Your Shop Size?

[horologist]

Some of you sure have nice shops.

For woodworking indoors I have less than 100 ft2 of space in the laundry room. Out in the carport there is plenty of room in nice weather.

Before anyone thinks I'm too deprived... I do have about 400 ft2 of space for my clock shop.

Troy

[papahammer8]

remember well them days when all i had was a 10ft. wide by 18' deep garage. as a mater i fact. i have lived in my traveler trailer the last 7 yrs. till 1 day i found a mk v abondoned and alone in a basement of a house i was fixing to tear down. needless to say the ss curse hit me again. i owned 1 new in early 80's. when i had a small garage. lost it due to a growing family. needless to say i asked the owner of the rv park i lived at if i could build a small shop . he said no. so that left me to looking for property . which i found 2 acres lots of trees, so many had to takes a few out to get in here. so i know when the ss bug strikes beware:D so really shopsmith is what motivated me to move on .i'm 55 now time to think of retirement a permanent home. i'm am disabled vet. my knees are gone so theres alot of sitting at my mkv. so in a way 2009 was a good year . in another a very bad year for the building trades have almost ceased to exist. at my age not many employers are willing to hire a disabled carpenter. was with last company for many years but there work has almost stopped i had to go. happy new years freinds________ jim

[jdramsey]

My shop is whatever space I have in my two car garage. As relatives have passed away, moved to retirement homes, or moved out of state, some how their junk has found it's way into my garage. So due to a lack of space, I end up doing most of my woodworking in the driveway in front of the garage (assuming the weather is good and it's daylight).

I have my SS 510, planer, joiner, bandsaw, dust collector, and various accessories tucked away in various places. Craftsman router with tabletop router table. A Dremel scroll saw and a Craftsman scroll saw. A few handtools. One of my work benches is from a local aerospace plant that closed a few years ago. A friend from scouting who worked at the plant gave it to me, since it was being disposed of. I have a second bench that was originally a closet organizer that I bought at a yard sale for $5. When my neighbor moved into his house, he put all of his things in the garage while they remodeled the interior of the house. The roof of the garage leaked and ruined many things in the garage. Portions of the organizer were damaged so he sold it in the yard sale. I just wanted the shelves, but he wanted me to take the whole thing. So I took it home and looked at it for a while. I cut some pieces, keeping some, throwing others away. So now I have a workbench with shelves and drawers, 30" x 6'.

I also have a rolling cabinet that I built in a cabinet building class. It started out for the kitchen, but my wife decided that it didn't work for her. So now it's in the garage, holding my lathe acessories inside and a scroll saw on top.

[robinson46176]

48 X 40 total 960 square feet underground shop I built it last summer. Plenty of room for my wood working and metal shop. Shopsmith 510, jig saw, belt sander, strip sander, planer, bandsaw, scroll saw, joiner, walker turner joiner, lot of hand tools currently restoreing a shopsmith 10er. Still working on my dust collection system.

Er, uh... My calculator calls that 1960 sq. ft...

[lv2wdwrk]

Er, uh... My calculator calls that 1960 sq. ft...

Mine calls it 1920.

[robinson46176]

My woodshop is 1400 sq. ft. and my metal/mechanical shop is 2,000 sq. ft, on the main floor and about that much in the lofts but they are still just full of "stuff"...
I have lumber stored in small batches in 6 buildings. One of these days I need to sort it all out... Some of it is very good stuff, some of it is just pieces of trees.

[wlhayesmfs]

Farmer your small shop is just a little smaller than my house, I use my two car garage and then I have a large carport in front of that.So is really good weather my shop is just the right size and temperature.
LOL
Lets make some Saw Dust this weekend. first weekend I have had off in three months.

[robinson46176]

Mine calls it 1920.

I was counting the front step.

[bucksaw]

I built my own shop when I moved into our present house. Took about 6 months part time. 1000sq but it's too small.

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[Ed in Tampa]

If any of you guys watch HGTV or DIY you will see some really great ideas on how these programs handle workshop needs on the move. I have seen some of neatest mobile work sites. One today used a trailer that the sides lifted up. With the side up they attached a awning cover and gave themselves about 400 sq ft of covered work space. With the trailer sides up they had instant access to storage cabinets and bins. Large tools were wheeled in and out from the back and rolled under the awning. Slick!!!!!!

Another program mounts storage cabinet on large wheel (pneumatic) wagons, these wagon cabinet hold all their tools and are easily connected together to form work surfaces (work benches). Again they have all large tools mounted to mobile bases so they can be moved around easily.

I noticed most shows use a Bosch compound mitre saws, either Bosch, Dewalt or Ridgid mobile stand mounted bench saws, Ridgid, Bosch, or Dewalt hand tools and they usually depend on air nailers and such.
The cut all dadoes with routers and don't seem to have any problems reducing sheet stock to size on the bench saw sized saws. One or two shows use only Festool but you have to watch for them.

I find their solution to workshop space interesting. I have seen more than one job that had to be finished done in pouring rain and their awnings and in some cases make shift protection works most excellent. What is really nice is on nice days they are out in the air, they aren't breathing a concentration of dust, and clean up is little more than putting the tools away.

I think Dusty has said he often works outside for similar reasons. Perhaps instead of designing the "traditional shops" it would be interesting to see how people have made mobile or open air shops.