request input on my new shop

[victorm385]

I built my wife a new craft room and she told me now that she has such a nice work area I should have a shop built!!! The say no good deed goes
unpunished.

My shop will be 16 ft x 28 ft with a 10 ft ceiling. I will have a
laminated wood floor except for the three feet by the overhead door and
the three feet by the 3 ft door will have ceramic tiles to try to protect
the laminate.

I have layed out the equipment (some of which I still haven't bought)
but I am concerned that the placement of the machinery, tables etc.
are in the best locations. This is my first shop, I have been working
out of our double car garage.

Please look my design over and offer any advise.......
Thanks,
victorm385

[dlminehart]

Looks good to me, Victor. I envy you having that much space! I'm contending with a little less than half that amount, one long wall of which is actually the roll-around shelving for the other half of the garage plus some room to get to the door to my house, one short wall is half the garage door, and half the other short wall is water heater and softener. Ah, for more than 20 feet of wall space, and more than 8 feet wide floor space (before cabinets, tools, etc.)!

[Jim Boyd]

I would move the cutoff table (mitersaw?) closer to the lumber rack for easier flow. I take it the your jointer, bandsaw, ect will be on mobile bases? Make sure you insulate the walls and ceiling!

[Hellrazor]

In your plans, make the workbench to the right of the tablesaw mobile and the same height as the tablesaw. You can turn it (as needed) and use it as an outfeed table.

[Rounder]

I think you will want your miter saw, tablesaw, planer and jointer near each other and near the wood storage area if your going to stock preparation. In my shop, the planner, jointer and tablesaw are close to each other and close to door the lumber comes in. My miter saw and bandsaw sit next to each other and close to my work bench. That way when I need to do a tad bit of trimming I don't have to go far to do it. My shop is 20 x 24 so it is close in size.

No mater how you set it up, you will change something. I am on my third layout. Also think of the projects you plan on doing and work thru in your mind how they will be built. There should be a flow to the progress of the work. Your shop should be set up to make that flow easier.

[lrogers]

My only suggestion is to be very careful and NOT underestimate your power and lighting needs. I'll be interested in hearing how this all works out for you since the shop I'm planning on building will be about the same size.

[twistsol]

I too would move the cutoff saw close to the lumber rack. Nearly everything I pull off the rack gets cut to rough length first. I work with a lot of rough lumber so I like the planer and jointer next to each other,

I like the idea of laminate floors, but have you considered that they will get really slippery with sawdust on them? This was a problem when I put EpoxyShield in my last shop and I spent a fortune on anti-fatigue mats to compensate.

[victorm385]

I will redraw the plan with the MS table swapped with the drill press,
toolbox and compressor.

All of the power tools except the MS will be on Mobile bases. The
Planer will actually be stored by the overhead door when not in use, and
pulled out when needed.

The power tools will all have dedicated 20 amp circuts.

The laminate floor has a texture that keeps it from being to slick.
I am also going to have 1/2" thick relief mats aroung the work table.
the table saw and finishing table.

I will re-post the layout as soon as I get it done.

Thanks for all your input,

Victorm385

[onedash]

Im in the middle of another reorg. Just got a mortiser. Moved the freezer into the house out of my garage so my big cabinet full of tools and junker shelf full of garage junk and toys go there now. im only renting so youd think i would put some mobile bases on but i have them on nothing except my tool chests that came with them. My table saw will never move. That takes up 1 cars worth of garage. Then my jointer is between and parallel with the two garage doors. The planer is on a table about in the middle of where the other car would be. My biggest gripe with the garage is power. It sucks. Aluminum wire and not enought outlets. Only one dedicated outlet so my compressor is on that. I think most everything done to this house was done as cheap as possible. Its so hot out there now Im done for the day. Spent about 2 hours cleaning and moving and filling the truck with junk. So now its in shambles. Maybe I will finish it tonight.
When I do buy a house and build my workshop i am going to have spray in foam insulation. A seperate finishing room would be awsome but not as important as the insulation.

[victorm385]

I have moved the miter saw table next to the jointer to make the flow
of the rough stock easier. Thanks for pointing that out. I never
thought of it because working out of the garage it was too much trouble
to set up my miter saw so I was using sawhorses and a skillsaw. This
will be 100% better.

I forgot to mention that the walls, doors and ceiling will all be
insulated. The walls and ceiling will be covered with drywall.....
"painted white" per suggestions in other posts.

My tablesaw will have the outfeed table using a hollow core door that
was posted on the website......

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It's a lot easier to make changes now than waiting until all of the electrical
plugs etc. have been run.

Thanks,
Victorm385

[LarryG]

Two comments:

1. For a one-man shop, the need for "dedicated" circuits is often overstated. You don't have to have a TRUE dedicated circuit for each power tool, only those that need to run simultaneously. For example, you could put your jointer, CMS, and bandsaw all on the same circuit (I'm assuming they're all 110V) and as long as only one will ever run at a time, the effect is the same as a dedicated circuit -- except that you'll save yourself a fair amount of Romex, and two spaces in your breaker box.

2. Will you do all your assembly on your workbench? If so, depending on what kind of projects you build, a 28" x 70" surface at regular benchtop height might be limiting. Myself and a couple others here have built David Marks-style torsion box assembly tables, and it is hands-down the best addition I have ever made to my shop. Mine is 42" x 60" with its top 18" above the floor (24" would be better; my shop has limited headroom). If you've never had the chance to work on a generously large and absolutely flat surface, you'd be amazed at how much easier it makes projects go together. I would give up some of my tools before I'd give up my assembly table. Maybe something to think about ...

[victorm385]

Thanks Larry,

I'll give this information to my electrian. I thought that I would
make the support on the right side of the miter table able to fold up
so that I will have a small area to stage the finish parts.

The assembly table is a good idea, I'll look into making it with
some kind of fold up legs so that I can move it our of the way when it
isn't needed.

Victorm385

[Thalermade]

I didn't see any one mention using some type of sheets of plywood (3/4") in place of the drywall, for the walls. That way you can hang things from just about anywwhere, and if the item isn't to big, shouldn't have to worry about screwing into a stud.

On your paint color, there is a thread somewhere in here about which type of white to use. http://bt3central.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14647


If you have any "open wall" space where outlets are being installed , give good thought to the height of the outlet. You might want to raise them up to 50 inches, so a 4' by 8' sheet of something could temporarily be leaned up against a wall, and you will still have acces to your outlet.

Have fun,

Russ