Pencil & graph paper. Cut out scale machines to position. Fancy, no, expensive, no, learning curve, none. Effective, yes.

 

Grizzly used to have one available. But it was written in Flash code, which is not longer supported.
The web site shows v2 coming soon?
https://www.grizzly.com/user/shop-planner

 

I find it is smarter to use newspapers on the floor of the real shop. Just make outlines of your machines.

 

Newspapers!? Where did you get them?

 

There is always the old tape outlines on the floor method to get a real world "feel" but I would probably do graph paper first anyway because tape looks easier than it is.

 

Garage is full of stuff right now. Impractical to lay out plan on garage floor. Need a plan on paper or computer and then move stuff in garage per plan. I have ~ 770 square feet, of which is shared by wife's stuff, a car (or two), and my space.

 

Treat it as a project layout and proceed accordingly. Step 1, measure the space and all your major (stationary) tool sizes.

Step 2, draw plan to scale.

Step 3, crumple plans in frustration.

Step 4, pack it in until it all fits, worry about using it later.

Step 5, move somewhere with a bigger space.

Step 6, repeat.

-- 770 sq ft! I should be so lucky. My space is 8' x 16'

 

Phil - just out of curiosity, is it a one or two car garage ?
and - what power tools do you have that you want to make space for ?
(all my big tools are on casters, they are never in the same place all the time).
they are continually shuffled around according to the projects going on at the time.

 

I use sketchup to layout my shop. In some cases you can find exact or close enough machines and fixtures in their online 3D warehouse that you can tweak their dimensions to match your own equipment. I have a few things that I designed in Sketchup and I actually just imported those into the layout. In some cases, I simply made a shape that represents the size that something requires or occupies. Once you have everything there is is a lot easier than pencil and paper or playing Tetris out in the shop to test different layouts. You can look at it from different angles and also do sort of a fly through.

BTW, if you don't already know and use Sketchup something like Fusion 360, it is a good tool for designing things you want to build too.

Here is a before and after layout of the reorg that I currently have underway.

And here is the target. Notice the addition of a new workbench which is ultimately the goal of the reorg.

 

The garage is 3 car, and has about 770 square feet of floor space. This space will be occupied by at least one car (two if I can fit it in, a space for my wife's stuff (~75 - 100 sf, or 10%). Power tools include miter saw, table saw (not yet purchased), grinder on pedestal, floor standing drill press, bench top router table and router, and usual drills, and hand power tools. This does not include tool chest, shelving units, workbenches, etc.). I intend to use casters to degree possible. Previous table saw had casters and was a MAJOR plus.

I found in my last garage organization (at last home), the Grizzly software tool was hugely helpful and I ended up with a LOT more room than I ever expected. Paper works, but tedious and inaccurate. Last time, my paper plan said a bench would fit. I moved the beast of bench into position, and the bench blocked the door from opening by about 1/8". Argh! I just was not dead-on accurate with my scissors when cutting out the rectangle.

Thanks,

Phil

Phil - just out of curiosity, is it a one or two car garage ?
and - what power tools do you have that you want to make space for ?
(all my big tools are on casters, they are never in the same place all the time).
they are continually shuffled around according to the projects going on at the time.

- John Smith

 

Hi Nathan,

Hi,

Thanks for the helpful response. I do not have Fusion 360 or Sketchup, but do have Alibre Professional (which I have not learned). It is overkill for this, but maybe this is the incentive to buckle down and use, though not sure how it will work as a floor plan design. I do like what Sketchup can do as shown by your examples, and may explore it if there is a free or cheaper version. Thinking of dropping Alibre anyway due to steep maintenance costs. I would want to be sure there is a good video tutorial for Sketchup.

Thank you,

Phil

I use sketchup to layout my shop. In some cases you can find exact or close enough machines and fixtures in their online 3D warehouse that you can tweak their dimensions to match your own equipment. I have a few things that I designed in Sketchup and I actually just imported those into the layout. In some cases, I simply made a shape that represents the size that something requires or occupies. Once you have everything there is is a lot easier than pencil and paper or playing Tetris out in the shop to test different layouts. You can look at it from different angles and also do sort of a fly through.

BTW, if you don t already know and use Sketchup something like Fusion 360, it is a good tool for designing things you want to build too.

Here is a before and after layout of the reorg that I currently have underway.

And here is the target. Notice the addition of a new workbench which is ultimately the goal of the reorg.

- Lazyman

 

I like the idea of using this as an excuse to learn a more robust design software. We bought a house last year and I stumbled my way through modeling the whole thing in Fusion to get a feel for his things would fit. It was really neat to get the different viewpoints and be able to actually see things in the space.

 

Both Fusion 360 and Sketchup can be used for free, with limitations, by hobbyists. Both are very handy for designing woodworking and other projects (not to mention laying out my workshop). On several of my projects posted on LJ, I posted the SU design if you want to see what I've done with it. I learned Sketchup before discovering Fusion 360 and switching between them is a little tough but I think that F360 is the more robust tool if you are going to pick one. The current free version of Sketchup is web based and not as capable as the older versions so I recommend that you download the 2017 version which runs on the desktop.

 

I use graph paper with cut outs for machines. It is as accurate as your measurements. However, the plans are only good until you put your first machine in place.

 

For the Linux users (probably the only one) SweetHome3d is a good choice. I could take what Lazyman said, replace Sketchup with Sweethome3d.

Actually just created our new house plans in it including the basement. While I am an old school Draftsman/Designer it is really nice to be able to do a 'walk through' 3d view.

 

It's been a while, anything new from Grizzly or others where you can set your dimensions then pick & place machines to see what work envelope space remains?

 

It still just says version 2 coming soon.

 

i used a old blue print, scaled my shop, then measured all the equipment i thought i'd have or use, and scaled them, then drew out the shop, did cut outs for the equipment in a cardboard colored, so i could move equipment all over, trying to find the right ""FLOW" which i have not at this time determined, while shop is 95%, i lack the new dust collection system, which will go in next few months, best thing i did was make a mech room outside shop footprint to put air compressor and collector.

it did assist in figuring out some of the layout, but like a tool nut i am, added another 10''cab saw, larger drum sander, and ''stuff'', so now space becomes a commoditity, so one will see.

good luck with layout, know the first, second and maybe the third will not be the ''one

rj in az

 

^ I could do that but it would be a pain having to measure everything. I only have one Grizzly bandsaw, the rest of the larger machines are mostly Delta/Rockwell and very close in size and work envelope to something Grizzly offers. It's been years since I played with the software and though I doubt it would matter that I saved it on a thumb drive or external drive somewhere, that the software is no longer supported I probably couldn't view it anyway, coupled with the fact I divested myself of between 4 & 5 tons of machinery before moving, there's a lot less I have to arrange now.

I kind of suspect this won't work after putting it all on paper and knowing I'd want to actually use everything vs. just warehousing it and being able to sort of move around it. The area of the garage I want to use is 11'6"W x 19'10"D x 9'5"H and in that area I'm trying to cram:
1) Cyclone DC - 51"W x 25"D
2) Delta AP400 roll around DC
3) Unisaw w/52" fence
4) 10" Radial arm saw
5) 14" bandsaw
6) 20" bandsaw
7) Two 20" drill presses
8) 12" x 36" lathe
9) 8" long bed jointer
10) 12.5" planer
11) 18" planer
12) Two bench grinders
13) Two miter saws
14) 12" disc/6" belt sander
15) bench top oscillating spindle sander
16) scroll saw
17) 16 gallon shop vac
18) 2'x4' lumber storage to the ceiling

Some of these are easy like the planers, jointer and table saw as they all need maximum room in front of and behind them but others can be tricky like drill presses that may have something tiny or huge on the table. much of this is and more yet will be on wheels as given the space, I just can't see it all working in harmony without some of it being mobile.

 

yeah it was a pain to measure every pc, and guess at a few others, but for me it assisted me in locating and trying to figure a flow, as i do both metal and wood out of same shop (welders, lathe, mill) , but as always i shoulda gone bigger, and bigger, lol, but the struggle to keep the extra 10'' cabt saw is a fight for me, so, will see, but as noted, i did figure out mostly the electrical, and the bulk of the DC ideas.
best for the design, first time being right imo is a pipe dream, lol
rj in az

 

If you look at my Sketchup shop layout above, you can see that I was able to find prebuilt models in their 3D warehouse (grizzly band saw and Delta table saw) where someone else has already drawn up a model of the tools that I own. For others (like shelves and workbench), I was able to find something close and then stretch or shrink it to match the size of my fixtures or tools. I drew a couple of simple items (lathe) and a few (drill press stand, flip-top cart, belt sander and outfeed table) were actually models I made when I built them. And for the last few, I just drew a box that matched the foot print. Nice thing is that once it is built, moving things around is simple when you want to add or change things. Since it is 3D, you can sort of put yourself inside the model to help visualize how much room you actually have. It probably took a couple of evenings to make it but I can completely shuffle things around in 10 minutes or less.

 

Here is a look at the walk through. You can better see some of the 3D models I've used from the Sketchup 3D warehouse.

 

I used an Excel spreadsheet. I first made a grid by sizing the cells as squares and made the scale 4 squares =1 foot. Then I did the same for all the furnishings but made them moveable objects that can also be rotated. It is the same concept as the graph paper stencil idea.

 

I use the 2017 SketchUp version on my desktop. This is the only serious shop design software I have ever experimented with. Having used it to design my garage workshop I can honestly say it is difficult to just jump in and begin creating floor plans. The biggest issue for me is thinking in 3 dimensions and then getting the software to generate the image. There are hundreds of training videos you can watch to learn all the shortcuts, and quick drawing capabilities. But it takes a long time to really be comfortable with it if you don't use it on a regular basis.

You can draw something pretty quickly, but it is difficult when you accidently connect surfaces together and the dimensions are off by maybe 1/32" !!! Nothing lines up perfectly and it can be very hard to find the real issue. This is not a problem when just trying to draw the picture, but if you then try to create building plans with the drawing and start actually measuring things all the issues start to show up as things you thought were parallel are suddenly off ever so slightly! Can be very frustrating. If you can learn this software though, it can do amazing things quickly!

 

In Microsoft Excel you can go in and adjust the height and width of the sells to form a even square then insert objects that you can adjust the size of to represent your equipment. I call it a poor mans CADD.