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December 7, 2002

The Basement Shop

I also wanted to have a work area inside the house where I could do delicate work, and have a place to do some painting, as well as a place to work when it's just too cold to be out in the garage. I was also out of floor space in the garage, so I needed a place to put the blast cabinet and a small spray-booth for painting small parts. We had a nasty storage room in the basement (and being 84 years old, my house had a lot of nasties in the corners!) that I emptied, painted and put down new flooring, and put up shelves for storage (Julia was a HUGE help with this part of the project--I couldn't have done it without her). Because of its "L" shape, there was a nice little nook for a spray booth. Best of all, it was the area closest to the garage, so running air to the spray booth and blast cabinet was a snap (well, not a snap, but not as bad as it could have been).

My shop had to have a neat look, since it was in a living space (we use our basement family room quite a bit), so I used black and white checkered vinyl flooring and white paint, and dressed it up with a few car posters and memorabilia. I bought a small work bench with a galvanized top for working. I even have speakers from our home theater setup in here so I can listen to any of the CDs in our CD changer. I installed A LOT of florescent lighting to make it very bright, and several electric drops (6 in a 9x9 room!) so I wouldn't have to use any extension cords.

Here's what the shop looks like from the family room. The floor is black and white, not black and yellow as it appears. My new blast cabinet (purchased at TP Tools for $299--a great deal!) and a bookshelf with all my car magazines stand against the far wall. Julia keeps my magazine collection up to date, and tosses magazines more than a year old. She's funny that way, but I appreciate her even more for it. I decided not to put in a dropped ceiling and leave it open to the floor joists because I store a lot of stuff up there to keep it out of my way. It's quite useful.	Here's a better shot of the blast cabinet. I like the top-loading feature because it doesn't require any space on the sides for doors and loading objects. To the left of the cabinet will be the spray booth, but I haven't built the outside wall yet. The window will be replaced by my vent fan for the spray booth.
The workbench area of the shop. You can see some of my memorabilia, some LEGO cars I've built, and some other stuff, including my autocross championship trophy of which I am quite proud. The small-parts bin is mostly full of household supplies, not car supplies. I figured I'd keep house stuff in the house, car stuff in the garage--makes sense, no? Again, another fire extinguisher for safety. And yes, that IS a pink Cadillac on the top shelf.	This is the area that is to become my tiny spray booth. Note that I've already dropped 1/2" galvanized air lines to feed any tools I might need here, including the Eastwood powdercoater that I plan on buying shortly. There will be a second drop next to the blast cabinet. The conduit coming out of the wall is for phone/network cables, and will be patched shortly.

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E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net

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Last modified on 02/06/2005

Thanks, Fidget!