I am moving into my new small commercial shop. I cant figure out for the life of me how to lay this thing out. I drew everything to scale, cut out tools to overlay on drawing, walked around the new space. I will sell my old building the end of the month. I’m still not set up yet. I have thought about what I dont like about the old layout. I need to get the tools set so that I can order pipe for the dust collector. I cant drywall the ceiling, run wire,run dc pipe, paint walls, and etc. My heads spinning. My ? is is there a rule of thumb for tool layout? and what is it. I am a 2 man shop (kitchen cabs, wall units, just about anything.)
Please use all your powers to help me and all the polititions you guys carry in your pockets
-Lou
Edited 4/23/2007 5:46 am ET by loucarabasi
Replies
There are two different schools of thought for laying out a shop, and neither one of them works. Ha.
Actually, there are books written on this stuff. Got to think about how YOU work. Me, first thing I do is grab wood from storage, turn to the chop saw to bring it to manageable size, then the joiner, then the planer, then the table saw. That's my general progression. Think about what yours is and try to minimize the steps (carrying distance) between them.
Lou, it took me nearly ten years of working in my shop to finally arrive on a layout that really works for me. There are some pictures of my shop on the woodworkers guild of GA website. I will say that lining tools up with doors and windows will aloow a lot of extra feed options without taking up extra floor space. I have both my jointer and planer lined u with the doors to the garage and can feed up to 16' legths if necessary. With the doors closed I can only do 8.
Tool layout really has more to do with the type of work you do than any book can tell you. It is a difficult thing to predict to say the least.
Lou, tough trying to give you specific ideas without knowing what the old layout was and what did not work.I would think that hanging cabinets ,or some other wall mounted devices would be better on french cleats.You can then easily move them as your needs change.Add more receptacles than you need, you'll eventually need them.Ceiling mounted receptacles over benches and other work areas.
I have the cabinet saw in the middle of the shop. Jointer is to the right of saw.The planer ,bandsaw ,router table and a sharpening station are on mobile bases.I do not pipe the dc to machines.I have a 600 sf shop so two dust collectors and a air filtration unit does it for me.One dust collector is under the saw table (penn state 1 1/2 hp with the bag horizontal.The other is a delta 1 hp on wheels that rarely ever moves. I run short hoses in stead of piping.One outside wall for lumber rack and shelving.I wouldn't be to concerned about dc piping, rock the ceiling ,then mount any trunk lines you need.
Make things as flexible as you can, eventually you'll figure out whats best for you.
mike
This is brilliant! I had never thought about having two small dust collectors. I too am going to be setting up my new garage shop, its currently under construction. It looks as if I can get two small dust collectors for less than a larger one and I won't need to buy and figure out how to lay all of the duct work. I guess I can even start out with one DC and use my shop vac for hand tools.
Lou,
I teased you about the planer so I'm gonna try to answer straight up on this one. At least, this is what works for me:
Start with the unchangeable limitations of the building -
1. How to use the doors to maximum effect? As was stated already, you can get reserve length for the planer's infeed or outfeed by positioning opposite a door. Sheet goods should be stored close to where the delivery is made. Etc.
2. Natural light - given the choice, where do you feel best putting the workbench?
3. Ceiling height - if parts of the building have high ceilings, how to maximize that space?
Once you've blocked those in, move on to the items you have more control over -
1. Do you need a finish area that is separate from the rest of the shop?
2. How many projects do you run at once? Do you need separate assembly areas?
3. How much lumber storage do you need? Pallets, or standing upright?
4. What can go outdoors? Cyclones? Compressor?
Finally, on a scale drawing of the shop, use paper cutouts to represent each machine, and play around with different placements until it looks good. Lots of machines can be placed back-to-back. Pay attention to the infeed and outfeed requirements for each workstation. Some machines can overlap because they won't work simultaneously, but in general each one needs its own space.
Hope this helps a little. If you want to e-mail me a sketch I'd be glad to study it and comment. BTW, I'm in the process right now of planning a new shop. Well, it's a bit more than a shop, it's 60,000 sq.ft of production space.
regards,
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
The type of work you do and the current backlog should help you. Others have given you a lot of great advise...my only thought would be to keep everything you can on wheels and move stuff to meet your need...before you know it you will be through your first job and will have a much better idea of things you would not do the same. After a few jobs then hook everthing up on a perminate basis...hopefully you will be staying awhile...the comments about not having a good layout for many years are true.
Edited 4/16/2007 9:30 pm ET by CoachB
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