The New Shop at 6 Months

[glenn bradley]

I thought an update on things that worked and things that didn't might help others who are planning or reorganizing.

Drawers and nearby storage at the bench, still a winner.

You can buy weight plates at garage sales for pennies. They make great weights for clamping large panels.

Clamps and cauls close by and the wall mounted tool cabinet, winner.

You can see that odds and ends gather in open areas. This is a behavior problem .

Dust Deputy on the shop vac, total winner. Wall mounted hose reel, bonus.

I have tried to clean the filters in my DD units for years. There's never anything in them.
The mirror over the electrical panels bounces my infrared DC controller back to the receiver from the tablesaw position.

Rolling tables. I've watched others use them for years. If you have the room, winner.

I use them to ferry stock through the milling process, hold glue ups and act as finishing stands.

Sheet goods corral and panel-shorts stash, winner.

Again, odds and ends gather in open areas. At least it is generally an ever changing pile of . . . items.

Sharpening stuff near the sink, winner.
Small bandsaw on wheels, winner.

A design for a sharpening station/cabinet is percolating. In the mean time I had a spare metal shelf unit.

The quad of milling machines with a central core for dust collection and electrical supply, winner.

Although it has a large footprint it is smaller than the area for machines spread out, DC ducted, powered, and open areas for operation.
I use the carts to hold stacks of parts as they go from bandsaw to jointer to planer to jointer to (sometimes) sander.

Wall pegs behind the tablesaw and router table to hold the many jigs and accessories that go with them, winner.


Putting the DC outside the shop (in a bump out), winner.


The spray booth . . . uh . . . .

The area where the spray booth will eventually go . Good idea. Still planned.

In short, focus areas of activity have served me well so far. Much less running from one end of the shop to the other. Other things that paid off:
- Lotsa lights
- Lotsa outlets
- HVAC
- Sink

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Nice overview, what a great space that is turning into!

Sheet goods corral and panel-shorts stash, winner.

I was wondering how you were liking the swing way action on that setup.

Sharpening stuff near the sink, winner.

I'm mildly cautious about that with the stone slurry going down the drain.. it can settle in the traps and make for long term issues.

The extra storage under the small bandsaw.. extra bonus points

 

[Darren Wright]

Ditto on a great overview.

I have a couple of dust deputies, been considering that setup in my work trailer to save space and have a better dust collection on the miter and table saw.

Also a plus one on the rolling tables, even if you don’t have a large space, can usually work them into the organization/storage in a small shop and they are so versatile.

 

[Robert Horky]

A great looking shop. Glad to see you are enjoying it.

 

[Paul Douglass]

So I take it you are not just a "hobby" worker like me?? Beautiful shop!

 

[glenn bradley]

I was wondering how you were liking the swing way action on that setup.

I'm mildly cautious about that with the stone slurry going down the drain.. it can settle in the traps and make for long term issues.

Even though I have twice the space I used to have the swinging sheet goods fixture has worked out really well. I only use the double doors for bringing large stuff in and out so the rack's normal position has become as shown in the pics. This gives me easy access to the panel shorts area.

In my previous shop I made my own sump fixture out of some ABS and a spaghetti sauce jar.


I was going to install it in the new shop when I came across this very reasonably priced commercial version. You can see it if you zoom in on the sink pic above.

I was concerned about trapping heavy items and glue sludge for environmental reasons at the old shop. The new shop uses a french drain for the sink -

so trapping things is now a life-extender for that system.

Either the shop made or commercial version is easy to quickly screw off, empty, and screw back on.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

Apart from from making me green of (sane) envy, and may be detecting some hidden desire to show off to the rest of us mere mortals ( just kidding ;-) I appreciate you showing your shop to us. I have taken thorough notes and there are a few solutions that I will apply sooner or later to my shop.
Thanks a lot Glenn. To me You are like an elder brother to look upon for inspiration and guidance.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

I was going to install it in the new shop when I came across this very reasonably priced commercial version. You can see it if you zoom in on the sink pic above.

Wow someone improved the U trap, nice! That (and your homemade version) does seem like a great solution to the slurry problem.. glad I asked

I'll definitely try to keep that rig in mind for the future (sort of like the fernco toilet sleeves revolutionary!).

 

[Darren Wright]

So Glenn, I may have missed it on your initial shop thread. How are you storing your powered and cordless tools? Dedicated area or just with the rolling carts and such?

 

[glenn bradley]

So Glenn, I may have missed it on your initial shop thread. How are you storing your powered and cordless tools? Dedicated area or just with the rolling carts and such?

I wish I had a magical solution for you . This is one reason that my typical Craftsman mental rolling tool cabinet gets to stay. Some day I may build a nice rolling tool cabinet to replace it but for now, it's just too easy. Mostly this handles tools not usually used for woodworking but, some are.
. . .

This stand in an area that is partially walled off. Power hand tools are mostly something I go get, use, and put back. The exception seems to be drill motors. I am always reaching for a drill motor(???). If I turn 180 degrees I am looking at a brown commercial cabinet that combines general storage and tool storage. An angle grinder that I reserve for woodworking only, a laser level(?), and my Mortise Pal live on the top shelf next to some of my standardized plastic shoebox storage.



Below that is a corral of routers and bases.


Below that is a pullout that holds larger hardware storage (thanks to Rennie for the Int'l Coffee boxes), some torch stuff and my oscillating multi tool / heads / blades.


Below that is a pullout with a small bandsaw, more routers and bases and my ROS stuff.


cont'd . . .

 

[glenn bradley]

. . . cont'd

Next to the brown metal cabinet is the blue metal cabinet (official industry names ) which is primarily storage. It holds a mix of tackle boxes for smaller items, shoeboxes for stuff that's a bit bigger, and latch top bins for still larger (or larger amounts of small) items. The open box shown holds my Dremel tools, fixtures and bits. There are also all those router and sander attachments, dust ports, edge guides, blah, blah, blah.


I use a cordless jigsaw for cutting stock to length.


It seems to live under the bench top for no reason I can think of other than it is out of my way and always there when I go look for it. It replaces a chop saw for me and takes up almost no room.
I inherited a couple of drill motors from dad so they and an inexpensive Hitachi drill set live at the bench for casual hole requirements.


I mentioned always reaching for a drill motor. This can be for drilling holes, taking things apart, buffing / wire wheeling things, whatever. I just keep them near where I seem to use them.


That's pretty much it for me on small powered hand tools. I keep my compressor and brad nailers on a bottom shelf of a roll around cart. They serve as ballast much more than as tools.


Same goes for my vacuum gluing setup. Used seldom and could be stored elsewhere. For now it seems happy enough on the other rolling table shelf.


Time will tell. I hope someone sees or reads something that gives them an idea for their own work area. It's always evolving it seems.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Six months down the road and I'm still envious of all the space you have, as well as your organizational skills. Your shop's looking great!