Home Based Shop Experiences, Dimensions

[Ed Maloney]

Hello folks. Ed Maloney here from NJ and PA.

This forum reminds me of a woodworking site I used to contribute to called Badger Pond. I did a review of the Delta Great White many years ago for the forum.

I'm reading all the posts but so far I'm just up to the 2005 threads. Of course I have a lot of questions about the laser business, but will wait until I finish sucking in all the information from past posts.

What would be interesting is hearing experiences from folks who have their laser business in their homes/basements/garages. Some pictures of your shop set-up would be great and an idea of square footage needed for a small start-up. If something like this is in an existing thread that I haven't gotten to yet, just point me in the right direction and I'm there!

Thanks for your time and I hope to "stop working for the man and start it up!"

Ed

[Joe Pelonio]

Good timing, I'm in the process of doing that right now. I'm planning to move to the house before Thanksgiving. Currently I rent space in a business park for the laser work and my sign business, it's 1,900 SF
of which close to half is the warehouse that I use for woodwork and
lettering vehicles in the rain. One problem here is all the walls taking up valuable space and a long hallway. I must walk several miles a day. The laser operation is confined to one room that's only about 150sf near the front.

At the house I'm using the "bonus room" above the garage. I'll have two computers, the laser, and two plotters and a 4'x8' work table, shelving
and places to store 4x8 sheets of sign materials. It's about 600 sf but totally open, and I will not have customers coming in so no need for the "showroom" that takes up a lot of space here. The garage will be used for
the woodworking, painting, etc.

I won't post pics since we're in the middle of scraping off the popcorn ceiling, then I have to re-texture and paint the whole room. Also added more windows and a 12,000 btu window A/C unit.

[Nancy Laird]

Hello folks. Ed Maloney here from NJ and PA.

This forum reminds me of a woodworking site I used to contribute to called Badger Pond. I did a review of the Delta Great White many years ago for the forum.

I'm reading all the posts but so far I'm just up to the 2005 threads. Of course I have a lot of questions about the laser business, but will wait until I finish sucking in all the information from past posts.

What would be interesting is hearing experiences from folks who have their laser business in their homes/basements/garages. Some pictures of your shop set-up would be great and an idea of square footage needed for a small start-up. If something like this is in an existing thread that I haven't gotten to yet, just point me in the right direction and I'm there!

Thanks for your time and I hope to "stop working for the man and start it up!"

Ed

Ed, just found your post. We have a 12x20' separate building that we are using for our shop, and I'll try to remember to post pictures tonight. It started out life as a storage building and has morphed into our laser shop.

Nancy

[Mike Shauer]

Welcome to the Creek Ed, I moved here when Badger pond went down, that was a great site, as is this one. Quite a few Bp members came here to help set it up so it had the same feel as Bp. Without a doubt the best woodworking forum on the net.

I am just about to start on an addition (14x14) to my shop (24x28) to house the laser and a clean finishing room. There is definitely to much dust in a wood shop for the laser. I was taking the laser apart regularly to clean the housing for the tube. Even when its covered when its not in use the fine dust left on the floor gets suck into everything. Laser like to be clean almost as clean as the day you received them. Cheers,

[Gary Shoemake]

Hi Ed

Welcome to the Creek. I live in Cape May county and currently work out of my home. As far as the shore we live 7 miles from the ocean and 3 miles from the Delaware Bay.Until we get enough steady customers to justify a move we'll stay put. Being that we are really in a tourist area I'm not sure when that will happen. We are fortunate to live in an area that the homes aren't close together, so we have had no complaints. One thing I am positive of is that somehow we will succeed. If I can be of any help just holler. "Just down the shore."

[Robert Alexander]

Ed,
My shop is 48 ft. x 25 Ft. in size, and setup with woodworking tools. When I decided to get a laser I built a small clean room for the laser in one corner of the shop. It is 8 ft. square. That might seem small but with the laser and computer it works out fine for me. I also got some old patio 6 ft. wide glass doors from a relative, so it does not feel like I'm in a closet. I also cut out a square hole in one of the walls and installed a air filter to catch all the wood dust (my son does fish carvings and I do woodworking) that would get pulled into the laser when I turned on the exhaust fan. It has worked out great.

[Barbara Sample]

I started off in my husbands shop behind the house. Then we moved to a storefront. It is 600 sq ft. and on a main street. Business has been good here, and hoping for a great Christmas season.

I use about half of it for the store displays, and the back half for my computers, laser, some of my stock etc.
I also have use of a full cellar that I also store a lot of stuff in.
Hope this helps.
Barbara

[Keith Outten]

Ed,

My shop is behind my home and we live in a rural area with six acres of land so there isn't anyone close enough to be a problem with laser effluent.

My shop is 24 by 36 with 600 square feet upstairs as office, engraving space and the home of the SMC server. I also consume the better part of two small storage buildings. All of my work is commercial signage now so I don't require a showroom. I am fortunate to have all the comforts of home with cable TV, Internet service, full bath and bedroom upstairs in my office.

The core group of our Members that started SawMill Creek are Ponders. The atmosphere here is much like Badger Pond and the woodworkers who belong to our Community and a friendly bunch.

[Nancy Laird]

Ed, here are pictures of our shop - it started life as a storage building, now it's a dedicated laser shop:

49002

This is the entry door (along the 12' wall), with the sandblaster sitting on a cabinet under the window.

49003

Standing at the door, this is the 20' wall on the left - M-360 ULS, computer desk which runs both lasers, and M-20 ULS.

49004

The right-hand wall, with two more computers (one of which also runs the laser--that's my LOML sitting and working on a job), two small PSCs.

49005

The 12' wall opposite the door, our work table, with several jobs waiting finishing.

As I said before, the building/room is 12x20', has a sink and a potty, one window, two doors (required by code???), and has heat and air coming into it from the building next door. Indoor-outdoor carpeting on the floor. All the bookshelves were built by LOML and are attached to the trusses above as well as to the studs in the walls.

So?

Nancy

[Mike Null]

Ed,

My shop is in my basement and occupies all of it except for a 150 sq. ft. room my wife uses as a pantry-storage area. The rest of it is divided into 4 areas with the largest being the business area (laser, heat transfer, pantograph, office) then a material storage area of about 80sq. ft. and a new shipping and storage area to handle a new venture. My wood working shop is about 350 sq. ft. All of my basement space totals about 1300 square feet.

My business is mostly engraving of name tags, signs and awards along with some industrial marking. I do very little retail business. I'm just about to open a wood products distributorship for laser engravable items--pens, pen boxes, picture frames etc. I also distribute vector cutting grids using my basement for storage and shipping.

I have been in the remodeling mode and as soon as it's finished I'll include some pictures.

[Michael McDuffie]

My Epilog is in the closet of a 10' by 9 1/2' spare bedroom.

I've packed in two computers and their attached stuff, two desks, two bookcases and a filing cabinet.

Michael

[Nancy Laird]

My Epilog is in the closet of a 10' by 9 1/2' spare bedroom.

I've packed in two computers and their attached stuff, two desks, two bookcases and a filing cabinet.

Michael

Michael, how are you venting your epilog? I'd be leery of running a laser in a closet without some VERY good venting.

Nancy

[Michael McDuffie]

I have a 2hp Grizzly dust collector out in the garage. It's rated at 1500CFM and tends to suck small parts out of the machine if I'm not careful.

I ran 4" steel ducting through the attic with 4" plastic at the laser and dust collector. I turn it on and off with an X10 key fob remote and an X10 20 amp 240 volt recepticle.

Michael