workshop shape question

[Thomas Crawford]

For those of you with existing shops would you have a preference between more rectangular or more square?

My options are likely:

16x32, 18x28 or 20x24

Just wondering if 16' with 6" studs is going to feel too narrow. Any experience with smaller shop sizes welcome. I'm in half a two-car garage now so anything will be better.

[Nike Nihiser]

I had a 20x24 and it worked fine. had a bandsaw, rigid jointer, shop fox 15 inch planer and PM66 with 52 inch table and various cabinets and a 6 ft workbench. The shop worked fine, but I stored wood and did assembly in another room. Keep in mind that the 16x32 has 8 ft more wall space than the 20x24.

[Izzy Camire]

My shop is 14x32 and it works fine. It is only occasional that I feel more width would be good.

[John K Jordan]

I don't see how you can decide without planning the layout of the space ahead of time. I used low-tech scale paper cutouts on a big piece of paper representing the floor space. My needs might be much different from yours. For example, making cabinets with sheet goods may benefit from a different space than a woodturning shop. If you try different layouts you can do workflow experiments on paper.

I built the wood section of my shop 24x40 with corners subtracted for a small welding shop and an office, 2x6 studs in all walls. (I used to work in 1/2 of a two car garage too.) If I handled a lot of plywood plus the other tools I use a wider shop might have been better for me. It's a little tight as it is but I have lot of things in here plus a large turning wood storage area.

Unless you do the layout and planning for yourself you might build a shop that perfectly fits someone else.

JKJ

[Thomas Crawford]

I'm plotting things in sketchup as best I can. I currently have a 16" bandsaw and jointer/planer combo plus an 8' Roubo. When I build the shop I'll add a 52" sawstop PCS, dust collector, and eventually a lathe.

I do have some cabinets to make but long term I will rarely use sheet goods.

[John K Jordan]

I'm plotting things in sketchup as best I can. I currently have a 16" bandsaw and jointer/planer combo plus an 8' Roubo. When I build the shop I'll add a 52" sawstop PCS, dust collector, and eventually a lathe.

I do have some cabinets to make but long term I will rarely use sheet goods.

When I made my paper cutouts I also made a couple of circles representing both the desired and the minimum walking space I could stand between things, then "walked" this through the paper model. To get a feel for the maneuvering space I stacked big cardboard boxes to stand in for tools and workbench, walked through carrying something, then measured the space. I also made cutouts the size of a sheet of plywood and a longer board and maneuvered these in the space, trying to imagine if it would work. I made spacing cutouts for an office chair - I hated the idea of driving the last nail then wishing I had left 6" more for something! Based on the models, I positioned the table saw (52" PM66 with sliding table) and repositioned a couple of 5' wide double doors that can be opened if needed for long stock.

After shuffling the paper, I drew dimensioned layouts in my construction planning notebook. Planning ahead helped not only with tool placement but with planning light fixtures (didn't want glare on the TS surface), power receptacles, air line outlets, DC layout and drops, and HVAC vents. (I had all this planned before I set the posts in the ground.)

This is of part of my paper modeling with shuffling in progress, the little welding room at the upper left. The wood shop part was on a piece of poster board over 2' wide - the bigger the better. I find the paper cutout method a lot quicker and more flexible than sketchup and even the high-end 3D modeling software I used in my modeling/animation career (and I was pretty quick with that.)

layout_paper_2.jpg

In case you are interested, this is my basic building design (Sorry if you've seen it, I posted it before.) It was great fun doing it myself, from moving dirt to wiring the lights. I tell visitors I built the shop with my bare hand but I lie - I used tools.

shop_floorplan.jpg

I don't know if you plan one, but I find the (roofed) porch extremely useful. Not only is it good for staging things, I carry out a portable table and my oscillating spindle/belt sander so I don't even have to deal with the dust.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

Mine is rectangular...22'x30' minus a stairway in the back, middle. "More square" would offer me more convenience with laying out my machinery for workflow...the position would be the same, but there would be a little more space between my J/P and my slider, for example. If I had more space, I'd also have more separation from "machinery processing" and handwork/assembly/finishing.

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

I am rectangular-16 x 24. So far it has been fine.

Another great piece of advice I got from another forum: tractors, shops & barns--no matter how big yours is, you will always want one a little bigger.