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I'm building a new shop. The twp. will only allow me a 32'x32' so it's going to be tight. If anyone has any floorplans that have worked for you, I'd appreciate it if you would share them with me. I've had shops up to 4,000 sq. ft. and those just kinda worked themselves out with wheels on everything and plenty of room, but this may be tricky. I'm not going to have any cutters or printers in the shop, they will be in the other office. I'm just talking work space here. Thanks for the info, Mike
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Hi Mike, Coming down from a 4000 sq.ft. shop to a 32' x 32' must be a shock. Obviously you will be doing a far lower quantity of work in the new place, or at least much smaller work. Is your floorspace open at least? How large is the biggest sign you think you will need to build in there, and how will you get it from one 'area' of the shop to the next?
I just moved into a similar sized shop and had to keep in mind materials storage and tool storage, space needed to feed sheets through the panel saw and table saw, and our biggest concern - keeping the painting operations well isolated from the dust of the woodworking operations. That's a VERY tall order in such a small space.
I could type for an hour on how it all transpired, but the essence of the solution was to wall off about 1/3 of the space to be kept as a CLEAN room (for finish painting), with it's own overhead door to the outside and separate ventilation. A sealed walk-thru door connects the cell to the main shop and is wide enough to roll our 4 gurney-sized work tables between the rooms.
The clean room has a 5-shelf, rolling, wire, drying rack that can hold wet pieces to free up the work tables for the next project. It's long and narrow, with a paint mixing/storage area at the far end. If it weren't for a stairwell at the far end, I would have much preferred a second connecting door at the other end of the cell, or a larger, double door (like french doors), but you do what you have to do. To make it seem less cave-like, we put glass panels in the connecting wall so you can see right out into the main shop giving a more open feel.
All the rolling tables also have a lower shelf to hold parts of jobs in progress. Between the doors and the rolling tables and having all the 'stationary' power tools on locking castors, the shop has been working out great this last month. It has also been much easier to keep clean than our old space because there is a planned spot for every tool and stick of material that comes in, and there's air hoses and vacuum system to keep everything blown off and sucked up. And a ton of LIGHTING keeps it bright everywhere.
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Beautiful looking work shop Joe Rees. Unfortunately if you ever get a visit from the EPA, you will be fined for your paint storage. All paints must be kept in metal cabinets, i think thats why they put paint in metal cans, hehehe. All in all, your shop looks awesome and must be feel real comfortable
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
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Hey Carib Mike, you gonna be able to get trucks inside? Roll up door? How high is the ceiling? Do you need a clean area that's separated from sawdust? Will you be intending to work alone? Will there be provision for fishing gear?
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6724 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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quote:Originally posted by Joey Madden: All paints must be kept in metal cabinets
Good point Joey and true. There's two ironies to that; 1) The lower cabinet below the mixing counter IS metal and houses our gallon cans, it is chuck full of WATER BASED PAINTS; 2) The retail store where I buy my paints has 100 times more flamable product on hand than I do, and hundreds of people milling around 10 hours a day, and there's not a metal cabinet in sight.
I wonder if I would get any points from the EPA for having all my lids on tight? Hopefully they have bigger fish to fry.
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Joe, never concern yourself about the EPA having bigger fish to fry, they don't go after big fish. The EPA shows up at smaller shops with summons in hand and have been doing this forever. In the mid 90's the EPA in NY, gave body shops summons for not having a certain kind of exhaust fan they deemed necessary before a certain law went into effect. The payment for such a summons was anywhere between 3 and 10 thousand dollars depending on how much crap you gave them. The EPA lives free on the east coast between the yuppies who run small towns and your neighbors who rat you out.
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
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it would be interesting to take a poll (a blind anonymous one of course)on how many people actually have paint stored in metal cabinets
I worried about that for a few years & finally picked up a bank of lockers for that purpose. They are 1' wide & 36" stacked in pairs, & sharing a wall with the next pair... on down the line. I figured out that I could mount them sideways a lot easier then installing a lot of shelves. I've hed them 2 years though... & still haven't begun using them.
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I have the paint storage thing figured out from the old days. I'm going to scare up a large non-working refrigerator. Disconnect the guts, jump the door light switch so that when it's plugged in, the light stays on all the time. I will keep it plugged in, in the winter with a 60 watt lightbulb in it. That is enough to keep the moisture from the flux coated welding rod and will generate enough heat to keep the paint from freezing when I'm not using the shop here in the great frozen north(afterall, a kid has to get to the Bahamas bonefishing from time to time)(maybe I can make enought out of this little shop to take my friend Bill Modzel along too, he deserves it). That trick takes care of the temp and metal cabinet problem. Thanks Joe for the photo's. I was of course planing on keeping everything on wheels. I'm also planning a large curtain to draw down the middle when I have to fire up the spray gun. Also planning dust collectors on anything that cuts. The ceiling is 10' with a 12'wide x 8' high overhead door. Thanks for all the ideas. I had no choice on the size of the shop, that was dictated by the township. Afterall, they do own the place. Stop paying the taxes and find out who really owns your place.... Thanks all, Mike
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