Got a basement shop?

[Asa Christiana]

Fine Woodworking magazine is looking for a nice basement shop to feature in an upcoming issue. Don't worry about having magazine-ready photos. If we find a suitable shop, we'll travel there to visit you and shoot pictures.
The ldeal shop will have clever solutions for some or all of the usual issues facing basement shops: limited space, dust and noise migration, moisture, lighting, power, and access. As always we are looking for useful tips and features that readers can take away.
Walk-out basements won't work, because they have some of the advantages of a garage shop (big windows, easy access, etc.).
If you think your basement shop fills the bill, send me a short description and some jpegs at achristiana@taunton.com.
Thanks a lot.
--Asa Christiana,
Editor, FWW

[Anthony Whitesell]

Bummer. I have a walk out basement but I certainly don't have big windows. I'm not sure that my cat could even fit through them. But it's not picture ready yet anyway, I'm still getting setup.

[Art Mulder]

Bummer, nothing exciting about my basement shop.

Seriously, how thrilling is the advice: "use a Dustcollector, and put everything on wheels" ?? :p:confused:

Oh well...

[Roger Warford]

Asa, thanks for posting here! FWW is a great magazine and is often cited here at the creek. I have no doubt you will find a Creeker with a winning basement shop! Wish I could submit mine, but I'm still putting it together, and I do have the advantage of walk in access and big windows.

A frequently asked question here is "how do I move <insert your favorite big heavy tool here> down a flight of stairs to my basement shop". You might want to include a few comments on how the shop was built and how tools were moved into place in your article.

Good luck and I look forward to the article.

[Rob Russell]

I've got a basement shop, but there's noway I'll let pictures of it go into FWW. I did have fun getting some huge machines down into it.

[Peter Quinn]

Be sure to let me know if Tauton's has an 'Ugliest basement shop in America' contest. I feel I am a strong contender for that. Or perhaps a "Works like raging bull to overcome the restrictions of the only space available" edition. I come from a long line of guys with basement shops, my great grandfather had one, my grandfather had one, my father has one and now I do too. Not sure I'd really be happy in a warm spacious comfortable barn like Norm's on the NYW (though I'd be willing to find out!)

I moved out of NYC to get close to the grass and trees again. Setting up a woodworking shop was top on my list of priorities. LOML's dream home was a 100+ year old bungalow with a separate garage that can almost fit a yugo, and 900SF of RAW basement space accessible by a steep decreped bilco, last guy used to drive his Harley down the basement steps to work on it for the winter! I guess the garage was too cold. He broke all the concrete steps.

My space had old concrete walls riddled with weep holes, 1 40 watt bulb dangling from the joists, and each time it rained it felt like a scene from 'A River Runs Through It". It was a close race between the spiders, the centipedes and the mold to see which could get me first.

Four+ years later the spiders are gone, the centipedes are a memory, the mold is dead, the river is a wet spot in one corner during only the most torrential rain when others are flooding knee deep. The walls have been parged with a marble dust/Thorobond mixture and the bilco door and steps have been rebuilt.

At 900SF plus a garage for lumber storage I can't complain about space. For power the house had a new 200A service largely unused and my FIL is an electrician for a commercial laundry in the motor department, so no hardship there either. Lights...uh...put in a lot of them so you can see, and keep um in the joists so they don't hit your head (got that one from a Tauton's book). Getting machines in? Easy. Getting machines out??

Dust? Air filter, good collector, and festool. I keep a macaroni and cheese box taped to my shaper fence to encourage better chip extraction! Seriously, it works! Oh, and a Lexan shop made collector housing for the BS whose design I stole from a guy on the web. Noise? My TS sits under my sons crib which is why I am posting this instead of working in the shop. Didn't think about noise until the day my baby came home from the hospital! Noise reduction comes next fiscal year, along with heat.

Moisture? Parged the walls like a pool, coated them in vapor permeable epoxy, got the biggest, baddest dehumidifier I could plumbed in...runs constantly, keeps the tools rust free, the wood stable and the power company in business.

When I walk into my basement shop I oscillate between the pride in how much has been accomplished thus far and the horror at how much is left to do. Every time I see a post of somebody's shop here on the creek I cant help thinking they always look better than mine. In fact I'm pretty sure mine is the ugliest ever. My space works but probably wouldn't look good in glossy pictures.

I hope you pick/find a shop that started life as a cellar, not a tight bright new construction basement but a man cave carved out of hope, sweat and dreams. Possibly something hand dug! All functionality aside, I'm also on the lookout for any decorating tips to make the basement 'look' better! Perhaps a review of several shops titled "Wood caves and the moles who populate them"

Good luck with your search.

[Jim Dunn]

Sent a picture of mine in. Hope to get a least a cup of coffee outa the deal:) Just so long as nobody laughs to loudly I'm happy.

[Jon Lanier]

I have a 13'x33' basement shop. Don't have any space issues. :(

[Gary Breckenridge]

The word Fine in Fine Woodworking rules my shop out of consideration.

[John Thompson]

I have a 13'x33' basement shop. Don't have any space issues. :(

John.. I suggest you send some pictures in as Asa is having a very difficult time trying to find a basement shop that has solved the problems that come with that turf. About 45 post or so on the FWW forum and all were either walk-out garage shops as mine or had no clever solutions that would be considered unique enough to do a shoot for others benefit.

Just send some in and you might be surprised as none that fit the decription he mentions have been found yet. Worth a shot and who know.. you might become one of those Hollywood Wood-working Stars. :D

Regards...

Sarge..

[Jack Briggs]

I doubt that my basement shop would solve any problems more than it creates, but I've been making my living out of a <700 sq. ft. shop for several years now. The product that comes out of it is belied by the appearance of the shop itself.:eek:

[Tim Thomas]

I don't have a basement shop, but when I read this post I immediately thought of Stuart Ablett. I ran across his website sometime last year, and this guy is, in my limited opinion, the KING of working in a cramped space.

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/workshop1.htm

Stuart lives in Japan and his workshop is actually a concrete bunker that is UNDER the garage of his apartment building. To get into his shop he has to lift a metal hatch and climb down a wooden ladder (not stairs, a LADDER) through a hole that is about 4 feet by 4 feet. The floorplan of the shop is about 14 by 23 feet, but despite the small size he has a very well equipped shop, including a 10 inch jointer (3-phase) and a Bill Pentz style homemade cyclone.

His website is pretty cool too, and Stuart has put up tons of pictures of how he put his shop together. It is really awesome to see what he has been able to do with a limited space. There is a lot you can learn from what he has done, even if you have a larger shop.

EDIT: I didn't know it, but "Stu" is actually a member of this site. He has thousands of posts, but it looks like he hasn't posted in almost a year. On the Creek his handle is "Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan". Does anybody know where he has run off too?

[John Shuk]

I have a basement shop and a wife that would kick my butt if I brought national attention to the state of our basement.

[Roger Warford]

...when I read this post I immediately thought of Stuart Ablett.

Wow! After a brief visit to Stuart's site, I vote for him too. From his site:


The new hatch is much easier to open... The cord going down is the source of power in the shop at the moment. :eek:


in each corner of the shop I have these ready-made tool platforms. They are the very tips of the four long concrete pillars that go down 9 floors into the ground, helps when the earthquakes come. :eek::eek:



you can see my escape hatch in the back wall. [in case of fire!]
:eek::eek::eek:

Nice display of dedication and resourcefulness.

[Doug Shepard]

I don't have a basement shop, but when I read this post I immediately thought of Stuart Ablett. I ran across his website sometime last year, and this guy is, in my limited opinion, the KING of working in a cramped space.

You took the words right outta my mouth. :D
....

EDIT: I didn't know it, but "Stu" is actually a member of this site. He has thousands of posts, but it looks like he hasn't posted in almost a year. On the Creek his handle is "Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan". Does anybody know where he has run off too?

He's been primarily posting (and moderating or administering?) on the Family Woodworking dot org site (link purposely munged for ToS violation reasons)



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