Shop layout

At this point I am moving 4 little pieces of paper around on top of another sheet of paper with squares drawn on it.

The floor is about 12'x22'. Footprints for the four things are:

Car 13'x6' Lathe 3 1/2' x 5 1/2' Mill 3' x 4' Drill 2'x2'

What sort of space should there be between the various tools so I can do work without having to remember exactly where I am all the time?

Are there any real advantages to having access to all sides of the lathe - this asked because right now the bench is by itself in the middle of a floor and it's kind of nice to be able to walk around it.

Reply to
jtaylor
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Ahh... A problem unfortunately near to my heart. I have a one car garage with a floor 11' wide and 17' long into which I need to fit a lathe, mill, welder, tools, etc.. and a small project car. The foundation leans back a bit so I have a bit more width and length about 2' up from the floor. I went through the same exercise with the paper cut outs. Your larger lathe and mill operating envelope may offer constraints that I didn't face, but this is what I did.

I have the lathe (a SB 11" which isn't as deep as yours) running along the left side of the garage with the tailstock in the left rear corner. I haven't missed not being able to get to all sides of the lathe. I have the mill (small Gorton 8D) on a 18" pedestal backed in to the right rear corner. I can't get to the back of the mill but this hasn't been a problem.

I have a bench in between the mill and the lathe. I used to have this bench set up to fold up against the wall so that I could fit a full size car in the garage, but no longer. I'm going to install a folding bench on one side of the garage. I have a small benchtop DP which is stored on a shelf, but if I get a bigger one, it'll go in the right front corner. Welding stuff on the right wall, grinding and sanding stuff in the left front. I've built shelves to hold as much as a I can. Getting stuff off the floor is a big help when one doesn't have much floor to work with - my compressor is up high, as are the small welders.

I apologize if this is more info than you wanted. I'm fairly amazed at the amount of stuff I've been able to cram into the garage and I guess this was an opportunity to talk about it. We're remodeling our kitchen in a month and then I'm taking out the garage shelves and replacing them with the kitchen cabinets. Oh boy!

Peter

Reply to
Peter Grey

Doing a layout is helpful, but not as helpful as trying a layout for a year and thinking about what worked and what didn't. Here are some tips:

  1. Don't put the headstock of your lathe against a wall. If an end has to go into a wall, let it be the tailstock end, set just far enough out from the wall so you can get the tailstock off. That way you can get at the headstock, put long things through the spindle, etc.

  1. You may have to handle longish pieces of stock. Think about if you get a piece of stock eight feet long, how you would bring it in and manipulate it so you can cut it down.

  2. The mill throws chips when you're flycutting. These don't work well on car finishes. Think about hanging a curtain or something around your mill.

  1. Things can be pretty close to a drill press, but a mill has to be able to move the table all the way around. Bridgeport recommends a 7x7' footprint for their mills.

You didn't mention a bench! Where are you going to mount your grinder? How about your toolboxes? Air compressor? Extension cords? Lighting? Storage?

Think specific questions, like "Where will I keep my pipe wrench?" or "Where will I keep my thread file?" or "How hard will it be to fill a tire?" Only you know what you'll be doing.

Good luck, and be patient!

Grant Erwin

jtaylor wrote:

Reply to
Grant Erwin

I forgot to add that my piece of paper for the mill included space for X and Y axis table travel.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Grey

I predict that the car will have to go. You may THINK you have enough room now but wait 'till you add the roll around tool cabinet, surface plate/layout bench and assembly bench. Oh, and don't forget that ton or two of real interesting drop and scraps you will soon pick up. :-)

OTOH, I have an artist friend > At this point I am moving 4 little pieces of paper around on top of another

Reply to
Glenn Ashmore

Remember to allow for the full travel of the mill table, plus access to the cranks at each end.

Lots of extra open space to the left and right of the drill press, to allow drilling in long stock.

The car can be moved out at need -- and will probably eventually stay outdoors (as ours does), to make more room for machine tools. :-) Perhaps build a stand-alone carport to shelter it. Besides -- you don't want to bring a soaking wet car in out of the rain to generate humidity to condense on the machine tools' ways.

Almost all sides.

1) The operator side -- obviously.

2) The headstock end, for changing to the Metric change gear set at need.

Also -- lots of extra room at this end for feeding long bar stock through the spindle, and providing an anti-whip support for the bar stock to keep things from getting really dangerous.

I have to duck under the anti-whip tube when I need to leave the shop while doing through-the-spindle work.

3) The back side -- to install and remove the taper turning attachment at need, and for installing the senders for a DRO.

4) As for the tailstock end, I have a heavy-duty purpose-built table there to hold the bed turret when I'm using a tailstock instead. It is just high enough so I can slide the bed turret (loaded with tools) onto the end of the bed, without having to strip it and lift it in stages. The tailstock is easy to lift, by comparison.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Yep - in our starter house many years ago, the car was in the shop one day. After that, it was a shop and laundry room.

Since then, and three more houses - the car/truck has always been outside.

We unload the truck and walk through the shop to the kitchen door but that is about it. :-)

Mart> I predict that the car will have to go. You may THINK you have enough

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

My "shop" is 42 by 64 INCHES! I've got 3 benchtop drill presses, a micromark

7x14 lathe, bench grinder, buffer, belt/disk sander, and a surprising amount of storage. The trick for me was to attach the benches to the walls so I can sit down while working, and put lots of shelves and storage bins on the walls. I also made a table that folds down from the wall, when i need to grind, buff, or sand I just grab the appropriate machine from under the D.P. table and bolt it down (wingnuts are awesome)

This only works for me because the maximum size of the work I do is about 1" dia X 1 1/2" long (jewelry) I do have to borrow a friend's bandsaw (and shop) to cut down stock before I bring it home.

BTW, I'm 6'1, 210 lbs, and I fit in the shop too!

-Gene

Reply to
gene lewis

On the lower east side, a six by fourteen foot space is called a 'huge room,' not a closet. I myself at one time installed a pratt and whitney speed lathe, and a vise on a special built workbench, inside a closet that was three feet by eight feet.

When you only have a tiny bit of space, you make the most of it.

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

Reply to
jim rozen

One of the things have found when you use certain swarf-making behemoths is that you should have far more room beside/behind them than you THINK you need. When you try to clean up after yourself it can be a problem.

The only other solution to having 2 machines next to each other and not throwing swarf ALL over the place is to hang visquene from the ceiling down to the floor so it acts as a wall/deflector and keeps the stuff within a confined space. Plus it's flxible and you can move around it easily.

The other problem is if you have a cat who picks up the l>At this point I am moving 4 little pieces of paper around on top of another

Reply to
Fuhh

Oh, forgot to mention If you have room to do a layout in the atual place that is going tobe your shop, get some cardboard or paper and cut out general shapes and sizes and lay them on the floor to give you a life-size layout that you can relate to. I did this in the proposed kitchen and laundry when I was building my new house. it worked out great.

Reply to
Fuhh

I allow 24" behind my 11X40 Sheldon. I am glad I did because I have to go back there often, to clean up, adjust the gibs, and dismantle my taper attatchment. Even with 24" it's tight for a 6' 230# no longer young adult to get some jobs done. I suspect the car needs to be outside from the get-go, if for no other reason than it's own protection from oil and swarf. I have a 4X8 wood table in the middle of my shop and have acess to all four sides. Grinders are against one wall, 1x42 belt sander, a 6" vice and my doubled ended tool grinder reside on the table. I also keep several carpet samples for working off of when the hard surface is a problem. My mill throws chips everywhere so anything close by has to be movable for cleanup

Reply to
GMasterman

I just finished the same exercise for a 13X19 garage with an old 911, a mill, lathe, mini-mill, shop press, drill press, bandsaw, mig welding, oxy/act welder, floor jacks, workbench, tools chest, etc..

Everyone so far has great suggestions so I'll just add one more. Casters.

EVERYTHING in the shop is either already easily moveable or now has casters (heavy stuff like the mill has a custom base with leveling bolts that have to be lowered quite a bit before the casters touch the ground) Being able to move things around, even if it's just once in a while will make all the difference....

FWIW.

Reply to
TheMan

On the other hand, maybe the trunk of the car can become part of the shop while it is in the garage?

Reply to
Allan Adler

Ayup..there is your bead blasting cabinet or paint spray booth.

gunner

"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism - by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide." - Ayn Rand, from "Foreign Policy Drains U.S. of Main Weapons"

Reply to
Gunner

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