I spent most of a year getting the shop up and running including wiring, some light construction, building the shop furniture and storage, and tuning up tools before I really started making furniture.  It was good practice and helped give me a better idea of how to approach the projects I was planning.  For you denizens of rec.woodworking, I guess my philosophy on woodworking is kind of a half Norm, half Neander hybrid.  I love handplaning, but can't beat the machines for getting the grunt work done.

Here's the entry showing the 60A sub panel I wired in to feed the shop, the mandatory Fleet Farm calendar, and the fire extinguisher (Class ABC dry chemical) that no shop should be without.  The sub panel has a separate 220V circuit for the dust collector, and one for the big tools (TS, BS, jointer).  The lights are wired on 2 circuits, one from the sub panel and one home run from the main panel so that it won't get dark suddenly The entry stairs are just behind the post and railing and the stairs bend 45 degrees at the left of the post.  The railing segment to the left of the post is screwed in place so that it can be removed for getting big stuff or long boards down into the shop.  My advice for those building a house with a basement shop:  Direct access to the outside, preferably walkout.  We bought this house already built (it was a model home) so I didn't have the option.

Here is a wide shot of the shop looking from the back (south) corner.  The dust collector is behind the camera and currently is rolled around to reach wherever it is needed.  I want to install duct work and a cyclone, but have not got there yet.  For a look at a serious dust collection system, check out the Megasuck 2000 at my woodworking buddy Brook's web site.  In this shot you can see the Unisaw (the cutoff sled is on the saw here) with the melamine outfeed table just past it.  I borrowed the concept from a FWW article on a "small" shop in a 2-car garage (I'd kill for a shop that small :-) where there is a 2-piece sliding bridge of 3/4" melamine that rides on set of rails on the outfeed table and the saw.  This way I can get 4-sided access to the table for assembly work, and have continuous outfeed support when I need it.  It works great.  In the rear is the 4-tier cantilevered wood rack described below in more detail.  Just to the right of the wood rack you can see the DeWalt planer (tables folded up) and the drill  press to the right of the planer (barely in the shot).  The garbage can in the lower left corner is just in front of the router table (see below).  To the right of the table saw (out of the shot) is the bandsaw (see below).  Several pipe clamps are leaning against the west-facing window sill, which is the only window in the shop.

The bandsaw is a restored early 30's vintage Delta 14" that I bought off a guy who liked restoring old tools.  It turned out to be substantially older than I had thought (I guessed 50's or so) thanks to some info from Keith Bohn. (Thanks!) He did a nice job and even threw in a homemade plywood stand.  I had to add the motor, switch, and riser block.  The motor is 1.5hp (1725rpm), so stalling is not an option.  The riser block installation was a real hoot as the 40-some-odd year old bolt holding the upper and lower castings together wouldn't come apart for anything.  I used a 3' breaker bar... and broke the socket.  I tried a hefty 1/2" Ingersoll-Rand air impact wrench and it wouldn't budge.  I torched it, and it still wouldn't budge.  I finally had to cut the nut off the bolt in tiny pieces using a cutoff wheel and air chisel.  Thank God for air tools...

The switch is another story, too.  It is a magnetic safety switch, like the type that come on most big power tools these days, except I built it myself from scratch.  I originally purchased one from the local Woodcraft store, but was unhappy  with the quality so I went out and got industrial quality parts and built my own for less money.
 

The router table is basically a cabinet with a bank of drawers on each side.  The chamber that the router is in has a simple pull-off door of 1/4" Lexan attached with two magnetic catches.  The plywood door below it is similar.  Dust collection is via PVC pipe components (the closet flange is visible below the router) that go down into the lower chamber, out the back and straight up where the hose is attached.  Another smaller hose is used as a pickup near the bit.  I borrowed this concept from a web page on the "Woodworker's Gazette", but I'm not sure if that site is still alive.  The switch is magnetic like the bandsaw, and again homemade.  I found out one interesting factoid:  A magnetic switch is incompatible with GFCI circuits (the GFCI trips), which the 110 outlets were.  I changed the one outlet for the router table back to regular to fix it.  The dust collection on this is not as good as I was hoping for, as a lot of it collects in the chamber rather than finding it's way out the port.  At least I don't get a dust cloud when I use it.

The lumber rack.  2x4's secured to the floor and bolted to the joists above with 2x6 cantilevered arms sticking out 18".  The arms are half lapped, glued and screwed to the uprights.  Cantilevered structures aren't the sturdiest in general (can you tell I'm an engineer yet?) so you want to make sure it is as solid as can be.  I would prefer a rack that was supported on both ends as you could stack it up to the ceiling without fear, but I don't have space for that type of layout, so I made do with this design.  There is an 8" space behind the uprights where I can store sheet goods on edge.  I think I saw that idea in a ShopNotes or something similar.  The bottom two tiers are loaded down with a bunch of Quarter sawn White Oak (mostly 4/4, but a few boards of 6/4 and 8/4 too).  The oak is so dense and heavy that I didn't dare stack it up higher, so the bulk of it is on the base level which sits directly on the floor.  The top two tiers have a little red oak and some leftover maple from the workbench along with a small stack of 4/4 poplar for misc shop use, drawer sides, and other secondary wood uses.  All the wood is rough sawn.  I have another stack of not-so-great plain sawn white oak in the garage that I got at a sawmill auction with a friend.  I really need to get some more wood varieties.  I'd like a stack of walnut and cherry next, but storage space could be tough.

The workbench is a rather crude but effective design.  The base is 2x4's, 2x6's, and plywood glued up into several sub-assemblies and bolted together to allow disassembly.  The top sets in place on 4 dowels for location and to keep it from shifting.  The top is not the solid maple slab it may appear to be.  It was based on a part of a design from a Shop Notes workbench project and is the worst mistake I have made in the shop (so far...).  The top construction is a sub-base of 3 layers of plywood laminated together with a 4/4 maple board slab glued to the top of it.  Every time I thought about it, I felt that this construction was a disaster waiting to happen as it doesn't allow for proper wood movement, but hey, if it worked for ShopNotes, all should be well, right? Bzzzzzt. It has since split in a big way.  Lesson: Listen to that Little Voice.

Aside from that issue, it is very solid and has served me well.  The face vise is a Record 52 1/2 (should have got the 53), and the full width tail vise is the Veritas Twin-Screw (on the far end of the bench).  I recommend drilling bench dog holes every 6", as I started out with holes every foot, and quickly found myself drilling some more.  The drawers are two separate banks that just slide in place.  The top is about 30" deep x 72" long.  The size isn't bad, but I find I do a lot of handplaning on it for truing up boards and only use the first 12" of depth a lot.  I can see why a "Jointer's bench" is usually so narrow, but this bench still has more general uses than just hand planing so the extra width makes sense.  Perhaps in my "next" shop I will make a jointer's bench just for handplaning.  It would be nice to be able to reach the board from both sides of the bench while planing.  The one final lesson I learned from making the bench is that handplanes + maple = tearout like you've never seen.  Just too many changes in grain direction in maple.

Wanna see what's in the drawers?