My new building layout plans, with pics

Investigator

Investigator

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I'm planning on building a new building for a shop. Currently, I am using the 'garage' area of our Barndominium home. It was always intended to be a shop, but I seem to have outgrown it. Not to mention my wife needs a garage.

So the plan is to build a new building. For what it is worth, I live in the country, on 27 acres. I'm out of the city and there are no problems with codes/zoning or permits. What I am thinking is a 30x30 metal building, 10' or 12' sides with low pitched roof. I have been racking my brain over the layout and I think I finally found the key that can make this work for me: Walls. I think I need interior walls to divide the space, rather than having perimeter walls and lots of open floor space.

This is going to house all the tools, both woodworking and metalworking. I want and need to keep the lathe and mill and associated projects free from the wood dust from the woodworking. That's another reason for walls, plus walls give me something to put tools against and help define the different spaces. Below is my current thought about tool/shop layout. I have a machine shop space, grinding/sanding/welding space and woodworking and general workspace. The cutting/grinding area is open to the woodworking space to allow more room for longer cut offs as needed. Most of the woodworking tools now are mounted on mobile bases.

All suggestions and thoughts both good and bad are welcome.

297286
 
Hi there I kind of live in your area of the world. Nice plan there. I have a couple of ideas to toss out there.

1 is side walls. I had a shop for 20 years with 10' side walls and height was an issue over and over. And if I am not mistaken if you want a 10' tall roll up door it requires a 12' sidewall. As you drew up a 10' tall roll up is a must if you ever need to bring in any large equipment to move something. I rented a sky jack machine to move my equipment in my old shop and guess what. It wouldn't fit under the door. My new shop has 12' walls and I am a happy camper.

2 is a suggestion for a larger opening to your machine room. You never know when the Bridgeport fairy might drop by. Or a 14x40 lathe deal you cant refuse.:)

Congratulations on your new building.
 
In my old garage my welding and woodworking equipment were all in the same room. They didn't work very well together. Saw dust plastered to every metal working tool with oil on it and welding / grinding grit settling on the wood. My current shop is split down the center and it is really nice to have the two separate.

I don't know how much woodworking you do but I do a lot and my wood storage is always a pain to get to and get sheets in and out of it. It looks like your wood storage might also be difficult to get wood in and out of. It also looks like your wood storage will interfere with cutting long pieces on your RAS. My 1947 Redstar radial arm saws is the machine I use most for woodworking... but that is just me. Vertical wood storage is good for sheets. Overhead horizontal wood storage is really nice for long lumber. You might consider your wood working layout to follow the work flow. Unload the lumber into the wood storage. Pull the lumber out and joint then plane. Then cut. Then glue up. Then finish. Is there a way you could partition off part of your shop for finishing in a dust free environment when needed? Just a thought. I assume the rolling work bench is going to be the same height as your table saw table so you can use it as an outfeed table?

Enclosing the air compressor and RPC is really nice to keep their noise isolated. What about an eventual dust collector? That same closet might be nice for a dust collector... or maybe an external closet off the back of the shop might work better... this is where I will go eventually.

It is nice to have a drill press for just woodworking... when you find someone giving away one for ridiculously cheap on craigslist... to keep the oil off your wood and the sawdust off your metal. A 6" belt / 12" disk sander is another great tool that I don't know how I got along without.

The best thing I ever put in my shop was a sink! Just another thought.

I haven't figured out a good way to store long pieces of metal tubing and such.... always a pain to deal with.

Are you doing upper cabinets / shelves around the wall for small tool and supply storage? Tools below and cabinets above? Even just 12" upper cabinets will store a lot of stuff and not interfere with the machinery much at all.

I like that you put your 4x6 bandsaw next to the door so you can cut tubing down to length as your are unloading. You might want to consider locating your metal storage closer to the band saw for quicker easier access?

Windows? Heating / Cooling? Ventilation... sucking out air born saw dust and welding fumes etc?

I agree with stonebriar, the 3' door to the back room sounds kind of small. How about a 3.5" - 4" sliding pocket door back there to keep from loosing wall space for tools from the door?

Your drawing is a little hard to read which tools are which... is it possible to post a bit bigger picture?
 
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Looks pretty good .....But (there's always a but :) ) Think about moving the air comp and maybe dust collection to the northeast corner. That way you can access outside air for ventilation and on the northeast corner it won't get so much hot afternoon sun.

I'm another vote for a 12 ft door, sometimes I wish I had 14 feet.
 
My only comment is to provide plenty of ventilation for the compressor. It will generate a lot of heat & it may also be a good idea to draw outside air for the intake.
 
Build up.

Ours is 2 story but due to zoning lower level only 10 ft.

Building is 24 ft tall, 30 x 60.



Outback is the parent company with dealers all over the place.IMG_0495.jpgIMG_0502.jpg

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Thanks for the ideas so far. The roll up door is 10' wide 8' tall which is what I have now. Air compressor room will have an exhaust fan like a bathroom, taking hot air out the top of the room, pulling air in from the bottom. Here in Texas my biggest issue will be keeping it all cool. Im planning a central air unit with heat. The pocket door idea sounds good.

I'll post a larger pic tomorrow when I get to the other computer.
 
a couple of thoughts.
High ceilings so you you can run air and power lines above or some day put in a gantry crane over the machine shop section.
Also use plywood for the walls instead of sheetrock. MUCH easier to fasten stuff anywhere it is needed.
 
Investigator said:
Thanks for the ideas so far. The roll up door is 10' wide 8' tall which is what I have now. Air compressor room will have an exhaust fan like a bathroom, taking hot air out the top of the room, pulling air in from the bottom. Here in Texas my biggest issue will be keeping it all cool. Im planning a central air unit with heat. The pocket door idea sounds good.

I'll post a larger pic tomorrow when I get to the other computer.
Click to expand...

I really like the mini-split AC I installed in my house. It cools MUCH better than my central AC but uses a fraction of the electricity. There are mini split AC systems available that will run multiple inside head units. My mini-split AC is actually a heat pump so it cools in the summer and heats in the winter. Heat pump heating is almost always much more efficient (cheaper) than electrical resistance heat.

https://www.acwholesalers.com/cooling/multi-zone-ductless-mini-splits.html
 
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