How To Set Up a Basement Metal Shop
The biggest challenge you face when setting up a basement metal shop is the lack of adequate ventilation. Keep in mind that no matter how much ventilation you install, you can never do any serious hot work in a basement shop. Forging and torching must be done outside, or in a building with a high ceiling and an industrial quality ventilation system. Even though you will not be forging or using torches, you will still have to direct a constant stream of fresh air into your shop and provide a means to remove contaminated air resulting from grinding and polishing.
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Instructions
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Design a ventilation system. This may be as simple as box fans in the windows and doors. If you plan to do heavier grinding and buffing, you may wish to run exhaust fans to draw fumes out of the workspace through ductwork. If your basement has no working windows, get a masonry saw and cut through the walls to the outside.
Frame the windows to fit the fans you intend to use. If necessary, rent a backhoe to dig a door-wide trench up to the basement walls. Cut a doorway and frame it with stone block and thick pneumatic support posts. Keep shop doors and windows open and all fans running when working in your basement metal shop. -
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Draw out your shop floor plan, first on paper, then walk through the shop in your mind. Mark positions of your shop machines and heavy equipment with chalk on the shop floor. Place tables, chairs and other easily moved items in the places machines will be. Take time to think and rethink. Walk through an imaginary project to ensure that all workstations are positioned where it is easy and safe to walk from one machine to the next. At the farthest point from ventilation and windows, set up your bench work station. Closer to the ventilation, put any milling machines, lathes, drill presses and any other machining tools. Set up your grinding and buffing stations as far apart as possible but keep them closest to the doors, windows and other ventilation.
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Rent, borrow or purchase equipment. This is an area that can bankrupt you if you are not careful. Never purchase anything until you are sure that the price is the lowest it can be without sacrificing quality. You will need at least one grinder, sander, power drill, and an abrasive saw.
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Once you do one or more dry run projects in your mind, place your equipment on the marks you made on the floor. Check the height of each piece to ensure that you will be able to work without constantly stooping or bending.
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Make one project from start to finish. If something is not where it should be, stop what you are doing and correct the problem before you proceed. It is better to have to discard a project than to become injured.
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Tips & Warnings
If you have another option, it is wise to consider places such as porches, patios, breezeways, garages or storage sheds rather than setting up your basement as a metal shop.
NEVER EVER work in a shop with poor ventilation. Long-time master metalworker Jim "Paw Paw" Wilson died of complications from double pneumonia two weeks after exposure to high concentrations of zinc smoke created when attempting to remove the galvanizing from some metal pipe.
