A short time ago our family "graduated" from a
rather small living space into one that had an actual yard and, to my biggest
excitement, a real garage. By "real", I mean a garage big enough to
fit two cars, a workbench and several large free-standing tools while still
having room to walk around. That means I'm now able to fulfill a personal need
that I've been working around for about 25 years: my own shop space! Being a
highly creative individual (at least as I’ve been called by many folks out
there ), I've had to fill my innate needs to build things by borrowing space in
other people's shops, garages, warehouses, and sheds ever since I was a
teenager. As I can personally attest, this practice can get rather cumbersome,
especially when you need access to the workspace at odd hours, or when your
project requires borrowing others' tools, or when a project takes a long time
to complete. All of these situations can occasionally strain the good will of
those you're borrowing space from, regardless of how gracious or grateful you
are about their generosity. Finally having the freedom (and responsibility) of
your own creative domain can be quite liberating. At the very least, it feels
like I've opened up an entirely new realm of design possibilities--albeit with the
budget and time constraints that accompany it.
In designing the layout and use of my new space, I quickly
noticed that I was relying on some "shop norms" that I'd consistently
encountered over the years. These consisted of several aspects that I've found
in successful shop environments that I've grown accustomed to in the past.
Figuring that my "design rationale" for my new shop may be useful to
others out there less experienced in shop environments, I decided to write
about this particular topic in today's blog entry.
There are a wide range of considerations in developing your
shop space, especially if you have particularly specific requirements for how
you intend to use it. I'm going to focus on some of the more general shop
needs, based on my own particular experience in fabricating projects made from
woods, plastics, metals, composites, and a variety of other materials.
Different materials require different tools (with some tools overlapping
between some types of materials) and space needs, so a certain degree of customization
may be required for your shop depending on what you're doing. Regardless of how
you use your space, though, the following five essentials are bound to play a
deciding role in how you'll need to develop the space. These essentials include
making sure you have the following: adequate space, sufficient work surfaces,
appropriate utilities, the right tools, and controllability of the work
environment/atmosphere.
Essential #1: Space
First, let's talk about the need for adequate space. This
may seem like a relatively foregone conclusion, but I've seen a lot of people
try to make do with some incredibly constraining work spaces—often with very
negative results. If you do have the ability to design the space you’ll be
using, try to consider how much space you will reasonably need to match the
size of both the projects and the tools you anticipate fitting into that space.
This should include appropriate storage for materials and tools, and some good
consideration for how to keep these organized and clean. Having adequate space
means you have enough height, width and depth to easily move about and work
safely. It's true that I've seen some very interesting projects come out of
less-than elegant spaces, but in every one of those instances, there was always
enough actual space to get the job done.
Entry/exit should allow for large
projects so you can avoid the ship-in-a-bottle problem of finishing a project
(where you can’t fit it through the door once it’s finished). At the very
least, get some graph paper, make a plan view (top view) drawing of the space,
and block out the area you’ll need for cabinets, shelves, workbenches, tables,
tools, storage (for both projects and materials) or anything else that will go
in the space. Be as thorough as you can with this step and measure out an
existing room for a visual reference if you need to. If you find that you don’t
have enough space to move around in your graphed-out space, then you may need
to pare back the amount of “stuff” you plan to put in the shop—or you may, at
least, need to find a way to creatively organize or securely stack everything
so you can still work effectively and safely.
Essential #2: Work Surfaces
Another shop essential is an adequate amount of work surfaces. By “work surfaces”, I’m
referring to horizontal surfaces and flat areas that can be used to place your
projects and tools within arm’s reach as you work on them. While it is, indeed,
possible to create things while sitting on the floor, our physiology lends
itself to more effective project construction and tool control when we are
either standing up or sitting at a table. Therefore, these usable work surfaces
could include workbenches and tables, but may even consist of wide shelves, the
top surfaces of cabinets (whether fixed or roll-about styles), or even an old
door placed atop sawhorses. Optimally, it is best to use work surfaces that are
adjustable or fixed at a comfortable working height. I personally prefer work
surfaces that are set at a height of between 36 and 40 inches because they
allow me to either stand or sit on a stool while working. I've found that standing works best
when I’m putting a lot of physical force into a project while sitting works
best for finer tool control.
Essential #3: Utilities
Next, don’t forget about the utilities you’ll need to make
the workshop more useful. Some will argue that it’s possible to get some good
projects done in an old, dusty, drafty, or leaky barn or tool shed. But,
honestly, the quality of your work (and work experience) can be greatly
enhanced when modern conveniences are included in the work space. At the top of
that “modern conveniences” list is electricity. A simple electrical connection
can make a huge difference in the capabilities of a work space. Even more can
be done when surplus electrical capacity (beyond the bare minimum required to
juice-up one tool or light at a time) is available in the shop space. I’ve been
able to do a lot with a simple outdoor extension cord run all the way from the
side of a house into a shed, but it’s always a hassle plugging and unplugging
tools as needed from one socket. If you add (or hire a licensed electrician to
add) a dedicated electrical line (and possibly a sub-panel) into a shop space, you’ve
got a great recipe for increased shop success. Proper electrical capacity will
allow for adequate lighting of the shop space, regardless of the weather or
time of day. It will also help handle the electrical needs of power equipment
you'll be using. Having a compressed air supply can be especially helpful, but
it won’t happen without electricity (unless you’ve got one of those handy,
though somewhat-rare, gas-powered compressors). Remember that if you intend to
expand your repertoire of power tools over time, it may be useful to increase
your electrical capacity with a dedicated electrical panel, as well. Repeatedly
blowing fuses in the middle of a tricky operation with a power tool can be both
annoying and dangerous.
Depending on your shop needs, a utility supply of water and
sewer drainage (for shop or project cleanup) or other amenities may also be
important. In the case of my shop, where I’ll inevitably be doing some
composites work, dedicated vacuum lines are also a must, and can be piped
through sealed PVC or steel pipes connected to a vacuum pump that is
electrically driven from elsewhere in the shop.
Essential #4: Tools
Additionally, no shop would really even be useful as a shop
without tools. Tools are one of those things that set us apart from our four
legged friends, so it would be difficult to overrate their usefulness in a
workshop. With the right tools (or compensatory skill and ingenuity) just about
any operation can be done in a workshop. One very formidable problem that many
builders run into, though, is the cost of those tools. Before starting out on
any project, always take inventory of what tools will be needed, and what tools
you’ve actually got or what tools you can creatively use or modify to get the
job done. In building a collection of tools for proper shop work, I’ve seen
many a craftsman fret more than their share about having practically every tool
possible. However, a bit of ingenuity can compensate for a lack of expensive or
"amazing" tools—in spite of what the tool marketers will tell you. For
example, I can do some things with a cheap bandsaw that many of my students
think can only be done with an expensive CNC router—it just took a bit of
practice to get to that point. In building up an appropriate collection of
tools, remember to also include clean-up tools, like brooms, whisks, dustpans,
trash cans, buckets, scrub brushes, towels, etc.
Essential #5: Environmental Control
Lastly, consider what amount of environmental control is
needed for your work space. This particular aspect of a shop refers to how
comfortable the space is to work in, since the comfort level of the environment
can actually affect a craftsman's effectiveness. For example, it may be important
to include climate control for the purpose of personal comfort (too cold or too
hot are both dangerous), safety (sound noise levels, poor ventilation, and
slippery floors can be hazardous in their own rights), but also for reasons
that may affect the quality of the projects being produced in the shop
environment (such as when heat-sensitive chemical processes are being employed,
as with resins used in composites or paint applied to a project).
For some people, an important environmental concern is the
music that is floating through the air of the shop. For me, music is an
extremely important environmental element that can directly affect how well I
can focus my work efforts in the shop. I've gotta have shop tunes. I was raised
on "shop rock", listening to 80's hair bands and 70's classic arena
rock, admittedly, mostly for its ability to channel my youthful fits of testosterone-borne
funk into more useful energy within the shop. But these days I'm just as
amenable to other less raucous music, as long as it fits my mood and helps
direct my concentration to the task at hand rather than distract from it. I
even have a special set of playlists on the handy MP3 player set up for my shop
mood-of-the-day (which beats digging out all the ol’ cassette tapes to get my
fix of Asia or Boston tunes).
So, there you have it: five (lengthy) essentials for a
workshop environment. Many craftsman out there may view this entry as a very boring recap or what they already know about shop spaces. But hopefully it is still useful for anyone who is looking to design (or
redesign) a work space for best work efficiency and project quality.
Keep rockin’ and building, my friends!
