hi all

Anybody got spiffy ideas about laying out a very small shop? I'm
constricted at 1.80 x 3.0 meters and cant expand it in the foreseable
future. I got OA torch, grinders, drill press, and sometime will get lathe
and mill (Gingery type). Mostly I'm worried whith the sparks form grinding
getting cozy with the OA rig. And just yesterday I got the grinder cable
eaten by the wire wheel. Momentary excitement plus workpiece landing in my
foot

Regards,

MOngke

mongke wrote:
hi all

Anybody got spiffy ideas about laying out a very small shop? I'm
constricted at 1.80 x 3.0 meters and cant expand it in the foreseable
future. I got OA torch, grinders, drill press, and sometime will get lathe
and mill (Gingery type). Mostly I'm worried whith the sparks form grinding
getting cozy with the OA rig. And just yesterday I got the grinder cable
eaten by the wire wheel. Momentary excitement plus workpiece landing in my
foot

I think I own bath towels that are bigger than your workshop.

--Keep everything small, light and on casters. IIRC J. Baldwin of
Whole Earth Review fame used to have a workshop built into a van. ISTR he
wrote either some articles or a book about it. There are also a couple of
books that you can get on small shop layout and design; although they're
primarily aimed at woodworkers you'll find a *lot* of applicable ideas in
them. Getcher self a copy of Fine Woodworking magazine or head over to the
local Woodcraft store if there's one in your area and you'll find them.

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : "The Faceless Conglomerate
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : you can trust...
http://www.nmpproducts.com/intro.htm
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

In article , mongke says...

Anybody got spiffy ideas about laying out a very small shop? I'm
constricted at 1.80 x 3.0 meters

This is slightly smaller than my shop at work, and somewhat
larger than the tiny shop I set up while living in an apartment.

The apartment shop was fit into a narrow, deep closet and
had a purpose-built bench, a medium sized vise, and a small
bench lathe.

The larger shop at work has a drill press, storage cabinet,
floor lathe (hardinge hlvh) and a large, sturdy bench with
a large vise. There is also a grinder on the storage
cabinet top, and a small wash-up sink.

For really small shops, inches count. Your best bet might
be to make a built-in workbench with storage included. Also
consider that you simply cannot fit everything in there that
you need - my shop at work simply will not allow a bridgeport.

As far as the grinder, I made a trap box to keep abrasive stuff
from getting into the other machines. But in any event, make
a scale drawing with paper dolls and move them around til
you find a layout that you like.

Jim

==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
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Don't in any case allow the grinding/sanding gear to be in proximity to
other machine tools. Nothing can keep them clean enough of grit and swarf
to prevent scoring the ways. In short, you're way under-spaced and really
need a lot more shop room, and that divided along the functional lines
above.


Regards, Hoyt McKagen

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On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 05:52:45 -0500, "mongke"
wrote:

hi all

Anybody got spiffy ideas about laying out a very small shop? I'm
constricted at 1.80 x 3.0 meters and cant expand it in the foreseable
future. I got OA torch, grinders, drill press, and sometime will get lathe
and mill (Gingery type). Mostly I'm worried whith the sparks form grinding
getting cozy with the OA rig. And just yesterday I got the grinder cable
eaten by the wire wheel. Momentary excitement plus workpiece landing in my
foot

Can you mount everything on castors and roll it outside to work? All
my machines (including a bl**dy heavy 24" thickness planer) are
mounted on castors so I can roll them into the middle of the shop to
take long stock.
How high is everything - don't forget the storage space above your
head with drop down boxes, etc
Geoff

A friend of mine has a very small workshop that, in my opinion, has a quite
ingenious layout. Basically, apart from the lathe and milling m/c, it
consists of work benches all round the walls. The benches are made of
kitchen worktops but, instead of having normal cupboards and draws
undernieth, has purpose made storage boxes on casters. The advantage is
that heavy and/or bulky items can be stored and retrieved more easily. He
has, for instance, all his brazing equipment and hearth in one box that is
simply wheeled out when required.
Above the worktops are wall cabinets that contain smaller and lighter
equipment. Every box and cabinet is identified by a letter, and the
sub-compartments by numbers. When an item is first stored, its address
(letter and number) is recorded and its then a simple matter to find items
that are not often used.
I hope this helps...

--
Regards, Gary Wooding

(Change feet to foot to reply)
"mongke" wrote in message
...
hi all

Anybody got spiffy ideas about laying out a very small shop? I'm
constricted at 1.80 x 3.0 meters and cant expand it in the foreseable
future. I got OA torch, grinders, drill press, and sometime will get lathe
and mill (Gingery type). Mostly I'm worried whith the sparks form grinding
getting cozy with the OA rig. And just yesterday I got the grinder cable
eaten by the wire wheel. Momentary excitement plus workpiece landing in my
foot

Regards,

MOngke

Drawers are very efficient users of floor and wall space. You can use
every cubic inch of space between the floor and ceiling with drawers.
Hanging stuff on the wall is the worst user of floor and wall space.
Bob