How small can an office be?
Been wanting to make a tiny, dust-free area in my shop/garage area for a computer station, with just room for me, a laptop, two mid-size monitors, and ventilation.
Here’s where I decided to put it – corner by the sub-panel was just a clutter catcher anyway.
The trick is to look at something and imagine it in a completely new way – I stared at it this AM then got to Depo for some 2x4s and a 2-0 door.
To the left in the picture below –
Stripping out the table and stuff –
Starting framing – room will be 70 X 43″. That’s INCHES! Seems like it will work, though. Above the stairs will be two 3×3′ window sashes to help the claustrophobia.
Forrest – going for some DW tonight.
Drywall, I mean
Edited 5/22/2009 8:00 pm ET by McDesign
Replies
Forrest - going for some DW tonight.
Yeah, well good luck with that. Does she know yet?
Huh? Oh, drywall you say... ok, nevermind.
Got a chuckle from the DW!
Hung and corner-beaded; put in a solid ceiling so I can pressurize the room a tiny bit -
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Mudding crew showed up -
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All done in time for dinner -
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Forrest
Edited 5/23/2009 7:42 pm ET by McDesign
I hope you have flat panel monitors, pretty tight in there. :) Any concerns about having glass windows that close to the staircase? Access to the panelboard looks kind of tight, too. Just sayin'...
No flat panels yet. Two 19" CRTs will sit in front of the panel, yep. Door at top of stairs will have a positive stop.
Tryin to work within the envelope - it's just my non-permitted building in the back yard.
Forrest
Two 19" CRTs will sit in front of the panel, yep.
FWIW, NEC requires a minimum of 3' of unobstructed access to the panel. Hate to be the one to say it, but what you are building does not appear to meet code.
It's absolutely true - I do know the rules.
Should I ever care about that, I'll just move the monitors; the roomlet itself is okay. Also, the panel is really visible through the window to the side - it's not like it's hidden. The main 90A shutoff is in the garage up the stairs, within 6' of wher the power comes into the building.
Forrest
tempered glass - for safety
Looks good - I too have struggled with "space" issues, know the feeling. Making the best of what you have to work with."...craftsmanship is first & foremost an expression of the human spirit." - P. Korn
bakersfieldremodel.com
Yeah - it's the final frontier, I understand.
Forrest
Looks like a first grader to me!!!!
You ain't had much mudding work recently, have you?
That's about the age of half the Mexican crew I last hired to do such. Course, they had black hair. And would work on Sunday...
Thats just creepy,
McDesign, watch your daughter, bobbys lurking No one should regard themselve as "God's gift to man." But rather a mere man whos gifts are from God.
I dont know why you would say that, He has a cute daughter and she seems around the age of the first graders i read to. I dont joke like that
It was all the exclamation marks you put in your reply that made me do it, crossed my fingers when I responded with that one.
No hard feelings I hope
Paul
No one should regard themselve as "God's gift to man." But rather a mere man whos gifts are from God.
is it a office or just someplace the cruise the net without somebody looking over your shoulder
It's a place to do CAD, where I can leave all set up with a mouse and a left-handed-puck and twin monitors. I'm thinkin' I may not even make it Net-connected - got this one here in the house for that.
Forrest - hiding my CAD
Stilecad sucks.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt
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Is it true that the Eskimos have over 40 words for the sound of coffee going through the nose?'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
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someone stole your cylinder heads.
thank goodnes they left you the chunk...
those can be a pain to locate.
EDIT: Nope, they just wandered out of the frame. Camera shy, I guess.
A La Carte Government funding... the real democracy.
Edited 5/24/2009 11:41 am by Hackinatit
Ok, I've got a question for you. Assume the box above the door is your ventilation area.
You want this space so it's not dusty like the rest of the shop.
How's that going to work if you are push/pulling air from the interior space through that room? Superfilterman to the rescue?
By the way, if you want to rent those kids out, I've got some sheetrock work for them :)
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Ahh - here is my plan. First, I am making the room as tightly sealed as I can - even the electric boxes - I'll even weatherstrip the top and sides of the door. The square opening over the door will have an assembly that I'll build, consisting of an old (quiet) bath fan covered with a filter.
The fan will draw shop air through the filtered grill, and blow it into the tiny office. I'll have the gap under the door set as small as possible, so the always-running fan will slightly press - pressurize the room, blow the air out under the door, and keep the office from getting musty.
Likely, when I'm in there, the door will be open and the fan off.
Forrest - gotta' go check my second coat of mud
If the door is going to be open while you are in there, then why bother with the fan? If the room is sealed then the only way air/dust will get in is if air leaves. And the only way that will happen is if there is a pressure difference. I'm guessing that you are going to be in and out often enough that there will be enough air change that way.
Edited 5/24/2009 6:46 pm ET by rich1
Dust just seem to find places to get in!
Sometimes I won't go in the shop M-Th, but dad might use it for something - don't want the office to get musty; on a slab, with 3' of CBU walls underground, and humid GA weather.
Forrest
will have an assembly that I'll build, consisting of an old (quiet) bath fan covered with a filter.
OK - I see how this all unfolded. You were sitting there looking at that fan, thinking "what can I do with this?"http://www.quittintime.com/ View Image
All painted and trimmed out. Now I need to build my desk (actually cut down what I've got out in the camper), build the intake fan, cut in the T-bar ceiling, and get some carpet squares -
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Cool strip light -
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Forrest - using my alottment
Edited 5/31/2009 8:10 pm ET by McDesign
Nice work! It's a very cute little office.
Were you planning for more traffic to the office from the stair than from the workarea
or was it you just didn't want the open door into the stairwalk area?
inquiring minds kind of thingAnd now he could feel it- that inevitable craving for cookies! It happened every time he left his firewall down. -Heck '02Elvis had all that he could take from Raven fans, both of them! -Crash '02
Inswing obviously wouldn't really work for lack of space. If he's got the door open a lot, can't block the steps. That leaves.........what we see in the pic. Only practical solution. Yes, cute office!
Edited 6/1/2009 12:54 am by kenhill3
Yes - I can leave the door open and it folds flat against the work table edge.
Forrest
Note - DW calls it my "Superman phone booth"
Edited 6/1/2009 5:07 am ET by McDesign
What is the light strip beside the door?
Cool idea.
Nicely done.I put a 'darkroom' kit on an office door at my old shop. Kept the dust out.Chuck Slive, work, build, ...better with wood
It's a prototype light strip from Philips - I get a lot of cool things at work.
Forrest
How much would that light strip run for those of us in the "civilian" world? Is it LED?
Nice project, BTW.
The heck with the office. What is in the garage? The front looks like it could be a 246 Dino (ferrari).
Good eye! It's one of those 70s kit-car-like things - with the 'glas body copied from a Dino. Search here for Hot Rod Garage thread - it has some pix.
Forrest
What is that car in the garage? Looks like an early Ferrari?
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Maybe this'll get u there.
Way cool car!The best reward for a job well done is the opportunity to do another.
Hey man - Almost finished in here -
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Forrest
Edited 6/5/2009 5:53 pm ET by McDesign
Hey, sometimes less IS more. Hope you, Laura, and the kids are well.The best reward for a job well done is the opportunity to do another.
I've never worked CAD, what does the wheel for your left hand do?
Good looking project BTW.
Ah - it's freakin' COOL! It's a 3-D (up and down as well) joystick controller for what is on the screen. It's independant of the mouse and keyboard and commands, so as I'm in some command, say relating or drawing or measuring from one side of an assembly to another area, hidden on the other side, I can rotate the object onscreen around to see it better, just as if I was holding it in my hand.
The puck itself doesn't move more than a sixteenth of an inch in any direction - http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/what_is_3dmouse.php
Like any good videogame, pretty soon you don't really conciously think of moving your hand. I'd say it makes 3d drawing on a 2d screen say, four billion times easier and more fun
Turns Google Earth into Flight Simulator - just fly around!
The one in the pic is $50. I have another version at work that does more - here's their demo of the flagship product - http://www.3dconnexion.com/spp/index.php
Forrest
Edited 6/10/2009 5:11 am ET by McDesign
does it work with any applications like maybe Chief Architect or even Sketchup or is it a bit more limited to specific cads set up for it's use?
I ought to do my research befre answering. Looks like it will work.
Edited 6/10/2009 7:27 am ET by john7g
It has a list of apps it works with, I think - SketchUp I'm pretty sure.
Forrest
Hmmm. I like the idea of that. That's my biggest time waster - switching back and forth between draw and rotate/move.http://www.quittintime.com/ View Image
it ought to work, there is a demo vid there with SU. But I'm thinking now with my hotrod mouse (that the wizards (not) at MS disontinued) it may not be that much of an advantage.
Even with a basic mouse with scroll wheel you can improve your performance. Under the Mouse settings in Control Panel set the scroll wheel so that it acts like a middle click so when you press the scroll wheel (not roll it which is Zoom) it will become the Orbit tool in SU. While in orbit mode (wheel pressed or the Orbit [O] selected, press the shift key and it becomes the Hand/Pan [H] tool while the shift key is pressed.
SU 6 had a good started sheet under the Help Menu but I haven't seen it in Su7. That sheet has these little goodies. As a matter of fact, it was a .pdf file that I ought to find and save before I purge v6 form the PCs.
Thining more on that cool mouse and letting the WoW factor subside, I'm wondering if having a 10-key pad for my left hand would be better. I've got one I can try it with.