Designing The Nearly-Perfect Shop

[Mr__Bill]

Running water and/or a toilet would definitely be a nice luxury. For years my water solution has been even more rudimentary than Tom's: a quart-sized spray bottle. But there are a couple of problems. We're on a septic system, and I'm not sure I could get a soil line from the shop tied into the existing tank and field lines. The other is feature creep: I keep thinking about the things I'd like to have in this shop, and the thing keeps getting bigger.

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A utility sink would be most useful, however. I could get a cold water line to it easily enough, and could run the waste into a dry well, separate from the house's septic system. That might be worth planning as a future enhancement. In the meantime I could route the drain into a five-gallon bucket.

You could put in a sewage sump and extractor. (there has to be a better name for that) It's a 30 gal or so tank with a grinder pump that will pump the stuff up to the septic tank. Commonly used in basement bathrooms and not all that expensive or hard to install.

Water for cleanup is to me is not a luxury, and after a bad burrito neither is a commode.

Bill, on the Sunny Oregon Coast

[JR]

...putting the DC outside makes a lot of sense.

You could just drive the dust into a pile, David Marks style!

BTW - while searching for this pic I came accross a David Marks shop tour video by woodwhisperer, dated Jan 9, 09. You'll probably get nothing useful to mere mortals by viewing it, but his tool collection is awesome. Plus he uses brand names and model numbers.

I think that page will also show a number of shop tours in the side bar. I haven't looked at them but thought they might prove useful.

JR

[hermit]

I would just like to emphasize how useful a utility sink is. I don't know what I would do without it. My shop is on the second floor of my garage. Like you are planning, I had the structure built, then completed the shop myself, although I did have the water lines for the sink installed later by the same contractor. I too have a septic system, but I just had the sink plumbed into the gutter/french drain system for the garage that is allowed to drain above ground further down my yard. I don't know if its really up to code, but was a simple solution. I originally thought about a small bathroom, but plumbing into the septic was too difficult. Anyway, if its at all doable plan for the sink. Oh yeah, but in a double sink (laundry tubs). Much more useful when cleaning brushes and such.

Todd

[pelligrini]

Anyway, if I don't heat/cool the Machine Room, then putting the DC outside makes a lot of sense. It would need to be protected from the weather; but I'm going buy a larger air compressor someday, and was planning to put it outdoors, so the weather protection problem is the same, just on a slightly larger scale.

You probably did already consider it, but take into account the accessibility of the collector for when it needs to be emptied, and to see if it is getting full.