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Plans & Resources

Workshop Plans

Below you’ll find the exact plans I created during my design process.  I reformatted many of them with a border so they look nicer and are easier for you to use.  Use them as a guide to set your drawing standards, get ideas, and as a reminder of what you want to include in your woodshop designs.  Use the Woodshop Design Outline (see the blue box in the righ-hand sidebar) as a guide to list goals for your workspace.

Since I keep designing new things for my workshop, I’ll be adding to these and sometimes updating them, as you should too.  What else would you like me to create?  Go ahead and leave a comment below!

Workshop Layout

The notes here describe some of my design requirements throughout the shop.

Woodshop Design Guides, Checklists and Supplements

Below you’ll find guides and references I created during my design process.  I reformatted them so they look nicer and are easier for you to use.  I hope they serve both as outlines and checklists for your design as well as inspiration.  All you need is to organize and record your thoughts.  Then you ‘ll have something for yourself to use while building a workshop, and if you want, to send to your architect or builder so you get exactly what you want.

Since I keep designing new things for my garage shop, I’ll be adding to these resources as well.  What else would you like me to create?  Leave a comment below and put me to work!

Workshop Resources, Tools, and Useful Links

Here’s some useful woodworking supplies and resources for you to browse and apply toward your woodshop optimization.  I’ll add to the list as I learn more and get questions, and if you have a suggestion add a comment below!

I recommend bookmarking this page for your future reference.  Enjoy!

Some of the links below are affiliate links that will earn me a commission to help support this site, at no extra cost to you.  Generally, these are things that I use and recommend because they are helpful to my shop.  As part of your design, prioritize what you buy so you spend your money on things that will improve your woodshop project quality, increase your shop comfort, and save you time and physical energy during your shop time.  These resources can help you do that; just do them a bit at a time and in some sort of logical order.  Thanks tons in advance for going through the Art of Woodshop Design!

As part of your woodshop design, indicate the priority for all your purchases. Laser-focus on the ones that will have the highest impact on your day-to-day woodworking before moving on to the next one.

Woodworking Tools:
  • Rockler Woodworking & Hardware Where I get tons of supplies & tools, excellent selection and innovation you just can’t find anywhere else.  I use them for jig parts and most woodshop projects, and their catalog is a wealth of woodworking ideas!  By getting a lot of stuff online, I save tons of time, and therefore money.  If an hour is $50 for you, then you can see how this will add up in your favor.  Scroll all the way down this page and sign up for a FREE catalog filled with ideas.  What the heck it’s free!
  • Lie-Nielsen Toolworks USA Absolutely love their handplanes…gonna buy more of course…Just right-out-of-the-box ready, and the blades are typically cryogenically hardened to Rockwell 60-62, and I notice I have to sharpen these things waaaaay less often than my other chisels and planes.  If you want to shore up your hand tool collection, this is where you should go.
  • Eagle Tools This is where I bought my SawStop and General Drum Sander, great pricing and knowledgeable staff; just love the experience from the time I walk into the door to when I leave (I leave very slowly…)
  • Amazon Tools & Hardware I bought my Delta X5 8″ Jointer from Amazon, and also my Powermatic 701 Benchtop Mortiser. I’ve bought tons of smaller woodworking supplies from them and they always deliver on time, and have pretty damn good prices and oddball items.  Great to look at the reviews and ratings, too.  Buying stuff online is a huge time-saver, and if you do this with your supplies, and time is money for you, then you just saved a bunch of money.  Bam!
  • Forrest Woodworker II Saw Blade I bought this to replace the original blade that came with my SawStop.  Now, I’ve read about these blades and know they often show up at the top of most reviews.  However, when I bought one, I was stunned that I could run a rip cut and glue a tight seamless joint without going to the jointer.  Going to the jointer means knowing that I’m taking off 1/32 or 1/64″ and I have to account for that.  But to be able to use the table saw and cut an exact line and glue it up right away is awesome.  The time saved alone is worth it.  I also don’t have as much resistance at pushing stock through the blade, which feels much safer.  The most cost-effective upgrade to my saw hands-down, even more than the sled.
Innovative Timesavers:
  • Remote Control for Dust Collectors I have this exact remote in my shop.  I put this on a peg at the shop door, and pick up and put it on my belt loop when I enter.  All I have to do is open the blastgate at the tool I’m about to turn on, press the “on” button, and the dust collector is doing its thing.  When I’m done, I simply press the button again and it turns off.  You could, as an alternative, have a microswitch at each blastgate, so that when you open one the collector is activated, but that costs more money to set up.  I prefer this remote control method personally.  If you are lucky enough to have a centralized dust collection system, look at automating it as much as you can.
  • MagSwitch Feather Boards Ok now these are awesome timesavers and they improve accuracy, my two main criteria to buying new stuff.  Of MagSwitch Featherboardcourse you usually want to keep your stock tight to the fence on your table saw.  But, those miter track feather boards are a hassle, and if your board covers the miter track, where do you secure the feather board??  With the Magswitch system, you just turn the knob and activate a powerful magnet to stick to your cast iron table saw surface.  I use a special version for my jointer, too!  One for the table to keep boards tight to the fence, and one I stick to the fence to keep stock tight to the infeed table.  There’s a magnetic square designed for your bandsaw, where you just have your resaw fence piece secured to the table without the whole fence assembly in your way.  These are SUPER quick to use, and because of that I use them on most cuts.  Most woodworking machinery comes with cast iron tables, so you can use these on lots of tools interchangeably.  You can buy the individual on-off magnets to make your own jigs!  I’ve never had one slip or slide; they stick pretty hardcore to your tool tables.
  • Silicone Glue Brushes or try the Glue-Up Kit I used to use regular acid brushes but these are re-usable.  Glue just schleffs right off and it becomes ready to use again!  I no longer find myself tempted to use my fingers to smear glue; this has a bristle side for larger surfaces and a paddle side for more precision but quick glue spreading, like in dovetail or box joints.  For larger surfaces, the glue-up kit has a silicone spreader that reminds me of tile mortar spreader.  It has notches to give you a consistent depth of glue spread so you get even coverage but less blobs.  Makes glue spreading for wide joints super easy.  I don’t even clean it off; I just wait till the glue dries on it and peel it clean in 1.54 seconds.
  • Magnetic Cord Keepers These are awesome because they use rare earth magnets which are super-powerful.  This lets you keep your power cords out of the way by securing them to your metal tool enclosures, and if you want to move it you can because it’s a magnet.  It’s aesthetically pleasing, and pretty cheap too.  You might as well buy a bunch at once because I bet you’ll run out when you walk around your shop looking for places to use them!
Woodworking Books and Magazines:

  • How to Design and Build Your Ideal Woodshop, by Bill Stankus The first actual woodshop design book I read; I still actively use it today for reference.  A very organized book you’ll use for long after you’ve read it.  Keep flipping through it every so often, pick one thing, and implement it.
  • Woodshop Lust:  American Woodshops and the Men Who Love Them, by David Thiel This book is somewhat unique in that it gives you a good peak into many woodshops at once.  It isn’t meant to be a tutorial on how to design your shop, but you can take snippets of excellent ideas out of others’ woodshops without getting arrested for being a stalker.
  • Complete Wiring (Stanley) This is the exact book I used to change the wiring in my garage shop to create multiple circuits, install switches, interior and exterior outlets, GFCI outlets, and add 220V circuits.  Excellent step-by-step directions, well photographed illustrations.   It is recommended that you buy a tester kit as well, so you know you wired your outlets correctly, and you can test to see if wiring you’re about to work on is live or not.  If you’re not sure about what you’re doing, it may be best to hire an electrician.  However, knowing what you want and having a good idea what the electrician will do can help you give him direction as to what you want.  Check the post on wiring your shop too.
  • Woodshop Dust Control by Sandor Nagyszalanczy An excellent book on Dust Collection systems.  My goal is to automate as many of the things I don’t like to do as possible.  Switching hoses from machine to machine is one of them.  I believe you really need a central ducted dust collection system if you have a lot of dust-producing machinery, with ducts that are always connected and ready.  Quick-connects can help if you have to switch ducts from machine to machine, but why not set it and forget it?
  • Fine Woodworking Magazine  An wealth of stuff to save for later; I have these on hand to flip through for inspiration for shop ideas, and for puzzling joinery decisions.  Just looking through your collection of magazines can inspire your next project if you’re not sure what to do.
  • Shop Notes Magazine  If you love to invent and build your own jigs and fixtures this magazine is specifically meant for you.  Not only can you follow their exact plans step by step, but you can also take parts and ideas of what they do and incorporate them into your jigs to pack them with features and “why didn’t I think of that” stuff.
  • Garden Design Magazine  Use your woodworking skills to make yourself stuff, or if you have a business make things for outdoors.  And not just the same stuff we see in every woodworking magazine every month…get creative and “architectural”!  I like this magazine because it’s got tons of inspiration and not just in one or two articles.  Being a design magazine, it gets you both inspired and thinking of design principles that you’ll want to incorporate into your projects.
  • Dwell Magazine  I subscribe to this because it’s really like buying a whole bunch of architectural books for not a lot of money (since it’s a magazine).  I went to the Dwell on Design show in Los Angeles in the summer of 2012, and it was so awesome I got several bags of literature for later use, and I’m actually using it and didn’t just dump it in the corner.  When building/ designing stuff, it’s a MUST that I sit down and flip through the right resource materials to spark ideas.  This is almost always in the stack for that.  This will help you expand your design horizons beyond the “typical” woodworking magazines.
  • Wiring a House by Rex Cauldwell  So that you may do a better job than I, this book was recommended by Michael though a detailed comment/ critique of my installation in my subpanel post.  He pointed out a few things I didn’t think of, as well as reminded me of things I need to complete such as furring out the studs to get the proper amount of wood in front of the holes I drilled for the wires.
  • Illustrated Guide to Understanding the NEC   By Mike Holt.  This is another one recommended in the comments (by Michael), which can help you avoid code violations before your inspection.  Of course, your inspector may also miss some violations, and this will help you comply regardless.

 

Woodshop Accessories and Supplies:
  • Peachtree Woodworking Supply, Inc. A bunch of unique woodworking supplies; I often wind up buying from them at the woodworking shows.  Can’t resist…Dust Collection Anemometer
  • MLCS Router Bits and Woodworking Products Stunning array of router bits, blades, Forstner bits, cutting tools, and other interesting inventions that will have you browsing for quite awhile.  Keep in mind that these catalogs are a great source of design ideas too.
  • Anemometer Used to measure airflow; take a velocity measurement and multiply it by the duct area in sq. ft. to get the CFM.
  • American Fabric Filter Company If you want to upgrade your filter bags the right way, talk to these guys.  I’m currently upgrading my Jet DC-1100 for both better filtration of fine dust and to reduce the filter pressure drop, which in the end will get me more CFM to help pick up finer dust at each too.
  • Sam Maloof Poly/ Oil Finish If you like to keep your finishes simple but still have that high-end, studio art furniture, non-cheesy final look, then this is it!  I admit I bought a can because it said “Sam Maloof” on it, but now I use it regularly.  Rather than mixing my oil blends, I use this because it’s pre-mixed, durable since it contains polyurethane (plus boiled linseed oil and tung oil), but it doesn’t leave a plastic-like film finish feel at all.  Instead, it looks and feels precisely like an oil finish, in a nice subtle satin luster.  It’s what Sam used on his furniture, ’nuff said right there.  I bought a bag of finishing rags for cheap, and use those to wipe on a coat, then a second rag to wipe it off.  Then I let it dry overnight (or work on other stuff), and give it a few more coats like that.  A small amount goes a long way; one can lasts for quite a number of projects.
  • Dust Collection Ductwork If you’re setting up your dust collection system, and all you have is the dust collector and some flex hose, consider setting up a centralized system using sheetmetal ductwork.  It’s pretty easy to do, and you can stop disconnecting and reconnecting your dust collector to different machines.  That’s just a deterrent to using the collector, so you’re suffering needlessly.
Woodshop Comfort:
  • Fujitsu Mini-Split AC Units Heat or cool your workshop without putting a giant AC unit through your wall; I’ve heard good things about these from a maintenance perspective.
  • Mitsubishi Mini-Split AC Units Simply another brand besides Fujitsu so you can compare.
  • Foam Radiant Barrier Insulation This made such an unbelievable difference it opened up the summer season to woodworking for me. You won’t miss the money you spend on radiant barriers if you have hot summers.  Pretty easy to install.
  • Radiant Barrier This product can be installed under your roof rafters or on your walls. Don’t forget to leave at least a 3/4″ airspace on one side of the radiant barrier (in a wall assembly, you can use 3/4″ furring strips and then drywall over that). Don’t lay the radiant barrier horizontal (flat) in your attic or it will accumulate dust and won’t be as effective. Check your local codes and installation instructions regarding how it needs to be installed (for example, does it need to be protected by drywall or be concealed for fire reasons, like foil-faced sheet foam often does).  I have radiant barrier foil sheets installed in both my garage workshop and my house attic.  In both places, the heat reduction is amazing.  I don’t feel that oven-like radiation eminating from my roof sheathing on my face when I enter my shop anymore.  In my house, the roof sheathing would radiate the day’s heat down to my insulation which would make its way through to the ceiling.  I felt it radiating by late afternoon/ evening, making my house hot even though it cooled down outside!  A radiant barrier helps reduce the “heat soaking” that re-radiates back to you once it conducts through the wall or ceiling material.  The silver foil surface not only reflects radiation, but it also doesn’t re-emit it much toward the other building layers in your house.  Anything dark like black buidling paper is not only a great absorber of radiant energy, it’s a great emitter as well.
  • How Radiant Barriers Work (U.S. Dept. of Energy)< An excellent overview of how a radiant barrier can keep the summer heat out of your shop
  • Building Science Website A simple to understand guide to how you can alter your shop’s wall, roof and other envelope systems to maintain comfortable temperatures and avoid common pitfalls such as moisture damage. It’s what I used to decide on my radiant barrier and ventilation strategy for my roof.  Sometimes, you’ll get to see comparisons of different methods, and the pros/ cons of each to make a better decision for your situation.
  • EnergyVanguard Website A wealth of information on your shop or home’s overall performance. I use it as a reference to find out the opinions of experts before I commit to doing something in the real.
  • Acoustiblok A company focused on sound abatement. Their products look interesting; I plan on trying some of them and evaluating their performance and convey that here on the blog.
  • 3M Damping Foil Tapes These are a bit pricey but may be useful to quiet noisy metal panels, or to decouple two adjacent parts to reduce vibration transmission. I haven’t used this yet; but if you have a shop close to people you can’t disturb and want to widen your shop time window, things like this might be worth it.
Easily Create Your Own Website:
  • Bluehost to Create Your Own Website  I use Bluehost for this site, it’s where the contents “live” in cyberspace.  It costs so little to have a URL of your own; imagine…your own “dot com”… secure it for your woodworking business, your furniture gallery, have a platform you can send your potential customers to (like on your business cards), have people find you through Google or links from other woodworking sites, basically a “home” for what you do.  In fact, if you let me know your woodworking site, there’s a good chance I’ll link to it from this site!  I love sharing resources for others.  Click Here to sign up for Bluehost.com.

Leave a comment below if you know of additional resources and links you think would be helpful to our woodworking community.  I’m constantly adding things here as I discover new stuff, improve my designs, and hear new things from our peoples!

Woodworking and Design Glossary

Buy List: In your back pocket, you should always have a folded piece of paper that serves as your running shopping list.  When you’re out, just refer to this list and check off the items as you buy them.  This way, while you’re in the shop, and realize you’re running low on glue, you can add it to your list.

Demising Wall: A wall between two spaces, such as your garage and house.  Check if it’s fire-rated or structural before modifying…

After your woodshop is functional, start a “clean slate” design incorporating your lessons learned and all your ideas you’ve collected so far.

Detail: A typical condition shown on your workshop plans with all design criteria noted; the “nuts and bolts” of a particular installation.  For example, you might show a detail of a typical blastgate assembly with the flex duct and hose clamp on one side and the sheet metal duct attached with self-tapping screws on the other side of the blastgate.  This way you don’t have to draw tiny details on your overall dust collection design.  Or, you may want to draw a detail of how you plan to install a typical lumber rack support to your wall, showing how many bolts or screws, the type and length of fastener, how deep you want the fastener to go into the studs, and the exact shape and dimensions of the bracket.  The idea here is to do your hardcore thinking in a quiet place rather than on the fly in your shop.

Dust Cake: A layer of dust on the inside of a felt filter bag that is used to decrease permeability of the filter media, which further improves particle arrestance.  It’s there on purpose, and singed felt or other surface treatments help to attract and maintain the proper amount of dust cake, and the excess just falls off with light tapping or shaking.  It takes some time for the permanent dust cake to fully accumulate.  That’s why you need to get a filter that while CLEAN gives you acceptable efficiency at 1 micron or less.  Don’t forget to size the filter bag with enough square footage to account for the “dirty filter” or dust cake condition.  This usually means 5 or so CFM per sq. ft., but ask your manufacturer for the target pressure drop (such as 0.5″) and the appropriate corresponding area.

80/20 Rule: This says that a small percentage of efforts yield most of the results, or 20% of your inputs give you 80% of your output.  Examples include 90% of the wealth tends to accumulate in 10% of the people,  5% of your day’s commute resulted in 95% of your delay, 2% of your stock trades give you 98% of your profits for the year, 10% of what you did for the year gave you 90% of your happiness.  15% of your customers provide you with 85% of your profits.  Or, conversely, 15% of your customers cause 85% of your losses.  This seems to be a natural law of the universe; therefore why swim against the current?  Use natural tendencies to your advantage in life.  You can apply the 80/20 rule to the same thing over and over again; say you have 20 suppliers.  If 5 of them are your best ones, and 5 are the worst, you can get rid of the worst 5, and replace them with 5 others just like the top 5.  Then you can repeat that every few months until all of your suppliers are super-awesome.  I suggest you do the same with your customers.

Elevation: A drawing that represents a vertical view; basically a side view.  An Elevation of a house would be what you see from the street, for example.  I drew interior elevations showing how things are arranged on the wall, with dimensions for the dust collector duct heights, outlet locations, and storage bracket arrangements.

Enlarged Plan: A zoomed-in view of an area that is too hard to see in your overall plan.  For example, you may show your overall shop on one sheet, then highlight your finishing room on a separate sheet at a larger scale to show better detail.  This way you can show more and note everything in that area.

Envelope: The outside shell of a building, usually indicating exterior walls, the floor, and the ceiling.  So for your thermal envelope, it’s defined by the insulated assemblies.  For example, if your ceiling is insulated, that’s your envelope boundary, not your roof.  If your sloped roof is the insulated portion, as in a cathedral ceiling, then that’s the thermal envelope boundary.  Generally, you want to seal this shell to limit air movement in the wall/ ceiling cavities to minimize heat transfer through it.

Exploded View: A 3D type of drawing but with the various parts appearing to “explode” from the center, so you can get a better look at each part.  Often your woodworking tool manuals will have an exploded view to show you what the parts look like, and they draw a dashed line back to their location on the tool.  You can have a note next to each part to indicate what it is and what it’s used for in your woodshop projects.

HVAC: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning.  Makes up for what your shop’s envelope can’t protect you from.  Also, part of this is VENTILATION.  It’s important to have a source of fresh air into your shop.  To avoid cutting louvers and holes in your efficient, soundproof envelope, I recommend that you use a MECHANICAL means to bring in fresh air.  A quiet fan with a DC motor will do; if you’re worried about bringing in hot or cold air, you can use an Energy Recovery Ventilator which captures the heated/ cooled air being exhausted from your space and transfers its heat energy to the incoming air or absorbs the heat from the incoming air, all without mixing the two airstreams directly.  Pretty cool, I think–especially if your dust extraction scheme includes discharging to the outside.  That way you get the fresh air exchange but don’t lose all of the heating/ cooling energy you spent money on.  The Panasonic products in general really have low energy use (really low), and are exceptionally quiet.  I have their fan in my bathroom and totally love it.

Intumescent (Caulk, Paint): Intumescent materials will char and expand when exposed to heat and flame.  Some fire-caulks are made with intumescent material so that when applied to gaps and wall penetrations, they expand to maintain a seal for fire and smoke.  For example, if there is a fire at your wall, and there is a pipe penetration, that pipe will likely burn away, leaving a hole for the fire to enter your wall cavity or the next room.  By using an approved fire caulk, that hole will fill with the intumescent material and seal it off.  The trick is to have enough of the material sealed around the penetration, so make sure you follow the manufacturer installation instructions.  They often require that you leave enough “annular space” or gap around the pipe or wire so that enough of the caulking can get in there to expand toward the center of the hole during a fire.

Isometric View: A 3D drawing showing an object at an angle, so you can get an idea of what it looks like from several sides at once, sometimes referred to as the “three-quarter view”.  They sell isometric drawing paper with guidelines to keep your perspective accurate.  Great for drawing a 3D view of your shop to work out your dust collector duct routing, electrical conduit routing (if you have concrete walls), or compressed air pipe network.

Floorsweep: A dust collection accessory that sits on the floor, with a wide but shallow opening allowing you to sweep dust and non-metallic debris towards it, and have it drawn into the dust collector.  Use a wire mesh screen and rare earth magnets at the opening to prevent large debris from being ingested into your dust collector’s fan blades.  Install a blastgate above the floorsweep at the duct connection and leave it closed until you need to use it.

Mindmap: An incredibly useful way of organizing information and drawing it out of your brain onto paper.  Here’s an example of one. You start with a central topic (such as Dust Collection Design), and then you branch out to small subtopic bubbles where you write all the subtopic categories you can think of.  From there, you can branch out from each subtopic and list everything you can think of about that subtopic.  Then you can see every related thought all at once, and now it’s organized by category.  It’s a great way of writing an outline, but it’s more in line with how your brain functions than a linear-style outline format.  I find that the mindmap is much more complete than trying to write a straight outline or list.  I use mindmaps to write pretty much every of the article on this blog.

Plan North, South, etc.: A direction on a plan view; Plan North is always pointing toward the top of the page, so Plan South would be the wall nearest the bottom of the page.  True North would be the compass direction, which may not be “up” on the paper plan.  See the article on how to draw your shop.

Radiant Barrier: Below is a short video that will show you how it works and why there is such a high return on investment (ROI), due to the low cost vs. massive benefit:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDfUW1dGBGE&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

 

Reserve Supply System: Setting aside a stash of consumable woodworking supplies to bridge the gap between replenishment of your regular supply.  For example, I put around 20 #8, 2-1/2″ deck screws in a sealed sandwich bag and label it with a permanent marker.  I don’t touch this reserve unless I run out of the regular supply and I’m in the middle of assembly.  I can borrow from this “savings account” until the next time I’m out on errands.  The benefit of this is that I can batch multiple resupply errands in one trip, and I NEVER run out of supplies while inside the shop.

Scaled Drawing: Drawing your workshop to scale means that what you draw is proportional to real life, only small enough to fit on a piece of paper.  Say your shop is 30 ft. long by 20 ft. wide, and to fit on your notepad you draw it at 15” x 10” on a piece to keep the proportions the same.  Then you can see visually what you can fit in that space without having to add up measurements over and over again.

If you draw your shop (or smaller woodshop projects) and all its contents true to scale, then you can plan most things on paper first without having to drag your tools across the shop.  Of course, try it out in real life after you’ve worked out your basic design, but you can immediately see if you have room for a particular tool if everything is drawn proportional to each other.

Section: A cut-away view drawing that shows the profile of a structure as if it were sliced in half, usually to depict layers inside.

Sill Plate: A piece of lumber at the bottom of a wall frame that sits on the foundation or slab (anchored), usually pressure-treated, with a moisture-barrier underneath.

Space Plan: An overhead view of a floor plan that shows how you’re dividing up a room, and how you’re placing objects in that room.  For example, your woodshop space plan may show the layout of your machines and woodwork stations, and any walls you have shielding the water heater, separating an office or finishing room.  This space plan is extremely critical as to how you’ll feel when you use your shop (cramped vs. airy, etc. just like how your house layout affects your day-to-day life).

Time Lag: This is basically the time it takes for heat to make it through your wall or roof assembly.  Each material you use has a “diffusivity” (how fast heat travels through it, for example heat travels much faster through metal than concrete).  If you can delay the heat transfer through a building assembly, then you won’t feel it during the day.  My strategy in the shop during the summer is to keep the outside heat from making it inside until at least the evening, where I can use fans to bring in nice cool air for free.  During the winter, so little heat is lost through the walls that my heaters have an easy time keeping up because all they have to do is make up for whatever heat is lost through the walls and ceiling, so it’s not running most of the time.

For example, if the outdoor temperature in California is 100°F (35°C) at 1:23 pm in the summer, and it takes seven hours for the heat to travel through your wall, the effect of that temperature won’t be felt inside your shop until that night at around 8pm.  At that time, it’s cool outside so I can bring that air in for free!

Title Block: On the border of your woodshop design drawings, usually on the right-hand side of the page (or sometimes the bottom), it is customary to indicate the sheet title (such as “Dust Collection Plan“), sheet number (such as DC-1), and the revision date.  You can add all kinds of other information you find useful, such as the drawing scale and address, bill of materials, etc.  Keep up with your revision dates so if you print it out, you know if it’s the latest drawing that you’re looking at.  If you’re doing this design thing right, you’ll have lots of revisions.

Top Plate: A piece of 2×4 or 2×6 lumber at the top of a wall frame that is attached to the tops of each stud.  Often you’ll see a double top plate.  By the way, if your electrical wiring or pipes run through this top plate, it’s a good idea to seal it so you don’t get air movement in your stud bay, which can negate the insulation’s R-value.  I use firecaulk because if the inside of the wall catches fire, I don’t want this to go through that gap and spread to the attic.

Leave a comment below regarding terms you would like defined, or if you have something to add to the ones defined above.

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10 Responses to “Plans & Resources”

  1. Justin says:

    I am working on designing my own woodshop in Autocad. Any chance I can get a copy of your blocks of your tools to aid in my design. Thanks

  2. Josh Elleray says:

    Hi Bobby,

    Your machinery equipment drawings are incredible and very detailed, I am an architect student trying to create a workshop and was hoping you could save me time and send me the cad blocks ?

    I understand this post was quite a while back.

    Thanks

    Josh

  3. Vik says:

    Hi Bobby,

    Your CAD blocks are very nice. I am an architecture student designing a wood shop, any chance you could send them to me as well?

    Thanks!

    Vik

  4. Rob says:

    Hi Bobby,
    I am setting up a woodshop at the college I work at. Would you be able to send me your CAD blocks of the machinery you have created.

    Thanks,

    Rob

  5. Josette says:

    I don’t know if it’s just me or if perhaps everyone
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    This might be a problem with my browser because I’ve had this
    happen previously. Kudos

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  7. Scott says:

    Bobby,

    I too have AutoCAD, 2009 version, I have scoured the internet looking to save some time drawing my machines for my shop layout. Would love it if you could send me yours. I’ve been trying to do it all in sketchup because that’s where I can find the machines, but good grief to I get tired of using that, so much faster with AutoCAD.

    Thank you,
    Scott

    • e Bobby says:

      Scott,

      I do have some AutoCad blocks of the various machines in my drawing that I could send you; the whole file is really large, but the blocks you can use. I’ll do some editing and put in as much as I can while keeping the file size email-able.

      I basically measured the dimensions of what I have on a notepad and took that hand sketch and drew the AutoCad version. I’ll try sending the blocks to your Gmail address.

      Bobby

  8. Mike says:

    Where did you, radial get the machine drawings of the table saw, planer,radial arm saw, etc… i’m trying to design my own wood shop and can not find anything like you have… or is that part of your download?

    Thanks,

    -Michael

    • Bobby says:

      Mike,

      You mean the cad drawings? I just drew those in cad using dimensions from my actual machines and saved them as blocks. Now I can rotate or move them as one piece within the drawing. If you’re using AutoCad I can send you the blocks.

      Bobby

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