Idea Shop 5

agreed. must have a very nice wife to allow using 18x22 of garage space.

Would your shop look good in WOOD magazine or one of our newsstand specials? If so, learn more about submitting it here: woodmagazine.com/garageshop

If your like me you build a variety of projects different sizes and shapes. There is no one way layout that will fit even the most clever craftsman. I believe it is part of the tool manufactures responsiblity to get clever and design tools which can be used comfortably in anyones shop. I for one am tired of trying to design my shop around their tools. The more complex their tools, the more I appreciate hand tools and a typical bench.

I am using a small room appox. 12x12 is wall storage and rolling carts the way to go?

I am researching heavy duty slides to house most of my tools (oscillating sander, 12" sander, chop saw, jig saw & router table) in drawers along one wall to reserve floor space for table saw, band saw & drill press. I figure the planer to be a infrequent tool that can store under my portable work bench and use on that work bench when needed. The duste collector will be housed outside in a tall cabinet and plumbed through the wall.

24" X 24" is a standard 2 car garage? Maybe in todays time but I wish the builder of my 1938 house knew that.

We have a one car garage. My shop is in the from part. So it is only 8x9.5. Mostly I work outside. The point is our 1 car garage is only 9.5 x 20. I'd love to have the space they mentioned...

With a shop like you show at wood Mag. I could have a commercial set up.Please get down to earth.

I have a 12 by 22 shop and it can work. in fact it does quite nicely

Thanks for the suggestions. As is clear from the comments below, we all have different configurations to work in and around. I finally built my first shop after more than 25 years of working around everything else in my garage, carport, and/or sheds. I took all the best ideas from various of your articles and came up with solutions that fit my curcumstances. The result is a shop that meets my project needs in the space I have available. Please keep the ideas coming! RLD

I agree with the other comments. My 3rd stall shop is 10x22 and I stole every spare inch I could afford from the 2-car portion of the garage.

A couple comments. First, I have found that angling my table saw gives me more room for infeed and outfeed of large pieces in my cramped space. In fact, I often have to open the side door (to the outside) and run my infeed there. Second, I would never wall off a bay. What do you do when you need the space for a big project? Carry the pieces out the roll-up door and back into another bay? Otherwise, very nice and helpful article.

I do have an 8x20 space as work shop and find that it is tight squeezing all my mobile-based tools against one wall and still finding room for a bench and storage. Instead of the more powerful cyclone, I have a shop-vac with dust deputy which is distributed via 2.5in tubes. Not as powerful, but picks up dust off the tools well during clean-up.

"We walled off one 15x22' bay" - You're kidding - 15' is one third of a three car garage? Its the whole 2 car garage for Jbi7459 above. Nice shop, but advertised with some editorial license.