• Spring 2024 meetup in Calgary - tentative date Saturday, April 20/2024. Other regions are also discussing meet ups. If you want one in your area get going on organizing it! discussion
  • We are having email/registration problems again. Diagnosis is underway. New users sorry if you are having trouble getting registered. We are exploring different options to get registered. Contact the forum via another member or on facebook if you're stuck. Update -> we think it is fixed. Let us know if not.
  • Spring meet up in Ontario, April 6/2024. NEW LOCATION See Post #31 Discussion NEW LOCATION

Shop Full Garage Tour!

Shop

a smile

Lifelong hobby - cold iron
Premium Member
我完整观看了整个视频,主人很棒,在狭小的空间内居然还能摆放这么多的工具,而且还要做一些制作工作,这是难以想象的。我认为这也颠覆了我对加拿大的认知“地广人稀” big house 是我羡慕的加拿大。为什么没有更大的DIY空间?很贵?还是因为不急迫?谁可以简单的科普给我!
I watched the whole video and the owner was great. It was hard to imagine how many tools could fit into a small space and how much production work had to be done. I think it also overturns my understanding of Canada. "big house" is my envy of Canada. Why isn't there more room for DIY? Very expensive? Or is it because there is no urgency? Who can simple science to me!
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I watched the whole video and the owner was great. It was hard to imagine how many tools could fit into a small space and how much production work had to be done. I think it also overturns my understanding of Canada. "big house" is my envy of Canada. Why isn't there more room for DIY? Very expensive? Or is it because there is no urgency? Who can simple science to me!

I have been to China, I'll accept the challenge of explaining it.

First of all, @SomeGuy is not your average Canadian machinist. The average guy does NOT HAVE such a neat tidy shop. We are all jealous of it, but most of us are much more messy and much less organized.

Second, keep your image of Canada. The average home in Canada is much bigger than the average home in China.

I don't know about shops though. I think the average shop size here is small. But I think the average shop in China is even smaller. I would describe yours as bigger than average in China. Of course, I saw many bigger ones, but they were shared by many people.

I think your image of Canada was correct.
 

CWret

Ultra Member
Premium Member
@SomeGuy: Well done! That is an excellent video. It shows your shop to be well organized, neat, tidy, and makes efficient use of every square foot.

My following comments are for other Forum members. His video is a bit of an understatement (partly due to his modesty). I have been there and had the tour first hand. As good as the video is, it doesn’t do his shop justice. It is actually more amazing that the video reveals. It’s kinda like watching a video of the new truck you want to buy compared to sitting in it.
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Nice clean and organized shop. You've packed a lot in while still maintaining an open floor to work on vehicles. The holy grail of small spaces!
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
@SomeGuy: Well done! That is an excellent video. It shows your shop to be well organized, neat, tidy, and makes efficient use of every square foot.

My following comments are for other Forum members. His video is a bit of an understatement (partly due to his modesty). I have been there and had the tour first hand. As good as the video is, it doesn’t do his shop justice. It is actually more amazing that the video reveals. It’s kinda like watching a video of the new truck you want to buy compared to sitting in it.

Well thank you :) I wouldn't say it's that amazing (I am still being modest?) but it works. There are always upgrades to be made and things to be tidied up. If I were rebuilding it again from scratch there's a few more improvements I would be making. The couple big ones, being I'd do the frame of my main workbench out of steel not wood...it would gain me a few more inches of space that are lost by the thickness of 2x4's. I'm also likely to change up my bolt bin storage in the future, potentially all going to compartment boxes or maybe a lista style cabinet or something, the open front bolt bin is too messy/dusty/hard to dig in. I'd also like to upgrade my tool chest, although the International was a good value, there's physically room for more drawers in the same foot print, the box wastes some internal space.

Nice clean and organized shop. You've packed a lot in while still maintaining an open floor to work on vehicles. The holy grail of small spaces!

Thanks! The vehicle requirements help drive my discipline around keeping the floor open, clean, and not encroaching on parking space.
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Well thank you :) I wouldn't say it's that amazing (I am still being modest?) but it works. There are always upgrades to be made and things to be tidied up. If I were rebuilding it again from scratch there's a few more improvements I would be making. The couple big ones, being I'd do the frame of my main workbench out of steel not wood...it would gain me a few more inches of space that are lost by the thickness of 2x4's. I'm also likely to change up my bolt bin storage in the future, potentially all going to compartment boxes or maybe a lista style cabinet or something, the open front bolt bin is too messy/dusty/hard to dig in. I'd also like to upgrade my tool chest, although the International was a good value, there's physically room for more drawers in the same foot print, the box wastes some internal space.



Thanks! The vehicle requirements help drive my discipline around keeping the floor open, clean, and not encroaching on parking space.
I tried for years to maintain the requirement that I could pull a vehicle in to do work on it, but gave up. I could still pull in half of one and work on one end (If I shoved EVERYTHING to the back, and outside), but it wouldn't be comfy. All my auto work takes place on the gravel driveway, out in the weather. Fun. I long for a conditioned space with a lift.
 

CWret

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Grizz: In your comments I’m glad you add “in my opinion “.

I started watching Blondi when i first thought about getting into milling. She puts out good info without the normal YouTube BS. I followed her as she packed-up and moved back to Canada. She did an excellent job of organizing and setting up her new shop space - BUT her objective was totally different than SomeGuy’s. In case you missed it, she never plans to open the roll-up garage door. Some people would consider that to be totally impractical.
Her solution works for her as does SomeGuy’s solution works for him. They are both practical solutions for very different needs.
 

a smile

Lifelong hobby - cold iron
Premium Member
I have been to China, I'll accept the challenge of explaining it.

First of all, @SomeGuy is not your average Canadian machinist. The average guy does NOT HAVE such a neat tidy shop. We are all jealous of it, but most of us are much more messy and much less organized.

Second, keep your image of Canada. The average home in Canada is much bigger than the average home in China.

I don't know about shops though. I think the average shop size here is small. But I think the average shop in China is even smaller. I would describe yours as bigger than average in China. Of course, I saw many bigger ones, but they were shared by many people.

I think your image of Canada was correct.
Can you tell me something about Canadian DIYER, about (on average) how much space they (you) can use as a mechanical studio? Can you build your own studio in your own backyard?
 

Rauce

Ultra Member
Can you tell me something about Canadian DIYER, about (on average) how much space they (you) can use as a mechanical studio? Can you build your own studio in your own backyard?
My workshop for example is 200 sqft (18 square meters). It’s a garage in my backyard.

For someone living in a city that would be a typical size in my opinion if you have a house. I have some space in my backyard to make it bigger but construction costs are quite high.
 

DavidR8

Scrap maker
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Can you tell me something about Canadian DIYER, about (on average) how much space they (you) can use as a mechanical studio? Can you build your own studio in your own backyard?
My garage is my shop. 20 ft x 20'
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Can you tell me something about Canadian DIYER, about (on average) how much space they (you) can use as a mechanical studio? Can you build your own studio in your own backyard?

Depending on where you are in Canada, you can build a 10x10 to 12x12 shed on most residential lots without a building permit. But I think most DIYERs in Canada either use their garage (22x12 to 14x24 ft & sometimes much bigger) or their basement. I think we all aspire to a separate workshop (20x20 and up) on the property and some of us have that. My shop is 40x80 with a 20x40 mezzanine but I also park huge farm machinery in there so it's not nearly as much space as it seems. Most of my machinery and tools are in a 16x16 space. Lots of small exceptions to that though. Cut-off saw and bandsaw are in another area.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
Well, the place is so clean I wonder if any work is done there ever.
Decent size shop - bigger is almost always better to a point I guess - I have around 800sq ft but I would not mind a bigger shop - say 1600 sq ft. I guess at some point you run into issues such as heating all that space - or need to divide into heated and unheated space.

In Calgary without extra permit you cannot build a garage over 800 sq ft. The max height is also 10ft. They have also other restrictions like garage cannot be bigger than your house ... (come one, why not!?)

Main problem with using your basement is that its not easy to move machines in / out if they get touch bigger and you also have to content with some pollution of house air.

If garage is decently insulated and you keep it cold just above freezing most of the time, actual heating is not that expensive.
 

Tom O

Ultra Member
Mine is 672 sf (24x28) and I keep the heat on year round the walls are Rockwool insulated covered with plywood with drywall ceiling ( not insulated yet ) and I find it not bad on gas.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
The ceiling/door/eaves height has been amended to 14 feet. Two guys in my neighborhood have garages like that and so I had to ask...

Damm, wish they did that just few years sooner - I would not mind 14ft. Or I would go for something like 12ft.
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
Well, the place is so clean I wonder if any work is done there ever.

Shots fired...everyone says this though "do you even use your tools?"...I just clean up at the end of the day, pulling in two nice vehicles forces me to. I have parted out an entire car in there, I've changed clutches, dropped diffs, full suspension swaps, brakes dozens of times, turbo swaps, manifolds...you name it, I've done it to a vehicle in there. Machining is a new hobby and I haven't spent a ton of time on the machines, but if you scroll through some videos from the last year, you'll see I have done various fabrication stuff and was building some RC stuff and just general mucking about. Keep in mind, everything you see in there...the benches, shelving, cabinets, infrastructure, etc. was all built in there too. I started on the new mill stand this past weekend too, lots of working with steel tube...cutting, drilling, grinding, and soon to start welding.

I might not be in there every day (it's a hobby after all) and I might not leave it a god awful mess like most of you, but doesn't mean it's not well used.
 

a smile

Lifelong hobby - cold iron
Premium Member
China uses (metric) meters, which I roughly converted to: 3.28 feet =1 meter. My garage is about 7M by 7m (23 ft by 23 ft), there's another garage 12 ft by 20 ft that I use to install the machine tools, and there's some extra space that I can use to make shelves for materials, parts or whatever.

My site is about 70 square meters (800 square feet), which is probably a relatively large DIYER in China's DIY community, even a little extravagant. More than 98% of the DIYER's area is less than 10 square meters, or even slightly larger cities, very high housing prices have strangled the vast majority of mechanical enthusiasts.

My ideal studio size is 200 square meters (2200 square feet). Because my hobby is to create new products (inventions), or create some disruptive upgrades, or make some small improvements that are more beneficial.

The current space is not enough to support more mechanical equipment, nor to meet my machine tool requirements.

So if I lived in Canada, I would definitely choose a house with a large basement (of a certain height) and a larger garage.

I don't have much equipment right now because I don't have enough space to store it!
 
Top