How did you tackle dust collection and electrical in a budget garage workshop?

[Andrew_L]

I've been working on converting my old detached garage into a proper woodworking shop for the past two years, doing all the work myself around my day job, and I'm finally at a point where it's functional and organized. The biggest challenge was installing proper dust collection and electrical for all my tools on a tight budget. I'd love to see what other members are building or creating in their own spaces, whether it's a home workshop, a garden transformation, or a creative studio. What projects are you most proud of lately, and what was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome to get it finished?

[Justin75]

Nice work—that setup sounds solid. Dust collection is usually the budget bottleneck. I started with a 1.5–2 HP dust collector and built a DIY separator to pull chips before the bag, which dramatically cut dust and kept bags from clogging. For power, I ran dedicated 20A circuits to the big tools and added a small subpanel—worth it for reliability and future expansion.