Our scrapbook of good ideas
While we have been working on finding a site, we have been gathering ideas for the shop we hope to build.
Green Valley community woodshop
The woodshop in this retirement community in Arizona provided our initial inspiration. Roger Lauen, our president, brought back these pictures.
Major machines are installed at one end of the shop. Workbenches are at the other end.
Members built the workbenches and the storage cabinets below. Members supply their own hand tools and buy their own materials.
Woodshop in Sun City, Arizona
The retirement community of Sun City, Arizona, also has a community woodshop. Tom Wilson, one of our members, brought back these pictures.
Workbenches of different heights allow members to work at the height most suitable for the task at hand. Low workbenches are handy during assembly and glue-up, for example.
Each major tool is connected to the shop's dust-collection system. Lighting consists of fluorescent bulbs and skylights.
Seattle Central Community College
We have made several trips to Seattle Central Community College, which has a 4,000-square-foot shop where first-year students learn the basics of building with wood.
We loved the abundant natural and artificial light and the soaring ceiling. Builders installed batt insulation, sprayed it black, then added 1x4 skip sheathing to create the look of an expensive wood ceiling.
Although the building itself has a concrete floor, the shop sits on an elevated floor made of plywood. It's a lot more comfortable to work on a wood floor, and the gap under the plywood provides space for the ducts that whisk away sawdust. Putting the dust-collection system in the floor helps reduce noise in the shop and eliminates the usual clutter along the ceiling.
The tall ceiling provides enough space for a mezzanine with additional workbench space.
