Shop layout woes...

[harryball]

I'm thrilled to have a 36x36 shop, insulated, nice walls, good ceiling, the whole works... but then comes the challenge of layout and work flow.

First, will I EVER have a shop big enough? I came out of a 22'x34' shop to a 36x36 shop. To add some perspective, that's 548 EXTRA sqft but I can't find it! How can 748 sqft of shop move to 1296 sqft and not fit!

So I'm trying to place the bot, sheet storage, table saw, work benches, band saw, miter saw... the list goes on. Nothing seems to work, it's not where it "should" be when I go to use it.

No Dust Collection! Oh, I have a DC unit, a 3HP Dust Gorilla that has no duct work because you need to PLACE all the tools before you build out your duct work. So I'm rolling around a small DC from machine to machine again!

I know I'll get there, but I sure wish I had a layout plan and I could just put things where they go and keep going.

What do you guys use to layout your shop? Do you have floor plans you'd share?

/RB

[Kromet International]

All the big players in industry uses AutoCad.

[Kyle Stapleton]

Little players use Grizzly dream shop tool.

http://www.grizzly.com/workshopplanner

For tools they do not have just edit squares and name them what you want.

[steve_g]

And the tiny players use SketchUp... most every tool is already in the 3D warehouse...
SG

[kartracer63]

Like you, my shop is too small. Most of my tools are on wheels to help when I need to move things around to work on different stages of production. Usually, I just need a few more inches one direction, or the other.

Also, one of the first things I did early on was to buy a second dust collector. One stays on the ShopBot, the other is strategically located in the middle of the drum sander, table saw, jointer, planer and work bench dust hood. I've got a Rockler Dust-Right system to make connecting, and disconnecting, very quick and easy. (see attached photo from Rockler)

Another thing I did was to buy racking/shelving to store lumber, and other supplies, from floor to ceiling... utilizing all of my cubic feet. This made a big difference freeing up some floor space. There is usually a lot of unused space up high.

[Brady Watson]

Steve,
Do rims on the PT Cruiser spin when you are at a stop?

-B

[harryball]

And the tiny players use SketchUp... most every tool is already in the 3D warehouse...
SG

Nice truck!

I like the 3D rendering, I might have to give this a try... do they have a dog too?

[steve_g]

My wife put that one in the middle of a four car pileup on Central Expressway one early AM… I think the wheels are still spinning!
SG

[steve_g]

A search for "Dog" returned 5000+ drawings... granted, they weren't all animal dogs.
SG

[Ajcoholic]

Well I'm home sick today, so I'll put in my 2 cents...

When I laid out my new shop in 2010/2011, I just got myself a large sheet of graph paper and then cut out rectangles to scale of all my machinery.

In my case I wanted at least 16 feet in and out feed for all my processing equipment (planer, jointer, shaper, wide belt sander, saws) and then placed the rest of the machines to allow enough work around.

Once I settled on what I thought was going to work, myself and a friend took a 100, tape and a chalk line and laid everything out full scale on the concrete floor.

This system worked well. Low tech but accurate. Graph paper and a scale ruler still works in today's high tech world, lol. But laying out full scale gives you a real world feel for work around space.