New Shop Layout

The project for this week was trying to find a new layout for my small shop that would be more functional. I had my oldest brother Jason helping me this week which was a lot of fun. It’s difficult in the first place to have a small shop and when you add on top of that being unorganized it makes it even more difficult. I have been doing several organizational projects lately to make the shop more organized but I needed a better layout.

Most of the equipment I own has a mobile base of some sort on it which is a necessity in a small shop, but it’s no fun to have to move something every time i wanna use it. i also wanted to have all the milling equipment in one area of the shop and make way for an assembly/out-feed table which I desperately need. I am tired of having to work off of my table saw. I also wanted the saw to be more centered in the room instead of off to one side, so that meant extending the short power cable that came on my saw from the factory.

My shop is only 13 feet wide so I am definitely limited in what I can do so I had to sort of move things around to find a layout that would work. One thing I was gonna have to incorporate was the “fourth” wall in my shop(the garage door). Being that I don’t raise the door all that often and my jointer being on a mobile base I figured I could use that wall and would free up some other space in the shop. This I think is gonna work out well, by angling my table saw and moving my miter station to the other side of the room I could free up space for my future assembly table.

I also decided to move some things out of the shop that I didn’t necessarily need like my tool box and my cross cutting table which I could store in my out building in case I need them in the future. I also finally decided on a spot for my drill press and band saw which I definitely think help free up some space in my shop. I have plenty of room to move around my saw now. I also cleaned up my scrap area and better organized that instead of having a mess that takes up all that space.

Overall I had fun this week working with one of my brothers in the shop. It was a lot work, especially having to move things twice, but I think this layout is gonna work  a lot better than before. I have some more organizational projects I wanna get done in the coming weeks and the hope is that it wall all make working in the shop a lot more fun.  It’s tough working in a small space but a little thought and organization goes a long ways.