The Big Shop
When we were first planning out the new shop a major consideration was size. The idea of a shop started in a rental townhouse which had a barely functional one car garage. It was big enough to hold the small pool table that I and my two brothers-in-law were rebuilding. That table was not salvageable but it built a relationship between us that has stood the test of time.
When we bought our first home it had a two car garage that housed my first “real shop” with “real tools”. Our next home had a bigger two car garage. A weird result of that extra space was that it never flowed as well as that smaller two car shop did. More room did not equal better work flow. Odd.
In all of this the demands of what we were doing keep changing the configuration of the shop. The initial layouts of the shop we were building included spaces that had hard and fast walls for a welding area, finishing area, office, mechanical, and bathroom. After the walls were built for the mechanical, office, and partially for the bathroom we decided to hold off on the weld/finishing areas. This is a nice large space and during the move that almost was it worked out really well for being able to move big tools in and out and on and off of low bed trucks or trailers. We had anticipated doing those moves off the loading dock. But it is much easier to get big tools off a trailer and into a storage unit than off the bed of a pickup truck. We often use this area to park things like the mower, snowblower, yard carts, etc. in for doing maintenance or just for the winter. The latest revelation was that this is the only bay we have big enough to pull in the extended cab pickup truck, which is great for maintenance or loading up in bad weather. We had an entire theater set that had to be loaded up and driven 210 miles and almost constant rain for four days. This meant we would need to leave at 4 a.m. on the last day in order for me to get to work. The night before we were able to load up and leave the truck in the shop. Which made leaving so much easier.
Another Ah-Ha moment were rolling shelves. Designing things on wheels allows for easy re-configuring and removal. The finishing area won’t see constant use, neither will the weld shop. When they are needed having open areas helps. Over spray isn’t an issue if there isn’t anything in that area other than what you are spraying. And not having to tape off an area makes things easier. In the weld area not having anything that a stray spark could catch increases peace of mind. The large rolling metal shelves we bought to store boxes on for the move are working out great for this. They also worked out well for taking them to do shows. They break down and setup easy and are strong enough to run the lathe and band saw on. To get the truck into the bay we just rolled all the fully loaded carts out of that area and over to the loading dock area. This still leaves the shop fully functional. Another plus is the fact that we left the ceilings at 10 foot. That allowed an eight foot or so tall tree to be stood up and finished for the play.
As our list of what we do increases the shop space evolves. We had debated if we built to big. As time goes on the space keeps showing us that it allows us to grow into it. And if we are lucky it will never stop evolving and neither will we.
