just moved to a new house, where to start shop setup.....?

[dale rex]

Just moved to new house with a huge basement for my new shop. (26' x 38'). What a job to disassemble all of tools for the move!I hired pro movers to move the heavy weights(Unisaw, jointer , etc.). Now I have to try and organize and set up everything from scratch. I left all of my old workbenches behind, because they all were built ins(i had not planned on ever moving), so I have to start from new with everything. I think this will be a good thing, because I can design a whole new setup with better storage than what I previously had. But......the amount of work to just get everything organized and out of boxes is daunting to say the least!Where do I start? Anyone have any good suggestions?:eek:

[Kelly C. Hanna]

When I move anywhere (yep every apartment or house I've ever lived in), I always get the drafting tablet out and draw the space to scale...then I draw in the furniture so that when the actual move date comes, I know where it's going. You could do the same thing with Grizzly's shop designer (or the EZ Shop program).

I am getting ready to do it one more time and I have two buildings to fill this time...loks like I'm getting a stand alone workshop again...this one's a two story!!

[John Dingman]

Dale,

I am in the middle of a move. I am currently putting the finishing touches on a shop space in our new homes basement. My space is not quite as big as the one you have as I have to share the basement with a laundry/storage room, and a family room. Regardless, I have close to 700 sq. ft. I did as Kelly suggested, I went to Grizzly and did a shop layout before I started to design the shop so I would know where to put the outlets especially the 220 outlets. I started by placing the table saw in the middle of the shop and then building the shop around the table saw. I only moved 4 blocks away from my current shop so the physical move won't be as daunting as having to pack everything up at the same time.

Best wishes to you. Congratulations on the new home and shop!

John

[Russ Massery]

When I moved my shop I planed mostly around were the table saw was going. And when from there,then I put in my power keeping in mind were each piece of equipment was going and how it had to be used. Also thought about the short comings of my first shop.:cool:

[Ted Shrader]

Dale -

The other recommendations about drawing your setup first are good ones. However, most arrangements do not stay and are modified over time. So, my recommendation is to look at the electrical portion first.

Make sure the are more outlets than you can ever imagine using and you will only be a couple short. Make sure there is 220V in multiple locations, not just to the Unisaw.

Then, what about dust collection? That plan goes hand in hand with the tool arrangement, but should also have some flexibility to it.

Standard other warnings apply like watch out for enough space in front and back of the machines for longer pieces - or even to the side so sheet goods can be cut easily.

Have fun and take your time.

Ted

[Bob_Hammond]

I would also think about the floor. I've always wanted an epoxy floor, but once the tools are moved in it much harder to do.

Bob

[Noah Levy]

I am just about finished getting my new basement shop off the ground. The other night, after hooking up my last outlet, I stood back thinking about all the time and hard work I've put in so far, and really wondered if I would have the where-with-all to start all over if we had to move house again.

The previous home owner was "nice enough" to leave nearly 200 concrete blocks in the basement which I had to carry out, then all the power washing and acid etching the walls and floor, masonary painting, getting my family out of the house for an entire day so I could epoxy the floor... heck, I still can't believe my basement steps didn't collapse while carrying the heavy machines down the basement, and I still don't know how I'm going to get the MiniMax MM20 down there (it's only 750 lbs.). THe whole this is just a huge $@!! buster. I pretty much came to the conclusion that if we had to move again, my new job salary better be high enough to cover the cost of hiering contractors to set everything up before I move in, or else my wife would probably have me committed to the state loony bin.

THe most depressing thought: I won't be able to get large projects out of the darn basement!

But don't let any this deter you. Just take a month off of work and you'll have it finished no problem!

[Ken Waag]

Dale,

Sure it's a lot of work, but a new start can be kind of exciting as well. Sometimes a chance to do somethings the way you've wanted. I gone thru two moves (more equipment each time, of course) and several revisions of my current garage shop.

I'll second some advice and add what I can:

This is your only shot at the open floor so decide what you want and get that done.
Plan for your tool layout as it will affect your electrical, DC etc.
Lots of Electrical! I recently put in ceiling sockets above all my bench areas and I love it. Give that some consideration.
You can do it on Grizzly or your own program or just draw your space to scale and cut out tools to match and play cut and paste. Just pushing the pieces around will bring up lots of ideas. And it's alot easier pushing a piece of paper than the actual tools:) so try to get a good set up on paper.

A good book or two on shop layout can help alot too. The New Best of Fine Woodworking's "Small Woodworking Shops", Wood Magazine's "The Home Workshop Planner", and Bill Stankus' "How to Design and Build Your Ideal Woodshop" are my top picks. Info on layout and then other stuff you don't always think about i.e. lighting, climate control and etc.

If you want to post details of you spaces, other considerations, and your tools/other items to be placed, I'm glad to offer more specific help. I'm sure other will chime in also. I love toying with shop layouts.

Have Fun,
Ken

[Jules Dominguez]

I'd recommend 1. Draw your workshop space to scale, preferably on a large sheet of drawing paper. 2. Draw your stationary tools and your planned workbenches to scale, including any necessary clearances around them for normal work or maintenance, on something like manila folder stock and cut them out. These are the "paper dolls" and you can move them around on the layout drawing until you're satisfied you've got the best possible arrangement. I guarantee this is the easiest way to get a good arangement and save yourself some headaches.

[Jim Becker]

THe most depressing thought: I won't be able to get large projects out of the darn basement!!

Noah, it sounds like a good opportunity to start building larger items with concealed knock-down designs! We should all do that more often, anyway...and now you have a good excuse.

Dale, congratulations on your new home and shop. I also recommend you work it out a bit on paper/computer to at least generally lay things out for work flow, etc.

[Robert Tarr]

Dale,

I am in the process of building up my shop from a move I just completed last week. We have moved 4 times in 4 1/2 years and the house we just moved out of, has the shop in the basement. I will second what everyone has said so far, but I will also share two tips that helped me tons.

1) Start with general lighting in the basement. Go with the 4 foot t-8 fixtures from Home Depot (like $7.50 and has the same electronic ballast at the more expensive units and don't skimp on the bulbs....buy the daylight bulbs, which will run you about $3 more per fixture than the standard bulbs and totally worth it. Warmer light and truer color.) I recessed them in the bays of the floor joists to give some protection from my stupid attempts at breaking them (knock on wood, haven't yet....) Once you have a decent amount of light in there, you can start moving boxes and putting together machinery. Once you have the shop most of the way together, then come back and put in accent and/or high intensity lighting over some of the saws and workbench(s). (This sort of supposes you left room in your wiring to add to it....damhikt)

2) I set up three "zones" in the shop. I hate moving stuff over and over again to do one task, so I set up an area for just boxes. An area for completed machines and an area for machines/projects in progress. Once I am done with a tool, it gets out of the space and it gets put into a box or into the tool space. Nothing is more irritating than not being able to find the tool you just found in a stack of boxes.

Good luck

Robert

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Robert...you tryin' to go for the moving record? Man I hate to move these days. Used to move every six months back in the apartment days...change was good and each apartment was better than the last for views and pool proximity...:D

We've been in our house 3.5 years (longest anywhere since getting married). We'll be breaking that record next time out!

[Ken Waag]

Just to quickly second Roberts advice. Get T-8 fixtures. Electonic ballast=No noise (also 1/3 lower energy cost). I too got some thru HD which have wire grids to prevent the mishaps. I tried to locate them but couldn't, if I do find them I'll post the link here.

Yep, the daylight bulbs are worth it. If you are putting in enough fixtures to use 25 lamps, go to bulbs.com or other online dealer and get them by the box around $2.50 each. I got High Output, Long Life (30,000 hr) daylights. You could probably get a suntan in my shop, but I love it as my eyes are just hitting that point where I need lots of light and just the right distance to read the small stuff. It's also great at night, as it feels like daytime in there.

[Peter Dufresne]

I can't find the shop layour feature on Grizzly... any help?

[Peter Dufresne]

Oops.. I found it...:rolleyes:

[Ken Waag]

I can't find the shop layour feature on Grizzly... any help?

Peter try here: http://www.grizzly.com/workshopplanner.cfm??