Shop reorganization, need layout ideas

[Scott Wigginton]

A few years ago I built a new shop with an extended garage to house my new woodshop. I moved in what tools I needed to do some basic projects but am ready to finally get it up and running for real so I cleaned it all out, epoxied the floor, and painted the walls. Now I'm in need of some layout advice.

An empty layout is below, it's basically 25ft wide and I can takeup about 18ft deep before impeding the path to the side door (and to get into the minivan). I also have a detached single car garage which is currently holding lumber, plywood, and excess tools/supplies. The Air Compressor and Dust Collector locations are fixed based on power runs and pipe/duct that has already been run.

Clean sheet.jpg

My first thought is to build the back wall up as a combination Paulk-style miter station/workbench with some of the clamping concepts from Tim Wilmot's sysport workbench and the tool well concept from the Ultimate Tool Stand that can hold a downdraft table, bench drill press, Ridgid OSS/belt sander, router table, and cross-cut/jigsaw well.

Next I would built a "small" vertical plywood storage to hold 6 full and 6 half sheets for current projects only (limiting size to ensure I keep long-term storage in the detached garage). I plan on storing long boards under the stairwell as well as two pair of Triton lumber racks.

Image below shows this concept plus my major power tools and work benches I would like to incorporate (the 24" workbench is a cheap lightweight). I also have a DeWalt MBF Radial Arm Saw and Craftsman 3/4 HP Shaper that I currently plan on leaving in the old shop.

Backwall Station.jpg

So with all that being said, the best layout I've come up with (so far) is shown below. I'm not completely in love with it and I am sorely in need of some ideas, constructive criticism, and alternate layouts.


Reorg Idea 1.jpg

My biggest beef is with the jointer location hindering movement around it, where to put dust collection for tablesaw/router plate (green dots represent 6" S&D drops), and best use of the two short walls near the stairs (potential Assembly/Finish area?). The planer location is kind of fixed because its the only 40 amp circuit for the 5 hp motor

I'm also not committed to my current outfeed table, its a bowling-alley top which I just find clunky and I'd really like to try out a Paulk style rolling workbench with an end vise similar to Jay Bate's version.

Thanks again for any inputs!

[Mike Wilkins]

Can you mount your DC under the stairs? That would free up some space in the corner

[glenn bradley]

In that limited space the first thing that would fall into my cross hairs is the mitersaw/station. I would have to really, really use a CMS a lot to give up that footprint. I have a 20 x 30 foot space and still got rid of the CMS. I can do all the sorts of cuts I would use a CMS for with the tablesaw. This obviously means I don't trim out a lot of kitchens or do a lot of crown molding work ;-) Your needs will be different.

I also try to keep my workbench away from the wall. Your movable table will solve that so I see no issue there. Is that a door or a window behind the tablesaw position? If it is a window I could see putting the workbench under the window and moving the tablesaw closer to the DC.

The jointer and workbench could also trade places. This would get you full access to your bench and get the jointer closer to the DC. then again, if the CMS goes you can put the jointer and planer on that wall and get all your machines closer to the DC. This moves the things that don't need DC farther away from it.

[Scott Wigginton]

In that limited space...

Funny, compared to a detached single car garage with 7' ceiling it feels enormous!

The DC is a Powermatic 75 that I have exhausted to the outside. I wanted to build a stand and suspend it over the air compressor but struggled with how to mount it with the dual exhausts (plus I'd have to cut another 6" hole through the wall!). My CFM calcs showed me having plenty of SP left over even with my worst case duct designs.

On the left is a garage door (adding some extra pics below). With that TS location I'm still struggling with where to locate the dust collection drop from the ceiling that won't interfere with TS or Router operations

For some reason I find myself always trying to cram extra benches along unoccupied walls, perhaps my subconscious is planning ahead to provide horizontal space for when I need to de-clutter my main work areas I like the idea of keeping at least the stairwell wall open for clamp racks and other assorted tools

I've heard the argument against having any form of dedicated crosscut saw but when I watch project videos and they just hop over to their dedicated station to make repeatable cuts without interfering with their TS setup I turn green with envy. I didn't fully capture my concept for the station (would've had 18" of working space in front of the fence) but perhaps instead of rushing into an expensive build that locks me into a design I should step back and build some projects without it and see how it goes (I do know that I heavily dislike the CMS without proper extension wings!). That would let me test moving the jointer to the backwall and experiment with some vertical lumber storage behind it. I'm not so sure about moving the planer, I'd have to get creative on the power and that wire ain't cheap!

Waiting would also let me shift my focus to the rolling Paulk workbench, I'm planning on a working surface that's 36" x 72" with about 33 1/2" tall (so it could double as TS outfeed)

Here are some extra pics I should've included in the original post to give a better idea of the space. Hopefully it'll help generate some new ideas. Thanks for the comments so far.

Corner 1.jpgbackwall.jpgUnder stairs.jpg

[Robert Engel]

There is an excellent book on Small Shops put out by Fine WW'ing I think. Might be worth a look.
Any shop under 400 SF is definitely a challenge, as you're finding out.
I started out in a 8X12 shed. The only power tools I had were a circ saw, jigsaw and cheap router, all B&D.
Next was a 12X16 shed thought I was in a warehouse!!
But I had a radial arm, TS, BS and workbench and I managed to build projects.
Then we moved, built a horse barn, got out of the horses, and now, I'm in a 1200 SF -- and still don't have enough room!!

Don't stress over it. You'll get tons of suggestions, but ultimately you have to decide what works for you based on the tools you use the mose.
Once you get working on projects you'll see where you can tweak it.
Oh, and start looking into some way to blow out the back wall and add another 16 feet to the building
The real pain is when the shop is the project, it never seems to end.

[glenn bradley]

In that limited space

Funny, compared to a detached single car garage with 7' ceiling it feels enormous!

You are quite correct and I am embarrassed for my statement. I have gotten along in a smaller space and am glad for what I've got. I am also jealous of those with a bit more room to breathe. I chose my words poorly . I've got to run but, hope to add some helpful info later today . . .

Okay, made it back. I will say that having my jointer in front of my lumber storage has been one of the better things I have done. When I want to pull stock I just swing the jointer out of the way, pull boards and swing it back. Very good use of space.

[Peter Aeschliman]

How about rotating the jointer 90 degrees? Make use of that walkway and the area between the cars for outfeed space. Maybe you could fit the jointer and planer such that they have the same feed direction and use the same outfeed area?

Also, if you can find a way to pull the minivan out of the garage while you're working, it will free up way more space. You won't consume your valuable shop footprint with outfeed area.

Apparently "outfeed" is my word of the day. haha

[Prashun Patel]

I too am space-challenged.

The big issue is being able to have good infeed and outfeed clearance and support . Have you accounted for that with your jointer, planer, bandsaw?

Do you use a router table? Where would that be? I'd consider redesigning your miter saw station to be a combination sanding/router-table/miter saw station. All three of these tools typically use a shop vac for dc, so it's convenient if they are near each other, with your shopvac underneath. I never got around to this, but making a flip up mitersaw base gets it out of the way and reclaims the top surface for infeed/outfeed support for a router table or at least provides more assembly real-estate.

[Andrew Ulsher]

What program are you using for laying out your shop?

[Charles Lent]

My joiner is up close along side of the short end of my table saw. The saw is a right tilt with it's long table and fence on the right side. The joiner is on the left end of the saw and it's back is toward the side of the saw (joiner fence faces away from the table saw). There is only a few inches of space between the two. The walking/working path is around the left side and both ends of the joiner. Why do you need walking / working space around all four sides of your joiner?

Charley

[Jim Dwight]

My shop garage is 14x24 and isn't shared with cars, at least at the moment. I have one 24 foot wall without windows and that wall has an 8 foot long cabinet with lots of drawers. It was built deliberately 7 inches shorter than I wanted so I can put a Paulk style top on it. The RAS and CMS are fastened to the cabinet near the center, sitting side by side. It is pretty easy to cut a piece to hold them at the right height. Later I will build a rolling workbench with a Paulk style top that I'll use with my tracksaw and as a somewhat normal workbench. I like Jay's stuff, I put a rack using conduit up over by CMS/RAS bench. So I can lift a board down and cut to length. There will be stops when I get the Paulk top built where the saws are not. I had a long bench like this in my last shop and found it very useful. Much too difficult to crosscut a long piece of hardwood on a table saw. Easier on a track saw but easiest on the RAS or CMS. So I like the idea of a bench along the longest wall you have. I'm not sure I like the vise in the rolling bench, however. With the MFT style workbenches, including the Paulk stuff, you clamp to the workbench with clamps not vises. That seems like it work well but perhaps not for little pieces. Need to think about that.

[Scott Wigginton]

Sorry for the silence, been out making it happen. Here is the progress over the past three weekends:

• Moved jointer to back wall
• Re-routed dust collection
• Build half-sheet plywood cart
• Build tablesaw infeed support arms
• Built pocket hole workstation drawer
• Build cabinets for mitersaw station with modular drawers
• Installed MDF top with one row of 3/4" chamfered holes
• Installed CMS shelf and dust shroud
• Build lumber storage under stairs
• Installed new tires on bandsaw

So here is what the new shop layout looks like:

November Update.jpg

Proof that it actually happened:

Half-sheet plywood cart

Plywood Cart.jpg

Copied from Woodworking For Mere Mortals, but with excess 1/2" prefinished quarter sheets of ply and sized for my space. I'm going to need a longer power cord for the planer...

Rerouted Dust Collection

I moved a lot of S&D pipe and fittings (had to extend the full backwall to get it to the new jointer location) but the biggest thing was changed my approach to the tools in the middle. Originally I was going to build a hard pipe attached to TS with blast gates separating the router from the TS but it became unwieldy. While perusing Woodcraft I investigated their quick connect fittings and saw this 4" swivel connection and a lightbulb went off in my head!

Dust Collector.jpg

I can now use this to attach my TS, router, BS, or any other 4" tool that comes along. I also put a quick connect over my workstation. The best part is I picked up some parts on Amazon to reduced it to a 2 1/2" pipe to use my shop vac hose, snagged a hose handle grip and connected it to the straight pipe resulting in massive amounts of suction that can reach most areas in my shop. It's hard to make out in the picture but you can see it leaning up against the back of the bandsaw. I can also move the entire setup to the backwall to hookup to that 4" fitting. The grip makes it super easy on the wrist and improves maneuverability, no kidding I vacuumed the shop, the garage, even the stairs and mud mat in under 10 minutes last night.

Mitersaw Station/Workbench

I build my cabinets using Jay Bate's construction methods. I broke all the sheets in half using my circular saw and straight edge guide then built Jay's Infeed Support Arms which are a life saver! They fully support each half-sheet so I could focus on getting everything setup and aligned without holding onto anything. Then after DC is going and the blade is spinning I could begin cutting at my own pace with no stress for holding all the weight. Sorry no pics but it is so simple I simply cannot believe I haven't seen/heard of it before watching his videos.

I ended up cutting a series of dado's on the inside of each cabinet following an idea I got from Jer's Scrap storage drawers. I love concept of the drawers modularity which will let me reorganize when I find I don't like the layout or the one time I need to spend countless hours on a specific task but then can put that drawer in a less accessible location when i don't have to do it again for another 6 months. I cut all the dado's in the half sheets and then trimmed them down to final size and split in half so they would be matched pairs (in case there were any inaccuracies). Final cabinet dimensions are 20" wide, 24" deep, 40" tall.

I built a pocket hole workstation as a drawer for the cabinets to help me put them together. I picked the idea up over at Lumberjocks where you drill holes in the side supports for bits and I added a space for accessories, nothing fancy since I plan on storing screws/clamps elsewhere. After the cabinets were complete I found that I preferred just pulling the drawer out 12" and working directly from my shop stool as it reduced stress on my should/elbow and left more room for the material I was working on. Using a Fein stepped adapter to hookup my Festool vac and the auto-on feature with a corded drill made for fast/clean drilling. I went ahead and cut the other drawer bottoms and will be tackling them in the future. For spacing I went every 2" which will give me drawer heights of 2", 4", or 6".

Kreg drawer.jpg

I set the cabinets the correct distance from the wall, leveled the legs and screwed them together. I also put in a 2x2 support along the length of the backwall to support the MDF top. I went with a 2" overhang on the left side and 4" overhang on the right since it is the workbench. My thought was to go 30" deep but this left 32" so I could experiment in case I liked the deeper option. At 6' 3" I found this was still a bit too deep and will remove the overhang entirely to install 2" hardwood edging with t-track on the top and the face (skip to 3:55 to see Tim Wilmot's setup).

mitersaw bench.jpg

Not owning any Forstner bits or the correct size router bits to make the clamping holes in the MDF I spent a lot of research on SMC/FOG into the myriad of ways to drill out the holes. I decided it was better to spend the money on a set of 14 forstner bits for $50 than just a single purpose 20mm router bit (~$40). After a few test fits I felt the 3/4" holes were too snug so I followed a suggestion and chamfered the holes which resulted in easy insertion/removal of the festool clamps. I've only drilled the first row on 4" spacing and am debating if I should go on 8" spacing for depth.

I used 3/4" ply for the CMS shelf and angled the sides (similar to Paulk's) so I'm closer to the action. I built the dust shroud on the fly, to the point of leaving the CMS and ducting in place leading to a "creative" design, piecemeal construction, and get-r-done assembly. In hindsight I could've done so much more with the space had I taken everything out and created a proper design (such as proper width for my clipboard/blade storage). Oh well, it gets the job done (and yes I am aware that I limited myself to right-handed bevels). I'm going to build a fence on the left, but for now I found another method for a stop that won't move unless you mean it to.

CMS shroud.jpg

You can just see the new Jointer location on the left. It doesn't interfere with the CMS and but will need to be rolled out of the way to access any drawers I put on this side (future growth option, may only end up with shelves)

Lumber storage under stairs

Now that the shop is coming together I am getting closer to some real projects (that make it into the hands of people other than myself), so it was time to get some real lumber in the shop. For that I build two basic shelves out of 2x2s and 1/2 ply.

lumber rack.jpg

Top: Pine, Paudauk, Poplar
Bottom: Scrap Plywood, Walnut, Cherry, and mixed Oak/Maple

Bandsaw Tires

No pics on the bandsaw but I found an easy way to install the tires, put them on halfway and use a K-body clamp (making sure the tire is fully seated so as not to cut it) to hold the half that is installed while you stretch/install the loose side. I notice my top wheel is not co-planar so I need to shim it out tonight.

Next up is to put in some french cleats and then built a clamp rack and finish supply storage to hang off it (will borrow from Jay's version of each I'm sure). Thanks for all the comments and inputs and if you have any more ideas based on my new

[Scott Wigginton]

What program are you using for laying out your shop?

Visio, I can't find a link to the stencil I found (from Visio 2000) but if you PM your email address I can send it to you directly.