John.... Nice piece of writing....
I agree with all your comments especially the part about seperate switches
for the lighting.... funny thing thou is that I turn them all on anyway....
so one would have been as good as 6 controlling 3 lights each.... As for
the Ballast comment.... WOW having replaced everyone of my 10 dollar shop
lights at least once and often 2 times.... I know now that they Need to have
a temperature cut off and auto reset deal in the ballast itself.... some of
the new cheapy 4' lights come with this ballast today and everyone I have
installed is still functioning... The one thing I do to prevent having a
problem with them is when I turn them on I make sure Every light in the
series comes on..... if it doesn't I recycle the switch and if that doesn't
work I start changing the bulb's.... I even went to the trouble two years
ago of spacing the lights on 2x2 blocks to suspend them off the ceiling as
the flush mounting didn't allow for air to circulate around them...
Just a couple of lighting thoughts....
Keith Turk ( http://downtown.ala.net/~kturk )
----- Original Message -----
From: "john" <fmauto@mindspring.com>
To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 5:40 PM
Subject: Re: building a shop
>
> First advice, Build it twice as big (or more) as you think you will need.
I
> use an area equivalent to about 3 cars when I restore a car or build a
race
> car for myself or a customer. You must also keep in mind that you will
need
> room ALWAYS open for those unexpected repairs or jobs that pop up without
> warning(wife's car breaks, etc..)so count 2 car spaces for that. If height
> is not a concern you might want to add additional wall height so you can
> have a short overhead loft, either on the sides on in middle depending on
> framing type. If you enclose a space just for insulated work room, you
> could easily have a nice storage area on top of that. As far as the other
> items are concerned, if finances allow, don't scrimp on anything you might
> use in the future, like 3-phase power instead of single. as far as
heating,
> there are questions you must consider that will dictate the best solution.
> If you will be spending long periods of time in the shop when it is cold
> outside, definitely look into putting the heating tubes in the floor.
There
> is nothing like working on a heated floor. You can get it installed for
you
> or easily do it yourself. I also am VERY happy with my waste-oil furnace.
> Very cheap to operate. Not very hard to find plenty of people or small
> repair shops that just love to let you have their waste oil to burn. I
have
> been using mine for many years and contrary to what other people have
said,
> there is virtually no leftover ash to dispose of. After the first minute
or
> so of operation there is no trace of smoke in the exhaust pipe, no odor.
> Just cheap efficient heat. Mine is 300,00 BTU and uses around 1 gallon per
> hour or less. You can never have enough shelving either. I have found it
is
> more efficient to have shelves that are only 12-16 inches deep. Any deeper
> than that and you start to lose things behind other things and the like.
As
> far as lighting, Use a lot, but break them up into groups on separate
> switches per group over each section of shop which you will be spending
> time in. No use in having them all wired together at one switch and waste
> elecricity. Try to get the better quality fixtures with better ballasts.
If
> you pull a car trailer or such, you might consider doors on each end.
Makes
> it easier to do a lot of things when you can pull in and then straight
out.
> You need to decide what height door you need, If you have an enclosed car
> trailer, the standard garage door won't cut it. One consideration of
> building it as big as you can get away with, is that allows you to station
> all your equipment(press, sandblaster, partswasher, lathe, drill press,
> etc...) on the outside edges and have a corresponding workbench(small or
> large) next to each piece of equipment. You can never have enough bench
> space to lay your work on. I have added on twice to my shop that I thought
> was big enough when I first built it.At 09:00 PM 10/16/01 -0400, you
wrote:
> >
> >sometime in the next year or so, i hope to build a shop out back. we
> >bought a house on 6 1/2 acres in part so that the room would be
> >available to finally do this. i figure that now, well before i start
> >on the shop, is a good time to look for advice.
> >
> >i'm figuring on 1200 sq. ft. to 1500 sq. ft. i have a collection of
> >cars, some good cars and some project cars (well, mostly project
> >cars), including an SCCA ITB race car and a very rough 1968 Alfa
> >coupe. the focus will be on storage, auto repair, and restoration
> >projects.
> >
> >this is upstate NY, just outside of albany; winter is a consideration.
> >i'm considering segmenting the space, with an uninsulated area that
> >would be dead storage during the winter, and a smaller insulated work
> >area for year round operations.
> >
> >i know that a lot of you have nice shops; i'm in the position of being
> >able to build a new one from scratch, and am looking to build "the
> >right shop"; any good advice is solicited. power, lighting, flooring,
> >heating, storage, etc., are all considerations.
> >
> >i will summarize any material received off list back to the list.
> >
> >cheers,
///
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