Hi gang,
My better-half moved me out of the spare bedroom back in mid-December and stored in boxes in the garage. I've come up with the lumber money, so the garage will be devided in half with a wall and door, insulated and wired soon. In the meantime I'm looking for ideas for the layout and eqipment. Any Ideas will be gratefully considered. MONEY is an object!!!
Thanks in advance!
Chuck

Did this to my geeerage also. Here are some ideas;

1. Vent to outside for paint booth.
2. Compressor in other room, plumbing for it to come in work room.
3. Ceiling fan to cool the modeler.
4. Work bench, check used office furniture stores.
5. Lights, plenty of lights.
6. Peg board to hold stuff.
6. Shelves, ajustable.
7. Plenty of outlets.
8. TV, radio, computer hookups if wanted.

Digital cable, VCR/DVD, DSL hook-up, etc.

Don't put in carpet. Pick a nice, but goofy color for the floor (see below). You want contrast when you experience "tweezer launch" so you can (might) be able to find the missing part. Put in a hard floor and you can sweep (vacuums are evil to modelers).

Make your work surface a color you never find in modeling. Don't make it white, grey or any shade of green. Likewise with the floor, if you can keep it cheap. If you are really tight for cash, white will work.

Get a piece of tempered glass for your building surface.

Use a mix of lights: incandescent and flourescent -- if you find it in your budget, get an OttLight (true color revealed).

I'll disagree with Salt about the pegboard -- don't mess with it unless you do a side panel. You're better off (IMHO) with a bunch of small, marked parts drawers, like you find in the hardware dept. of the local discount store. They sell drawer sets that stack, hang on the wall, have different sized drawers, etc. Also, try to scrounge some old cabinets from someone who is redecorating their kitchen

My two cents' worth

This is Great,
Good Ideas so far ! This weekend I'm pouring a 3x3ft. concrete pad in the back of the house for my birthday gift from the wife. It's a 30gal./ 1.5hp upright air compressor from Sears. And throughout next week I'll be plumbing hard-lines from it through a refridgeration type air dryer I picked up from the scrap bin at work. I also found major chunks of sheet metal there so i'll be folding my spray booth soon to mount on the wall.
I have uncles in the tile business and their giving away some leftover "Quary Tile" to get it out of thier way, so there's my flooring. All I have to do is pick it up and install it.
I've been asking some friends in the auto-body business locally if it's better to up-draft or down-draft spray booth exaust fans and they all seem to like down. So I've scrounged a piece of 16gauge perforated aluminum sheet (at work again from the scrap bin) for the deck of the booth. I can build a box underneath to hold a furnace filter. And building up from the filter box I'll add walls and a roof from the scrap sheet metal and a plexi-glass door.
Sorry to ramble, but this is exciting!
More feedback PLEASE

Chuck

Bins are a good idea but peg board allows you to hang stuff still in the packaging. LIke judio gun barrels, fruss track, etc.

Hi there!
I do agree with the recommendation of a tempered glass for building surface, and if you want you could put underneath it a sheet of technical paper (that kind that have squares lines on it) it helps to align pieces...
Buy a confortable chair, since you gonna spend a lot of time modelling :-) it helps you health...
The outlets are important, since you never know what gonna be your next most useful electric tool
Just to help

I'd say add plenty of organizational thingies. Paint organizers, brush holders, etc. That's the only thing I can tell you that hasn't been said already. If you need a place to put all your kits while you build the room, send them to yodam......

YodaMan
Go Red Wings!!!

I was fortunate to have a full finished basement with a spare room when I purchased my new home. After some planning the following is what I managed to put together to make my modelling time more enjoyable and less cluttered:

1) 1 19" inch television mounted on the wall with a built in VCR and DVD player by Hitachi.
2) 1 large flourecent ceilling light with 2 100 watt bulbs.
3) 2 adjustable study lamps, for precise lighting when painting figures and AFV's, both with 100 watt bulbs.
4) An IKEA Jerker Computer desk...This desk is amazing it is very deep and raised.
5) A home made table bulit with a Butcher block top. This is used for my Micro Mark cutting boards, Dremel drill press, belt sander.
6) 2 large industrial storage shelves from Home Depot for kits, and accessories.
7) A spray booth with exhaust fan attached to vent going out window.
8) 2 peg boards with storage bins from Home Depot, to store accessories
9) Home made paint racks, built to store and fit Tamiya Acrylics, Vallejo Acrylics, Poly S, Humbrol, and Model Masters paints.
10) Lastly, A nice comfortable, swivel chair...where I find myself falling asleep in at least 4 times a week. :-)

I'm working on a set of plans for my new workbench. It's "L" shaped roughly 84" x 96"
Laminate top drawers possibly pegboard in small area.

I can scan the plans if anyone would like.

Matt

Here's my two cents. I agree with the venting and lighting requirements discuss so far. Everyone wants to provide themselves an affordable workshop. So, shop around. I did not go the cabinet route. I felt that anything behind a door was hidden and forgotten. Shelves, yeah I got them, but no doors. Paint rack is indispensible. I gave thought to how I make the model itself. I do it in stages therefore the area is constructed so I do basic assembly in one area, painting in another, drying area, then final assembly. I have three pieces of train board about 4x5 feet to perform these functions. If you do not use peg board (I do not) try magnetic strips---work very well. Trust this assists your efforts.
DJ

Hello again,
I KNEW I'd get some great stuf here! I've come across a Humbrol and a Model Master free- standing floor display rack. Their from a local hobby shop that closed up a couple of months ago. They are assembled together to stand back to back, so I will probably take them apart and hang the individual rack shelves on a wall.
As for the workbench, I've come up with an old king-size waterbed pedastal with drawers on both sides. It can be disassembled so that there are two eight-foot long pieces about two feet deep. They should be easy to mount to the wall. So far I've been very skilled/ lucky to FIND most of these materials for free. Even the central air conditioning duct-work was a find.not free but damn close.
KEEP IT COMING!!!
Chuck
ps no concrete today( rain!)

Chuck--great to hear this is of value to you. Consider also where and how you are going to stack your unbuilt model kit boxes.
DJ