TheCraftyCarver
Member
Hey guys!
So, I've done some searching around on the forums here for photos of how people set up their shops (& storage solutions!!) but I'm not having too much luck with finding too much all in one place. Anyone want to to share photos of their shop/work space and how they organize the collections of wood/blanks? I'm trying to figure out how I want to get things organized, and one month I will arrange it, love it and then realize it's not working for me and start over. I'd love to see your set ups and how you have your workspaces all arranged for inspiration!
If you are interested in my more particular set up issues I'm trying to figure out:
We recently bought a house that included a workshop that's 40x50 and divided in half. One half is for me and the other is for my hubbby who likes to tinker on cars and such (he's a mechanical engineer). So I have a large amount of space to work with & it came with a built in bench and tons of shelves along all the walls (& a peg board, but that doesn't help with wood storage
). The work bench is not super "flat" but it's totally usable for now. The shelves are great to have, but vary in depth of 6 inches to maybe 10 inches in some areas and over the ages they have started to warp a bit in some areas so they aren't level (they lean a bit towards the opening, so anything round tries to roll off if you aren't careful).
I'm not a "dedicated to one thing" woodworker, I dabble in various things (making wooden toys, kitchen tools, etc; not that I'm very good at any of it, but I have fun) but I'm also loving my lathe and pen making, so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to organize everything. I like my power tools where they are (well except the drill press, but I'm building a table for that as soon as the humidity calms down!) but it's organizing all the "wood stuff" that I struggle with.
I don't use large pieces of wood (plywood sheets, or anything longer than 5 feet because that is the limit of my Honda to get the wood home) so I don't have large wood to store- just the smaller stuff i turn into smaller stuff. I don't buy a lot of blanks; I make them myself out of larger pieces of wood. I usually cut them as I need them (with a few extras at times) and so I don't have a massive "ready supply of blanks" I need to store, but I mostly have assorted wood pieces I try to keep organized and make all my blanks from that stuff. I "scrap dive" at my local woodcrafts "$5 per Lb off-cuts bin" all the time (2-5 times a month?) and I end up with lots of bits of quality wood (mostly exotics) that range from 1/4 inch to 1 inch thick boards in all lengths and board widths. I try to sort them by thickness for easy finding (because my other projects are more thickness based where as my pens blanks can be glued up if I want segmented blanks).
Long term I'm not loving this arrangement, it's far too much valuable shelf space to be using for odd piles of wood, (which I don't need the shelves right now, but overtime I'm guessing they will fill up!). Right now all my pen kits and premade blanks are hanging out on the other side of the shop with my lathe, but I'm realizing that is bad set up as well; I go grab blanks and a kit and then head back to the bench on the other side of the room to do all the gluing/drilling and then back to the lathe to turn and then back to the bench to finish the pen, so those shelves would seem to be better suited for blank and kit storage. But with the humidity here (&my need to stand there and stare at the wood to get inspired to make assorted items) I want to keep them laying flat and visible. Any ideas?
the attached video is from when it was empty (this is my half of the shop). Currently I'm letting my hubby borrow some of the back half of this space to tear down an MGB he has (since I have better lighting & shelving on my side to see what's hes doing), so I can't use that area to store wood. Attached are a few shots from this morning of my haphazard wood storage. Also, the entire shop is piped with PVC air lines, but don't worry, I won't be taking the risk to use them! I have a pancake compressor I can pull out if I need some air.
So, I've done some searching around on the forums here for photos of how people set up their shops (& storage solutions!!) but I'm not having too much luck with finding too much all in one place. Anyone want to to share photos of their shop/work space and how they organize the collections of wood/blanks? I'm trying to figure out how I want to get things organized, and one month I will arrange it, love it and then realize it's not working for me and start over. I'd love to see your set ups and how you have your workspaces all arranged for inspiration!
If you are interested in my more particular set up issues I'm trying to figure out:
We recently bought a house that included a workshop that's 40x50 and divided in half. One half is for me and the other is for my hubbby who likes to tinker on cars and such (he's a mechanical engineer). So I have a large amount of space to work with & it came with a built in bench and tons of shelves along all the walls (& a peg board, but that doesn't help with wood storage
). The work bench is not super "flat" but it's totally usable for now. The shelves are great to have, but vary in depth of 6 inches to maybe 10 inches in some areas and over the ages they have started to warp a bit in some areas so they aren't level (they lean a bit towards the opening, so anything round tries to roll off if you aren't careful).I'm not a "dedicated to one thing" woodworker, I dabble in various things (making wooden toys, kitchen tools, etc; not that I'm very good at any of it, but I have fun) but I'm also loving my lathe and pen making, so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to organize everything. I like my power tools where they are (well except the drill press, but I'm building a table for that as soon as the humidity calms down!) but it's organizing all the "wood stuff" that I struggle with.
I don't use large pieces of wood (plywood sheets, or anything longer than 5 feet because that is the limit of my Honda to get the wood home) so I don't have large wood to store- just the smaller stuff i turn into smaller stuff. I don't buy a lot of blanks; I make them myself out of larger pieces of wood. I usually cut them as I need them (with a few extras at times) and so I don't have a massive "ready supply of blanks" I need to store, but I mostly have assorted wood pieces I try to keep organized and make all my blanks from that stuff. I "scrap dive" at my local woodcrafts "$5 per Lb off-cuts bin" all the time (2-5 times a month?) and I end up with lots of bits of quality wood (mostly exotics) that range from 1/4 inch to 1 inch thick boards in all lengths and board widths. I try to sort them by thickness for easy finding (because my other projects are more thickness based where as my pens blanks can be glued up if I want segmented blanks).
Long term I'm not loving this arrangement, it's far too much valuable shelf space to be using for odd piles of wood, (which I don't need the shelves right now, but overtime I'm guessing they will fill up!). Right now all my pen kits and premade blanks are hanging out on the other side of the shop with my lathe, but I'm realizing that is bad set up as well; I go grab blanks and a kit and then head back to the bench on the other side of the room to do all the gluing/drilling and then back to the lathe to turn and then back to the bench to finish the pen, so those shelves would seem to be better suited for blank and kit storage. But with the humidity here (&my need to stand there and stare at the wood to get inspired to make assorted items) I want to keep them laying flat and visible. Any ideas?
the attached video is from when it was empty (this is my half of the shop). Currently I'm letting my hubby borrow some of the back half of this space to tear down an MGB he has (since I have better lighting & shelving on my side to see what's hes doing), so I can't use that area to store wood. Attached are a few shots from this morning of my haphazard wood storage. Also, the entire shop is piped with PVC air lines, but don't worry, I won't be taking the risk to use them! I have a pancake compressor I can pull out if I need some air.
. I did used to cut blanks to size then match up with the kits and keep in bags carefully ( honest I did 
I might have to visit my brand new harbor freight down the road and see what they have in stock. (I love a good craftsman like my grandpa, dad and husband have, but that seems like pricy overkill for wood storage 
