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Workshop Information

Workshop Equipment
table saw, bandsaw, drill press, planer/jointer, router table, spindle sander,
Shop Dimensions
250 square feet
Location
Virginia
For my first post on the forum I thought it would be good to post pictures of my space. This is my small shop, roughly 250 square feet. It's in a partially finished basement and it used to be a pottery studio at one point.




Fitting a fully-equipped powertool woodshop into a space like this seemed pretty ridiculous, but it's the space I have at the moment and it's turning out to be a fun project. From the planning, to building shop furniture and jigs, and finding clever solutions to the small area I have to work with, I've been having a great time just building this space. I figure if I take my time planning everything out now it will pay off in the future, since mostly likely I'll be here for awhile.



The central hub of my shop right now is the table saw. Or, more specifically, it's outfeed table. I'm finding that it's location is convenient for most of what I do right now. I built it to fold up but I've been leaving it extended most of the time since it makes a good work surface. I do have a proper workbench half-built that's at the end of the room, but so far I'm finding the outfeed table is adequate and probably will continue using it as a secondary work surface whenever I get around to finishing it. My saw is a Bosch GTS1031. I like it a lot so far; the fence is very accurate and everything is adjustable. I recently installed a soft-start circuit and it's running great.



The geometry of the shop was what seemed like the biggest challenge in the beginning. It's very narrow and there's a weird V corner at the end. But I feel like I've done pretty well by fitting my dust collector and bandsaw in there. It looks really tight in the picture but I've got about 30" which is fine for my needs. It's odd; now that I've got it organized it's like the space opened up. It's only a bit of a squeeze to walk past the table saw but once you do it's very comfortable, and everything is just within a few steps.



Another feature I'm really happy with is the dust collection. I'm using a 2hp harbor freight unit. There's a line to the bandsaw since it's right next to it, and another pipe that runs across the ceiling and through a 2-1/2" reducer to a regular shop-vac hose. The great thing about this is it can reach pretty much anywhere in my shop where there's power tools. It's setup on a remote; there's one switch near my outfeed table, and another by the table saw.



There are some other fun stuff in there, like that 2x4 wood rack with built-in drawers, but I think this is enough for this post. I mostly wanted to post some pictures to get established on this forum. I'm really excited to see what clever things other people do with their small spaces, and maybe get some more inspiration!

Comments

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2 Posts
Good use of space. IMHO, A SMALL shop is better than NO shop. Enjoy your time working in it :)
 

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41 Posts
What a great shop!

Mine is just about 12' x 14' ft and it's really surprising how much you can do in that small of a space. It's especially surprising how many tools you can fit if you build it to suit. I'm almost done with my Phase II construction (and already designing Phase III 😅) and when that is done I plan on posting here. Its just always great to show that you don't need a whole detached structure loaded with massive tools and air handling to do this.
 

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1 Posts
What a great shop!

Mine is just about 12' x 14' ft and it's really surprising how much you can do in that small of a space. It's especially surprising how many tools you can fit if you build it to suit. I'm almost done with my Phase II construction (and already designing Phase III 😅) and when that is done I plan on posting here. Its just always great to show that you don't need a whole detached structure loaded with massive tools and air handling to do this.
haha phase II I like that. I guess for me phase I is organizing the space, and II is setting up tools and building jigs, so I'm just entering phase III, the part where I actually start making things.

Yeah the dust collection is a big plus of having a space this small. I can live like a king with integrated dust collection with a just stock 2hp unit. That's probably my favorite part of this whole project how well that turned out.
 

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85 Posts
I like it! I work in a 12x16 foot section of unfinished basement and I like seeing what other people do with an actual small workshop.
I always roll my eyes when I see articles or YouTube videos about "small shop setup" and they start with like, an empty two car garage.
 

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88 Posts
Amazing use of the space! Very, very creative and totally awesome!
 
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