My mother loves to recite the story of my “first project” at age 7 which entailed an hour or two of hammering, followed by my exclamation “I’m done! “ as I proudly emerged from the basement carrying a piece of wood with a 3” nail crookedly sticking out of it.
Thankfully my woodworking only got better from there and I had the luck of marrying a woman who has a knack for design and an attitude to take on seemingly any project. This came in handy when we bought our first house where our projects covered a lot of ground including the repair and creation of toys, tables, doors, cabinets, mantels, and four additions to our house. In each case, my wife would develop the furniture style or lay out the floor plan of a house addition and I would build it twice, once in SOLIDWORKS and again for real. Over the years, our “virtual twins” in SOLIDWORKS have been a necessity to help us design and truly think through every step of a build or creation. Without a doubt, SOLIDWORKS has been the best tool in my toolbox, followed of course by my chop saw and now my oscillating saw (boy are those versatile).
One of the most enjoyable projects was the design and construction of a workshop at the edge of our yard. The building style is meant to resemble a sugarhouse, as a tribute to my childhood growing up in Vermont. Our kids refer to it as the "munchkin house", so perhaps our design was a bit off scale, or perhaps we fed them too many Dunkin' munchkins as they grew up. This is still unclear.
Once we decided to pull the trigger, we spent months testing various style and layout choices in SOLIDWORKS as we worked through all the details. However, the functional design evolved over many years and much of it was based on the many aggravations we experienced when using an old, leaky, and small shed as our “workshop”. Some of the key elements are:
- A wide double-door entrance to help get wood and equipment in and out. We used two glass doors that were weather-tight, but also added a sliding barn door for a nicer appearance.
- A full shed dormer on the back allows us to easily maneuver and store 16’ boards.
- A “mouse proof” floor was key since we were tired of mice taking over during the winter. This was achieved by adding PT plywood between each floor joist, filling any gaps with spray foam, and then laying in batt insulation before installing the plywood floor. (note... the section view image below does not show these pieces of plywood. I'll try to update the model)
- Groundhogs were also a problem with our old shed and a concern with the new workshop as both structures are on pilings above the ground. The approach has been successful so far and was done by using several inches of stone spread under the new workshop and by having the underside exposed on all sides, which makes groundhogs and other burrowing animals see it as unsafe for a home.
- Heat was also a necessity in the cold Northeast so we installed an electric blower that could heat up the shop quickly and offered the most convenience to simply fire it up when I needed it rather than keeping the shop heated all the time.
- Moisture was also a problem in the old shed and often caused the cast iron tools and tabletops to rust. We have solved this by blowing cellulose insulation in the walls and ceiling.
- I’d say my favorite feature is the slot seen along the left side of the building which is actually a two-piece hatch door. Opening one or both of these hatch door allows long pieces of wood to stick out of the building when on the chop saw or allows for sheets of plywood to be pushed straight through the table saw without bumping into the wall!
This was a really fun project and the workshop has been a nice addition to our yard and, from a workshop standpoint, has been a fantastic improvement over our old shed.
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