A journey into the Unknown

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67
Well the time has come. After almost 26 years in the Navy, I have retired and I am going to take the plunge into woodworking full time. I have a nice shop at home but it is too close to the wife and kids for me to be productive. I have rented space in town and I am going to be setting up shop.

My new space is 3200 sqft. This space was being set up for a Day care but they ran out of money and never opened the doors. I have a lot of work to do and I plan to journal it here. I have already started tearing down walls and I have got the ok from the code folks to start my electrical. I will posts some pics later today of the exterior and interior and some of the obstacle I am facing with layout. I will be looking for advice (Tod, Paul, and others that know me and those to don't) on seting up equipment for efficiency and shop layout.
Wish me luck

Greg H:thumb:
 
cool! ya` know i`ll chip in my .02 regardless:D ....wishing you the best of luck greg! believe me i know what you`re undertaking, but at least no more uniforms....tod
 
That's quite an undertaking Gregory. I look forward to seeing it all happen.

I assume that, with a shop that BIG, you will be going into some sort of commercial production. What do you plan to produce?
 
Here are a couple of pics of the front of the shop and a JPEG of the shop layout. Problems I face are:

1. over the kitchen area to the wall south of it houses a very large AC/Heating Unit. Way too big for a space this size. I can not tear down these walls because they support the unit

2. The 2 bath rooms east of the kithen are plumbed up but no toilets or sinks. I want to eliminate these but I do need a bathroom.

3. The 3rd bathroom and closet area are just taking up space

4 the L shaped wall near the office. I want to take down the wall running North/south.

Basically I am left with a shop that is somewhat divided up in the middle due to the huge AC blower.

Any suggetions

Greg H
 

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Frank,
I am looking at doing cabinetry and furnishings. What that means exactly is still being worked out. I know what I want to do but I am still working my business plan to narrow things down to what will be most financially rewarding while maintaining my passion for the craft. So as I narrow things down I will share with the group.

Greg
 
Cool shop

Hey Greg, I'm drooling over the potential for your shop. First thoughts on how to take advantage of that divided shop is to have one part for the heavy duty milling, shaping, etc. and another part for the quieter side, e.g. hand tool work, maybe a small showroom, office, etc.
 
1. over the kitchen area to the wall south of it houses a very large AC/Heating Unit. Way too big for a space this size. I can not tear down these walls because they support the unit

Do you have to keep all four of the kitchen walls? For instance, if you could tear down the front/back walls, and just leave the side walls you would at least open things up, which is what I hear you saying that you want.

Basically I am left with a shop that is somewhat divided up in the middle due to the huge AC blower.

But it does have a nice swing set outside for when you need a break... :D
(or did that part of the daycare not get built? )
 
greg, you`d be money ahead to install a couple of barjoists to bear the weight of the a/c units. if you installed `em on lally columns it could probably be done well within code for not a lot of money? worth a couple of phone calls to check out.........tod
 
don, barjoists are the steel contraptions made of angleiron and zig-zag barstock you`ll see holding up most commercial flat roofs, lally columns are round pipe with flat pads welded onto the ends to facilitate mounting to concrete footers or barjoists....a 40ft span is actually a fairly short span and given what looks like slab on grade construction i`m bettin` that by placing lally columns against the exterior walls that the weight transfer to the footings would be acceptable? but that`s only a lay-persons perspective and the local building inspector should be consulted:rolleyes: ......tod
 
Greg,

First, welcome to the forum.

Second, welcome to the 'unknown'. I'm in the (hopefully) final stages of the same voyage. The main difference is that I've built my shop from scratch.

Good luck on your adventure, and keep us well informed. :thumb:

- Marty -
 
Greg,

looks like you've got some fun and excitement ahead of you. i agree with tod that if you can get away with some sort of column and joist support that would be the best way to go.

i look forward to watching your journey. thanks for sharin it with us.


good luck
chris
 
How big is the kitchen area?

Maybe leave the existing walls, and turn it into your finish room?
 
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