Shopsmith Forums

Shortage of shop space comes up often during these discussions. It just did in the one about a 520 table upgrade.
I thought I would start a new thread about it here.
There are a lot of little ways to stretch a shop a bit, some really expensive and some pretty cheap.
One of the cheapest things you can do (and one I need to work on badly) is simply getting all of the crap out of the shop that shouldn't be there to begin with.
Another is to look up... When a room fills up with "stuff" very often if you look at it a big area of floor is covered but only one box or item deep. Look for anywhere that you can move anything up off of the floor and if possible up on a shelf or hangers around the outside walls and just below the ceiling.
Can you build a wood rack up completely clear of the floor and make some space for other tools and items under it?
Can you add a shed or lean-to on to the shop or nearby to store lumber or even tools that may not get used for a month or two?
I had a friend who had a sharpening shop and built muzzle loaders to sell in a small one car garage. He ran into a couple of serious bottlenecks and could not add a full addition due to being on a small lot. He used a couple of bump-outs on his little garage that allowed an amazing transformation of his shop. One was along a side wall and was only 8' long and bumped out only 2' but the difference it made for his purposes was fantastic. He worked it all out and positioned it just right along the wall. He then added another onto the back wall that bumped out about 4' and it made another huge improvement to the whole setup. He still didn't have space to waste but he totally eliminated the problem bottlenecks.
He did it all quietly and actually built them a few months apart and made them look like he was just adding big cabinets sitting outside of the garage. They even looked like they had doors. After he had them up he went inside and removed the inside wall and finished them out to suit.
What shop stretching tricks can you think of?

I wheel my SS out into the garage when I have something large to cut. Other than that, it normally sits in the middle of my shop floor.

BPR

I have a 20X20 concrete pad outside of the 30X30 shop that I share with my Son. I roll out the Shopsmiths out and do the bulk of my work on the pad. I work in the shop on very cold or rainy days which are few in the Desert Southwest.

Brent

I'm finding the best way to stretch a shop is to get rid of things you rarely if ever use. I believe I'm like a lot of guys and keep everything that looks like a tool, or is so nice and shiney I can't just throw it out.

I did a remodel of my kitchen the new faucet came with a brush chrome cover to cover the counter faucet holes if you had more than one. Since our counter was new we only had one hole and didn't need the cover.

Let me tell you I have to fight myself tooth and nail to keep from keeping the thing. It had no practical use to me but I was sure if I didn't keep it I would wish I had it back.

Also I love cooking so I watch Alton Brown on the Food channel. One of the things I'm learning from him is never buy a tool that only serves one purpose. If the tool only does one function Alton never buys it. He would rather cobble something together to accomplish his task rather than have to store a tool that serves one purpose and is rarely used.

This goes for wood storage. I catch myself saving every cut off, every scrap that occurs. Soon I can't move because of all the scraps of wood I have saved.

This goes down to plastic buckets. I did some heavy dry walling and painting so I had a number (10) five gallon plastic buckets. Now add my normal supply of 3 or 4 and I had a mess of buckets. It was torture but the garabage guy picked them up, he gave me that knowing smile and chucked them in the truck. I wasn't worth anything the rest of the day.

How many of us have a screw driver for every day of the month, a hammer for everyday of the week and enough screws, bolts, and nails to build a new Effiel tower.

My pencil drawer was full of half used pencils that I couldn't throw but won't use because the eraser was dried up and brittle. I even saved the two plastic carrying handles that came on the package for my new front door. This is shipping material I'm squirreling away like it is gold and all it is doing is taking my precious room.

I bought a cordless drill combo set about 10 years ago, it was Makita and came with a large 2x2x3.5 foot plastic chest. The chest is totally worthless for anything but the tools yet I have it saved, sitting untouched for the last 5 years and taking up about 14 cu ft of room in my shop.

I have a box of rope, all kinds of rope, all lengths and sizes yet I haven't used a rope in last 5 years and the box is huge 2x2x2 feet. When I need a rope I don't want to use the old maybe rotted rope so I go buy a new piece.

Want to stretch your shop, start throwing things out. One thing I guarantee you when you do you will find things you long forgot you had and you will have to fight with yourself to tose it. That is just the way we are wired.

But, Ed, as soon as I throw it out, I'm going to need it!!

heathicus wrote:But, Ed, as soon as I throw it out, I'm going to need it!!

NO you won't healthicus. You'll need it after the trash pickup.

heathicus wrote:But, Ed, as soon as I throw it out, I'm going to need it!!

AMEN, Brother!!!!! That is my personal motto.

Ed in Tampa: I don't suppose either growing up near the end of the great depression or going through the IBM save EVERYTHING scenario has anything to do with reluctance to toss it out!

JPG40504 wrote:Ed in Tampa: I don't suppose either growing up near the end of the great depression or going through the IBM save EVERYTHING scenario has anything to do with reluctance to toss it out!

JPG
I'm sure they all played a part. I remember my Dad after he retired decided to clean out the attic. I thought my Mother would die. He found some of her old hat from the 20's and he was cleaning out in the 80's. Incidently I still have some treasured parts salvaged from doing engineering changes on computers. The fun things is the components on most are bigger than whole circuit boards on today's computers.
I have a 4k memory array that is larger than most complete PC's

I just ran across another one yesterday. A few years ago I remodeled our Master bath. The faucets came with interchangeable harware. They included two different styles of knobs for the drain lever plus a faucet nozzle for a bath tub which we didn't have. I squirreled these treasures away and totally forgot about them until I was looking for freezer bags. There in the cabinet where we store freezer bags I had found some unused space and hide these treasures away. Like is said I found them yesterday, and what did I do? I chuckled, patted them knowingly and left they right where they were. I'm hopeless!!!

Ed in Tampa wrote:JPG
I'm sure they all played a part. I remember my Dad after he retired decided to clean out the attic. I thought my Mother would die. He found some of her old hat from the 20's and he was cleaning out in the 80's. Incidently I still have some treasured parts salvaged from doing engineering changes on computers. The fun things is the components on most are bigger than whole circuit boards on today's computers.
I have a 4k memory array that is larger than most complete PC's

I just ran across another one yesterday. A few years ago I remodeled our Master bath. The faucets came with interchangeable harware. They included two different styles of knobs for the drain lever plus a faucet nozzle for a bath tub which we didn't have. I squirreled these treasures away and totally forgot about them until I was looking for freezer bags. There in the cabinet where we store freezer bags I had found some unused space and hide these treasures away. Like is said I found them yesterday, and what did I do? I chuckled, patted them knowingly and left they right where they were. I'm hopeless!!!

We be kindred spirits in more ways than one!;)