Help me design my knife shop

N

night man

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Aug 27, 2010
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I am in the process of planning a shop build. I am going to have about a 10’ x 16’ room dedicated for a knife making shop. This will be my first dedicated shop. I will be doing all the building and wiring so I can plan it exactly want. I can plan for specific tools and their locations.

Right now I am in the process of drawing up the knife shop. I base it on “centers”. I have my grinding center, rough cutting center (angle grinder and hopefully metal cutting bandsaw), heat treating and quenching center, layout and design center, drilling center, sheath making center, etching center, sand blasting / tumbling (stonenwashing) center, filing center, painting center (KG gunkote), and handle working center. That’s what I can think of so far. I hope to add a mill next year also.

Does this theory for my shop sound like a good way to set it up? Another thing I was thinking was do I want a dedicated grinding room to keep my main room dust free? That would really slow my work flow down having to go to a closet to grind.

Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Something I did that was very helpful when I moved into a 24x32 building was to do the layout drawing on a white plastic sheet that you can use grease pencils on. I used a scale of 1 inch to a foot. Draw every piece on this sheet you can then move and change pieces until you find what works for you. I then transferd the drawing to the concrete floor itself so when it came time to move the equipment in it was just a matter of following the lines. When the move was finished it was just like I had always worked in this space.
Good luck with the new shop, Fred
 
I thought everyone just haphazardly threw everything in corners to create the last efficient operating environment possible.
My suggestion is rather obvious, but I would have a dirty side and a hopefully dust free side.
 
I agree, I would build a wall making the clean space 10'X10' and the grinding room 10'X6'. Put the grinders and sand blaster in the grinding room and anything else that will make dust.

I have my main work bench close to the grinding room so I am not constantly walking across the whole shop to get to it. If you profile and grind multiple blades at the same time it makes it more efficient. It also keeps the main room much cleaner. Instead of a dust collector I installed a range hood in the shop directly over the grinders. It blows the dust directly outside, has lights mounted to it and has a flap inside that closes when it is not on so warm air does not escape in the winter.
 
+1 on the dustroom
Take your time figuring out what hight workbenches are confortable to you. 1/2" can be the difference between backpain and happy knife making.
White walls reflect light and are easy on the eyes. And there is no such thing as to much light
 
Another vote for a dust room. Grinding steel does make a lot of dust but sanding wood makes even more of a mess. The particles are lighter in weight so they travel farther. They are also lighter in color and you will have "wood snow" covering everything in sight. Keep in mind, wood dust can be explosive. Have a separate room with good dust collection and/or exhaust.
 
I'd consider which is the south facing wall, fill it with windows and put your workbenches in front of them.
 
If you figure you need a 10 X 16 building, then build a 20 X 32. In 3 years it still won't be big enough!
Paint the ceilings and walls with white oil-based paint, and use good lighting.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
If you figure you need a 10 X 16 building, then build a 20 X 32. In 3 years it still won't be big enough!
Paint the ceilings and walls with white oil-based paint, and use good lighting.
Click to expand...

The shop is a total of 30 x 40. I think I may make the knife room 18 x 12' but that is about as big as I can go for the knife room. I will for sure have a separate grinding room as suggested and also put my main bench by a south facing wall with a few windows.

What type of vaccume or vent system should I put in the grinding area, if any?
 
NM, just my opinion here, but building a grinding room resembling a spray booth would be pretty great. Spray booth filters work great, are cheap and quite easy to replace.
 
night man said:
The shop is a total of 30 x 40. I think I may make the knife room 18 x 12' but that is about as big as I can go for the knife room. I will for sure have a separate grinding room as suggested and also put my main bench by a south facing wall with a few windows.

What type of vacuum or vent system should I put in the grinding area, if any?
Click to expand...

I don't' know what your climate is like

If you can shoot it all outside - that's the best.
But it sucks out the winter heating or summer AC if you have that.


If you can't go straight out; mixing of wood dust and steel sparks is a problem
The fine dust bags are also possibly not fine enough to capture Micarta and G10 dust.

Using spark arresters and cyclone baffles with water traps are helpful.
Look at a Thein homebuilt system.
 
12345678910 said:
I'd consider which is the south facing wall, fill it with windows and put your workbenches in front of them.
Click to expand...

Not south, NORTH.
The sun travels from east via south to the west.
That means that the daylight from a south facing window changes all the time.
Daylight from a north facing window stays the same. That is why painters(artists) prefer to work infront of north facing window as well.
I have a west facing window and when the sun falls trough it directly I have to close the curtains.
 
South facing windows will have more natural light than north facing windows, in the northern hemisphere anyways. That Is why I will probably put my main bench on the south wall with windows. More natural light.
 
A south facing window can provide stronger light....but also pretty heavy shadows, as the light is coming directly at you from the source ( the sun). A north window provides diffused light and gives better color distinction as well as seeing fine details. All that is probably moot for knifemakers, as we need a LOT of additional electric lighting to see well enough when grinding and sanding.
 
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