We are building a small shop; about 24 feet by 38 feet and I am looking for what it would take layout wise and equipment wise to make it capable for small wooden boat construction as well as the typical furniture project. If you had this space, how would you lay it out and equip it? Any ideas? Essential dos and don'ts?
Thanks,
jrzarch
We are building a small shop; about 24 feet by 38 feet and I am looking for what it would take layout wise and equipment wise to make it capable for small wooden boat construction as well as the typical furniture project. If you had this space, how would you lay it out and equip it? Any ideas? Essential dos and don'ts?
Thanks,
jrzarch
We are building a small shop; about 24 feet by 38 feet and I am looking for what it would take layout wise and equipment wise to make it capable for small wooden boat construction as well as the typical furniture project. If you had this space, how would you lay it out and equip it? Any ideas? Essential dos and don'ts?
Thanks,
jrzarch
Senior Senior Member
If you are going into the boat building business with the intentions of making money......or how to make a $100,000 the first year......
Leave the floor DIRT. Down each side of the building make a floor to mount the power tools on one side and racks for stacking wood on the other.
Install plenty of lighting.
At one end of the building make an area for a coffee area and a shelf for large bottles of super strength Tylonol or aspirin.
At the other end of the shop build a head with running water/heat/air onditioning and stock with WoodenBoat, Boatbuilder, and Professional Boatbuilder.
Start with $200,000 in the bank.
Good luck.
Senior Senior Member
If you are going into the boat building business with the intentions of making money......or how to make a $100,000 the first year......
Leave the floor DIRT. Down each side of the building make a floor to mount the power tools on one side and racks for stacking wood on the other.
Install plenty of lighting.
At one end of the building make an area for a coffee area and a shelf for large bottles of super strength Tylonol or aspirin.
At the other end of the shop build a head with running water/heat/air onditioning and stock with WoodenBoat, Boatbuilder, and Professional Boatbuilder.
Start with $200,000 in the bank.
Good luck.
Senior Senior Member
If you are going into the boat building business with the intentions of making money......or how to make a $100,000 the first year......
Leave the floor DIRT. Down each side of the building make a floor to mount the power tools on one side and racks for stacking wood on the other.
Install plenty of lighting.
At one end of the building make an area for a coffee area and a shelf for large bottles of super strength Tylonol or aspirin.
At the other end of the shop build a head with running water/heat/air onditioning and stock with WoodenBoat, Boatbuilder, and Professional Boatbuilder.
Start with $200,000 in the bank.
Good luck.
Senior Member
And don't forget your "moaning chair." This should be really comfortable and really funky. Preferably a large easy chair with the stuffing coming out of the arms. Also, install a big wood burning stove... those jobs that have the cast ends you attach to a 55 gallon oil drum have the right ambience. You can keep the shop heated with $16.00 a board foot fire wood all winter!
Actually, buy a copy of the "Workshop Book" from WB. In fact, get the whole set of three books, "Workshop" "Workbench" and "Toolbox" books. They won't tell you exactly how to set up the perfect shop from scratch, but they will give you a wealth of ideas.
I'm in the process of setting up the third home shop of my lifetime right now. I don't make my living working in them, so don't put a lot of store by me. Still, I can say that one thing is for sure. You can't have too big a workbench. This is particularly so if you are going to be doing any furniture or case work. Another thing for sure is that you can't have too many drawers. I just built my latest workbench. It is 4'x 7' on top and has 20 drawers in it, ten to a side. The whole thing is on heavy duty locking casters so I can move it around when I want to. "Recycle" drawers from old furniture and kitchens. Find a kitchen remodeler and lay a couple of cases of beer on his crew. They will be just a little more careful when they rip out old kitchen cabinets. Use the hanging cabinets as is for your shop. Use the drawers from the bases for your drawers. It will save you big time and you'll have nice cabinets. In my first shop, I got lucky and scored the cabinet work from a dentist's office remodel. I was able to install a bunch of bases, all formica faced, which had a gazillion small tool drawers in them, all with separators for dental tools and stuff. I didn't have to do any customizing at all... I hated to part with that one, but it was really what sold the house and added a lot more to it's value than it ever cost me.
Finally, the old philosopher here sez, "Great shops ain't built... they just growed!" Start working and your shop will evolve to meet your needs. There aren't any rules. There aren't any books. A shop is just a collection of problems you solve one at a time while you are working in them.
Senior Member
And don't forget your "moaning chair." This should be really comfortable and really funky. Preferably a large easy chair with the stuffing coming out of the arms. Also, install a big wood burning stove... those jobs that have the cast ends you attach to a 55 gallon oil drum have the right ambience. You can keep the shop heated with $16.00 a board foot fire wood all winter!
Actually, buy a copy of the "Workshop Book" from WB. In fact, get the whole set of three books, "Workshop" "Workbench" and "Toolbox" books. They won't tell you exactly how to set up the perfect shop from scratch, but they will give you a wealth of ideas.
I'm in the process of setting up the third home shop of my lifetime right now. I don't make my living working in them, so don't put a lot of store by me. Still, I can say that one thing is for sure. You can't have too big a workbench. This is particularly so if you are going to be doing any furniture or case work. Another thing for sure is that you can't have too many drawers. I just built my latest workbench. It is 4'x 7' on top and has 20 drawers in it, ten to a side. The whole thing is on heavy duty locking casters so I can move it around when I want to. "Recycle" drawers from old furniture and kitchens. Find a kitchen remodeler and lay a couple of cases of beer on his crew. They will be just a little more careful when they rip out old kitchen cabinets. Use the hanging cabinets as is for your shop. Use the drawers from the bases for your drawers. It will save you big time and you'll have nice cabinets. In my first shop, I got lucky and scored the cabinet work from a dentist's office remodel. I was able to install a bunch of bases, all formica faced, which had a gazillion small tool drawers in them, all with separators for dental tools and stuff. I didn't have to do any customizing at all... I hated to part with that one, but it was really what sold the house and added a lot more to it's value than it ever cost me.
Finally, the old philosopher here sez, "Great shops ain't built... they just growed!" Start working and your shop will evolve to meet your needs. There aren't any rules. There aren't any books. A shop is just a collection of problems you solve one at a time while you are working in them.
Senior Member
And don't forget your "moaning chair." This should be really comfortable and really funky. Preferably a large easy chair with the stuffing coming out of the arms. Also, install a big wood burning stove... those jobs that have the cast ends you attach to a 55 gallon oil drum have the right ambience. You can keep the shop heated with $16.00 a board foot fire wood all winter!
Actually, buy a copy of the "Workshop Book" from WB. In fact, get the whole set of three books, "Workshop" "Workbench" and "Toolbox" books. They won't tell you exactly how to set up the perfect shop from scratch, but they will give you a wealth of ideas.
I'm in the process of setting up the third home shop of my lifetime right now. I don't make my living working in them, so don't put a lot of store by me. Still, I can say that one thing is for sure. You can't have too big a workbench. This is particularly so if you are going to be doing any furniture or case work. Another thing for sure is that you can't have too many drawers. I just built my latest workbench. It is 4'x 7' on top and has 20 drawers in it, ten to a side. The whole thing is on heavy duty locking casters so I can move it around when I want to. "Recycle" drawers from old furniture and kitchens. Find a kitchen remodeler and lay a couple of cases of beer on his crew. They will be just a little more careful when they rip out old kitchen cabinets. Use the hanging cabinets as is for your shop. Use the drawers from the bases for your drawers. It will save you big time and you'll have nice cabinets. In my first shop, I got lucky and scored the cabinet work from a dentist's office remodel. I was able to install a bunch of bases, all formica faced, which had a gazillion small tool drawers in them, all with separators for dental tools and stuff. I didn't have to do any customizing at all... I hated to part with that one, but it was really what sold the house and added a lot more to it's value than it ever cost me.
Finally, the old philosopher here sez, "Great shops ain't built... they just growed!" Start working and your shop will evolve to meet your needs. There aren't any rules. There aren't any books. A shop is just a collection of problems you solve one at a time while you are working in them.
Senior Member
I can think of three key features that should be part of a boat shop and that might not be part of a furniture shop.
1. A large clear space for the boat. Ideally you want at least 3' on all sides of the hull.
2. A big enough door at the end of the clear space to allow you to get the boat out of the shop easily.
3. As you plan your bench and power tool layout you should take into account the fact that for boat work you may need to deal with wood up to around 18' long (or longer if you can get it and the boat needs it). So, consider how your plan will work if you need to rip that 18 foot board on your tablesaw or run it through the planner. On the same basis, some extra ceiling height is very nice, but it is also nice to have accessible overhead framing to brace stuff to.
I should note that all of this is predicated on the assumption that when you talk about 'small wooden boat[s]' you are talking about things like rowboats, canoes, outboard powered skiffs, etc. If your idea of a small boat is a 25', 5000-pound cruising sloop then you are talking about a whole different ball game.
So, continuing on that assumption, I would skip the dirt floor, if for no other reason than that it is pretty useless for furniture work. I would, however, strongly encourage you to consider some sort of a wood floor because you will need to fasten things to the floor as part of the boat work and that is a lot easier to do with a wood floor than with a concrete floor. The idea of the dirt floor is to keep things damp so that the planks on a traditionally constructed boat do not dry out and shrink too much, but you can achieve the same end with a wood floor in at least a couple of ways. One approach would be to lay an uninsulated wood floor over a dirt crawl space with small gaps in the wood flooring to allow for some air exchange. However, this approach (and the straight dirt floor approach) won't really work well if you plan to heat the shop to a temperature that is comfortable for furniture work. In that case I would insulate everything well and otherwise seal up as many cracks as possible and then, if necessary, plan to use a humidifier to keep things from getting too dry in the winter. The driest shop (or house) is a fully heated shop with lots of air leaks. Some of this also comes down to the kind of boats you contemplate building and also how you work. Epoxy heavy construction methods need a warmer, drier shop than traditional plank-on-frame construction. Also, I tend to build my boats to close to furniture standards and consequently a dirt floor would not work well for me. If, on the other hand, you were planning to knock out 'workboat finished' dories, then a dirt floor might make a lot more sense.
All of that said, I am well along on the construction of a 14' rowing skiff in a shop that is 10' wide by about 30' long, has a less than 7' ceiling, has very poor access to the outdoors, and has a concrete floor. Clearly less than ideal, but it works.
Senior Member
I can think of three key features that should be part of a boat shop and that might not be part of a furniture shop.
1. A large clear space for the boat. Ideally you want at least 3' on all sides of the hull.
2. A big enough door at the end of the clear space to allow you to get the boat out of the shop easily.
3. As you plan your bench and power tool layout you should take into account the fact that for boat work you may need to deal with wood up to around 18' long (or longer if you can get it and the boat needs it). So, consider how your plan will work if you need to rip that 18 foot board on your tablesaw or run it through the planner. On the same basis, some extra ceiling height is very nice, but it is also nice to have accessible overhead framing to brace stuff to.
I should note that all of this is predicated on the assumption that when you talk about 'small wooden boat[s]' you are talking about things like rowboats, canoes, outboard powered skiffs, etc. If your idea of a small boat is a 25', 5000-pound cruising sloop then you are talking about a whole different ball game.
So, continuing on that assumption, I would skip the dirt floor, if for no other reason than that it is pretty useless for furniture work. I would, however, strongly encourage you to consider some sort of a wood floor because you will need to fasten things to the floor as part of the boat work and that is a lot easier to do with a wood floor than with a concrete floor. The idea of the dirt floor is to keep things damp so that the planks on a traditionally constructed boat do not dry out and shrink too much, but you can achieve the same end with a wood floor in at least a couple of ways. One approach would be to lay an uninsulated wood floor over a dirt crawl space with small gaps in the wood flooring to allow for some air exchange. However, this approach (and the straight dirt floor approach) won't really work well if you plan to heat the shop to a temperature that is comfortable for furniture work. In that case I would insulate everything well and otherwise seal up as many cracks as possible and then, if necessary, plan to use a humidifier to keep things from getting too dry in the winter. The driest shop (or house) is a fully heated shop with lots of air leaks. Some of this also comes down to the kind of boats you contemplate building and also how you work. Epoxy heavy construction methods need a warmer, drier shop than traditional plank-on-frame construction. Also, I tend to build my boats to close to furniture standards and consequently a dirt floor would not work well for me. If, on the other hand, you were planning to knock out 'workboat finished' dories, then a dirt floor might make a lot more sense.
All of that said, I am well along on the construction of a 14' rowing skiff in a shop that is 10' wide by about 30' long, has a less than 7' ceiling, has very poor access to the outdoors, and has a concrete floor. Clearly less than ideal, but it works.
Senior Member
I can think of three key features that should be part of a boat shop and that might not be part of a furniture shop.
1. A large clear space for the boat. Ideally you want at least 3' on all sides of the hull.
2. A big enough door at the end of the clear space to allow you to get the boat out of the shop easily.
3. As you plan your bench and power tool layout you should take into account the fact that for boat work you may need to deal with wood up to around 18' long (or longer if you can get it and the boat needs it). So, consider how your plan will work if you need to rip that 18 foot board on your tablesaw or run it through the planner. On the same basis, some extra ceiling height is very nice, but it is also nice to have accessible overhead framing to brace stuff to.
I should note that all of this is predicated on the assumption that when you talk about 'small wooden boat[s]' you are talking about things like rowboats, canoes, outboard powered skiffs, etc. If your idea of a small boat is a 25', 5000-pound cruising sloop then you are talking about a whole different ball game.
So, continuing on that assumption, I would skip the dirt floor, if for no other reason than that it is pretty useless for furniture work. I would, however, strongly encourage you to consider some sort of a wood floor because you will need to fasten things to the floor as part of the boat work and that is a lot easier to do with a wood floor than with a concrete floor. The idea of the dirt floor is to keep things damp so that the planks on a traditionally constructed boat do not dry out and shrink too much, but you can achieve the same end with a wood floor in at least a couple of ways. One approach would be to lay an uninsulated wood floor over a dirt crawl space with small gaps in the wood flooring to allow for some air exchange. However, this approach (and the straight dirt floor approach) won't really work well if you plan to heat the shop to a temperature that is comfortable for furniture work. In that case I would insulate everything well and otherwise seal up as many cracks as possible and then, if necessary, plan to use a humidifier to keep things from getting too dry in the winter. The driest shop (or house) is a fully heated shop with lots of air leaks. Some of this also comes down to the kind of boats you contemplate building and also how you work. Epoxy heavy construction methods need a warmer, drier shop than traditional plank-on-frame construction. Also, I tend to build my boats to close to furniture standards and consequently a dirt floor would not work well for me. If, on the other hand, you were planning to knock out 'workboat finished' dories, then a dirt floor might make a lot more sense.
All of that said, I am well along on the construction of a 14' rowing skiff in a shop that is 10' wide by about 30' long, has a less than 7' ceiling, has very poor access to the outdoors, and has a concrete floor. Clearly less than ideal, but it works.
I like a truss frame building as they leave the largest free space available. My first shop was 20 by 36 with a keel pit and side decks and I immediately built a 32 foot sailboat in it. My current shop is 32 by 60 and it's still not big enough. My advice is to build as large as you can afford, allow for a loft on one side of the boat so that you won't constantly be on a ladder, and try to come up with a design that allows for additions. Good luck
I like a truss frame building as they leave the largest free space available. My first shop was 20 by 36 with a keel pit and side decks and I immediately built a 32 foot sailboat in it. My current shop is 32 by 60 and it's still not big enough. My advice is to build as large as you can afford, allow for a loft on one side of the boat so that you won't constantly be on a ladder, and try to come up with a design that allows for additions. Good luck
I like a truss frame building as they leave the largest free space available. My first shop was 20 by 36 with a keel pit and side decks and I immediately built a 32 foot sailboat in it. My current shop is 32 by 60 and it's still not big enough. My advice is to build as large as you can afford, allow for a loft on one side of the boat so that you won't constantly be on a ladder, and try to come up with a design that allows for additions. Good luck
Retro Member #1235
Retro Member #1235
Retro Member #1235
There is a very good book available called SETTING UP SHOP by Sandor Nagyszalanczy its available at Borders Books ($29.95) it contains a lot of good ideas. I too am in the process of setting up my boat shop in my new 30'x 40' garage in Michigan. Good luck
There is a very good book available called SETTING UP SHOP by Sandor Nagyszalanczy its available at Borders Books ($29.95) it contains a lot of good ideas. I too am in the process of setting up my boat shop in my new 30'x 40' garage in Michigan. Good luck
There is a very good book available called SETTING UP SHOP by Sandor Nagyszalanczy its available at Borders Books ($29.95) it contains a lot of good ideas. I too am in the process of setting up my boat shop in my new 30'x 40' garage in Michigan. Good luck
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