Finally!! New house, new shop and new tools!

[Hoang N Nguyen]

I've been waiting for this mention for a long time now. Finally convinced my wife that it was time for us to move. This lead to the construction of our new home, fast forward 6 months and I now have a 1500 sq. ft. basement for a workshop instead of a 2 car garage.

During the construction period, I had to give up my fathers day, birthday AND Christmas gift. But.... The wife did promise she'd make it up by letting me buy tools once we close on the house and moved in. She made good on her promise and I ended up with a brand new 15" Powermatic planer with the spiral cutter head along with a Fuji Q5 HVLP spray gun. Oh, I also somehow brought home a 2017 BMW X5 :eek:, still not sure how that happened. I swear it just followed me home.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share some pictures of my new shop. It's still a work in progress since we've only moved in 3 weeks ago. I've only had 2 or 3 days to work on the shop, the rest of the time the wife was cracking her whip pressing me to unpack the house so we didn't live in boxes.

The builders put in a lot of walls in the basement, most of which aren't even load bearing walls so I do plan to take them down later on. For now they'll have to stay since my wife already has a list of things for me to build. Getting the shop up and running is priority now. I just pulled a permit for all the electrical work yesterday and plan to start running all the wires this weekend. The idea is to have (30) 20 amp outlets throughout the shop plus (3) 20 amp 240v and (1) 30 amp 240v outlets for the bigger toys. I have a friend coming to help this weekend so I'm hoping all the electrical work will be done and inspected by next week.

Duct work is nearly complete, just missing a few fittings which comes in today so I should be done with it by this weekend.

I'm open to advise on any improvement I can make so if you have them, I'm all ears.

Thanks

Hoang

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congratulations on a new shop Hoang!

[Malcolm McLeod]

Congratulations! And with 1500 sq ft, if shouldn't take more than another 3-4 days to get cramped.;)

[Patrick McCarthy]

Hoang, you're doing something right!

[Matt Putnam]

Huoang,
The shop looks awesome!
Quick question - what is the duct material for your DC? I see it's steel but is it Nordfab-type quick connect? I probably should be able to identify from the pics but I'm just now dipping my toes into the DC/ducting planning on my shop and still a newbee on this front.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Thanks all for the comments.


Congratulations! And with 1500 sq ft, if shouldn't take more than another 3-4 days to get cramped.;) As you can see, I'm already a little cramped. I'm hoping to get things more organized within the next few days by putting things where they belong. I'm still trying to find a home for everything as I unbox things.


Huoang,
The shop looks awesome!
Quick question - what is the duct material for your DC? I see it's steel but is it Nordfab-type quick connect? I probably should be able to identify from the pics but I'm just now dipping my toes into the DC/ducting planning on my shop and still a newbee on this front. Matt, the pipes are spiral pipes, not Nordfab. I had thought about Nordfab for the longest time and even priced it out. It came to about 3 or 4 times higher cost than what I have now and I felt it wasn't worth it. For that price, I could use the savings on more tools to fill the shop. I don't mind hacking up a few pipes if I need to change up the duct work if that means I can save myself a grand or so. I'm also fortunate enough to have a metal supplier about 30 miles from me that carry spiral pipes and all the fittings. Their prices are a good bit lower than most online vendors I've found and I don't have to pay hundreds in shipping the pipes. In all, I have maybe $400 invested in my duct work, all spiral pipes and fittings.

[Mike Heidrick]

Congrats!!!!!!

[Frank Pratt]

That's a serious amount you've accomplished in just a few days! I too used spiral steel duct & long sweep elbows for my DC. It was a fraction of the cost of Nordfab.

[Chris Padilla]

Fantastic! I love to hear such shop stories! Gives a man hope! :D :D ;)

[Matt Putnam]

Thanks all for the comments.

Matt, the pipes are spiral pipes, not Nordfab. I had thought about Nordfab for the longest time and even priced it out. It came to about 3 or 4 times higher cost than what I have now and I felt it wasn't worth it. For that price, I could use the savings on more tools to fill the shop. I don't mind hacking up a few pipes if I need to change up the duct work if that means I can save myself a grand or so. I'm also fortunate enough to have a metal supplier about 30 miles from me that carry spiral pipes and all the fittings. Their prices are a good bit lower than most online vendors I've found and I don't have to pay hundreds in shipping the pipes. In all, I have maybe $400 invested in my duct work, all spiral pipes and fittings.

Got it. I will look into a similar supplier in my area. What is the material name of the spiral pipes - or it just "spiral pipes"? Is there a specific gauge? I've seen the term "crush" - no idea what that is.
Lastly - could you share your supplier's info (maybe by PM here if needed). I'm in Greenville, SC and get to ATL often enough to make a run if I can't source it locally.

[Larry Frank]

Wow..very nice...I am jealous

[Jim Becker]

Congrats!!

And wow...you got a LOT of shop assembly work done in only a few days...wow

[Arthur Fleming]

Looks beautiful, congrats!

[Len Rosenberg]

Congrats, very exciting, looks like a great work space! I see lots of familiar tools.......:)

Enjoy and good luck!

Len

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Got it. I will look into a similar supplier in my area. What is the material name of the spiral pipes - or it just "spiral pipes"? Is there a specific gauge? I've seen the term "crush" - no idea what that is.
Lastly - could you share your supplier's info (maybe by PM here if needed). I'm in Greenville, SC and get to ATL often enough to make a run if I can't source it locally.
They have a location in Greenville, SC so you don't have to drive far. http://www.conklinmetal.com/our-locations/
The people at the ATL location are very nice people and easy to work with. Prices are very fair, I believe I paid $10 for 6" 45* elbows, $15 for 90* and about $2 per ft. for the spiral pipes. The pipes I got from them are just galvanized spiral pipes and I believe they are 26ga. It's more than enough for what I need and the spiral makes them much stronger than snap lock pipes. The "crush" you read about can be caused by many things. Too thin of material for the pipes, powerful DC plus all blast gates closed may crush the pipes. I've left all my blast gates closed with these pipes a few times and they held up fine. I'm sure some of the more experienced members can help clear it up better for you than I can. I'm still learning as I go along.


Congrats!!

And wow...you got a LOT of shop assembly work done in only a few days...wow This is a bad habit of mine, when I start on something I work non-stop until I'm done or my wife drags me away from it. I've gotten heat stroke 3 times last summer in the old shop from working without food or water for nearly 12 hours straight in 90* heat. Once, my wife had to take me to the ER so they can stick me with an IV because I couldn't keep down any food or water. My wife gets on me all the time about staying hydrated but I just don't think about it when I'm in my zone. I'm hoping it'll be less of an issue with this shop since the basement stays much cooler than a garage. Plus the basement has it's own AC unit.

Plus, I kind of cheated with the shop. I had 6 months to plan for it while the house was being built. I had the builders send me plans of the basement and used it to plan the shop layout along with all the duct work. That allowed me a great deal of time to think about the layout and revise as needed. So when it came to go time, everything just fell into place.

[Mike Nguyen]

Nice shop Hoang. I wish they build house with basement like that in Socal.

[Frank Pratt]

Just a heads up; spiral duct is available in a couple of varieties, one that is smooth & another that is ribbed at the seems. The ribbed stuff is substantially stronger, but it also provides much more static pressure loss than the smooth stuff. But I have 26 Ga smooth & it's plenty strong. You don't want the ribbed spiral duct.


Got it. I will look into a similar supplier in my area. What is the material name of the spiral pipes - or it just "spiral pipes"? Is there a specific gauge? I've seen the term "crush" - no idea what that is.
Lastly - could you share your supplier's info (maybe by PM here if needed). I'm in Greenville, SC and get to ATL often enough to make a run if I can't source it locally.

[Trevor Howard]

Congratulations Hoang on the new house and shop. Just went through the same thing myself.

[daniel lane]

Nice shop, Hoang! Congratulations. I'm trying to get my own figured out and we moved in 13 months ago; you've definitely got me beat!


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[David Freed]

Looks like a real nice setup.

I used to be the same way about forgetting to hydrate in hot weather. I have to now or I'm real weak and shaking in an hour or two. As long as I keep drinking water, I can keep going.

[Mike Dowell]

Looking good Hoang! 1500 sqft is dreamy! The guy I get my wood from was telling me of a friend of his, who recently built a new shop at his house, and it was 3400 sq ft:eek:. And, get this, after only a few months, the guy was telling my wood guy that if he had it to do over again, he would have gone bigger. Granted, I'm sure he has a spray booth/room, and other appendages that most shops don't have, but seriously... 3400 sq ft? That's twice the size of my house! As for my shop, it's 625 sqft and pretty cramped. I will say however, that I have no place to store customer work that I haven't started, and finished pieces, so if I were able to clear all of that out, and only have the piece I was currently working on, it would feel much more roomy. Nice shot of the Kapex.

[Jim Andrew]

Wow, you must be a go-getter! Get yourself a cup with lid and fix it with ice as you like it so you don't have to go out of your way to get a drink. And before you remove any walls in your basement, call your builder, as I have never heard of builder putting unnecessary walls in basements. Your code enforcement office may not appreciate you removing what look like unnecessary walls.

[Jim Becker]

I do agree with Mr. Andrew that you'll want to be sure that any walls you remove are not load bearing... ;) At the very least check with your builder.

[Al Launier]

I've also never heard of a contractor installing extra walls. Did you & he previously make future plans that would need this support. Tread carefully - check further!

[Rollie Kelly]

Hoang, if you haven't already, provide for a dedicated finishing room. It is so nice to have a clean dust free space to be able to finish and work on other projects at the same time.
The space doesn't have to be much larger than your largest expected piece.
Rollie

[Jim Andrew]

Hoang, that zone you write about, I used to really enjoy getting into that. Would wake about 5am and go to work. For some reason, now that I am old, harder to get into that. But do enjoy it when it happens. Seems to help when building something new to me.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Thanks all for the comments about me wanting to take down a few walls, I appreciate the concerns. I did have this discussion with the builders as to why they put in so many walls. Their response was because they build their basements with the provision of it being finished out and the walls dictate where the rooms will be. I told them I thought that was silly and if they could remove a few walls here and there that aren't load bearing walls. They said they would have to charge me 10 grand for a design change because it would have to go through the architect and engineer for redesign. I nearly had a heart attack and passed on it.

I'm an engineer by day, wanna-be woodworker by night so I do this kind of stuff daily. The wall dividing the 2 rooms that my jointer/planner and table saw are non-load bearing. Neither is the wall perpendicular to it. The only load bearing point is at the corner of those 2 walls where there's a support column above it in the family room. I feel if I open up those 2 walls, it wouldn't limit me as much in shop layout.

I do have a load bearing wall right behind the table saw. Behind that wall is where they roughed in the plumping for a bathroom. I plan to finish out that bathroom and turn the rest of the room into a spray booth. I intend to spray only waterborne paints in the shop since all these talks about other finishes catching fire kinda as me on tip toe.

Over the weekend I was able to run electrical wires throughout the shop. (30) 20amp 120v, (3) 20amp and (1) 30amp 240v. It took all day and the wife was note happy. It was her only day off that work and I disappeared the entire day. Tonight, I plan to wrap things up and have a buddy come over to do the remaining work which is wiring it to the panel itself. I refuse to touch the panel because it scares the crap out of me. If we finish tonight, I hope to have an inspector come out tomorrow for an inspection. If all goes well, I should be in business by the weekend. The wife is already standing there with arms across her chest and tapping her feet with a list of things I need to build.

[Malcolm McLeod]

.... The wife is already standing there with arms across her chest and tapping her feet with a list of things I need to build.

I'm betting that she wants her ubber-fancy closet:cool: v2.0!

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Yeah, about that. I'm totally not looking forward to that project. The last one took me 5 months to complete and it's half the size of the new closet. Also, the closet walls start to vault at around 4' high so it really limits me in design. Been thinking about it for months and still can't figure out something I like.


I'm betting that she wants her ubber-fancy closet:cool: v2.0!

[Ryan Jones]

Congrats!!

And wow...you got a LOT of shop assembly work done in only a few days...wow

The rest of his house is still in boxes. Priorities man.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

A little update on the shop. Got power to the shop a few weeks ago and inspections went without a hitch. I'd say the shop is about 90% operational, just need to find a location for my drill press and a PM mortiser that's coming in soon.

I also got my paint booth put together (or slapped together), I didn't spend much time planning out the spray booth. I figured I'd just slap something together to get me by for now until I can drywall the basement in and seal off the room properly. All the plastic I hug does a good job but I do have to be careful when moving around in there not to poke a hole in it. The zip wall is works like a charm as well and I'm very happy with it. I had a shop fan laying around I had plan to use but felt it was too small for a 200 sq. ft. spray booth so I ended up ordering the one shown in the picture. Specs claim 4000 cfm (yeah right) and it does move a lot of air. I used it over the weekend as soon as I finished it to spray a clear coat on that cabinet shown in the picture and not once did it get misty in the booth so I guess it's working as it should.

The filter for the exhaust fan is taped to a frame I put together and the frame rides on a hinge. This allows me to flip open the filter to get to the fan to push it right to the edge of the window to reduce bounce back.

I also plan to come back in and maybe add 2 more filters for incoming air. I feel the 1 filter I have now isn't letting enough air in because the plastic walls would cave in on me. It created enough negative pressure to pull the 2x4 right off that I had double side taped to the ground. I ended up having to come back and driving a few nails in it using my ramset.

For those that have made successful spray booth and have advise on how to improve my set-up, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,
Hoang

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[Adam Herman]

are those the 2ft x 4 ft led flat panel lights from the borg? Great shop, I'm a bit jealous. I'll be stripping my garage this summer and finishing it, keeping a wishlist.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Yes they are, I bought 3 of them for about $45 a piece. I plan to buy a few more to add to the shop in the coming months once I get a few projects crossed off my list.


are those the 2ft x 4 ft led flat panel lights from the borg? Great shop, I'm a bit jealous. I'll be stripping my garage this summer and finishing it, keeping a wishlist.

[Vince Rosypal]

Great sized shop.... I'm envious!
This thread could use more eye candy pictures ;)

[Marty Schlosser]

Congrats on the house, shop and new equipment!

Interestingly, I have a Powermatic P15 - with the original 3-knife cutterhead - and it's provided me flawless service over its 15 year lifetime.

I was also glad to hear you picked up a Fuji Q5 Platinum turbine HVLP system. I've been very impressed with its ability to atomize practically any finish I've thrown at it.

Again, congrats all around!

[Rich Konopka]

Hoang,

Congratulations on getting the shop up and running. How tall are the ceilings in the basement? You mentioned that you have a separate AC unite or zone for the shop? We are close to signing a contract to build a new house and I'm having 9 foot ceilings in my 2200 SQ ft Man Cave / Shop.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

My ceilings are 9' tall. I have a portable AC unit I plan to set up once the summer comes around. I was going to see how well that handles before I drop the cash on a mini split unit.


Hoang,

Congratulations on getting the shop up and running. How tall are the ceilings in the basement? You mentioned that you have a separate AC unite or zone for the shop? We are close to signing a contract to build a new house and I'm having 9 foot ceilings in my 2200 SQ ft Man Cave / Shop.

[Roger Feeley]

Hoang, my solution to scary panels is to have my own sub-panel. In our new house, I wired up a 240v 70A breaker to a service disconnect. From there, I wired up a subpanel. I can pull the lever on the disconnect and play all I want with my own breaker box. I only had to mess with the scary main panel once and I only had the power to the house off for a couple of hours. Now I have a choice of ways to kill power to the shop:
-- I can turn off the breaker to the sub-panel in the main panel.
-- I can throw the switch on the disconnect
-- I can disable individual breakers in the sub-panel.

A bonus is that I mounted the service disconnect where a little kid can get to it. "If grandpa gets in trouble, pull the big lever."

This is the third shop I've wired this way. Never needed the big lever for an emergancy but it's nice to have.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

354983

My brand-new shop is haunted.


We recently moved into our newly-built home, and I got the shop all set up.


Then, last weekend, this item somehow got spirited from the back of Kent's storage unit 25 miles away [where it has been for a year] out here to the suburbs, and appeared in my shop. Including a full set of top-end HCM chisels, bits, sharpening tools, etc. 20 years old, works like a dream.


Now, I can make square mortises. The only downside is this spooky voice that haunts the shop, laughing about my Domino.

I can't begin to express how grateful I'm for this man, the knowledge and experience he shares along with his generosity.

[Steve Mathews]

I just finished reading this thread from the beginning. Hoang - Great job and congrats on the new shop! It's always interesting and informative reading about shop builds.

Edit: Gotta ask, how did you get all the equipment in the basement. Walkout?

[tom lucas]

Super nice shop. You are lucky to have so much space. Enjoy and make some beautiful things from wood.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

I just finished reading this thread from the beginning. Hoang - Great job and congrats on the new shop! It's always interesting and informative reading about shop builds.

Edit: Gotta ask, how did you get all the equipment in the basement. Walkout?

Yup, I had the builders put in a double door walkout.

[Eric Commarato]

Very nice Hoang! Glad to see someone actually purchasing some substantial equipment for their shop instead of big box store machinery. Looks like a very nice place to work! BRAVO!