A few big weeks

Wow.  I didn't realize it had been more than 2 months since I posted.

So here's the short version.  I got a lot done in November but spent most of December not being able to climb a ladder or stand on the cement to get anything done.  The push to get the electrical installed the first week of December did a job on my knees so I spent December on ice and meds.  It's okay though.  I don't think we were home a single weekend all month.

Well, the lights and and ceiling fans are hung and operating.  The lighting in the shop is fantastic.  No shadows or dead spots.

 

Today I declared the walls ready for primer and paint.  This is a good thing since I am really rather sick of plaster and dust.  The paint colors have been picked.  The upper portion of the walls will be Raffia Cream and the wainscoting will a beadboard plywood painted New Chestnut.  I hope to complete the wall prep and paint the walls on the Martin Luther King long weekend.

 

Many of the tools are in the shop.  They just haven't been unpacked or assembled.

Another major accomplishment happened this weekend with wonderful help from the Krieger clan (Regan, Danae, and Renata) and Barb.  I have years and years of woodworking magazines I have collected.  Thus far, they have been in cardboard boxes that were heavy and not very functional for a library.  I finally found some plastic bins to store everything so we spent New Year's day watching football and sorting and putting all the mags in order.  I think I could actually find something now.

 

So what's a shop blog without a discussion of tools.  Santa's elves were very busy bringing quality toys and I must have been a very good boy.  It started with a Dewalt planer and mobile stand arriving in early December.  January will start with the delivery of a Jet jointer this week.  These two tools will be invaluable as they allow me to buy rough cut wood or helping me process the wood off my own property.  Either way, it will help save money.  The final tool should arrive in the next week or so.  The Jet spindle sander will make quick work of sanding curves and making templates.

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.

Rain . . . Rain . . . Rain

I ran out of drywall the middle of last week.  My closest Lowes is out of the stuff I want so I have to go all the way to Browndeer.  Enter the rain.  We have had rain every day for the last week and there are supposedly two more days to go.

So I've been plastering and hanging the rest of the insulation.  So far so good.  Nothing has fallen off.  I may be able to get the drywall by Thursday.

The attic insulation arrives tomorrow (R39).  I am having it blown in by someone that knows what they are doing.  It's more expensive than I could have done it myself but it will be done right.  I don't know that I could say that if I was installing it.  It probably would have been wrong and I would have a huge hole in the ceiling to fix when I got out of the hospital.

My ceiling is all screwed up

No really.  I just hung the last piece.  On to the walls.

Thanks for the use of the drywall lift Harvey.  What a back saver.

Getting there

The dry wall is going up.  A third of the ceiling is done and the back wall is getting a start.

Pictures coming soon.

The heat is on

The heater installation was finished on Wednesday.  Gerth Heating (Muskego, WI) did a fantastic job for me.

The unit is a Hot Dawg 60,000 BTU gas powered unit with sealed combustion.  That means the air supply for combustion comes from the outside instead of from inside the shop.  It is a major safety feature when it is in a dusty area (and I intend for there to be plenty of dust made in there).

We've had some water in the shop with the last couple of rains.  I can see that water is coming in the garage door and the bottom of the service door.  That's easy to fix.  There is also some water getting onto the floor on the west side (it's opposite the work on the heater so I know it's not related).  The wierd part is that there is no sign of it coming from the roof or rafters.  We were in there today within an hour of the rain stopping and nothing was wet except the floor.  We considered the possibility that it all came under the garage door but the way the floor is sloped it would have to run uphill almost two inches.  I'm waiting for the next rain storm to get in there while it is raining to see where it is coming from.

The insulation continues to go in and drywall continues to go up.  The weather should be nice enough this week that I can get on the roof to install the attic ventilation.  There currently is none at all.  While I'm up there I will be looking for anything that might be letting the water in.

On The Way

The first load of insulation is almost all in and the drywall is starting.

The heater is on order and we are waiting for the exhaust kit then that goes in.

I won't be getting in the shop until next Thursday.  The heat makes it a killer and next week is booked to hilt every day until Wednesday.