Shopsmith Forums

The Great Mushroom Project


What a great idea I had a couple of weeks ago. With work being so slow I finally have time to rearrange the shop. The goal was simple. Goal #l-- build a separate work room for finishing and laminating. Goal #2-- create more work room at my bench. Goal #3--remove all hanging crap from the walls, finish the sheetrock and paint the shop in a bright color. Sounds simple doesn't it. I have put much though into this over a year or so, but it is funny the little things you don't think about on a large scale project.. Even did a new lay out on Turbo Cad and then another although feeble one on Sketch up. It would require moving all equipment in the shop except my Williams Hussey machine and planer. Well Mushroom Law sprang up and I had too move them anyway to repair the airlines and rework the dust collection. I will also have to pull another 240 line for the planer as I had to rob it for a temporary run for the newly relocated Unisaw. I’ll also have to sell about 6 pieces of standalone equipment but that is where the SS SPT’s come into play. Saturday was spent moving the Unisaw and Excalibur slider along with my Heavy workbench. I also established the outline for a divider wall. Monday was spent tearing out a plywood rack that I built when I built the shop. Today I reset the planer and Williams Hussey machine and started on a new 16' bench for the chop saw. It will have all drawers on ball bearing runners when it is finally finished. Now I knew this would take a lot of time and of course I’ll have to work around any work that may come in but I greatly underestimated the magnitude of the newly name MUSHROOM PROJECT. I will be needing Moral Support.
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The fact that you have that big of a shop, that many tools, and 6 left over tools that you need to sell. And then you tell us you have a new unisaw!! And you have room to build a 16' chopsaw station? Sheesh, and you want sympathy?

I'll tell you what. I have an ideal that will save you all that work and heartache. Burn down the shop, and ship all your tools to me.

shydragon

I have had my unisaw and slider for 20 years. I am just moving it about 12 feet down the shop. You know 12 feet away from its power and dust collection sources.

Oh Shucks! I'll be happy to give a bit of moral support to Mark! Actually anyone, that is engaged in a shop change, with ANY size shop!

After arranging/constructing three shops, I have found all plans for all shops to not be perfect - after time passes. The shop arrangement plans, based on available space, always seem very efficient and workable prior to construction.

The finished shop does work beautifully, for a while - until tools are added, projects surpass envisions - etc.

One of the most frustrating challenges of shop work is to CHANGE OR RE-ARRANGE the shop itself! This challenge is daunting, for sure. Then, when that change needs changing - - Woe is the shop owner!

There is one of Murphy's laws that says something about "Stuff always fills all available space":eek: One of the hardest parts of re-organization is to put off projects until a change is made.

Well said Charlese,
And when you are building the shop and find time to also be productive it is really pleasing. Here's what I'm working on in between getting the shop put together. It is also helping me realize where things need to be placed. This is the pedistal for my daughter's kitchen table.

Thanks Chuck and Jim (by the way nice table base). After getting the chop saw relocated today the shop is starting to take shape. Well at least is doesn’t look quite as much like a bomb went off in there.

I'm in the process of rearranging my shop, also.
I'd imagine that most shop iterations are designed with working space and efficiency in mind. I've found that, like clamps, you can never have enough.

As soon as my current rearrangements are complete, I'm sure I'll start a project that will require even more space. Or, I'll wish I'd moved this cabinet/machine/ bench over there instead of where I did move it.

I suppose shop plans are much like marriage, requiring attention, planning, constant updates, work arounds and, lots of love.

Gene

mbcabinetmaker wrote:Thanks Chuck and Jim (by the way nice table base). After getting the chop saw relocated today the shop is starting to take shape. Well at least is doesn’t look quite as much like a bomb went off in there.

It sure is easy to make a mess out of things isn't it.

Gene Howe wrote:I'm in the process of rearranging my shop, also.
I'd imagine that most shop iterations are designed with working space and efficiency in mind. I've found that, like clamps, you can never have enough.

As soon as my current rearrangements are complete, I'm sure I'll start a project that will require even more space. Or, I'll wish I'd moved this cabinet/machine/ bench over there instead of where I did move it.

I suppose shop plans are much like marriage, requiring attention, planning, constant updates, work arounds and, lots of love.

Gene

That is why I decided that everything in my shop but me will be on wheels.
So far I have done fairly well at it. All of my Shopsmiths are on Shopsmith caster sets. My Ridgid TS3650 tablesaw has a great mobile base which was part of the reason I bought it. My Foley Belsaw planer/molder/ripsaw has "fair" factory casters. I have my 6" long bed jointer sitting on a mobile base of sorts but I'm not happy with it yet.
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When I started planning the woodshop in the new location I had intended to build in quite a bit of stuff but I have now changed my mind. Every time I planned something at a particular location I ended up changing my mind based on adding tools etc. so I am now planning on "everything" being mobile. The main shop building is 24' x 48' plus a build-on across the back about 8' x 24'. It is too far from end to end to be constantly walking from one end to the other for something related to some job because part of the stuff is no longer close at hand.
If all machines are on wheels, all other tools are on mobile storage towers, all supplies are in mobile storage towers and all lumber racks are mobile then I can move anything to any location at any time... And I probably will...
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I often see guys building some tool cabinet carefully planned around each tool similar to the old tool chest of early woodworkers. The early woodworkers often had a mere handful of tools and generally had to be able to take the tools to the job. His box would have a spot for his hammer, another for his saw and so on. He might use those same few tools most of his life. If I started building a custom cabinet carefully fitted to each tool it would be totally obsolete before I got it built because I would buy more tools to build it.
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There is another reason for planning the shop like a MASH unit. I am still considering other locations for the whole shop.
Sitting here at the keyboard I am 400 feet from the woodshop. I realize that doesn't sound like much and at this time it isn't but in another 5 years??? My concern is that in a few years I might avoid trips to the shop in some of our Indiana winter weather. Some of that stems from remembering that my mothers health took a serious downhill slide after a bad fall on glare ice. She would have died that day had the dogs not alerted me that something was wrong.
I am planning to sell a piece of property in another county maybe next year and that would be a good time to make a change if I decide I want to.
I have a couple of thoughts... I keep looking at our 36' x 40' basement under the back part of the house. We have talked about finishing it out like a big family room or something but we don't really need the space at all. This house including that basement is roughly 5,000 sq. ft. and it is just the two of us.
I can add a large outside access for under $1,000 and it would be very nice to just go downstairs to work in the wood shop. It also would have several advantages over another building. It holds at 72 degrees in the winter and about 68 in the summer without the AC running. No extra heating or cooling cost. It is where the main electrical entrance to the house is and that is plenty heavy for the current shop use and would only require pulling a few wires through a conduit if it ever needed beefing up. It has a perfect concrete floor and "decent" headroom. I'll keep looking at it.
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I have also looked at the possibility of adding a large garage to the back of the house but that would cost a lot more to build than some other structures.
I might mention at this point that when talking about this I mentioned to Diana that having the shop in an attached garage or the basement would probably put a little sawdust in the house. Her comment was "so what"... I knew there was a reason I married her.
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I also have a small shed about 40 feet from the back door of the house that was a former chicken house back in the 1940s. It is 16' x 20' with a concrete floor. It has only about 6.5' of headroom at the low end but about 9' at the high end. I could build onto the high end and make it around 1,200 to 1,500 sq. ft. pretty cheaply. The low ceiling area would be fine for storage of supplies etc.
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It gets to be a little like looking at buying a car or house. The more you look, the less you know.
For now I will just go ahead with what I have but keep all options open.
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Maybe what I need is a 400' long "covered bridge" between the house and the woodshop.

Francis, sounds to me like the ideal spot would be the basement. If the heat and ac remain that constant, adn the close proximity with your living quarters what more could you ask for.
If a little saw dust won't bother the woman of your life, you truly did marry the right girl. Let's just hope she also got the right guy.