Mini shop shop build

300 SF is small, but a comfortable size. With a little imagination, you can create a shop that will rival shops 4x that size. putting everything on mobile bases is a must. Make sure you have enough windows. A well daylight lit shop makes it feel larger than it is and less claustrophobic.

How exciting. I would love to have a dedicated space.
Looking forward to seeing the pictures of your progress.

-- A bad day woodworking is still better than a good day working.

If I were you I’d go ahead and put in a 100 amp sub panel. You will need it eventually, so you might as well do it now.

Might not need more amps. It depends on the tooling he intends to use.

-- Don't anthropomorphize your handplanes. They hate it when you do that. - OldTools Archive -

I have a 10’ x 16’ space so I will be following your progress. +1 on the 100 AMP service. After getting advice here I ended up putting double gang boxes in about 4’ to 5’ apart at 51” to the bottom of the box. All have one almond and one white receptacle each fed form separate 20 amp breakers. One thing I will need to add is a centrally located switch for my dust collection instead of walking to the corner.

I have a 10 x 16 space so I will be following your progress. +1 on the 100 AMP service. After getting advice here I ended up putting double gang boxes in about 4 to 5 apart at 51” to the bottom of the box. All have one almond and one white receptacle each fed form separate 20 amp breakers. One thing I will need to add is a centrally located switch for my dust collection instead of walking to the corner.

- controlfreak

Pictures still to come, I wanted to respond though. 100 amp would be nice. The reasoning on 60 is that I can get a 60 amp GFCI for my main panel so I don’t need to buy a lot of very expensive GFCI breakers for the sub-panel. It is too far into the installation process to turn back now, too. DC, tool, and LED lights shouldn’t ever push more than 40 amps. All the larger tools I’m wiring to 220 to help keep the amps down. I’m comfortable with making my own control panels, so I will wire up a remote controlled DC system. The price Clearview wants to charge for theirs is ridiculous to me. Maybe I’ll do a post on a panel build for that when I get to that part of the build.

300 SF is small, but a comfortable size. With a little imagination, you can create a shop that will rival shops 4x that size. putting everything on mobile bases is a must. Make sure you have enough windows. A well daylight lit shop makes it feel larger than it is and less claustrophobic.

- MrRon

Good thoughts on windows. I have two small ones up front and a couple on the cupola. I’ll chew on the idea of getting in a few more.

Do not protect your subpanel with a GFCI breaker. Not everything in the shop needs GFCI protection (only 15 and 20a 120 receptacles require GFCI protection. 240 circuits do not, lighting circuits do not.). You do not want all the lights to go out because you do something stupid like drill a hole in a bottle of antifreeze, or because an extension cord got wet. You do not need GFCI breakers, just readily accessible receptacles (or dead fronts).

I looked at getting some GFCI breakers but in the end bought two GFCI outlets and placed them first on the feed coming from the breaker panel. All of the remaining outlets are protected on the cheap. Lighting is on its own feed for reasons stated above.

Do not protect your subpanel with a GFCI breaker. Not everything in the shop needs GFCI protection (only 15 and 20a 120 receptacles require GFCI protection. 240 circuits do not, lighting circuits do not.). You do not want all the lights to go out because you do something stupid like drill a hole in a bottle of antifreeze, or because an extension cord got wet. You do not need GFCI breakers, just readily accessible receptacles (or dead fronts).

- dscheidt

Very good call. Lights go out, saw blade still spinning. Will revamp that part of the design. Time to go buy some GFCI breakers. Good thing I hadn’t bought a 60amp gfci breaker yet.

Is drilling into a bottle of anti freeze personal experience? Seems rather specific.

Finally got a chance this morning to get a few pictures.

Looks like the site wants to rotate my picture for whatever reason. I’ll have to sort that out.

OP’s “mini shop” equals my present shop which is the largest I’ve ever had. 60A service would be a dream, 20A is all I have. I’ve evolved into a hybrid hand tool woodworker as a result. It’s all about perspective :) Shelves up high, everything on rollers and small portable tablesaw is how I handle it.

-- Eric

-- No PHD just a DD214 Lubbock Texas

-- No PHD just a DD214 Lubbock Texas

Nice looking shop! I have a shop the size you are making. I arranged all my equipment along two walls and ran my 6” dust collection duct along the wall on the floor. Saves piping going up to the ceiling and then back down to the equipment. My dust collector and compressor are outside my shop in separate sheds.

-- No PHD just a DD214 Lubbock Texas