Moving my shop to a new space and need advise

killthelights

killthelights

Joined
Jan 6, 2016
Messages
244
My shop is currently in the garage of the house I'm renting. My roommate just bought a house and he's pretty much giving me the new garage to set up shop again. It's a standard 400 sq ft. two car garage. I have a 2x72 grinder, small mill, heat treat oven, 4 large work benches and a couple rolling tool boxes. I have permission to make any upgrades needed to the space.
Two questions-
1. If you could/have rearranged your shop, what are the big things you changed for the better?(more efficient, convenient, cleaner, ect)
2. Does anyone have any suggestions/solutions for keeping the grinder separate from everything else so all the dust can be contained?(aside from building it's own room in the garage)
I'm excited to get the new place set up but want to do it right the first time.
Thanks!
 
I need to find a dust collection unit that’s cheap and I can run. Would also like to build a separate grinding room.
 
Some sort of dust collection/extraction. It can range from a good window fan to a dedicated dust collection system.

Make a separate enclosed grinding booth. A 2X4 frame and stapled on heavy plastic for walls will work fine. A simple door frame with plastic on it will do as well. It will look like you are cooking meth from the street, but that's OK. If possible, place the booth where a window is and put a BIG window fan in the window. This will create negative pressure and keep dust from migrating into the rest of the garage.

Lights!!! Get a bunch of plug and play 6500K LED shop lights at Costco or Amazon. They cost around $20 each. If the garage already has florescent lights, change them to LED. Get the whiter bulbs that are daylight color at 6500K. Do not use any lights lower than 5000K.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Some sort of dust collection/extraction. It can range from a good window fan to a dedicated dust collection system.

Make a separate enclosed grinding booth. A 2X4 frame and stapled on heavy plastic for walls will work fine. A simple door frame with plastic on it will do as well. It will look like you are cooking meth from the street, but that's OK. If possible, place the booth where a window is and put a BIG window fan in the window. This will create negative pressure and keep dust from migrating into the rest of the garage.

Lights!!! Get a bunch of plug and play 6500K LED shop lights at Costco or Amazon. They cost around $20 each. If the garage already has florescent lights, change them to LED. Get the whiter bulbs that are daylight color at 6500K. Do not use any lights lower than 5000K.
Click to expand...
Luckily my grinding area is right next to my meth lab so...
And lights. I always forget about good lighting. And I'll have to look again but I think there's a spot where I can put an exhaust fan directly behind my grinder to the outside. That will be huge!
 
Run 220VAC to the garage. Or if it's already in the garage (electric dryer) run extension circuits to your shop area.
I like epoxy paint on garage floors.
Shelves on the walls and up in the rafters.
Many of my big shop tools are on rolling carts.
I would put up sheetrock walls if it has exposed studs.
 
You have gotten good advice so far. I upgraded my lights to LED in my old fluorescent fixture....unbelievable light, no hum and come on in the cold. Floor paint makes cleanup much easier. Dust collectors are noisy so put it outside or next door if you can. When I am running the blast cabinet, between the compressor and the dust collector......
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Some sort of dust collection/extraction. It can range from a good window fan to a dedicated dust collection system.

Make a separate enclosed grinding booth. A 2X4 frame and stapled on heavy plastic for walls will work fine. A simple door frame with plastic on it will do as well. It will look like you are cooking meth from the street, but that's OK. If possible, place the booth where a window is and put a BIG window fan in the window. This will create negative pressure and keep dust from migrating into the rest of the garage.

Lights!!! Get a bunch of plug and play 6500K LED shop lights at Costco or Amazon. They cost around $20 each.
If the garage already has florescent lights, change them to LED.

Get the whiter bulbs that are daylight color at 6500K. Do not use any lights lower than 5000K.
Click to expand...

"If the garage already has florescent lights, change them to LED."
I found that the existing ballast would not work with the LED tubes.
If you have to change both, the premade LED fixtures are simpler and cheaper but they usually only have one tube vs two.
So it was easier to get the premade LED fixtures, get twice as many and use the daisy chain plug in feature

Look at mounting them in a zig zag pattern to reduce shadows.
 
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Paint walls white before you place your workbenches, it's frienbly on the eyes and reflects light.
Have more electrical sockets then you will need. You won't need them all but you'll have one where you couldn't imagin needing one.
Have workbenches at diffetent hights.
 
I’m getting ready to do the same as my family is moving to AZ, I WILL be building a grinding a room as the dust has driven me completely insane.

And there will be lights. So many lights. More lights than you could think possible.

I do need to a find a source for good work lights for the grinder though as I can’t find anything but cheap BS.
 
kbright said:
Run 220VAC to the garage. Or if it's already in the garage (electric dryer) run extension circuits to your shop area.
I like epoxy paint on garage floors.
Shelves on the walls and up in the rafters.
Many of my big shop tools are on rolling carts.
I would put up sheetrock walls if it has exposed studs.
Click to expand...
I'm def putting in 220 because of my VFD and Evenheat oven. I was already looking into epoxy paint for the floors, I like it. The sheetrock I hadn't thought about. Thanks.
 
WC53 said:
You have gotten good advice so far. I upgraded my lights to LED in my old fluorescent fixture....unbelievable light, no hum and come on in the cold. Floor paint makes cleanup much easier. Dust collectors are noisy so put it outside or next door if you can. When I am running the blast cabinet, between the compressor and the dust collector......
Click to expand...
The dust collector unit in a separate room is a good idea or possibly building a sound dampener for it. Thanks!
 
Thanks for all the great advise. A lot of this stuff seems obvious, at the same time there's so many small things, i wouldn't have remembered to do half of it until it was too late. Cheers!
 
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