I've recently moved from Canada to the UK and need to rent a workshop and buy a lot of equipment. In Canada I was working out of my 500sq ft garage with about 2ft walk ways between tools and machines, and about half the garage taken up by a spray booth. I'm interested to see what people think is a reasonable size shop for the equipment I'm looking to add - I'm hoping I can afford around 1500-2000sq ft - but interested in what people think a reasonable ballpark minimum would be.
Big Tools List:
- 16" bandsaw
- 12" table saw
- Planer/Thicknesser combo unit (very standard here, basically the size of a jointer)
- 3hp cyclone dust collector (would love to go bigger, but they start to ramp up in price very rapidly from there!)
- 6x89" belt sander
- 20" drill press/pillar drill
- Mitre saw
- Router table
- Mid size standalone lathe (not sure how much use it will get, havent had one for the past decade and thought it would be fun!)
- 4'x4' footprint CNC router
- approx 200sq ft spray booth
- 6090 chinese laser engraver
- Work benches for sanding/assembly etc.
Thats what I'll be getting immediately in the way of large stuff, however, in the next 6-12 months I'd really like to get a 5x10' ATC CNC router in there... sooo that takes up a LOT of space. I do have access to an automotive spray booth, but it's not exactly next door. So I could put the new router in the spray booth area if push comes to shove.
In my 500sq ft I had essentially the same equipment, but 14" bandsaw, non-cyclone 2hp dust collector, no laser, no lathe. I had the DW735 planer, and would sit that on my table saw so it didnt take up any space when using it (but was a pain to switch between planing and sawing!) The CNC router was takup up way more room than it should have though due mounting the electronics under it being something "i'll get to"... so I suspect the laser and cnc router will take up as much space as the CNC router alone in Canada.
Rent here in Norfolk isn't too bad, as it's fairly rural... but it's not that cheap either compared to the US/Canada.
I'm mostly making relatively small items space wise - not tables and the like. That being said, our house's furniture consists of a matress on the floor and an office desk/chair right now, so I'll certainly be building some big one offs to fill the house! I buy my lumber in about 12"x2"x10' lengths, and will be doing the same here too (it all came from Germany, so I can buy from the same mill for less!) I will need some storage for wood, last time I built the lumber storage into the back of my workbench!