Rules of Thumb for Workshop Size

[Thomas Wilson]

I think this thread has gone as far as I can go. Let's just wrap it up here. I want to thank all those who offered advice and shared information about their shops. I have gotten a great deal of useful information to help me plan my shop. This is a great group of people. I am happy I found this forum.

I have a much better idea of how big my shop should be and how many tools I can fit in the space. I will share the design and progress as the project moves forward.

Here are the final numbers from the survey.

Name	No. of Tools	Shop size	Ratio of Shop Size to No. Tools
Thomas Wilson	7	468	66.9
Phil Harold	7	1200	171.4
Tom Clark	11	1296	117.8
Shawn Pixley	6	480	80
Jeff Duncan	23	1496	65.0
Greg Peterson	7	270	38.7
Greg's cousin	7	540	77.1
Zane Harris	7	265	37.9
Duane Meadows	20	950	47.5
John Langley	20	3550	177.5
Wade Lippman	7	585	83.6
Mike Berrevoets	9	624	69.3
Ethan Melad	11	720	65.5
Ray Newman	11	720	65.5
Richard Shaefer	9	510	56.7
Stew Hagerty	8	429.5	53.7
Justin Coon	8	600	75

Here are the figures. I will just give two this time. I will plot the ratio versus shop size (rather than versus no. of tools as in the last post) and the histogram of the ratio.

RuleofThumbRatio.jpgRuleOfThumbvsShopSize.jpg

The participants may want to comment about why they believe their shop lies where it does within the distribution.

I think idea of a rule of thumb for shop size based on the number of tools basically works, with all the caveats that have been discussed. I think a person who intends to build mainly furniture and kitchen cabinets can plan for something in the 60-70 sq. ft. per stationary tool that is permanently set up. That is what I am going to start with. I will work out a floor plan in SketchUp for the tool layout. With my tool collection, I may want to hold a yard sale or design some storage space for infrequently used tools to get the shop size down to something that that meets other constraints (like cost and lot size.) Planning and designing is a lot of hard work but should result in a shop I can enjoy working in.

Thank you, all. I hope this discussion has been helpful to others as well.

Thomas

[Janis Stipins]

I've been setting up a small shop in one port of my three-car garage. One thing that I've found to be tremendously helpful is to use a drawing program to model the space that I have, and also to model each tool, including the area around each tool needed to accommodate stock of a certain size. Then you can click and drag the tools around in your space to see what overlaps, how to take advantage of opening the garage door, where permanent fixtures can go, where rolling tables can go, etc, etc.

It may seem like overkill (and maybe it is, for someone with space to burn), but in my case it has helped me find a layout that has room for cutting a 4x8 sheet of plywood in any configuration, and ripping/jointing/planing/resawing up to 12 foot stock. I almost certainly would not have been able to find the layout I'm using without a drawing program to experiment with.

-Janis

EDIT: Sorry, for some reason I missed all the statistics until after I posted. For the purposes of utilizing space well in a small one-person shop, you might want to keep an account of how many tools share a given unit of space; this could give a useful measure of efficiency. For example, my bandsaw and table saw share outfeed space. Of course this is impractical and unsafe if multiple people are sharing the shop, but it's a good way to maximize a one-person shop.

[Thomas Wilson]

Thanks, Janis. With a three car garage, you've room to expand. Start plotting your take-over strategy. My strategy is slow and sneaky. In 25 years, I added half a garage and two big closets to my original 18x26 shop in my current house.

I agree about using 3D design for shop layout and visualizing work flow. I am learning SketchUp to design my shop layout and create the plans for the new building plan at my new house. It's great. What program do you use for layout?

[Janis Stipins]

I tried to use the Google docs drawing program, but it's still too buggy... the grid moves around a little as you're working, which defeats my purpose. And the operating system on this Mac is so out of date that I can't use SketchUp or anything else you've ever heard of, so I ended up using a free program called Inkscape. I'm just using 2D, basically electronic graph paper. The only functionality I've used is to make a background grid, and to group a bunch of objects into one --- so, for example, the entire diagram of the jointer with its infeed and outfeed regions, etc, can be grouped into a single object that I can drag and rotate.

And yes, my takeover has already started... the dust collector actually lives in a storage space behind the garage proper, and my bandsaw sits just next to the car port I originally claimed. My strategy is bribery, but now I owe my wife a decent backlog of projects. :-)

-Janis

[maximillian arango]

This was a really fun read, I can't wait for the day I can have a workspace longer than I am tall I am just getting into woodworking and I'm at the stage of collecting tools so most of my work has dealt with working on cars. My current workspace is 5 foot by 15 foot balcony a parking spot and a 3x3 foot closet which doesn't sound like much but I have been able to make the most of it. Considering I have a 2 foot by 5 foot workbench with a 20 gallon air compressor I am a lot more capable than most auto shops in my area. Also I manage to have my neighbors not hate me living in an apartment by helping them out with their cars for free so I can continue doing what I do at reasonable times(when they are not home).

[Jeff Nelson7]

Well is there a conclusion?

[Albert Lee]

my workshop is 27 x 18

1. Full size combination machine (10' stroke saw + spindle moulder + 16" planer/thicknesser )
2. SCM 37" Wide belt sander (4' wide x 4' long x 6' high)
3. Bag house extractor (8' long x 4' wide x 9' high)
4. Masterwood slot mortiser (11' wide x 4' deep x 6' high)
5. 7.5kw hydrovane compressor (5' wide x 3' deep x 3' high)
6. MM16 bandsaw (2' x 2' x 6')
7. Omga chopsaw on a mobile bench
8. Drill press
9. Pallet mover
10. Engine crane

I dont have a work bench though (no room!), I have some shelvings.

[Dominik Dudkiewicz]

I know this is a 6 year old thread, but I thought it was quite interesting...and surprising...and depressing .

I'm in the middle of sorting out my small shop; making some stands, moving stuff around, cleaning some stuff out etc. Out of curiosity I assessed my tools and space.

I have a 500 sq ft shop. Stationary Tools -

1. 3HP 36" Cabinet Saw
2. 25-50" Drum Sander
3. 12" Jet Combi Planer-Thicknesser
4. 18" Bandsaw
5. Floor-standing Chisel Mortiser
6. Vicmarc VL240 Wood Lathe
7. Metal Lathe 600mm
8. Metal Milling Machine (smaller 500lb model)
9. Router Table (Pending Build)
10. 5HP Cyclone
11. 3HP Air Compressor
12. Floor Standing Drill Press
13. Spindle Sander
14. Workbench etc


So, ignoring workbenches, storage, and stuff like bikes, lawn mower etc - I get 500/13 = 38.46 sq ft / tool! I knew it seemed like it might be a little crowded lol. I still have to build the router table and setup the drum sander and wood lathe - so hopefully I can organise things well enough to make it work somehow! I am hoping to move a lot of the gardening stuff into an adjoining 250 sq ft single car garage I'm building, as well as moving some of the timber in there as well. I am still hopefully that despite being on the crowded side I can make it a comfortable place to work. Maybe I should have passed on the drum sander and spindle sander - I think I could live without these.

The average of around 70 sq ft / tool sounds kinda great right about now!

Cheers,

Dom

[Jerome Stanek]

My rule of thumb is figure out what size you need and double it

[Jim Andrew]

Think if I were to start over now, could put up a new 40x60 pole building with 10' sidewalls. Menards is selling some steel brackets that bolt to the bottom of the pole, and fasten to anchor bolts, so you don't have to worry about poles rotting off, so would go that route. My pickup truck has to go in the garage, no room in the shop.

[Charles P. Wright]

I have a basement shop with 558 sq. ft. I have a Sawstop, MM16, FS41e, and 3hp Oneida dust collector, and miter saw. Those are the things that really take up space. I put a router table into the extension wing. There is also an old ikea kitchen cabinet that I have an oscillating spindle sander on and use as an extra table just to put stuff down. I also have a drill press, and MFT table with extension, and a lot of shelving; a treadmill, refrigerator, and oil tank are non shop things that take up space. I also take up almost permanently one stall of my two car garage with a centipede 4x8 with foam sheets and plywood on top, which I use for track saw cutting and a place to lay things out for finishing.

I would love to be able to have more space, but in my area the space is far more expensive than the tools. If I had 1200 sq. ft. I would probably add a shaper; a bigger assembly table; and maybe a combo machine.

[Jim Becker]

My rule of thumb is figure out what size you need and double it

You are being optimistic. Double it again. LOL

Seriously, folks...do not underestimate the benefits of having "free space" in your shop for flexibility. Having a large shop doesn't mean you have to completely fill up every square foot of the space. Plan for some breathing room for assembly, storage, finishing, stacking components as you produce them and workflow. If you can, of course. No matter what size the shop, optimization is what you want to do as much as possible to best use what you have available.

[Mike Kees]

I built my shop 40'x70' and it is now "full''. I have room to work but it seems like the whole building has shrunk. I went as large as I could afford (still paying for it). Pretty hard to come up with a 'this size will work. ' Machines come and go and when they do everything originally planned goes out the door with them. Ingenuity becomes necessary to figure out how to make things work again. Big vicious circle,round and round you go . I actually enjoy figuring out how to nest equipment and storage,etc. to make things work more efficiently. My best advice is to design for inevitable change,because it will happen.

[Carl Beckett]

Lets see. My shop is 20x24. 480 sq ft. It is big enough.

I have a combo machine (tablesaw, jointer, planer, shaper, mortiser)
edge sander
drill press
widebelt sander
lathe/mill combo
router table
wood rat
3 workbenches
air compressor
sharpening station
spindle sander
disk/belt combo sander
small sliding miter saw
benchtop band saw
floor standing band saw
welder
cutting torches
powder coat oven
central dust collector
festool dust collector
2 metal storage cabinets (hand tools and supplies)
1 shelf rack
3 large metal mechanics toolboxes
2 wooden toolboxes (under benches)
and a recently added benchtop CNC

when needed I pull out other equipment. I have to pay attention to workflow and material handling/storage.

[Jim Becker]

'Just when one gets things figured out...along comes another tool. LOL I guess I'll be figuring that out over the weekend...IE, there is never enough space.