My dream home workshop: construction is underway

Last year I posted asking for advice on what people would want in their dream home workshop, and got some great responses:

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,1161.0.html

Since then construction has got underway so I'll do a few progress reports and talk about specific details and decisions that may be useful to other people.

The concrete slab was poured a couple of months ago, allowing for a double garage at the front and the workshop at the back. The garage was deliberately made longer than necessary to allow plenty of room at the end for a "dirty" workspace where I'll have a heavy workbench for mechanical work and bulk storage. The workshop has been designed in such a way that ultimately it could be fitted out as accommodation (like a granny flat) if we sell the house down the track, so it has a bathroom in one corner. Should be handy for me in the meantime too: no need for trips into the house to use the main bathroom.

As of this morning the workshop area looks like this:

That view is standing in the middle of the garage looking through the workshop to the back wall. Weatherboards have just gone on this morning. The big open area to the left (where the saw is sitting) is the double-door entrance to the workshop, and behind the yellow rubbish bag is the bathroom area. The total workshop area is about 5m x 6m (15' x 18') with one corner used for the bathroom.

Roughing in of the electricals begins tomorrow morning. There will be about 60 power outlets in the room (12 at each of the four dedicated workstations, plus others) and at least 20 Gig Ethernet sockets. All the electricals are being cabled up for automation, with loads being switched directly from a central wiring closet using DIN-rail mounted relays controlled by Arduinos. Light switches etc won't have any high voltage wired to them at all: they'll just be Arduino-based PoE devices that send messages over the LAN to an automation controller.

There will also be cabling through the wall for video, audio, and power for wall-mounted status screens.

More updates to follow!

Dude, you suck.

:frowning:

Long time no hear from you Jon, guess you've been busy with construction eh?

That looks great, almost enough to make me drop anchor and live in a house again (I do miss my workshop =()


Rob

Wow this is gonna be pretty neat :slight_smile:

Just been working out what sockets to provide at each workstation. This is my current plan:

So that leaves 4 power sockets and 2 Ethernet sockets under the bench, with 8 power sockets, 2 Ethernet sockets, and a ducted vacuum socket (plumbed through a low-speed fan for fume extraction) above the bench.

I'm pondering whether it's worth putting in any audio connections: perhaps a set of 4 RCA sockets wired through to a central patch panel somewhere. I don't have any uses for it right now though. Another idea is USB sockets wired to a 5V power supply (handy for charging things that plug into USB). I'm not convinced it's worth the trouble though.

Jon
Freetronics: www.freetronics.com

What spec plug points are those? I love the smaller spec plug points I constantly see adapters for here in South Africa. We had a smaller sized three-point plug (looks the same as our current one's) decades ago that where half the size of our current ones.

Not really a relevant questions I know, just curious.

Standard Aussie plugs (which they seem to be) are rated at 10A, and IIRC you can legally have up to 10 on a circuit but obviously not all pulling 10A at the same time.

There is another 3-pin plug with a larger earth pin that's good for 15A.


Rob

@Jon
Are you having built in benches or free standing?


Rob

@ Graynomad. Interesting. I just love the small plugs. Our version of a "small" plus is the two-point one's which never really work. Thanks for the info

I've just come inside for a rest after spending the day with the sparkie dragging cable. There's now 400 meters of power cable roughed in, and I've just started dragging the cat 6. I'll be heading back out there in a minute to get as much of it roughed in tonight as possible.

@graynomad: built-in benches around 2 walls. There'll also be a heavy workbench on locking casters for mechanical work. I have a rough floorplan drawn up but I'll try to do a neater one and post it here.

By the way, you do live in a house: just not one with a fixed address! Or maybe it's just that your stumps are made of rubber and they rotate. That truck of yours is bigger than some houses I've seen.

built-in benches around 2 walls

The reason I asked is that I had something similar years ago and I drilled 2" holes in the bench (as close to the back as possible) at regular intervals because no matter what combination you think of now there will always be a reason to run one more cable from top to bottom or vv.

Admitedly with that many sockets it's hard to imagine that would happen, but just a thought.

Or maybe it's just that your stumps are made of rubber and they rotate.

He he, they haven't done much rotating lately, we've been camped in the same spot just outside Perth for two months. We'll have to move soon though because I'm meeting up with some photographers to photograph Karijini Nat Park in May. Although I did spot a good EE job just yesterday, just up the road from where we are. I almost applied but had a lie down until the feeling passed.

That truck of yours is bigger than some houses I've seen.

We had a builder from Sydney come down to check the truck out a few years ago. He was building "studio apartments" or something, they where 27sqm in size and he wanted to see how we packed everything (including a double garage) into 25sqm.


Rob

Admitedly with that many sockets it's hard to imagine that would happen, but just a thought.

Might want to run a video cable up or something...

@graynomad: Regarding the number of outlets on a circuit, I was a bit worried about that too so I had a good chat to the sparkie about it. He said the regs previously had a hard limit on the number of sockets per circuit, but that it's now been relaxed to allow a higher number at the judgement of the electrician. In this case I'm likely to have a lot of low-power devices plugged in so we came to the conclusion that it would be OK to have a higher than average number of sockets per circuit. For example, a typical workstation may have a few things plugged in at once:

  • Laptop
  • Soldering iron
  • Cellphone charger
  • VoIP phone
  • Scope
  • Logic analyser
  • Small bench power supply
  • Desk lamp
  • A plugpack or two

That's 9 or 10 devices, but none of them are real poweraholics so the total current draw would be fairly modest. In any case we still split them up in reasonable numbers so there are a bunch of separate circuits cabled back to the distribution panel.

I did something similar but I was retro fitting an existing basement and only had one circuit to add sockets to. I did the work myself and reasoned the same as you, but every now and then in winter I'd forget and switch on a 2400w heater :slight_smile:

Still as long as you have appropriate breakers it doesn't really matter.


Rob

I would also add (perhaps per workstation - though the walls will be getting pretty full): compressed air and natural gas (might as well have the capability for chemical lab work, as well as light metal soldering and glass blowing).

Looks great - and I'm pretty envious (two things I wish I had - more space, and air conditioning).

:slight_smile:

Oh - one more thing: Add one or two circuits for dedicated arc welding use (maybe on the outside of the shop).

@cr0sh: A couple of people mentioned compressed air in the original "ideas" thread, but it's one of those things that I haven't got around to organising and I'm not totally convinced I'd get a lot of benefit from it. It's not too late, but I figure that I can run a hose around under the bench if I find it would be useful once the walls are closed up.

The welder circuit idea is something I arranged with the sparkie yesterday. I wouldn't run a welder in what I've been referring to as the "workshop" area, which will be a clean area for smaller work (more like a cross between an office and an electronics lab) but I want to get one soon and use it in the "dirty" workshop area at the back of the garage, so we made sure there were three separate power circuits cabled to the garage area.

Imo maybe one compressed air station with a couple outputs...

Probably not - but having it handy at each workstation just for blowing out dust from stuff would be useful, IMHO. Something else that might be handy would be a vacuum line. Both could be useful for bench-testing pneumatics or other such devices. You don't get many chances to make the perfect "mad-scientist" lab...though it sounds like you are getting close!

:slight_smile:

I have a small 110 VAC "buzzbox" that I can use inside my shop if necessary, though the majority of time I use it outside. I would love to get a 220 VAC AC/DC welder, but I don't have any circuit to plug it into except maybe the dryer circuit (if I made a converter cable box). One of these days I have in mind to have an extra 220 circuit run to my garage (probably if/when I have A/C run to my shop). My shop's so small that at times I have to do "dirty" stuff in it, though I mostly use it for cleaner electronics and fabrication work (my office is inside my house).

cr0sh:

[quote author=Jonathan Oxer link=topic=53102.msg380907#msg380907 date=1298496234]@cr0sh: A couple of people mentioned compressed air in the original "ideas" thread, but it's one of those things that I haven't got around to organising and I'm not totally convinced I'd get a lot of benefit from it. It's not too late, but I figure that I can run a hose around under the bench if I find it would be useful once the walls are closed up.

Probably not - but having it handy at each workstation just for blowing out dust from stuff would be useful, IMHO. Something else that might be handy would be a vacuum line. Both could be useful for bench-testing pneumatics or other such devices. You don't get many chances to make the perfect "mad-scientist" lab...though it sounds like you are getting close!

:slight_smile:

I have a small 110 VAC "buzzbox" that I can use inside my shop if necessary, though the majority of time I use it outside. I would love to get a 220 VAC AC/DC welder, but I don't have any circuit to plug it into except maybe the dryer circuit (if I made a converter cable box). One of these days I have in mind to have an extra 220 circuit run to my garage (probably if/when I have A/C run to my shop). My shop's so small that at times I have to do "dirty" stuff in it, though I mostly use it for cleaner electronics and fabrication work (my office is inside my house).
[/quote]

Oh, I see your point, I was thinking of only for pneumatics, another idea would be a overhead rail thing (though in home workshop the ceilings will be pretty low for this)

There's been a lot of work done over the last couple of weeks, but it's mostly major structural stuff that's probably not all that interesting for Arduino people. It's getting close to the good stuff now though.

The electrical roughing-in has been done, and the workshop / garage now contains about 400m of power / lighting cable and 600m of data cable. Because the house is being automated (using a lot of Arduino bits embedded around the place) the cabling has all been brought back to a central wiring cabinet. Typically electrical wiring is done by running power to a light switch in the wall, and from there to the light fitting. I've had all the light fittings etc wired directly back to the cabinet so they can be connected to automation control modules. Anywhere that a light switch would be mounted on the wall has Cat-5 cable running to it where there will be a control surface, perhaps an Arduino-powered physical switch (like the one I did in the bathroom: http://jon.oxer.com.au/blog/id/307) or perhaps something like an Android tablet fitted into the wall.

The wiring cabinet currently looks like this:

As you can see it has a back fitted to it (floor sheeting) to give it a strong surface for mounting a couple of switchboards and a small rack cabinet. It's located on the centerline of the house with easy access both top and bottom so cabling can run in from either direction. Inside the ceiling I've mounted 19mm floor sheeting with carpet tiles on it so that crawling around dragging cable is actually quite comfortable.

There are 35 Cat-6 drops (the big grey bundle) and 15 Cat-5e drops (yellow) in that picture. I'm using Cat-6 for wall mounted network jacks that computers will plug into, and Cat-5e for fixed automation devices mounted in the building such as Freetronics "Eleven" boards (Eleven (100% Arduino Uno Compatible) | Freetronics) inside the ceiling space with temp / humidity sensors, IP cameras, security sensors, etc. The single blue Cat-5e you can see is to connect to an electric curtain controller from Elegine (http://www.elegine.com) with a TCP/IP interface so I'll be able to use Arduino-based sensors to control the curtains. There will be about another 8 of those going in over the next couple of weeks.

This weekend I stuffed the ceiling insulation in place ready for plasterboard ("drywall" for you yanks) so tomorrow will be a big day. It'll suddenly go from an exposed frame to feeling like a nearly-completed room:

A previous update showed a regular frame over the double door. I've since knocked out the studs over the door and replaced them with floor sheeting mounted flush with the close side of the frame. I'm intending to mount a pair of 22" LCDs over the door facing into the workshop / office area, recessed into the wall so the faces are close to flush with the plasterboard on the office side.

The workstations have been cabled up using almost the plan I posted previously:

Two sets of 4-way outlets over the bench, one set below. One double-outlet LAN plate over the bench, one below. If you compare reality with my original plan you'll see there's a blank space where I intended to put in ducted-vacuum fittings for fume extraction. I'll still do that, but not in the wall. It turned out to be a pain to put the fittings through the wall so I'm going to mount the vac fitting on the bench surface itself, with the pipes running along under the bench tight up underneath.

Jon