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Let's see your 20x20 Shops!

52K views 24 replies 19 participants last post by  bonesbr549  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm planning on redoing my garage area (where I work in now) and I wanted to see what you all have done with your shops. I'm trying to get some ideas for I start designing and pricing it out. Right now, my garage wood shop is very unorganized, I need more electric outlets, dust collection, heat and a/c, garage doors converted to regular doors, and a few windows. I'd love to see some completed garage shops!!
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
My shop is a single car garage sized building, about 14 by 20 with a roll up door at one end. I don't have pictures, but will share a few things that I have learned. Most of this is quite obvious really, but I am sitting here with nothing else to do so I will go ahead and type these up and put them here.

1) Put everything possible on wheels. My table saw, assembly/work table, drill press, planer and lumber cart are all on wheels, and this makes it possible to move them around to where I can have a large area of open floor to work if needed.

2) Make things as multi-use as possible. My router table is in a wing of the table saw, drill press stand has 3 large drawers, the planer stand also holds the air compressor and the assembly table also is my table saw outfeed table.

3) One of the most handy things I have is a pair of sawhorses that have removable tops and multiple boards with half-lap notches that I can set up for various size work areas, up to 4Ă—8 to hold a full size piece of plywood. I use this for assembly of large items (bed for example), for finishing and for cutting, just depending upon what is needed.

4) Think ahead about the height any permanent bench areas. Even though the shop is small, I have boards that sit on the bench areas on two sides of the table saw (one a workbench, the other a support area for the miter saw station) that work as either infeed or side supports where I can easily rip or crosscut a full size piece of plywood by myself.

Storage is really one of the things that take up a lot of space. I have racks above two bench areas for lumber, a permanent cutoff bin that is about 2' x 4' and also the rolling lumber and plywood cart from Shopnotes, and I still barely seem to have enough lumber storage area. I will admit though, a lot of what I keep is stuff for household maintenance, and it is hard for me to throw much of anything away.

So, as usually my advice is probably worth what you pay for it.
 
#10 ·
OK my shop was 20 by 20 added 16ft to the front an 12ft to the back… 110 outlets are 32in apart all the way around the shop..if i need to move a machine ,theres a plug….hate drop cords in the shop..even have cords droped from the celing…220 outlets are 8ft apart…5hp 80 gal air pressor is out side..plumbed all the way around the shop…keep the noise down…dust collector is also outside plumbed in keeps the noise down…..go to my home pics are there…shop…study the pics..be glad to help…
 
#13 · (Edited by Moderator)
I've mostly finsihed up a slightly larger 22×20 basement shop… and I layed out a lot of options in Auto-CAD using a lot of "recycled" materials that I picked up over the years on the cheap/free (old kitchen caps, etc…)..

I found the best configuration for me was a 'U' shape set up with my primary bench and most of my stationary tools arranged in an island in the middle with DC going to them for the end of the 'U'.

Then I have the cabinets (with plywood counter tops) and two aux. bencks, my air compressor (in a sound proof box), mechanics tool box and some tools that don't require DC running around the perimeter agains three walls.

Here's a screen shot of my layout…

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I hope to post a "my shop" pictorial some day soon…. but the place is a constant ship wreck with mulitple projects going on right now.
 

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#17 ·
You guys def have some nice shops. I'm anxious to get started on the rebuild. I'll need a dust collection unit for sure, although I've moved more towards hand tool work, but would def like to have everything set up so that I can go back and forth depending on time and what's involved in each project.
 
#18 ·
Looking at everyone's set up and I saw a radial arm saw thrown in there! My dad used to have a radial arm saw in his basement shop many years ago. Never owned a table saw. Did everything he needed on that radial arm saw. I might sell the miter saw if I can find an older dewalt radial arm saw. I always felt comfortable using one over the years.
 
#19 ·
Do you REALLY want to see my little shop?
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It ain't been cleaned up for company coming to visit..
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Like an old saloon, with all that stuff on the floor?
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west end of tool bench..
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Middle. Now you see why it is called a TOOL Bench..
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east end. I do have a workbench, of sorts
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Just an old pole barn shop…
 

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#20 ·
Mines not complete yet. I am still on this side of the ground after all…

Look at my signature line to get the link to my shop, I am in 18×20 space. Presently I am reworking the common wall with the house and have a proper miter saw / mortiser station that conceals a 29 gallon compressor, and stores a LOT of hand held power tools. Still working that project, but it is coming along rapidly. I am at the point now where I just need to build / install drawers, and build / plumb the dust hood for the SCMS…

So far the best space saver projects I have done have been…

#1. Miter Saw / Mortiser station / cabinet. This is putting 2 space sucking tools in a farily small space, allows them both to be used without interfering with the other, and provides HUGE amounts of storage space for other tools and supplies.
#2. Wood Magazine clamshell cabinets, 2 of them. One is built verbatim to the plan, the other, left the inner doors out as I wanted to use the cabinet to house my 39 drawer small parts cabinets. These things hold obscene amounts of stuff in a very small space. The wall they are mounted on will be unrocked within 2 weeks prepping for electrical and insulation work. When everything is back up, the cabs will take a wall space 8' long total, an 18" deep shelf will be attached to the tops of the cabs creating a bridge of sorts, A compartment of sorts will be created between the two to hold several shelves, which in turn will hold things like sandpaper, sanding rolls etc… A pair of simple plywood doors on paino hinges will be fitted with fitted hangers to hold my most common lathe tools…

If you go onto Sketchup, look for BigDaveF150, you should see a model in there called MyGarageWorkshop which is pretty much where I am trying to take this thing…
 
#21 ·
My shop is about 21'x23' I think. Here are the most current pics: http://lumberjocks.com/Elizabeth/workshop

Haven't been in there in months due to a new addition in the family; hoping to be back there at least a little bit in fall! It started out a completely empty detached garage lit by five light bulbs, with a couple of plugs wired 220, a sealed floor and a ceiling fan installed for some reason. (Not sure what the original owner used it for.) Since there I have gotten all the machines, installed some more 220v plugs, gotten better lighting, installed the dust collection ducting and put an air filter on the ceilling. It's been a lot of fun putting it all together.

I've kept a photo album of the progress; it can be viewed here.
 
#23 ·
I'm brand new to Lumberjocks, but I'd like to share my workshop pics. It's beginning to take shape and is taking over my 3 car garage. I started building my workshop about 7 months ago. My garage was a dumping place for all things toys, mower, golf cart and totes. I had no tools (minus screw drivers and wrenches and a 10" miter saw). So, I went on a buying frenzy over the last 7 months and my garage has transformed. I have a lot of work to do still and if I had any advice for someone wanting to build a shop…plan what you want to do before you do it. I didn't do that so it has been a lot of work trying to determined a decent layout. Anyway, here it is:

http://lumberjocks.com/Jay39/workshop
 
#25 ·
Do you REALLY want to see my little shop?
Image


It ain t been cleaned up for company coming to visit..
Image


Like an old saloon, with all that stuff on the floor?
Image


west end of tool bench..
Image


Middle. Now you see why it is called a TOOL Bench..
Image


east end. I do have a workbench, of sorts
Image


Just an old pole barn shop…

- bandit571
Cool shop. I like the sawdust on the floor! (I could never have one of those shops you could do surgery in) Cheers!
 

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