Shop Ideas

[Iplayfarmer]

Concerning the floor. In actual fact, there is quite a bit of heat loss through a floor. The myth of heat always going up is now well known to be inaccurate. The laws of physics dictate that heat transfer finds cold. If you insulate the ceiling and walls with R80 and don't insulate your floor, your heat is going down. The fact that the ground is warm compared to the outside air temp doesn't mean it's not worth appropriate insulation. I was convinced by my home builder not to insulate the floor of our family room since the floor was 5 feet below the surface and the walls were insulated. He said there was no reason to insulate the floor because of the soil temp 5 feet below the surface. I finally caved in and that floor is so cold it just sucks the warmth out of you. My shop floor is at least what ever temp I keep the shop at. I can lay down on the shop floor and work comfortably but can't walk around my own family room in socks. Oh well.

Easy solution: Spend more time in the shop

 

[RonRock]

There are lots of good Garage/Shop pictures and advice to be found on the The Garage Journal Board. You might start by looking at the gallery forum found there.

Cool Link. Thanks

 

[jimmer2880]

I have given up on permenant work benches. Now, all of my work benches are mounted on casters. They also have a shelf in them to add stability, & to put tools/supplies that you are working with at that time. What's great about the portable benches, is, that you can arrange them for whatever project you are doing at the time. They are usually pushed against a wall, however, frequently, they are in the middle of the shop clamped together.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Someone in this thread had mentioned needing to conserve space. I finally unburied my table saw so that I could take some pictures of what I built a number of years ago.

I have my bench grinder mounted so that it folds down into the table like a sewing machine folds into a sewing table. It gives me a place to keep and use the bench grinder, but also leaves that space available as flat work area too.

This is the table flat...

This is the table with the grinder up for use...

 

[BTDT]

Just came across this, you might not be able to use all suggestions in following book, but it is a good read

http://roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/atkinssaw1931.pdf

 

[3238dpw]

Iplayfarmer, That is really cool! I would love to have more info on this. Can you take mmore pics and give us some details?

Here is something I found a while ago, but don't like it as much as yours. It is the second one down.
idea.Small Shop Storage Solutions: More Storage Solutions

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Iplayfarmer, That is really cool! I would love to have more info on this. Can you take mmore pics and give us some details?

Here is something I found a while ago, but don't like it as much as yours. It is the second one down.
idea.Small Shop Storage Solutions: More Storage Solutions

The only real trick is the catch mechanism that I use to hold it in place up and down. I routed a rabbet into the face of it and a corresponding groove in the back plate so that it the whole mechanism would sit flush with the top of the table when it was down...

Here's the catch mechanism up close...

Here's the back plate notched...

 

[Iplayfarmer]

You can see in the first picture above how the catch part hinges up to get out of the way to allow the grinder to move up and down. I've got a set of hinges on this catch, and I have a set of even heaftier hinges on the back to support the whole mechanism.

The first time I collapsed the grinder down into the table I kind of dropped it in place and the whole thing broke right out of the table and landed on the floor below. That's when I figured out that I need to put stop blocks on the bottom so that the whole torque of the grinder being lowered wasn't carried by the hinges alone...

You can also see in the second picture how the power cord comes through the bottom of the platform.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Pardon the mess in the background of every picture I take. One of these days we're going to have a contest of who has to messiest or most cluttered shop, and I will at least be in the top few percent.

You can see the work surface created by the stored grinder is pretty stained and hammered. I have probably done more work on that 1 1/2 square feet of space than on all of my work benches, tables, and tailgates combined.

 

[zionview]

Hi guys, I'm new to the forum. Here's a saw table I built my son, whose car shares the same area as his shop. The second is a portable table I built for my nephew.