Behind the scenes of Indycals new HQ. Pt 1, the printer room
Dec 2, 2021 14:36:03 GMT -5
indy, Michael Chriss, and 2 more like this
Post by indycals on Dec 2, 2021 14:36:03 GMT -5
I had outgrown my workspace in our house, and with ny wife needing some space of her own we bought a new house that gives us the room we need. It was so bad that I was literally tripping over stuff on a daily basis in my office. My printers are very climate sensitive (They need specific temperature/humidity levels to maximize print quality) - it was extremely difficult maintaining said climate in the colder months, as my office was extremely drafty which meant constantly running the fireplace, which worked against the three humidifiers I was using. So the first order in the new hq was a dedicated printer room. The layout had an unfitted portion of the basement that would be perfect for a printer room. Since the printers would be in a different room I had to find a way to connect them, which was a simple solution actually: Ethernet through power lines - this is an ethernet network that uses the electric lines in th e house to transmit data - you just need to plug in ethernet links wherever you need a device. The only catch is, everything on the network has to be on one breaker. So here is what we had to work with. The area on the right would be where my desk goes, the area on the left, is where the printer room would go. We would use an existing outlet on the right, and tap that into a new dedicated 20amp circuit for the printer room (as running commercial printers and humidifiers has a tendency to blow 15amp Arc-Fault breakers). Fortunately I have a great handyman who've we used at all three of our houses we've lived in since we moved to Colorado in 2005 and I knew he'd do a great job.
Here is a better look of the area where the printer room would go:
Construction commences - you can see my printers in the foreground as this area was still a make-shift printer room:
As the room needs to be climate controlled we insulated the interior walls and ceiling
Bathroom-grade, mold resistant drywall was used since humidity needs to be maintained in the 50-60% range
Much like the Death Star in return of the Jedi, it's not 100% finished yet (still need to install some shelving and decorate), but it is fully operational.
From left to right - self-regulating humidifier, neon printer, main decal printer.
After pic, referring back to the first image. Eventually we plan to finish of the unfinished area as a workout room but that might still be a couple years off.
I still have a temp/humidity monitor arriving today so that I can monitor conditions in the printer room from my desk.
Here is a better look of the area where the printer room would go:
Construction commences - you can see my printers in the foreground as this area was still a make-shift printer room:
As the room needs to be climate controlled we insulated the interior walls and ceiling
Bathroom-grade, mold resistant drywall was used since humidity needs to be maintained in the 50-60% range
Much like the Death Star in return of the Jedi, it's not 100% finished yet (still need to install some shelving and decorate), but it is fully operational.
From left to right - self-regulating humidifier, neon printer, main decal printer.
After pic, referring back to the first image. Eventually we plan to finish of the unfinished area as a workout room but that might still be a couple years off.
I still have a temp/humidity monitor arriving today so that I can monitor conditions in the printer room from my desk.
