What is the size of your shop?

[A C Richards]

never big enough, never bright enough, never enough bench space, never enough outlets, never enough drawers,

never enough $ to do anything about it.

absolutely...+1

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

My currently set up is in several places about the house and property.
The open air smithy is 24X16 with a shed roof over the center 8X12.
The grinding shop is 10X8.
The smithy has two storage sheds for steel and rolling equipment. One is 12X8 and the other is 7X8.
The woodworking shop has all the saws, mills, and drills. It is 16x12.
The inside clean shop ( loose definition of clean ) is 20X12.
The computer room is where I store my knives, handle materials, supplies, post on BF, and do most of the glue-up and such.
It is 20X12.
One side of the garage is stacked about 4 feet deep with supplies and tools.
The storage unit is 20X12....and packed to the ceiling with equipment and supplies waiting for the new shop.
The storage unit for the store is also loaded with benches and tools for the new shop.

The new building will be two stories, 16X40 , with a 16X12 covered smithy.

 

[jonnymac44]

Nice Daniel! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out:thumbup:

Last summer - my porch with a clamp on vise!

Last winter - a 10x10 ez-up tent and the porch

This year - My carport which is 10x16 and my kitchen

Here in about a month - 12x24 shop with a 12x8 grinding room!!! It is still very small but I am very happy to have it in the works!

 

[Mike Davis]

22'x24' with a 8 foot ceiling and fully insulated....damn cold michigan winters.... I am planning a 24'x14' lean to on the side to make an outdoor smithy. I need to partition off the grinding area with a tarp to cut down on the dust...Doing that this week/weekend.

 

[Dave Behrens]

Our house has a 3 car garage and we only have one car. Have to fill all that space with something.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Wow, I am really surprised by the number of folks with shops above 600 sq ft. Some WAY above.
Had I known, I would have put some more options above that, sorry didn't mean to exclude anyone.

Thanks for posting so we still get an idea of the spread for larger shops. :thumbup:

 

[Stag & Steel]

I shared these pics in another thread a while back, but I'm proud of it and it took 25 years of knife making to get it...so I'll share it again for those that have not seen it. Please rememember, I'm proud of it, not bragging.....well not much bragging If I didn't have such a great wife and been blessed of God, I wouldn't have it.

The area left of the left garage door (15' X 45') is set aside for fabrication and most of it is dedicated to just knife making . The rest of it is car maintenance and storage.

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This is the welding area.

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These are of the knife shop.

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This is what I see standing at my bench. I built the dock through 7" of ice in 2009.

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[Seals]

Wow Jim,thats a beautiful set up and property.

 

[kvolle]

I thought it would be interesting to know what most people have to work with.

My basement is my shop. It is sectioned off into 6 areas. I have the largest area for metal work (grinding, forging, heat treating, and finish work), there are two equally sized areas for handle work and sheath work (both of which are kept extremely clean and have central vac), and then I have a wood working area for cutting, lath work, sanding, routing and carving, and a wood storage and drying area for the burl and other woods I procure from the woods. The last area is my tool storage and handyman's shop for doing things around the house or when my wife tells me she needs something fixed or made.
I also have a seperate forge area outside my house for my coal forge when I want to go primitive.
My wife has the 1st floor and 2nd floor to do with as she pleases and the entire basement is all mine, all 1500 sq ft of it. It's my little heaven on earth.

 

[Arakiel]

I'm currently in a 25x50 with 220v 3 ph. and broadband. No A/C though....

 

[lonepine]

The space where much of the work is done in in my garage in front of my parked car. It is about 5ft X 8ft, or 40 sq ft, too small to be measured by your poll.

However, when it comes time to harden blades then that is usually done in the driveway. And my tempering oven is in my kitchen. The handle gluing area is in my dining room with the sheath making. The photo area is on my back deck. So adding up all those other areas I have a lot more space than I originally thought!

- Paul Meske

 

[Mitchell Knives]

I have two shops.

The one I use most is 16' x 16' with a full second floor. I try to keep all of the "clean" operations upstairs.

The second shop is 8' x 12'. I use it mostly for storage and stone washing due to the noise.

That's 608 sq ft total, and it's still not enough.

 

[Frank Niro]

No, there isn't enough room left for my wife to move my bed in there. Frank

 

[xmtgx]

6x10ft. Also the drill press is in another room entirely.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

My shop is pretty cramped Patrice. However, it might be a little bit larger than the range in your poll, though I certainly wouldn't call it a jumbo jet hangar.

I think the range in your poll probably needed a couple more divisions between 600 sq ft and hanger.

 

[flatgrinder]

Man, the photos of the shops here are really cool! :thumbup:

I'm working out of a 2 car garage with a tarp splitting the space in half, grinders on one side, machines (such as mills, drill pres, etc.) on the other. One day, I hope I can afford a real shop.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

I agree Nathan. Not having a very large shop myself (around 200 sq ft) or even seen one firsthand, I put a number (600 sq ft) that seemed big enough to me so that anything more was gravy. Hence the reference to a plane hanger which I thought was funny at the time. Obviously some of you guys have much more than that (more than even my whole house for some). I am actually really surprised of the percentage with bigger shops and would have made the poll accordingly if I knew. Sadly I don't think I can modify it.

 

[Sterlinghaney25]

30x80

 

[Phillip Patton]

When I was in my old shop I told people it was 20,736 square inches. Sounded better than 12' by 12'.
My current shop is 36'X48', but the knifemaking stuff shares space with woodworking and general storage.

 

[kc custom]

20'x20' and its full to the brim, If I were to get another machine-tool something would
have to go, so for today I'm happy as is.
Ken.