March 21, 2007

How to Design a Workshop

Is your workshop a total mess? If it is, it’s probably not built around a thought out plan, but rather it has formed itself out of convenience; as things come in, you sweep off a counter and find a place for it and that’s where it stays for all eternity. Yup, we’ve been there and let us tell you that it’s worth spending a weekend thinking through how you really use the space and how to maximize it, tailoring it to specifically to your needs.

In that spirit, we found this extremist over at instructables.com who went so far as to make little scale (1/4” to 1 foot) models of his tools. This gave him the freedom to move them all around his little workshop diorama with practically no effort. He could do in moments what would normally take an entire afternoon of exhausting labor. Imagine shuffling a drill press from one side of your shop to the other only to find that it gets in the way of the tablesaw outfeed.

His model allowed him to think about which tools he really uses and how much space he needs for each of them. It’s pretty nuts at first glance, but when you think about it, his weekend playing with his dollhouse will save him countless hours in the future.

As a result, he has a workshop that is fully his and in his control. The bandsaw isn’t closest to the door because it’s his newest tool and the table saw isn’t buried in the corner just because he’s had it the longest. This guy may be a bit manic, but he’ll be a very efficient woodworker.