Re-start question

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Turned Around

Turned Around

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
838
Location
Houston, TX
So I am going to be moving soon, everything is already packed up, just waiting for the closing date to be finalized.

I get to set up my shop with a fresh start. So here's my question: Knowing what you have now and what niche you're comfortable with in the pen world, what would you do differently when setting up a new shop?

I won't have the biggest shop, just a single bay in a 3-car garage. Good thing though, This time, I won't have 2 motorcycles in the middle of the garage, and the two large, 3-tier tool cabinets will be in the "car side" of the garage. The tool cabinets alone will clear out a 6 foot section of the wall. Not to mention all the other stuff that will go into the car sections of the garage.
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
stonepecker said:
Personally, dust control. I would have that in first before installing my tools,equipmwnt. I would make a drawing and have everything vented to a central dust collector.
Right now, I have dust control.......however, not all machines are to just one collection point.
Click to expand...

That was on my list. I have a good Delta dust collector and a big box of fittings and blast gates, ready to set up.
 
Sounds like the set up I want. I would put my lathe on wheels that can lock, I have a two car garage that I share with 3 people. My wife thinks my man cave (AKA Garage) is a storage unit, so if she doesnt want it in the house, it goes out there (usually in the middle some place), and my two sons, who also think that my Man cave is their personal junk drawer. Now, I myself take up more room than any of them, with a Street Glide, welding equipment, 2 craftsman tool boxes, 2 lawn mowers, and all of the other junk that has to go into a garage. SHMBO says I need to get rid of some tools, but she doesnt understand that I need them all.

If I could do it all over again, and if I had time to worry about it, I would have bought a shed for the back yard and had it wired. When I buy a house, it will either have a 3 car garage, or enough room in the back yard for a shed big enough to house all my stuff...

In the enternal words of my Pawpaw - "A man isnt **** without stuff" Those my friends are words to live by!
 
Turned Around said:
stonepecker said:
Personally, dust control. I would have that in first before installing my tools,equipmwnt. I would make a drawing and have everything vented to a central dust collector.
Right now, I have dust control.......however, not all machines are to just one collection point.
Click to expand...

That was on my list. I have a good Delta dust collector and a big box of fittings and blast gates, ready to set up.
Click to expand...


Then by your location...my next thought.....air conditioning. Be comfortable when working.
 
Haha, I know what you mean, Mike. This time though, it's all my house. All my crap. The set up will go something like this:

Bay 1: Workshop
Bay 2: 1948 DeSoto w/ tools on the back of the wall
Bay 3: VTX 1300, M109R, Polaris 4-wheeler, and car car/cleaning stuff on back wall.

Before getting the house I'm going to sign for, I thought about a seperate shed in the back, but I like having a pool in the hot summer days in Houston. So I'll use the garage. And I plan on putting up a wall barrier for dust control, as well as an in-wall AC/heater.
 
sschering said:
Add lots of light and power outlets before you pack the shop full and can't get to the walls.
Click to expand...

That's a give in. The seller actually left 3 big, 3-bulb flourescent light fixtures. the nicer ones with the polished metal inside. They'll be giving off a good amount of light.
 
My $0.02 worth.. put power outlets at the 3ft level so they're easy to reach, and have lots of them on your benches, too.
We have wall cabinets with "museum mounts" so they can be removed if needed.
Plan where the extra wood goes *before* you add it in!
 
I just moved over the summer to a much larger space and I planned my process out and organized my machines for walkways and placed the really dusty (sanders) were in one area the lathe and buffing was together, my main work bench was in the middle of these machines and my assembly station was away from the dust producers. I too made sure I had one main dust collection system piped everywhere with 2 stage chip collection in several key places. Note I will be going back to put better blast gates in at several machines because I think I am getting too much leakage for the dust system to be really effective.

Oh and lots of lighting I think 18 4 ft flourecants last I counted. In a couple key spots I put the latest high output 54 watt lights and they put out an awesome amount of light. Although expensive I love them. Oh almost forget to mention I also put in 10 additional 20 amp outlets on their own fuses so equipment would not be tripping fuses in the main house.

If you havent yet I highly recommend doing a floor plan on paper first. I did that it it got me close to what I needed. Have funning setting up your shop.
 
Katya said:
My $0.02 worth.. put power outlets at the 3ft level so they're easy to reach, and have lots of them on your benches, too.
We have wall cabinets with "museum mounts" so they can be removed if needed.
Plan where the extra wood goes *before* you add it in!
Click to expand...

that's a great idea for the outlets.
 
Turned Around said:
Haha, I know what you mean, Mike. This time though, it's all my house. All my crap. The set up will go something like this:

Bay 1: Workshop
Bay 2: 1948 DeSoto w/ tools on the back of the wall
Bay 3: VTX 1300, M109R, Polaris 4-wheeler, and car car/cleaning stuff on back wall.

Before getting the house I'm going to sign for, I thought about a seperate shed in the back, but I like having a pool in the hot summer days in Houston. So I'll use the garage. And I plan on putting up a wall barrier for dust control, as well as an in-wall AC/heater.
Click to expand...

Hmm, we should hook up when I get home, talk pens, ride a little. Im headed to the League city area in Late Sep/Oct. Wife will be there in Jul, to get the boy ready for school, and the other ready for the Army...
 
Gotta agree with the big 3 above. I'm in an outbuilding and have sufficient light & power but cannot imagine being without enough of either. I thought I had planned and built enough storage. Foolish me. Never enough. I'm thinking now that I need separate cabinetry for pen blanks (broken down by wood, Tru-Stone, acrylic and "other". Another cabinet for kits and pen components. Probably another for finishing supplies, etc.
 
Ted iin Michigan said:
Gotta agree with the big 3 above. I'm in an outbuilding and have sufficient light & power but cannot imagine being without enough of either. I thought I had planned and built enough storage. Foolish me. Never enough. I'm thinking now that I need separate cabinetry for pen blanks (broken down by wood, Tru-Stone, acrylic and "other". Another cabinet for kits and pen components. Probably another for finishing supplies, etc.
Click to expand...

I have a bunch of stackable plastic bins that the shop I work at was throwing out. I was planning on dividing them the same. But for the acrylics, seperate them by color. (i.e. blues, blck/white, reds, etc.) And have other bins for the tru-stone, mutts, segmented blanks, dyed, stabalized, etc. They're decent sized bins, so I figure I can get a 6 foot tall metal wire shelf unit and fit about 40-50 bins in there. Only need about 30, but I like having room to expand
 
Your new setup is lots like mine. (1 stall of a 3 stall garage).

You've covered lots of the things above. The few things that I've thought of that you might want to consider:

1) Outlets - in addition to the height idea said above, consider running pairs of circuits. Have have one pair on one wall, and another pair on the other wall (4 circuits total). Each box has 2 outlets and they are different colors. That way I can run multiple things (dust collector and a saw or lathe) with no real concerns.
2) Air flow. Its not obvious but even with heat or a/c unit, the far end is a ways away.
3) French cleats... If you've never heard of them, look them up... Great way to flex cabinets and other stuff.
 
alphageek said:
Your new setup is lots like mine. (1 stall of a 3 stall garage).

You've covered lots of the things above. The few things that I've thought of that you might want to consider:

1) Outlets - in addition to the height idea said above, consider running pairs of circuits. Have have one pair on one wall, and another pair on the other wall (4 circuits total). Each box has 2 outlets and they are different colors. That way I can run multiple things (dust collector and a saw or lathe) with no real concerns.
2) Air flow. Its not obvious but even with heat or a/c unit, the far end is a ways away.
3) French cleats... If you've never heard of them, look them up... Great way to flex cabinets and other stuff.
Click to expand...

I thought about doing the French cleats thing because you can always expand shelving and cabinets and always able to adjust what goes where. And for the AC/heating, i thought about dividing the bay from the others with studs and drywall. Then I would be able to have in in-wall AC unit and not worry about cooling the other 2 bays. Plus, if I did the wall idea, I would be able to put the Dust collector on the other side of the wall to have only blast gates and hook ups on the shop side.
 
i have p outlets every 4 ft and 4 ft off the floor. the ones that most of my main stuff that i keep pluged up.. i have those outlets run through a switch at the door so when i go out i hit the off button. i have then on 3 breakers left,right and back.
 
Last edited:
Heres my wish list for a future shop.
1. Outlets - Alot 110 plus 2 240v outlets.
2. Lighting - Main light plus task lighting at lathe, polishing, assembly area.
3. Storage can not have enough.
4. Dust control
5. Environmental - AC/Heating plus ventilation.
6. Space for moving around.
7. Access into the shop. Big doors.
8. Bathroom area
9. TV, Stereo etc
 
Katya said:
My $0.02 worth.. put power outlets at the 3ft level so they're easy to reach, and have lots of them on your benches, too.
We have wall cabinets with "museum mounts" so they can be removed if needed.
Plan where the extra wood goes *before* you add it in!
Click to expand...

I'll double second this.... I'm in a separate 12x24 ft shed back of the house, wired on all four walls at 4 ft height... my shed had studs on 24" centers and I put a plug on every other stud... wish now I had done every stud... I still run out of plugs and wound up covering two with wood storage. I also put every wall on a separate circuit/breaker, with a central dust collector outside the shop in an add on "out house" on it's own circuit/breaker.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom