Thinkihg about possibly setting up a REAL shop.

John Pollman

Member
Messages
1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
Howdy folks!

I've been participating here a lot more lately. I've completed a couple pretty nice projects in the past week. I usually do my cutting out in the garage and work out there when the weather is nice, but it's mid December and that's not going to be possible for long. I will probably leave my table saw out there and do most major cutting out there. But by January, it's going to be too cold to do much more than that. I've got a pretty large walkout basement that has a ton of space. I've just got to get rid of some stuff I don't need and it would give me a lot of room to work. As far as tools go, I'm pretty well set. I've got most of what I need but the one thing I don't have is a dust collector. Working in the basement, dust is the major problem. Right now things are pretty tight due to some health issues that I'm dealing with and they're even causing me to possibly have to make a career change. Or at least cut back quite a bit on what I'm used to doing.

These past couple projects have been very enjoyable and it looks like there's a possibility that I may be able to transition into trying to do some woodworking to supplement my income. One of the projects I did was for the owner of a very nice little furniture store just five minutes from my home. He sells some pretty nice high end stuff and we've talked a bit and I think that there's a possibility that I may end up being able to produce some product for his store. I may even get into doing some custom furniture work and stuff like that.

I don't need a top of the line unit, but wouldn't want a piece of junk either. Roughly what would a decent DC system cost? I can add outlets and such myself to set up the shop. At this point I've just got to get the dust under control.

Thanks for any input!

Take care

John
 
harbor freight 2hp unit, vaughn has one and a few others and it works well for them john.. name brands are likely to be made in the same place just different paint color.. you can get alot of opinons on this DC stuff and the main thing is most are chip collectors not dust.. its the dust that gets you in the lungs.. if you get one make sure you get the most you can for the dollar and the bags or filters are the key to making it work to contain the finest particles. 1 micron is better by far than 5micron.. the wynn filters have alot of good reveiws.
 
Thank Larry,
I was looking at that HF unit and that was a possibility. But something just dawned on me. My next door neighbor has a pretty nice shop set up in his basement that he rarely uses. We're very good friends and I do a lot for them. I've even got a key to their house and can access his shop any time I need it, even if he's not home. He's got a pretty nice Jet DC unit that again, rarely gets used. I'd be willing to be that he may even let me use it. If he ever needs it, I could bring it back over and it would be ready to go. I'm going to talk to him later and I think this might work out well.

Right now I'm in the middle of doing a test on what kind of finish I can get with a spray can. It's coming out well so far and hopefully it will work out. My client needs a couple "card boxes" made. You know, the kind of box that's set up at a wedding reception for people to drop cards into. He wants it 14x16x36 with a slot in the top and the back side to be a locking door. I'm going to use 3/4 Birch cabinet grade plywood. He wants it to be a nice gloss white finish. I can't spend the money for a spray gun system right now though so these two will have to be spray cans. If they come out well enough though, he might want me to make more of them for sale in his store. If it came to that, I might invest in a small HVLP spray system and set up a booth that I could spray in.
 
again harbor freight to the rescue, they have a small detai gun that sells for around 35$ and it works well and i am sure you have a pancake compressor which will run this easily.. i would suggest white lacquer if you can find some, and if not then some quick drying gloss enamel.
 
Compressor is no problem. I've got several small ones that I use for my finish nailers and staplers. But I've also got a nice Crafstman upright 1-1/2 hp 20 gallon that would be more than sufficient for a small gun like that. I think the white lacquer would be a good idea.
 
again harbor freight to the rescue, they have a small detai gun that sells for around 35$ and it works well and i am sure you have a pancake compressor which will run this easily.. i would suggest white lacquer if you can find some, and if not then some quick drying gloss enamel.

Another vote for that gun, John. I have that one, and use it a lot for shellac, etc. It does a very nice job - and for very little money! I do have better (read more expensive) guns that don't do a much, if any, better job than the HF one.
 
Great, thanks guys!

I've been in the basement all morning cleaning up the mess from the last two projects and getting rid of stuff. I'm getting excited thinking about the new shop. I've got an awesome space down there. I'm even dreaming up a pretty cheap and easy to build spray booth that I can set up. So far the test on a 4x10" piece of Birch ply is going well. And that's with a spray can. My brother says that a good catalyzed lacquer would be a good option. It would go on well, dry quickly, and be durable.

I'll keep you all posted as the new shop comes together if it goes that far.
 
on your spray booth make sure you get a good venting of the fumes outside john.. lacquer especially will linger for a long time if you dont have it vented out.
 
Yes definitely!
That's the #1 priority. Like I said, it's a walk out basement. I've got a 72x48 window in the corner of the basement that's about 7' from the corner. It's a sliding window and I think what I'll do is make a filler that I could slide the window open maybe a foot and install the filler with the intake and exhaust installed in it. That would keep the fumes out of the house all together.
 
Well.. I have the HF collector and if I was running a full time shop I'd want something with a wee bit more kick.

The impeller is fairly small compared to other 2HP units (I measured mine at 9.75", but reportedly some other ones were 11" so go figure) and it doesn't have all that much oomph. It works well enough for my TS and BS, although I'm only doing one run to the TS currently (it really wants an overhead run as well, but haven't gotten around to that). For the 12" planer/jointer it leaves quite a few chips on the table. This is with an 8' section of 5" flex moved around. I tried 6" flex and while it did seem to move a little more air the velocity was low enough you could see bits of dust collect in the folds.

Its pretty good for what it is, but once you figure all that I have into it I think I'd have been better off with a different unit.
Dust collector: $199
Wynne 35A filter: $160 (I bought the nano, although in practice the $100 80/20 poly/paper would probably have been plenty good enough).
So I'm $360 in to start which is darn close to some of the beefier units new and more than I've seen some go for on craigs list used..

I bought it because I wanted something portable so I could roll it out of the way. In the end I'm not sure that that was the best decision as it mostly sits in the middle of everything and is just more in the way. A "central" unit you could put longer ducting on and tuck into the corner would I think actually take up less usable floor space.
 
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