Thread: Workshop Layout - help me realise the dream!

Originally Posted by Wongo

Do you really need to have a separate room for the workbench? The wall makes your main room smaller than it should be, and it may make it harder to work with longer boards.

Al alternative to a fixed wall might be a heavy curtain?

Hi Neil,

One thing to consider is that when you have a door opening hard against a wall, you loose that wall space. If however you move the door 30cm or so away from the corner, you retain the wall for hanging/leaning/standing things against.

Kind regards,
Lance

Thanks malb, some excellent insight here and thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail.

Originally Posted by malb

Do you see a need to be sawing wide panels while you have the router table set up for work, I would normally consider that you do your cutting to size etc first, and do your profile routing as a separate operation later. That's where having the router table integrated into the table saw extension works well, the operations are usually reasonably time separated so there is not a lot of interference or resetting of machinery involved. Plus you can make a simple add on to attach to the saw fence to be your router fence instead of buying a router fence, or you can justify having something like an Incra positioner and fence to serve both roles.

You make a great case to re-think the router placement. The workshop I have trained in uses the TS extension for sanding and using tools like a a Domino and biscuit joiner, and I value that aspect of it. Can the router fit in that space as well and still allow that to happen? It's definitely possible.

Originally Posted by malb

I would think about your intended use of the SCMS, the length of raw stock being used, the finished lengths you will be aiming for, and the mitre and bevels that you may require and the saw's capability. You may find it useful to move the saw along the bench from the current central position to allow more room for raw stock, provided that you have room to accommodate the finished length on the bench. Not too much of an issue for square cut off's where you can turn the stock around , but can be an issue if you need to do compound cuts for picture framing or similar.

Agree that centring the SCMS would not be ideal. I am now wondering if I can re-jig the whole lay out and put that bench on the opposite wall . Excellent food for thought, cheers!

Neil

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

You have 3.6 metre head height at one end which is a huge advantage as a mezzanine floor could be built & used for household storage reducing the floor area required for items that can't be stored there or if you are lucky eliminating the need for the dedicated 10 square metre entirely. One thing you can be positive about is the plan will change despite all your best intentions as sheds have a mind of their own.

Thanks Chris, expanding that space above the windows to such an extent hadn't occurred to me, it's a great idea. Many thanks for chiming in.

Originally Posted by DomAU

Hi Neil,

Looks great, excited to see how it ends up.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the lack of infeed/outfeed space/length for the thicknesser and infeed for the planer. I have about 2.4m in/out for my ckmbo and it's still caught me short a few times recently. Could be an issue if you make a table, door, bed frame, console etc.

Cheers, Dom

Hey Dom, yeah the space around the thickie is on my mind for sure. I figure out-feed is OK, with boards sliding onto the TS if necessary. Longer in-feed would be accommodated by turning the machine so I can utilise the door to the hand tools room.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by royflatmate

I would be looking at having aa sharpening station in your handtool room. Much better to avoid being lazy to walk out a door and across the shop to sharpen a tool IMHO.

cheers.....Roy

Thanks Roy, yes agree totally. Maybe it would be a case of sharpening stones in the hand tool room and grinder in the workshop? I have seen people mount a grinder on a small board so it can live under a bench and be pulled out and clamped to a bench top when required, which I think is nifty.

Appreciate your input.

Originally Posted by Wongo

Do you really need to have a separate room for the workbench? The wall makes your main room smaller than it should be, and it may make it harder to work with longer boards.

Thanks Wongo, I take your point and essentially agree; having said that I live in a climate with temps ranging from -8 to high 40's, so having a smaller space where I can economically influence the ambient temp seems important to me. Plus a work room with (hopefully) less dust in the air, which will also act as a space to escape drying finish off-gassing is a plus I reckon. Again, it's a reaction to the environment I have trained in, however I am not saying my solution fits the way others work and I know it has it's drawbacks.

Thanks a lot for reading and replying.

Originally Posted by BobL

Al alternative to a fixed wall might be a heavy curtain?

Hi Bob and thanks for joining in. Last week I visited a local mate who fabricated some amazing bi-fold doors across the front of his shop - that might be a nice way to go for my internal wall, wouldn't it? Pick up something second hand and get them sliding across the floor on tracks? Might be beyond the budget but your suggestion has got me thinking. I guess in this scenario the downside is I can't hang anything on the wall, or lean stuff against it. Bye for now and thanks again.

Originally Posted by LanceC

Hi Neil,

One thing to consider is that when you have a door opening hard against a wall, you loose that wall space. If however you move the door 30cm or so away from the corner, you retain the wall for hanging/leaning/standing things against.

Kind regards,
Lance

Cheers Lance, this is an excellent tip and one I would almost surely have overlooked. Thanks so much.

and now you go to bed with the head reeling from overload of ALLL the possibilities that have come up and you hadnt thought of, you will toss n turn, dreaming this and dreaming that, waking up in the middle of the night writing down little notes as they come to mind.

And the wife gets in a ratty mood, cause of your tossing n turning and cold draughts and then after you have written your notes your cold feet touch hers and shoit hits the fan.
Tomorrow as you head off with cold response from
1 you dear beloved who realises that after years of being a computer wife she is now becoming a woodie(s) wife ( careful how you say that )
2 your lack of attention to her as your mind does crazy mental drawings of the options open to you.

Have you thought about replacing the "10 sq.m of Household storage" with a compactus or similar ?

Originally Posted by Tonyz

and now you go to bed with the head reeling from overload of ALLL the possibilities that have come up and you hadnt thought of, you will toss n turn, dreaming this and dreaming that, waking up in the middle of the night writing down little notes as they come to mind.

And the wife gets in a ratty mood, cause of your tossing n turning and cold draughts and then after you have written your notes your cold feet touch hers and shoit hits the fan.
Tomorrow as you head off with cold response from
1 you dear beloved who realises that after years of being a computer wife she is now becoming a woodie(s) wife ( careful how you say that )
2 your lack of attention to her as your mind does crazy mental drawings of the options open to you.

Lol, not too far off the mark Tony, but in fact I am sleeping better after all the assistance and advice from this thread. A huge thanks again to all who have made suggestions, it's really appreciated at this end.

Neil.

Originally Posted by ian

Have you thought about replacing the "10 sq.m of Household storage" with a compactus or similar ?

Thanks Ian. I am guessing you mean the sliding storage units used in offices? That takes me back to another lifetime of earlier employment, but I actually really like that idea from a space-saving point of view. Another suggestion that would never have occurred to me. Thank you very much.

If you have not installed the wiring, lights and power points make sure they are installed external and not in the wall cavities and all lights are on 3 pin rose outlets, trust me you will find any extra or changed requirements far easier to do. I had to have a power point installed the other day and because the wiring was external on the walls in plastic wiring trays it took about 15 minutes tops for the sparky to do it.