Shop Layout Critique

[Jeff Mackay]

Hi Everybody:

I built a new workshop a year ago with a garage on top of it and a house attached to it. I spent the last nine months recovering from that project, so now it's time to get back into the shop. Receiving a new table saw has gotten me motivated enough to think about organizing it. I'd like to have a few more pairs of eyes looking at the plan before I start moving machines around.

The overall size of the shop is approximately 24' x 36', with 8'-3" ceilings. Floor, walls, and ceiling are all concrete. I framed inside the concrete walls, and will eventually drywall them, but I won't be covering either the floor or the ceiling. The shop will house machinery, benches, etc. Lumber will be stored in a separate room--I've already got about 400 board feet sitting in that room waiting for me to finish the trim on the house. I'll probably add a little bit of lumber storage over the miter saw.

In the past few years, all I've done is cabinets and finish carpentry. Once I finish a few built-ins, I plan to get back into real furniture. I laid out the shop to make it possible to do both. I tried to think about workflow and concentrated mainly on the tools I use the most: the miter saw, table saw, jointer, and planer. I tried to lay it out so that I can move from the miter saw to the jointer to the planer to the table saw without a lot of flipping boards or legwork.

I tried to keep the machinery restricted to a 24'x24' area of the shop, reserving a 16'x12' area for hand work, sharpening, assembly, finishing, etc. I haven't shown a lot of benches or cabinets yet. Once I get the machinery placed, I'll start thinking about where I'll be storing and using the hand tools.

Dust collection will probably be with a cyclone eventually. I think I'll set up the ductwork in a "U" shape around the perimeter, with drops to each of the machines, a dust pan or two, and maybe a drop or two to the bench/assembly area. A diagonal would probably be more efficient, but I don't want to fight with the lights I already have installed.

I attached an overview plan from Sketchup, a picture of the shop before I started using it to mill trimwork about a year ago, and some of the almost-finished trimwork in the house. The shop doesn't look nearly as clean now For that matter, neither does the house.

So what do you think about the shop layout? How can I improve it? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Lee Schierer]

The main things I don't see is lumber storage while it is waiting to go into a project. Without dimensions, its hard to tell if you'll have walk around space if you build a dresser or desk that won't fit on top of the work bench. I see your DC but it isn't clear how the planer and jointer in the middle of the room will tie in.

[Greg Portland]

Jeff, I prefer a more 'open' workspace (vs cozy) and it appears that you do too (based on the open hand tool area). I would suggest that you consider having certain tools share dust collection drops and let the tool placement in the shop be a bit more flexible and stored when not in use. I have my planer/moulder, jointer, and bandsaw tightly stored together against a wall and they all share 1 DC drop. When I am going to use one I will pull it out and connect it to the shared DC drop. In total, I have 3 DC drops: 1 for the TS, 1 for routers and other smaller ported tools, and 1 for the planer/sander/jointer/moulder. This allows me to optimize my tool placement for 3 infeed and outfeed paths vs 7-8 infeed and outfeed paths (some of which would not be ideal). Additionally, this improves my DC performance & reduced the total cost of the ductwork.

[Dan Friedrichs]

I'd worry about the inconvenience of walking around the TS outfeed to get to the miter saw. Also, is there enough room around the router table for long pieces to get in and out?

The house looks great!

[Rob Hough]

It's not my shop, that's my critique!

[Mike Ruggeri]

I think the layout looks good but alot of it depends on how you work and your preferences.

One thing that I would do would be switch the mitersaw station with to the other wall and move the drill press and bandsaw to where the mitersaw originally was. You could also move the drill press more toward the front of the shop if you want more room for the bandsaw as I doubt it would be in the way if closer to the tablesaw. Not to say your layout is wrong/bad, just my preference.

Mike

[Dave Lewis]

Since you asked...

1. You typically cut lumber to length on the mitre saw
2. then joint & plane
3. then saw
4. maybe use router table or shaper after that

I have a Penns State cyclone; you need to concurrently consider the 6" dust ducts - iterative process.

Nice 3-d schematic - do you have a bulkhead to bring lumber in?

One thing jumped out - the layout has "dead space between tablesaw & mitre saw.

Good idea asking for input - lots easier than moving machinery around then scratching your head (wish i would have done 5 years ago)

dave

[Jeff Mackay]

The main things I don't see is lumber storage while it is waiting to go into a project. Without dimensions, its hard to tell if you'll have walk around space if you build a dresser or desk that won't fit on top of the work bench. I see your DC but it isn't clear how the planer and jointer in the middle of the room will tie in.

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the response. I plan to build a small amount of lumber storage--just a few shelves about 18" deep with room to temporarily store 12' stock above the miter saw.

The way things are spaced right now, I have about 3' between the edge of the planer and the edge of the bandsaw. I may decide to tweak things a bit there, and aim for about 3.5' of clearance. The area around the workbench is 12x16, so I'll have room for the bench, probably a small assembly table, and maybe some cabinets against the wall for sharpening and so forth. I'm still thinking about how to lay that section out.

For dust collection I'll run one branch across the ceiling to the center of the room, and the jointer and planer would tie off that branch. I'll try to work on a ductwork plan in the next few days.

[Jeff Mackay]

Jeff, I prefer a more 'open' workspace (vs cozy) and it appears that you do too (based on the open hand tool area). I would suggest that you consider having certain tools share dust collection drops and let the tool placement in the shop be a bit more flexible and stored when not in use.

Hi Greg, I'm definitely thinking about sharing the drop to the jointer and planer. Not sure how many of the others I want to share. When it comes right down to it, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to dust collection, and I'm afraid I'd just run things too often without switching the hose.

Jeff

[Jeff Mackay]

I'd worry about the inconvenience of walking around the TS outfeed to get to the miter saw. Also, is there enough room around the router table for long pieces to get in and out?

Good point. I have an existing outfeed table on wheels that also has a power feeder attached. I may use that, or I may just build something with hinges to get it out of the way if I'm not using it.

The router table was a problem. I've got about 4' from the edge of the table to the cyclone, but less than 3' to the miter saw cabinet. I guess I could swap the router table and bandsaw, move the router table a bit to give me more room around the planer and more clearance for routing longer stock. But then the bandsaw will get in the way of rough cutting long stock on the miter saw. I do a fair amount of resawing, but usually I'm resawing stock that's 5 ft or less in length. Maybe another option would be to center the bandsaw along the wall where the Belsaw is placed... Not sure yet.

[Jeff Mackay]

I think the layout looks good but alot of it depends on how you work and your preferences.

One thing that I would do would be switch the mitersaw station with to the other wall and move the drill press and bandsaw to where the mitersaw originally was. You could also move the drill press more toward the front of the shop if you want more room for the bandsaw as I doubt it would be in the way if closer to the tablesaw. Not to say your layout is wrong/bad, just my preference.

Mike

Yeah Mike, I'm rethinking things a bit now. Not sure about how to arrange things ideally. I rarely need a lot of space on either side of the drill press. but both the router table and bandsaw ideally need to be able to work with at least 8' stock.

[Jeff Mackay]

Since you asked...
Nice 3-d schematic - do you have a bulkhead to bring lumber in?

It's actually a full stairway with an 80"x42" door. No bulkhead needed. The stairs run straight into the workshop. The miter saw station is about 10' from the bottom of the stairs.

Since you asked...
One thing jumped out - the layout has "dead space between tablesaw & mitre saw.

That "dead space" will contain either a trash or cut-off bin. I thought I might store cut-offs in the miter saw cabinet, but it will just fill up, and I'll never clean it out. So I think I'll put doors & drawers in the miter saw cabinet and use them for tool & supply storage instead.

Since you asked...
Good idea asking for input - lots easier than moving machinery around then scratching your head (wish i would have done 5 years ago)

Yeah, I've had the shop rough framed, with electrical and lights since before the house was plumbed and insulated last winter. In fact, the shop was the only place to warm up while I was running structured wiring through the rafters where the temperature got down to 11 below zero. But now I'm ready to be working in the shop again.

This weekend I hope to add a few outlets--maybe five or six more 120 outlets and two or three more 240 circuits. I have two now, but I know I'll need one for the cyclone, table saw, jointer, belsaw, and maybe a shaper some day. I left things at the framing stage until I had time to think about layout--specifically for the electrical access. If I can get done with the wiring, I'll get started on insulating too. Maybe next week I can start the drywalling. Okay. maybe next month