Thread: Tassie Shed journey

Second instalment….
The shed build was relatively straight forward. The frames are hardwood, the beams and joists are LVL and the floor is 25mm F14 ply. The cladding is colour bond “Woodland Grey” which blends into the surrounds quite well.
While waiting for the approval process to happen I started to think about what machinery to buy. For years I only had a DeWalt 12” radial arm saw and an Inca 10” benchtop planer/thicknesser and virtually no dust control. I sold both and bought a Makita 12” SCMS and a Hammer N4400 bandsaw.
The SCMS is a great tool and even better when I replaced the blade with a Forrest crosscut blade. I had bought the N4400 a couple of years before the shed build but due to circumstances had not been able to use it much. I discovered the lower wheel was not in alignment with the frame and an article on this forum was most helpful in rectifying the problem. I had a lot of trouble with drift which was finally resolved with Felders expensive ceramic guides upgrade.
After visiting the Timber and Woodworking Show in Melbourne I decided Laguna was the best choice for me. While not the cheapest I decided to buy right and buy once.
I settled on the 8” long bed jointer, the 20” thicknesser and the Platinum Dovetail table saw. The joiner and thicknesser had wheels but the table saw didn’t and manoeuvring it into position was not easy.
I decided a cyclone dust extractor was the only way to go after studying Bill Penz and BobL’s articles on dust extraction I bought the Clearvue CV1800.
I will describe the shed fitout and dust extraction in the next instalment.
Cheers, OldGrowth.

Nice.

9x15 now that's a shed!
Regards
John

You are suffering from the terminal disease that all woodies have, 'this shed is big enough", nah, doesn't matter how big you make it, you always fill it and wish it was bigger.
Seriously, looks like you have the makings of a fantastic set up

Yes, I am beginning to understand the "This shed should be big enough syndrome". I underestimated how much timber I had accumulated, how much my father had accumulated and how often my wife would suggest that "this stuff could go in the shed".
The other trap is hanging on to off cuts that might be handy for something, trouble is only about 10% are actually used.
I am fortunate to have a fair bit of room under the shed to be able to store "stuff"
Attached are a few photos of the timber racking (which seemed to fill up at an alarming rate). I used 75x75x4 SHS for the frame and 40mm pipe for the supports. I drilled through the SHS and welded the pipe both sides. Thankfully nothing has bent under the load.
Cheers, OldGrowth.

x10

First I get shed envy then it's timber stash envy.
Regards
John

You have a nice shed there I'm sure it's going to keep you happy for a very long time with the timber stash there..There might come a time when you will wonder if you have enough room,I have 20x10 metre workshop so with timber stacked & storage cabinets inside a lot of space is reduced.

My great many gods - I need to go live in Tassie.

A dream! That shed is 4 times the size of my house!

Third instalment and thanks for the comments so far.
While contemplating what to do about power for the shed I briefly investigated the possibility of 3 Phase until I discovered the cost. The house has 2 Phases connected, one for heating and hot water and the other for everything else. The previous owner had installed a 6Kw solar system which is connected to the second phase. The sparky said the best option was to run a feed to a sub board in the shed and the solar panels would help supply the power used.
It is a 50m run from the house so we opted for 16mm2 mainly to reduce the voltage drop when the current draw is high.
As mentioned previously I had chosen the Clearvue CV1800. With a 3m clearance under the shed this was an ideal location. It meant that all the 150mm ducting could be run under the floor and although there are a few tight turns, I figured that gravity must help to outweigh any disadvantage. All the machine 15A outlets are floor mounted which means that manoeuvring long boards around machines is much easier.
Assembly of the cyclone was fairly straight forward but the motor and impeller assembly were too heavy to carry 3m up a ladder. So, I cut a slot in the floor and attached the endless chain to the ceiling joists and hoisted it into position. Turning the VFD on for the first time was a bit nerve wracking as there is a long 4 second delay before anything happens. But when it did it all worked fine. My wife said it was too noisy, so, after a bit of searching I found the design for the “Big Boy Muffler”. This fixed the problem and it is now possible to have a conversation next to the cyclone when it is running.
I increased the dust ports on all the machines to 150mm diameter or the equivalent cross sectional area. It needed to be a rectangle on the N4400 bandsaw.
I am really pleased with the result of the dust extraction system. There is no dust at all in the bandsaw case. I made a hood for the dropsaw and all the fine dust is captured. The jointer, planer and router table are fine. The tablesaw is probably the worst but not bad enough to warrant more work.
I started out with a 200L recycle bin from the big green shed but I had a lot of trouble getting it to seal properly. The air pressure was high enough to distort the shape of the bin and nothing I tried fixed the problem. Eventually I found a light steel 200L bin with a ring clamp lid that had contained fruit juice powder. It was airtight and fixed the problem.
I am most grateful for the extensive articles that people like BobL and Chris Parks have written on this forum regarding dust extraction best practice. It works well J.
I have attached a few photos showing the setup.
Cheers, OldGrowth.

What a great thing to do.
Luxury being able to run the dust extraction through the floor - I bet you thought a lot about where to locate the machines.
What are you going to make in that fabulous shed?

Yes, space underneath is certainly a luxury. I did think for quite a while about machine placement. Some of the celery top is 4m long so one criteria was to place the machines to allow for that length. I got most of them pretty right except the table saw. I would have been better off with sticking with the standard 30" rails instead of the 50". It is ok and the weight of the saw discourages me from doing anything about it.

I have attached some photos of a few projects so far,

Barn door made from barn grade celery top with live edges
Wooden puzzles - blackwood, Huon pine, celery top and tea tree
Picture frames - Blackwood and Huon pine. These are seven sided and getting the angles perfect was a challenge.....

Cheers, OldGrowth

So it's very much a shed for you to just do your own projects. Well done. Congratulations.