2 car garage double duty

adam griggs

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Messages
7
Location
winchester,ky
New guy here trying to set up own wood shop. I have gotten out of woodworking 10 or 12 yrs ago when i moved away from dads shop. I have a 23x24 2 car garage im collecting tools now. Just picked up a 10`` older jet ts, and bosch router, have a drill press, jig saw, ros, and enough clamps to start. The issue now is storage. I also do alot mechanic work, welding, and metal work. Anyone have any tips or ideas on doing all of this in a small space everything has to be on wheels. Im wanting to add a 6`` jointer and a dewalt 735 planer. For now plans are to make small stuff we need around the house to get hang of it again. Any advice you can give on tools to get next and storage to make this work.
 
Pick a beginning project. If you need a tool you don't have, then go for it. Since space is at a premium, let your projects determine your tools, remembering there is more than one way to skin a cat. You have a good start. You can cut straight lines, curvy lines, drill holes, and add edge decoration and do machine joinery with what you already have. The planer and jointer are good if you wish to buy rough sawn and mill your own lumber. You will find that space will fill up with accessories to what you already have. Enjoy and take us along for the ride.
 
I work out of a 23x27 2-car garage. I also do woodworking and mechanical work. Mechanic work has to be clean. You need to have covered storage for your tools, parts, and material (solvents, RTV, etc). That means cabinets w/ doors. In a woodworking shop, standard wire shelves aren't going to cut it.

How high are the ceilings? - Material storage is A LOT easier w/10' ceilings and you can just turn lumber on end.
How many and how big are the vehicle(s) stored in the garage?

You're probably not going to have room for two workbenches (wood and mechanic) so you need to come up with a way to control the mechanical grime on your work surface. Maybe you use a stainless steel surface - good for mechanic, bad for wood working. Maybe you use a sealed surface like an old linoleum counter - better compromise but will get beaten up. I built a traditional-style woodworking bench which I use for everything. I left out the dog holes and finished w/ urethane. Reasonably easy to clean up, but sturdy for chopping out mortises and such.

Oh and wheels. My TS is on wheels, but I only move it when I NEED to. Why would I NEED to move a table saw? If I need to rip anything longer than about 8', I pull a car into the driveway and rotate the TS 90* so I've got easy clearance. My drill press is on wheels and it gets moved LOTS; any time it's in the way. When I get a planer, it will also be on a wheeled stand.
 
Welcome aboard!

24x30 two car++ garage here. I loose a fair bit of that to the brewery, hot water heater, wine cellar, furnace, and stairs so I suspect my space is more or less competitive with yours. I have some pretty stationary tools (you can move them you just don't want to), but then I also haven't had a car in the garage since 2011 (and that was just to prove it could be done).

I'm going to disagree with David on trying to make one bench work. You just get to much cross contamination - I have two and well.. maybe its more a problem with my work habits but its still a bit of a problem at times. I put the mostly metal working bench near the door and the wood bench further back on a diagonal, there are pluses and minuses to that theory, but it does allow me to have to "hot work" on the grinder and welder closer to the outside which is nice. The downside if I have the wood storage in past all that so its a bit of a mess (not the only reason its a mess, but hey :rolleyes:). I also have different vises and workholding setups on the two benches.

I'd second Carols suggestion to get building and see what you end up needing per-project, no point in buying past where you need it unless you have $$'s to burn. I'd probably skip the jointer until you find a deal on one or just plumb get fed up on not having it. You can face joint just dandy with the planer and a sled with a few shims on it and edge jointing can be done in various ways with the table saw or router.

If you haven't looked into it yet some sort of dust collection would be high on my list. I have one of the Harbor Freight "2HP" (really more like 1.5HP) collectors modded up on a mobile base with a Thein baffle and a 30 gallon storage bin (the way its modified it takes about the same space as the original).

Good storage helps a lot (and is an ongoing issue for me). Likely whatever you decide on up front won't actually work so plan on being flexible whatever you do (that is be careful of non-moveable builtins and the like). Making some shop cabinets can be a nice starting project and help solve that problem at the same time. Sort of a killing two birds with one stone by getting your toe in the water and helping the storage situation. For metal tools I have a small stack of the green grizzly units - they aren't the cheapest but they're quite well built for the price have pretty good density and once you go to all ball bearing drawers on your tool chest its darn hard to go back.
 
Just a suggestion. The 735 is an awesome planer, but it also weighs almost 100#, not exactly portable or easily moved (unless you're built like Hulk Hogan). The lesser models also have the advantage of weighing about 30# (+/-) less and are a little easier to get out of the way. Just a thought....not saying the 735 is a bad choice, but given the other criteria.......
 
24x30 two car++ garage here. [...] but then I also haven't had a car in the garage since 2011

I'm going to disagree with David on trying to make one bench work. You just get to much cross contamination - I have two and well.. maybe its more a problem with my work habits but its still a bit of a problem at times. I put the mostly metal working bench near the door and the wood bench further back on a diagonal, there are pluses and minuses to that theory, but it does allow me to have to "hot work" on the grinder and welder closer to the outside which is nice. The downside if I have the wood storage in past all that so its a bit of a mess (not the only reason its a mess, but hey :rolleyes:). I also have different vises and workholding setups on the two benches.

We need to know how many vehicles he'll be storing in his garage. A garage that doesn't have vehicles in it isn't a garage. It's just a room, and a pretty big one at that. At 23x27, my garage is the largest "room" in my house.

Frankly, if you're not storing any cars in a 2-car garage, then there really are no compromises to your shop. I keep two small cars in mine, so my "shop" is effectively 23x10. No room for 2 benches.
 
Thanks I didn't think about weight of planer. As benches go I have a sheet of 16GA steel to cover bench for metal work and with lip bent to protect edges of bench. For now my bench is topped with 3/4 birch plywood. As far as vehicles go a jeep cj and tj and wife's car all fit fine. My pickup will just be able to get around one end or other at a time with door closed. I have large filing cabinet that's 4ft wide to store stuff I don't want dust getting to. Trying to come up with shelf to hand above table saw to put miter saw router table and planer on to be able to roll the and jointer under. Thanks and I'll get pictures as soon as I can. I work odd shifts and wife works 2nd shift so it's hard to get time to get out there. Waiting on toddler to nap doesn't always happen.
 
Cabinet doors & a good electric leaf blower & a dust collector. A carport on the front of the garage depending on prevailing wind direction close in both sides with lite framework & light fiberglass roofing to let in light. Just some thoughts I've had for a long time. Also put your welder & mechanics bench & drill-press & nasty stuff grinder close to the big front doors & your DC where it's close to a door for easy emptying but not close to where welder & hot stuff will be.
 
My brother was a metal and woodworker. When he retired to a garage shop he decided to give up welding... too many hidden areas of sawdust that could smolder too long with a spark, and he didn't want to find his garage/shop on fire at 4 am.

Stu Ablett is also dual mode, but I believe he does all his welding in an area completely separate from his wood shop.

All the clean issues are valid, but I would fear sparks in dust more than keeping the areas clean.
 
When I first got real serious about woodworking and building decent stuff, the only space I had was our two-car garage. I had a few small power tools but needed to add a table saw. Along the way, I bought other tools as I needed them; things like a jointer, planer, sanders, bandsaw, etc. I also wanted to be able to clear one side of the garage so my wife could get her car inside at night. Mobile bases and mobile cabinets helped accomplish our goal. Here are a some photos:

shop-wide-1a.jpg

shop-wide-2.jpg


These two mobile cabinets are identical in basic construction.

shop-sander-cart.jpg shop-planer-cart.jpg


I built the cabinets along the side wall for efficient storage.

shop-cabs-closed.jpg shop-cabs-open.jpg


My table saw with extension table was on a mobile base so I could roll it to the side, if necessary to handle sheet goods.

shop-jetsaw1.jpg


At the end of my work day, it took about 10 minutes to sweep up and roll everything into storage locations so my wife's car could fit in just right.
 
Welcome aboard Adam. Consider getting some 1/4" square grid paper and do some scale cut-outs of your tools and play around with arrangements, it's a whole lot lighter than moving the actual tools. ;)

When I was working out of my house garage I'd try to wash down the floor after welding, which meant keeping things mobile and up off the floor. Also make sure the smoke detector out there works well.
 
Your first tool selection should have been dust collection so I would say the tool you should get next is . . . dust collection ;-) I would either do all my work that creates metallic spoil in the driveway or try to come up with some sort of hanging (fireprrof) or rolling divider to keep said spoil under control. It really breaks your heart to find a nasty rust stain in your water borne finish at the last steps of a project.

As to storage, my flip top table was one of the best things I ever did. The cleat wall was second; if you do a search like 'cleat wall site:familywoodworking.org' you will see various results. Decent lumber storage was third. Beyond that all I can say is that NO tool stand should be allowed to occupy space unless it provides storage.
 
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