Hello all, and I am still alive! I have moved to Virginia, and finally am
moving in to a new workshop. The space is 48x51 feet with an additional office that is 12x17 feet. Here is a video showing the space.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=binCbOeg...SIkaIECMiOmarE
Here are a few images:
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9DD30D58-2A4F-48CD-B74D-644F6FC1FFB0.jpg
I’m going to do a video series as we set up shop, and will do some videos on costs, decisions made, renting versus buying, etc. I want to share for anyone that may be setting up a shop and/or a business in order to share ideas. As always- there are many ways to do things, and I don’t share to say my way is best, but rather to just share ideas so you can make your own informed decision.
This is a rented space. I spent a year trying to find a space to buy and also looking for land to build on. The main issue was that I have to be in an “M1” zone, which is manufacturing. That not only limited where I could buy or build, but also it added to the difficulty and cost of buying a shop. M1 zones all had huge buildings way out of my range, and land was expensive for building. My goal is to ultimately buy a space, but this space allowed me future growth at no CURRENT extra cost, i.e. I pay now for only what I need, but there is room for future growth and the landlord is very willing to accommodate me if we need to expand. The space backs up to storage units that he is willing to move and allow us to expand in 12’x17’ increments. That made this a real win.
The landlord is just a wonderful person, and he did all the Sheetrock and wiring, which was a huge savings, and also part of why we went with renting. If I had bought, I would have had a whole lot more up-front cost, and I took that savings and invested into equipment.
Something to note in the shop is that every outlet is at eye level. That makes it easier to unplug machinery for servicing, and to easily see if a machine is plugged in, as well as to easily plug in hand tools.
In the video I talk about the wood flooring that I STOLE for less than $2 a square foot. Solid mahogany and solid white oak. There will be mahogany flooring under the benches and white oak in the office/design room. I would have preferred the other way around, but this was a close out and the deal was I had to buy all he had left and there was more mahogany than oak. Just enough mahogany for the bench area, and just enough oak for the smaller office area.
You might notice the brand new Powermatic helical head planer, and the brand new G700 dust collector! Santa was good to me. I have in storage and not yet moved in a Powermatic 14” table saw, a sliding table shaper, Mini Max lathe with duplicator, five or six more small dust collectors, a moulding machine, and more. The G700 will service the main table saw, planer, and jointer. The other machines will have dedicate dust collectors. Some may share- like the two bandsaws will share one collector, but most will have individual dust collection. This saves a lot of piping, makes everything easy to move around, and dust collection can be right next to the machine for less lost airflow from ductwork.
The space had high intensity LED lighting, but it was so direct that I added 16 4’ LED shop lights that throw out a very nice diffused light. The goal was that when you are bending over your bench, there is no direct shadow below you.
This is going to ultimately be a teaching workshop. More on that later, but you will see multiple workbenches going in, and that is why.
That’s about all for now. I do plan to update as progress is made.
Cheers,
Malcolm
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Originally Posted by Jim Becker
