The wife and I moved to a new home about a year ago so I could go back to school. Given the craziness of the first year, it's taken 12 months to finally get settled in the garage/shop and complete the NYW router station (bought the plans 18 months ago). Anyhow, I've always enjoyed and gotten some tips from all the shop photos others have posted I figured I should show mine.
First is the NYW deluxe router station. I pretty much followed Norm's plan except that I used cherry as the trim, added a larger dust port on back, and used aluminum track to attach the fence to the table. I've used it a few times and love it! Only have the shop vac, so the front doesn't have many holes. But once I upgrade to a cyclone, I will have to add more for makeup air.
Next is the planer, jointer, drill press station. I used to just have these on separate stations but needed to combine some things to save space (I get a little over half of a two car garage.
In the center of the garage I have some space to store sheet goods. I attached the standards from an old fire wood crib to some 2x4s and plywood. Seems to work well. I had it on wheels, but one broke, so now it's stationary.
I've had the compound miter saw on this cart for a few years but I've always had to fumble with a roller stand to get support. So, I recently added a 4' extension off to the left with a 2x4 under it for support. It's not great, but it gets the job done. The dust shroud behind it was an awesome addition. It's just some scrap I threw together and I plummed it with some 2" pipe (also use the built in dust collector). It works really well and should get better when I add the cyclone and a 4" pipe.
I've also had to fool around with a roller stand for outfeed support on the table saw. Nothing but a pain and really not safe, especially with sheet goods. So, I built two of these rolling storage carts the same height at the saw. One sits in front and the other behind so I can safely and easily cut large pieces. Plus they provide tons of storage!
I used to be a "no blade guard" guy with the table saw. Then, while finishing the router station I had a little incident and did a number on a finger. All is still attachd but three weeks later its still not 100%. I hated the dust flying off the table saw and figred if I added a guard that also gave me dust collection, that I'd probably be inclined to keep it on the table. This design comes from shop notes a few months back. Instead of attaching it from a boom off the side of the table, I attached it on the ceiling. I love it and highly recomend it. Given the way it is attached, it even works for dados and the dust collection is awesome even with my little shop vac.
When I'm working, LOML lets me use the other side of the garage for assembly but the rule is that the Mini Cooper gets to come in the garage at the end of the day. I found a plan for this saw horse platform that comes apart and stores on my lumber rack. It's really designed for cutting sheet goods and I'm kicking myself for not building this years ago. Saves a lot of headaches from using higher saw horses when cutting down sheets.
I covered the back and left side of the garage with plywood after hacking holes in the drywall to add some power. It's amazing to me that new houses have outlets every 6-8 feet inside but the code only requires one outlet in the garage. So, I actually ran a sub panel into the garage and added about eight 110 outlets and two 220 outlets. If you look close, the 110 outlets have different color covers (white and gray). This allows me to know what circuit I have stuff plugged into. In the winter I run small space heaters and it can be a problem if I also plug in the vacume and a tool on the same branch. This let's me quickly see what I am doing.
To run the power I just hacked holes in the drywall to run the lines and then covered it all up with ply. On top of the ply I used the plywood slat wall plan that ran in American Woodworker a while back. It works really well. The wall cabinets on the right use that and I even have a moveable mount for the dart board. It seems that I develop a new attachment for this wall system at least once a week. The latest was a little holder for the drill driver bits.
I hung these shelves for storage before putting up the plywood. I might get around to adding some ply, but who knows. It works for now.
Finally, I got a stash of cherry thanks to a Dave Diana, a fellow creeker. Had to make use of the basement to store it. I've run out of room for pics, so I'll have to skip the pic of the pile.
That's it for now. Every time I work in the shop, I'm amazed how much I packed into such a small space while still allowing my wife to park her car once in a while (helps that its a Mini!). My advice to others with small spaces...really take some time to plan your layout and try different things. I took me a few tries to figure all this out and I'm sure I can improve it even more. I especially recomend combining tools into one station when you can and to make storage out of the infeed and outfeed for your table saw. It really makes things safer and much more fun!
Thanks for checking it out! And thank to all who have shared their ideas while I was doing this. Now I better get back to the books!
Tim
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Originally Posted by Doug Pettway
Great job on the router table, too...
