Advice on building a new shop

[wesleypipes]

8809488095

So Im thinking of building a new shop and was looking for some advice. In my current space the walls are about 7 feet wide I hit them sometimes pulling points. The new building I was thinking of doing 20 feet by 10 feet. Would that be sufficient for 3 benches? I know this is still less than 7 feet a bench. However, I would use the middle as my primary bench so I would not be close to any walls, maybe my friends would suffer a bit.

Maybe The building should be wider than 10 feet but I already poured the piers. I was going to make a smaller shed when I started but now Im thinking it would be cool to make a bigger shop. One way I was thinking of making the space bigger would be to frame a pyramid kind of thing in front of each bench to put the fans in. This would bring them out away from the wall and probably help air flow as well. A two foot wide bench might be enough if the fan is another foot or more out from that. I don't know if the door would be better on the short side of the building. Im not going to get a lathe or a crucible now if ever but I would like to have some room to grow if I need it. What do you guy think would this 200 square foot shop be a good usable space? Any advice or recommendations are welcome this is the time for me to think about things rather than after I build it and have a list of things I wish I had done.

I might pay an electrician to set up the box and brakers as a lot of power would be nice. But electrical advice is welcome.

Ventilation. Obviously I want good ventilation and I would really like it as quiet as possible. I used a 1300 cfm attic fan for a long time it was good but very loud. I now have an 1100 cfm 10 inch Can Max inline with a muffler its still louder than I would like but works. That was about $350 for both. I was thinking about these: http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/exhaust-fans/exhaust-and-supply/tpi-exhaust-fan-10-in-with-shutter-3-speed
they are 59 decibels 1500 cfm and would only be $100 per bench. Maybe I need to buy one to see how loud it really is.

Other considerations, are there things that haven even crossed my mind that should? What else should I be thinking about?

Thanks so much any help is greatly appreciated.

[James M]

There are a lot of threads about shop setups and what it means to have proper ventilation. Here is my thread, which is a very similar setup to what you are after. (http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?62394-Multiple-Ventilation-Setups-w-makeup-air)
This second link is of Klaw's build and If I were going to do this again all the benches would be setup like his. I think this is the best as far as ventilation is concerned. (http://www.talkglass.com/forum/showthread.php?53241-Hood-creating-mini-tornados!-Help-please!/page3)

For me personally, getting my intake right has been the hardest challenge, since we mainly work in the winter time it has been difficult to find and way to keep the rooms somewhat warm and keep us well ventilated.

Good luck, don't skimp on your ventilation!

Dude, spend a a ton of time reading through as many studio build threads as possible before you start cutting 2x4's trust me. I spent weeks doing half assed research and still didn't find Klaws thread until I had already put drywall up.

[CheeseNip]

Just a little bit about the fan. I got this one through GlobalIndustrial, and it has been working great so far. 70 Db is not very loud at all if it is mounted outside of the room like mine is. Mine is piped for about 2 feet through the ceiling from the hood, into a box, and straight out the side of the garage. It puts out enough noise to be noticeable, but not enough to be bothersome. 70Db is pretty comparable to a loud speaker(talking, I mean), so it is quiet enough to not bother my neighbors, but as I said, loud enough to notice.

Rather than basing your fan size and CFM off of noise though, you need to do the math for your space and figure out how many CFM you need to move in order to clear the room an acceptable amount of times. The basic rule is 125CFM per square foot of bench space. You then need to take into account the type of ducting you are using, smooth walled is best, size of the duct work, length of duct work, any turns in duct work, and a few other things. You should definitely check out the ventilation information on Mike Aurelis(sorry if I spelled that wrong, Mike) website. He has a very detailed guide on there, that will cover everything you need to know, and goes into much more depth than I did.

Edit: forgot link
http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/exhaust-fans/exhaust-and-supply/24-exhaust-fan-shutter-mounted

[snoopdog6502]

You will have an abundance of room.

I run a Mirage and a Phantom on my 7 foot bench plus it has a kiln on it.
Im in an 8 x 7 space, I have a 30" x 7 foot bench, 2 K tanks,homefil, 4 oxycons,glass rack, Mirage and Phantom,kiln. 2 chairs and its very cramped.
I cant wait to build a shed or buy a pre made shed.

[wesleypipes]

James M thanks for the reply. I read you shop build thread, and the link to what Klaw recommended. I like the triangle set up, I think a pyramid would be better for airflow but maybe not good as far as work space. Did you feel like you got your intake right? I was just going to use the door for the middle bench and widows behind the other two benches. I know ideally the intake would be lower. However I would rather not block of usable wall space if I can. I tried to think of ways to keep a shop warm but with good ventilation it seems difficult. I think im not even going to try, just use long johns and maybe a mr heater close by.

Thanks for your help

[wesleypipes]

Thanks CheeseNip I think I will go with those fans. Im not got going to do ducting just straight out the wall so they should be fine. I agree that math is good and it would be worth doing some calculations. That said I think that just about every "professional" shop that I have been to had worse ventilation than my 1300 cfm attic fan. Sometimes big expensive systems get too complicated and don't work very well. Im sure Corning did the "math" and put a lot of money into their ventilation but when I was watching bubble trash there you could tell that things were not working exactly as they should.

[wesleypipes]

SnoopDog that sounds exactly like my current shop. I have so much shit in my 7' by 8' space I feel like Im in an epsode of hoarders. Sometimes I feel like I can't move without hitting something. That said it has worked for me for 5 years and I could keep working there. However if I can I would really enjoy having some more space.

[snoopdog6502]

SnoopDog that sounds exactly like my current shop. I have so much shit in my 7' by 8' space I feel like Im in an epsode of hoarders. Sometimes I feel like I can't move without hitting something. That said it has worked for me for 5 years and I could keep working there. However if I can I would really enjoy having some more space.

Im looking at building myself and going big or getting a good size pre made shed rolled in. The things I want is to have the power company hook me up with 150+ amp service and meter and have the Natural gas company pipe me in a service of gas at 5 psi or more. The gas company engineer I talked to was more then fine with that.

I just need to stay healthy and live long enough to get things done. Build my retirement dream shop. Lathe or two, cnc milling machine. Glass furnace and pottery studio.
Hot shit everywhere. :)

[CheeseNip]

Not sure of the codes in your area; they may be the same everywhere for electric, but I am also in the process of upgrading my power from 100amp to 200amp. It can be kind of a pain in the ass to deal with if you are not currently up to code though. The way my house is set up, it is currently not up to code, so I need to fix that before they will switch it to 200amp. The issue is that my weather head is placed in a spot where my main line into the house traverses over about 2 foot of roof. The roof it goes over is an add on to my house, and was up to code at the time it was built, but the code has changed since. Since it was up to code when built, it is ok to leave that way as long as I don't make any upgrades without making the needed changes. Basically, they are fine with it until I have them turn the power off to do the upgrades. They will not turn it back on if it is not brought up to code, yet they will allow it to stay on while still being out of code.. In order to fix this problem, I need to move my weather head to a spot where the main line does not cross the roof at all. I also need to move my breaker box, because it is within 2 feet of a window, which was also added after the initial power install. You then have to make sure to stay up to code with the wire you use to go from the weather head into the breaker box. On top of that, if the weather head is not fed directly into the breaker box, I need to buy a new meter for outside, which has an emergency shut off switch on it. This is incase of fire, so the firefighters can shut your power off when they get here. Without that cut off switch, if you have a fire they will not put any water on it until the power company gets here to shut off the power, which could be hours, and by then, your house, or shop, is burnt to the ground. Just a few things to think about when it comes time to upgrade. I didn't think it was gonna be this big of a hassle to do it, but the power companies are typically really strict about making sure everything is absolutley perfect, and for good reason.