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Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
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Author:  Bryan Bear [ Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
We had a bit of a (clean water) flood that destroyed out kitchen and one finished room in the basement. The good news is, while she gets some upgrades upstairs, I get to move my workshoppe to the room that got flooded (bigger, better lighting, more circuits. . .) It will be a while before I am done with the living space, but I am already planning the new shop space.
I will be moving into a (roughly) 10 x 19 foot room dry wall walls and ceiling small closet. Keeping in mind that my budget will be tight by the time I get downstairs, what suggestions would you offer to someone starting over? I also have specific questions below:

1) Bench height- I intend to use the old kitchen counter-top to construct a u-shaped workstation/workbench and I have some old cabinets that I will build in for storage. I am leaning toward a 36 inch height, Does this sound right?

2) Floor- In my last workspace (other side of the basement) I started with concrete floor. Pro- easy to sweep and keep clean; con- with even a fine layer of dust, it got very slick. I moved in an old area rug. Pro- not slick; con- hard to sweep and even vacuuming fails to make it look nice once you walk on dust and shavings. What do you all have/recommend?
Author:  woody b [ Thu Sep 22, 2011 5:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
Bench height is kinda a personal thing, but my suggestion is make is 36"ish. That's pretty much standard. Doing different jobs you'll probably want to be closer, or further from your workpiece. Get you a stool that's adjustable. Why stand when you can sit, especially if you can sit and be the right height.

I've worked on concrete floors for almost 30 years. My feet, knees and back hate it. I'd recommend some anti-fatigue mats placed in areas where you stand alot. You can vacume them with your dust collector, or take them outside and shake them off.
Author:  oval soundhole [ Thu Sep 22, 2011 6:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
For the floors, can I recommend race tek (spelling?) floors? My dad and I installed them in our shop and with the diamond pattern they aren't slick and very easy to clean. You can get them in all different colors, but due to my dads limited vision he wanted something that was very bright: thus the yellow but YYMV
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Author:  Jim_H [ Thu Sep 22, 2011 10:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
Harbor Frieght also has a package of four interlocking 25" x 25" anti-fatigue mats for $10 US. It includes the edging as well. It's cheap enough to throw away of it gets torn up. Definitely reduces fatigue and physical stresses from long periods of standing in the shop.

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-an ... 94635.html

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Author:  Eric Reid [ Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
Todd Stock wrote:
You need three different heights: woodworking (correct height is that of hand placed as if on surface of bench)...often fairly low at 32"-35"", assembly (about 6 inches higher), and detail work (I will just clamp the work into a vise to raise it to 46"-54" off floor (I am 6'2"). For me, this results in two bench heights in the shop and either the already mentioned help from a repair vise for stuff like cutting shell, or the sort of clamp-on elevated platform I used to use for carving.


Todd is absolutely right about this. Even if you don't see the need, equip your shop with benches of different heights, and you'll find that you use them all, and prefer each one for different operations. This goes beyond convenience. If I spent a week planing wood, or French polishing on my main set-up bench, I'm not sure my elbow would recover. My back would be miserable if I tried to do all my set-ups on my lowest bench. My vice, and bench grinder are higher yet.
Author:  Bryan Bear [ Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
So I'm closing in on my plan, thanks for all the great advice. I'm also closing in on completing the living space repair and should be able to turn my attention to the workspace soon. I'll be putting the HF "2hp" 110v dust collector in the closet and running ducts through the ceiling. I can' easily put in a wall switch within 8ish steps (at most) from any place that would use dust collection. Is it worth while to get a remote control switch? Can anyone recommend a cheap set-up for remote start? For some reason, I would feel really lazy if I spent more than $50 to save a few steps. . .
Author:  banjopicks [ Fri Oct 21, 2011 3:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
I keep mine plugged into a switchable outlet. The switch is right next to the light switch, always within a few steps.
Author:  Ed Haney [ Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
Bryan Bear wrote:
I'll be putting the HF "2hp" 110v dust collector in the closet and running ducts through the ceiling. I can' easily put in a wall switch within 8ish steps (at most) from any place that would use dust collection.


If you stick with the HF bag filter discharge you will end up with a chip collector/dust blower. Might want to consider retrofiting a Wynn filter and eliminating the filter bag to avoid the dust blower problem.
Author:  Bryan Bear [ Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Shop floor, bench height and other considerations
Good advice, I already have the Wynn filter. It also occurred to me that since I will only be able to have one blast gate open at a time, I can just get a 4 way switch and put a switch at each blast gate.
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