Help! ! !

[Greg Heppeard]

I need help with ideas to organize my shop. I'm loosing room with every addition that I need (want) to get the jobs done. My shop is only 19 X 22 and I do have some good sized tools in there. When I need to build a larger cabinet, I just run out of room to move quickly. I find myself re-positioning the cabinet and tools for every part of the operation. It takes me twice as long to build anything than I think it should. Any help with organizational ideas would help greatly.

[Chris Padilla]

Start with some pics, Greg. Maybe find some s/w and do a shop layout. Check out posts from Frank Pellow to see how he did his shop...he has a lot of good stuff in his rather longish threads.

[Greg Heppeard]

I'm working on the pics now

[Joe Tonich]

Greg,

Can't help you, but, I'm going to be keeping an eye on this thread! I have the same size shop & no room.

Joe

[Rob Horton]

Grizzly (www.grizzly.com) actually has a pretty decent freebie part of their website where you can layout your shop. The little pictures of tools are sized according to Grizzly's tools of course but they did make a place where can just use a generic square to represent items and get a rough idea that way.

It's how I layed out my new shop area in the new house. Works great and best part is, its free.

[Chris DeHut]

19 x 22 would be great to have for us. We film our magazine in a shop area that is 11 x 22. The outfeed of the tablesaw breaks this boundry, but everything else is inside that area (except the cameras).

You may want to take a look here to see our shop....

http://www.woodworkingathome.com/ShopTour/woodworking_shop_tour.htm

Our bonus issue last year also covered shop tours and setting up shop information.

Chris

[Greg Heppeard]

Front of shop

[Greg Heppeard]

SW corner (entrance)

[Greg Heppeard]

NW corner of shop

[Greg Heppeard]

NE corner of shop

[Greg Heppeard]

SE corner of shop

[Greg Heppeard]

OK I know a good cleaning is in order, but I still don't have room to move even after that

[Dick Parr]

Greg, one suggestion would to maybe take your router table and or top and mount it to the right side of you saw? I would give ya more support for you saw and move the router out of the way and give ya two fences to use for the router.

Just a suggestion.

[Mark Mandell]

See that wall opposite the front porch?

Okay. Go to the center between thos 2 small windows

Get a good grip and PUSH REALLY REALLY HARD for about 10 feet . . . ;)

Alternative: Bump out the exterior walls such that you can put in 18" deep storage shelves between the studs and create built in cabinets that don't take up any floor area. You can even cut and head off a few studs for a larger "bay" without having to extend footings or main roof same as you would to put in a bay window.

Mark

[Greg Heppeard]

See that wall opposite the front porch?

Okay. Go to the center between thos 2 small windows

Get a good grip and PUSH REALLY REALLY HARD for about 10 feet . . . ;)

Mark

I've actually been thinking about adding another 10 X 22 on the west side. The only thing stopping me is time and money. I would love to do that next year, if LOML slows down with the honey do's (yeah right). :rolleyes: That would give me enough room to maybe roll the big stuff into the addition. For some reason LOML seems to think I should do some work on the house first.

[Greg Heppeard]

Greg, one suggestion would to maybe take your router table and or top and mount it to the right side of you saw? I would give ya more support for you saw and move the router out of the way and give ya two fences to use for the router.

Just a suggestion.

That might work I'll have to find a place to stash all the router bits, but I do have a couple of empty drawers.

[Dennis Peacock]

OK Greg.....

You've got room there and plenty of it. <b>Just add more space by adding on to the shop!!!</B> :p :D Another 20 by 30 orta do ya just fine. Shoot, I bet the Arkies and the Okies could get together at your place and have it done in about 1 day.!! :eek: :D

[Chris Padilla]

Maybe we should move the BBQ to Greg's place? With 60-80 people, pretty much nothing should get done! ;)

[Randy Cox]

Greg,
Me and you are nearly neighbors, I am about 55 miles NE of you up I44. I have just been working on my shop which is a garage of 20' x 21'. I have been taking pics along the way and will get them posted monday or tuesday as I am working nights this weekend. My problem is my ceiling is only 6' 9" tall. I don't know if it will help, but might give you a couple of ideas. One thing I tried to do is make everything mobile so I can move it around easily. Will get the pics posted asap.

[John Miliunas]

Greg, this probably won't be a lot of help, but having been in an even smaller shop (17x20-almost!), I feel your pain. I note that you have double, out-swinging doors, I assume for bigger stuff coming in or out, plus the regular entry door. Would it be possible to have 1/2 of the double doors become an entry door, so that you could utilize the floor space (and wall space, for that matter) where the current entry door is? :confused: Not an elegant solution, by a long shot, but a few square feet is still that much more to work with. :cool:

[Michael Ballent]

Any thoughts on enclosing the porch... I know that this is not an organizational thing, but there are few extra feet there that you could use and seems like space that could be better used in the shop than outside the shop. (I love spending other people's money ;) )

[Jim Becker]

I think that Michael is on to something...as nice as the covered porch is, it's valuable space that's already "under roof". It would be a great way to add some usable space "now" while you contemplate an addition to the building later.

[Greg Heppeard]

Maybe we should move the BBQ to Greg's place? With 60-80 people, pretty much nothing should get done! ;)


That would be a solution, Chris, but if we had 60 - 80 people here...I don't think we could hammer a nail without hitting someone else's thumb. :eek: My yard isn't as big as it looks, I live in an older neighborhood in town.

[Greg Heppeard]

Greg,
Me and you are nearly neighbors, I am about 55 miles NE of you up I44. I have just been working on my shop which is a garage of 20' x 21'. I have been taking pics along the way and will get them posted monday or tuesday as I am working nights this weekend. My problem is my ceiling is only 6' 9" tall. I don't know if it will help, but might give you a couple of ideas. One thing I tried to do is make everything mobile so I can move it around easily. Will get the pics posted asap.

The only thing that isn't mobile in the shop now is the band saw. I don't like the idea of either a band saw or a drill press being mobile...just seem to unsteady for that. Another idea I had was to sell everything but the band saw and drill press and get a lathe and only do round work. :eek:

[Greg Heppeard]

Any thoughts on enclosing the porch... I know that this is not an organizational thing, but there are few extra feet there that you could use and seems like space that could be better used in the shop than outside the shop. (I love spending other people's money ;) )

Porch has to stay...when I get too old to do much, I plan to sit in a hand made rocking chair and whittle while my ole hound dog naps beside me. :D