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Shop Build

ProjectTwin

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When we lived in Virginia we knew our next move would be the "retirement" move. Last move we'd make.

After 26 years moving in the military and working out of a 2-car garage I knew I'd want more work area than half of a 2-car and honestly I needed more space for all of the tools.

So...the wife was in Korea for a year and when she hit point that she had four months left I started the online search for places here in Georgia.

We both agreed that we were tired of living in a neighborhood and I needed a place to work. So with those two requirements I started the search.

Found a place that was nice, but had been on the market for over a year. Sent her a Zillow link, asked the wife about it and she said "Well, we should see it in person first." So that weekend the kids and I made a trip to see it.

3 1/2 acres, a pond, two houses, a small "shop", and a separate building (honestly just the box of a box truck) for mowers and such.


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The guest/party house on the left and the "shop" on the right. The shop is 18x30.
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Shop and main house.
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Inside the shop.
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So when the kids and I came to see the place I called her via FaceTime and took her on a tour of the main house. When we were done with the main house I asked her if she wanted to see the other house.

"No, I'm going to get back to sleep" It was after 3 am in Korea.

So the kids and I finished checking the place out and headed back to Virginia. The realtor was pushing to get me to make an offer on the place, but we had a place we owned here in town on the market as well. Wanted to get that one sold before we were serious about a new place.

The problem with the house is that the entire first floor of the main house is all garage space. The 2nd floor is where all of the living space is. Most anyone that came to look at the place wanted to remodel and convert a portion of the garage space to living area.

Not me.

So...when you walk into the front door of the house this is what you see. :laughing: A 3-car bay.

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Standing in the back corner of the 3-car you can see the front door, the door to the 2nd floor, and the rest of the garage space. The area in the distance with the yellow lighting is a 2-car bay.

The area on the left between the exterior wall and that open wall, is where I thought would be a good place to put the wood shop.
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There's a 1/2 bath, a small sink, and some cabinets between the 3-car and 2-car. The 2-car area was originally a carport that got enclosed.

The open wall on the left was a solid wall and this walkway was where the doorway from the carport to the garage was. When the carport was converted to enclosed garage space the wall was opened up, the exterior door removed, and it was, at that point, a garage large enough to hold seven cars.
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Standing in the wood shop area looking out into the 2-car and 3-car bays.



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Standing in the 2-car looking towards the wood shop area.
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So after seeing the place I loved it. It was perfect. Tons of garage space, property, a 2nd house, a pond, and privacy.

Since the house we had owned for 15 years was on the market we kind of wanted to wait before making a move on this place, but someone flew in from Louisiana and made an offer. That kind of sped things along.

Told the wife and she said "Well, if it's meant to be, it'll be."

Told her that realty doesn't work like that. If she likes the place we need to make an offer.

"Well, if you like it, go ahead. I left you power of attorney."

Explained to her I'd have to do all the loan paperwork and so on. "OK"

So I go through the process. All of it. I made sure she was emailed and kept up to date on everything going on.

Finally, there was nothing left to do but for her to come back to Virginia, the movers pack our stuff, and for us to head to Georgia.

All of the paperwork was done. The place is ours. Literally the only thing left was going to closing.

So we end up on a video call. She's in her last few days in Korea.

I asked her if she was excited to get back. "Yeah, I miss you guys"

I asked if she was excited about the new place. "I guess"

I was confused. "I guess? That's it? You're not excited? When was the last time you looked at the pictures?"

Her: "I haven't looked at them."

Me: :confused: You haven't looked at them?

Her: "Yeah, I've been busy."

So I started taking her through the pictures while holding my phone up and showing here the images on the laptop. The first two pictures were the first two in the OP. The gate to the property and then the next image was the guest house.

Her: "Oooh! That's our house? That's nice!"

Me: "No, that's the guest house"

Her: "We have TWO houses?!"

At this point I was in disbelief. I sent her the zillow listing, she saw the purchase price on the loan paperwork, and I'm getting a crazy feeling that she had NEVER looked at the zillow lising.

Me: "Um...I sent you the zillow listing. You looked at THAT, right?"

Her: "No"

Me: :eek:

Her: "We really have two houses?"

I bought this place and she had never seen it other than the walk-though I did with her on a video call.

"You know, when I did the video call with you I SPECIFICALLY asked you if you wanted to see the other house."

"I was tired."

So that was a shock, to say the least.

Her first time seeing the place was when we drove down to Georgia, checked into the hotel, and came to drop off the Chevelle the next day. About three days before closing. She had NO CLUE what we were getting. :eek:


Luckily she likes the place. :laughing:


Prior to use moving down from Virginia I made a couple of trips one weekend and dropped off the '65 Coronet and the '73 Camaro. When I brought the Coronet it was late at night and no one was home so I dropped it in the driveway behind the house.

The '73 I dropped off during the day and put it in what would be the wood shop area.
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Move-in day. That 53-footer was backed into the property. Dude couldn't make the turn through the gate otherwise. The fence was dirty here. I had the kids cleaning it not long after we moved in.

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So that's the story that leads up to the build of the shop. It's been a year long process to get a functioning work area.

I'll have to start posting the build progress later.
 
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Man that is a CLEAN shop. Suppose it's a good thing you've got American muscle and not toys for the mud. I'd have a hard time making a mess in those work areas!
 
We had a new fridge for the kitchen delivered the day we closed. Since the garage had a spot for a fridge we moved the old one into the garage.
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When the movers delivered our stuff the garage was the staging area for all the shit we needed to sort through. I kept the 3-car clean and used the 2-car for all the boxes.

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I picked up a SawStop with 52" fence and overarm dust collection. Since that would be the base that everything else in the shop would be built around, I wanted to get it in place and set up.

I tore out the sheetrock along the open wall so I could start framing. PT lumber, Loctite PL8x and concrete nails went down first. Then I could start framing with regular 2x4s.
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A pic of the wood shop location with the table saw and air filter in place. Here you can see where I took out the sheet rock along the bottom of the beam and studs on the left/right of this open wall.
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The only nail that was in a wall anywhere in the garage was this one. They had driven it into 4" DWV pipe coming from upstairs.

I'm not going to remove it. It'll get framed when I finish out the sheetrock.
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Tore out sheetrock along the interior opening of the long wall. When the 2-car bay was a carport this long was was an exterior wall. When they closed in the carport and made it garage space, this wall was opened up. The small area on the left houses the 4" DWV that comes from the 2nd floor.

Anyway, tearing out existing sheetrock so I can start framing in the new wall.

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The best decision I made was to make additional shop space by putting in a large 45 for a double door. This gave me an additional 6 or 7 feet of shop length. Here I'm using some painter's tape to lay out the rough idea for the walls.

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Started framing the long wall. Decided to put three 2'x4' windows in so the space doesn't feel as small as it is.
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With the long wall close to done I started focusing on the door and how it was going to fit into the mix.

Started laying things out with 2x4s and look at how I was going to do studs at the 45s.

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Framed up the last bit of the long wall and mocked up the 72x80 rough opening for the door.
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The 45 degree wall for the door put it in a location that would cut through the 8ft light above it. That would need to be relocated.
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Coffee break.
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Your place looks awesome, the story about your wife never looking at the pictures cracks me me up. Keep the pictures coming!
 
PT and sill plates down for the end wall. Rough door opening dry fit.
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8-footer relocated. Had to cut slots and drill through the joist to get the power across to the new location.
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Started framing the end wall and 45 degree wall for the door.

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Your place looks awesome, the story about your wife never looking at the pictures cracks me me up. Keep the pictures coming!

That absolutely baffled me. She had NO clue what we were getting. :eek:

How could you NOT look at the pictures throughout the ENTIRE process?
 
Getting drywall up on the exterior of the end wall.

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Decided to run power to a location within this wall before I put drywall up on this side. Nail plates were used on this side...then I removed the drywall on the other side and installed them.
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Filler pieces were made for these 45s. It's one continuous, solid corner.
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Throwing up drywall on the exterior of the shop just so I could get it closed in. Still had more framing to do here and I needed to add nail plates on the shop side of the studs.

Rockwool was used inside the walls.

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Drywall going up on the interior of the shop.
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I decided to make a cutout for this. The only fucking nail that the previous owner drove into the wall was into the 4" DWV pipe coming from the 2nd floor.

I'm sure that Brian probably though life sucked at some point on 3rd shift for Charlotte Pipe Company in Jacksonville, Florida while working extruders 2A and 2B. But at 4:47 on a Saturday morning he churned out this work of art.

I'll frame it.
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Exterior drywall and mud. The wall had to mate up to the existing drywall and it took a lot of mud to blend in on the right side of this image due to a concave area in the existing work.

Lots of correction to make it flat.

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Got things fairly smooth. Smooth enough that it doesn't bother me right now. I stuck an outlet high up on the wall so I could mount a TV and have some sports on for background noise. Thought about putting it in the wood shop but the dust from MDF wouldn't be good for it.
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Actually looks like something. Still have a good bit of correction to do to blend this corner in to the wall so there's not a concave area.

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The start of the dust collection system. Using an old Jet DC-1100VX-CK that I picked up in Hawaii. Would like to upgrade this at some point but for now it'll do.

I started the dust collection build by removing the impeller from the base and attaching it to the wall. This saved me $100 in 6" pipe and fittings.

Can also see a white shelf I hung on the wall to reduce clutter.

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Started running pipe. 6" main with 4" drops. The 90 in this pic was used because the local shop was out of 45s and this 90 would get me up and running. An added bonus is that I had the opportunity to make airflow measurements with the 90 in place and then again after switching to two 45s.

In this pic you can also see the white plumber's strap I used on the 6" wye. This is used to hold the main 6" duct against the wall.
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Added a 4" drop for a floor sweep and starting putt up grid wall so I can hang templates and tools.
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More drops. Also made brackets that are anchored to the wall. These support all of the ducting at the blast gates. You can see one of the pieces of plumber's strap holding the 6" piping to the wall.

The two 4" drops on the right are for the table saw, the 6" drop is for the outfeed table, and the 4" drop on the left is for the mobile cabinet that has a router lift in it.
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Built risers to bring the table height of the table saw to the same 38 1/2" height as the mobile cabinet.

Also hard piped dust collection to the cabinet base and connected flex hose from the overarm to the drop for it.
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A shot before the risers were built that shows the 4" drop for the lathe station.

Panorama distorted things here a bit.
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Started building the outfeed table. The legs are made from 2x4s, the top was framed with 2x8s (used 2x4s for two sections at this point because I was out of 2x8s) so I could run 6" dust collection pipe through it.

The middle was framed with 2x4s
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I framed the bottom with 2x6s so I could pass the 4" piping for the cabinet dust collection through it.

Started mocking up the top of the outfeed table.
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I put a 3" inset on the table with a 3" radius where it meets the mobile cabinet. I also tapered the end and dropped a 5" radius on the outside corner. This taper made the distance between the table saw and wall seem more open than it is. Without the taper I felt cramped walking from the outfeed side to the opposite side of the table saw.
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Better shot of the outfeed table. The 3" inset and radius allows better reach to the back left corner of the table when reduces "dead space".

No point in having a large table if you can't use it all.

You can also see the taper on the end of the table and how it meets the table saw. This taper made the walk to the in-feed side of the saw feel much more open.
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An added benefit of using 2x8s to frame the top of the table is that I could also build some 8" tall Paulk style storage for the thing.
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I also built Paulk style storage for the end of the table.
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I had to leave clearance for the door of the table saw cabinet.
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I spent a good bit of time sitting here planning a laying out everything for the top (and bottom) of the outfeed table. Also plumbed dust collection piping through the table surface.
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Cut a location for a router lift and built a test version of a downdraft sanding table. This test version is 1/2 the length of the size I'd like to have built into the table top.
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I might have missed it, but are you leaving that "nail-in-the-pipe" accessible in case it corrodes and starts leaking?

There's a few easy ways to fix that little fuckup. Most difficult is probably cutting the pipe at the nail and sliding on a fernco rubber coupler to reconnect the pipes.

Much easier fix is to simple cut a chunk out of a coupler (use same material here as your pipes, PVC I think...). Simply glue the chunk of coupler over the hole where the nail was. You might have to clearance your sheetrock to clear the patch.

I must have missed something though, as I doubt you needed to hear my suggestions...:confused:
 
Awesome progress. Really jealous of the garage and shop air conditioning. People don't understand the struggle of having to mark or finish wood you're sweating all over. :laughing:

What air blow gun do you use? Do you like it?
 
I might have missed it, but are you leaving that "nail-in-the-pipe" accessible in case it corrodes and starts leaking?

There's a few easy ways to fix that little fuckup. Most difficult is probably cutting the pipe at the nail and sliding on a fernco rubber coupler to reconnect the pipes.

Much easier fix is to simple cut a chunk out of a coupler (use same material here as your pipes, PVC I think...). Simply glue the chunk of coupler over the hole where the nail was. You might have to clearance your sheetrock to clear the patch.

I must have missed something though, as I doubt you needed to hear my suggestions...:confused:

I'm leaving that nail in the PVC. It'll get framed. If it ever corrodes I'll replace it with another nail. :laughing:

Awesome progress. Really jealous of the garage and shop air conditioning. People don't understand the struggle of having to mark or finish wood you're sweating all over. :laughing:

What air blow gun do you use? Do you like it?

Something from Snap-On. It works. Only reason I'm using it is because the one I had at home failed and I liked the one at the shop.

Part number AT4101. It has held up after years of use.
 
Love this. However, I showed my wife, and she said "That's a cliffhanger--I want to see the rest of the house, and the second house! Where's his wife's work area?" 😁
 
I like it, hope to see more progress soon.
looks awesome.
 
Love this. However, I showed my wife, and she said "That's a cliffhanger--I want to see the rest of the house, and the second house! Where's his wife's work area?" 😁

Glad i am not the only one who was wanting pics of the house and second house :laughing::flipoff2:
 
Love this. However, I showed my wife, and she said "That's a cliffhanger--I want to see the rest of the house, and the second house! Where's his wife's work area?" 😁


Glad i am not the only one who was wanting pics of the house and second house :laughing::flipoff2:


Here's the way the main living area looked when we bought the place. I didn't like the lighting and ugly builder grade ceiling fans. The fans were too high and too small to provide good airflow. The lights on the right sucked because they'd force you to center the dining table under them. With them hanging down the dining area felt smaller and cramped

There's also a thin slot cut into the wall where the previous owner/builder housed a 5-disc Sony HTIB unit. That used some in-wall speakers, the Sony sub, and some Bose style rear surround speakers on the wall in the back of the room. None of our shit would fit there so that had to be changed.

No idea what's up with the metal shit above the fireplace. The opening up there was originally for decorative stuff. Dude got re-married and the new wife HAD to change it. The metal bullshit was her idea. Bugs me because none of the metal is centered or consistent.
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New fans and recessed LED lighting installed. Fans are larger and lower. I also like having the dining table where we want it instead of having the pendant lights that were installed dictating location. You can see here that it's not centered on the lights, but it's where it makes sense to place it instead of making it stick out into the room like the pendant lights would've forced us to do.
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Another view of the room. There are no doors above the fridge because the fridge she chose was larger than the one that was in the house. I had to get the new one to fit with the help of a jig saw. Not an issue because I'll build new kitchen cabinets and island at some point.
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I like it, hope to see more progress soon.
looks awesome.


More shop stuff. Added Paulk style storage to the end of the table.
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After testing the downdraft test box I decided to go ahead and build the 15"x30" downdraft box for the outfeed table. Here it's just dry fit. I wanted to get all of the holes that needed to be cut into the top of the table sorted out with this layer of MDF before laminating it to a 2nd layer.
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Laminating a 2nd piece of 3/4" MDF to the first layer. Using random stuff to clamp the pieces together.
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The two layers laminated together and flush trimmed. The body filler is due to me working with a migraine while cutting the rough opening for the downdraft table with the jig saw and going outside the lines. The plan was to rough cut and then flush trim the opening with the router. I didn't focus, fucked up, and came back with body filler. Didn't have to at this point, but I did anyway.
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More pieces added to the downdraft sanding table and holes on each end cut for dust collection.
All dry fit here.
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A piece of white pegboard as a temporary top for the downdraft table.
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Since I used the router to cut channels for the miter track extensions, I needed to make some filler pieces to go here on the ends. I decided to over-cut the channel and just make a filler. This gave me sharp 90 degree corners where the miter track ends.
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Time to start finishing the table.

I chose black Formica for the top. In the past I've used Formica's Micro-dot (less surface area allows things to slide easier) but this time I went with standard black Formica. Matches the extension on the SawStop.
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Got the Formica laminated to the top and put the router to work with a laminate trim bit.
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To finish the table top I installed 1 1/2" T-molding around the edge.
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Got on the floor and started looking at the physical mock-up of the under table dust collection. I planned everything on the top of the table to make sure the piping would fit between the downdraft table and router cabinet, but getting things in place gave me a better idea of what I'd be dealing with.

Since I have a single 6" pipe running into the table for dust collection I needed a way to control airflow under the table. This stupid fucking table pushed me into the iVac system with automatic blast gates.

That meant I had to buy 3 4" blast gates at $110 each, a tool sensor for the router ($70) that will open the gate when the router comes on, a switch for the dust collector that will kick on when the router comes on ($60), and a remote ($30) that I program to the two downdraft sanding table gates so they open when I'm using the sanding table.

Oh, and I needed ANOTHER remote to use with the rest of the tools in the shop. I spent $500 fucking dollars on dust collection bullshit because of this table. As much as it sucked having to spend that much on dust collection at one time due to the table, I'm really digging the automatic on/off I have at the router. I'm looking forward to getting the table saw, lathe, and the other router station set up on the iVac system. Table saw will cost me $290 to get set up, then another $180 for the 2nd router and ANOTHER $180 for the lathe. That shit will happen Johnny Cash style - One Piece At A Time. :laughing:

The dog joined me on the floor.
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Mock-up of dust collection plumbing on the right side of the downdraft table.
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Switch for the router.
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Router switch installed. This is where the outfeed table hit a stall point while I gathered all the bullshit for the iVac dust collection.
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