Exciting Weekend

It has been an exciting weekend in the life of my shop.

What I am most excited about is that my band saw arrived yesterday.  I got the Rikon 14" on a great sale at Woodcraft (Woodcraft.com and also a terrific store that I am lucky to have close to the house).  It's a super band saw that is highly rated and has 13" of resaw capacity.  It's sitting in the shop in a box but that still counts.  The stand to make it 'portable' is there too but at over 250 pounds I don't expect to be moving it around much.  It will be a tool that gets a lot of use.

The 20" Dewalt scroll saw also came from Woodcraft a few weeks ago.  The light and stand accessories are waiting to be assembled as well.  The scroll saw is probably my favorite tool to work with.

Also in house (but not in the shop yet) is my dust collector and midi-lathe.  More on them some other time.
The second thing I am excited about is that the last of the drywall is up.  There are a few more screws to put in but the cutting and lifting is DONE.  I have some of the taping and mudding done but much more left to do.  The ceiling field is all but done with a final thin coat of mud left to put on the seams.  It's time to start the corners so I can paint the ceiling before hanging the lights and ceiling fans.

The lights are already purchased and in the shop. There will be seven - 8' T8 high output fluorescent with four 32 watt bulbs in each. Oddly enough, they will be mounted where you see the electrical hanging from the ceiling.

The two ceiling fans will be mounted mid-shop.  They are a simple white 52" fan but should be a great help in heating and cooling the shop.

I've had the heater (Modine Hot Dawg 60,000BTU gas heater) on the last few days to make it comfortable to work.  I am very pleased with the ability to keep the place warm and not run all of the time.  It is also surprisingly quiet.  It's wired temporarily so it's not going to be powered when I'm not in there but it works great when I am.

All in all the shop is ready to be a comfortable place to work in the winter.  In a couple more weeks the electricians will have been back to get everything powered up and the tools in the garage will be making the move to the shop.  It's been a lot of years in the planning and a year in the making but it will be worth it.