Setting up new shop

Re: Setting up new shop

Dick Hines

My Grand Dad had his table saw set up in front of a window. Just add a roller on the window sill and long pieces can be run right out the window.

All his other tools were on the outside walls. This setup gave him tons of floor space in the middle.

Re: Setting up new shop

William Duffield

I would put everything except the drill press and the Mustard Monster on wheels. Bolt the drill press to the floor where you can work around it at least 270° (maybe with a center column directly behind it). If you put the Oneida on the other side of the same column, you will minimize the longest pipe run for efficiency, and it will be a lot easier to access it to empty it than if it were stuck back in a corner somewhere. If you need to move the lathe, go to Harbor Freight and get a three ton hydraulic floor jack and a couple of furniture dollies.

Re: Setting up new shop

mikeee12345

A chainsaw comes in handy for cutting the back wall of the garage when you add on. :-)

Depending on your projects you should have ample room for your equipment and work space.

Drawing your shop out to scale on graph paper or on an excel spreadsheet will give you notice

of any issues you might run into when laying out the equipment and work space. An easy way

to graph it out is to cut templates of each piece of equipment and lay them out on a graph paper

with your shop dimensions outlined on the graph paper. Easier to move pieces of paper then heavy

equipment.

Re: Setting up new shop

Don Stephan

When you lay out patterns for the equipment, include necessary room in front of and behind for boards and sheet goods. For example, narrow strip at least 10' long each side of the table saw blade, jointer, planer for long boards, et cetera.

Re: Setting up new shop

Dwight Rutherford

If you go to Grizzley Industrial, there is a free shop planner program that I found very useful.

http://www.grizzly.com/workshopplanner

Re: Setting up new shop

John K Jordan

I included infeed, outfeed space in my paper cutouts. I also made circular cutouts for minimum and desired walking space between things. I agree that a shop that size might make good use of mobile bases.

JKJ

Re: Setting up new shop

Barry Irby

My shop is smaller than that. I have mobile bases, but almost never use them because there is nowhere to go. I have to go outside to change my mind.

One thing I did that has been important is I have the TS setup in front of the overhead door. There is 16' of infeed and only five feet of out feed. If I need to saw something long, I open the door and I can rip a 16' piece. Likewise, the jointer is set up in front of the pedestrian door. I can open the door to feed long stock. My lathe is against a wall. Not good if you like to get to the backside. Don't forget the over and under. The outfeed for the bandsaw is the top of the planer. The outfeed for the planer is under the wing of the TS. It's a strange ballet, but it's good exercise.

Re: Setting up new shop

john lucas

Bob Before I ever unpacked my "Pod" I layed out places for the 3 major machines. I put the lathe in first and mapped out an area around it. I put the bandsaw in next between the 2 garage doors. That left me space on both sides for infeed and outfeed. Then I layed out a sheet of plywood on the floor to represent the table saw. After moving it around a bunch and twisting it I found that if I put it at an angle large sheets of plywood would clear the bandsaw and long boards being ripped would just clear the garage door when it was closed and could pass all the way passed the blade before hitting the back wall.

A major consideration for designing...........

JamieDonaldson

............a shop layout is work flow, and that varies with each individual. Give consideration to how you divide your projects based on the tools and machines required, then design the floor space according to how those projects are produced and machine space requirements. I am a fan of mounting some machines on rolling bases so that they can be stored out of the way when not required for the project at hand.

Re: Setting up new shop

Jeff Smith

I'm still setting up my new shop, been nearly a year and a half in the planning/construction. It's 26 x 22 feet with a loft area above that's 13 x 20 (storage/office area that will double as added guest room eventually). I've got roughly the same equipment as your list. I put the lathe up front in the space in front of about 15 feet of bifold doors. The table saw is behind it with an outfeed table/storage cabinet 4' x 6'. I do a lot of finish work there. Wood floors on doubled joists throughout will let me run electrical, compressed air and dust collection from the generous crawl space below eventually. Getting the compressor and D.C. Out of the floor plan really fees up space.

Everything is on mobile bases so it can move as needed. Still building casework for the outside wall. Big windows, a slider and 12 x 15 deck out back. All overlooks the creek running through a forest of fir, maple, alder and madrone overlooking the Salish Sea. Peaceful place to work if I can last another 8 months to retirement...

We planned it as a shop, then built to residential standards (without the plumbing) so it can easily be converted to a guest house if we ever move (unlikely).

Re: Setting up new shop

Mike Stafford

My shop is 20'x24' and after nearly 30 years it has about 10 square feet of open space.

Does your shop have a usable attic that can be accessed by a pull down staircase? If so that opens up all kinds of possibilities for storage of small non-heavy items. My attic has become my long term roughed out blank storage kiln.

Never forget that during nice weather the shop can be extended onto the driveway by opening the garage door.

Also don't forget that the ceiling can be used for storage. I have short lumber racks mounted to the ceiling joists for cutoffs less than 4 feet long. much longer than that and it becomes awkward taking stuff down. Be careful of what you put on the ceiling above the area where the overhead door will travel.

Don't forget that you might want to install shower curtain rods on the ceiling to help control flying chips and dust in the vicinity of your lathe.

I don't know if you plan to have benches along any of the walls but I incorporated roll out bins or open sided shelves that fit under my benches. I store portable power tools in their cases/tool boxes in these bins. Storing them under the benches keeps them clean yet accessible.

The more items you can put on wheels the easier it is to move things out of the way or into place.

No more frou-frou room for guests?

A giant lazy susan

john lucas

I think my next shop will have all of the tools on a giant lazy susan. Then I can just stand in one spot and roll the tool I need around to me. I'll have a work bench behind me and an assembly place beside me. Oh and there will be a giant dust collection funnel above the lazy susan and the lazy susan itself will be a big down draft table. And they say money won't by happiness. I certainly want to give it a try. If I don't like the money I can always give it back.

Re: Setting up new shop

Bob Moffett

Thanks for all the tips guys. Ya'll really helped me a lot.