Garage/Workshop Critique

[jmc]

Frank,

This looks nice and if you are as meticulous with the construction as you are with the drawings, it will be immaculate. How did you make these drawings?

Don't know your needs/situation so my comments are based on my own.

Put everything possible on rollers for layout flexibility, maybe even that stockrack.

Is that a wood lathe? I don't know if rollers work for those but it would also be nice to move it away from the wall when you sweep. Maybe with a dust collection system you won't have to sweep. Never had one myself except for my lungs.

Unless you heat/cool the shop when its wet outside, those cars will drag in a lot of moisture that may rust your steel. Similar problem opening those doors when the shop is cool and its warm outside.

I would love to have water in my shop but would still go to the house for certain functions and showering. The small commercial shop I built had a urinal which is less maintanance than a conventional toilet. Anyway, I would use that space saved for machinery.

Enjoy your project.

John

 

[TOMLESCOEQUIP]

When I built my 1st pole building at my home property, after Leveling the site & allowing the ground to settle, I had a couple dump truck loads of pea gravel dumped in the middle of the site for under the future concrete, then had the building erected. (just thinking ahead--hard to dump a tandem load of stone in a building with a 9' ceiling height) The builders showed up, erected the building(30 X 40) in 3 1/2 days. (Started on tuesday, finished on friday). My wife called friday afternoon and said they were just installing the last of the OH doors around 3:30. <font color="blue"> Before I got home from work at 5:30, she had all the stuff out of the house garage in the new barn, arranged in a circle around the large pile of gravel !! </font> Made it real hard to spread the stone with all the mowers & other tools in the way !! <font color="red"> Rule # 4 Keep the only set of keys in YOUR pocket till the building's done...........Tom </font>

 

[Knight9]

I would recommend partitioning off a small room to contain the noisy dust collection system and the air compressor. Maybe adding in the hot water tank etc. Kind of like a utility room.

Wish I'd done that with my garage. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Kevin

 

[tomnky]

I think I would have the compressor in an outer room to reduce the noise as well as easier Change out if necessary.

 

[bgott]

Your lumber rack needs to be closer to your saws, parallel to them would be ideal. The space between the lumber rack and the saws is going to end up with stuff that is going to make it a pain to manouever long lumber. How much lumber do you plan to have on hand? Maybe you could build a lumber rack over top of the miter saw and band saw? I must have missed the part where you mentioned the ceiling height. I wouldn't go any lower than 12', if you can get away with it. 15' would be nice, just in case you ever find a car lift at a good price. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Recessed lighting is also a good idea, that poof! and spray of glass and powder when you flip a two by end over end and hit a flourescent light can give you a heart attack!

 

[EastTexFrank]

It's looking good!!!! There's a lot of good advice here but I got to add my 2 cents. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Build a seperate, attached 2 car garage to keep the wife happy ... and you. Moving cars outside or leaving them in and getting them covered with dust or dinged moving material around gets to be a pain in a hurry. Talking from experience here. That's what I had to do when we lived in Dallas and swore that I'd never do it again.

Setting the dust collector lines underground sounds like a good idea but those things are known to plug occasionally and trying to clear them when buried under the floor would be another pain. They don't look as nice rigged up to the wall but it is more practical.

I don't know how you are going to set up your cabinets but get plenty of storage. It's amazing how much space the "little stuff" takes up.

Fluoresent shop lights are great but have them on 2 different circuits just in case you trip a breaker, you'll not be left in the dark. Also have a switched/live outlet(s) in the ceiling so you can hook up an air cleaner or a trouble light. Have the option of installing lights on the walls, under cabinets, etc. It never hurts to have too much illumination and being able to get it to shine right down where your working is priceless.

When I did mine, I thought long and hard about installing a full bathroom. I decided against it but did put in a sink which was good. I sometimes wish I had put in the toilet/urinal but I think that the shower will see very little use. For me, it was just too far away from clean clothes, towels, etc., to be practical. It's a nice thought though and would probably keep the wife happy. It can also be a great place for bathing the dogs. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Don't skimp on power service and outlets. Get plenty on all 4 walls - both 220v and 110v.

I'm not a great fan of welding inside a closed shop. I have to do it on occasions but in a little shop, without very good ventilation, it amazing how "smoky" and bad the air can get in a hurry.

Isn't trying to design your ideal shop a lot of fun? There's just so much to think about to cover your present and future needs. I had a blast doing mine and I've been pretty happy with the results for the most part. There's a couple of little things that I'd modify but not many. All the time and effort you spend in the planning stages will be well rewarded when you get it built and begin to use it.

So ends the Gospel according to Frank. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Cliff_Johns]

First, go get a copy of "The Workshop Book" from Tauton Press (Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding folks). What you need to know is in that book.

You've gotten some very good advice so far, but pay special attention to having light when you trip a breaker and putting everything you can on casters.

I would say your table saw is in the wrong place and facing the wrong dirction, but these kinds of things can be changed around easily. For instance, I don't know about you, but I usually stand along side the bandsaw when I use it. As shown, I would find the bandsaw almost impossible to operate -- especially on resaw operations. But again, if everything is on good casters, you can fix these sorts of things and the bandsaw and the planer will be pushed into a corner most of the time.

In a shop, I prefer narrow shelves rather than deep cabinets. If I can't see it I have trouble finding it or even remembering I have it. Lots of narrow shelves makes everything visable and uses a great deal less workshop space.

Florescent lights are OK, but I prefer a mix to give a more representitive light. If you do your staining under florecent, it's going to look very different in your living room.

Think about where your trash is and where you will keep cutoffs. A lumber rack is nice, but it's the scraps of $8/foot walnut you just can't part with that take up room. Do you use plywood? Where would that go? If you store wood in the rafters, you need a good sturdy ladder and somewhere to keep it.

If you work alone, the layout will be different than if you can have someone else hold a board for you once in a while.

Oh, yes. If you do cabinet work, you want to have one section of the floor that is flat and level. Life is much easier this way. You can build a platform yourself, but you need a place fot it.

Anyway, enough rambling at midnight, but the book, it will make all the difference in the world.

Well, OK, one final comment. I don't know how serious you plan to get in wood working power tools, but a jointer (preferably a wide one) is the key to woodworking success. Do remember though, that hand tools take up much less space and are a lot quieter too. There's nothing like the gentle Sshhoo of a hand plane.

Cliff

 

[hitekcountry]

Frank

You'er wasting a lot of valuable wall space along that bottom wall next to the truck/van. I would move the garage door slightly to the center enough so that you can load up that wall with storage in the form of shelving or cabinets. You can never have too much storage. I like to have various depth cabinets but in this location I would go with a depth of 12”.
Attached is a picture of what I did, you can see the shelves on the right. Picture is not that good but is the best I could find. My garage is detached and is 1624sf. The room on the right was originally going to be my wood working area but it ended up being the gym.

Fred

 

[GEB]

Kevin is correct! Make the bathroom a tid bit bigger, put your
air compressor in the bath room and insulate the walls.
Also with a bigger bath room you can also store all your
stuff that needs to be kept above freezing by keeping the
bathroom heated.
Gene

 

[Egon]

Everyone has their own preference for layout.

Items I'm thinking about [ some previously mentioned ] are;

Casters with locks on some of the tools
Overhead storage for long pieces of wood
A long infeed and outfeed table for the portable planner, This could fit in with another tool on a long bench
Will there be a jointer?

Egon