New House = New Shop = New Shop Projects

[pierhogunn]

Ladies (all 4 of you I think) and Gentelem ( and the rest of the guys) I have finally moved into my new house, and I have claimed (been given by LOML) half of the 2 car garage as my wood shop.

She has decreed that what ever I do it must be

• Organized
• Neat
• Pretty

To her this means that everything within reason shall be behind closed doors, or neatly stored on pegboard, and absolutely no exposed 2X4's

She is also going to consent to me sealing the garage floor

The help that I need from you guys is any free plans that you have run across for good closed door storage that is easy to build and relatively inexensive.

Plans, Links, Pictures, Advice, anecdotes, scorn, anything I can get I want, and will appreciate, and Oakchas, I will finally get to build that workbench you mailed me the drawings to several years ago

[gad5264]

Dan, I have an rather large collection of items just like this that I have been stocking up on for a while. Send me your direct address in a private email and I will forward you a couple of discs with plans on them.

[stewchi]

I am in the same boat and have not been on the forum in a while, moving from Chicago-land to Chattanooga, TN. We just bought a house and I will be taking over part of the unfinished basement garage. The house has 2 driveways, the left driveway leads to the normal garage on the main level and the driveway on the right leads to a garage door that opens into the basement. It’s a much bigger space than I had before so I will need to build a work bench, cabinets, plumb the DC etc. I am definitely thinking go mobile for the equipment and I really like the look of Kirby’s shop with the neat cabinets with clear acrylic fronts, unfortunately most of his shop furniture is nicer than my house furniture. My skill level is not there yet. Any lessons learned, advice etc. on building a shop in a new unfinished space is welcome.

[Bulkley]

quote:Originally posted by pierhogunn


She has decreed that what ever I do it must be

• Organized
• Neat
• Pretty

Big problem. I hear the same rules, but I'm one who thinks that a neat shop is a sign of a sick mind. Oh, well. One of my solutions has been to build a massive mobile cabinet under my table saw, with twelve pullout drawers. (If I ever find a friend with a digital camera, I'll post pictures.) Table saws take up a lot of floor space. My wife is thrilled with the amount of stuff I have been able to store underneath mine.

My next project will be a matching mobile workshop that will double as a feedout table. It will have cabinet space underneath to store some of my desktop tools (drill press, etc.). One end will have a built in router table.

In a small shop, it is critical that all cabinet tops be at the same height as your table saw. This really helps when cutting long stock.

[pierhogunn]

what is the maximum blade hight above the bt31k table? and how much clearance would you allow underneath the bottom of the cabinet and that elevated blade, 1" 2"?

[gmack5]

It isn't the Blade Height (3 9/16") that you need be concerned about, it's the height over the Blade Guard (read Sharkgard).
I would think that 6 or 7 inches above the Saw Table top would be plenty of clearance. []

[JR]

I have one piece of advice - well, actually several thousand, but I'll try to be brief.

I now believe smaller is better when designing workbench and cabinets. I have the Norm Abram One-Car Garage design. It has a workbench along the long wall that's about 12' long (maybe more) plus a big mobile cart for CMS and a second work suface suitable for grinder or sander.

I think I'd rather have a woodworker's workbench that can be positioned in middle of the shop for walk-around access. I tend to want big projects to be fixed to the bench so I can do the variety of fitting and finishing tasks on as many sides as possible before unclamping. And small project seem to need some odd angle for clamping that requires me to walk around and attack it from unusual angles.

The mobile cart is too big, too. It's about 40" square and about 44" high or so. It seems to be a hulking presence whenever things get cranking. By contrast, I just mounted my planer to a small tool cabinet, on which it just barely fits (24"x13"?, 30"? high). That provides good functionality, but gets the heck out of the way when I need it to.

I have good cabinets above the bench, but feel like they're too hard to get at. I really want those specialty cabinets you see in the mags - drill press stuff next to the drill press, sanding stuff next to the sanding station, router stuff next to to the router table, etc.

So I'd have a free-standing workbench, (mobile) tool stations around the walls, with accompanying clever cabinets.

JR

[Bulkley]

44" sounds like too high. Can you cut it down?

Mobility depends on the castors. My new tablesaw cabinet is massive, but it's easier to move around than the previous setup on one of those "universal base" rigs. The reason is that I used quality 4" castors, and all of them swivel.

I also find that shallow drawers are more useful than deep ones, for most things. Make lots of shallow drawers.

[JR]

quote:Originally posted by Bulkley

44" sounds like too high. Can you cut it down?

Hmm, not really. I guess I should have pointed out the good features. The high platform, with wings, provides a nice CMS base. I don't have to bend over too far to dial in the cut and the wings provide nice support for long stock.

It's a versatile cabinet, rolls nice, has loads of storage. It's just very big.

One of these days I'll replace it.

JR