Today, my shop is essentially 4 zones:

1 - Multi-purpose room that has a small curtain-contained area for spraying finishes, but is shared with the kids

2 - What I call the "Assembly" area.. clamps, fasteners, workbench, measuring tools, hand tools... glue ups happen here etc.

3 - The "woodshop"... or probably more accurate to call it the "machines area".. where all the major stationary tools are

4 - "Shed area"... lumber storage and kids' bikes and basketballs


During our upcoming home addition, we are also doing some work to the barn.

- Interior stairs to 2nd story will be removed (will now be on the exterior of the building instead)

- Water/sewer brought to the building

- LED lighting upgrade throughout all shop spaces

- AND, the kids will no longer share the multi-purpose room with me... their stuff is moving inside a portion of the new home addition


SO... this allows me to shift some things around, and I'd like to gut check with the crew here.

1 - Multi-purpose becomes entirely mine.. big, flat, torsion box "island" suitable for glue ups, clamping, assembly, and finishing tasks. All walls protected by curtains. Most clamps live in this room. Heated and cooled, good lighting, separated from dusty shop.

2 - Assembly area becomes "build room"... without need for the entire stable of clamps in here, wall space is freed up. Planning/measuring/drawing, fitting, cutting, tuning, fasteners, hand tools... all that happens in here.

3 - Woodshop remains mostly the same... with two major (and easy) improvements. By swapping bandsaw and planer position, I'll have better access to both tools (infeed and outfeed) and it removes the bandsaw obstacle that I sometimes face while working at the jointer. All I have to do is modify a small section of wall to allow planer materials to pass.

BEFORE
BARN LAYOUT BEFORE 2-1-21.JPG

Proposed AFTER
BARN LAYOUT AFTER 2-1-21.JPG