Your dream shop?

Well, Richard, after you blew us all away with those calipers…damn, there’s a category we can retire, no more calls, we have a winner!

Envy you the water temperatures. Here, the water is warmer than the air now, and the water is prolly around 48°F, so my ambition is getting a mite slowed down.

Lets see- jumping back to the original topic, a few things more about dream shops:

You can’t have too many electrical outlets in whatever voltages you use. I made the mistake of having only one set of 220V outlets put in when I had my shop wired and 2 or 3 more sets, minimum, would have been better. If three phase power is available, get it, you can score some real bargains on used three phase shop tools which are, I think, better than single phase: more power and more control on things like lathes and such.

Overhead outlets are not a bad thing if they are easy to reach and have a joist or whatever close by to loop your cord around. Not tripping over cords is worth the effort.

Spend the money on an oversized circuit breaker box, with more holes than you need right away. You’ll need more sooner than you think.

Or too many air outlets, plumbed to the main compressor. I have, and must get around to setting up permanently, a cheapo spring-loaded hose reel for air hose, with a 20’ line, which I should mount overhead so I can easily just pull a line to anywhere I need it: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=96 is what I have, they often go on sale cheaper. I also keep a small 14 amp/110V Hitachi compressor around, as there are a lot of small jobs that don’t justify firing up the big one. It’s also my ‘jobbing around’ compressor, though in the US the Rol-Airs are better.

Other handy stuff to have includes blow guns ( to blast dust out of crevices, tools, whatever ) and the like. And in general, especially in cooler climates, rubber or neoprene hoses have it all over PVC or those thin, light but maddening polyethylene tubing things. A drawer with all your couplings, teflon tape and similar items all together will save a lot of looking around at some time in the future.

Extension cords, that other maddening item in every shop. Give away or throw away anything lighter than #12 wire ( #12 AWG, etc). If you have a too-light cord, you’ll use it in a moment of weakness and fry a perfectly good tool.

Anyhow- hope that’s of use

doc…