For the past several months I’ve been working hard to convert a corner of our basement to a shop. Kelly and I painted the floor with two coats of 2-part epoxy paint (color, then clear coat), and then I framed, wired, dry-walled, Kelly painted (thanks sweety!), I trimmed, finished the electrical, and today I finished the suspended ceiling. Complicating each step was a multitude of plumbing and duct-work obstacles that had to be laboriously worked around. I wanted to make sure it was ready for whatever I was likely to throw at it, so I put in 2 20-amp 110v circuits, 2 30-amp 220v circuits, central vac, shop air, ventilation, and ran conduit from my future workbench location and from a wall location to my server room for network cables for my computers (for the CNC router) and phone. All that’s really left now is to build a workbench for my CNC router, computers, and reloading equipment, and then I can start moving in the equipment!

I can’t wait to have this finished up. It’s been a long time in the making, and during that time whenever I wanted to make something on the router, I sat my butt on the concrete floor on the other end of the basement for hours on end. Having a nice workbench and comfy chair is going to rock! Once things get settled, I’ll gradually work on tool and material storage as well until it’s a fully equipped, comfortable work area!

Check out more pics at http://www.chembal.com/v/projects/basement_shop/ ^[1]!

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