I Can See! I Can See!

Work has been progressing nicely on the new Tinker's Workshop with the installation of the badly needed lighting over the past couple of days. Here is a re-post of an earlier photo to show you what a difference the lighting has made to the work space.  

 

This is the original lighting in the space....YUK!

Now this is lighting!  I went from one single double florescent light fixture to ten!  What a difference.  Believe it or not the doorway on the right of the photo goes into the rest of the basement and the lights are on in that room. Really!  That space also will be updated with more lighting so I can see where I am going in that part of the basement. 

  

The next step in the build will be to put the ceiling panels back in place along with translucent panels where the florescent lights now are mounted. This should spread the light around the room a bit more evenly. 

The lights were originally going to be hardwired into the electrical grid but this was discarded as it would have actually made more work and difficulty in putting it all together.  Just much simpler just to put up five electrical outlets to plug in the ten lights in the workshop.   The lighting was also split up so that only four lights could be turned on, or six or all ten at the same time.  Makes for a savings in power usage when not all the lights are need to be turned on depending on what I want to work on in the shop.  

Three additional outlets were also installed in the shop on the outer wall of the workshop to make a grand total of eight.  This was done using 1/2 inch electrical conduit which houses the wiring for each outlet.  The outlets were mounted on the wall using drilled holes in the concrete and plastic inserts and screws to hold it all in place. The power was run across the ceiling down the wall to one outlet, then onto two more outlets horizontally across the wall.  Then another power line was sent back up to the ceiling where it terminates.  This was done for future connections if I choose to put them into the shop.

  Along with the ten lights and eight electrical outlets, the new shop will have two doors, one regular sized and another double wide to handle moving big items in and out of the shop.  Another plus that I did not have in the old shop was a connection for a telephone.  Not that I want to be interupted while I am building something fun but there is always a need for a phone some time when you are working in the shop so it will be a nice addition. 

  Now that I have the power and lights up and running in the shop thanks to my good friend Garry, I will be able to see much better when I paint that ugly green paneled wall a nice coat of white paint.    Garry is my house expert and so his expertise is worth the little favors that I am more than happy to do for him and his family when he needs the help. It all works out in the end. 

  The carpeting will also be removed as it is totally worthless in a workshop. It won't be long before I can get back to creating something new in my new and improved dream workshop so all the work to get it together will be worth the wait don't you think?  Check back to see how it all turns out and have a good day tinkering!