Moving My Shop Again...

[jlrice54]

We have decided to move so now I'm trying to decide how I want to arrange the shop at my new home. My current shop is 2275sqft in two sections of 1800sqft and 375sqft with 13' clearance to the bottom of the building trusses and with a 225sqft shop office taken out of the larger piece. The new one is 1200sqft in one big box with 10' wall height an a 14' ceiling height at the peak. So I'm losing roughly 1000sqft. The new one has 2 10'wx9' high overhead doors on the north end and no windows only fiberglass skylights. It's very well insulated as it's 25 outside right now and it's 42 in the shop with only a 1500w radiant space heater in there to keep the cats from freezing.

After 5 years I really never finished arranging my old shop before SWMBO decided we must move again. I know it's badly cluttered, has a ton of wasted space and I kept buying more machines before I finished getting what I had in place and set up. I admit it, I have a tool fetish and have been collecting tools since I was 6 so it's a 56 year collection. I also inherited my father's tool hoard he collected over 75 years of his life. He passed two years ago and I'm still trying to get that under control.

The larger pieces I have to contend with are a Wells-Index 55 mill, a South Bend 16"lathe with a 12' bed, a Clausing 8520 v-mill, a Clausing 8540 h-mill, South Bend 9A, Keller die filer, Atlas 12x36 lathe on a 2'x6' cabinet, Atlas 6x18 lathe on an identical cabinet, Atlas 7B shaper on a rolling cabinet, Rockwell drill press, a Burgmaster OB drill press, a HF 4x6 saw, Delta Milwaukee Toolmaker grinder, Gorton P1-2 pantograph, Gorton 265 grinder, Shopsmith 10ER, smaller Craftsman table saw, 8 pedestal grinders of various sizes, 9000# capacity 2 post car lift, sandblasting cabinet, 60 gallon vertical compressor, 2 belt and disc sanders, 2 44" top and bottom stacked tool chests, 6 26" top and bottom stacked tool chests, standalone hydraulic strut compressor, an engine stand, two HF shop cranes, 20T commercial hydraulic press, 3 26" service tool carts, hydraulic lift, a parts washer, 4 small welders (MIG, TIG, plasma), two larger ones, oxy-acetylene torch cart, a 3'x3' MIG welding bench from Northern tool, a Gorilla rack 24"x60" workbench, a Craftsman 30"x72" workbench and two 3'x6' Lyon workbenches from an old Convair aircraft plant. Of course there are all the smaller items like handheld power tools, smaller bench mount power tools, arbor presses, bench vises and literally a ton of hardware to contend with as well. I have a lot of Gorilla Rack shelving as well that can move but doesn't have to if there isn't room. I have the metal and have started building a 4x4 welding table but it's a work in progress. I will eventually have to use the service lift to stack my restored 1966 C10 stepside truck, my motorcycle and my new restoration project, a 71 Fiat 124 Sport Spider. At least I found out I was moving before I started building the Fieseler Storch replica I've been considering.

In addition to being my shop, it also has to double as my office as well. So there will be a desk and a couple of bookcases. For necessary refreshments I have a pair of U-Line 24" bar refrigerators. There maybe an upright freezer too if it won't fit into the basement.

I've been putting everything I can on casters so I can shift it as necessary. I'm going to mount the 60 gallon vertical tank compressor on a platform high in one corner to save floor space.

This month I'm concentrating on prepping the floor for paint, running DirectTV cable and a LAN cable from the house for internet, building a catio for the shop cats since we live next to a wildlife refuge and there are too many coyotes, bobcats, and foxes to let the cats roam outdoors, upgrading the electrical system with a sub-panel on each of three walls to shorten machine power runs and prepping for the air conditioning installation in March or April. I also have to run copper air lines but have to determine shop arrangement first. The only thing I have moved so far are my smaller welders, one service cart and the Wells Index mill which is still sitting on the trailer. Next month as soon as the floor paint is dry, I'm purchasing the HF 1T gantry crane to help unload everything off the trainer as I move it from the old shop. I have a huge A-frame in the old shop to load the machines but it's rigidly welded up and won't fit either onto my trailer or into the new shop, so it will go to whomever buys the old property.

So I'm debating on how to arrange everything and leave room to walk between. Any suggestions? Short of let me relieve you of machines to ease the clutter?

James

 

[Bob Korves]

There is a 12 step program on how to handle that... 8^) Don't ask me how I know!

Seriously, you just have to deal with it. My next stop might be assisted living at some point, and we all need to have some sensible plan for divesting what we can no longer house and care for.

I am in a 732 square foot 3 car garage, shop, freezer, washer and dryer, lawn and garden equipment, and a lifetime of saving "good stuff." I am happy that I can still get my one car in there. I want to get a surface grinder pretty badly, but don't know where I might actually put one.

You might start with the four lathes, three mills (four with the pantograph,) six welders, and I lost count on grinders, and ask "when was the last time I used this?" ;-) Just sayin'...

 

[Bob Korves]

"Every asset is also a liability."

 

[wawoodman]

Once the cats are happy, the rest is easy.

Make scale models of the footprint of the various tools, and lay out the shop floor on graph paper. It's a lot easier to move a piece of cardboard than a 2000 pound mill!

 

[wrat]

+1 on the cardboard cutouts.

I don't know whether to offer envy at your shop or contempt at a "mandatory" move. But realities as they are, we all go through the cycle of climb and dive. Maybe it really is time to prioritize and have a sale. Man, that hurts to say more than i thought it would.

Building cabinets with the swing out wing doors, like the woodworkers always like, is a good idea. They hold a LOT of stuff. Line a wall or two with those and your small-tools are set and you haven't used any floor space.

In my shop, everything under 1,000 pounds gets a set of wheels. Sounds like you're there.

Then I started at the ceiling and worked down. Like you say, no need for a compressor to eat up valuable floor space when it can be mounted high on the wall and something more needful stored underneath.

So you're already doing everything i do, so maybe i got nuthin new.

One other thing i might do is to establish some sort of no man's land. Some line of demarcation between wood and machining or grinding and machining. I'm get real twitchy about that. 8 grinders? They'd have their own cubby. Things that create dust (and often plenty of it) need their own partitioned area to do it in and keep it out of my machines and coolant. But that's just me.

Wrat

ps. and unless you're gonna put a Honda engine in it, lose that 71 Fiat. I never liked mine, really. And that was 35 years ago when it was merely a used car. That would save some space.

 

[sanddan]

OP, thank you for your post. I now know that I do not have a tool addiction. (at least a bad one LOL). I only have 2 grinders, 2 lathes and one mill. LOL

It must be very hard to go to a smaller shop, I keep wanting to add on to mine.

 

[pineyfolks]

I used pallet racking for my storage. I added 3/4 plywood for decking. It's 24' long, 9' high and 3' deep. They're strong enough to handle anything I want to pile on them.