Mike DeKayser’s Nice Basement Shop

Mike DeKayser sent me some details on his shop. He has a lot of nice gems and ideas packed in an organized space. Click on the pictures below to magnify them. Mike writes:

It’s in the basement of our home. It’s small, roughly 300 square feet of floor space, so almost everything is on wheels. The table saw, router table, scroll saw, planer, and the separator can for the dust collector can be rolled out to have enough room to work, then they each go back to their respective parking spot. I built the wall you see behind the archery backstop and dust collector, to separate the shop from the rest of the basement. I put French doors in that wall so I could open it up to get into the rest of the basement, as needed. I open the French doors if I have a project that’s too big for the shop, or if I need to get a water heater, or washer/dryer in or out of the basement. Also, with opening the French doors, and moving the backstop to the other end of the shop, against the bench, I have about a 14 yard archery shooting lane. Even the short shots keep the muscles in shape.

The white door you see leads to a stairwell that goes to the garage. Nothing has to come into the basement, through the house.

The machines are pretty self explanatory. I was fortunate enough to have a dad that could do almost anything. I was drilling holes and using a sanding drum, in the drill press, on scrap pieces by the time I was 5 years old. Most of my machines and tools came from him. We lost my dad in 2000 to Alzheimer’s. I added the planer, dust collector, Ridgid sander, and the compound miter to the arsenal over my adult years.

I found a sheet goods storage idea in ShopNotes Magazine, and modified it to work in my space. (making 2 hinged wings for storage, instead of 1 like in the plans) The larger can hold full 8′ sheets, and the smaller one behind, is made to handle about 6′. behind both wings is basically a studded wall that holds things like smaller sections of plywood, or lumber.  The red cabinet between the white door, and sheet goods storage will be for power tool storage, and maybe some hardware up on top. The drawer boxes for this cabinet are sitting on the floor, in front of the archery backstop. Since I wouldn’t be able to access a drawer that’s above eye level, I made little peg board boxes, that will work like drawers, on their sides.  I’m planning to hang hardware stock on the pegs. 2 of those peg board boxes are in the red cabinet, double stacked, the rest are on the floor with the other drawers.  I will get 5 boxes with peg board on each side up at the top of the cabinet, when it’s finished.  I’d like to dismantle and redo the pegboard and workbench area, bringing my dad’s bench over form their house, and implementing it into the system somewhere.  I also have to find room for a 4′ sheet metal brake and stand. Yes, the brake is also on wheels.

Normal access to the shop is through a re-purposed storm door, it’s also in the wall I built (but out of sight, just to the right of the tall white cabinet with the Green Bay decal on it.)  Around the same corner, off to the right in shot 1, is the stairs to the house. I built a dog house under the steps to hold the air compressor. The dog house is insulated to quiet the compressor down. I have air lines running over head, in the shop, and into the garage, for working on vehicles, as well.

A couple of other things about the shop…  The cabinet that holds the r/c cars is one solid cabinet, 13 feet long, and I hung it up there by myself.  I also made the canvas cover for the planer, to keep debris from the drill press off of it.  I never saw my dad use the sewing machine, but I do ok at it.  :)

Any questions or comments are welcome.

Mike DeKeyser

Green Bay, WI

 

Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop
Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop Mike DeKayser's Nice Basement Shop

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