• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Shop layout / shop work flow

Chicken lights

Chicken lights

Forum Pony Express Driver
94EF675B-E0C1-4BF8-B972-E33A5EF307A5.jpeg

How do you have an efficient shop set up?

I need to keep “bay one” open in order to pull a truck in. It’s got airlines and outlets for power.

I want to set up a “station” with a vise, bench grinder, belt sander and work bench near the work bay.

I have pegboard with supplies, a bolt bin and a couple cabinets for other needed shop supplies in the general area.

Tool box and such need to be near the work bay, too

Thoughts?
 
Keep grinder and belt sander away from any other machine tools and tool boxes. Ditto if you do any clean assembly work. Abrasive dust is hard on almost everything.
 
ducdon said:
Keep grinder and belt sander away from any other machine tools and tool boxes. Ditto if you do any clean assembly work. Abrasive dust is hard on almost everything.
Click to expand...
My shop is an “L” shape. I’d like to try to keep the “dirty” work in the “bay one” straight section of the shop

I’m not sure how you’d keep everything in clean vs dirty areas

Good suggestions, thanks!
 
I loss my commenting privileges on shop layout about the same time I started playing Frogger to manoeuvre around in mine. If I have a big meal that day, I can't get through.

Seriously though, my two cents would be keep PC's away from dusty areas and account for ability to bring in and cut long stock.
 
IMG_2809.JPG


I built this welding bench- has two tool boxes and slide out mounts on each end- the top is 1/2" steel plate 36 x 48. The slide out mounts have a vise (yo can see on the end) and a drop down that holds a cut off band saw or the plasma cutter. It all rolls and is very stable. I roll it out in the car bay and the garage shop expands instantly. Works super well when my wife is away at work and I just roll it back before the car goes in.
 
7AB51E48-EC90-41D5-917C-928CCF642334.jpeg

I think what I’m missing is a work bench by bay one. There’s never anywhere to put anything down or work on anything

I did pick up a cart from Canadian tire for $30. They called it a garden cart, I put the flat shelf on top and the expanded steel shelves on the bottom.

I can’t even hardly buy four casters for $30

I am definitely liking having things on wheels. A buddy of mine has a cabinet he’s storing here, I built him a moving dolly just for the cabinet. Like the barrel dollies I was messing with, life is GRAND when you can just wheel stuff around
 
Agree with everything on wheels, except you will want a rigid mounted bench/work area for hand cutting or heavy filing. I have a bench that i made out of an old hospital emergency room bed. Works awesome for adjusting height of work, moving around but even with the heavy braking pads underneath, when I was trying to hacksaw some material before i had a metal bandsaw, it would shake and move around a lot. I have since installed a heavy bench along one wall and have tool chests on wheels underneath. Still have the mobile one as well, but use it for layout and cut off table from my table saw.
 
I saw a really cool trick for space saving. The guy mounted a couple of 2 inch tow hitch receivers just under the edge of his work bench. One at each end. He then mounted his tools ( vises, bench grinders, etc ) on 2 inch square tubing. All the tools were stored on a shelf under the bench and when needed were plugged into a hitch receiver. I may yet do that on my welding table.
 
Tarps are the bane of my existence. They are heavy, take up space and are awkward. They can’t really go on a shelf, they’re just too ornery

Tire chains are another one of those “where do I store these”

Oddball things are annoying to find good storage for
 
Chicken lights said:
Tarps are the bane of my existence. They are heavy, take up space and are awkward. They can’t really go on a shelf, they’re just too ornery

Tire chains are another one of those “where do I store these”

Oddball things are annoying to find good storage for
Click to expand...
I use an old tent duffle bag for my tarps, its really weak material though im just to cheap to get better but that does not stop me from packing them in solid. May work for you may not.
 
One thing I'm (starting) to do is find what stuff I have that is only odd-use things, or material that's rarely used and moving it to off-site storage... aka, one of my garden sheds!

Found I was dedicating too much valuable real estate that could be better put to use for common activity things.

FB Marketplace has also been getting exercised more... cough... ;)
 
I think I have a plan. I picked up the graph paper in the first post and basically drew out what’s the current set up.

I have some reshuffling to do, I’m not sure if I’ll redraw the new plan or just wing it and redraw it after I’m done shuffling

I wish I had a shed or some such I could dump unused things for just storage. I’ll mull that idea around in my head and see what pops out from there. Even $50 a month for a storage locker might not be a bad idea

Ideas ideas ideas
 
At $50/m, youd be probably better off to buy your own, or toss the stuff.
I watched a buddy who (against my advise) put all his furniture in storage as he went off to work at sea.
By the time he got back, what he had paid in storage, he could have bought all new stuff TWICE!
 
Dr.Fiero said:
At $50/m, youd be probably better off to buy your own, or toss the stuff.
I watched a buddy who (against my advise) put all his furniture in storage as he went off to work at sea.
By the time he got back, what he had paid in storage, he could have bought all new stuff TWICE!
Click to expand...
You’re right, of course

However, when it’s a business decision, as in “it’s a write off and it gains me X amount of space”, $50/month isn’t a lot of money

But I do see your point

I have a Uhaul that I’m going to look at the space inside and maybe revamp some of that space too. Likely I can free up some space for some of the items that are just storage.

Now if I could buy a SECOND Uhaul for cheap...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top