Well since moving into a new house about 3 years ago I have been extending, decorating and generally trying to satisfy the needs of the family and work whilst my workshop was a tip!!!
When we moved in the removal men dumped all the stuff labeled Garage and I had one day off work to semi create a workshop using what I had from the last house which was a very deep (600mm) sturdy shelving unit, electronics workbench and a large high mounted woodworking bench that my table saw could fit under.This did fit in and was usable but was very ineficient for storage and had to juggle stuff around to use the table saw or SCMS . This all came to a head when I purchased a Dewalt P/T which was the final straw and I realised I had to have a big sort out.
I did quite a lot of online research on this forum and other websites and one of the most useful was an article in Fine Woodworking by Matthew Teague entitled Smart Shop in a One Car Garage http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop ... x?id=29505 This gave me the impetus to create a design, which I modified a fair bit for my own needs andequipment that I had.
I did all the planning in Sketchup and found it very useful to move things about to work out clearances and simulate a working method in there. Accurate measuring really helped with this stage and to my amazement I had very few problems during the build.
I decided to make the certrepiec a large worktop and storage unit made from 18mm MR MDF and softwood bracing for the top. Cost was an issue and also I wanted the most flexibility and storage for the unit. This was also designed in Sketchup
The design had to incorporate my Triton Router and table, my HUGE Bosch SCMS and provide an outfeed for the tablesaw. I wanted to originally put the TS at the entrance of the garage but the garage contruction would have lost too much TS width at the entrance due to the brick front.
The other big requirement was to install an extraction system and a second hand DX500 was purchased from Blister of this manor (many thanks) and a rediculous amount of money spent on tubing, adapters and blast gates. Is it just me or are these cheaply made plastic fittings a total rip off?
So about 6 weeks ago I started in evenings and weekends to empty the garage into the shed and greenhouse as much as possible but was still left with a lot of stuff including the tools and existing units in the garage. This meant I had to paint the floor and walls in installments which was very frustrating so I actually did the whole fitting out in sections by clearing the main area where the unit was to be installed and painting that area and then getting stuck into the construction. The unit was made with housing joints and went together OK but I thought it would make a more stable unit if I built it in one piece. Well it is stable but it was (and is) stupidly heavy and tipping it over for gluing and screwing became a feat of hernia inducing levels. Fortunately I managed to avoid any injuries and this was the result
With this completed the drawers were made and the 6 large ones on the LHS have full extension heavy duty slides and I have most of my power tools in them. They also have power inside them for battery chargers and this reminds me when I return them to put the batteries on charge.
I then was able to put all my tools away in the drawers and mount tool hanging hooks etc onto a backboard. This cleared another area in the wksp and I painted another section allowing to build the drill/morticer/sanding station which is set high enough to mount the P/T underneath. The P/T is the onl;y tool I cannot use without taking it outside the garage which is just too small to allow for this. I have a 100mm hose that I can hook up to the P/T when it is outside to extract from.
This then lead to the extraction system which is mainly done in 63mm pipe due to space constraints. This is using the Axminster kit and works pretty well and I have sealed all the joints with silicone to improve the vacuum performance. The DX5000 is very potent and not as noisy as I had expected from comments so I am very please with it.
The next big job was installing and leveling the T/S which took about 3 hrs of cursing and millions of cups of tea but in the end is pretty perfect and has a nice outfeed onto the worktop.
The finla job was to sort out storage and I decided to cover the walls with sturdy 300mm deep shelves and use storage boxes for pretty much everything. In the corner I have some racks for sheet stock and offcusts with longer items stored above – lust long enough for 2.4M lengths! Not everything is back in the wksp yet and I have a fair bit of capacity left and have nice clear floorspace to work in and have put down some soft mats to walk on which make a huge difference to just concrete.
I hope you enjoyed reading my little post, it is by way of a thank you to the many posts I have read and got ideas from! The work is of course, never done but I am really happy with how it looks and it should greatly improve the working conditions for me.
When we moved in the removal men dumped all the stuff labeled Garage and I had one day off work to semi create a workshop using what I had from the last house which was a very deep (600mm) sturdy shelving unit, electronics workbench and a large high mounted woodworking bench that my table saw could fit under.This did fit in and was usable but was very ineficient for storage and had to juggle stuff around to use the table saw or SCMS . This all came to a head when I purchased a Dewalt P/T which was the final straw and I realised I had to have a big sort out.
I did quite a lot of online research on this forum and other websites and one of the most useful was an article in Fine Woodworking by Matthew Teague entitled Smart Shop in a One Car Garage http://www.finewoodworking.com/Workshop ... x?id=29505 This gave me the impetus to create a design, which I modified a fair bit for my own needs andequipment that I had.
I did all the planning in Sketchup and found it very useful to move things about to work out clearances and simulate a working method in there. Accurate measuring really helped with this stage and to my amazement I had very few problems during the build.
I decided to make the certrepiec a large worktop and storage unit made from 18mm MR MDF and softwood bracing for the top. Cost was an issue and also I wanted the most flexibility and storage for the unit. This was also designed in Sketchup
The design had to incorporate my Triton Router and table, my HUGE Bosch SCMS and provide an outfeed for the tablesaw. I wanted to originally put the TS at the entrance of the garage but the garage contruction would have lost too much TS width at the entrance due to the brick front.
The other big requirement was to install an extraction system and a second hand DX500 was purchased from Blister of this manor (many thanks) and a rediculous amount of money spent on tubing, adapters and blast gates. Is it just me or are these cheaply made plastic fittings a total rip off?
So about 6 weeks ago I started in evenings and weekends to empty the garage into the shed and greenhouse as much as possible but was still left with a lot of stuff including the tools and existing units in the garage. This meant I had to paint the floor and walls in installments which was very frustrating so I actually did the whole fitting out in sections by clearing the main area where the unit was to be installed and painting that area and then getting stuck into the construction. The unit was made with housing joints and went together OK but I thought it would make a more stable unit if I built it in one piece. Well it is stable but it was (and is) stupidly heavy and tipping it over for gluing and screwing became a feat of hernia inducing levels. Fortunately I managed to avoid any injuries and this was the result
With this completed the drawers were made and the 6 large ones on the LHS have full extension heavy duty slides and I have most of my power tools in them. They also have power inside them for battery chargers and this reminds me when I return them to put the batteries on charge.
I then was able to put all my tools away in the drawers and mount tool hanging hooks etc onto a backboard. This cleared another area in the wksp and I painted another section allowing to build the drill/morticer/sanding station which is set high enough to mount the P/T underneath. The P/T is the onl;y tool I cannot use without taking it outside the garage which is just too small to allow for this. I have a 100mm hose that I can hook up to the P/T when it is outside to extract from.
This then lead to the extraction system which is mainly done in 63mm pipe due to space constraints. This is using the Axminster kit and works pretty well and I have sealed all the joints with silicone to improve the vacuum performance. The DX5000 is very potent and not as noisy as I had expected from comments so I am very please with it.
The next big job was installing and leveling the T/S which took about 3 hrs of cursing and millions of cups of tea but in the end is pretty perfect and has a nice outfeed onto the worktop.
The finla job was to sort out storage and I decided to cover the walls with sturdy 300mm deep shelves and use storage boxes for pretty much everything. In the corner I have some racks for sheet stock and offcusts with longer items stored above – lust long enough for 2.4M lengths! Not everything is back in the wksp yet and I have a fair bit of capacity left and have nice clear floorspace to work in and have put down some soft mats to walk on which make a huge difference to just concrete.
I hope you enjoyed reading my little post, it is by way of a thank you to the many posts I have read and got ideas from! The work is of course, never done but I am really happy with how it looks and it should greatly improve the working conditions for me.
