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Well, the shop is now done and is working great. I’m sure I’ll gradually improve things, organize better, and I still need to finish installing some things, but the room itself is now complete and I’m using it regularly. It’s really great having a nice room like this to work out of! Soon, I’ll keep eating away at the rest of the basement so that Kelly can have a nice hobby room too! (She’ll even get windows!)

I’m really pleased with how everything has turned out. I might not be the best drywaller around, but it’s all functional and the drop ceiling turned out great and everything is very practical. I’m particularly pleased with how securely we were able to mount the air filtration system. I also have my awesome maple workbench installed now, which I love. So, I’ve got the big homemade workbench with all my equipment mounted, and then the nice maple workbench all clear and available for project work and assembly. It’s working out great.

Be sure to check out all the pics at http://www.chembal.com/v/projects/basement_shop/!

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/!