Establishing A Practical Workshop

[Woodsy15]

Dear Folks

I am new to the Wood Working Forums, and this one specifically (This is just my 2nd visit to them) completely blown away by it, the scope and scale, breath and depth is truly inspiring. Congrats to the person (people) who concieved it and keep it running.
I imagine i will be devoting way too much time to exploring it.
I am also relatively new to woodworking, although i have held a long unsatisfied desire, over many years, to own and operate my own woodshop. Finally this little destination is on the horizon, and i am sailing toward it with full speed. I hope to buy a small house
in the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne by this time next year, the size of the land it sits on is inconsequential to me, except for its ability to accommodate the construction of a practical, dream woodshop.
My budget for construction is between $30 K - $40 K (at a push). This will be a new structure 'built form scratch'.
I hope to incorporate as many practical and functional design elements, as possible on my budget, to make it a joy and pleasure to work in. Also i hope to somehow make this a profitable business venture down the track, and not just an expensive hobby. I realize this may be
a bit of a dream, but to borrow a line from one of my favourite movies "The Shawshank Redemption" , Hope is a good thing, probably the best of things.
So if anybody in this forum, can offer any suggestions as to layout, setup, type of machinery (i already have a range of static woodworking machines in storage at my current home now) or any other factors i should consider to make this shop practical, easy to use and joy to work in i would greatly appreciate. All suggestions are welcome, at this stage, (especially the funny ones), this is the culmination of a life long dream, ( i am 57 years old and been dreaming about for a longtime). it is something i would like to get right or at least substantially so the first time. As a first timer my experience is to state the obvious limited. My desire to learn, particularly from those who know, from 'hard won experience', is strong.
Any suggestions, will be gratefully and humbly accepted.

Cheers Woodsy15

[Stephen Taylor]

G'day mate. My experience when I recently started from scratch was pretty simple, but only after I felt as though it was all a bit daunting.Focus on one aspect at a time. Size of building, where you put doors. What type of door, etc and work your way through it all. Then, look at wall heights, roof pitch (maybe a mezzanine). Get those ideas sorted, then focus on lighting ideas or electrical set ups to accommodate your needs. Insulation, noise deadening, heating / cooling,dust extraction etc. Then cost each aspect and sort out the exemplary set up for you. At this point, I had to re work it all and see which bits I would be prepared to make some financial adjustments to. After it was all done, two years cause I managed the bits I could do myself, it is just a fantastic place to fiddle. I've just retired and am loving it to bits as well as having the satisfaction of completing a significant project. I didn't mention the Council planning permits etc. Not a problem but as slow as treacle.

stephens-shed.blogspot.com

[Woodsy15]

G'day mate. My experience when I recently started from scratch was pretty simple, but only after I felt as though it was all a bit daunting.Focus on one aspect at a time. Size of building, where you put doors. What type of door, etc and work your way through it all. Then, look at wall heights, roof pitch (maybe a mezzanine). Get those ideas sorted, then focus on lighting ideas or electrical set ups to accommodate your needs. Insulation, noise deadening, heating / cooling,dust extraction etc. Then cost each aspect and sort out the exemplary set up for you. At this point, I had to re work it all and see which bits I would be prepared to make some financial adjustments to. After it was all done, two years cause I managed the bits I could do myself, it is just a fantastic place to fiddle. I've just retired and am loving it to bits as well as having the satisfaction of completing a significant project. I didn't mention the Council planning permits etc. Not a problem but as slow as treacle.

stephens-shed.blogspot.com

G'Day Stephen
Thankyou for your advice and opinions, it is good to hear of others' experiences, the best lessons in life are often obtained that way. I am indeed daunted and excited at the prospect of attempting to design and construct this shop. I have so many ideas about it on a regular basis, about all the features i would like to include, in order for it to be truly useful, and enjoyable to work in.
I fear it would be very easy to spend, ridiculous amounts money on a project such as this, and not necessarily get value for money, this is my greatest fear. Like most, my budget is restricted, but at least i have one. I feel the more research i do, the more i fossick for materials, (both new and second hand), and probably the most important of all, the more I seek to draw on the invaluable experience others, such as yourself, the closer to reality, the dream becomes.
Your advice of breaking down the task to bitesize chunks or focussing on one aspect at time is well taken.
I have 12 months to complete this research, and indeed the sum of parts is bigger than the whole.
Thankyou for taking the time to respond, maybe you could post up some pictures here, of your your shed, which truly sounds like a sanctuary. A sanctuary is something i hope to build.

Cheers Pete

[KBs PensNmore]

Hi Pete and welcome to the forum. This is certainly a good place to start, but I suggest that you get hold of a book on setting up a home workshop. The one I've got is put out by Wood Magazine, called " How to build a Great Home Workshop" published by Sterling ISBN-13: 978-1-4027-1177-0 could also be under ISBN-10: 1-4027-1177-8. It shows how to look at and plan work flows, lighting, dust extraction, machinery set ups for a limited space ie. a belt sander and thicknesser mounted in such a way that it pivots and locks in place so that either can be used effectively. This I know won't effect you, as you plan on putting up a decent size shed, but there is always the "what if". Also has information on storage for clamps, clamshell cabinets, tools etc. Cost was about $30 back in 2008.
Hope this helps.
Kryn

[BobL]

I would not pay much attention to the stuff presented on dust extraction in books and magazines as it is typically 20 years behind what is really needed in decent workshops, including home workshops. As soon as a book or magazine shows 4" systems, putting small cyclones on small dust extractors, or does no also directed at the North American/European market where locating the DC outside messes up their winter heating requirements, so they rarely if ever mention this but here in Oz we have limited excuses for not doing this.

One of the most useful things to do about informing yourself about dust collection is to spend a bit of time reading this site
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm
and
reading our very own Dust forum where you will see some good practical examples of how to do it right the first time.

[Stephen Taylor]

Pete
Go back to my previous thread. Put my stephens-shed.blogspot.com into google or type it into the url address on your computer. Lots of photos as I progressed. I used lots of second hand building materials as well. Saved me 8k overall.