Fitting out a workshop - quite shocking what you "need"

[AJB Temple]

In the last couple of weeks I have started turning our "lets store it here whilst we move in" room into a proper workshop. Currently I am wiring it up. The room is long and thin, the main room being just over 11 x 3 metres, with another small room about 1.5 m by 3 m on the end. No water or drainage.(yet). There is a door in the centre of the long side and windows along the full length of the wall with the door in. Two fairly large extractor fans are already installed in the roof area above a sliding ceiling, as it used to be a racing pigeon building.

I am just installing sockets and have decided, for the most part, to do these at high level to minimise trailing cables for safety reasons. I have installed half a dozen sealed double strip lights over the working areas and today started putting in sockets. It is amazing how a workshop consumes sockets. A single, 14 doubles (all metal clad), 2 outdoors and a couple of 16 amp units...and I am wondering if I have enough.

It is amazing how many mistakes I make when arranging this place. I have already moved everything around twice.

So gentlemen - help me out here - how many sockets is enough? Silly question I know.

Machinery that I have or is about to arrive: PT, drill press, band saw, disk sander, grinder, polisher, water wheel grinder, chop saw, table saw, vacuum cleaner. dust extractor, alarm system and camera
Machinery I need to buy: chip extractor
Machinery I might buy if I find excellent eBay deals or bargains here: router table/ SM, morticing machine., lathe (I know zippo about turning), small electric fret saw, compressor.

It all mounts up alarmingly doesn't it!!

My wife is taking the view that with this lot I am unlikely to fine time for a mistress ;-)

Adrian

 

[griggs]

What sort of cable management system are you using? In my workshop / store I installed 3" galv trunking at high level and then used plastic conduit for drops and used singles for the cabling which means it is a reasonably easy job to alter it around if I need / choose to.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Compared to the overall cost, sockets, cables, metal boxes and pattresses cost 5/8ths of F.A. Just think of what you need, add a bit and double it. At the end you'll have points you'll never use - for a few tens of £s, great. Far less irritating than not having one where you needed it.
Been there.
Done that.

 

[Jacob]

I found it handy to have a lot of sockets (and the cable) on a 4" board around the room like a dado rail say about 40" high, but with a 4" shelf on top which protects the sockets from damage and is useful for all sorts of bits and bobs - battery chargers, phone, radio, tea cups etc

 

[RogerP]

Years ago when I worked in a school one of the rooms was equipped with continuous trunking around the entire perimeter above the working surfaces. Into this plugged and slid along to any position any number of special 12vdc outlets for various pieces of equipment.

Now 12vdc is one thing and 230vac quite another, it was a great system, pity but I can't see a 230vac being feasible!

 

[Steve Maskery]

What Phil said.

I did have plenty of sockets at my previous place,, so there was always one handy, but even so there were places, esp near my bench, where I was swapping plugs over.

In this one I have doubles every 1.2m, all around the room, and already I'm thinking of adding a spur here and there. The power tower in the middle was an excellent idea but I can see myself adding another socket on that.

It is simply impossible to overdo it.

Ah. Not quite. My mate Stuart, who was an electrical engineer in his day, asked me how many circuits I had. Well all the wall ones are one big circuit. Stuart expressed surprise. OK, I shall have only a couple of things going on at any one time (machine + DX) mainly, but potentially I could have something coming out of every socket. He thought I should have split it into two. But the electrician signed it off, so I'm not worried.

In a shop your size I should think that a hundred or two would suffice. Most of the time.

 

[griggs]

Years ago when I worked in a school one of the rooms was equipped with continuous trunking around the entire perimeter above the working surfaces. Into this plugged and slid along to any position any number of special 12vdc outlets for various pieces of equipment.

Now 12vdc is one thing and 230vac quite another, it was a great system, pity but I can't see a 230vac being feasible!

You can get this for 240V, search for dado trunking :wink:

 

[custard]

Machinery that I have or is about to arrive: PT, drill press, band saw, disk sander, grinder, polisher, water wheel grinder, chop saw, table saw, vacuum cleaner. dust extractor, alarm system and camera
Machinery I need to buy: chip extractor
Machinery I might buy if I find excellent eBay deals or bargains here: router table/ SM, morticing machine., lathe (I know zippo about turning), small electric fret saw, compressor.

There's a temptation to see a workshop as a challenge, you've got to pack equipment into every square inch and you've got to have the kit to make anything and everything!

But actually the most valuable resource in a workshop is free, uncluttered space.

Space to store timber so that you can let it acclimatise, space to neatly store in stick the cutting list for your current project and for the project after that, space to do glue ups and trial assemblies, space to manoeuvre workpieces on and off machines, space to build a permanent sharpening station.

You can never predict where your woodworking is going to go in the future, so if you've got a decent sized workshop it's really smart to leave space free and empty to give yourself room both to operate efficiently and to develop and evolve over time.

Good luck.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Don't forget how many sockets phones, radios, battery chargers, grinders etc. that are plugged in permanently (in an ideal world ) take up. The power requirement is minute, but you still need the outlets. I've just put 10 doubles in my 'shop - half are spoken for already.

 

[Zeddedhed]

Adrian, if it helps... you've seen my workshop and what we have in it. I have 24 double sockets on 4 circuits, some at normal 'floor' level, some at approx 1.2m high and some in dado trunking (in the small room). It's not enough and we're always swapping things out. Take Steve M's advice and put a double every 1.2m or so and put them in Dado trunking if you can. Then do what Jacob suggested and put a narrow 100mm wide shelf above it. Then put loads more in next year....repeat to fade....

Also Custards advice was as usual spot on.Don't underestimate the value and importance of free space.

I've got four jobs on the go at the moment - a freestanding Oak cabinet, a pair of double internal doors, a Walnut and Maple round table and a whole wall veneered MDF media unit and now I can barely move in here. Just about enough room to sharpen a pencil. If only I could plug in my electric pencil sharpener.

 

[AJB Temple]

Yes, it is a challenge. I did pay close attention to your shop Pete and was especially impressed with the table saw and assemble area you have in the middle. That is ideal. I don't have the width for that and what I am aiming for is to be alb ego move my benches and machines around as needed and have sockets nearby. Oddly enough my biggest constraint currently is ceiling height, which I can deal with next summer (when it is warm) by taking at least part of the sliding ceiling out.

I am using 20mm conduit trunking to run a ring of double dockets at about 1.8 metres high. It should be pretty easy to add in extra sockets as needed once I have a basic ring commissioned. I am wring in a 13 amp ring, a set of 16 amp spurs and a lighting ring, plus a supply for a couple of outbuildings and an as yet unused small room at the end of the workshop.

Flexibility is the challenge: I have no idea of workflow here as yet.

Timber storage needs thought. The small room is a starting point and if necessary I will add on an extra shed.

 

[Selwyn]

Retractable cable reel?

 

[Beau]

But actually the most valuable resource in a workshop is free, uncluttered space.

Space to store timber so that you can let it acclimatise, space to neatly store in stick the cutting list for your current project and for the project after that, space to do glue ups and trial assemblies, space to manoeuvre workpieces on and off machines, space to build a permanent sharpening station.

Good luck.

Very wise words

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

Years ago when I worked in a school one of the rooms was equipped with continuous trunking around the entire perimeter above the working surfaces. Into this plugged and slid along to any position any number of special 12vdc outlets for various pieces of equipment.

Now 12vdc is one thing and 230vac quite another, it was a great system, pity but I can't see a 230vac being feasible!

Mainline do a similar system - I've not used it, but I've seen it installed and it's nicely made. Horribly expensive as I recall though:

http://www.mainlinepower.com/countries/uk/

 

[JonnyW]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before as I've not red the whole thread.

I put in way way too much sockets (or so I thought) when I re-wired out my garage - it is now my workshop as a car has never been and will never be, parked in it.

What I did install was a Sealey retractable cable reel that is fixed to one of the roof trusses overhead. It was originally positioned over the space that I parked my motorbike on, so I could connect a trickle charge to it without tripping over the cable (which I did once and broke the trickle charger cable).

I no longer own a motorbike and haven't done for a couple of years, but I can tell you, that ceiling mounted reel is one of the most used sockets in my garage. I use it when I have my tables out that I sand things on, or when I roll out my drill press into the middle of the garage. I use it when I'm routing at the bench as it keeps the cable away from the work piece and out the road. I also use it for machinery I'm using outside the garage door. I have a dedicated double RCD socket beside the garage door for using when I'm standing outside with my mitre saw etc or when I'm using my pressure cleaner. This is over and above my fuse box that has an RCD.

It reel does have a thermal trip, but if your garage is wired into a fuse box that has an RCD, then you'll be ok.

I wouldn't have my garage/workshop without this reel and I'm considering putting in another one - far better than floor sockets or wall sockets if you constantly move machinery around your workshop to accommodate something you're working on.

http://www.tool-net.co.uk/p-371659/sealey-crm251-230v-25mtr-retractable-cable-reel.html

Cheers

Jonny

 

[beech1948]

Often cash can be in short supply when setting up a workshop. One of the things gsm I recall from a workshop visit to a friend some years ago was that he had made his own trunking from Ash an d being a woodwork he was able to see design and make as needed.

Metal trunking seems derived but why not make wooden trunking .