If you could build your shop from scratch, what one thing...

J

Jason Fry

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Jun 5, 2008
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I just moved last week out of the house where I've lived for the last 7 1/2 years. Over that time, I worked in the one car garage and built about 380 knives. Now I've got a shop that's twice as big, but has no work benches, etc. I have the basic layout in my mind of how I want things as far as work benches go, but haven't quite decided all the details. I have three 4ft flourescents in the main 8x16 grinding room already, and I'm stuck so far on adding more outlets, but should have nearly enough.

If you were building a shop from scratch, what's the one thing you'd make sure and include?
 
This place was a greenhouse of sorts, but has solid walls with a ton of windows. One of them will have a window AC unit for sure!

I have a roughly 8x6 "closet" off of the main grinding room that's planned for reloading and leather work as a clean-ish room.

I have to figure out dust collection. I'm in the country, so could just nearly discharge any dust system outside.
 
Jason, my grinder is right in front of a window and a furnace fan in the window that blows out the dust. It does a great job at creating negative air pressure for exhaust when I oil quench. That being said, it doesn't suck up the dust nearly as much as I had hoped. If I were starting over I would for sure plumb in a dust collection system as well as quick connect fittings for my air compressor. I also have and love track lighting in my shop. Very simple, cheap, and redneck but my grinder is light up like a runway! That may be not be possible in your greenhouse.

One consideration, which I'm sure you've though of, is to create a spark arrestor bong if you are going to blow the dust outside. It wouldn't take much to burn as dry as it is right now.
 
All the doo-dads and equipment in the world won't matter without sufficient power. 200 amps is what you will want. 100 amps will work. Three phase would be heaven.

Number two is making the space work. It won't take long for the new "twice as much" space to be filled with stuff. Put everything you can on a rolling cart. HF sells welding carts and shop carts that are perfect for forges, HT ovens, hardness testers, quench tanks, tool boxes, metal band saws ( porta-bands and conversions), drill presses, small mills, etc. these can all be rolled to the back wall and stacked three rows deep if needed. Place large tools in places where you can work with them, but they don't block movement and "flow" in the shop.

Number three is shelving and storage that works. Stacks of cardboard boxes, piles of wood and metal, and shelves an inch deep in dust don't. Use open wire shelving 9 closet shelf), and clear plastic bins. Label everything, and keep an inventory list on the computer if you can. mark every piece of steel on both sides and both ends with a white metal marker. When you cut off a piece, mark it again. The white marker will stay on even through HT. A few lengths of 2" PVC, cut into
 
Next year building workshop...
Plan to make 3 rooms,
- Dirty room for grinders - KMG's , Surface grinder etc, balsting cabinet, all with dust collection Spark Trap+ Cyclone filter + water filter on the end . ( after this water all going outside)
- small room for materials, and noisy stuff like air supply unit etc.
- main workshop.

And now waiting for 15kW 3 phase ( 240V 1 phase and 400V 3 phase ) .
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
All the doo-dads and equipment in the world won't matter without sufficient power. 200 amps is what you will want. 100 amps will work. Three phase would be heaven.
Click to expand...
I have 100 amps, including two 20 amp 220 circuits. Not ideal, but not too bad.

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Number two is making the space work. It won't take long for the new "twice as much" space to be filled with stuff. Put everything you can on a rolling cart. HF sells welding carts and shop carts that are perfect for forges, HT ovens, hardness testers, quench tanks, tool boxes, metal band saws ( porta-bands and conversions), drill presses, small mills, etc. these can all be rolled to the back wall and stacked three rows deep if needed. Place large tools in places where you can work with them, but they don't block movement and "flow" in the shop.
Click to expand...

The way the walls are set up, it won't flow perfectly. Half the building has concrete, half has gravel, so rolling is a bit tricky. My current plan is to put the band saw, forge, anvil, welder in the gravel part, and later the mill or SG will go out there. Benches in the concrete part will get the RC tester, grinder, disk, drill press, and a hand sanding station with a vise or two.

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Number three is shelving and storage that works. Stacks of cardboard boxes, piles of wood and metal, and shelves an inch deep in dust don't. Use open wire shelving 9 closet shelf), and clear plastic bins. Label everything, and keep an inventory list on the computer if you can. mark every piece of steel on both sides and both ends with a white metal marker. When you cut off a piece, mark it again. The white marker will stay on even through HT. A few lengths of 2" PVC, cut into
Click to expand...

I stink at this. I've got a few cabinets, and a few drawers, but have not developed a great system for handle materials. I previously had the metal stock in categorized stacks, laying horizontal on 16 penny nails driven into the wall studs. Worked pretty good, with a stack for stainless and a couple stacks for carbon. I don't typically keep more than a dozen or two bars on hand.

Inch thick dust is best dealt with by blowing out the shop with a leaf blower every few months.

I've got to figure out the dust collection thing, but probably can't build it out immediately.
 
Top two easy things: Lights and work benches. Seems like I can never have enough of either!

It's infinitely easier to work if you can see what you're doing and have a place to work and put things. Along those same lines is organization. Have a place for everything, and keep it there.

Until recently, I've built all of my work benches against the shop walls, trying to maximize space for a car (or two) in the middle of my garage, but I realize now that having tables or benches that you can work on from all sides is quite invaluable as well. Like Stacy said though: The more things you can have on wheels, the better.
 
AC, separate grinding room with a serious dust collection system , separate forging area, perhaps outside under cover and with some kind of way to close it up when not in use, 3 phase power, work benches and storage everywhere. maybe aseparate HEAT TREATMENT area, perhaps a small building made of metal and concrete if I was gong to use salt pots. :D
 
Electricity that's not coming from a generator, hands down. (Which is finally happening this fall...)
Been working off-grid foe the last 12 years, full time...kinda old at this point.
 
Be sure and additional filtration for any A/C unit you install. Shop dust will eat the aluminum coils and plug them up, too.
You can use roll filter media over the existing filters. Then you have washable pre-filters.
 
jsut built a 16x24 (2 floors) shop and its already too small but it does have 5 220 lines including one upstairs (50amp) for the kiln
BTW i am a stock remover so no hot shop
 
I'm not exactly a bladesmith, but ill do something with wood every now and then and the two main things I can never seem to get enough of is light and worktables. It seems every other day I've got to either add a new lightsource or table/desk/etc or clear all the excess crap off of one. Of course it probably doesn't help that my family thinks my work area is free game to stack all their garbage or lawn tools on regardless of what project I've got running at the moment.
 
Stacy got mine, lots more electrical power capacity than I ever thought I'd need.

I wish all my benches, shelves, cabinets had a solid base that went all the way down to the floor. Nothing gets to me worse than getting down on my hands and knees with a flashlight to find that do-dad that disappeared beneath the bench.
 
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