What the size of your workshop?

[Jim Ketron]

Hello everyone I have about got the wife talked into letting me build a dedicated woodshop what are the deminsions of your shop ? I know I need to build it as big as I can but what would be a good size for a shop with these tools medium size table saw, jointer, bench top planer 22-580, bench top mortiser, router table, compound miter saw, bench top band saw, Jet mini lathe, DC, grinder, (How does it all fit?)
I have some other tools but these are the bigest.
Notice I have a lot of bench top stuff I work in my one car garage and have to move things in the center to use! I have purchased a few tools in the past few years and the moving of the tools to use one is geting old and taking the fun out of woodworking.
would also like to add a workbench insted of using my table saw for one also.

I was thinking of a building about 20' x 20' it seems a little small but its better than the 12' x 22' garage! Not to mention the other things in there that are not wood working related.
Help me Im cramped!!!
Jim Ketron

[Scott Coffelt]

I would at least build it 24x36, 20x20 isn't very big... I have a basement shop and its tight at 13x26 and square footage isn't that much smaller then what you are talking about. Obviously if you can bigger do.

[Tim Sproul]

I have a 20x20 garage. And I don't have to share with cars or such. It isn't even close to big enough. If you want your stationary machines to truly be stationary - go for 40x20 or bigger.

I can essentially only use one machine at a time....the TS is stationary but the jointer, thicknesser and bandsaw get moved to a wall when not in use and pulled to the middle when used.

I can barely prep a 9 foot long board without opening the vehicle door.....

[Rob Littleton]

Im in the process of adding a 24x24 room on the side of the 3 car garage. The wife gets one and a half and I get the rest. The half is gonna be a dedicated 10x10 room for the lathe.

[Bob Reda]

My shop is 20x40 have two table saws, a shopsmith, planer, joiner, edge sander, drum sander,cyclone dust collector, miter saw, two work benches, desk, and two storage areas for wood. I think I need a bigger shop Bob

[Ken Salisbury]

24' x 24'

The Old Rebel Workshop

[Rob Russell]

My new workshop is the 24'x32' basement of our house's addition. Given what I have for machinery, it's small. A major part of my problem is a set of lolly columns that run across just off center.

Were I to build a free-standing shop now, I'd probably start with a size around 32' x 48' and work on a shop layout with my machines, storage and space that I don't have right now.

The difference between your 12'x20' garage and a 20'x20' shop may sound huge, but you'll find the space goes quickly.

If you can't afford a 32'x40' shop or something that size, I will say that the size of mine (24'x32') would be much more useable with tall ceilings and no obstructions. Everyone runs into a point where you simply can't go bigger because of available space and budget. The 24'x32' is big enough so you can have workbench area, machinery/milling space and lumber storage. If you're going to the time, effort and expense of building a shop, I'd start with that as a dimension.

Rob

[Andy London]

I started out 24 X 20 which worked for the first year, I then put an addition on for wood storage that measured 16 X 14. Last year I really needed to expand so I opened the wall between the shop and storage and put another addition on 10 X 16.

Here is a link to my floor plan, I do this for pleasure and a hobby business so having things in semi production is important to me. My 13 year old son works in there a lot also although most of his work is on the lath and bandsaw.

I'm in the process of building a carport onto one side which will be 24 X 12 for wood storage. We have lucked into a massive amount of burls and figured wood from last years hurricane and I am out of room

http://www.picframer.ca/shop_in_2003.htm

Here is a link for pictures of the shop, it's located about 150 feet from the house.

http://www.picframer.ca/workshop.htm

Andy

[Terry Quiram]

32x44 with 12 ft ceiling. I was swinging some 10 footers in the shop last night and was again thankful for the tall ceiling. Radiant heat and AC. Heat with a 50 gal water heater. Super insulated. Extremely full of tools, wood and crap. Sigh, I need to clean!

Terry

[Stewart Crick]

Jim,

If your building a dedicated workshop, chances are you’re pretty serious about this hobby, and you'll keep evolving as a woodworker. My suggestion is not to build for what you have now, but for what you’re going to have in 5 or 10 years. What will you be building in the future, and what tools are you going to be acquiring? In others words grow into the building. 2 years ago I went from a 1 car garage to a 2.5 car garage. It was huge at first, now I'm cramped. HTH,

Stu

[Jim Guy]

Jim, I have a 24 x 24 shop. I've only been in it for 1 year. There are times when I wish it was larger. Depends on the size of my current project.
Stretch your budget as much as you can and allow for future expansion. Then just enjoy what you have.

[Chris DeHut]

The shop where we film Woodworking at Home Magazine is only 11 x 22. In that space we have all the power tools one could imagine for a home shop including a unisaw with a 52" fence.

The outfeed table for the table saw does break that 11' dimension, but other than that, everthing else is in that space - including all of the work that is being performed. The camera setup actually gets about 1 1/2 times the amount of floor space as the work shop.

I would recomend you pay very close attention to maximizing your use of space. This will create an efficient use of the space in both realms- work efficiency and financial efficiency.

If I were to build a shop I think I would consider about a 25 x 25 space and use it very efficiently. I would not waste the space by storing 100s of board feet of lumber. I would also look at a wood floor rather than concrete - standing on that concrete all day long gets old real quick.


Chris

[George Summers]

Size of my detatched shop was dictated by the yard size. Mine is 16 x 24. If I had gone any larger it would have been out of scale with the house and yard and would most likely have hurt sale value down the road. Something to think about if you don't have a couple of acres to work with.

George

[Earl Reid]

My shop is 14X24. I had concerns like George had. We bought our house 11 yrs ago. The lots are small and I didn't want to overwhelm the neigborhood. As it is its the largest out building in the area. My wife wanted to make it bigger, but I didn't listen. I have gas heat and a small window AC. I have a raised wood floor and it is well insulated. The city would have let me make it bigger. It is very crowded, but I have made many large projects. One of these days I'll have to weed out some tools and other seldom used items. I spend a lot of time out there and realy enjoy woodworking, and now turning pens.
Earl Reid

[Mark Bachler]

28 x 40 Mini Max Test Shop


http://community.webshots.com/user/bachler_1/1