Thread: Setting up a new woodshop in a two car garage

My condolence for the passing of your father.

Depending on the tools that you had inherited will also depend on the way that you setup your garage. Generally you would want storage of large wood pieces to be near the door and everything that allows you to process the wood to a more manageable size around that area. No matter which country you live in it seems to be the same issue for electrical outlets think of what you will need and double it. I would be guessing that your father would also have some hand tools and these generally need to be stored close to the workbench. The hand tools can be stored on the walls or in shallow draws as this will prevent then from being lost on the bottom of a deep draw.

Before doing any of that and as I suspect that Lindsay will be pretty cold during winter and if you wanted to spend time in your garage during that period you might need to insulate the garage before setting up a work space.

Please accept my condolences on the passing of your father.

Your question raises many issues and without knowing what you have inherited, what skills you currently possess, what you see yourself making with the tools you now have and what skills you wish to learn, your blank slate could easily become a frustrating tangle.

I suggest your first step should be adequate power and light.
LED tube lighting (like fluorescents, but less expensive to run) would be my choice
Power? This is a difficult one, but I would suggest a minimum of 3, 15 or 20 Amp circuits with high inrush current breakers, plus 5 or 6, 10 amp GPOs.

First purchase or tool location decision -- a dust collector in its own enclosure venting to outside the shed. Plan on installing a 6" (or 150 mm) dust main.

For the rest of the tools, try not to assign then permanent locations till you know what sort of work you enjoy doing and how you want to arrange your work flow. mobile bases that can be pushed around are good for this.

enjoy

How big in the garage dimensionaly, including height?

My condolences for your loss

As others have said, a lot will depend on what you have and what you wish to make. Might I suggest adding a list here of the major items you have, and also include the make and model so we can "picture" it. Then give us an idea of what you want to make.

There are a lot of things you can do with a 2 car garage to gain space, for example, you can put your table saw in front of a wide roller door if you have one, then using a mobile outfeed table, you can operate it there, which saves a huge amount of internal room

Can someone enlighten me as to where Lindsay is please?

Originally Posted by Treecycle

Can someone enlighten me as to where Lindsay is please?

I typed it into Whereis - the only option it gave is in the vicinity of Mt Gambier but on the Victoria side of the border

Originally Posted by Treecycle

Can someone enlighten me as to where Lindsay is please?

according to VivNames, it's a locality centered around 141° 04' 06" East, 37° 36' 59" south.

Googkle maps says:
Lindsay, Victoria 3312, Australia
-37.613786, 141.073801

Originally Posted by doug3030

I typed it into Whereis - the only option it gave is in the vicinity of Mt Gambier but on the Victoria side of the border

That's where Google maps puts it as well.

A list of machinery (not power tools) would also help.

Originally Posted by cava

How big in the garage dimensionaly, including height?

Approx 23’ x 18’. Ceiling height with the garage door tracks in the way, about 12’


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Originally Posted by Treecycle

Can someone enlighten me as to where Lindsay is please?

Lindsay, ON, Canada


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Firstly my condolences on the recent passing of your Father may he RIP.

Now that we have determined where you're at with location ,my first thought would be to make sure you're comfortable in your garage throughout the season that prevails in your lattitudes.Most folk that do woodshop activities in Canada are not restricted if heating/cooling is in place.
Given that you have an inventory of the woodworking tooling now available to you ,your best approach is to decide from a design perspective towards electrical requirements both in lighting or tool usage,then perhaps placement so that your woodworking becomes an enjoyment IE not tiring through bad ergonomic process.

There are plenty of online examples of woodshop design ,may I suggest that you search out some of these to give you an idea of what is possible with what you have in regards to benches/machinery.

Whilst you have a two car garage, will you still need to park a motor vehicle (or two) in it?
This may mean items need to be mobile rather than fixed.

G'Day "Kpaull" and welcome to a top forum.
As you can see from the responses, there are a heap of helpful and knowledgeable folk here.
Photos along with notes are always a great asset to the thread so always add longs of descriptive photos please.
On a clear level concrete floor which I'd love to have, ideally you'd have the machinery on wheel to move them around for use & stored when not being used thus more workable space my "canuck" friend...
Cheers from the "Great Southern Land" crowie

I agree with Handyjack you should have provision for at least her indoors car to park there at times. Garage territory disputes can be tiresome. On a serious note however there is no perfect layout as everyone has differing ways of working and even what may be perfect today will change over time. Have all of the heavy machines (or as many as you can) on wheels. Even my workbench can have wheels shoved under it to move. If a car needs to be in there (does happen sometimes) I wheel everything over to one side. Your working routine will evolve over time and mobile equipment will speed up the goal of reaching that ideal layout. Will also allow layouts to change as needed to suit whatever projects you think up. I would have some shelves on a wall to store wood and the rest allowed to mill around like Brown's cows until everything finds it's own place.
Regards
John