Building a New Woodworking Shop
Layout
| Layout Driven
Design In order to help determine the overall size of the structure, I worked extensively on the shop layout which basically means machine placement. Throughout this phase I have developed and discarded several designs which each iteration coming closer to what I consider ideal. As I zeroed in on the design I found that the location on the lot was driving the shape to an extent. The design shown below is actually not the structure I would prefer to go with but the one that fits onto the lot with the least negative side effects. The drawing below is the 13th major design and 3rd sub-variant. New Requirements |
| Design Thoughts The main structure is 64' x 28' with a 48' shop area with several windows and doors on the north, west, and eastern faces. I did some analysis and actually found this size to be a little on the large side believe it or not. My reasoning for saying this is that although it is quite often heard that one cannot build a shop big enough, it is not a good idea to have a large distance between the work (i.e.: bench) areas and tools either. I have found that I can shrink the shop area down to 40' x 26' and still meet all of my requirements. However this does not save an incredible amount on the cost. Reducing the size further to gain real cost savings has proven to be difficult. Conversely, there is no appreciable gain found (that I see anyway) in going longer than 48' so I've pretty much settled on this size. Aside from that, here are a just a few design notes:
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