Machine Room Coming Together

Midstream of Machine Room Build-out

Machine room with ductwork plan

After some careful planning on paper, see “Planning the New Studio“, we massed all our machinery at the shop.

We were able to move James’ equipment out of his old shop and up to Lawrence in two trips in a 22 foot Penske truck. It went pretty seamlessly since everything was on wheels or on pallets, and I had recently found a pallet jack on Craigslist.

Don was bringing over his 8-inch jointer from his basement shop and we were able to muscle it out of his basement with four guys and some elbow grease.

I was not as lucky. Most of my machinery is 40 plus years old, cast iron and enormous. Adding that to the fact that my old shop did not have a loading dock, I needed to hire a rigger. As luck would have it, a machine I recently purchased from IRS Auctions was located at a rigger’s shop, so he agreed to bring it over and pick up all the other machines for a reasonable rate.

Enter Mike Kane of Woodworking Machinery Services and his amazing transforming truck. It basically is a 18 wheeler trailer that operates like a flat bed truck. He was easily able to unload his fork lift and move about 10,000 Lbs of machinery in a about a half an hour.

After all the machinery was at the shop, we started to move the machinery into position, bring electricity to them and hook up the dust collection system. Early on we decided to try to use the two dust collectors, a small Penn State and an Onieda, that we had rather than purchase a new/used one.

Onieda Installed With Duct Work

We built a small Stub wall to hold the Penn State dust collector, which will service the Wadkins 24-inch planer and the south wall, which has two lathes, three shapers and drops for a mobile sanding station.

Here is the run from the Onieda along the north wall that services the two jointers, the radial arm saw, and the three band-saws.

Duct Work on the North Wall

The Onieda also services the table saw island and the area that we are calling a tool corral, that houses router tables, William and Hussey molder planer, Dewalt Planer, scroll saw, and our 37-inch Performax drum sander.

Table Saw Island Coming Together

We had to raise the SawStop about 2 inches off the ground so that it would be level with the Oliver 260-D, a dual arbor sliding table saw. Here is the table saw island coming together.

Table Saw Island Nearing Completion

I have some trepidation about these dust collectors keeping up with all the machinery, but we thought we would give it a try first and then upgrade as necessary. Also we plan on eliminating the filter assembly and venting the fine particle out the shop window to improve their efficiency, being 6 floors up has some benefits. Adding blast gates to isolate entire runs, as well as at each machine, would also improve efficiency.

Time will tell if these two smaller dust collectors will be able to keep up with three people in a busy shop.

-CB-

Despite having a enormous amount of room for storage (the other half of our side of the floor is empty) we are going to start the build out before moving in most of the machinery. Early on we decided that we would divide the space into two rooms, really three if you count the finish room. I liked the set up at North Bennet Street School where there was a bench room for close hand work and a separate machine room for all the noisy/dusty work. Besides being a fairly logical way to divide the shop, I think it will be a healthier way to work. (Who wants to wear a respirator and hearing protectors all day.)

My youngest daughter Grace showing off the latest Spring fashion

Before any actual building gets started, I took the time to create a floor plan on Photo Shop to figure out machine configuration. I find Photo Shop easy to use for this type of activity because I could create layers for each machine and move them around on the screen and look at things like in-feed, out-feed, and work flow. Here are the plans for the machine room and bench room.

Machine room with ductwork plan

Bench and finishing rooms

So first thing up is a wall dividing the space in half with two doorways: one that is a full 8 ft across for moving sheet goods and another that is only 4 ft across that will be closer to the lumber racks. While we are working on that, our electrician set to work with our layout and machine list to wire our shop. More about the construction in another blog.

-CB-

Well, CB Kearney is quickly outgrowing our current location, and it is time to expand. Besides, working by myself all day can get kind of lonely, and there is no one to bounce ideas off.  Two of my friends and fellow woodworkers, Don Price and James Watriss, from North Bennet Street School have come to similiar conclusions and are willing to look for space to share. We can consolidate our machinery and tools, reduce our overhead, and help each other out throughout the furniture making process.

Exterior of 250 Canal St (Washington Mills)

It took a while , but we were finally able to locate some decent studio space that meet our requirements; 200 amp/3-phase electric service, loading docks, freight elevators, adequate light, and relatively unobstructed space. We found all this at the old Washington Mills building at 250 Canal St in Lawrence, MA.

We were looking for a few months and every place we visited was lacking one thing or another; from cinder block walled contractor bays with no windows to flood prone basements. We saw it all and are happy that we waited. When we walked through the doors of the studio we knew that we were home.

The studio is just over 3500 sq ft and has 14 ft ceilings.

South West End of Shop

Only thee columns interupt the space, so there is plenty of infeed and out feed room. There is a small office at one end of the shop that we will convert into a finishing room for hand finishing. We’ll leave the spray finishing to the guys with a spray booth. One wall is all windows and the natural light is amazing. The only draw back that I can forsee is that the windows are south-facing, and it is going to be hot in the summer. We plan on air conditioning the finishing/office room, so hopefully we will be able to find some respite there. Besides I could probably stand to lose some water weight.

Let the build-out begin!

-CB-