must-have workshop features

[lynnmor]

If I can ever build, def want floor drains.

Be careful with floor drains in a shop. If you intend to earn a nickle working for others you might have a DEP inspector drop by and have a hissy about your "injection well." Ask me how I know.

 

[Old Machinist]

I installed a retractable air hose reel in the ceiling of my garage years ago. One of the best additions ever.

 

[Tarmy]

Big bench, big doors, lots of storage and lots of lights/power.

 

[TheOldHokie]

The essentials:

1. Clear span overhead with high bay LED lighting
2. Minimum 10' high overhead door(s)
3. Heat and AC
4. Hot and cold running water
5. Toilet
6. Tools and shop equipment of your choice

 

[McMXi]

Big bench, big doors, lots of storage and lots of lights/power. View attachment 165370 View attachment 165371 View attachment 165372 View attachment 165373 View attachment 165374 View attachment 165375

Your shop/garage is about 10x nicer than my entire house! Wow!

 

[Sidekick]

An old fridge to keep things like welding helmets and rods bug free and dry . Nothing like a big old spider crawling around your helmet when trying to weld.

 

[dlsmith]

I'd really like the shop to be insulated better so I could heat it in the winter.
Two other things would be a 2 post lift and a Bridgeport mill.

 

[drygulch]

I installed a retractable air hose reel in the ceiling of my garage years ago. One of the best additions ever.

Agreed . Except I located mine about as far from the door as I could, so always had to string it across the active project to get tires aired up. Will be close to a bay door this time.

 

[drygulch]

My casters on all four corners (from either ROCKLER or LEE VALLEY) completely lock the tool (both axis) and I’ve experienced no movement on any tool whatsoever while in operation.

Quality casters are huge. But the floor in my previous shop belonged in a fun house. That said, I could usually find flat spots for tools where they wouldn't give.

The primary exception was the belt grinder while hogging metal. It might be the most used tool in the shop and may get a permanent station this time.

Greg

 

[drygulch]

Since you like hard board, consider 1/4" pegboard from 4' to 8' above floor level all around. Also, as previously mentioned, install outlets ~4' above the floor.

Something like this for small parts and tool storage. I've built a couple and used drawer slides; but I wouldn't do that again. I'd just dado 1/4" hardboard or plywood into the sides. Install a suspension pull-out shelf at ~42" high so I could pull out the box and have a place to set the box.

Thanks, I def need some kind of improvement on the small parts and hardware. I have a bunch of the wall mounted thingies with all the little drawers. The drawers always seem under- or over-filled.

I'm also bad with oddball items that I have no well-defined place for. Was just trying to figure out what to do with a sheet of rubber from some project that would surely be handy down the road, but only if I could find it again, or remember having it for that matter.

 

[drygulch]

Big bench, big doors, lots of storage and lots of lights/power.

Oooh, a vacuum hose reel. That's going on the list.

Super nice shop, not sure I would ever leave. I store most full to half length metal stock overhead as well, arranged by shape and size. After that the "organization" becomes less than perfect. Rafter storage is my only consolation for my limited cubic feet and low-ish ceilings.

Almost missed the Danger Men sign.

Greg

 

[NordTrac]

This is very interesting! Picked up some excellent suggestions.

In the process of designing a modest 32'x48' "barn".

Ground floor:
32'x32' mechanic/metal workshop
16'x32' woodshop

First floor:
Qty 2 16'x16' offices (hers and mine), need to keep making some money for a few more years
Gym
Dormitory for kids' friends
Bathroom

Wings on each side to store implements and whatever (boat, trailers, ...)

Winter will be dedicated to prepare the area by cutting about 100 spruces/pines. Stay tuned...

So much looking forward to bring the tractor in a temperate environment.

 

[Spam Bot]

Asymmetrical lift and 4-post lift with lots of clear space around them. It's not going to happen because I am getting too old to work on cars, and I've even lost the desire to drive them. One has been permanently parked on the 4-post lift for more years than I can remember, and one has a fuel leak that I can't repair because I can no longer get under it. I could get under it with a creeper, do the job, but I would need help to get vertical again.

 

[pigdoc]

My son and I have been renting a 6000SF converted mushroom barn since 2012. Very low rent. Electric bill is higher than the rent! Concrete block walls. It had already been converted (poorly) into something resembling a shop, and has evolved since. Son does resto-modding on commission - mostly Cummins-powered stuff. Check out his instagram page at metalbycharlie.

Anyway, the mods and upgrades over the years (driven by necessity) have included:
- dedicated paint booth (used, pre-fab style, negative pressure ventilation, filtered inlets)
- dedicated lathe room
- remote air, screw-type air compressor (quieter, more efficient)
- addition of three phase electrical service
- waste-oil heat

Things we wish we could change -
- location of waste oil storage to be pumpable to heater (or vice versa)
- sewer
- concrete is not great for walls - too much moisture transfer.
- needs to be bigger (vehicle storage).

We had to give up on the sewer - not worth the investment for a rental due to zoning/inspection hurdles. Right now, we just dump the hand sink to a leach tank and have a porta-potty onsite.

Space gets very hot in the summer (roof not insulated). A couple of 48-inch portable stirrer fans help.

Charlie is just finishing up a total custom flat-fender Power Wagon on commission ($6 figures). Scratch-built frame, Cummins 4-cylinder power. Lots of views online. The frame is all in CAD so it can be easily adjusted for different powertrain options and there are a couple more similar commissions in the works. "Think SEMA, boy."

Other customizers take the one-off, cut-and-paste approach to frame building. Most of their hours are spent on fitment, welding, and grinding. LOTS of grinding.

Charlie outsources the engine-machine work and spends a TON of money with the water-jet cutter guy.

-Paul

 

[Runs With Scissors]

What would you do differently in your next shop? Or what are your favorite features of your current shop? Anything you've found to be a must-have?

As much as I hate relocating my shop and starting from scratch, I do like being able to rethink/rework some things. A mixed blessing...

A few planned upgrades so far:

• Compressor in adjacent space. This was more a function of opportunity at the new place.
• Lots of whiteboard. I use tempered hardboard as my wallboard, which is nice and tough for a shop and relatively cheap. But this time, the top half will be the "dry erase" version all the way around the shop. It can be a large memorial of half-finished project designs...
• Surface mount electrical with a raceway along the top. Hassle free for adding new runs.

A few things I will continue:

• Sliding doors for built-in cabinets/shelving. Keeps grinding/saw dust off everything and no door clearance issues during sprawling projects.
• Laptop of little value mounted on a swing arm over the end of the workbench. I'm always needing to look up something and prefer this form factor over a cell phone.
• Tools mounted on rolling base cabinets with double-locking casters. Mobile and lots of built-in storage. Pref all drawers.
• Binder with laminated copies of reference material that I use a lot in the shop. E.g. drill sizes for given taps, quick refs for machines, etc.

Lemme know what ya got. I appreciate your input.

Greg

What is the “primary focus” of your shop?

Tons of great ideas above, but I think it really depends on what “type” of work/play you have in mind.

My "garage shop" is primarily automotive focused and my "basement shop" is primarily metal working and reloading/gun focused.

For me, I would like my “dream metal shop” to be “upstairs” though….

 

[drygulch]

What is the “primary focus” of your shop?

Tons of great ideas above, but I think it really depends on what “type” of work/play you have in mind.

My "garage shop" is primarily automotive focused and my "basement shop" is primarily metal working and reloading/gun focused.

For me, I would like my “dream metal shop” to be “upstairs” though….

I suspect I'm not alone in this, but I'd say the primary purpose of my shop is to maximize self-sufficiency. So it gets used for all manner of things. I guess if it were displayed in a pie chart, the largest slice would go to metalwork.

That said, I've enjoyed getting shop perspectives from all over the map. Some ideas might just get tucked away in case/until I can build something larger.

Greg

 

[InTheWoods]

When I first built our house and shop (30 years ago) my main shop use was woodworking. It was fine because that was about all I did there. Over the years, I'm doing a lot less woodworking, and most of the shop is now metalworking, electronics, or other random things, none of which create sawdust.

So, that's one thing - if you have the space and budget, segregate woodworking.

I like daylight and being outdoors. Here in the midwest, I find the concrete slab immediately outside the shop to be a nice place for many projects and I have a small 'outdoor workbench' set up there. For about half the year, it's a very usable area. Which brings me to another thing I'd do differently and that would be to have more 'outside' space adjacent to the shop, and have it under a roof.

Since retiring, I spend more daylight hours in the shop than when I was working fulltime, and I recently knocked out almost an entire wall and replaced it with picture windows. It makes being in the shop much nicer during the day. So - lots of windows, assuming you have something pleasant outside to look out at.

I like having a wood-burning stove in the shop. I have a HE gas furnace and mini-split A/C as well, but wouldn't want to be without the woodburner.

Since my shop size is pretty much fixed and was sized for my budget 30 years ago, I 'expanded' it by adding a separate storage building. I found that a lot of usable space in the shop was just storage and that's now moved elsewhere.

My shop is a separate building from the house and that's the way I like it - it's about 30' feet away, which seems about right for me.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I suspect I'm not alone in this, but I'd say the primary purpose of my shop is to maximize self-sufficiency. So it gets used for all manner of things. I guess if it were displayed in a pie chart, the largest slice would go to metalwork.

That said, I've enjoyed getting shop perspectives from all over the map. Some ideas might just get tucked away in case/until I can build something larger.

Greg

I got’cha….

The older I get, the more light I seem to need/require…..

So “stupid’ly bright lights” are a must have for me. I also paint the floors and walls “white" to reflect as much light as I can.

I agree with the “tallest/biggest doors” possible crowd as well. (insulated too)

A 2 post 10K (min) lift is a “must have” for me. (I’d like a Mohawk 15K but the lotto numbers haven’t come through yet)

I would like to have a “compressor room”, but since I ALWAYS use “foamy” ear plugs, I suppose that is more of a “want", than a “must have”.

Plenty of air drops too…...

Heat and AC is a “must have” here in MI……..

Storage has always been problematic for me as well………..Ideally I only want shelves that are 6-8 inchs deep cause if I start putting crap behind other crap, I may as well just throw it away, cause I wont find it again until its expired/hardened up, or bad/or no longer useful/or is 25 year old technology that no longer exists………

The problem is of course, I run out of shelving space because I only make them 6 inchs deep (duh!!!!)

It kind of a weird “self fulfilling prophecy” of sorts…(I’m complicated….)

 

[drygulch]

When I first built our house and shop (30 years ago) my main shop use was woodworking. It was fine because that was about all I did there. Over the years, I'm doing a lot less woodworking, and most of the shop is now metalworking, electronics, or other random things, none of which create sawdust.

So, that's one thing - if you have the space and budget, segregate woodworking.

I like daylight and being outdoors. Here in the midwest, I find the concrete slab immediately outside the shop to be a nice place for many projects and I have a small 'outdoor workbench' set up there. For about half the year, it's a very usable area. Which brings me to another thing I'd do differently and that would be to have more 'outside' space adjacent to the shop, and have it under a roof.

Since retiring, I spend more daylight hours in the shop than when I was working fulltime, and I recently knocked out almost an entire wall and replaced it with picture windows. It makes being in the shop much nicer during the day. So - lots of windows, assuming you have something pleasant outside to look out at.

I like having a wood-burning stove in the shop. I have a HE gas furnace and mini-split A/C as well, but wouldn't want to be without the woodburner.

Since my shop size is pretty much fixed and was sized for my budget 30 years ago, I 'expanded' it by adding a separate storage building. I found that a lot of usable space in the shop was just storage and that's now moved elsewhere.

My shop is a separate building from the house and that's the way I like it - it's about 30' feet away, which seems about right for me.

Points taken. Shifting outdoors is one advantage of tools on wheels. Can roll them outside when nice, or when running longer boards than the shop will support. In my last shop, I sided over the several tiny (useless IMO) windows and my wife thought I was crazy, but those cubic inside feet were precious. Now I have better scenery and a tad more breathing room.

Fortunately the shops I've had while married have been detached, so the wife was always shielded from fumes and noises. Otherwise maybe would have built something...hey wait a minute!

 

[drygulch]

I got’cha….

The older I get, the more light I seem to need/require…..

So “stupid’ly bright lights” are a must have for me. I also paint the floors and walls “white" to reflect as much light as I can.

I agree with the “tallest/biggest doors” possible crowd as well. (insulated too)

A 2 post 10K (min) lift is a “must have” for me. (I’d like a Mohawk 15K but the lotto numbers haven’t come through yet)

I would like to have a “compressor room”, but since I ALWAYS use “foamy” ear plugs, I suppose that is more of a “want", than a “must have”.

Plenty of air drops too…...

Heat and AC is a “must have” here in MI……..

Storage has always been problematic for me as well………..Ideally I only want shelves that are 6-8 inchs deep cause if I start putting crap behind other crap, I may as well just throw it away, cause I wont find it again until its expired/hardened up, or bad/or no longer useful/or is 25 year old technology that no longer exists………

The problem is of course, I run out of shelving space because I only make them 6 inchs deep (duh!!!!)

It kind of a weird “self fulfilling prophecy” of sorts…(I’m complicated….)

I'm def with you on the shallow shelves. We did this in the pantry in the last house and loved it. I will be repeating that. But I found stuff in the back of my old shop shelves I hadn't seen in at least a decade.

More air drops for sure. I'm assuming the white board will help distribute the ample lighting I installed. Shadows suck.

If I had a lift, maybe I'd regain some enthusiasm for working on vehicles. Glad the tractor is so easy to work on.