A Stowable Workshop?

[Evan Patton]

I never thought it made much sense to store the most valuable assets (after your house) out in the elements.

When I first starting working with wood we had a 2-car garage. It was wide enough (barely) to have my stationary bench and table saw with router table between the cars. Other tools were on wheels. Backing out the cars left me with a decent working space.

[Richard Young]

Depending on housing needs of the residents, there is nothing that says you can't put a small shop in a spare bedroom with the only real constraints being the size of items you are processing. You may have to remove carpeting and build some shelving, but it would be small cost items vs leaving cars out of the garage. You would also have heating and cooling, just don't want any solvent based material finishing work to do. Just a thought for thinking outside the box, or maybe even thinking inside the box?

[Julie Moriarty]

Using a bedroom crossed my mind, until I saw how small some of these bedrooms were. Some houses we've looked at only have two bedrooms and we were going to use the second to keep our dressers because the "master" was barely large enough to fit a double bed. But if it comes down to a workshop or a sailboat, the sailboat will win. A bad sailing it better than a good day woodworking.

[Mike Heidrick]

If you can stow them easier you will do it later and might as well design a permanent garage shop

[Paul Wunder]

Julie,

Try this link to Woodsmith plans showing one wall workshops in various iteration. Perhaps it will spark some ideas

http://www.woodsmithplans.com/catego...kshop-storage/

[David Ragan]

LIke Jamie Buxton said above, the first thing I thought of was above. Several years ago, I bought a platform system with pulleys from HF so I could pile stuff on it, and hoist it overhead (never used it).

I did have a tremendous amount of stuff stored overhead @ one time. But, it was a hazard from me falling to get it(or it on me).

Jamie's idea of like a HF heavy duty lift sounds interesting-and expensive.

Sailing sounds like it will be a wonderful trade-off for you all.

Let us know how it works out.

[Steve Kinnaird]

My son has an extra 2,000 lb winch. I am looking at possibly incorporating in to a pulley lift system to keep lumber overhead in the center of the shed. It has a remote control to raise and lower it. You pick them up at Harbor Freight for around $50

[Paul Murphy]

Julie, I don't know what kind of dust collector you have, but even a cyclone can fit in most attics above a garage. Chips aren't heavy, so you could run the ductwork for the bin to a shelf above the hood of a car.


Steve already mentioned the 3-car garage with partition, which could give you an area that could be climate controlled and wouldn't have to be rearranged for parking.


I don't know about your garage ceiling height / vehicle height, but I've seen folks stack cars, so why not a “workspace”? Put a “floor” on a lift, “permanently” position your machines, and lift your workspace up to park your car.
http://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/parking-lifts/


The more constrained a garage shop, the more I would consider what Richard mentioned; taking over a room inside the house, for at least hand-tool use and assembly.


Good luck with your planning, and let us know how you work things out!

[Kent A Bathurst]

Julie -

As I read through all this, I realized I am unclear on some basic points -

Are you saying you expect to have a 2-car garage, but need to park 2 cars in it?

Or, are you saying you will have 1 car there, with a 1-car spot open for a shop?

[Scott DelPorte]

Hi Julie
I have seen a couple of your posts where you were working on guitars. For guitar building, I think you can do just fine with a smaller setup. I went a long time with just bench top power tools. I had a 8" bandsaw, skilsaw, router and a 8" drill press. I would clamp the bandsaw or drill press to the bench, and then stow them out of the way when I wanted to clear the bench top to work with hand tools. A very good luthier I know who lives nearby has a 14" bandsaw and drill press as his only "large" power tools, and does everything else with hand tools on the bench. He does use a hand held router for a few operations like binding channels, truss rod channels, and neck pockets but I have no doubt he could cut them nicely with sharp hand tools. I am humbled by the work he does. If you want to build guitars, and only have a small space, I think its very doable.

After many years of building guitars in small areas, I finally built a separate shop and put in large stationary tools. My wife was so sick of me spreading out tools on the dining room table, and tracking sawdust all over, that she was quite happy to see me move everything to a stand alone shop. Now that I have a jointer, planer, tablesaw, DC, router table etc., I find that I still mostly use the hand tools for guitar building, but have started building furniture for the first time.

[John Lifer]

Well as someone who has had all sorts of setups, and recently moved from a 30x30 shop into two car garage or less, it ain't fun. Just put an offer up for a new home back in the country with a 24x40 building I'll convert to a shop, I can't imagine staying in a little spot. I do like the idea of a sun porch that you can use as a shop. Look for that or space and allowance for adding

[Jim Dwight]

I have an extra 14x24 foot shop garage that we added to our lake home last year. We have essentially no deed restrictions but we have a nearly 50 year old house that needs lots of things changed. I want to be able to park a car in the shop garage but am not there yet. The shop garage is separate from the 2 car (20x24) with a solid wall separating them. Because of the width, I have about 2 foot of space on that side and about 3 feed of space on the other side before I am into the doorway.

My plan has the RAS and CMS along the 2 foot side with the router table with hardwood storage on pipes in the wall above them. The pipes are in and hold the hardwood, the RAS and CMS are on their bench with 16 drawers below. The bench is 8 feet long and will be extended to about 12 then a Paulk style top 7 inches tall will get put on top where the saws are not. There will be some clamp storage at one end and some storage for other things, possibly in a cabinet on the other end.

Along the wall where I have 3 feet width I plan a rolling workbench with a Paulk style top. I will probably store a portable table saw under it and use it on the workbench occasionally (on pull out poles ala Paulk). It will hold other tools too including the track saw. The bench will be 3 feet by 7 feet. Sheet goods storage also goes along this wall. At the end of the shop there is a drill press (floor model) and I can park the BT3100 table saw with 24 inch rip capacity (I have extension rails but don't use them now that I have the track saw, I cut the base of the saw down). I have a little DC but plan to get rid of it and just use my shop vacuum/Dust Deputy combination.

I think it is all going to work but they plan depends on having a garage wide enough to have tools 3 feet and 2 feet along the walls. I will have to leave space to get into and out of a vehicle on the drivers side but I can do that. I also don't need to put a car there all the time but it would be nice to get them off the drive. We have 4 at the moment, however, and will have to get rid of one, minimum. We also have to get rid of the large riding lawn mower we do not use that is taking up 1/2 the 2 car.

You should also check out Paulk's designs. He has a SCMS/track saw/portable table saw/router table workstation that is only 3x6 feet and could be broken down and go against a wall. It sets up on saw horses. He uses it in a video to put up crown molding. He uses a Kapek that would have to come off to cut up sheet goods but it gives a lot of capability in a minimum of space. Cars would have to come out to use it but set up and take down seem doable.

[william watts]

Some mighty fine woodworking has come for 2 car garages, just check some posts here on SMC. I have a work bench; a 6 in. jointer; sharping station; table saw; router table; drill press; and 14 in. band saw; and a lunch box planer, and a full size pick up, and mid size suv in the garage. Except for the work bench all on wheels and with minor effort I can scoot the bench where I need it. Lumber storage is on a rack high on the rear wall. Drive the cars out move the tools into a position that enables work flow and your set, only takes a few minutes. These are full size tools not job site models. I have clamps, jigs. blades, etc. hung on the wall. This set up is not ideal, it is a compromise. I have worked this way as a hobby for years and it not a big hassle.

My neighborhood does not have any ccrs but I am still concerned with noise, especially the screaming planner. I try to limit noise to hrs when others are at work. Noise my be your biggest problem. You can go neanderthal.

A neighbor has covered RV storage but no RV. Last month he agreed to rent this space. I now park my p.u. there and have gained space for a saw stop table saw and a dust collector. Your neighbors may have extra garage space they would rent for your car.

The biggest hassle is storage for portable tools, routers, drills, drivers etc. I am thinking of building cubbies for these, but cases would work to.

I have enjoyed your posts and it seems you are to addicted to w/w, you can't quit.

[Rick Potter]

Aren't we missing the obvious? You need an oversized boathouse.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Aren't we missing the obvious? You need an oversized boathouse.

I'll see you and I'll raise you: Julie needs an oversized enclosed pontoon boat.......a floating shop.