed table, and a miter saw station with drawers for routers and other tools. New cabinets with drawers will allow me to unpack all my tools and get rid of the boxes that now clutter the shop.

I expect to install an Oneida Supercell for dust collection sometime over the winter. Still have to replace my jointer and thickness planer that were sold before I moved out here, but waiting until all the supply chain problems are cleared up and prices come down.

Happy to answer any questions on the workshop design process I went through in early 2020 to get to the construction phase for you jocks considering new shops, or remodeling old ones.

A final note-it was much more expensive to build than I had ever planned, due to rising lumber and materials prices you're all aware of. However, I charged ahead because it doesn't do a woodworker any good to have his tools in storage! My wife has presented me with a long list of projects that I'm excited to get started on.
I'll be changing the pics of the shop as the interior changes.

Gallery

Comments

· Banned
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18,919 Posts
congrats on the new shop,looks like your gonna have some fun.welcome to lumber jocks.
 

· Banned
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5,339 Posts
Welcome 2 LJ's that is 1 GR8 SHOP:<)))))))

very nice bathroom also
 

· Registered
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3,307 Posts
Great shop….I have a very similar story for the shop I am in, with timing that is about the same. I am done now and enjoy the fruits of my labor, sounds like you are doing it right! Loads of details to deal with and looks like you are doing a great job! Welcome to LJ's….it's a great place.

https://www.lumberjocks.com/moke/workshop My new shop is starts at post #15
 

· Registered
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5,101 Posts
Nice looking shop there. I agree on the wood floor, that is what I did with mine when I built, just before lumber prices increased.

Welcome to LJ's
 

· Registered
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2,507 Posts
Welcome to LJ's

Looks like a real nice shop. I look forward to your project postings.
 
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