Setting Up Shop

[Sprung]

Needing to set up shop after our recent move, I thought I'd document the journey.

Here's where I started - this was the day after we moved in. The inside of the garage is 21' wide, 22 1/2' deep, and has a 9' ceiling.



The end of last week we had one really nice day, which I used to move a bunch of stuff out to the shed - yard tools, bikes, etc.

Of course, having made some space with that, I found a good deal only 5 miles away on something I've been wanting - a radial arm saw. I posted about it buying it elsewhere already, but it's a DeWalt MBC. Takes a 9" blade. Is in great shape, considering that it's about 65 years old. Needs new motor bearings, a new cord, and a new table. I plan to build a cabinet/base for it in time.



Not visible in the first picture, but taking up a good chunk of floor space, was the stack of lumber by the garage door. I moved over 800BF of lumber with me. I knew I wanted an easier solution than horizontal stacking - and the pain of having to dig for the board(s) you want. So, with a tall enough ceiling height, I decided to go with vertical lumber storage. This takes up 8' x 22" of floor space and will hold pretty much all of my full length boards. It's not fully loaded yet in the picture.



After I finish loading the rack, it'll be time to start getting some sense of order in the garage so I can start determining where things will go, where I want to hang lights, where to run outlets, etc.

 

[TimR]

Ugh, feels not so long ago I was setting up new shop space. Actually about a year ago. Still working to do better organizing and culling out stuff I’m just not going to use.

 

[Sprung]

Tim, don't go scaring me with the thought of this taking a year or more!

While work will be fairly slow to start - we've still go stuff to unpack and organize in the house as well and it's winter and cold in the garage - I'm really hoping to be building furniture by sometime this summer.

BTW, it was 25F inside the garage today while I worked. Winter temps here are a little milder than where we lived in MN.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Tim, don't go scaring me with the thought of this taking a year or more!

Been 5 years for me and I'm still not done. Working for a living is a drag. But I'm finally getting back at it. I dig your lumber storage!
I have the bearings for my saw on order. I cant imagine moving my shop again

 

[Sprung]

I cant imagine moving my shop again

The nature of my job means that, at some point, I will be moving it again - and likely at least a couple more times. But hopefully not for a long while.

I'm sure that I won't be 100% done within this year, but I am expecting to be operational enough be able to transition from setting up shop to woodworking by sometime this summer.

I'm also kind of under the gun to get it up and going. In addition to some furniture needs for our new home, I am finding that there are a good number of woodworkers in the congregation here. They're eager for me to get my shop set up too and it'll provide some good opportunities to get to know them better, whether in my shop or theirs. Some of them have even volunteered to help me in various ways - someone gave me a couple nice LED lights, someone has already committed themselves to helping me wire up the shop, several people have said they'd help me move things around, etc.

 

[Nature Man]

Great start on your workshop! Please continue to give us updates as it provides inspiration for the rest of us! For some reason, your vertical storage does not look like 800 board feet to me. Chuck

 

[Sprung]

Great start on your workshop! Please continue to give us updates as it provides inspiration for the rest of us! For some reason, your vertical storage does not look like 800 board feet to me. Chuck

Not quite all of the lumber I have will fit in it, but most of it will. I'm estimating over 700BF will be in the rack by the time I've got it filled. It's hard to see how deep it is from the picture - that platform at the bottom is 22" deep. These sections are getting packed solid...

 

[Nature Man]

Not quite all of the lumber I have will fit in it, but most of it will. I'm estimating over 700BF will be in the rack by the time I've got it filled. It's hard to see how deep it is from the picture - that platform at the bottom is 22" deep. These sections are getting packed solid...

How wide will the platform be? Still can't see even 700 BF on it. Chuck

 

[Sprung]

How wide will the platform be? Still can't see even 700 BF on it. Chuck

8'

Over 700BF is easy. The first two bays are filled with cherry. I know that I have exactly 300BF of cherry. I fit all but a few boards - roughly 25 or 30BF, give or take - of my cherry into those two bays. So we're looking at roughly 135BF in each bay.

For the sake of quick math, let's round down to 125BF, because I may not be able to pack each bay as tightly, so that would give a decent average of how much each bay can hold. 125BF x 6 bays = 750BF.

 

[Nature Man]

8'

Over 700BF is easy. The first two bays are filled with cherry. I know that I have exactly 300BF of cherry. I fit all but a few boards - roughly 25 or 30BF, give or take - of my cherry into those two bays. So we're looking at roughly 135BF in each bay.

For the sake of quick math, let's round down to 125BF, because I may not be able to pack each bay as tightly, so that would give a decent average of how much each bay can hold. 125BF x 6 bays = 750BF.

Okay! Finally got it! It was misleading to me I think because vertical stacking takes advantage of the lost storage space from the ceiling down which is often lost. On to a related topic, I take it your lumber is all dried. Vertical storage probably wouldn't be advisable for green lumber. Chuck

 

[Sprung]

Yes, it's all dried. You're correct that it wouldn't be good for green lumber. Thankfully I didn't have any green lumber to move with me, because I'm not sure where I'd stack it!

 

[Tony]

Looking good my friend!

 

[Gdurfey]

@Sprung , saw the first post but had not "watched" it....is now. Thanks and I will be glad to give encouragement and peanut gallery remarks; sometimes all at the same time!!! I am working out of one bay of a 3 car garage and have part of the second bay in front of my motorcycle for storage/stuff. All my stuff, except the lathe, is on wheels. I hope in our forever home to maybe get rid of those, but not sure; I might still be in a tighter space than I desire, but I am fortunate and blessed to have what I have. No complaints, just stating what it is.

Thanks for pointing me back to this and I look forward to your updates.

 

[Sprung]

@Sprung , saw the first post but had not "watched" it....is now. Thanks and I will be glad to give encouragement and peanut gallery remarks; sometimes all at the same time!!! I am working out of one bay of a 3 car garage and have part of the second bay in front of my motorcycle for storage/stuff. All my stuff, except the lathe, is on wheels. I hope in our forever home to maybe get rid of those, but not sure; I might still be in a tighter space than I desire, but I am fortunate and blessed to have what I have. No complaints, just stating what it is.

Thanks for pointing me back to this and I look forward to your updates.

I was previously in a 1 car garage, with some overflow in the basement of our home. So this space looks and feels huge, compared to what I'm used to!

 

[TimR]

All good moving into bigger space, just gotta realize it will fill up if not judicious.

 

[Sprung]

Seller's picture, but another tool followed me home tonight. 6" belt/9" disc sander. In very good condition. For $125, with an extra belt and a handful of discs included, I think I did pretty good. Usually I see 6" belt sanders listed for double the money and in not so great condition.

This, along with the RAS I purchased a couple weeks ago, were the two items at the top of my tools to buy list for setting up shop here. There's still another item or two on that list, so we'll see what maybe pops up next.

 

[Sprung]

I've started moving stuff around, looking at where I want to set things up. Today I made my first placement of where a tool will go. The lathe and the toolbox of lathe tooling got put in their place. Everything else is still not yet decided, or has a bunch of stuff that has to be moved out of the way before it finds its home. Sunday is supposed to be a nice day - high of 45 - and you can bet that after lunch I'll be headed out to get some work done in the shop.

 

[Gdurfey]

A Sunday afternoon in the shop would be considered “rest” wouldn’t it.....

 

[Sprung]

A Sunday afternoon in the shop would be considered “rest” wouldn’t it.....

I did just get in from spending a few hours out there.

Moved a lot of things around. Got some more things into their place. Started trying to figure out where some other machines will go. Maybe pictures later.

 

[Sprung]

I've had some opportunity here and there over the last several days to spend a little bit of time in the shop. I keep moving things around, but can't settle on an arrangement.

Last night I did something that will help. I've done it in the past with previous shops, but decided to finally do it again. I measured everything. The shop space, the tools, tool boxes, shelving units, etc. I outlined the shop on graph paper, including all the fixed and immovable things. Then I made cutouts of everything that needs to find a home. Used that to help with some layout ideas. I haven't settled on what looks like it might work best for me, but here's where I'm at right now.



Or



And today a big tool purchase was delivered. I've been wanting one of these for a while and had enough money in my tool fund to buy one, after selling a bunch of stuff before moving. Festool Domino. Bought this one barely used. This should be my last tool purchase for a while.