EEstudent Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Greetings All, Sharing my first shop build, would appreciate any constructive feedback or tips(even though its already mostly done) At this house there isn't quite enough space in the garage for my wife's car and my desire to work on projects. So some extra garage space is being built to help with projects and my new taste for wood working. The spot the building is going on is right next to the house, however this area slopes about 2.5' so I built a small retaining wall to help provide a level surface surrounding the building. I ended up building a retaining wall that encompassed an area that was much larger than really needed, somehow I did not plan that out very well. But it was a good work out and as usual took a bit longer than I thought it would. I dug a trench out, put some gravel down, then put the blocks down. I believe each block was about 60lbs and I put down something like 275 of them. It was a good work out. After the retaining wall was up I needed to remove all of the grass so I could compact the dirt and back fill it with gravel. After I cut it up and rolled it up I had about 3000 sq ft of sod that I just wanted to get rid of. I put it on craigslist for free and within six hours it was all gone. I didn't realize it would be so valuable. Next time I'll try to get some cash or trade for it maybe. Next I back filled it in. I don't have too many pictures of this stage. I rented a skidsteer and was working against the clock to move approximately 200 tons of gravel to backfill this area to bring it up to level next to my existing driveway and house. For some reason I had grossly underestimated how much gravel I would need to backfill this in. Otherwise I think I would have been much more careful in sizing the area that my retaining wall encompassed. It left the driveway quite a mess. At this point my work with it was done and the contractor's turn to take over. I already kind of regret not doing this part myself but I'm already short on time off this year and don't think I would have really had the time to complete this building this summer and I really want to start some projects in the fall. Trusses were delivered. Poles going up. More progress Unfortunately I was not around when the concrete pour was going on and away while the siding was being put up, so not too many pictures of that process, just what my wife took as update pictures. At this point the building is up, inspections for framing complete and doors installed. Back to me to do the electrical install. I am soon getting started with that and will post additional updates. One question I do have is any thoughts on how I should run power to table saw in the middle of the shop? Is it better to drop a cable down from the ceiling or to run a cord across the floor with some type of cover protection? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewisc Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Welcome to the forum. It looks like it will be a great space to work in. I think if you have anything on wheels (tools, trolleys) then a cord running across the slab might get in the way of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 I'd drop from the ceiling. If your going to have some dust collection ducting run the cord with that. Looks like a great shop so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Welcome to the forums! Nice looking shop! I agree with Chestnut since you didn't account for it in the concrete. My current shop has my table saw and jointer with power following the dust collection to keep the cord off of the floor. My last shop and my next shop will have the outlets in the floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Great progress so far. Agree with the others. I do drop my power on the fence side just past the table extension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Mine drops along with the DC just as most of us do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Great looking shop. The only time I'd put power in the floor is if it was for something that would be bolted down & never moved. Drop if from the ceiling with the dust collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 2 hours ago, ..Kev said: Welcome to the forums! Nice looking shop! I agree with Chestnut since you didn't account for it in the concrete. My current shop has my table saw and jointer with power following the dust collection to keep the cord off of the floor. My last shop and my next shop will have the outlets in the floor. I don't know that i ever would do outlets in the floor. I come from too many flood prone areas that having electrical in the floor just screams DANGER! My other thought @EEstudent was holy #)$#@ that aggregate must have cost a fortune. Where i lived and worked up until a year ago all aggregate had to be hauled in on rail cars causing it to be expensive. Also are you putting grass back around the building or leaving it gravel? If your going back to grass you might want to provide some topsoil grass really should have more than the 1" root zone that gets peeled up with the sod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 5 minutes ago, Chestnut said: I don't know that i ever would do outlets in the floor. I come from too many flood prone areas that having electrical in the floor just screams DANGER! Yea, not an issue where I live but, your reasoning makes sense and should be considered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 7 minutes ago, ..Kev said: Yea, not an issue where I live but, your reasoning makes sense and should be considered. Yeah you don't get rain nearly what we do out here. A 100 year rain fall there is a 2 year rainfall here .... LOL That and all your soil is hydrologic group A or B means flooding just doesn't happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 11 minutes ago, Chestnut said: Yeah you don't get rain nearly what we do out here. A 100 year rain fall there is a 2 year rainfall here .... LOL That and all your soil is hydrologic group A or B means flooding just doesn't happen. Not to argue or hijack the thread but, the old shop in Washington Got it's fair share of rain for sure! We only had 2 seasons, rain and the 4th of July Will be different for everyone for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted June 21, 2018 Report Share Posted June 21, 2018 Shop looks great!! I had ceiling drops in my old shop and they worked well, make sure you use strain reliefs. The layout in my current shop didn't require that as all my tools are against a wall or within the center pod where I have a small metal post with multiple outlets both 220 and 110. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EEstudent Posted June 23, 2018 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2018 On 6/21/2018 at 8:18 AM, Chestnut said: My other thought @EEstudent was holy #)$#@ that aggregate must have cost a fortune. Where i lived and worked up until a year ago all aggregate had to be hauled in on rail cars causing it to be expensive. Also are you putting grass back around the building or leaving it gravel? If your going back to grass you might want to provide some topsoil grass really should have more than the 1" root zone that gets peeled up with the sod. I am not going back to grass. I have enough of that. I will do something with the extra space in the future. Perhaps put DC or compressor out there. Or perhaps make a small lean to with some patio type space and grill. Still up in the air. Gravel was about 11 bucks a ton. So the total amount I spent in gravel was much more than I initially planned, somehow I messed up my initial measurement and thought the retaining wall would have been 6 inches shorter. With that much space 6 inches of gravel is a quite a bit. Plus it compacts much more than I thought it would. Expensive lesson for me to learn but it was within my slush fund on the entire project so while it would have been nice to purchase a big tool I have some nice gravel space. And thanks everyone for the power suggestions. For some reason running it with the dust collector drop did not resonate with me. I am back with another question. I am working on shop layout of benches and tools and am considering putting a potential bandsaw at the end of where my miter cutting station would go. I've seen people do this before, I was wondering on peoples opinion of bandsaw should be on wheels without any dedicated "outfeed" type area. Or does integrating it into the miter station make a nice feature with the "outfeed" area? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted June 23, 2018 Report Share Posted June 23, 2018 If you plan to resaw with your bandsaw then a outfeed surface is good to have. Think about room for infeed too. It's still a good idea to have a mobile base so you can move the bandsaw if it's in the way of cutting very long pieces on the mitersaw station. 3 sides of a bandsaw need clearance but the post usually ends up facing the wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted June 25, 2018 Report Share Posted June 25, 2018 @EEstudent I have my bandsaw sitting sort of in the middle of an area. I don't have out feed or in feed support and I've never really had an issue with it. Being able to quickly access both sides allows me to walk around from the in feed side to the out feed side. The only think i can think of as a downside for having it where you are talking about is if a wall gets close and limits the curves that you can cut. Yeah that grave here would have easily been twice that. Usually aggregate averages out to 1.8 tons per cubic yard compacted. Ya know for next time . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaDad Posted June 25, 2018 Report Share Posted June 25, 2018 On 6/21/2018 at 8:49 AM, ..Kev said: Not to argue or hijack the thread but, the old shop in Washington Got it's fair share of rain for sure! We only had 2 seasons, rain and the 4th of July Will be different for everyone for sure. People who haven't live don the wet side of Washington look at me funny when I say that summer starts on the 5th of July. Of course, on the dry side rain is a happy surprise if it happens after May! Haha. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klappco Posted June 28, 2018 Report Share Posted June 28, 2018 On 6/25/2018 at 1:18 PM, VizslaDad said: People who haven't live don the wet side of Washington look at me funny when I say that summer starts on the 5th of July. Of course, on the dry side rain is a happy surprise if it happens after May! Haha. We’ve had a lot of it the past few weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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