Setting up shop.

[Tin Falcon]

Guys thought I would start a new thread rather than hijack or change the direction of the other one.

Quoted by Timur from the small lathe ? thread
Just had the walls and roof put up on my workshop, its still over a month away before I will be able to use it but I can now guage how much room I will have and it looks like I will have more space than I thought so I will probably be able to get the bigger one now.

When I first decided to use my pesent shop as a shop I had great Ideas of what I wanted to fit in the space. I did not want to plan by trial and error and shuffle stuff. I came up with this idea. It is apparently not original as it is used by interior designers for space planning. .
Draw the shop footprint to scale on a piece of graph paper. Draw in the location of doors windows radiators sinks or other fixtures. Now on a second piece of paper draw the footprint of the Items you want to put in the shop to the same scale. Label each item as you draw them. now cut out the paper footprints of the machines work benches desk whatever and arrange them in the shop area. This will help plan and visualize the space before you move anything in. Remember to keep in mind needed clearance around the mill and lathe head stock. This method can even be used to organize small machines on a bench top.
Also if planning to build a shop this method can be used to located windows, doors, outlets ,light fixtures, etc. It will also allow you to see/plan how much space is needed for your tools , workbenches metal storage etc.
Tin

 

[tmuir]

Thanks,

Its a good idea, will have a go at it over the next couple of weeks.
I've got the next 2 weeks off work and a lot of that will be spent levelling off the ground inside and outside the workshop to get it ready for the concrete floor and the paving around it. I've also got about a 10 meter trench to dig to drop the conduits in for power and comms before the floor is done. Don't need the comms one really at the moment but to put the extra conduit in only added about $12 extra to the cost so might as well do it now as its easy to do now, much harder after the floor is poured.

 

[wareagle]

Tin, excellent points! When I was setting up my current shop, all of my equipment was measured along with the footprint of the building. In much the same way, I arranged things around what I had at the time, with room left for future tooling.

When I moved my shop, I didn't yet have my lathe. However, I knew what I was after, and I took the dimensions from the specs of the lathe that I was looking at, and figured that into the floor plan as well. Until the lathe arrived, that space was used for general storage of boxes, etc.

Once I was able to pull the trigger on a lathe, I already had the space and power ready for it. The storage tems were removed, and the lathe went in without any problems and everything worked as if it were planned that way. My back sure appreciated the fact that there wasn't a full shuffle when the unit arived, too!

Planning really pays off. And the tighter the space, the more valuable it becomes. You would be surprised at what can be squeezed into a given space if there is some thought and planning into the layout. The time spent up front is well worth it.

 

[Hal]

Tin

Grizzly has a on line program that you can use, it's set up for wood working but might work for you.

Hal

 

[Tin Falcon]

Hal:
I think you may have misunderstood something here.
Tmuir is the one building the new shop. I was simply sharing what I found to be a simple and useful tool for shop planning.
I was not aware of Grizzly's program I will check it out could be useful in the future.
The ironic thing is after the shop was set up I added a SB 9" and a roll-around Kennedy box so things have gotten tight.

I decided to check online for space planning software.
Smartdraw
has a free trial download .
Google Sketchup could also be usefull.

Tin