Maple Grove Woodworks » Workshop

Weekend Update

Dennis_MGWW — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:15:52 +0000

I actually managed to accomplish a few things this weekend in the shop. The temperature outside was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit so I was able to get the shop up to about 60 degrees. I cleaned up most of the shop except for the lathe area and the lumber storage area. I don’t know if I will ever get the lumber area organized to my satisfaction unless I start burning some of my scraps.

I even did a little woodworking. Just a little. I made a couple more clamp racks and attached them to the wall. Many of my clamps have been laying on bench tops or just clamped to the sides of a bench, so the additional racks will really help in staying organized. I did not get back to the mission style lamps that I wanted to work on, but hopefully I will soon.

Seasonal Woodworkers

Dennis_MGWW — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:27:00 +0000

A lot of people tend to be seasonal woodworkers, especially for the hobbyist. Many people head to the shop in the fall and don’t come out until it is time for the summertime fun to begin. I generally tend to be a little different than the rest of the crowd. I like to head out to the shop in the early spring, when the weather starts to warm up a bit, and then I will be out there until late fall, or early winter, when the weather gets too cold to work comfortably.

I live in Michigan, and the winters tend to make the shop (currently my garage) a bit colder than I would like. I have a portable kerosene heater, but the garage is not insulated, and most of the heat goes up through the rafters and out the ridge vent. On a really cold day I can only get the temperature up to about 45 degrees (Fahrenheit).

This is not to say that I don’t work in the wintertime, because I do, it is just that I don’t get out there as often, and it is for shorter time periods. This situation will be rectified once I start building my new workshop….someday.

This winter has been extra crazy. My time in the shop has been very limited, and every time I have been out there it has been for just a “quick a minute” project. There have been a lot of these types of projects and to save time I have been very lax in cleaning up after myself. This has gotten to the point where I can’t find any of my tools, my bench and worktables are literally covered with tools and lumber cutoffs. I ran out there to grab a tape measure the other day, and it took me 10 minutes to find it. It was very frustrating.

This weekend the weather is going to warm up a bit, above freezing anyway, and I think I am going to go do my spring cleaning a little early this year. Once everything is cleaned up I might actually do some real woodworking. I have a couple of projects that are about 1/2 complete that I would like to finish up.

As I was writing this, I recalled that I blogged about this very thing back in November. Could this just be a bad habit I have gotten into? I hope not. If it is, I am resolving to break it. No more leaving my shop in disarray. There, now that I have blogged it, it won’t happen again….Right?…

Unfinished Projects

Dennis_MGWW — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:52:28 +0000

I finally found a couple of hours this weekend to cleanup my garage/workshop. It had been slowly becoming a disorganized mess over the last few months. I haven’t had enough time to start a real project, so most of the work done in the shop had been quick little fix-it or modify-it type of work.

Generally when I am working on things like this I am trying to work quickly because I just want to be done with it. It is not the kind of work I really enjoy. Because of this, I rarely clean up after myself and I eventually end up with a very cluttered workshop that is impossible to work in because I can’t find anything. It almost begins to feel claustrophobic.

After putting everything back in place, I began trying to reorganize a few things. When doing so, I came across several unfinished projects. They are all personal projects that I was working on at one time or another, when something more important would come along that I needed to make. My project would get set aside in a corner or on a shelf, while I finished the “important” project. Then… it was forgotten.

I found two partially made mission style lamps that were to be for our living room. They were about half completed.

I found three marquetry mirrors that are about 80% complete. At one time I had made several of these mirrors, either for clients or friends, but apparently I had started a few more and did not complete them.

I found a business card holder that was only about 25% complete. There were some small intricate parts that, at the time, I did not have the proper tools to make safely.

I found the parts of a chisel mallet that is about 75% complete. I just need to finish gluing the handle to the head and then sand it and it will be completed.

Actually, come to think of it, my router table has never really been completed. When I first started woodworking, I had ordered the plans for Norm Abram’s router table. It is about 95% complete, but I never finished the large bottom drawer. All of the wood is cut, and the drawer slides are sitting where the drawer would be.

Maybe my new years resolution this year should be to finish up the unfinished projects. The next time I am bored, (which rarely happens these days), I can’t blame it on not having anything to do.

Workshop Design #4

Dennis_MGWW — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:54:46 +0000

Front View (Click for larger view)

Here is a quick update of where I am on the workshop design. If you remember from my first article, the footings and frost wall already exist so I cannot modify anything with them, but every thing else is fair game.

I am not quite as far along as I had hoped to be at this point with the design, but here is what I have so far. As you can see from the pictures, I have the wall studs up on 3 of the sides. I have to research the rough opening sizes I’ll need for the doors before doing the fourth wall.

I also have one of roof trusses drawn. Actually, I haven’t decided if they will be premade trusses or if I will just build them on site. You can now see what I mean by a center aisle horse barn. The difference here is that my workshop will not be raised on the interior, the raised section will house the second floor.

Iso View (Click for larger view)

The next step will be to finish the front walls and the rest of the roof trusses. Then I will start adding the sheeting on the outsides of the walls and drywall on the inside of the walls.

Workshop Design #3

Dennis_MGWW — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:58:38 +0000

Now that I have my wish list for the general construction of the workshop, it is time to focus on the interior of the shop and make a list of its features that I would like to include. This list will focus on things like; whether to have drywall or wood walls, flooring, cabinetry, pegboard or upper cabinets, lumber storage etc. This list is also a work in progress and will probably be updated as time goes on.

When the topic of workshop design pops up on any of the forums around the net, there is always a conversation about what to put up on the walls, drywall or wood. A lot of people like to put up plywood, tongue and groove, or even OSB on their walls rather than drywall so that they can hang anything on the wall anywhere without having to search for a stud. This is a valid reason for putting up wood walls, and it can be a very aesthetically pleasing style for the interior of a workshop.

The one thing I don’t like about wood walls is that it can really cut down on the light in the shop. I really like having a lot of light in my shop and having white walls really helps the light reflect around the shop. The wood could be painted white, but I hate painting wood. so what I plan on doing is putting up drywall on all of the walls and ceiling and painting them bright white. At first this sounds very antiseptic, but I think much of the walls will be covered by cabinets, workbenches, tools and such.

If I need to hang several heavy tools, jigs, or whatever on the wall, I would probably attach a sheet of plywood horizontally to the wall studs, and then hang things from the plywood. In my current garage shop, I have some white peg board which works out quite well for the lighter tools. It is just not strong enough for anything too heavy. Anything of any real weight will either be in a cabinet or on a shelf anyways.

Flooring is another subject that generates a lot of conversation. Pretty much the one thing that everyone agrees on is that concrete floors are very hard on your feet and back. I am seriously considering installing Dricore flooring over the top of the concrete pad. The 2005 Tools and Shops issue of Fine Woodworking (#174) had a really good article comparing these DriCore tiles and other PVC floor coverings. I like the Dricore in the sense that it seems to give more cushion for your feet and back, and also a better insulating value. My only concern is if they can handle the weight of a table saw without crushing the plastic underside. That will be a future research project.

At this point I envision the west wall of the shop to be lined with a long counter top/workbench with cabinets underneath. On the walls above the cabinets will be either more cabinets or wall mounted tool storage. The east wall will be for lumber storage. There will probably be a stairway going upstairs along the back wall along with larger portable tool storage. I will work out some of these details as my design progresses.

Workshop Design #2

Dennis_MGWW — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:00:28 +0000

Before I get into the nitty gritty of the workshop design, I need to pause and make list of what features I really want my workshop to have. This will start out as a “wish list”, but I am sure I will have to pare it down later on due to cost. I figure that if I design it the way I would really want it, I can always add some of the items later on down the road if I can’t afford them right away.

The first thing I want to consider is the overall style of the building. I live out in the country surrounded by farms and fields. I have always liked the look of old center aisle horse barns and that is what I would like my shop to resemble. Plus, the design gives me the opportunity to have a small second floor where I can have either an office or extra storage. The horse barn look is both aesthetically pleasing to its surroundings and very practical for use as a workshop.

Ceiling height would be my next consideration. I would like a minimum of 10ft high ceilings. This makes it easy to stand 4×8 sheets of plywood on end and if needed roll it on its corner and still have a foot to spare. The diagonal measurement of a 4×8 sheet is just shy of 9ft.

I will probably stick with 10ft high ceilings for a couple of reasons, both related to cost. I figure that it will cost roughly 20% more in materials for the walls by going to a 12 ft ceiling. Also, when it comes to heating and cooling, it will be less expensive with the 10ft ceilings. One other thing, I think the building would just look too tall with a 12 ft ceiling.

The building will certainly have to be insulated. I live in Michigan where the winters are cold and the summers are hot. I will probably install a propane furnace, the kind that hangs from the ceiling, to heat the shop during the winter. I have yet to research all of the different kinds of furnaces but as soon as I do I will post an article dedicated to it.

Another luxury would be to have 6 inch wide walls rather than the typical 4 inch. The purpose of this would be to have thicker insulation in the walls which will reduce the heating and cooling costs. However, I am pretty sure the cost of 2×6 wall studs may be a bit higher than I am willing to pay.

Windows are another thing to consider, and there will certainly be some trade offs with them. I want as much natural light as possible coming into the shop, but I don’t want to sacrifice too much wall space either. I imagine I will have 2 windows on the side walls and 1 window on each end wall both downstairs and upstairs giving me a total of eight windows.

Both the large overhead door and the entry door will be insulated. The overhead door is for easy loading and unload of lumber and projects. I do not ever intend on driving into the shop. Because I don’t ever intend on driving into the shop, I plan on making the poured cement floor as flat as humanly possible. At this point, I can see no reason to put a drain in the floor, so there is no need to slope the floor.

The shop will have to have both 110 and 220 outlets. I currently only have 1 machine that runs on 220, but I plan on having a couple more someday.

At this point, this pretty much makes up my requirements list for the overall construction of the workshop. I will discuss some of my requirements for the interior of the shop in my next article.

Workshop Design #1

Dennis_MGWW — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:10:24 +0000

When I first start woodworking, my wife and I lived in a two story house with a very small detached garage. The garage was actually not very suitable for a workshop, at least not without a lot more work than I was willing to put into it. Besides that, I didn’t want that much money sitting in the garage in that particular neighborhood. Therefore my workshop was in the unfinished basement of the house. It would have made Matt proud.

This worked out well until we decided to move. In 2004 we built a new house out in the country. The new house had an attached garage which was large enough for a small workshop and both cars. I decided, though, that I would like a dedicated building for a workshop that was the same size as the garage.

So when the concrete was being poured for the basement of the house and garage, I also had the footings and frost wall poured for the workshop. At that point we finished the house and garage, but due to financial reasons the workshop was left as is… just a short cement wall sticking out of the sand. My kids have had a great time playing in what I call “the most expensive sandbox around”.

I am now planning on building the rest of the shop next summer. So I though I would start the design process, and have everything planned out before construction begins.

Workshop Floor

The outside dimensions of the frost wall are 24ft by 32ft, giving me just under 768square feet of floor space. As the design progresses I will update the the blog with new images of the design. so far, all I have drawn are the footings, frost wall, and the cement floor (in the image the green represents a little grass around the outside).

As you can see there is a break in the wall for a large garage door and an entry door. The next step will be to start throwing some lumber at it and constructing some walls.