Designing a man cave / radio shack

[pb_lonny]

Anybody have a man cave / radio shack?

I am in the process of designing a small man cave / radio shack for our new house. My plan is to build this in the back of our garage which is separate to the house. The space will be about 2m x 1.5m. I have drawn up some very rough plans. Any feedback or advice from others who has done something like this before would be excellent before I get too serious about it.

Shed Floor Plan - http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KuQQLg3HLxs/VlKDicvS3BI/AAAAAAAAHcQ/fU3pej8uq4Q/s1600/Radio+Cave_1.jpg

Man Cave Layout - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--lXpqRZVNVY/VlKDiut-uiI/AAAAAAAAHcU/46vONaM60gU/s1600/Radio+Cave_2.jpg

 

[chief21]

Suggest that you put the radio desk on the interior wall rather than the exterior wall, and develop some method (access panels or similar) to easily get to the spaces behind the desk (for easy access to antenna cables, power, other connections, etc.)

Good luck and 73,

John AC4JK

 

[pb_lonny]

Thanks for the feedback. Here is another possible floor plan:

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Can you stick a small cot or a fold out chair in there? You might want to rag chew late at night!

 

[pb_lonny]

I could get rid of the second chair?

 

[mmckenna]

I'd add:
Small workbench area separate from your operating desk.
Access for coaxial cables from outside.
Lots of outlets for chargers, etc.
Ground buss along the back of the desk tied into the building ground.
Dimmable lighting. Maybe track lights?
Ventilation. In a small space like that with a bunch of electronics, it could get a tad warm. Might be nice to have some forced air ventilation.
Refrigerator with cold beer.

Looks like a nice setup. I wish I had some time and room to do something like that. I've got a 2 car garage that's half workshop, but just not the time to do much with it.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

I could get rid of the second chair?

You could get one of those cushy chairs that just folds open! Also you may want to set up the door to swing out instead of in, so as to increase usable interior space.

 

[Clubguy]

Wouldn't it be nice to have the radio set up right next to your recliner so you could watch football and rag chew while wifey makes you a sandwich?

 

[mmckenna]

...while wifey makes you a sandwich?

You've either got "Wife of the year" or you aren't married.

 

[Clubguy]

You've either got "Wife of the year" or you aren't married.

I've got Wife of the Year!

 

[mmckenna]

I've got Wife of the Year!

Wish I had a sammich.

 

[Clubguy]

I've got her trained so well that I can say, "Make me a sandwich, *****!" and we both just laugh...it's true.

 

[Clubguy]

"Make me a sandwich, biach!"

 

[pnoelw]

Could you re-hang the door so that it opens out into the garage? That would give you much more usable space in the shack.

 

[majoco]

Make a shelf above the bench to mount the radios at eye height and you can hang small scanners under the shelf on their vehicle mounts. The bench is for the paperwork and a keyboard/mouse. Make a corner bench so that you sit in the corner with radio right and left - easy to reach. Good speakers on the wall above facing down at you. A plug panel on the outside wall with sockets for all incoming antennas and all outgoing to receivers with patch leads to join any antenna to any radio. Don't sit with your back to a window, reflections off the front of the radios make displays hard to read - or fit a sunblock roller blind.

 

[pb_lonny]

Thanks for all the great feedback. I am going to make it larger and open the door outwards.

 

[mmckenna]

I've got her trained so well that I can say, "Make me a sandwich, *****!" and we both just laugh...it's true.

My wife would laugh too, then probably tell me to go make my own flipping sandwich.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

Wouldn't it be nice to have the radio set up right next to your recliner so you could watch football and rag chew while wifey makes you a sandwich?

We have a maid who makes all the sandwiches! Wife way too tired from shopping!!

 

[Clubguy]

First - world problems...

Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk

 

[K7MEM]

You need to give your equipment shelf a little thought, based on the equipment you are going to have.

I have two operating desks. One is in my main shack (the barn) and the other is in my house. I always make the shelving for my equipment 11" (0.279 M) deep, to accommodate the equipment depth and cabling.

For the shelving in the barn, things are pretty simple because, the computer is a tower and sits on the side of the desk. Only the monitor, mouse, and keyboard are on the desk. The desk is wide, so the shelving needs center supports. I just made sure that the center supports were wide enough so I could slide the keyboard under the first shelf, to get it out of the way when it wasn't needed.

But in the house, I use a laptop computer. If I made the equipment shelf the same as the one in the barn, 11" (0.279 M) deep, the laptop would be pushed too far forward. I solved that by putting a divit in the center that reduced the depth by 3" (0.076 M). This allows the laptop screen to recess further and be inline with the equipment fronts.

I have a tendency to move thing around on paper, before I actually build it. In this case I uses a drawing tool. I am attaching a drawing for the equipment shelf I made for use in the house, with my laptop. It may give you some ideas for your own use. Everything is to scale. I reduced it to 25 percent of it original size for this post, but it is still readable.

Martin - K7MEM