It Appears to be Time to Downsize

[dusty]

We are about to put the house and property on the market. I expect a major (well maybe not real major) size reduction for my shop. If all goes as planned, I will be working out of a one car garage. (I need to get floor dimensions).

I expect to retain a Mark V Model 520, a Mark V Shorty, a stand alone ProPlaner a Scroll Saw, a Jointer, a Belt Sander and one Power Stand maybe the Crafter's Station.

Do any of you have a comparable list of equipment items that you operate in a shop that is equally small? The real question, I guess, is "Can this be done?".

[BuckeyeDennis]

Sure it can. I have a lot more equipment than that in about the same amount of space, in my basement workshop. Not to mention a lumber rack with a 600 bf capacity.

When laying out the space, instead of focusing on machine footprints, you have to focus on the working volume required for the lumber that you are processing. That's usually much greater than the machine footprint. Then consider the following:

1. It's a one-man shop. You don't have to worry about operating more than one machine at a time. So overlap the machine working volumes as much as possible.
2. Some machines/operations are grossly inefficient when it comes to required working volume. Cross-cutting on a table saw comes to mind. I have a cabinet saw that is my primary ripping machine, but I replaced the long extension table with a short one, and my shop layout sacrificed the ability to cross-cut long boards. Tablesaws are a poor choice for that anyway, IMHO -- a good RAS, or even a chop saw, gives you much better control with a much smaller working volume.
3. In general, machines where the cutting blade moves, instead of the lumber, are more space-efficient. The new breed of track saws fully exploit this. I bought one recently, and quickly discovered a new use for my 520 -- as a sheet-goods table for my track saw. With your two Mark V's, you would have plenty of support for even a full-sized 4' x 8' sheet. I keep a sheet of 1-1/2" rigid foam insulation handy for track-saw cutting. I just raise my 520 tables above whatever tool may be installed, throw the sacrificial sheet foam on top, and I'm ready to cut.

To figure out the best equipment arrangement, I made 2D dimensioned machine models in Visio (typically just simple rectangles). Sketchup would be even better, so you can model machine heights as well. You could also add outlines of the required working volume, but I just did that in my head. Then start testing layouts -- it's actually pretty fun.

[garys]

You can do it if you utilize the space carefully. My basement shop is 12x20 with a 9x7 storage wing on one end. I try to keep the extra wood and idle tools in the storage wing when not in use. That clears the 12x20 space for working.
I have fewer tools than you do. I have a single Shopsmith with jointer, bandsaw, belt sander, and planer accessories. The only stand alone tool I have other than the Shopsmith is a router mounted on a small router table.
I feel that I have plenty of room to do my work in this space.

[robinson46176]

As a shop and tool nut (not necessarily as a woodworker ) I love my big basement shop and I am now in the process of confiscating the rest of the basement under that wing of the house. The whole thing is 36' x 40' and the part I have walled off for the shop is 24' x 40'. I'm starting to take the other part for non dust producing stuff like lumber and supply storage. SHHhhhhhhh... I have never said that out loud around Diana yet.

Having said that... If I had twice that much space it would fill up at night mostly with stuff that I almost never use.

The most productive woodshop I had was an about 14' x 24' garage where I also was doing small engine work. I just had to stay efficient...

From 1965 to 1976 at the first house we bought my shop was in a 10' x 20' shed made of a wood frame covered with corrugated galvanized steel. It had a dirt floor and I built an 8' x 8' plywood platform raised about 4" up off of the dirt as a work surface and my bench was hung from one wall. I spent a lot of hours in that shop.

With all of my tools I keep finding myself often grabbing a hand tool for many things that I used to think "required" a major machine. One problem with many hand tools is that they do sometimes require a lot of effort and upper body strength. I now find myself reaching for smaller power tools. As an example I have a light electric hand plane I find quick, easy and handy. I also have a Porter Cable trim router that I probably use far more often than any of my big routers unless I need a bigger one. A couple of weeks ago I was going to make an odd cut and reached for one of my saws that they now seem to call a jig-saw but I always called a saber-saw. It was all I needed. For many small cutting jobs I often grab a small back-saw or a Japanese pull-saw. Not long ago I made a cut that I might have once done on a table saw but I used my scroll-saw.
I keep my SS band-saw mounted and intend to keep one of the old SS jig-saws mounted for quick small cuts.
One of my favorite power handsaw (Skill-saw type) is a 5" purchased long ago for a big paneling job. I also have an 18Volt Ryobi that I am quite fond of.

If I were doing it over would I bother acquiring all of the big stuff? Of course I would, I'm a tool nut...
But I do try to grasp that perception and reality are two different things just like wants and needs.

We are not yet considering any downsizing but we are starting to do much more de-cluttering. That is kind of a chore when you have a whole big herd of hobbies. (shrug)
We often joke when we see a pickup or trailer going down the road piled high with "stuff" as to whether they are moving or just hauling trash to the dump.


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[thunderbirdbat]

That is about the size of my shop. The work space required to do different operations is the main consideration. I also have casters on almost all my stand alone equipment and tool storage cabinets to be able to move them around to accommodate different operations. I have even considered adding casters to my work bench to be able to reposition it as needed. In nice weather I even expand into the driveway to take advantage of the natural light and more room to set up a couple of operations at a time.

[sehast]

I have one walled off bay of a 3 car garage set up as my shop. Its only 11 feet wide but extra long about 26 feet. In addition to my Shopsmith I have a standalone 18" bandsaw, a 12" sliding miter saw, a 24" x 48" CNC router, a 72" long workbench, a 36'x 36" table router with wings to extend it out to 72", a MiniMill for metal working, a 12" standalone planer and a large shop vac. Everything is on wheels so I can re-configure the shop for the project and I have built plenty of cabinets for storage of hand tools and other portable power tools like drills and shopsmith attachments. I have a 10 foot ceiling so I built a loft on one end of the bay for lumber storage. I also have the luxury of moving into the other two bays of the garage for some things like breaking down sheet goods and spray finishing but that does not happen too often. One thing to consider up front is the floor. I started with just plain concrete but soon went to more forgiving poly tiles. If I had it to do over again I would probably go with plywood. I also put in insulation and ducting so it is heated and cooled from the house furnace/cooling system.

[everettdavis]

With good casters, and electrical power distribution that makes sense to you absolutely you can work in such a space.

Having dust collection connections in appropriate spaces to connect to can make it very functional.

Everett

[Dansmith]

The timing on this question is perfect for me. Just over the weekend, I started making the one car side of a 2 car garage into a dedicated woodshop. I used to have to move stuff out of the corners.

I have a 6 foot long workbench under a window (workbench is homemade and has storage areas as well). I have a fullsize Delta Contractors saw (moveable base) in the middle of the garage. I have a free standing full size jointer in front of the table saw. I have a free standing 12" band saw (moveable base) behind the table saw. My portable dust collector is next to the bandsaw. My SS Power station is against a wall with a strip sander attached. My SS MK5 (500) is against another wall. There is also a large shelf system on the same wall as the workbench that will hold all my jigs and other shopsmith parts, along with other items.

All tools are operable with comfort as they sit; except, I will have to move the MK5 a little if I want to use it as a drill press.

I'll may end up moving some stuff around after using it; but, I think this set-up will work fine.

Next major issue to deal with is better lighting.

[masonsailor2]

It can definitely be done Dusty. The beauty of a one man shop is that actual space between tools can be very little. Every surface will probably be multipurposed. One thing I find useful is to keep all the work surfaces the same height which allows for ease of movement of material. For instance my work bench, router table and table saw have only a 30 inch walkway between them. When I saw full sheets the router table and work bench actually support the material on the feed side. It's not as handy as having a whole bunch of space but layed out properly it can work very well.
Paul

[robinson46176]

Charles used to keep a comment in his sig line asking everybody to please put their general location in their profile.
I would like to ask that again. General area is plenty. Part of the reason is that we talk about heating and cooling our shops "a lot" and also about using a driveway for borrowed space etc.
I know from Dusty's profile (and from many years of an occasional friendly poke with a sharp stick) that he lives at Tuscon Az. By knowing that I can just assume that he rarely has to heat his shop through 20 degrees below zero weather. Having been to Tuscon long ago I assume that if he sat a bottle of water down out in the sun in summer that it might come to a boil so maybe he can't always borrow driveway space.
If he tells me that he can stack some lumber in his yard for a week without it getting wet I understand because I know he is in Tuscon and rain tends to be a bit scarce. If someone who lives in Oregon said that I might question it.
If JPG tells me that he doesn't have to go too far to buy hardwood I understand because like my area in South Central Indiana his part of Kentucky is fairly near a lot of hardwood forest.
This is a wide country with a lot of climate variation from north to south and east to west...
It is also easier to have an idea if we can help each other if we have an idea of where folks are. I enjoy Dusty's posts but I'll be danged if I'm going to jump in the van and drive to his house to drop off a part. JPG on the other hand lives near areas where I make an occasional genealogy / cemetery stomping run and if I knew ahead of time a stop there would be pretty easy. If it were somebody in the county next to mine it would be really easy.
Also it is just interesting.


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