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! :confused:

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? :D

-B

[harryball]

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

Nice truck! :D

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

[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!:rolleyes:
SG

[steve_g]

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

[ntraub01]

Just my two dimes...

Whatever you can make portable or movable do it. We have a large double drum sander and a large planer that take up prime real estate in the middle of our shop because we often plane and sanding 10-14' pieces of lumber. BUT we can easily disconnect the dust collection and the electrical feeds, raise the dust collection and electrical up to the ceiling and roll the machines out of the way when we need more assembly space. We also use a huge amount of heavy material carts to move and temporarily store sheet goods.

Our shop is constantly in flux so the space itself needs to be versatile and easily configurable.

We also used Sketchup when we were planning our space. I simply made rectangles or square of the necessary "working" space needed for each machine. It didn't matter how accurate the renderings of an edge sander appears as long as I had the necessary working space allotted for the piece of equipment.

Happy designing!

Nicholas

[donek]

I second Andrew's approach. We took a sheet of masonite scaled to our dimensions and cut out little pieces of masonite the size and shape of each piece of equipment and then moved them around on the board. The next step was to write down every step in each process we perform and pretend to walk back and forth to each machine needed for the process. By doing so we were able to arrange the shop based on how the material moved through the shop and how many steps the workers had to make to perform each task. Digital tools are nice, but it can be very difficult to shuffle a bunch or machines around quickly and try the process flow thing in 30 seconds. A scale model is quick and easy to make. Even if it is crude in comparison to a digital tool, it is far more effective at quickly running scenarios.

[jdwykrent]

Speaking from a shop teacher perspective, make sure the kick back zone for your equipment is well thought out...

Think about work flow... I have found that it is VERY annoying to have to walk across my 1700 sf shop.

The other suggestion is to make as much of the machinery as you can mobile. That way if you need a larger assembly area, finishing area etc... you have the ability to arrange the room. As far as dust collection goes, I have seen it done over head and in a false floor.

[chiloquinruss]

"large sheet of graph paper and then cut out rectangles" I did the same thing and so far it's worked out ok, shop built 2008. Russ

http://hobby-tronics.lenzus.com/content/21775739/r/s_13326463.jpg

[John David]

We do as Andrew does also. Works well with luan or masonite and after your done you have a digital file of tool foot print for the next time
Good Luck
JD

[Tim Lucas]

"large sheet of graph paper and then cut out rectangles" I did the same thing and so far it's worked out ok, shop built 2008. Russ

http://hobby-tronics.lenzus.com/content/21775739/r/s_13326463.jpg

Nice shop Russ, how big is the building?

Tim

[chiloquinruss]

40x50 with a very high ceiling, I haven't knocked out a single fluorescent light yet! :D The best part of the shop is it is right on the river! Oh and before any comment it was a very clean day when that pix was taken! :D Russ

http://hobby-tronics.lenzus.com/content/21775739/r/s_77224877.jpg

[scottp55]

Jeez!!
No sawdust and no deck to fish from!!!? Oh, nevermind... Shop is probably blocking the view of your dock. :)
Love the room and same height scrap and material bins!(always been jealous of nice shops:)
Your saw set-up is half the Desktops shop here.
Yep, Life is tough:)

[Tim Lucas]

Really nice! I love seeing others shops and gleaming ideas from them.

[David Iannone]

Russ,
Looks like the shop I want one day. You can fish and work every day? Nice Job.

I hope to one day build my own shop on my own property.

Dave

[chiloquinruss]

Thanks for all the kind comments, but the majority of the kudos go to my bride of 50 years. The shop is my retirement dream come true. I have had other shops over the years like half of a garage, a work bench in a basement, a barely standing clearance in an attic. The best part of all this is I spent a lot of cash to do it, and then once set up I ended up doing a few little jobs around the community and within 3 years it was all paid back! Pretty cool! So now it really is just a big boys toy room. Thanks again for the comments, they are much appreciated. Russ

[gundog]

Sometimes a wall actually helps to place tools against the wall on both sides. Lots of square feet is the best but the bigger they get the harder they are to heat especially high ceilings. High ceilings are great for many things everything has a trade off. I have 2 buildings one is 40 x 60 and is basically a storage barn with gravel floor I installed a bunch of pallet racking around the perimeter and one cantilever rack. The main shop is 40 x 72 but I converted a portion of it to office space but it has a 9 foot ceiling that building is insulated but not real well and is hard to keep heated it has a pellet stove and so far this winter I have gone through 2 tons of pellets.

Mike

[scottp55]

Yeah Russ,
What kind of heat? Seem to remember seeing a certain "wing man" sitting on a Choo-Choo with DEEP snow. Is that a concrete floor with hydronic? Seems like that heat would be best for the ceiling height?

[chiloquinruss]

Propain! Oops propane! But so far this winter has been mild for us without to much snow. I average about $150 a month during the 6 cold months. I also have an office in the shop and it's 16x16 and has a very small portable oil radiator style heater that keeps it toasty. Russ

[dmidkiff]

I drew my shop out on paper and just drew in the tools I wanted and redrew until satisfied. I like Andrew's idea to tape out full size before continuing with wiring. Will have to try the grizzly dream shop tool. Russ, very nice shop.

[harryball]

OK, revisited the Grizzly layout tool. Had a friend with some small shop experience take a look too. Along with the ideas posted here I think I have some grounds to make progress now. I'll be sure to post a few progress reports now and then as I finalize the layout.

One cool idea from Rodney (the friend) was to actually make one of my storage racks a "hidden" door and recover the wall space my door to my utility room is consuming (this is the room with the Electrics/Air Comp/DC etc...) I like that idea.

/RB