Workshop space..... How low can you go?

[JustBen]

The house I currently live in has been sold by the landlord so I'm on the look for a new one.

I currently have a 25m2 workshop/double garage but a lot of the houses only have single garages.

I've got a horrible feeling that a single garage will be tiny. I find it hard to picture the size in my head.

I'm in the process of converting my existing machinery/cabinets to have wheels so that I can shuffle them around.

I've got a cabinet table saw, lathe, bandsaw, 2 workbenches, scroll saw, grinder, drill press, 2 tall shelf units and piles of timber and junk.

I'm slowly shrinking the junk down but it's not easy.

How many of you use a single garage? Do you find it useable or an utter pain? Pictures would be a great help too.

I know there is no right or wrong answer but just want to know if I should dig my heels in with SWMBO and negotiate for a bigger workspace.

Ta

 

[Baldhead]

I'm a diy woodworker and I work in/from a single garage, its a PITA, I am making roll along units and taking out all my benches, in the good weather I work from a B&D workmate on the driveway.
I think it was the late Ron Fox who's workshop was so small, that when working on long lengths of timber he used to have to stick the wood out of an open window.
I would love a double garage.

Baldhead

 

[hazel]

we have converted half a double garage into our workshop (boyfriends parents garage that they are allowing us to use half of). There are sometimes space issues, but we have arranged most things in a way that fit, and currently have a lathe, bandsaw, scrollsaw, pillar drill, 2 welders, a plasma cutter, and god knows what else in there lol. So ye, you can fit more than you'd think into these places, just takes a bit of thinking about at times I guess

 

[RossJarvis]

In the circumstances I think you probably need a double garage, or single garage plus b-large shed. My workshop is so small I have to use the garden if I want to cut anything longer than 6 inches or swing a mallet (hammer), it is PITA in the Winter

 

[dann]

My workshop is my dining room it's about 14x 10 ish got main bench I've just finished, cupboards, bandsaw dewalt flip over table saw it's just big enough

 

[wellywood]

My shop is small - only 3.6 x 2.4 m but I do have a seperate smaller shed for timber storage and finishing work. The only thing in my shop that's fixed is the workbench - everything else is on self-made mobile units with lockable casters.
Works for me. but I guess it depends what size projects you're into.

 

[riclepp]

This is my single garage workshop...works for me

my-garage-aheemmmm-workshop-t70637.html

 

[adidat]

I think this thread really highlights the english way of getting things done whatever the circumstances.

Love it!

Adidat

 

[mseries]

I work in a single garage, not all of it either. Also in it is 3 bicycles, 2 lawn mowers, shredder and other gardening stuff. I don't have any fixed woodworking machines though

 

[deserter]

I work in a 6x8 shed, and yes you may be forgiven for thinking that is as a hobbyist however of late I've been working semi commercially from there, looking forward to the day I can move up to a larger building.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~

 

[cutting42]

Here is the thread I wrote a while back on my single garage workshop. As a testament to it, I have hardly changed a thing since then. Very flexible and I have made so biggish stuff in there as well.

fitting-a-workshop-into-a-single-garage-a-story-t34326.html?hilit=workshop

 

[Alexam]

That's brilliant. It has given ]me some ideas for my garage.

Alex

 

[alan895]

I am in a single garage but I've never let that restrict me though it helps to have some kind of strategy for tool storage, mobility etc. Plenty of online resources on this subject.

 

[Waka]

When I started I did it all from a single garage, although I have to say it was slightly wider and longer 22' x 12'.
I managed for years in this space, everything was on wheels and could be moved around as required.
I then had it extended by 18' and thought this was going to be fantastic. Years later I still think I could do with extra space.
It doesn't matter how much space you have for a workshop, it's the way you use that space. I bet everyone would like a larger workshop, but as hobbyist's we just live with what we've got.

There are some super laid out workshops in spaces you wouldn't think possible with all the contents, so,again it's not the area it's the layout that makes a space work.

 

[No skills]

This is quite a well timed thread for me. I'm currently lining out my single garage to use as a workshop and need some ideas for layout and work flow. Thanks to those that have posted their own threads.

 

[morfa]

A thought for those with Garages. A couple of tarps and a few poles will give you some extra space (even if it's raining) when the door is up. You could easily knock up a frame which you could store away and take up and down in 5 mins or so.

Personally for me with no power tools to speak of a single garage would be perfect.

 

[KevM]

I've used one of those pop-up gazebo jobs for occasional outside space, they're quite useful for taking particularly messy or smelly stuff outside.

Should have prefixed this with: I do most of my work in a 1.5 length single garage, primarily hand tools, my only machinery is a bandsaw and big vac with cyclone bin stuck on top. I keep trying new arrangements but have yet to achieve anything TARDIS-like. My most recent acquisition was a rather fine Bott(?) rolling workbench with drawers and cupboards which I'm hoping will rationalise a lot of the small stuff that seems to steal my already limited bench space.

For surfaces I've got a 1.2m x 60cm bench with vice, a 1m x 60cm rolling tool cupboard and a Bosch folding work bench. It's all just about adequate so long as I think things through and plan ahead. I think I'm probably rather like the ideal gas law, i.e. I will continue to expand to fill the available volume, so maybe it's a good idea to limit the volume.

I've also got a set of Triton superjaws that I use very rarely for outside stuff, I'm probably going to dispose of these because I use them so rarely now.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

One thing with a smaller space is that it forces you to think very carefully about what you want to do. If you intend to build furniture, you do need some empty space to stand the growing carcase, and have some space left over to actually stand up in. That may limit the amount of machinery you can accommodate.

Working handtools only (or hand and hand-held power tools only) may not be everybody's first choice, but it doesn't half free up space. All you need is a bench, a pair of saw-horses, storage for tools (toolchest, cupboard, tool-wall) a rack for clamps and a cupboard for glues, screws and sundries. In a single garage, that would leave just about enough space for a project to stand, with a bit of breathing space around it. You do have to be ruthless with 'stuff' though, otherwise it very quickly dominates a small space.

Machinery might even be more bother than it would be worth in such a space. Even small machines need dust extraction, which is more space gone (and more expense and maintenance), plus infeed and outfeed space. Once you'd got a bandsaw, planer-thicknesser and SCMS in, with dust extraction, there'd be no room left to stand a job in, unless you confine yourself to small work like jewellery boxes.

I know it's entirely a matter of personal choice, and I'm certainly not suggesting that machine use in a single garage is impossible, but free space is something very few people consider when planning a workshop; when you don't have any, you certainly learn it's value!

 

[dann]

My almost finished dining room workshop

 

[KevM]

My almost finished dining room workshop

Conjures up a whole new image for carving the Sunday joint...