Chris’ Planned Garage Workshop

Shop Tour - Submitted by Chris from Pflugerville
Added on June 15, 2016

This is my 360 sq ft 2-car garage workshop. I have all of my tools, and will need to build some shop furniture. This is my current working plan, but I’d love to hear some ideas on it. I want to be able to park a car inside when not in use and am willing to sacrifice workflow convenience to do so. The power tool bench is my original design. Each tool rests on a 2×2 wood sheet which can be slid into the bench so the tool’s deck sits flush with the bench top. Clamps are mounted on a sliding door that hides my electric hot water tank. I built a loft area to house my pancake compressor (as well as camping gear and other garage items). Air line and electric are run from the ceiling on retractable reels. I used Ikea kitchen cabinets on the back wall and a live edge cedar slab as my counter top. A really basic drafting desk and paint cabinet finish off the back wall. The Radial arm/cross cut station (which I call the aircraft carrier because of is size) houses board foot lumber on the front, cutoffs on the end, sheet goods in the center, and has a combination panel saw/ panel clamp press on the back side.

The biggest challenge so far has been the dust collection system. I tried to keep the lines as short and straight as possible. The plan currently calls for 4″ PVC waste pipe–not sure if I should go up to 6″ on my 1-1/2HP Grizzly cyclone. Love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Discussion

Will Highfield June 16, 2016 2:53 am

1. Are you going to be able to open the side door to the garage with the ladder where it is?
2. It looks like a bench style table saw set into cabinets in the center of the garage. If the saw breaks and you want to get a different brand name, will it fit in that space?
3. The area feels cramped because you are parking the car in there. Is that going to work for you? For instance, elaborate projects with a lot of glue ups won’t want to share a space with a car. My solution was I stopped parking my car in the garage :)
4. Also, there are smaller radial cutoff saws to be had which are portable. I’m not sure I see the need for the combination panel saw/ panel clamp press on the back side. Most glue ups need a more specific arrangement of clamps. This entire unit could be replaced with a large table or workbench and a few good portable tools.
5. After years of working “around” a table saw and router table, I finally got rid of them. I got a routers with good fences (started making jigs to hold the work), and an accurate hand held circular saw. This freed up the center of the shop for a comfortable work area.
6. I don’t see a jointer. I also don’t see a 12″ planer or an oscillating sander. While not essential, these are tools that will make you a happy woodworker.
7. Lastly, and this is from a retired gentleman, do you want to store a heavy pancake compressor, or a cut-off saw, on top of a high shelf.

My friend, have a nice time with your shop. It ain’t only momma that needs to be happy.

Reply
John Bruett June 16, 2016 2:54 am

Chris, Looks great, great use of a small space! Might want to double-check you local electrical codes. Not sure if having g the desk under the panel is going to pass muster of typical codes that call for 36×36″ clearance directly in front of the panel. Maybe you could make that movable?

Reply
- Chris June 20, 2016 5:37 pm
  
  Great call. I’ll just make sure I don’t attach that to the wall or the other cabinets.
  
  Reply
ben_r_ June 16, 2016 9:32 am

What software did you use to create this?

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- Chris June 20, 2016 5:43 pm
  
  Google Sketchup. I designed all the furniture plans completely but downloaded most of the tools from the 3d warehouse.
  
  Reply
Page Bonifaci June 17, 2016 12:07 pm

In a small, or even a not-so-small shop, you’re always looking for ways to double up on footprint. My current shop is about 180 sq ft., though previously I did rent a ~400 sq ft space.

I’ve seen a few people mount their bench grinders on the lower plate of their drill-presses, and I think this is a very handy use of space. I’ll be doing the same soon.

Rather than the four “sections” of your workbench along the wall, with the swappable tools, I would build two or three flip-top carts. This means your two carts can carry multiple tools, you save some space, and they can be rolled out. You can use flip-up wings for stock support, or use the remaining bench footprint, with a set of “risers” or appleboxes stored below that you can use to bring the work surface up to the table-height of each tool. This saves a little space, and most importantly you can roll the flip-carts around the shop, or out into the driveway. The planer in particular is best used outside, and the DeWalt you have is a heavy beast. I wouldn’t want to lift it up to a bench to use it very often.

With some planning, you should be able to get both the Miter Saw and Mortiser working at the same tableheight as your tablesaw bench.

I have two flip-top carts. My Planer and Spindle/Belt sander share one cart, and my Chop-Saw shares the second cart with my Mortiser. I find this is very handy, and I still have space for the Sander accessories/belts in the lower area of the cart. Keep in mind how you use the tools. My mortiser is an “occasional” tool, so it mostly sits upside down. The Planer is used more often, but typically in one big chunk when I’m prepping stock, so the Sander stays upright most of the time.

You might make three carts, depending on how you want to use the bladerunner. The Tormek doesn’t care about infeed/outfeed support, so that can be kept in a smaller cabinet/shelf, and dropped onto any work surface.

The radial-arm/panel-clamp/panel-saw cart looks like it’s taking a huge amount of real estate. Spinning that thing around during a project is going to be a lot of work. Also consider the weight of that cart, particularly when loaded down with stock. I’d say you’d be better served with a dedicated stock cart that can nestle against the wall, and re-consider the radial-arm saw for the size of shop you have. I loved my radial arm saw when I had one, but it just takes up so much space.

If you drop the rolling cart’s size, and limit it to sheet goods and cutoffs, you can put in lumber racks along the “south” wall up high, giving you a lot of storage, and removing that footprint, since the lumber cart can sit underneath the dimensional lumber rack.

I like the compressor being up high, since you probably won’t be moving it around much.

The dust collector is a tricky one, since it’s floorspace is unusable and it will never move. If you feel comfortable, consider building a platform to move it up to the ceiling as high as possible. If you can mount it on a platform or something, underneath it is a good spot for the Shop Vac or Shop Trashcan. You should be able to extend the cyclone-drop if you want the rolling dust bin on the floor.

Reply
- Mark J June 19, 2016 6:11 pm
  
  The radial-arm/panel-clamp/panel-saw cart is a pretty clever contraption, but I agree that it will require a lot of space to swing it around and that it is going to be heavy. With a radial arm saw included this could easily hit a few hundred pounds empty.
  
  If you go ahead with the idea try to lighten the construction (e.g. thinner plywood). Also I would think about the casters. You may need more than the 6 shown in the drawing, and I would try to avoid having any three casters from a line. That way they won’t all fall into the same expansion joint. How flat is your garage floor?
  
  Reply
  - Chris June 20, 2016 8:56 pm
    
    the Radial arm saw was my first big tool purchase. in retrospect I always tell people to skip that tool but being I have it I do like being able to make dadoes in large timbers.
    
    You’re definitely right on the casters. Im thinking industrial casters at 1000Lbs each will do the trick for the most part is will stay put and during special applications be swung out. The house is new so its pretty flat with a slight slope (imperceptible without a marble) towards the door and the only expansion joint is where the driveway meets the slab. In Texas we don’t see much in the way of freeze thaw cycles. The part I work about is getting dead spots in the wheels and of course how I might get it into a moving truck if I ever move. LOL
    
    Reply
- Chris June 20, 2016 9:05 pm
  
  The planer is the exact model and it is a heavy beast. because of that it actually doesn’t sit on an interchangeable 2×2 square but rather on a pull out tray in the bench base. the tray and support legs slide out allowing me to pass 8′ lengths through it easily. this was one element than anchored my bench location. my dust collector is actually a Grizzly G0703. I cheated and scaled the closest one I could find to fit my dimensions.
  
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Bob June 18, 2016 5:19 am

It looks great. I saw plans for a bench (The Family Handyman, February 1997) that used interchangeable tool trays that supports the active tray from a fixed shelf. It might be easier to use.
Your plan will evolve as you build it.

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- Chris June 20, 2016 8:41 pm
  
  I think i saw the same one it was a mobile tool stand and a vertical rack for four more bench tools. I liked the idea but I really wanted to have the support of a bench and the ability to have an adjustable fence. I plan to build that bench out of ½” ply glue ups with mortise and tenon counts which I took from a bench I saw in fine woodworking a couple years ago.
  
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Aidan June 18, 2016 10:02 am

Chris,
Any chance to post this publicly to SketchUp or share the file somehow?

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- Chris June 20, 2016 8:32 pm
  
  Yes I will upload the file for others to use was just trying to figure out the dust collection size first but I guess it can go up sooner
  
  Reply
  - Chris June 21, 2016 10:17 am
    
    OK I uploaded it for you. If this link doesn’t work I added keyword TWW so you could search it out quickly.
    
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WoodyHg June 20, 2016 11:14 am

Wow how long did it take you to model all that up?

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- Chris June 20, 2016 8:37 pm
  
  modeling it was relatively quick figuring out what I wanted was the hard part. I looked on here a lot got some ideas in there shop notes mag, and pinterest before I figured everything out. once I blocked out all the big ideas id try to run through different scenarios. I even made 8×12 boards and 4×8 sheets to make sure I could make any variation of cut for a project in my space. all in it was maybe 2 years research and planning but actual drawing time under 5 hours.
  
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Doug S July 4, 2016 3:38 am

A good resource for designing the system is a free booklet from http://www.airhand.com. You have to register with them to download it and obviously they will want to sell the ductwork to you. The good news is that they provide some help – a back and forth on e-mail and insightful rules of thumb. I am working on my one-man-shop system with them now.
Based on the performance curve for the grizzly, looks like you can go to 6 inch. Making some assumptions on the length of pipe and number of elbows and connectors, you will likely have > 6 inches of static pressure for a 6 inch system and >7 for a 4 inch.
If you do a 6 inch, then you need to have two 4 inch gates open to allow enough cfm (785 cfm) to create the required transport velocity (4,000 fpm) in the 6 inch to keep the dust from settling out. Appears the grizzly will create 875 cfm at 6.1 inches of static (check your model) which is enough to get the velocity you need.

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Peter Miller November 15, 2016 9:09 am

Can you tell me what application you used to graphically visualize your workshop. I’m in the process of building one and would like to pre-design it.
An e-mail would be most appreciated at pmiller@petermillerlaw.com

Thank you.

Peter

Reply

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Chris’ Planned Garage Workshop

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