And I fit so many tools in there. Here's how

if you're planning a new small Workshop or want to make better use of an existing space I'm going to take you through the good bad and downright ugly of my single car garage plus I'll point out all the tips and tricks I've learned to strategically cram in as many tools as possible my single car garage measures 12x 22 ft and something very important to keep in mind is this space is over 4 years in the making if you're just getting started don't feel like you need to do it all at once and to help better make that point these are some early pictures of the same garage when I first moved in your shop is going to evolve over time but you can ease those transitions with one simple practice nearly everything other than the outfeed table and the miter saw station is on casters which is very important in a small space but just because you can move something doesn't mean you want to be constantly shuffling Tools around I'm going to show you some examples of that throughout now if you're looking for a starting point to lay out your tools I'm a believer that every small shop should have at least one dedicated walkway and some open floor space to play Tetris or assemble a large project all right the neighbors are starting to look at me weird I'm going to shut the door now unfortunately collecting shavings and chips is part of the woodworking equation and this is one of three machines that I use for dust collection it's really not located in the perfect spot but I really don't have anywhere else to put it I am certain of one decision though if you're in a smaller space like this one tools are going to be shifting around often so there's no need to deal with the cost and the hassle of hard plumbed in PVC pipe for dust collection just get one of these flexible hoses and you can add a quick release attachment and move it from tool to Tool now unless you have an extra 220 line in your shop you're going to be limited to 1 and A2 horsepower motors for your dust collector the good thing is there's really never more than one tool going at a time in a shop like this so it more than gets the job done this area is what I like to refer to as the land of Misfit Toys and it's not specifically the function of these tools it's more how they're stored this drum sander for instance gets in the way all the time if you want to play fun little game of where's the drum sander in my videos it's generally not in the background which means I've wheeled it out into the driveway because it messes with the INF feed of my table saw after 2 years of owning it I've actually decided I'm going to sell this once I work up the courage because I really just want the extra space back and I think there's a good lesson here just because something is mobile it doesn't actually mean you have room for it especially if you're going to spend more time moving it around than actually using the tool well I don't use my band saw as often as I would like the good news is it doesn't prevent me from operating another tool and I've used a lot of different band saws this one performs really well for the price my biggest headache other than me bashing into this damn Rod all the time is my kids pretending they're driving a car using the tracking wheel hence my expensive childproof solution now unless you're going to be doing a lot of resong this is just not a necessary tool for the average beginner starting out in the spirit of maximizing space tucked away in the corner behind my band saw is a trash can which is a very underrated sh shop accessory Caitlin Clark and I hope this goes without saying but walls are a prime storage location especially in a small space so I hang my track saws and other odds and ends in this corner Prime floor space is also greatly important in most shops and that prime location should be dedicated to a table saw it doesn't matter if you have a cabinet style saw like Darth blader here or a jobsite saw what's important is placing this in a spot with plenty of infeed and outfeed I have at least 8 ft in both directions and since everything to the right of your saw is dead space I would advise pushing it up against the wall I do store my three most used table saw jigs on said wall including our good friend Han Solo for easy access my favorite upgrade I've made to the saw are these JM stock guides I really can't say enough good things about them especially if you're going to be working with a lot of sheet Goods an upgrade on Luke waron is moving my Standalone router table into the wing of my table saw now it did free up floor space but for whatever reason router tables scare me much more than the handheld rouers even though that makes no sense at all but it's not a tool I use very often nor do I think any beginner needs to prioritize the budget for one moving along to the left side of the shop and the easiest way to sum up my feelings would be may be good sometimes may be on a positive note I have a nice mix of tools and storage space like this drw press cart that is mobile and has enough room for four drawers below are some of the drawers in utter catastrophe you bet do I leave projects unfinished for two years at a time expert at that but try as I might I can't change who I am now as far as the drill press itself I get asked all the time if I would recommend it and here's the deal I don't use a drill press that often in my shop but when I need one I'm happy it's here so I think it's a nice cheap option that more than gets the job done I just don't feel terribly qualified to rate this tool if you're new to The Woodworking World I'll let you in on this weird debate pegboard versus French cleats it's like is a hot dog really a sandwich and people have a lot of builtup anger towards pegboards and I agree with them on the cheap stuff but I find the metal pegboard to be quite awesome I like to make custom holders for things like drill bits with scrap woods and then you can embed magnets onto the back which holds it all in place double bonus because you can stick anything with Magnetic bottoms to the pegboard without needing a specific home or you can use rare earth magnets for items like rules a super secret bonus tip here I bought these from a website called cheap pegboard ccom and it sells dents or ding pegboard for half price and it's worth checking out if you want to save a couple bucks they even have accessories like these shelves and speaking of I really don't have a logical explanation for keeping more than two push pads available I mean the shop supervisors don't even have thumbs now the one downside to pegboard even the metal stuff is it's not great for really heavy items which is where French cleats come into play and I'm going to show you more of that later in the tour my advice every storage solution as it's pros and cons whether it's drawers pegboard or French cleats don't be afraid to use them all now it is true that shops are always evolving and part of the nature of small shops is that you might need to move a tool to use it however I'm a big believer that it's in your best interest to move your biggest tools as infrequently as possible or not at all like my Joiner this is an 8 in model it is outrageously heavy and even though I have an aftermarket mobile base on it it never moves so strategically place your tools like a jointer or a cabinet saw in a spot with the most infeed and outfeed space I did buy job the cut new about 4 years ago and I've been really happy with the performance I do think the helical cutter head is worth the extra money too tools are fun to talk about I get it but if you want to create a comfortable shop that you can spend hours in we need to discuss ways to improve your surroundings and first up find some type of padded mats for the floor these are super cheap they're from Harbor Freight I want to say they were less than $100 for my entire shop and I roll the lighter tools over them but anything heavier I need to pull them out of the way I can't stress how much of an improvement this will make for your knees and it can help protect tools and work pieces when they are dropped equally important is lighting and I get asked about what I use frequently don't try to build in a garage with a single overhead door light here give you an example look how dark that is now on my ceiling are eight of these cheap LED lights that I got from Amazon that you hook together even a dummy like me had no problem getting them up there's actually three that are unplugged because it was so bright I needed sunglasses to work in here now we aren't going to talk about these panel lights in the corner because those are purely to improve the image quality of my videos not at all woodworking related the final piece of the puzzle for shop Comfort is temperature and for the last four years I've used a window AC unit in the summer and then these two space heaters in the winter now they have some pros but it's mostly cons especially the time to bring the shop up to temperature and the cost to run them so I've been researching searching the best options recently and decided to switch to one dedicated unit that can heat and cool plus it's much more efficient than what I've been using last week this big old pallet arrived and on it was a DIY ductless mini split now I've held off installing these in my shop because I couldn't sacrifice the wall space which is why I went with this out ofsight ceiling cassette Mr Cool was nice enough to send which tucks nicely between standard 16in on Center joist and essentially disappears once installed Mr Cool does say these are DIY but I've always translated that to mean do it yourselves hence my dad G me a hand here also there's a conspiracy theory in the comment section of my neighbor John buildoff video that it's all fake and he's my dad not my neighbor but I'm sorry to disappoint this shitty internet sloth maybe stick to watching reruns of CSI Miami you're not even ready for the big leagues of CSI Las Vegas yet but back to the DIY aspect though my terrible joke's aside Mr Cole is really trying to say you can upgrade your living or shop space without the high cost of a professional installation and so far I can confirm I am no professional when it comes to HVAC so if I can manage to get this running truly anyone can with the cealing cassette installed it's time to put the condenser on this pad I plopped into place and then run the pre-charge line sets which are the secret sauce behind this entire system again having a helper makes all the difference to pass the lines up into the attic and connect them to the unit another little fun fact these units have a variable speed DC inverter compressor which reduces the operating cost and is covered by a 7-year replacement warranty all in all I'm not going to say this was a snappier fingers installed but again if I can do it you can too and just to be clear the ceiling cassette is 18,000 BTU and complete overkill for my shop as it is today but we're going to add an office onto the back soon Mr Cool does have 12 18 24,000 BTU units depending on the size of your space and they are all energy STAR certified I am thrilled with this upgrade so happy I won't be waiting an hour for the shop to heat up or cool down and I would highly encourage you to check out Mr Cool to make your living or shop space more comfortable and a big thanks to Mr Cool for sponsoring this video above my jointer is the main Lumber rack and I know as Woodworkers we like to inflate ourselves worth by trying to make everything but please please just buy these they're cheaper than the materials alone to build plus they're nice and sturdy and nothing screams hobby woodworking shop like a lumber rack that stores wood you won't ever use and on the ground behind the jointer is more vertical wood storage and off cuts that I toss over here I can count let's see one two three at least four projects that I'm in the middle of so if you're asking for a good Solution on how to manage scraps and keep things tidy I'm probably not your guy along the back wall is a bank of cabinets that a very convenient tool sits on AKA a mitos saw station there is a dedicated build video in plans if you like what you see but let me point out four things about this area that really important number one this is really bad I like pegboard but in this instance it's a horrible use of space quite honestly I've just been too lazy to take it down I'm thinking some upper cabinets would work at least I could store all the finishes in there I don't know what are your thoughts also side note how come every time I see a shop tour people have five plus drills I feel like the three I own is really excessive is there a drill compensating movement that I'm not aware of and need to be made part of just let me know I do however like to keep my jigsaw the multi-tool glue sandpaper all those things in an easy to reach spot number two as far as my actual miter station the saw is a 12-in Bosch and the big advantage to this model is the space saving from the articulating arm I do have the saw connected to a dedicated shop vac hidden in this lower cabinet and it's just a cheap rigid Home Depot purchase that's hooked up to an auto onoff switch the tool goes on and the vacuum and it's a nice upgrade for around $30 what you don't want to do is use the shop back with out a filter bag because mine is caked in dust and that significantly reduces the air flow when I rebuilt this setup I added a bunch of smaller drawers to complement the larger ones and I do think they actually keep me moderately more organized because it's easier to group like items such as this collection of red tools that I pretend not to own on camera so you all don't judge me and I know some people like to see how every drawer is organized in a shop tour but truthfully I would use someone else for inspiration because well this is something third point my previous miter station had an MDF top and despite 67 coats of shellac it still got some water damage hence the plywood with the black laminate on the rebuild while we're up here this leads us to a fun surprise almost one year ago I showed an initial prototype of a new stop block I was designing with my buddy Izzy Swan and 12 months later we have a final prototype before this heads to manufacturing and all the features that we initially promised including a flip stop sight glass and a micro adjust that moves the Stop and the viewfinder together have been delivered and the best part is because this pivots can be used in a fenceless or fence setup like on your Crosscut sled again this is just a 3D printed prototype the for sale version will be a combo of aluminum and some other sturdy materials now if you want to be notified as soon as this is available for sale I left the link in the description below and this will help us gauge demand so a big thank you in advance to everyone who signs up number four tucked conveniently under my saw is the DeWalt planer and it's a great example that not all storage under Tools needs to be drawers storing a tool under a tool will open up floor space in your small shop now this is the second DeWalt 735 that I've owned and I bought both used and I upgraded to my current because it had a helic head like the jointer if you're going to be doing a lot of Milling it's worth shelling out the extra cash for the special cutter head for over 8 years I've never had a dedicated space in my shop to keep the planner ready for use so it's always been on carts or a cheap Dolly from Harbor Freight but I decided to help save my back from lifting this onto the workbench and bought a motorcycle lift a couple weeks ago the idea is I can wheel this out raise it to the bench height and then slide it up over and when I'm done I do that all in Reverse so far I think this was worth it it's definitely not stable enough to use at full height on longer boards you might get away with shorter pieces but use at your own discretion while we're over here time to chat about this workbench that doubles as an outf table of ice occasional bed stool to reach the ceiling the list really just goes on and on but the point I'm trying to make is when you're in a small space consider how to design and build multi-purpose functionality into everything you can like leaving the space open below the miter soft for another tool or routing in these dovetail grooves along the side keeps me from having a visce that sticks out and I bang into constantly I'm sure you've picked up that the shop is a mixed bag of good and bad decisions and this bench is no different like the miter station the top is laminate and that's because I'm an absolute slob when it comes to assembling projects my work holding on the top surface is basically non-existent though and I really need to add some dog holes to remedy that situation when I built this four years ago I told myself I would finish the actual storage a month later and you can see how that's working out for me I even salvaged a piece for my old desk and slid it in here so I have a drawer of sorts on the side I keep my green tools hidden away also limited camera exposure for fear of social shaming and these cases are really annoying and I should probably build pull out trays but I think you can tell that shop upgrades are generally pretty low on my priority list and I would encourage anyone to spend more time making furniture and actual projects not focusing on perfecting every inch of your shop something I do love about this setup is hidden out of sight on the far side of my bench it's my third dust collector which is called an extractor but the magic is how I use this because it's connected to a series of hoses that are mounted on my expertly designed boom arm and this is by far my favorite thing in the shop I can connect it to my blade guard on the table saw my smaller handheld tools like a circular saw or sander and another surprise is the majority of the Dust lands in a cyclone separator that's also tucked away along the side of the wall and emptying that is just much easier than the bags in my extractor recently I 3D printed a holder for my sander so rather than keeping in that annoying case it's ready to go on my boom boom which brings us to another critical point about setting up a small Workshop almost every shop tour I've ever watched talks about optimizing your workflow to move as quickly from one task to another in the middle of a project such as storing your Lumber above the miter saw because that's the first tool to use when breaking down wood or keeping the jointer and planer next to one another because they work in tandm to M boards my lumber isn't above the miter saw but I can take two steps that way and like I said earlier there's no room for the planer to be left out in a small hobby shop workflow is just nonsense don't sacrifice better storage on big tools to feel like you might be saving 45 seconds over the course of a project plus we do this for fun not to be as efficient as possible I don't think it's the exact same idea but I've also heard a lot of people refer to how you store tools using the first order of retrievability I'm not entirely sure what that actually means but I think it can be boiled down to Common Sense keep items like pencils squares tape measures your clamps and easy to reach places even if they end up being scattered around the shop it's better than tucking them away for the sake of flow you see I got myself all worked up that I almost forgot to show you an instance where French cleats are far superior to pegboard clamps they are really heavy and they generally require custom storage like these plywood racks unless you want to pay a lot of money for something from a manufacturer start with pipe and Trigger clamps and once you have some extra money to burn parallel clamps are preferred plus they help you fit in on YouTube Every shop has unique space and personal limitations but by applying these general principles you will have a garage basement or shed full of more tools than you know what to do with soon enough we'll see you

Channel: Lincoln St. Woodworks

Views: 156,325

Keywords: small spaces, woodworking, shoptour, diy, woodworkingshoptour, woodworking tips

Id: WuKkJ6goaoY

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 02 2024