John’s Basement Woodshop – Shop Tour

September 4, 2008 by thewoodwhisperer
Filed under: Basements 

This week’s shop comes from John. Let’s see what he has to say:

My shop is 46′ long and 17′ wide at the widest part of the shop. When I added the shop to our home I had a sub panel installed for the shop. I have four 220 outlets and a bunch of 110 outlets. The lighting is T-8 fixtures and they really light the space up. My situation is ideal as far as basement shops go, as I have a straight shot from the garage right down to the basement. I have no corners to navigate, which is very helpful when moving sheet goods and finished projects. The pictures of the shop were taken after I put the shop back together after a brief lay off, that is why the shop is so clean. I did something crazy….I sold off my old shop tools to get back into the golf business. (Custom Clubs and Club Repair) Well, the itch for my shop did not go away and the golf market is not doing all that well, so, I sold off the golf shop stuff and put the wood shop back together. One good thing about buying tools after you sell everything off is you only buy the tools you are going to use. I had a lot of tools that I sold off that I rarely, if ever, used. I now have a great little shop with a great inventory of tools, and I love getting to spend time in there.
Here is a list of some of my tools:
Delta Unisaw Grizzly 20″ Planer (Man oh Man was it ever fun getting that down the stairs); Delta 13″ two-speed planer; Jet 14″ Band Saw; Yorkcraft 6″ jointer with a spiral head cutter; Delta Drum Sander; HF 2hp Dust Collector; Old Craftsman RAS; Makita Miter Saw; Leigh Dovetail Jig; Quick lift router lift; Lots of Jet clamps (Thanks for the heads up on those Marc!); and lots of other miscellaneous tools and stuff. As you can see from the pictures I have lots of benches and counter space. The assembly table and the outfeed table were just quick and dirty 2×4 tables, until I can make the Assembly table that I watched Marc make, and I would like to do a little better outfeed table that would incorporate some storage into it. I would also like to build a little cabinet for saw blades, dado sets, wrenches, etc. under the right side of the table saw extension table. Currently, I have my router set up in the extension table of my table saw; I would like to build a free standing router table soon. I purchased my workbench from a friend. I plan to make some changes to it. I plan to add an Emmert Clone as a face vise, and a Veritas Twin Screw as a tail vise. A wood shop produces a never ending list of things to do. All of which are a fun part of the hobby.



Comments

15 Responses to “John’s Basement Woodshop – Shop Tour”
  1. Sharon says:

    Nice Museum…. too clean to be a shop ;)

    just kidding – I like how everything is setup, there is plenty of room to move about, and lots of space around each station to work conveniently for the worker, and for the work pieces!

    Thanks for sharing – this one is a beauty.

  2. Clint says:

    That’s Purdy

  3. Mike In Pittsburgh says:

    Yowza.

    Not seeing any dust collection I can only imagine that was one heck of a cleaning job you did. Any time you wanna come over and clean mine….

  4. ToolAddict says:

    John, fraqing sweet and Uber clean shop! Couple questions though…
    You home’s HVAC is tied into your shop, What do you do to help sterilize and protect your home for the fine particulate and fumes you generate while building or finishing a project?

    What kind of air filtering do you use to help protect your self?

    And Can I borrow you surface planner? That sucker is awesome!

  5. Marv says:

    Wondering why you want to have a seperate router table. I was thinking of doing just the opposite.

  6. Garry wiersum says:

    I’m scheduled for a hernia operation next week and am wondering if we can do it in your shop?

  7. ChrisH says:

    Great shop setup John, very nice. Call me jealous of that much space!

  8. Thanks guys for all the kind comments.

    Trust me, the shop isn’t that clean anymore. I had just moved all the machines back in when those pictures were taken. The Dust collection is hooked up and working good. I have decided to keep the router in the table saw extension table for a while. I close the ducts when I am sanding to keep the dust out of the HVAC. I also close them when I am finishing a project. I intend to install 2 ceiling filters in the near future.

    Thanks again for all the kind comments!

    John

  9. Sharon says:

    John, just one more thing about dust collection – you mentioned that you close the ducts when you sand – but the most harmful particles (2 micron and below) actually linger in the air long after you glow them into it, and every time there is movement in the shop – these gets stirred up into the air – are invisible, and can go in your home ducts easily.

    since you do have your shop HVAC tied with your home – I would find it most important to have your shop filtered as much as possible.

    and to Marv – questioning about a separate router table – having 2 separate tables allows you to work on both simultaneously as opposed to having to change settings to work on the router and switch to the table saw and back… another good thing about having a separate router table is the ability to construct a much more efficient dust collection system for it, not to mention convenient organized storage for all router accessories and bits close at hand. just my 2 cents.

  10. gary says:

    real nice shop why did you go with the delta unisaw ?

  11. Ed says:

    John
    Nice shop. I to have my shop in the basement and it’s 14X48. I noticed that you have no dust collectors. I have two and I have a filtration system hanging from the celing. It works great for the fines. I do like your set up, and I just redid my set up almost the same except I do not have any wood racks. Nice job!!

  12. Ken F says:

    Nice, it looks like you have all the equipment necessary and more,
    I like the work benches some shops of that size use the machines
    As benches and tables and they get damaged.
    What’s good you have room to move around your benches (not cluttered).
    Basement woodshops require good ventilation and dust collection or scuba gear.

    What’s the secret my shop is 5 times the size and 5 times the mess “I don’t understand ”.

  13. Paul Andrus says:

    Hello. I’m a new woodworker and am setting up my shop in my basement. I have lots to learn from your setup. My basement is 25 X 40 feet. Can you recommend any one source for me to use as a guide to set up my basement shop? I have a Dela 1 port DC, but that has been a pain to move the flex hose from TS to Router table.
    Any suggestions as to using PVC? and grounding ?

    I’ll take a closer look at your photos.

    Paul

  14. claude says:

    I’m about to take possession of my shop again (wife and kids) and I’m going to set it up similar to yours. Is your compressor and dust collector in your garage? That’s my plan. I’ll keep my Makita 4020 planer in the garage as well, as space in the basement is at a premium. Rough boards; off the truck, through the planer and down to the basement.

  15. Paul Andrus says:

    Hi John, That’s a very nice layout. I am a new woodworker,
    and putting together a wood shop in my basement also.I’m still trying to figure out what material to use for my ducting for my Oneida 3 HP cyclone dust system.If you are ever looking for info on dust collection,I highly recommend Bill Pentz website.He seems to be the guru of dust control in a comprehensive and scientific regard.
    I was never that concerned about “dust”. It seemed to be just an annoyance,however after reading Bill’s introduction,
    I got serious about it.
    I had no idea that dust was a cancer causing material.
    Sorry for the digression,and best of luck on your shop.

    Paul

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