Basement Shop Progress Pics 2010.12.12

I figured it had been a while since I posted images of the shop - at this point I guess the shop is really an ongoing effort - I'm not sure if I'll ever get it to the point where I'm totally satisfied. From the last group of images, I've put in the central pipe for the dust collector and started placing my workbenches - but it finally hit me that I've got too many tools, so many of my project tools will need to go - some I'll put on CraigsList while others I'll part out an put on eBay (or list on the Old Woodworking Tools org site as sale items).

This first image shows how I tied in the Grizzly Cyclone into the over-head duct system. I tried to minimize what was overhead and did so by running a main trunk line down the center of the room with "y"s leading to each side (one exception was a duct running along one end with drops to a long bench which I'll show below). There are also two floor standing drill presses shown, both 14" Deltas (the one on the left was probably from a school shop with "DRILL PRESS" stenciled on the side. The one on the right is a very old 1937 Delta model with split-phase motor and round cast iron stand - got that one for $15 (it's in an earlier post). They both run but that older model needs a tug on the belt - need to figure out that motor soon.

 Here's a shot of the duct work - note that to maximize space I've suspended my longer clamps from the ceiling using "J" hooks they sell at Home Depot - it's very effective. I added some additional "y"s for future expansion with covers mounted over them. The cover you see will go above the bench mounted on the wall to the left.

This is the main trunk looking towards the back of my shop - note the old turning tool display mounted on the door - I was given that during one of the GWA shop tours and thought it would be a cool way to display some of my older turning tools (they're old Buck, Walker Turner Driver Line and Delta - non-HSS).

Towards the other side the ducting runs next to my ambient dust collector - I got this brute during an Amazon sale for $130 - it has both a remote control and timer and works very well in clearing all the airborne dust - I can set the timer for 30 minutes and the dust is gone by the next time I come into the shop.

Now on to the "new" workbenches - I originally had planned to build a long bench along the far wall next to the dust collector. Last year I went to an estate sale in the neighborhood (a neighbor was relocating to Florida for a job) and got these two Craftsman all-metal workbench cabinets (no top) for $10 each - I wish I had taken a photo before I cleaned these up - they were basically a rusty heap from being stored in an unconditioned storage building outside. I treated the rust, sanded, then shot these with primer and rustoleum. I didn't spend too much time on them since they were going into the shop - I think they turned out looking nice (there is a little pitting on the lower drawers but you have to get in close to see them. Here's the left 8 drawer cabinet:

And here's the right 10 drawer cabinet:

I put a few chisels into the left to see how they would work out - all of these are users:

You can see some of the over-spray and the drawer glides - like I said previously I didn't spend much time doing these and just wanted the rust gone. I used some 1/4" nuts and bolts to mount the two cabinets together.

Next I had to figure out what to do with the top. I wanted to mount a radial arm saw in the middle but wanted a base for it, as well as some work space before elevating the ends to support stock. I was driving through the neighborhood and spotted some open cardboard boxes with wood sticking out on the curb - it ended up being two boxes of pre-finished maple flooring. The ends were slightly "dirty" and weathered - I believe they were exposed a bit to the elements and probably left-over. In any case, I'm glad the neighbor was throwing them out as I think they'll make a fine workbench. Not bad for free. You can see my Dewalt MBF on the table behind the stack - that's going in the middle of the workbench.

I spent some time getting the cabinets as level as possible - those are cedar shakes custom cut to be hidden yet provide the leveling I needed for the benches. I marked the floor in case I needed to move the unit (which I probably will need to in order to attach the top).

So I next needed to figure out the top. I decided to cut tongues along each cut end so they will fit into a groove in a skirt - the skirt will be made of maple and would attach to a sub-frame made of 1x material - I wanted to get the base as low as possible so it's just slightly larger than the cabinets. There are some holes in the top of the cabinet that are used to attach a top. This is the sub-frame with a piece of maple flooring to illustrate the overall idea. Each board will extend from back to front.

I built the sub-frame using pocket screws - it's amazing how well those guys work - each joint is also glued with Titebond 1:

Since I wanted to be able to take everything apart if needed, I had to devise an assembly/disassembly plan. Bolts would come up through the cabinet and into nuts/washers in the sub-frame. The top will be one unit held together with the skirt, then screws would be used from the skirt to attach to the edges of the sub-frame. To pull this off, the sub-frame needed to have counter-sunk holes. I did these using a forstner bit in a hand-drill. Note, to start I first marked the holes using the actual hole placement from the cabinets then drilled for the bolts with the frame upside-down - that way they would align from the bottom. I next flipped over the sub-frame right-side up and used a spade bit to start the counter-sunk hole (if you've ever tried to hand-hold a forstner you'll know why I did that first) - once the hole was started I switched to the forstner and drilled down to a depth that would allow the bolt to clear and still have room for a washer and nut. Here's what that looked like.

I'll take additional shots when I finish the top - the weather was nice this fall so I got back on my Unisaw restoration, media blasting parts and getting primer, and in some cases some finished coat on them. More pics soon.

-- John

Basement Shop Progress Pics 2008.09.02

Finally got the cyclone mounted up and it runs fine in its new position. This time I used the stand - I looked into wall mounting but didn't feel comfortable with the type anchors I would need in the block wall. An alternative would be to build a torsion box wall for the unit to attach to, but after calculating the amount of room it would also take, it made better sense to just use the Grizzly-made stand.


Note the cut-out in the ceiling to clear the motor housing. It's wrapped in insulation to cut-down on noise and I was careful to isolate the entire unit from touching the walls or ceiling, to help cut-down on vibration. It's still loud, but mostly from the on-rush of air, rather than from the unit itself.


You might wonder how I got this guy assembled - normally you would put together the bulk of the cyclone on the stand on its side, then tilt it up into position (the manual recommends 3 people). I didn't have that luxury both in man-power and in ceiling height. I noodled this one for a while before coming up with a method that worked. I first built the top of the stand and attached the cone and impeller housing before laying on its side. Next I built a wood platform with castors that fit inside the stand. I then tilted up the whole unit until it stood on the wood stand and set the motor and impeller on top, attaching with the supplied bolts. I next rolled into position. Once in position I was able to determine where the cut-out for the motor needed to be and I could finish up the ceiling with the unit rolled out of the way. Once that was done, I rolled back the unit and slowly added blocking to front and back, raising up the whole unit the thickness of a 2x4 at a time. This took some time and I did have one accident where most of the blocking fell and the unit crashed into me - luckily the back edge was still supported and I was able to hold the unit up until I could get blocking back under it (I do have a nice large bruise on my left arm as a temporary record of the event).

Once the unit was up about an inch higher than the bottom stand legs, I nudged the wood support until I could get the right back leg attached, the nudged and rotated the stand until I could get the opposite leg attached, rolling the stand towards me so the back corner leg was exposed. I put a 4x4 block "leg" under the front corner for some extra support and attached the leg in the back corner. Using this same support I rolled out the stand, holding the unit upright to pass the temporary leg. I finally attached the front leg and was able to tighten everything up - I ended up needing to shim the front leg to accomidate differences in floor height to level. There were a few moments in there that caused the ole sphincter to tighten, but it wasn't too bad. I did feel like I had been in a fight the next morning with soreness all over. Nothing like holding up 300 or so pounds of top-heavy metal by yourself while maneuvering around, with a possibility of the whole thing falling on you at any minute to get the stress up.

Finally I attached the filter and placed the dust canister underneath. One thing I didn't think about was the need to remove the cannister - I'm going to have to keep space open next to the unit so it'll roll out. I'm thinking right now of placing a piece of wheeled equipment there so it can easily be moved for dust canister removal.


Here's a close-up of the motor cut-out. Everything is well wrapped in HVAC metallic tape, as are all seams throughout the ceiling - this is to isolate as much dust as possible from the rest of the house.


I also started working on one of the metal/wood workbenches I picked up in that haul that included the Walker Turner sander. This bench was pretty rough - paint flaking off everywhere on the metal stand as it had been painted an institutional green. As the underside showed a gray I decided to go with Rustoleum Dark Machinery Gray, over brown primer. The entire stand was first sandblasted to removed as much of the old paint as possible - it's not perfectly smooth but it'll do as a working table.


The idea was not to get this to furniture quality, but rather to create a reliable work surface without paint flaking off everywhere. To that end I also sanded and filled the maple butcher block top - it had actually been flipped at some point so the worse surface is face-down - it's filled with hundreds of drill holes, cuts and scrapes. It must have been used in a metal shop where people liked to use it to support drilling - it also had numerous burns and spills saturating into the wood. I got off most of the muck (oil and metal shavings) using 80 grit (both sides), filled the worst holes then re-glued/clamped some strands that had delaminated, before I surfaced again with 80, following up with 120 and 220 on the top and edges. I also replaced the missing threaded rods that hold the ends together (3/8" threaded rod donated by fellow GWA member, Tommy Roland - an artisan if there ever was one and nice enough to share his knowledge and experiences). Here's a side view after one coat of BLO.


I plan to put 2 or 3 more coats of BLO on the wood portions before waxing with paste wax. I prefer the natural oil finishes for something like this that will get banged on, rather than film finishes that would crack with constant pounding and use - after all, it's not fine furniture. I've also completed about 1/2 of the space as far as sealing with HVAC tape. Still to go is sealing the rest, re-hanging my lumber on the standards you see in the pics, hanging the ambient dust collector, the ducting and some task lighting. Oh and placing the equipment - there's still that.

-- John

Basement Shop Progress Pics 2008.08.11

Here are some of the latest progress pics - things are going along slowly but surely. The image above shows what I'm doing with the ceiling - to improve sound dampening I put some R30 insulation between the joists and am using some foam-cored 1/2" board. It's sort of a mega-ceiling tile that's screwed in with taped joints (that's metallic HVAC tape). Each piece is hand-fitted to eliminate gaps - the idea is to provide something that's removable but still blocks out dust and as much noise as possible - the foil backing should improve the lighting a bit. I wired everything to a 100 amp sub-panel with 3 dedicated 20 Amp 240 circuits - you can see in the photos the metal conduit drops on the block wall (exterior of the house, underground). I also have my old shelving standards along the block wall which are attached using a hook at the top and then Tapcons into the block. Speaking of the block wall - originally I wasn't going to paint it but with everything else going on I decided to hit it with a couple of coats of DryLox - it should create a more stable environment.


I also brought in more of the wood I had stored out in the carport so it would start acclimating to the change of environment - my basement is at about 50% humidity via dehumidifier - much less than what is normal in the Atlanta climate. You can see the pile peeking from behind the stack of equipment in the next photo.


I guess I should mention the Grizzly Dust Collector - it's a 2HP Model GO440 - don't think I have in previous posts. I purchased this on CL super-cheap from a guy in the Florida pan handle. Seems he was looking at it on the Grizzly site and said something about wanting it - his wife overheard him and bought is as a surprise Christmas present. He hung it on the wall in his garage shop then realized his truck wouldn't fit in the garage - so it had to go. He started the pricing fairly high, then week by week started lowering it - when it got to something I felt was worthwhile I wrote the guy and asked if he ever came up to Atlanta - turned out he had a cousin in Noonan and was willing to bring it up - I met him with my trailer right off an I85 exit. He had only partially disassembled it, which will make it super easy to reassemble. Considering I was looking at units in the $1K+ range for my needs, I'm very happy to have found this.

In photo 2 you can see the space in the far corner - that's where the cyclone is going - I was originally going to put it in the adjoining room but had some worries about the furnace and other pilots there igniting any fine dust - there's also a large beam and ducting which would have been routing the DC ducting troublesome so I opted to take up some of the precious space in the shop area. I originally thought about a wall mount but by the time I figured out a hanging method it made more sense to use the Grizzly stand. It sticks up between the floor joists above so I've wrapped the area in a box-shape so the motor is isolated - there's additional insulation to help with noise. I've actually made a bit more progress than this so I'll have updated photos soon.

-- John