# growth of shop



## thinker1 (Jan 27, 2009)

my shop is always changing in look dose yours? just when it is good and flowing i see something to change. is this just with me? or do you all do the same thing?


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## DaddyZ (Jan 28, 2010)

Alas the ever changing Style of life!!

of course we do !!!


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## SteveW (Jul 29, 2010)

I'm with you on that…every time I turn around, I'm moving something around, or adding something here and there, and one thing leads to another….before you know it, I've changed the whole layout in the shop.
I just replaced my old Craftsman tablesaw, with a Delta Unisaw, and had to change the entire layout in my shop.
I think its an ever evolving entity…Look at it this way, you'll never get bored (board?)


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## Greedo (Apr 18, 2010)

i think it's a never ending cycle, my shop has dramatically changed constantly for the past and first 3 years of existence. it is way better than when i began, but there are so many things i want to add/change.

i would say a shop that changes, is a shop that lives. sometimes i enter shops that don't change or adapt to new machines and it all becomes an unproductive mess.


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

Yes a big definitely yes workshop is always developing. I really believe the shop is as important as the work.I have my health problems and sometimes go to either the wood or machine shop and just re-arange things or tinker around it gives me immense pleaseure,Very kind regards Alistair


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## Gregn (Mar 26, 2010)

What you think we're perfect and your not! LOL

Lets see you sit in your shop for hours planning where everything is going to go till you realize the perfect place for your clamps isn't the perfect place because its to far from your assembly area. So then you decide to move them closer so they are in reach, but then you have to move everything to put the clamps closer to you. Now you have to find a new home for all the stuff you moved so the clamps will be closer. Which means you have to move more stuff to keep the first stuff you moved close to you. It continues till you say to yourself, I need a break time to work on some projects. Come the following spring it starts all over again.

I wouldn't call it shop growth, but a living shop that has the same personality disorders that you have. Ah! the life of a woodworker. I've been setting up my new shop, it will probably be fall by the time I start any projects in the shop as I keep moving things around.


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## Dcase (Jul 7, 2010)

I have only had my shop set up for about 2 years and it has changed more times then I can count during that time.

One of the first things I did when I was setting up my shop was to add a bunch of outlets. I had originally planned on having all my stationary power tools set up against two of the 4 walls so I had not put any outlets along the other walls. After a few months I changed my mind and wanted some stationary tools on the wall with no outlets so I ran all new wires and outlets to the other wall. Maybe a year after that they moved back to the wall they started…

The thing I have moved the most though has been my work bench. No sooner I have it all set up and decide thats where its going to stay I realize it would work better turned the other way or moved a few feet over…

My shop is not just my working area but its my space to relax and it is important for me to be comfortable with the layout and have everything as nice as I can make it.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

Sometimes I come into my shop from work and think I'm in the wrong house. Then I go back outside and get in my truck before anybody accuses me of breaking and entering. Nope it's my shop and my house. Sometimes it looks worse than when I left it. Don't know what too do about it. I just need some more room and everything will be all right. I figure I need about 12' more toward the street. Yeah, 12' more will do it.


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

My shop keeps growing. Officially, I have a 22' x 17' enclosed shop. However, just outside the shop is an area that used to be a recreation room at one time. I started using it for wood storage. Then I started using it for some bigger projects because there is more walk around room.

In theory, I keep all of the dust generating operations in my enclosed shop but I am about to put up another wall and capture more of the recreation room for the enclosed portion of my shop.


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## rydonmf (Jul 12, 2010)

Yep. I get worried I'm spending too much time fine tuning my workspace and not enough on projects. But hey, what the hell, you have it to enjoy it right? You make it your own.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I went from a 14×14 shed to a 24×40 shop with 16×24 dedicated to woodworking and the rest a 2 bay garage. That was a year ago. I've pretty much taken over the first bay already.


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## StephenO (Jun 7, 2011)

Mine is soon to be gutted and completely redone, as I have picked up quite a few new (and unplanned) stationary tools since I put in the benches and shelving. Also, places like this are NO HELP AT ALL for being content with what you already have!

I have decided that I am going to put everything on rollaway cabinets with a uniform top surface height, so that should save me untold grief down the road as things expand and change.


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## DamnYankee (May 21, 2011)

My wife is always giving me grief saying I spend more time, effort, materials and money on rearranging my shop than I do actually making anything for anyone else.

Don't tell her I said this….but I think she just might be right.


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## crappywoodworker (Jun 3, 2011)

I just added a jointer and a dust collector. So now I have a fixed chopsaw station, table saw with folding outfeed table on wheels , band saw on wheels, and belt sander on wheels. I thought that it would be a great idea to build a complete dust collection network  After purchasing a bunch of blast gates, clamps, adaptors, pvc, etc, I realized that in order to keep my 2-car garage a 2-car garage I have to keep everything mobile.


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## Racer2007 (Jan 13, 2011)

Well if you can show me someone that has not changed thier shop in the last year, I will show you someone who has not used thier shop in the last year. It never stops either growing or just changeing.


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

Change is good, kinda sucks when you make these BIG changes and get to MOVE all that stuff you bolted to this or that, and the mess underneath things, man where does this stuff come from????? (Laughing) My shop is small so any idea that saves space I will look at and try if possible. Thus thins get moved. One thing that does not change is the layout of the mechanical tools (screwdrivers, wrenches etc etc) as a AutoTech I HATE having to change the location of any tool. For 6 months I go to the old place then remember, or sometimes not, where it is now.

Someone post the meaning to the great question of Life, the Universe and Everything.


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## bernwood (Aug 19, 2010)

I set up my 24 X 24 shop 10 years ago and it's still not right. I have 2 posts in the middle of my shop and need to work around them, but a few things are in their original space. I have my main workbench built into the floor so it never moves, even when I'm applying force with hand tools. It's built into the floor in front of my window so I can look outside and enjoy the natural lighting.

The other tool that hasn't moved is my table saw. I set this up to allow myself to cut around .

Everything else is game.


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## Guss (Sep 19, 2011)

I have a small shop and don't have room to move any thing now that i added the router table and the wide belt sander so i don't see mine being rearranged any time soon unless I build a corner rotating tool stand or move


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