I am not new to the forum, but I have a new (to me) shop.
We bought a new house and it has a 28'X40' detached shop with a 100 amp panel in it.
First and foremost: Congratulations.
The wiring that is in place now is not what/where/how I want it..
most of the shop is bare studs, but about 1/3 is insulated(?) and poorly hung drywall. The outlets that are there are (I believe) all on one circuit, and the boxes are too deep in the wall for cover plates... So my current plan is to demo it and start over.
Probably a wise decision. Given that only ~1/3 of the space is "finished" (and poorly, at that), you're not "going backwards" all that much; and a complete re-do will give you the best opportunity to do things RIGHT.
Not the least of my problems is I have a WHOLE LOT of stuff in there, so working on the whole shop at once is going to be problematic. But that's a different thread.
BTDTGTTS. Don't even get me started.
So My first question is what should I use for diagramming / planning so that I can upload it here to get feedback?
For simple diagrams and such, the "Draw" component of LibreOffice:
http://www.libreoffice.org/features/draw/
For more ambitious drawings (up to and including construction-quality "blueprints"), LibreCAD:
http://librecad.org/cms/home.html
Both completely open source, hence free (both in the sense of "freedom", and in the sense of "free beer").
Grizley shop planner looks lake it should fit the bill.
You really don't want to be dependent on a third-party web site for this sort of thing, particularly not one which is REQUIRES Javascript, cookies AND Flash to operate.
I'm thinking metal siding for ceiling, galvanized bottom 4ft. Of wall and drywallor osb from there up.
No matter what you do, even galvanized sheet metal WILL eventually rust and look ugly; and it's near-impossible to spot-repair. So unless you're going to be doing a fair amount of welding (and hence fear hot splatter marking up "soft" surfaces), I'd probably use either drywall or plywood. The former will give a more "finished" appearance; the latter will be more durable, especially on the lower wall sections where potential impacts must be considered. Both OSB and MDF are compromises between these two extremes. Regardless of the material, you should count on painting ALL of it, if for no other reason than to provide better reflectivity for your lighting.
Thinking putting couples outlets every 3rd or 4th stud.
For general-purpose 120V outlets, I usually recommend one double-gang box every 6-8 feet, with each of the two duplexes in that box fed from a different breaker than the other one. In small shops, two 20A circuits will normally handle the whole thing; in larger shops, split it up further as you see fit. Note that at least in anything which might be considered a "residential garage", NEC now requires that ALL 120V outlets be GFCI protected.
I also have to figure out the lighting.. Been reading on here but thinking just running three rows from front to back on three switches.. Then figure out task lighting when I get placement figured out...
You will near-certainly want to be much more sophisticated about things than this. But that's really a separate discussion; and yes, you need to get the SHOP layout more-or-less figured out before you can really nail down the lighting layout.
