new garage shop layout


treesner

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1 hour ago, Coop said:

Wow! Such a fantastic blank plate. It’s hard to tell what your priors are, bike or Woodworking.

thanks its so nice having a finished garage finally. 

dirtbikes are my main passion and my side business is based around them as well but I do love woodworking. Woodworking takes up way more space I feel like dirtbikes would use like 1/4 of the space and wood would use 3/4 

 

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That looks like an awesome space. My only advice is start out trying to be flexible and don't set stuff in stone. After a year or so you'll want to change this or move that. It's easier if you haven't built fancy cabinets etc when this happens.

I'm at year 3 in my shop and I've rearranged 3-4 times now and have a few things I want to change again.

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Beautiful shop. If you intend to build cabinets or furniture I would start with a table saw first, a jointer and a thickness planer. To deal with 4 x 8 sheets or rough sawn lumber, these three get you started. Place your planer near a door to reduce your inside footprint. You can fake the rest with hand tools. Like a saber saw for a band saw. Unless there is a big budget.

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6 hours ago, Chestnut said:

That looks like an awesome space. My only advice is start out trying to be flexible and don't set stuff in stone. After a year or so you'll want to change this or move that. It's easier if you haven't built fancy cabinets etc when this happens.

I'm at year 3 in my shop and I've rearranged 3-4 times now and have a few things I want to change again.

yeah I'm going to do my best to have things on casters and I think maybe do the bigger outfield table and longer storage bench split into two smaller units and just screw together that way I can unscrew and move around if I want different configurations. 

 

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2 minutes ago, treesner said:

yeah I'm going to do my best to have things on casters and I think maybe do the bigger outfield table and longer storage bench split into two smaller units and just screw together that way I can unscrew and move around if I want different configurations. 

 

If your floor is reliably flat you may want to consider building multiple small storage bench units that can be attached to one another using toggle clamps. If you also have a reliable one piece assembly surface the tops of the storage carts needn't be perfectly co-planer (though it would be totally feasible to make the tops of storage cabinet carts adjustable if you'd like them dead-nuts to one another even if you reconfigure them every so often). My thinking here is that is you ever have a buddy or two bring their bikes over and you're all working on them/prepping for a trip or whatever it'd be great to roll everything woodworking-related out of the way. You could selectively configure your woodworking side to keep just enough stuff set up that you could quickly get something done on a specific project without a lot of hassle, and minimal compromise re: your side business and dirt bikes.

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2 hours ago, treesner said:

yeah I'm going to do my best to have things on casters and I think maybe do the bigger outfield table and longer storage bench split into two smaller units and just screw together that way I can unscrew and move around if I want different configurations. 

 

Casters is a good option but also keep in mind to not go overboard building beautiful cabinets until you get your setup nailed down. Nothing is worse than having a huge cabinet setup that you have to hack to pieces because you bought a stationary planer to replace your DW735 DAMHIK.

I personally like multiple smaller benches opposed to 1 large bench. then 1 can collect junk while the other stays clean.

I'm jealous that you painted and got all the walls done before you moved in. I wish i had done that. i was just talking to Megan about doing an epoxy floor and painting the walls then i looked around my shop and realized how much work that'd be and abandoned that idea very quickly.

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58 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

Casters is a good option but also keep in mind to not go overboard building beautiful cabinets until you get your setup nailed down. Nothing is worse than having a huge cabinet setup that you have to hack to pieces because you bought a stationary planer to replace your DW735 DAMHIK.

I personally like multiple smaller benches opposed to 1 large bench. then 1 can collect junk while the other stays clean.

I'm jealous that you painted and got all the walls done before you moved in. I wish i had done that. i was just talking to Megan about doing an epoxy floor and painting the walls then i looked around my shop and realized how much work that'd be and abandoned that idea very quickly.

 

thing is I dont know whats worse, hacking up a beautiful cabinet or doing what I did in my last shop and half assing it thinking when I get the layout all set how I like I'd rebuild it all really nice (which never happened and always looked pretty bad) 

 

I just finished doing my floor as well, my gf is giving me crap that I'm never going to move stuff into the garage haha I just want to get all that stuff out of the way before getting in. It's definitely a lot of work moving everything out! diamond grinding the floor and finishing it was even more work though I think! 

 

the big outfeed/track saw table will accompany my smaller heavy duty roubo work bench. I can see that outfeed table being a magnet for random stuff though for sure 

 

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22 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

I wonder if the middle ground of making stuff nice but somewhat modular is possible. I've never tried...

That is what I intend to try the next time we move. I think it's well worth it, and not particularly difficult, to build a bunch of smaller modular units. Smaller cabinets are easier for me at least. If one were to settle on a working height (or heights), common drawer sizes, and hardware (casters/leveling feet, joining mechanisms etc) they could be batched out quickly with minimal setup in a new space. I don't think that approach is likely a good one for a commercial shop, but for a passionate hobbyist I could see it being a neat way to go. There's no harm done if one settled on a particular configuration and the things never moved again...which at least for me would be highly unlikely! :D 

My dream would be to buy a property with an ideal/nearly ideal shop space or build one myself (of course), move in the big tools, take delivery of a couple half bunks of good ply in appropriate thicknesses, and crank out a bunch of modules. I've done no real planning for such an endeavor, but in my mind's eye I see two or three ~30" wide x 60" long modules with at least as many 30" x 30", all slightly below tablesaw height. Guy from Guy's Woodshop crams a lot into his garage shop, partially by using tables that bridge between units like I've describe. That could be another cool way to go. A torsion box could hang between two modules, or cantilever off the side of one with legs supporting the non-module end.

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In keeping with the shop re-arrangement is inevitable theme, next time around I am going to build any shop furniture using pocket screws in lieu of glue.  That way the plywood can be more easily repurposed.  

If down the road the floor plan is standing the test of time, but a screwed joint is not, there's epoxy.  

By the way if you go with baltic birch I think shop furniture can have a very pleasing appearance.

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Dang there are a lot of good ideas here. This is making me want to redo some areas of my shop.

My big trouble is I'd rather hack something together in 5 min and hate it for 5 years than spend a week making something that i don't hate. That comes from a mind set that i need to get furniture done for the house not my shop and spending a week on the shop just isn't worth it. I'm getting closer to having the house done and maybe some day I'll embark on shop projects. Almost ever room is furnished now and there are only 3 pieces of furniture that have been store bought, not counting mattresses.

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