My shop layout

[Joe Fisher]

It's time to rearrange the shop! I've recently acquired a new bandsaw, planer and jointer. It's getting really ugly in there and I'm constantly tripping over stuff. I know you folks like to see shop layouts, so here's my thoughts. In the pictures, red is hard DC lines, blue is flexy DC line, green squares are blast gates.

Currently, my TS is in the center of the room, my workbench is against one wall along with the miter saw, and the DC line for the TS runs along the floor behind it. This makes that half of my workshop almost useless, since I'm always tripping over the DC line (I have a smallish DC, so I'm trying not to run lines along the ceiling).

I tried a few layouts keeping the TS in the center of the room, and wasn't too happy with it:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Woodwork/ts_in_center.jpg

I played with putting the bench in the center, but couldn't find an arrangement that worked for me. Until today:

The miter saw, infeed bench for it (top) and router table (bottom) are on the right wall. The big lathe, rolling tool cabinet and shelving are on the left wall. The BS is on the top wall with plenty of room on either side if I'm ripping long pieces. The jointer and planer are out of the way on their mobile bases. Hard DC lines run along the walls only, with nice, straight runs. The TS is against the wall, since I seldom need any room to the right of the table. My bench is accessible from all sides, and I have an entire 30"x60" assembly table at the end of my bench.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Woodwork/bench_in_center_normal.jpg (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Woodwork/bench_in_center_normal.jpg)

When I want to joint or plane, I can wheel them in place and hook them up to the trashcan chip separator that will live in the corner.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Woodwork/bench_in_center_jointing.jpg (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b162/nostalgia75/Woodwork/bench_in_center_jointing.jpg)

Whaddya think? I can't come up with any negatives to this design, other than maybe the assembly table is too big. In that case, I can make a smaller infeed table for the miter saw and use the 2x4' infeed table as my assembly table.

Thanks,

-Joe

[Frank Fusco]

Your shop is about 1 1/2' wider than mine and about same length. It does get clautrophobic. Neat drawings, how did you do that? I'd like to post a layout of mine for comparison.

[Joe Fisher]

It's the Grizzly Workshop Planner (http://www.grizzly.com/workshopplanner.aspx)

I just did a PrintScreen, then pasted into Paint. Crop, add my DC plumbing with the Painbrush and LineTool, then Save As... JPEG image. Upload to Photobucket, and viola!

-Joe

edit: Delta also has one (www.deltamachinery.com), but I didn't like it as much. Their site also requires Javascript and doesn't work in Linux, so I'm boycotting it :)

[Jerry Bittner]

I built my shop a couple of years ago -- 30x20 -- and although there are times I'd like more room, there were at the time pocket book limitations and of course still are.

But I hit upon an idea for machinery location that has served me well and received a few compliments about it. Almost in the center of the workshop, I located the band saw, upright drill press and jointer. Without benefit of a drawing, you can imagine the jointer postion and then behind it are the drill press and bandsaw. Okay, a pictures worth more than words as hey say -- let me run down and take a couple of pictures................. allright, now you get the idea.

[Bart Leetch]

Hi Joe

I would start here this makes it possible to have the DC come out between the off feed table & table-saw & over to the jointer too. Notice no walking over the cords or DC hose just raise or lower your equipment to match each other. I made a 2 1/2"" high platform for my Unisaw so the top is just higher than my jointer fence The top of the jointer is at 32" & the fence is about 4" higher so the saw is around 36" high.

I would put the CMS straight in from the door with a wood rack over it.

Just to the right of the door put your sheet goods on end against the wall Right handy to the Table-saw.


Have your Band-saw & Drill-press & Combination sander handy to the bench for fine tuning projects as you go along.

Have fun & think about the progression of cutting & assembling material.

[Joe Fisher]

Bart,

Thanks for the suggestions!

As for wood racks, I have a separate room next door that's crammed with wood, so that's not a problem.

I tried the configuration you posted (thanks for that!), and had a lot of trouble fitting everything in. Where would you put the workbench? The lathes? I'll fiddle with it today if I have some time. Today's "rewire the basement" day. Whee!

Didja ever wish you weren't so handy? :)

-Joe

[Joe Fisher]

Jerry,

That's definitely something to consider. Dust collection might be a problem for me, as I've only got a small single-stage, and I don't think it'd have the OOMPF for running long lines along the ceiling.

That aside, I really want a workbench in the middle of the room. As it is now, when I have to clamp up a project I end up using my router table and/or tablesaw. It stinks.

Thanks for the input!

-Joe

[Frank Fusco]

Neat. Thanks. I knew Grizzly had some kind of shop layout service but never checked it out.







It's the Grizzly Workshop Planner (http://www.grizzly.com/workshopplanner.aspx)

I just did a PrintScreen, then pasted into Paint. Crop, add my DC plumbing with the Painbrush and LineTool, then Save As... JPEG image. Upload to Photobucket, and viola!

-Joe

edit: Delta also has one (www.deltamachinery.com) (http://www.deltamachinery.com)), but I didn't like it as much. Their site also requires Javascript and doesn't work in Linux, so I'm boycotting it :)

[Bart Leetch]

Joe

My shop is smaller than yours you can check it out by clicking on the bullet by my name & going to my workshop web site. I wish my shop was a bit bigger too. There is a layout on my site you can click on & enlarge. I have learned how to cram in a few tools in a small area.

For assembly tables consider making torsion boxes with about 1 1/2" webbing inside 2' wide & what ever length you can put 2 together on top of interlocking pieces of 1/2"or 3/4" plywood that you can take apart & hang on the wall. The torsion boxes will be very flat & can be set against the wall to store when not in use, thus freeing up space you didn't think you had.

For storage under you bench make your usual drawers & shelves with doors arrangement & leave the top of the case lower as if you were going to store planes on top of the case under the bench. However let the ends of the case go almost up to the bottom of the bench & mount glides & make a shallow drawer on top of the case with the bench behind the table-saw as a bench/off feed table you can pull out the drawer & place items on it to clear the bench top to convert it into a off feed table. With your long bench I would make the case work underneath in 2 or 3 sections that fasten together, probably 2 sections with 2 drawers one on top of each section. This way if you ever move to a bigger shop the drawers come out along with all the tools & the sections come apart & you can lift them out of the bench to move.

My 2 favorite words are WHAT IF these 2 words have saved me a lot of trouble through the years. Look at what your doing or planning & say what if. Remember in a small shop you may have to do unusual things & think outside of the box. Don't just look at pictures of bigger shops & try to make your shop like them it won't always work. One example of thinking outside the box is my ceiling is only 7'10" & I needed storage so using 2x2 & plywood I made triangular shelf brackets with a 2x2 notch at the back & a 2x2 stiffener on the back edge of the plywood shelf that dropped into the notch & 2x2 on the front of the shelf to stiffen it the shelves are 2' deep front to back. I can store quite a bit of heavy stuff on these shelves if need be. I am 190 lbs & can hang on the outer edge of these shelves. Just another small shop solution.

A shelf above the CMS for hardwood for the the current project is a nice feature. You don't have to store all your hardwood there.

Have fun Joe thinking outside the box.