Hi all, I am pretty new to this forum but I thought I would ask for opinions from you all.
I am building a new shop (well a new house with a wood shop) but the shop is in part of a two car garage. The space is 24′-4″ wide by 23′-8″ deep (inside wall dimensions) over all and has two 9′ garage doors (insulated with windows) The shop area has a bank of windows about 2′ tall and 8′ wide on the south wall. The roof starts 8′ at the doors and goes up to over 17′ at the far end (the house wall)
What I am currently planing on is putting a divider wall down the middle of the building or so giving me a room about 12′-8″ wide for the shop on the south side and a garage for the car on the north. And I will put the compressor and the dust collector in a closet (for lack of better term) that is in the garage part of the space as i can put this in and still have room for the car. I will allow air flow between the closet and the shop and i was thinking of putting in a window so i can see when the dust collector bag needs changing.
I was also thinking that if i make a big (say 11′ wide) doorway between the shop and the garage part i can put in two sliding doors (on 3′ and one 8′) that would allow me to open the shop up to the garage part. This way i can kick the car out and gain more space for when i really need it.
I was thinking that if i set it up right i can get things like the thickness planer for instance to work ok in the shop and then move it into the garage area for when i have a lot of wood to cut.
IN the shop i will have all the standard tools like a table saw, band saw, chop saw, jointer etc. I was also thinking about putting the work bench (I just ordered one from Daufenback (sp?) for my father for Christmas (my father and I will live in the house together) under the windows.
I was also thinking of putting in a small loft to use for wood storage, I tend to buy more wood needed for any given project and after a while i seam to get a collection of wood.
Well any suggestions or comments would be a help. My dad had a wood shop in his old house that we used a lot that was about the same shape as this but smaller so i think this will work. Only problem with the last shop is that it went up in smoke last year (this is why My parents and I are now building a new house together) but i want to make sure that i don’t do something dumb.
PS my dad is very much into the power tool thing but i am starting to use hand tools more for the shear joy of using them (and they seam to give me a better finished result if i use them for final clean up of joints and such)
Well hope this was not to long.
Doug Meyer
Replies
Sounds good to me. My shop is 14' wide, and that always seems to narrow. Have lots of room to dry wood before using, lots of problems arrise from building with wood that isn't completly.
I have a setup almost exactly like you are proposing, but without the dividing wall. I find that although the space is small, the high ceiling at one end is advantageous. I positioned a tall shelving system along the house wall, and the cyclone dust collector went along a taller wall as well. I think you will find that the equipment and small bench will just about fill up the one stall. I would caution against the partition wall, as it may get in the way of wood movement. If you would like pictures of my setup, just let me know.
Thew
My first shop was a two car garage 26' wide by 28 ' deep with two 9 ft. doors and a side service door entrance. It worked great at first but the car got too dusty and dust got into the house every time someone came and went so I ended up partitioning and putting a doorway in between at the garage door end. This worked well and kept all of the dust confined to my space with the windows and service door. A double sliding door also makes sense. I often used the car portion for finishing in good weather as it was not heated. I heated my side with a 200V, 3000W milk house electric heater purchased from McMaster Carr. Worked great, kept it at 70 degrees when it was 10 below zero and the chill factor was minus 30. Good Luck, go for the petition.
Thanks for the comments so far, I would love to see photos of what you have all done. One thing is i live in Mich and while i can (and have) lived with the car outside thier are times like durring Ice storms or hail that i really want it inside. So that is why i was thinking about the large slidding door. If i keep about 4 feet of wall then the opening with a 3foot door then an 8 footer that will give me about 9 feet of wall near the garage doors. I can use the 9' wall to put some of the equipment against and still open most of the shop to the garage. I think this will work.
Heck at this point i am looking at the other garage i have (I have two garages this size but my Mother and Farther who own the house with me have claimed that garage) and thinking that i could put a car lift in it and that way when i buy my new convertable next spring i can just park it on the lift in the other garage for the winter.
Like i said this is a couple feet in each direction bigger then we had in my folks old house so with luck it will work. It is just i would rather learn from you all then make mistakes that you can help me avoid.
Doug Meyer
DougI live in Ann Arbor. If you are close you are welcome to visit and see my set up which matches what you describe. Frosty
Thanks for the invite I would like to do that at some point maybe after the new year. Right now i am so busy i cant see straight as i am JUST moving the furniture in today. As for being close well I currently live in Westland and the new house is in South Lyon township so i would say i am pretty close.
Once again thanks for the invite and after i get unpacked and the holidays over I would love to see your ideas. Like i have said before i have done this in less space but i kind of "done growed into" the last space as it started out with only an old RAS and a small (8") 1950s table saw and as we (my father and I) added more and new equipment we sort of just fit them in where the would so now i am trying to figure out how to do this from a blank sheet as it where.
My main goals are to make the place work better for assembly. In the last one i had no place to put word parts that i was working with so they would sit on the table saw until i needed that then they would move to the work bench until i needed that and they kept moving the parts so this time i am trying to have an area to hold what i am working on out of the way of where i am working.
Once again thanks for the invite and if you dont mind I would like to bring my father with me, as we will share this shop.
Doug Meyer
Both of you are welcome. Just give me a call - 734-769-8668Jerry
I would probably only have a door about 4' wide at the most between sides because of the loss of wall space that the big doors use. If you are going to push the car out to use the garage side then can't you roll/take any of the larger items around and through both the driveway doors at the same time? If you plan on working across the two bays through the opening then what I suggest won't be for you.As for the dust collector/air compressor closet. I would make them separate to keep the dust out of the compressor.
Ok a couple of good points on that last one and I think I may just make to closets for the two units it is only a matter of doing an extra wall and doing two single doors vs one double door. Good idea with that on.
As for the going around, part of the problem is that this is michigan and for a good part of the year taking equipment outside with small wheels could be a pain in the back side due to the fun white stuff we get. As for working accross the opening i was wondering about that. I was having trouble figuring out how to do that but i was wondering about that.
Maybe i should go with a couple of three foot doors that will give me a 6' opening that should be wide enough to take anything i am going to need form one side to the other. As for moving equipment i really am not sure what i would move back and forth. The Joint and thickness planer maybe and it would be nice to have some sort of fold down table to set things on in the garage area. But the TS and the Chop Saw and such are a pain to move so i would rather not.
I wonder if i put the table saw up against the wall at the location of the big door then i could open that when i need the extra width. I have almost never needed more then a couple feet to either side of the table but the again i have never had more then the 4 feet i have now so i am not sure what i would do if i had the space.
Doug Meyer
My last shop was about the dimension you speak of. I had a two car garage and when I built the house I paid a little extra and had a manufacture beam added to the garage to elimnate the poles in the middle. Unless you have to, I would not put a wall in, it only eats up valuable space but thats only my two cents worth. I have the tools you speak of. I had the TS backed to the workbench so it could double as an outfeed table. My planer and chopsaw were stored under the workbench everything was on rollers to move out of the way. I had a DC with quick connects that made it easy to hook up. Finally, I did have to move the car (wife's) to do spraying with plastic tent rigged, but I worked just fine. I think you will find that is definately workable. Now I have a three car garage, and my wife is ticked that she still can't park in the garage, but that's a different thread. You will find that you will get efficent at storing things. Good luck!
Keep in mind that this is actually bigger then my last shop that was half of a 22'X22' garage. So this is an improvment for me. As for the wall i feel have to put something in so i can keep a car in the other half. I am planing on buying a convertable next spring and in Michigan that means i need to be able to park it in doors in the winter.
That is why i was thinking of making the slidding door. When weather permits i can roll the car out and use the extra room.
I find that durring much of the building I dont need that much room it is only durruing the begining and end that i need the space. The beginning to do the rough cuts of boards and sheets and the end to do final asembly and finishing. So i figure a lot of time i am in the shop when i am working on smaller projects or just durring the working of joints and such i can live with half the space.
Someday if we get to the point that we need less cars i can alwas expand into this extra space.
Doug Meyer
"Someday if we get to the point that we need less cars i can alwas expand into this extra space"
Good luck, I hope you are better at it than me. Every time I move, I have more stuff and more cars! My wife, just could not understand why the Harley had to stay inside, and her car had to go outside. I did offer to buy her one of those remote starts, but she just did not see jesture as grand as I had imagined it would be received. Some day I hope to have a shop that is just that a shop, not a sharring of space. Take care.
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