barn saved, near Philly

[Bob Riefer]

Hey guys

Jamie - funny that you say "early" because I've been whining and moaning about being in my 30's when I figured this all out.

For insulating, I used kraft backed insulation in the office space, and am doing the same now that I'm getting around to insulating the shop space. But ultimately, the barn will be skinned in vertical steel siding (like a pole barn) because of the mish mash of materials on the outside and 70+ years of negect it's not worth saving. But the barn breathes overly well on top of that! Do you think I'm on the right track?

For the brackets that you mention, do you mean collar ties on the 2nd story? If yes, that's in the plans (although I've seen no deflection up there even with heavy snow). Or something else?

I LOVE getting comments, don't be shy!

Ray - you've summed up my skill set perfectly.. cut, grind, squeeze, bang it into submission, give up and watch the game while having a cold one.

[Jamie Schmitz]

[Bob Riefer]

Gotcha, thought you might be referring to the roof area. It's remarkably ok considering the amount of movement this building has seen, but I'm still planning either plywood or metal gurts (is that the right word?) as you've pictured as well as collar ties (dual benefit.. will make finishing the ceiling easier and will help manage the spreading force). The cavity created above the collar ties will be used to house a gable fan so I can draw heat up and out of the building.

[Jim Becker]

Nice job, Bob. It's always wonderful when a structure like that can both be saved and so nicely re-purposed!

[Joe A Faulkner]

Bob, Like you, I am new to Sawmill Creek, but I've been doing wood working on and off for 25 years. I've been stepping it up a bit the past couple of years and have a renewed interest in learning more and making more pieces. Here are a couple of sites that I find both inspirational and somewhat addictive. First the Wood Whisperer, Marc J. Spagnuolo, has a fantastic site full of free on-line videos. Warning, go there at your own risk, you can easily spend hours checking out his stuff. The URL is:
http://thewoodwhisperer.com/.

Second is the New Chinky Workshop. URL: http://www.thenewchinkyworkshop.com/.

I find Ray's site inspiring. A great shop tour and a his projects are impressive. I get the feeling he operates on very little sleep.

[Bob Riefer]

Hey Joe - thanks for those links... As you warned, I got sucked in for quite awhile!

Hi Jim, Thanks for the nice comment!!

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I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread on this one or not.. So I'll start here for now.

Shop layout

So, I basically have 2 side-by-side rectangular spaces that are each approximately 12' x 18'.

One of these rectangles, I'll call "the Workshop", has a bunch of space taken up by stairs. Right now, the idea is to use under the stairs for lumber racks, including furniture components (like table legs etc.) for items that I plan to make multiple units of. The rest of the space would be for furniture assembly, general household stuff etc.

The other rectangle, I'll call "the Woodshop", has a 9x7 garage door in it, and is otherwise totally a blank slate. No work tables, no obstructions, no shelves. Just floor, lights, walls, and well placed electrical outlets.

The questions
1)
I don't want to do too much customization in the Woodshop until I take my woodworking course in April and have an idea of what I'm doing. But, I don't want to waste from now until then if there are some steps I could take. Any suggestions of layout/setup/prep things I can do to my blank canvas that would be low-risk in terms of having to be undone later? That is, are there a couple slam dunk setup ideas that I can start on now? Racks, tables, shelves, cabinets, closet for dust collecting, etc... anything

2)
For the Workshop side, do you think I'm foolish to do assembly in a different area than all the cutting/planing/sanding etc.?

edit: if that's not foolish, my thought was to put my pancake compressor under whatever work table I create for assembly.. This would allow me to create a sound dampening system and have it near to where it would most often be needed for tacking etc. Wondering if real/live workflow is like I have it pictured in my mind.

[George Sanders]

Welcome to the creek. Oh, to have such space. Wouldn't do me any good though because I would fill it up as fast as it became available.
You're going to have a wonderful workshop. The more you do the more your skills will improve. Just remember that anything, no matter how complex, is simply a collection of details; and if you give each one the attention it deserves the end result will be more than satisfactory.

[Bob Riefer]

Thanks George. Really great advice about complex tasks being a collection of smaller details. It speaks to the project manager side of me, and also reminds me of the countless lists I made up during the barn save.

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Just an update, I've reached what I'll call "finished" for now.

Basically, I've left the woodshop side mostly a blank slate except a couple storage solutions and a station for the miter saw.

I am holding off on insulating/enclosing the walls over there until I know where I want electrical outlets and whether the wall space is useful for running dust collection lines or anything else.

Anyways, a shop tour is updated here if you're interested. Always interested in comments/suggestions/tips. Thanks for all the encouragement so far

http://rieferbarn.shutterfly.com/192

[Ray Bell]

Bob, your Project Management experience is serving you well here. Sounds like you are doing a great job of planning this out. I know there must be better ways to arrange my garage/shop so it isn't so chaotic, jumbled, and make it easier to clean, but just haven't come up with the perfect solution. The only thing I can recommend for you is get rid of all that lawn upkeep stuff, weights, and bicycle machines so you have more room for more toys (tools).

[Joe A Faulkner]

I hate to sound like a broken record, but checkout the wood whisperer videos on the Torsion Box Assembly Table and Tablesaw OutFeed table.

If you are serious about making country style furniture for your home, you will want a surface for assembly work. I don't think you would be sorry building either the Assembly Table or the table saw out feed table from this site:

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/category...ojects/page/2/

Assembly Table: Projects #18 & 19
OutFeed Table: Project: #30

[harry strasil]

OH Boy Bob, you made me drool, iffen I was a bit younger and not physically disabled, I would love to come and help you save the barn, I have straightened several old barns in the past and installed new girts and joists etc, mostly in post and beam structures. I love timberframing and if you haven't already guessed I am a Galoot, I prowl the Neander Haven mostly.

Keep up the GOOD work with the ole barn.

[Dave Gaul]

I love the idea of re-purposing things, especially things that deal with or made from wood!!

So where exactly is 30 minutes West of Philly?

I'm ~ 45 to an hour NW of Philly... just SW of Reading....

[Bob Riefer]

Yikes, I totally lost track of this thread for quite awhile!

Dave - I'm in Collegeville PA, so we're not far from each other at all I think. If you ever find yourself over this way, let me know and we can hang out in the barn and swap ideas etc.

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Well, I finally got the woodshop insulated and OSB'd, and then built my miter station. Still lots of work to do, but it's starting to look like a usable shop.

(edit: btw, that table saw will be raised up onto a plywood box to match the miter station height.. I'm tall so I like a little more height on the table surfaces.. and the jointer is going on casters, and will be similarly raised up too.)

[Bob Riefer]

Got some more work done over the past couple days.

I put the table saw up on its plywood box. Now it's the same height as the miter station, and nicer for me to work on (less bending). Plywood box was made of scrap I had laying around.

That allowed me to take the mobile base, and set it up to hold the drill press. I had some scrap lumber for this too. Bolter the lumber to the base, and the drill press to the lumber. And then added weight (bag of sand) to the base too. It's not tippy at all.

Now that I could move the drill press, I wanted to bring it into the woodshop. So I removed a set of rarely used cabinets, and moved the rolling cart beneath it, push the DP to its new home.

Decided the casters from the rolling cart would be more useful for the jointer... So I started removing them (didn't finish yet). Those drawers will live under the end of the miter station, and now I have "free" casters to use.

Figured out my plan for my table saw outfeed table and my planer. Basically, the TS will have a 20" table on left, back, and right of the cast iron surface. This leaves me storage space underneath on all sides, most importantly, a (approx) 30" garage on the left side.

In this little "garage" the planer will sit on a hydraulic cart (see link) when the plane is not in use. When needed, back it out of its garage space, crank it up so that the planer outfeed runs directly onto the TS outfeed. The dust collection will have enough flex connected to the planer to allow this backing out motion. Run your pieces through, and re-park the planer.

Picking up the band saw 1st week of november. Then, I have to work on DC setup for awhile, rounding out the tools list, and my first trip ever to the sawmill.

edit: cart link:
http://www.harborfreight.com/1000-lb...rce=googlebase

[Dave Gaul]

Starting to shape up nicely! I'll let you know if I visit Collegeville area...