Sketchup of my shop - opinions wanted

[LarryG]

Wondering what everyone thought of anti-fatigue mats as a floor covering, and how well they do (in general) with rolling tools over.

I have several of the Woodcraft 2' x 5' anti-fatigue mats (also sold by others, in various colors) and they definitely beat standing on a bare concrete slab. They don't play nice with casters, though: anything but the most lightly-loaded cart or mobile base will either hang up on the edge or bog down due to the mat being soft and squishy. I think the interlocking mats that HF and others sell are harder and might be better in this regard, but I have no experience with those.

You would lose a little ceiling height, but if you don't have any water drainage issues with your shop's floor you could put down 3/4" pressure-treated sleepers and cover them with a layer of 3/4" plywood. The space between the sleepers could be filled with rigid foam insulation, to make the floor a wee bit more pleasant to stand on during the winter months.

[Cochese]

I was thinking about buying enough of the interlocking mats that there would be no edges for the mobile items to roll on or off. The only sections of the shop that wouldn't be covered would be under my cabinets and workbench.

Rockler has their mats (set of 6, about 24'^2, so 2x2 each) for $10 right now.

[JR]

I have several of the Woodcraft 2' x 5' anti-fatigue mats (also sold by others, in various colors) and they definitely beat standing on a bare concrete slab.

[detour]Does this mean you have a shop in which to stand? Inquiring minds want to know![\detour]

JR

[JR]

I was thinking about buying enough of the interlocking mats that there would be no edges for the mobile items to roll on or off.

Yabut, you'd still have the squishiness thing to deal with. I wouldn't do it.

JR

[LarryG]

[detour]Does this mean you have a shop in which to stand? Inquiring minds want to know![\detour]

Not yet, alas. I'm still dealing with One D@mned Thing After Another Syndrome -- at the moment, said one thing being my busticated collar bone. Maybe get the new shop underway by early spring.

[pelligrini]

I use the gray interlocking ones that I picked up at Biglots. They are 1/2" foam and very similar to the ones at HF and others. They really do make a difference when standing on them. I have a set I'll put around my saw when I have it out front of my shop. At the end of a long weekend shop day I can really feel it if I didn't lay them out.

Rolling carts over the edges isn't a problem, but you probably don't want to keep rolling tools on the pads for extended periods. The pads will compress under the point loads. I don't have any problems rolling my jointer, my planer cart, or my drill press cart over them. I also don't have pads under them around the edges of my shed.

You will get a little bit more movement from mobile tools with a pad under them. It doesn't bother me too much with my mobile tools. I do have a strip of 3/4" plywood I'll put under my 21829 saw wheels to help with stability. It also levels out the saw when I set it up inside, as I have the spring legs adjusted way out to deal with a slope in the slab I normally set it up on outside.

If you do get the foam pads open up the package outside and let them air out a day or so. Mine did not give off a nice smell when I first got them.

[Cochese]

Thanks for the replies on the mats. Will probably just try to fill the one hole and use a nice mat between my benches where I'll be standing the most.

I think the next step for me is to look at making full width upper and lower cabinets for my south wall. In doing this, I want to have storage for all of my handheld power tools. Most of you know I have a wide range of the One+ line of cordless tools, and I have a handful of corded.

This is what I have right now, with what I know I'll add to it as well:

Cordless:
four drills
jigsaw
circular saw
rotary saw
recip saw
angle grinder
ROS and corner sanders
laminate trimmer
Future - right angle drill

Corded:
jigsaw (soon to be replaced or added to with a Bosch barrel)
random orbit polisher - may store in the detailing cabinet
future - belt sander
MFN tool
Dremel
circular saw

To sum it up, while I need to leave myself a little room for new additions, I'm pretty much set on these type of tools. I need a good place to store them for easy access - my current method of plopping the drills down at will, and the rest of the tools being shoved in a bin isn't what I would like.

I have an idea of what I would like to do, but I'm soliciting ideas first. Pictures are helpful as well.

[Cochese]

I thought I was done planning, but I guess it really never ends. I neglected to add a spot for my Kreg jig, figuring I would find a spot later. But I think I may want a spot that would serve that purpose, plus a joiner jig, mortiser spot, frame assembly spot (clamping) and possibly a downdraft spot. It's a lot of things, but if there's a stand or an area that would accommodate light and exchangeable surfaces, I'd like to try.

I'm thinking of two ideas. One would be to use something similar to the temporary stand I made for my OSS, something about 2' square and 3' tall.



The modules should be light enough where they could hang on a wall or the unit itself, possibly. Concerned about stability.


The other option I was thinking of was doing something I had considered a long time ago - having my entire back wall be a cabinet. Doing this would be a bit more of an undertaking than I was planning, but this would solve quite a few problems that I've been wanting to fix. The drawers aren't complete, and the interior of the cabinet is screwed up because I originally was going to use hardwood. I have very little room to the right of my miter saw.

I'll be working on the Sketchup of the possible full wall this week to see if it would work with space.

It's amazing looking at this picture from only five months ago and not recognizing it. I made a virtual tour (here, which really should be merged with this thread) and I've been slowly progressing toward that goal.

A lot of my time has been spent fleshing out where little things need to go, like my cord reels, safety equipment, etc. Little stuff is continuously being moved around to find just the right spot, but the overall plan is being stuck to pretty well I think.

One major thing I am pondering is where my scrap is going to be stored, perhaps in the opposite corner it is now. With the saw extension finally done, I think I may not want it over in that corner. However, to actually use the saw in that extended width, it has to be pulled out anyway. We'll see. I wish I didn't have so much bulky sheet scrap, and I'm trying to use up as much as I can with current projects.

My bandsaw and table saw got major upgrades, I've added some smaller tools and subtracted some crap. I got a beefier vac that replaced two smaller ones. Added quite a few clamps, based on what I had before.

I'll get some updated pics up before noon.

[Cochese]

Couldn't post this from my phone yesterday.

View from my 'seat'


View from outside, showing my headphone and glasses up top.


Clockwise around the shop from the front left corner

[Cochese]

New right side cabinets coming together...

Modular tool carcass


Full cabinet, minus trim and drawers. (horrible pic)


Finally, room for the planer cart to come back home.

[jeepman71]

Good Job. A place for everything and everything in it's place.

Jim

[Cochese]

It's getting there, slowly. Hopefully I'll have most of the drawers done this week. I decided drawer lock joints are too time consuming, and will probably stick with pocket holes. It worked just fine on my heavy drawer for a year.