Replies

1. 
   SCFrankland | May 03, 2002 07:11am | #1

   I have my shop in my basement also and have several things I would change. Frist I have a oil fired furance and my biggest problem is the dust getting into the burner. I have built a room around the unit and provided a fresh air vent for the burner. As for the water heater I keep it next to the furance and the dust is not a problem with it anyway. I have a apartment in the other half of my basement and a wife and newborn above me. The apt. has 6 layers of drywall on the shared wall (two layers of 3/8" was installed by the old owner and I installed 5/8" for apt. code). There is no insulation in the wall and the sound is not a issue in the apt. The ceiling in my shop is two layers of 3/8" drywall with 6" of loose insulation. You can only hear a low droneing sound but if you have the tv on or if the baby is crying then this too is not a problem. As for the dust I bought the biggest DC I could get my hands on. It cuts down on the amount of dust on the shop floor and in turn cuts down on the dust that gets tracked through the house. In the summer I like to work with the shop door open but in the colder seasons I tend to clean the air with a shop made air scruber. I don't blow the dust outside because I don't want to create a neg pressure in the basement with the furance on.

   Scott C. Frankland

   Newfoundland Wood Worker

2. 
   sschefer | May 03, 2002 06:13pm | #2

   With your HVAC and Water Heater in the shop, dust collection and air filtration is a must. Since you don't have the luxury of a garage door to open for ventilation you should have these regardless. I was cutting a bunch of melamine one cold winter day when all of the sudden the furnace kicked in. It went off with a much louder than normal rumble that shook the house. I shut it off immediately and considered my self very lucky to have not blown the house up.

   Sound proofing can be tricky but from what I understand, you can use a spray on insulation that has both a great R factor and sound absorption properties. For the walls, do yourself a favor and cover them with OSB and not Sheet Rock. This way you have wood to screw to when you want to hang something and you're not always searching for a stud. And screw it on, don't nail it. That way you can take the panels off if you need to run more electrical or want to brace up a rack or whatever. All you need to do to make it look nice is seal it and paint it.

   Do not paint your shop with a gloss paint, not even semi gloss, the reflections and shadows will drive you crazy. Instead use a flat paint and choose light fixtures that direct the light onto your work areas. I have overhead florescents and each bench has a portable florescent desk lamp that I can position exactly where I need it.

   Hope this helps, it should, I learned this from my mistakes.

   Steve - in Northern California

1. 
   fdampier | May 03, 2002 07:49pm | #3

   Take it all,  the whole basement evan if it seems a bit silly and a waste of space.  Someday you'll build an entertainment center and need all of that space for parts panels and what-not.    Locate the washing machine/dryier where thay can act as out feed tables (if you tend to work alone)  but have your wood storage on the other side of the basement, overflowing washers and wood storage are not good.  remember feeding an 8 foot long panel onto a table saw uses up almost 25 feet.  8 foot panel plus 2 feet (or three if you're as fat as I am) for your butt, plus 4 feet for the table saw plus 8 feet out feed and a couple of feet to walk around and get it from the other end. OK in a pinch you could sqeeze a couple of feet outta that. but squeeze is the operative word.

1. 
   sschefer | May 03, 2002 07:53pm | #4

   Don't forget to cover the washer and dryer when your using them as outfeed tables. The sawdust in the laundry thing will really make mama mad.Steve - in Northern California

1. 
   fdampier | May 03, 2002 08:10pm | #5

   Basements are notorously damp.  Make certain you buy a first class dehumidifier, that or your tools disapear in rust, the wood will warp and mold and finishing things will wind up being an exercize in frustration.  If you live in the desert buy a good one! use the heck out of it all summer long!

3. 
   PaulReuter | May 04, 2002 08:43am | #6

   My shop is in the basement but is only a part of it.(Unfortunately, I have to share) Floor space is 12.5x26.5'.  I have a full complement of full sized machines so I have to work on relatively small projects.  But then, I have a winder stair that I can't even get a sheet of drywall down.....

   Ceiling is sheeted with 1" SM board (extruded polystyrene foam) for sound deadening.  I screwed steel stud strapping through the foam to the joistswith the flanges down, spaced so it would support rigid 2'x4' acoustic panel.

   All air ducts & registers to the shop were sealed off.  Supplemental heat is by one 3' baseboard heater.(electrical)  There are no windows in the shop.  An Oneida 1.5 hp is hooked up to all machines with an automatic switch.  I built an air scrubber into the wall at one end of the shop.  It uses an old furnace fan  pulling shop air through a 2'x4' filter panel made up of a 2" backed up by a 3" pleated felt filter, and exhausting into the rest of the basement.  Make-up air comes in from the basement through a grill in the wall at the other end of the shop.  The grill is a bit under sized,  creating a slight negative pressure in the shop which helps keep dust from going out under the door.  If I'm abit slow turning the air scrubber on, it'll clear the air in a minute or two.  The first filter requires an occassional vacuuming & so far there has been no sign of dust on the second filter

   Lighting consists of three rows of double tube flourescents.  Eyes aren't what they used to be.I do no finishing in the shop, I contract it all out.  1-I don't like to finish so I'm not very good at it  2-it would stink up the house and spoil marital harmony  3- in a closed space like mine, it would be darned dangerous

   Basement shops can work without creating cause for divorce.  It just takes a bit of planning.

   Enjoy.....   Paul

1. 
   wooddog1 | May 11, 2002 05:20pm | #7

   Thanks for the information Paul on the basement shop!  Are you satisfied with the Oneida dust collection system?

   Jerry

1. 
   PaulReuter | May 13, 2002 05:31am | #9

   I'm very happy with my Oneida.  Space was a real problem (or I should say 'lack of') so the small footprint was a big plus.  I have a 7' ceiling, so after cutting the flex hose to the collector drum as short as possible, I still had to remove a 3" section from the drum.

   The only glitch ( and I'm not sure if that is the correct word) with my Oneida 1.5 hp is that every time I empty the drum, I have to drop the lower cone so I can remove & clean the cartridge filter.  I've found that it clogs in less then two drums of collecting so I just routinely do it every time I empty the drum.  It isn't a difficult task but it does take 10-15 minutes, not a great price to pay for a clean shop.

   Paul

4. 
   GTF | May 11, 2002 05:57pm | #8

   This is how I solved my basement shop DC. I enclosed my shop area with heavy duty plastic. Ceiling and two hanging plastic walls. They other 2 walls are the cement walls. For dust collection. Why collect it? I removed a basement window glass and replaced it with plastic so I could put into the plastic 3 good muffin fans. I simply vent the dust outside. Crack open another basement window for fresh air and If I make a very dusty mess in minutes it's all vented outside. To move the dust across the floor and to cleanup my tools a air compressor sitting OUTSIDE the shop area does the trick.

   GTF