Building a new shop, looking for input.

[Neil Gaskin]

We are setting up a new shop and I think I have the layout pretty well laid out but still looking for input or things you may wish you have done or done differently in your own shops. The space is approximately 30'x40'.

Is there anything that when you finished setting up your shop you wish had done differently or any "must have" type of things?

For storage I plan on mostly drawers for tools, with a few open shelf areas. All the major power tools have a home or storage place and have plenty of space around them.

Thank you for any thoughts you might have.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I would kill for a finishing room. A place where I could have projects in the finishing process, but isolated from the machines so that I could continue to make sawdust.

[William A Johnston]

I have the same size shop, and there is really only one thing I regret about my planning and that is the dust collection. If I had to do it all over again I would have run 6" main lines instead of 5" so I could upgrade my collection system in the future and get the full benefit from it. As far as space when I was building cabinets in this shop I quickly ran out of storage room, constantly have to move the cabinets around once they were built. I did put plenty of pegboard up on all walls for jig storage ect... I also have electrical ran under the slab to my table saw station and originally had buried a pipe for this station for dust collection but I did not properly encase the piping with plastic so it fills with water and so I have it capped off.

I do wish I had more drawers for storage but that can be done at a later date. Lighting has also been a little lacking but is workable, I purchased all T12 fixtures and will be replacing them in the future with either T8 or LED. I have been reading the sticky about lighting and am trying to understand the ups and downs of all that.



I attached my shop layout for your review and can see my work flow. I hope you enjoy your new shop.

Bill

[Neil Gaskin]

I like your layout with the sander. jointer, planer. I had a better layout before I we picked up a wide-belt sander for a steal at an auction, but I'm not to cry about that. My planer went from having a permanent home to being pushed off to the side but it's on wheels.

I looked into LED lighting and really liked what I saw from the BigAss-Fan company, I just don't think I want to spend that much. High output T5's were about 1/2 the cost.

The one part I'm compromising on and going to regret is the flooring. The shop is on a concrete slab and I was going to put down sleepers and run electrical below the floor and have a wooden floor, but I'm already spending above the budget I wanted to maintain so I'm going to pass and end up with one column to mount the power for the planer, jointer, and table saw.

[Neil Gaskin]

Well, not to gloat, but we are building out our paint shop at the same time, same 30*40 space only for finishing/painting.

These shops are for my remodeling business but double as my hobby shops.

[Martin Wasner]

Advice? Go bigger.

[William A Johnston]

Putting a floor over the slab seems to be a very expensive proposition. I have my electrical drops to all my equipment with the exception of the table saw station. It does give me the flexibility to move and re-run the wires if needed in the future. One thing I have realized over the years we all adapt to what we working with. We have the T5 fixtures at the cabinet shop I work at. They are really nice, put out a tremendous amount of light and are very cool (heat). My shop is only a hobby shop at this time but I did work out of it for years and it served it purposes. Shops play tricks on the mind, when you pour the slab they look small, then you frame them and they look large, then you fill them with equipment and they seem to downsize again.

I like your small tool room storage. I have a lean too on the side of mine that is enclosed that holds an old car and I should make better use of it for small tool storage and items I don't use very often.

I think you made a wise decision on the wide belt sander, I got my sander about a year ago used and it is great but its no wide belt. Just over the last year have I made the transition from a cabinet shop to a hobby shop and getting into working with solid wood verses plywood and MDF. From a hobby standpoint I quickly realized how little I really know about true woodworking. And this is the very reason I joined Sawmill Creek.

Here is a picture of the electrical drops at my jointer/ planer/sander. I can walk all the way around the machines with out hitting any wires or dust collection piping. All of my machines are on wheels with the exception of the table saw and I do have a roll stand for it but have not moved the table saw since installation.

[David Ragan]

I read that the most often regret was not eniugh outlets, so i put in mega
never regretted it

[Don Jarvie]

You don't say where you live. If you live in a cold climate a wood floor will make your shop warmer and keep the heat in. It will also help with condensation in the summer.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Well, not to gloat, but we are building out our paint shop at the same time, same 30*40 space only for finishing/painting.

These shops are for my remodeling business but double as my hobby shops.

I am never, ever, talking to you again.


You Suck - Bill Murray.jpg

[Joe A Faulkner]

Sky lights or transom lights. Lots of them. Nothing beats natural light. The south wall looks to offer loads of possibilities for base and wall cabinets. I''d build those first and see if that doesn't provide adequate small power tool storage before devoting a room for that purpose.

[Neil Gaskin]

Sky lights or transom lights. Lots of them. Nothing beats natural light. The south wall looks to offer loads of possibilities for base and wall cabinets. I''d build those first and see if that doesn't provide adequate small power tool storage before devoting a room for that purpose.

Fortunately/unfortunately our shop is in the walk out basement of an office building, so it's insulated well and heated and cooled easily but that means natural light is not an option.

The room for small power tools is storage for our job-site tools and power tools not dedicated to the shop. I want the room to keep the two sets of tools seperate and organized.