Workshop Satisfaction
- Thread starter ByronBlack
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MikeG.
Established Member
One great tip in a small workshop is to have hatches in the walls allowing longer lengths of timber to be passed through a machine. My first (tiny) workshop had 2, and even my current decent sized 'shop has one at the end of the RAS bench.
Mike
Mike
Gary S
Established Member
woodbloke":1vhzvo8c said:
I guess this is the crux of the issue and the balancing act you need to make - I have a garage 2.8m x 5m and I do have to move things around to use them (mainly because of the amount of wood I have stored!).
The other option (apart from POSSIBLY arranging things in a smarter way, which this thread is challenging me to do!) is to sell machinery. I wouldn't want to lose my Triton station (router table / table saw), my bandsaw, my SCMS or my P/T so I just have to accept that by having all of this kit i will have to move things around at times.
Until, that is, we move and I get myself a double garage!! (maybe one day!)
wizer
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I'm sure t aunton won't mind me posting this, it's only a snippet of a very good article, which you can get if you subscribe to their online service for pennies.
I have looked at this image maybe a thousand times. I even have it pinned to the wall in my office (yeh i'm clearly a sad git). It just seems such an obvious layout. My floor space is bigger than this, so it should be simple to transfer, right? I dunno, what I think this layout lacks is storage. Yeh there are a few cupboards and shelves. But I just seem to have a lot more junk that needs housing. Not to mention wood. I create that amount of offcuts in a day (I call it cock-up wood
).
It's ideal for the restrained woodworker. The one who buys enough wood for what he needs and has all the tools he wants and needs. Everyone here knows that that's not a description of a woodworker! :lol:
I have looked at this image maybe a thousand times. I even have it pinned to the wall in my office (yeh i'm clearly a sad git). It just seems such an obvious layout. My floor space is bigger than this, so it should be simple to transfer, right? I dunno, what I think this layout lacks is storage. Yeh there are a few cupboards and shelves. But I just seem to have a lot more junk that needs housing. Not to mention wood. I create that amount of offcuts in a day (I call it cock-up wood
).It's ideal for the restrained woodworker. The one who buys enough wood for what he needs and has all the tools he wants and needs. Everyone here knows that that's not a description of a woodworker! :lol:
I have a similar layout in a double garage but with the bottom LHS quarter taken up with wood and other stuff
I have lots of shelves and racks but lots of other stuff to house too - ladders, surfboard, train set (suspended from ceiling) plus all the othe gubbings like sanders, angle griders, biscuiter, drills, saws, nails, paint, screws, fittings, compressor, jet wash, lawn mower, 2 bikes etc etc. - lthe list is enourmous!
There is nothing that I really want to get rid of (well perhaps the 1960's Bilbo surfboard?) so it's down to making do with what I have?
I suppose if I had something bigger I would just fill that up with stuff too?
Rod
I have lots of shelves and racks but lots of other stuff to house too - ladders, surfboard, train set (suspended from ceiling) plus all the othe gubbings like sanders, angle griders, biscuiter, drills, saws, nails, paint, screws, fittings, compressor, jet wash, lawn mower, 2 bikes etc etc. - lthe list is enourmous!
There is nothing that I really want to get rid of (well perhaps the 1960's Bilbo surfboard?) so it's down to making do with what I have?
I suppose if I had something bigger I would just fill that up with stuff too?
Rod
I'm now on at workshop no 7. The first shop was around before I was born fitted with quite some old hand tools from my granddad and great granddad. It wass small about 1.5 by 2 metre with a not so sturdy bench taking up 50% of space. Also there was workshop no 2 quite bigger with a contractors table saw and loads of hand tools at our house at the other side of town opposite to out clothing manufacturing hall. However I hardly have spent any time there.
Shops no 3, 4 and 5 where not personally owned or kitted out, they where only available to me from early morning to late in the day and sometimes all weekend. These where wonderfully kitted out with every tool and machine imaginable. From table saw, shaper, bandsaw, lathe etcetera to a CNC gang mill.
Shop 6 again was at home and not really dedicated to a room. Some handtools, portable power tools. All put together for DIY stuff which soon started to morph into wood and metal working again. Along with a 2.5 by 2 metre workshop with a quite decent bench.
Now I'm setting up shop no 7 dropping lots of the DIY portable power tools and replacing them with hand tools and some stationary kit. The only problem still with setting up this shop is space. I'm still limited to the 2.5 by 2 metre area.
There are plans to move the greenhouse and join that to the current workshop. But the city council will not give a permit because they feel that more then 50% of the grounds around the house will have buildings. on it (with the current setup the same area is ocupied, which they are happy about), they decided that a significant portain of the building (part of the original house as build more than a century ago) is suddenly garden, and that the building and that of our neighbours is illegally build without a permit. I have the aproved permit, so clearly they are pack of lying basters, probably with some hidden agenda. So I dragged the council to the courts.
In the mean time I have the parlour as a backup shop for the spill over from the tiny one
Shops no 3, 4 and 5 where not personally owned or kitted out, they where only available to me from early morning to late in the day and sometimes all weekend. These where wonderfully kitted out with every tool and machine imaginable. From table saw, shaper, bandsaw, lathe etcetera to a CNC gang mill.
Shop 6 again was at home and not really dedicated to a room. Some handtools, portable power tools. All put together for DIY stuff which soon started to morph into wood and metal working again. Along with a 2.5 by 2 metre workshop with a quite decent bench.
Now I'm setting up shop no 7 dropping lots of the DIY portable power tools and replacing them with hand tools and some stationary kit. The only problem still with setting up this shop is space. I'm still limited to the 2.5 by 2 metre area.
There are plans to move the greenhouse and join that to the current workshop. But the city council will not give a permit because they feel that more then 50% of the grounds around the house will have buildings. on it (with the current setup the same area is ocupied, which they are happy about), they decided that a significant portain of the building (part of the original house as build more than a century ago) is suddenly garden, and that the building and that of our neighbours is illegally build without a permit. I have the aproved permit, so clearly they are pack of lying basters, probably with some hidden agenda. So I dragged the council to the courts.
In the mean time I have the parlour as a backup shop for the spill over from the tiny one
ByronBlack
Established Member
OPJ":1xrfcz8b said:DangerousDave, I think this may be what you're looking for, if you haven't found it already.
Thats the exact article I was referring too earlier, I had almost the exact same layout with my last lot of machines/setup. It worked reasonably well for me.
I'm going to use a similar layout for the tablesaw, however, instead of having a seperate out-feed table, I'm going to use my workbench as the out-feed, this will free up more space, and allow me to run a worktop and storage the entire width at the back of the workshop for increased storage and space for a sharpening station, guitar setup area etc..
ByronBlack
Established Member
wizer":bvyt7rs9 said:
I noticed that last year when I first saw the article, there were photos somewhere of him moving into the newly built one, but hey, I think he got it right for the single garage layout - with a few small mods, I think this is probably optimal.
bugbear
Established Member
ByronBlack":2gr841rq said:
Need? Yes!
Getting it done? Not yet.
BugBear
ByronBlack
Established Member
I'm feeling crushed just looking at those pics BB!
DangerousDave
Established Member
DangerousDave
Established Member
wizer":19669kxu said:
I agree Wizer; I'm using this design but with 500mm kitchen base units for the cabinets (handy for levelling everything), planing on having plenty of wall mounted storage as well but I haven't a clue about what to do for timber storage, never mind sheet goods :shock: I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to be hyper organized with stock and only order what I need for the current project, and be equally ruthless when it comes to getting rid of the off-cut mountain.
Byron, I've put the CMS station in front of the table saw to give me extended outfeed, workbench is going beside planer. Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out. It's hard to think of a more ergonomic layout than this one
ByronBlack
Established Member
I wanted to give a quick update on the new layout in my new ventures into workshop satisfaction.
I've integrated the TS with the workbench acting as the out-feed, this gives access all round the workbench and the TS a central location. Drill press is to the left of the TS, bandsaw is in front of the TS near the double-doors to allow for feeding of long pieces if required. I can safely rip-cut an 8ft piece with the TS in it's current position.
I've just finished building a new shelving/worktop unit which spans the width of the workshop at the back and started doing the lining:
This provides storage for all those annoying power-tool cases, and my new thicknesser and SCMS. The wall will be peg-boarded and a have a shelf. This should give me all the space I need for marking out in furniture projects without cluttering up the workbench, and will also provide a workspace for working on guitars.
Over the coming week, I'll be making some new smaller wall-mounted tool cabinets, and next month will see the building of an integrated rolling cabinet for the TS and built-in router-table to complete the new setup.
I've integrated the TS with the workbench acting as the out-feed, this gives access all round the workbench and the TS a central location. Drill press is to the left of the TS, bandsaw is in front of the TS near the double-doors to allow for feeding of long pieces if required. I can safely rip-cut an 8ft piece with the TS in it's current position.
I've just finished building a new shelving/worktop unit which spans the width of the workshop at the back and started doing the lining:
This provides storage for all those annoying power-tool cases, and my new thicknesser and SCMS. The wall will be peg-boarded and a have a shelf. This should give me all the space I need for marking out in furniture projects without cluttering up the workbench, and will also provide a workspace for working on guitars.
Over the coming week, I'll be making some new smaller wall-mounted tool cabinets, and next month will see the building of an integrated rolling cabinet for the TS and built-in router-table to complete the new setup.
DangerousDave
Established Member
Lookin good, Byron, really like the idea of the workbench as the outfeed, might have to adopt that approach myself...
ByronBlack
Established Member
DangerousDave":af48syuo said:Lookin good, Byron, really like the idea of the workbench as the outfeed, might have to adopt that approach myself...
The only downside to this is you need to have a clean top almost all the time, this is partly why I built the long worktop at the back to do all my marking up sanding etc..
That looks great ByronBlack. I've struggled for some time with my space (a little less than 3m x 3m). If I were to select the single most effective goal that I have pursued over the years it has been to free up floor space. The room is now crammed with about the same amount of stuff as a few years ago, and even more tools/machines, but with a lot less stuff sitting on the floor. Apart from the obvious benefits of being able to move around more freely, I find that psychologically the room is now far less daunting to spend time in (having to move lots of stuff, or any even, just to get into the room made every project a huge challenge even before it started!).
The things that have worked for me are as follows:
* In areas that are awkward to use for anything else (such as boxed-in pipes in one corner of my room) I have put in small shelves from floor to ceiling. These shelves are small enough to not need much support (so sacrifice less space that extra supports would require) but hold my drills, circular saw, glues, etc.
* I hung boards on the walls (using french cleats) on which I have mounted most of my hand tools. These boards are high enough to allow my bench and router table to sit undernearh and butt right up against the wall.
* My router table, bandsaw, and piller drill are all on wheels so that I can moved them around, or even out of the room when I need to (it is a room within the house so moving stuff out of the room for short spells isn't a problem). I will put my portable thicknesser on wheels too for the same reason, any day now... Good castors are vital for this - I use 4" wheels as I found smaller wheels had trouble with my not-very-smooth floor. For a small space I found 4 rotating and lockable castors per unit was necessary too - having two fixed and two rotating castors per unit made them extremely difficult to manoeuvre in the space available.
* I built drawers into all of my mobile machine units, mostly for tools related to those machines. The units take up no more space as a result but are far more practical now and have freed up a lot of space elsewhere in the room. A side benefit is that the mobile units provide an even better base for the machines now, due to the extra weight.
* For wood storage I attached a few pieces of 4"x2" length of pine to the wall, floor to ceiling, and attached doubled-up standard shelf brackets to these (shelf brackets are this style). This has worked out very well. They have proved more than strong enough for my storage needs, are adjustable, were free (I salvaged them from work), and I have kept the shelves high enough to allow me to sit 8'x4' sheets of ply resting against the wall underneath. I also roll my mobile machines underneath too. ...mind you, I loaded the shelves and left them loaded for a few days before deciding the whole lot were not going to topple over, before I ever moved my machines underneath!
Unused space within this wood storage area also provides sturdy shelving for things like my air filter.
* I moved to the attic anything that I don't need to use regularly. Moving my powertool boxes to the attic freed up a lot of space - the tools themselves fit onto shelves and into the drawers in the mobile bases.
My space is still cluttered, and tweaking it will be a lifelong job, but the above changes have made it far more work-friendly than I thought at various stages it could ever become. If I had a bigger space I'd still do many of the same things as they have proved very effective at making best use of all available space.
The things that have worked for me are as follows:
* In areas that are awkward to use for anything else (such as boxed-in pipes in one corner of my room) I have put in small shelves from floor to ceiling. These shelves are small enough to not need much support (so sacrifice less space that extra supports would require) but hold my drills, circular saw, glues, etc.
* I hung boards on the walls (using french cleats) on which I have mounted most of my hand tools. These boards are high enough to allow my bench and router table to sit undernearh and butt right up against the wall.
* My router table, bandsaw, and piller drill are all on wheels so that I can moved them around, or even out of the room when I need to (it is a room within the house so moving stuff out of the room for short spells isn't a problem). I will put my portable thicknesser on wheels too for the same reason, any day now... Good castors are vital for this - I use 4" wheels as I found smaller wheels had trouble with my not-very-smooth floor. For a small space I found 4 rotating and lockable castors per unit was necessary too - having two fixed and two rotating castors per unit made them extremely difficult to manoeuvre in the space available.
* I built drawers into all of my mobile machine units, mostly for tools related to those machines. The units take up no more space as a result but are far more practical now and have freed up a lot of space elsewhere in the room. A side benefit is that the mobile units provide an even better base for the machines now, due to the extra weight.
* For wood storage I attached a few pieces of 4"x2" length of pine to the wall, floor to ceiling, and attached doubled-up standard shelf brackets to these (shelf brackets are this style). This has worked out very well. They have proved more than strong enough for my storage needs, are adjustable, were free (I salvaged them from work), and I have kept the shelves high enough to allow me to sit 8'x4' sheets of ply resting against the wall underneath. I also roll my mobile machines underneath too. ...mind you, I loaded the shelves and left them loaded for a few days before deciding the whole lot were not going to topple over, before I ever moved my machines underneath!
Unused space within this wood storage area also provides sturdy shelving for things like my air filter.
* I moved to the attic anything that I don't need to use regularly. Moving my powertool boxes to the attic freed up a lot of space - the tools themselves fit onto shelves and into the drawers in the mobile bases.
My space is still cluttered, and tweaking it will be a lifelong job, but the above changes have made it far more work-friendly than I thought at various stages it could ever become. If I had a bigger space I'd still do many of the same things as they have proved very effective at making best use of all available space.
OPJ
Established Member
Looking good, Byron. But, what's going on with the 2"x2" framing on the walls - if you plan on adding insulation, I think you'll be struggling with the fact that all your wires appear to be behind the framework! :shock: :? :wink:
Pooka, I strongly agree with your point on freeing up floorspace. Maximising your wall space in a small 'shop is one of the best things you can do.
Pooka, I strongly agree with your point on freeing up floorspace. Maximising your wall space in a small 'shop is one of the best things you can do.
ByronBlack
Established Member
OPJ":31zv4wxq said:Looking good, Byron. But, what's going on with the 2"x2" framing on the walls - if you plan on adding insulation, I think you'll be struggling with the fact that all your wires appear to be behind the framework! :shock: :? :wink:
Pooka, I strongly agree with your point on freeing up floorspace. Maximising your wall space in a small 'shop is one of the best things you can do.
I'm really confused by this - what you see is the 4x2 wall studs, the insulation is sitting between them and the wires are in front of the insulation but will be behind the ply lining as per the first photo where I've started adding the first few sheets, the wires are feed through the 4x2 via holes as per normal.
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