Shopsmith - Deserted Island Edition

[wre1962]

Wow! What great replies.

I have just returned from an off Island trip of doctors appointments (upcoming sinus surgery) and I am still absorbing all of this great input so I will wait a bit to reply (and ask more questions).

But I wanted to say thanks to all for taking the time to respond with such thought.

Cheers, Bill

[wre1962]

First off, thanks again for all of the great advice. I thought I would attach a quick drawing to show where my shop (I mean shed) restraints come from.



The shop will be in the Northwest corner behind my house. Unfortunately I am limited by a 10' offset to the North, my catchment tanks and bathroom window view to the East and by a cleanout drain to the West. Oh well.

The suggestions that everyone made exceeded my wildest expectations and I am still getting my arms around them and continually rereading.

It does sound like the general censuses is to get a 510 or 520 plus a bandsaw, jointer, router and maybe a planer.

The shed options are quite restricted in some respects as I mentioned above. In addition to the space limitation the shed won’t be hard wired for electrical (a permit and home owner association issue). But I will wire the shed and then set it up to be plugged in when needed. After reading all this I am going to set the shed up to accept two plugins for the time I would like to have more electrical capacity.

Hi Bill;

Hmmm….8 by 10 is a pretty small shop space, but maximum utilization of a small space is a big part of what Shopsmith is all about. I have had my MkV 505 set up for the last 15 or so years in a space of about 10 x 20, and that space has worked out fine. However, I plan to commence a major home remodel next year, post-retirement, and my current shop space will get converted to a bedroom. My new shop space will be a free-standing separate structure and I have been wrestling with the question of how much space is enough, since I want to keep the new building to the smallest practical size, and perhaps some of my ideas may prove useful to you. If you are dealing with a pre-existing shed, you may have to modify either my ideas or the building...I am going to make the assumption that the building can be modified...so, here we go...

First thing, I would say that the SS should be placed in the center of one of the 10 foot walls and the shop entry should be centered in one of the 8 foot walls. So, for example, as you enter the shop the SS would be on the left side. As large a window as possible should be placed on the same long wall, say a 3 x 5, and it would be ideal if this window faced North or East. I would place a cupboard on either side of the SS, each at least 6 feet high, with a shelf board spanning the space between them. This would create a sort of upside down horseshoe around the SS, and fully use the available wall space. The jointer will be stored on the left end of the SS most of the time.

Opposite the door, in the other 8 foot wall, I would center a window. When using the SS in tablesaw mode for ripping long stuff, the SS would be placed in the middle of the shop at right angles to its long dimension and material would pass through the door and window. Centered on the other 10 foot wall I would place another large window, this one providing light for a workbench. The workbench would probably be about 3 ½ feet long and would extend out from the wall about 1 ½ feet. These are small dimensions for a workbench but if the bench were any wider, it would interfere with turning the SS as described above for ripping. A bigger work surface could be rigged up when needed using sawhorses and plywood. The work bench would be pushed up against the wall and would have shelves/cupboards under it as well as a full length shelf above it over the window. I think I might store the SS bandsaw in holes drilled into one corner of the benchtop.

At one end of the workbench would be the DC3300. As another poster mentioned, dust collection will be essential in such a small shop. Suspended from the ceiling should be a dust filter as well. At the other end of the workbench will be a benchtop planer mounted on a cabinet base with casters. Planer and DC3300 will be moved as necessary to provide access to the ends of the bench.

Since there is no room for a router table, one of the options for using the SS as a router should be considered. I would also find room for knock-down saw horses and a Workmate. You will find both to be essential.

Any wall spaced not used for tool or materials storage will no doubt be taken up by such things as calendar, clock, fire extinguisher, clipboard, wall-mounted space heater etc.

You don’t say whether a covered front porch or attic space will be available. If they are, they could be used for wood storage. Access to the attic space could be through a “hay loft” door in one of the gable ends and would be a great place to store and cure lumber. A covered front porch would be a good place for sanding in fair weather and would, with the addition of a chair or two, make a fine combination break room and design studio.

Well, that was fun to think about. Hope some of these ideas are helpful to you.

Ed
Idaho Panhandle
MkV 505, bs, dc3300, jointer

You all have really given my a lot to think about with respect to the layout. I idid a graphical layout using Google Sketchup of some of your ideas.



Is this inline with what you were thinking? I am not sure that I completely understand your upside down horse shoe concept.

Well I still have some more thinking but I am liking the direction this is taking and as long as I have reasonable expectations I think this may work.

Cheers, Bill

Oh, the sailboat is my old Bluenose sloop that I just sold. My new boat and the reason I want a small shop is a highly modified Shields class race boat. Your can find way more details than you probably want on my blog.

http://knockaboutsloops.blogspot.com/

[dusty]

If you plan to turn the Shopsmith so that you can either infeed or outfeed through that open doorway you'll have no trouble.

Planning your work will be essential or you'll spend all your time setting up and resetting up and ....

I believe that is the big advantage of a standalone shop - you can easily jump from one process to the next with no lost time. Those of us who work with the Shopsmith soon learn to plan ahead.....well, at least we learn than planning would have been more efficient.

The two electrical outlets that you mention....at least 15amps each and each independent circuits. Two 20amps would be better.

[paulmcohen]

I really envy you drafting skills, your placement of the two tall cabinets on the sides of the Shopsmith may not be practical. I think you underestimate the size and weight of the bandsaw/planner. You are not going to want to be installing and removing them every time you want to put the unit away.

The placement you show is useful for lathe but for most operations you are going to want the unit 90 degrees from where you show it. The drill press for example is operated from the end.

I would look to put the two tall cabinets on the back wall with the workbench between.

[stryker1313]

It also would help if you could tell us what kind of woodworking you plan on doing. That will tell us what size lumber you may be using regularly which is key to layout. Are you going to be working with large sheets of plywood, etc? If you are building furniture and cabinets, you will be hard pressed to do so without a planer and joiner. If possible, I would get shopsmith pro planer, I have mine mobile and move it around shop to work with particularly long boards, then I stow it. I have a 510 andI have worked with 520. If money is really no option, I would get the 510 and the Incra Ultimate Fence/Router System Package-- you get a phenomenal fence, the router table, the shopstop and more. Worth every penny if you plan on doing precision work with ease. I think it is maybe the most important tool in my shop. Makes routing, dovetails, mitre work so smooth and accurate.

How restricted are you by height? I have high ceilings in my garage (I only get one bay to work in, lol) and there is loft directly over me. So I put u-shaped brackets the whole length of my space overhead on the joists and store wood above me. Maybe on your east side (where your bathroom window is) you could have a little overhang above the window height, that would create a small space for sheets of plywood that could be sheltered from the elements, although with all the rain you get up there that might be an issue.

Good luck and looking forward to seeing how it goes!

[wre1962]

It also would help if you could tell us what kind of woodworking you plan on doing. That will tell us what size lumber you may be using regularly which is key to layout. Are you going to be working with large sheets of plywood, etc? If you are building furniture and cabinets, you will be hard pressed to do so without a planer and joiner.

This is so true and I believe it is the right way to go, but... In my case I will do whatever work I can fit into this space. I do know that one of my first projects is making a 9 1/2 ft long hollow spinnaker pole for the new boat. But I also could use some shelves in the bedroom and then there is some outdoor furniture. I think I will try to make anything that I get enjoyment out of that I can squeeze into my small space. I also have another inside storage area that would handle sheet storage.

I really envy you drafting skills, your placement of the two tall cabinets on the sides of the Shopsmith may not be practical. I think you underestimate the size and weight of the bandsaw/planner. You are not going to want to be installing and removing them every time you want to put the unit away.

The first drawing is from Autocad 2004. There is no denying that it requires a steep learning curve. But the second three dimensional drawing is from Google Sketchup which is free and easy to learn to use. Beside there is a huge database of existing entities available on the net. Everything inside that drawing include the partial Shopsmith I downloaded. Plus, I find it helps me to see things in 3D.

The two electrical outlets that you mention....at least 15amps each and each independent circuits. Two 20amps would be better.

This makes great sense. I haven't completely chased my available outside plugs, but all of breakers are 20 amps. I anticipated needing electricity in this area five years ago and put a plug 2 ft away. I just need to dedicate that circuit to the shop and find one other for the heavy use days.

The more I think about it, the more I think I will want a planer. But I am leaning away from the Shopsmith model. I sort of figure if I am going to have a separate planer on its own table I can shop amongst all the vendors. Time will tell.

The other thing that I am thinking about is shorting the Shopsmith as much as I can. Maybe not quite a true mini but shorter. Does anyone know how much shorter the Shopsmith can be and still maintain its functionality?

[a1gutterman]

The shed options are quite restricted in some respects as I mentioned above. In addition to the space limitation the shed won’t be hard wired for electrical (a permit and home owner association issue). But I will wire the shed and then set it up to be plugged in when needed. After reading all this I am going to set the shed up to accept two plugins for the time I would like to have more electrical capacity.

Please let me make some electrical suggestions: Wire the shed using only 12 gauge wire and receptacles rated for 20 amps. Put a small circuit panel in your shop. It only needs to have two circuits; one for your equipment (plan on using one piece of equipment at a time) and one for your lights. (It's no fun being in the dark after popping a breaker with your equipment.) I can not see needing more circuits then that in your small shop.

Using a 10/3 with ground (total of 4 wires) water resistant SOOW cable (you can buy it by the foot at Home Depot), wire one end to the circuit panel in your shop and put a 220w male plug on the other end (a dryer or range plug will work).

If you can run a 10/3 with ground Romex type cable from the circuit panel in your house out to a wall location near your shop without exposing the wire to the elements, that is what I would do. If you need to enclose the wire in conduit, use 4 runs of 10 gauge THHN wire, as the Romex type wire is illegal to use in conduit (it gets too hot).

Install a weather-tight receptacle box with a 220w female plug (matching the male plug that you use) in it on the outside of the house. Plug your shop in and you are ready to go:D .

[berry]

Decisions about equipment depend on budget, space and most important – how you’re using the equipment. I’m glad to see someone taking a minimalist approach. Remember that old saying about work, “how it expands to fill the time available?” I sort of think woodworking space is like that. My first shop was an 8 x 12 and my current little piece of heaven is 12 x 14, in the lower level of a split level home; it’s more than enough room on most days. Ripping or planeing an 8 footer is tight but okay. Remember in a smaller shop you have to work on a diagonal much of the time. (I think you could rip a 5 footer without using the door but it’ll be tight.)

Here’s my 2 cents regarding equipment.

I’d certainly go for a 520. For SPT from SS I’d get a jointer and band saw. What better equipment for maximizing space and versatility?

Next to a circular saw and table saw the router is the most important tool power tool in my inventory. I have a Bosch 1617 EVSPK router. This is one of those kits where the router has both a plunge and fixed bases, very versatile. It’s got lots of grunt, fairly light weight and comes in a nice case. I’m sure Porter Cable makes one and I think Craftsman does too. I store my Rockler router table on the wall and I’ve modified it to be held in position with a B&D Workmate. The Workmate also store hanging on the wall. Naturally the Workmate functions as a bench, finishing station, sometimes as an out-feed table – a very valuable tool.

I think a rough finished shop makes it easier to store items. You can put stock between ceiling joists and clamps fit nicely between studs. Finished walls and ceiling may reflect light better.

Don’t forget the workbench I can’t imagine a shop without one and it’s the only thing in my shop that never moves. I built mine from plans in Woodsmith.

I’d vote for a lunch box planner, if you going to be using rough lumber or if you’re going to re-saw stock. I mounted mine to a wheeled flip top work station. The other side has a Milwaukee chop saw. I can roll them into position, lock the wheels and be set up in not much longer than it takes to change the SS from a table saw to drill press.

I have a window in my shop but I filled it with a shelving unit. Wall space if much too valuable to use for a window. Plus it makes space is more expensive to heat.

I use a DC 3300 dust collector and I use a 20” box fan with 2 good quality furnace filters duck taped to the inlet side that help keep dust down.

I cut nearly all my sheet goods in the garage or driveway on sawhorses with a 2x4 grid system that locks together and is very stable. When not in use the saw horses fold up and hang in the garage and the grid pieces stand in a corner. I use a Eureka Zone guide for the circular saw; it’s the best guide I’ve worked with. (I use the saw horses and grid assembly with a sheet of ¾” mdf as an assembly table both in the shop and in the garage. It’s never dead flat nor perfectly level but it works well in a small space. You’ll need to use less than a full sheet in a with your shop size.

I keep a picture of H.O. Studley’s tool case on the wall of the shop. Whenever I’m feeling like I need a bigger shop I just look at what he did and put my mind to figuring out how to do more with less. Good Luck!

[charlese]

wre1692 - Now I understand the reason for your small building. At first I thought you may be on a wharf somewhere.

Since you are restricted to the 8X 10 footprint, would you be allowed to go up? Here's a picture of my storage shed. It happens to be 10' across the front and 8' deep. Would have gone larger but also have site restrictions. I find the added height of the shed wonderful for storage. This unit was prefab-ed by "Tuff Shed" http://www.tuffshed.com/locator.cfm?StateID=WA and put up in a couple of hours.
[ATTACH]801[/ATTACH]

[billmayo]

I have been building what I call a "SHORTY". The way tubes are 34" and the bench tubes are 34 3/4". This allows me to keep the carriage and main table. I find that I can do any function without any problem for me. I had tried 30" and 32" way tubes before settling on the 34". This is 18" shorter than the normal Shopsmith length. The conical sanding disk works well with this length but not the shorter lengths. I want to keep several SHORTYs for my use, but have sold them quickly whenever a customer sees one in operation.

Bill Mayo http://www.billstoolz.com

The other thing that I am thinking about is shorting the Shopsmith as much as I can. Maybe not quite a true mini but shorter. Does anyone know how much shorter the Shopsmith can be and still maintain its functionality?