I am going to build a shop from the ground up… seperate building from the house… some sort of a barn style thing, or something. Any ideas on what the minimum floor space should be, and does anyone know of any plans out there? Thanks.
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Replies
Well all I can say is... as big as possible. A extra space for a finishing room would be nice too.
At Darkworks cut to size made to burn......Putty isnt a option
If you dont already have it, get " The Workshop Book" published by taunton, tons of good ideas in there.
Ditto what Ron said, bigger is better, and a separate finishing/spray room would be good. Mine is 13 metres by 7 metres ( whatever that is in imperial ) and although I think it it plenty big enough for what i need, I can still see how more psace would be nice. Bottom line........cant seem to have a shop that is tooooo big.
Allow space for timber storage too.
Wood Hoon
Check your local codes to see if there are any restrictions on size. My city limits the size to 12' by 12' by 12' tall. Needless to say my shop is 12' in every dimension. Make sure you have plenty of juice for your tools, and make it easy to change the layout if your needs change in the future.
Can you have more than one 12x12x12 building? Maybe connected by covered walkways? :) Image of small city in back yard.
Sadly, I can't do anything like that. And trust me, I looked VERY closely at the cities regulations ;) I must say the small size has forced me to be very efficient with my space. Never realized how much I could fit in that space until I had too.
Jeff:
I work in a very small space, about 160 square feet or so. The other day I was struggling to find room to accomplish something, and I paused for a moment to daydream about the ideal sized space. I concluded that I need at least four times the space that I have.
As mentioned before, a room dedicated to finishing is becoming a necessity. I would have room for a traditional workbench. I would also have a bench/assembly table that was about 4' x 5'. Then, I would have a machine area with room for a tablesaw, jointer, planer, mitre saw, and perhaps a bandsaw.
As previously mentioned, make sure you put in a big enough electrical service. Think about climate control as well.
One last thing. Build your walls 10' tall. The saving grace to my small space is that I have high ceilings. I am able to maneuver fairly long boards due to the ceiling height.
Good Luck
I think Norm Abram had a whole book on his...
I just built my shop and I love it. It's a separate building 36' x 50' but my shop is 36' x 30', it has 12' walls, 2x6 walls and well insulated. I'm still in the set-up stage but right now it is usable. I would say it is 80 to 90 percent complete. I designed my own shop using AutoCad. I know what your going thru and all I can say is plan well. I do have one problem, echo, I used 1/2" drywall and painted it off white. the echo is better but still there. I'm hoping it will be better by time I finish getting everything set up.
Ken K
Edited 11/17/2002 7:18:32 PM ET by Ken
Edited 11/17/2002 7:36:35 PM ET by Ken
I have just finished setting up a basement shop in my new house. My first shop was 6x8 feet. My previous was 10 x 25. This one is roughly 30x30.
I have No interior access to the house (so no dust upstairs). The big improvemets are a dehumidifier, sink, more light and enough room so I can jump away from a tool without landing on another ( a saftey feature not to be discounted).
I set up some dust collector steel ducting and grounded it- big improvement over that corrugated pipe IMHO.
There is a secondary big heavy bench now with a 12 drawer set of drawers under it for storage.
I inherited a 87 year old cabinet makers set of treasures/tools to round out my shop and I am good to go.
Lots of blessings have come my way- now to make sawdust!
Frank
Thanks for the note. Good luck with your woodworking.
Ken
my tip is to have a roller shutter on one wall. You can open it when the weather is fine, or to work on long stock.
Flat concrete floor.
Raised timber platform or rubber mat at your bench, much kinder on the legs.
If this is your first shop, you should mount your machines on movable bases. This way you will be able to move them arround while you find an arrangement that works for you.
good building
I recently finished my own 32 x 36 with 10' walls and scissor trusses. I have lots of head room and even had room for an overhead woodloft (storage) in the rear.
I put in 2 skylights on the southern side which give plenty of light most days. Generally during the day I don't need to use my flouresent lighting. The other thing I did was to use roll up doors vs. standard garage doors. Garage doors open overhead and take up valuable space overhead and then collect sawdust. The price difference wasn't that great and I really like the roll ups.
One more thing I did that turned out really well was to put down 3/4 sturdy board plywood flooring over the concrete floor. The plywood provides a little cush under my feet, is much easier to sweep clean at the end of the day, is easier on tools and strangely seems to help in controlling humidity in the shop. My neighbor has a similar shop without the plywood flooring and he has a rust problem with his tools that I don't seem to have.
Bring in enough electrical service and put in more outlets than you think you'll need. Its not that expensive while you are building and once its done you'll be surprised how many you can find a use for. You don't want to be running extension cords around your new shop when you can take care of the problem in advance. Think out the shop layout and plan ahead. I put my outlets at about 4' high so I can put in cabinets and work benches without covering up the outlets.
Good luck, Hugh
Checkout this link it gives you some sample shop setups http://www.woodmagazine.com/default.sph/wcontent_user.class?FNC=category__Asection_html___7___40
Good luck,
RickL
Jeff, in last year's Tools & Shops issue (FWW # 153, p. 50), Ross Day wrote an article about building his own one-man shop. It's a very informative article, plus there are lots of graphics that show the layout, workflows, etc. I've referred to it often, as I re-organize my own small shop
It's my dream shop. Oh, sure, last week I visited a furnituremaker who shares a 5,000 s.f. shop in a great industrial building with all the amenities, and I experienced major "workshop envy" then, too... but Ross' space would fit me just fine.
Anyway, take a look... it's a good description about starting from scratch to get just what you want, and seems pretty reasonable in terms of construction costs, etc.
David
Look, I made a hat -- Where there never was a hat!
Dave
I cannot find my copy of the article in Tools and Shop. I remember a little about the one I think you're referring too. What was the sq. footage if not too much trouble.
Still digging trying to find the mag, if only the house was as organized as the shop. ha..ha..
Good evening..
sarge..jt
Sarge, sorry, I won't have access to my stash of FWW back issues until later this week, but when I get to it I'll post the critical data.
Off the top of my head, I think the square footage was slightly more than the two-car garage shop described in the current Tools & Shops special issue. What I really liked about last year's article was the description of how the wood storage, prep, bench and finishing areas were laid out in a nice flow, along with discussions of some of the many decisions (electrical, dust collection, heating, flooring, ventilation, light, etc.) that had to be made prior to the construction.
Of course, this year's Tools & Shops covers some of the same territory in the many articles it contains... but for some reason, the layout and look of Ross Day's shop struck a chord with me. Maybe it's because I'm a Washingtonian at heart, like Mr. Day -- despite the fact that I left the nest 20 years ago and took up the Midwestern life. (And though I'd be hard-pressed to say what, exactly, is "Washingtonian" about Mr. Day's shop!)
DavidLook, I made a hat -- Where there never was a hat!
Dave
Thanks, looking forward to reply. Very diplomatic answer meaning, I'll get back to you. Of course, what should be expected of a Washingtonian..ha..ha..
Have a good evening..
sarge..jt
Sarge, looks like a few others have stepped up to the plate. Let me/us know if you need more.
And as for "diplomacy" and "Washington," well, I'm originally from that OTHER Washington (the state), where we may not be the most diplomatic, but darned if we aren't polite! Well, we were, until all those Californians moved up north.
Uh-oh, now I did it! I'm stereotyping and opening a can of worms! -- and hopefully you realize this is a joke. But here's a quick story to illustrate how bad the problem used to be:
My extended family has lived in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho for generations. In about 1960 my parents moved to California (my dad was in the military); in 1969 they moved back up to Spokane. When our new neighbors saw the California license plates on my father's car, they refused -- literally -- to speak to my parents unless they were directly addressed and couldn't get out of saying at least something. Then, after a few months of the cold shoulders, my mother let it slip that she and my father had both graduated from one of the local high schools -- and oh! things were different then! In a very short time, my parents' house became a central gathering point in the neighborhood.
I think things have changed, for the better, since our society has become much more mobile.
DavidLook, I made a hat -- Where there never was a hat!
Sarge
Pulled my copy off the shelf <g> Ross's shop is 1300 sq ft, 36 ft x 36 ft, 12 ft floor to trusses.just under half is bench room, the rest machine room.
oh the joys of a newly installed bookcase :)
ian - HM - Dave
Thanks for the info. Sounds like a nice figure. Got 850 with and additional 850 in basement for wood racks and storage. Instead of whine, guess I'll consider myself fortunate. My first shop had about 80 sq. ft., if you stepped over the lawn mower and storage boxes. Ha....
Did you guys see the brick shop the guy is building in the new Tools and Shops. Love that one. Kelly Mehler's shop is an old car dealer-ship from the 50's. That guy has more saws than Mother Goose nursery ryhmes.
Seems to be a lot of nice shops out there. Maybe someone will start a thread with Knot's that want to show some pics. I'm proud of what I got and I'm sure there are many others that are also. Those still contemplating might pick up some ideas instead of just copy one that has already been designed by another..
Have a great evening all...
sarge..jt
Sarge, I just finished going over the Ross Day article. The shop is 36 x 36.
see ya, Hugh
Jeff,
I think the ideas given so far are quite good. I'll just add a few from my dream shop file.
I think the best way to compute size is to use scale cut-outs of your machines and fixtures and lay them out on graph paper. Once you come up with a satisfactory design, increase the size by 25%-30%. If you want to pull out all the stops, check out Garrett Hack's new shop in FWW - wow!
Jeff K
Jeff -
For the layout of the interior of the shop, do this.
Pile all your tools and benches out into the middle of the floor and start your first wood working project. Move stuff around as you need them. After about a dozen projects, they wil be in their rightful place! (until you start your thirteenth project)
PS - I put 110 outlets on every other stud with a different circuit for each wall. Also have about 6 or 8 outlets on the ceiling. Never have enough outlets! The 220V outlets are over in a corner where i put my biggies.
Is this going to be a business? If so, have the electric company run a separate meter.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
PlaneWood
Hi,
thousand Sq. Ft. minimum. 10' Min. ceilings. Lots of sky lights, and run all of your
electrical in conduit, it's alot easier to change. Also fire sprinklers are not a bad
idea.
Cheerz, Glendo.
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