Lest anyone think I’ve abandoned the tube hobby, here’s some progress on getting the new workshop setup.
Here’s the before state of the workshop room (about 10ft x 15ft):
Some very interesting shades of yellow and beige going on in there. The perimeter had been excavated for a french drain before we purchased the house. Though other rooms in the basement had fresh paint and epoxy on the floor, this corner was pretty rough cosmetically.
First steps were to rip out some of the stuff hanging on the walls and ceiling. Then a deep cleaning, fresh Kilz on all wall surfaces and shelves, and finally a couple coats of floor epoxy to make sweeping up my messes (and finding dropped parts) easier. With the floor mopping and painting, it was stop-and-go work while things dried. I think that part is finally behind me.
Next steps will be to add more/better lighting, rip out the shelving perpendicular to the back wall (above), and frame it. I’ll add plywood over the framing to give me plenty of fixture options for tools and shelves. The workbench will also live along this wall so that I can reclaim some of the space in the sump and radon corner. This also lets me retain the full 10ft width of the shop in the rest of the space. That will be important for the woodworking tools.
The plan now is to have a single stationary electronics/assembly bench and everything else on casters so that I can configure the space for the given task at hand. Major woodworking tools in the room will be:
- Miter saw station on cart with fold out supports
- Drill press on cart with drawers
- Router table, stows under electronics bench
- Table saw, largish hybrid model (but I really wanted a cast iron top)
There’s big potential for saw dust in the small space, so I intend to add a dust collector eventually. This can live on the other side of one of the walls so that I can pipe a hose in when needed and save floor space. For the moment, I’m going to see how well a shop vac does with the relatively small pieces I usually work on.
Hopefully more updates after the coming weekend!
wauwatosa tube factory 
Great progress on your workshop! I like the idea of putting power tools on carts, with built in drawer storage in the cart when possible.
I bought the Delta 36-725 table saw a few years ago. Good performance for the price, cast iron deck. My biggest complaint is the throat plate isn’t Delta’s standard size, so you have to make your own throat plate inserts. That’s pretty easy to do. The dust collection could be better, but all table saws that style suffer the same IME.
Depending on the table saw you end up with, you may be able to build an insert for one of the wings to hold your router lift/insert/table/whatever. Might help you condense tools and overall ‘footprint’.
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Ha, that’s the exact saw I just picked up at the start of the week (a Craigslist score)! I’m very impressed with it so far. I originally planned for something smaller and ended up having to re-think my layout to accommodate the Delta. I’m glad I did though because it will come out better in the end.
I’m thinking about sticking the router table in the wing now, too. I already have the router setup on a cart with a nice DIY fence, but I do like the consolidated approach.
What does your dust strategy look like for the Delta?
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Right now the single 2.5″ port connects to my mobile dust collector cart. Which is a shop-vac, with a dust-deputy mounted above it. This works well, but I want to close in the bottom of the saw, and add another port there. There will still be dust on top of the saw, but that should be pretty minimal for most cuts.
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Thanks for sharing. Long term, I’m thinking I’ll close up the base and add a 4″ port as well. I’ll use a shop vac at first though. Only fear is having electronics projects in the same room as the woodworking might make dust management an issue. We’ll see!
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It could be an issue, but if your diligent, it shouldn’t be an issue. I also use 2 of the Wen brand air scrubbers to pull fine, floaty crap out of the air. I think they’re ~$130 each on Amazon, and worth it IMO. I have a 2 car garage workshop, that’s a few feet larger than standard and they can handle the volume of air very easily. In fact, iirc, 2 units is overkill.
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Awesome progress on your workshop! I’m jealous of your amazing skills.
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