Ok, by end of week, insulation in the barn will be finished, allowing me to finally layout the shop.
Building on advice from the group here, I've come up with the following layout.
Left side:
- The left side of the shop is divided by a wall from the right side.
- This is the "clean" side (apart from the drill press).
- Heater is located (hanging dayton unit) on this side.
- Cutoff lengths of lumber, and components are stored under the stairs.
- Assembly, homeowner level things, figuring out/drawing.. these sorts of things happen here.
Right side:
- The right side of the shop is the dusty side where all the major tools are.
- There's a 4 foot door between the spaces that can be opened to allow heat to flow over there on cold days (or to allow a fully assembled piece to pass through the door).
- Long lengths of lumber will be racked above and below the miter saw counter at the right (easy delivery from truck, through garage door, to the location where it will ultimately be rough cut).
- Dust collector will be in the back right corner. 2 hp HF model, 6" main and drops, thien baffle. Short runs, blast gates.
- All tools are on mobile bases for instances where you need to maneuver.
Workflow:
Again, I'm a newbie and am building the workflow based on a one-week course that I took. So please be gentle if I'm being a total idiot here.
- pull truck up to overhead garage door
- lumber directly to racks under and above miter station (I have 10 foot racks both above and below)
- select lumber and stage to rolling cart, mark up / rough measure etc.
- rough cut at miter station and return to rolling cart
- Use the rolling cart as needed to stage near jointer/table saw/planer/band saw as needed (or even to the other side of the shop to the drill press).
- Sanding will also occur on the rolling cart.
- assembly-ready components staged to left side of shop under the stairs
- assembly and finishing occurs on assembly cart
- finished pieces back out to the truck for delivery, or to 2nd story of the barn for storage
Questions:
Can you imagine the workflow, and do you think it is a reasonable starting point? I know it may change as I go, but if I can avoid building lots of unnecessary fixtures...
The planer on the cart is the one sort of annoying part of the flow. It will move every time I work (whereas most other tools will only move on an exception basis). Any ideas for changes there?
The drill press won't be on dust collection system due to location - I plan to just use a shop vac for this one tool. Do you think that's a major issue?
Any other suggestions you can think of?
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