Small Shop Design

[Ed in Tampa]

Ask yourself how often you intend to rip 8 ft long boards. I do this fairly often as I usually buy on 8 ft and tend to rip them before I crosscut them.

To rip an 8 ft board you need 16 ft. 8 on the infeed side of the saw blade and 8 on the outfeed side plus a little to cover the width of the saw and manevering room. For that reason any shop I would build would either be 20Ft long or wide or have a 2 doors or a door and window opposite each other so I could handle 8 ft long stock.

As for bench height, you might want to build a support bench to act as a mitre saw table that accomodates the SS. However if you are thinking of a working bench you want the top to be the height of your main knuckles (closest to the hand) on you hand when you standing normal to the floor. Have someone measure from the knuckle to the floor. That is height you need to properly use hand tools on a work bench or at least that is how I was trained.

If you can't get the 16 foot space make sure you pour a concrete slab so you can roll the SS out and cut anything long.

Again this is all based on woodworking and not knife making. If you limit to just knife making I would think you have more than enough space.

[Ed in Tampa]

Productive? We are supposed to be productive? Sometimes when I get too busy to work in the shop I like to just walk in there and sit down a few minutes and think about what I want to do next (Or try to remember what I was going to do next).
I figured out how to make money off of my love of horses. Now if I could just figure out how to make a little money off of my love of the woodshop... Not big bucks mind you, just enough to cover operating cost like heat and AC and to buy a few toys along. Building repairs and up-keep also add up over time.
I have at times considered doing classes in very basic beginning working. Not that I am an "expert" but I have trained a lot of people on a lot of jobs and can teach them the basics. The trouble with that is that even just typing this out I can hear my insurance agent screaming off in the distance. Adding something like that to my insurance would probably eat me alive... Besides, I am not sure I still have the patience for such things. I guess I will just take in more horses and let them pay the bills and keep the woodshop for fun.

How is the home handy man business in your area. Around here you can make good money, installing fans, fixing doors, fixing steps, fixing leaking faucets, putting up closet shelves, replace light fixtures, fixing holes in dry wall, and etc.

Another thing I saw up north that I don't see too much down here is people selling lawn characters and figures. I was visiting a few years ago and it seemed like every one had to have a wind mill, lighthouse or a cubby lady bending over to tend to the flowers. Most were simply cut from ply wood and painted.

Another thing is building heavy duty swings with A frame supports, playground climbing sets, small planter boxes with trelis, potting tables, and suning shelves to set plants on to get started. I also know shutters were the rage a few years ago I don't know if there is still much of a deman but you may want to look into that market.

Lastly have you thought of making knives or smoking pipes? Or jewelry boxs and keepsake bandsaw boxes.

The only other thing I can think of is sending the wife to work

[robinson46176]

How is the home handy man business in your area. Around here you can make good money, installing fans, fixing doors, fixing steps, fixing leaking faucets, putting up closet shelves, replace light fixtures, fixing holes in dry wall, and etc.


Another thing I saw up north that I don't see too much down here is people selling lawn characters and figures. I was visiting a few years ago and it seemed like every one had to have a wind mill, lighthouse or a cubby lady bending over to tend to the flowers. Most were simply cut from ply wood and painted.


Another thing is building heavy duty swings with A frame supports, playground climbing sets, small planter boxes with trelis, potting tables, and suning shelves to set plants on to get started. I also know shutters were the rage a few years ago I don't know if there is still much of a deman but you may want to look into that market.

Lastly have you thought of making knives or smoking pipes? Or jewelry boxs and keepsake bandsaw boxes.

The only other thing I can think of is sending the wife to work

But those in the first group are the kind of jobs I hate the most... There is a good market for them but they are the kind of things where you can get in trouble. You patch a hole in a wall then the next week a lamp burns up on the other side of the room and it is your fault. "you must have done something". Our middle daughter works for (practically runs) a home maintenance business with several full time employees that does all of that stuff and a lot more. At my age if I don't like doing something I don't do it. I have worked too long too hard to do stuff I don't like as a retirement.

The next two groups have more guys making them around here than there are people to buy them.

Making that little stuff in that last group is the kind of thing I might make one of but two would be too many...

I do hope to do a few large heavy rustic fireplace mantles for some folks I know have an interest.

I know a lot of guys that are selling wood stuff but only a couple make any real money at it. Most of those are cabinet makers. Another has a big shop with several employees and does a lot of contract work. I don't believe he has enjoyed it in years.

[charlese]

I feel your 10 ft. dimension is just too confining, especially after the bench takes up about 2 feet - making the usable distance only 8 feet.

If you are going to stay with knife making or other small sized projects, your original plan will probably work just fine. It is when you wish to make larger projects there will be space issues. Both CV3 and Ed in Tampa have expressed this quite well.

I worked in a 16 X 10 foot shop area when in another location. Believe me, although it was made to work, it was very confining! In order to assemble projects, I had to erect a table in the garage (another area). There just wasn't room in the 16 X 10 for gluing and assembling.

My present shop is 16' by 20'. Because most of the shop is used for shelves, cabinets, Dust collector, sink (with water), lumber/plywood storage, I find I am usually standing in an 6' by 6' area. I often find the need to rotate my 510 90 degrees or even 180 degrees to do a particular function. My personal footprints are still in the 36 square foot area, but the Shopsmith actually occupies another 36 sq.ft. When ripping, more floor space is needed,

I find that all boards I use are passed through the thickness planer. The planing operation requires movement of the 510 to the far side of it's 36 sq.ft. Then the thickness planer can pass a board through. This is done using the 16 ft. dimension of my shop. Many times the board starts planing while the far end is sticking a foot or so out the door.

[roy_okc]

[quote="sharp21"]I'm going to be building a small shop in the back yard in the future & am looking for input as to the layout.

The attached picture is pretty self explanatory. I'll be building a shedrow style building 12 ft. deep, with 2 bays or rooms 10' wide & an open "run-in" that is 8' wide, for Storing the woodpile.



I'll potentially expand my shop section to be 12' wide but am planning it out at 10' so that any extra square footage will be a bonus.

The middle bay will be yard tools storage & gardening centre for the wife, although I'll be putting the compressor in there as well! ]

S.,

The only problem I see is that you can't process a long board that has to move over/through a tool (ripping or planing an 8' long board, for example) without your doors open. If you have no need to do so, then looks nice as long as you don't add any more large tools.

Good luck.

Roy