How To Get A Step Nearer To Furniture-Maker's Heaven With A New Workshop

Posted by Easy WoodCraft on

Oct 3, 2016

Moving Experience

Get a divorce, leave your job, even change your bank, but don't move your workshop

Of course I can only offer whis advice after the event, and few people learn from the mistakes of others...

Having decided to move house, and finding another with a potentially much nicer workshop, I set about the project with a star in my eye. I even managed to persuade senior management that the first priority was to establish the new workshop properly before starting on the house improvements and new furniture.

"Saying goodbye to all those off-cuts which had been kept just in case"

Packing up

Packing up was full of emotion saying goodbye to all those off-cuts which had been kept just in case ...the awful piles of ageing dust, dirt and encrusted cobwebs... the happy reunions with long-lost small tools.

Cradles had to be constructed to enable cast-iron machines to be manouvered up the stairs to my new first floor workshop - in all several weeks of hard labour, with time to focus on the improvements to be incorporated at the new location.

Out with the old-after ten years, Kevin Ley is leaving all this

I had been in the old workshop - a modern double garage, warm and dry but lacking adequate natural light - for ten years. Of course it wasn't big enough, but no workshop ever is.

I started my business there and the layout 'growed like Topsy' with me, and was due for a face lift.I wanted a nicer, safer, healthier, more efficient working environment, with more light, heat, ventilation, storage and working area and less dust, moisture and clutter, with pleasing decoration and proper fire, security, health and medical precautions.

Not much to ask.

Lighting

The new workshop is the upper floor of a modern, two storey 20ft by 20ft double garage. It is of block construction with a sound floor supported by an RSJ, and a good sized window at each end. Power and water were connected. The ceiling annoyingly slopes into the room, but a small loft is usable.

Splendid new workshop, outside...

The windows provide good natural light and ventilation but goood artificial light is also a must, so I installed a mix of general fluorescent tube lighting - with daylight tubes - and dedicated spot lights for specific areas.

I prefer a number of adjustable spot lights, fixed in the correct place, to portable lights moved around as required. They are safer and leave the bench and power points clear. Of course portable spots are still required occasionally.

Insulation

The solid walls needed insulation and vapour barrier. British Gypsum's technical department told me about a plasterboard which has insulation bonded to its back and an integral vapour barrier, which can be glued directly on to the existing wall with a special adhesive.

I discussed costs and insulation value with my builder's merchant.

Clear installation and finishing instructions are available and it was very simple to fit and finish the board to a high standard, providing heat, sound and moisture insulation plus a smooth finish all in one go - well worth it.

The ceilling was also insulated with rolls of 100mm fibreglass.
These forms of insulation are particularly good in intermittently-heated buildings, and for controlling condensation, because they are on the inside of the wall, closest to the heat source.

Draught-proofing was also installed.

"Triggering either alarm sets off both to give warning of impending doom at that location"

... and in. How long will it look like this!

Dehumifier, heat

I installed an Ebac domestic model dehumidifier to keep conditions suitablefor working in solid wood. I don't use it churing the day when I am in and out and the air is changing, but I do find that it makes a useful difference if left on while the Workshop is closed down overnight and at - some - weekends.

For heat I like to burn workshop waste; this is cheap and environmentally friendly provided a clean-burn system is used, but it must be done safely in properly designed, efficient stove.
The Relax stove is designed for the job, with all accessories available, and produces a phenomenal heat output.

The suppliers at The Hot Spot gave me a great deal of useful advice concerning size of stove required and flue arrangements, siting and precautions.

Good housekeepin, care and common-sense should be applied to the siting and use of such a stove, and of course, fire precautions, extinguishers and alarms are essential.

The house and workshop alarm system includes a workshop heat detector and a DIY-type of ionising smoke alarm; this tends to be less affected by dust than the optical type. One alarm head is linked in the workshop and another in the house.

Trigerring either sets off both to give warning of impending doom at that location. They are available at electrical suppliers, for about £10 per alarm head.

SAFETY AND SECURITY

I tried to imagine all the things which could happen - fire, electric shock, minor and major injury, break-in and so on, deciding what I would need to do, and what I would need to do it with in order to deal with the situation. Then I thought of what I could have done to prevent it happening in the first place!

Some areas I covered were :

Fire - precautions, extinguishers, alarms
Electrical - cut-off switches, notices, correct fusing, first aid and immediate action training for shock
Medical - first aid training, medical kit, immediate action required in case of serious injury
Security - locks and alarms
Dust - dust explosions in workshops are not unknown.

My wife was - willingly - included in all the training and planning, as she is most likely to be first on the scene if I am incapacitated.
I took advice from relevant experts, added a bit of common sense, made my plans and installed the necessary equipment.

Wood store

Assembly area, incorporating the all-important HiFi

I converted the small loft over the workshop into a wood store by sealing the overlaps of the inside roofing felt with strong tape, available from builder's merchants, to vapour-seal and draught-proof it.

The floor was boarded over and racks made to store the wood. Sealing the wood store in this way means the dehumifier can be used to keep the wood conditioned ready for use.

Again, I installed a small Ebac dehumifier which is run for intermittent periods when the wood store is closed up for some time.

Dust and air

WV 2000 dust extractor with under-floor trunking. Planning at the moving-in stage allows for efficient installation

I was determined to do all I could to reduce workshop dust. The technical department at Axminster Power Tools designed a dust extraction system to meet my requirements, based around their WV 2000 vacuum dust extractor which I was able to mount downstairs in the garage.

This type of dust extractor filters the fine dust out as well as collecting the chips and shavings.

I was connected to the static machines upstairs by an under-floor ducting system, mainly comprising standard 4in rigid plastic soil pipe. The system can be reduced down to small diameter hose for use on sanders, routers and the like.

By using the extractor points and blast gales for the fixed machines, along with a small portable hose and nozzle, I can even vacuum the floor with it.

All the various connection and fittings required to tailor - make a system are available from APTC, whose technical department are extremely helpful with design and advice.

Microclene air filter mops up ambient dust

The system works very well, providing a noticeable difference in environment.

The noice level from the WV 2000 extractor is quite high, so siting it out of the workshop is a great advantage. The downside is that in winter it will suck out my precious warmth, so I may duct the filtered warm air back into the workshop in due course.

I installed a Microclene air filter to complement the extractor by filtering, cleaning and recirculating the ambient air. Because of its noise, it is used spesifically to clean the air of dust not extracted by the main system - by hand-sanding and routing for instance.

It accomplishes this effectively in about 20 minutes - if only someone would combine this air filter with a dehumidifier at a sensible price...

"If only someone would combine this air filter with dehumidifier at a sensible price..."

Local advertising

Now that I am in my new area I have to set up the local business again. That involves letting people know I am here and what I do - after I have fitted the new security locks!

I will employ my tried and tested methods of local press, local shop windows, exhibitions and glossy national mags.

One idea came through my letter box as I was writing this article - a Pits business card with a photo of my work on one side and message and address on the other. They are produced at less than half the price I paid for my las set of ordinary printed business cards, and they are currently offering a further discount.

I was very impressed with their excellent offers and they seem bery accessible to the idea of offering discounts, so it is always worth asking their advice on the matter.

I put a lot of work into this new workshop, trying to learn from my experience in the last one. It won't be perfect I'm sure, but it will be better, and I'm happy that it is a lot healthier.

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