Archive of 'Workshop Layout Archives - The Art of Woodshop Design'

• How to Get Production Results and Help Your Workshop Layout

  Written By Bobby.
  In Shop Systems,Tool Reviews/ Events,Workshop Layout

  

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  How to Make a Mobile Panel Max Stand to Get Production Results from Your Woodshop Design. Not having enough clamps is kind of a woodworking running joke, but it’s annoyingly true way too often.

  Think about the last time you glued 5 boards together edge to edge. You may have used 4 or 5 parallel cabinet clamps, then some small mini-bar clamps or C-clamps to make sure the edges align and the boards dry flat.

  If you’re doing a batch of those, you’ll quickly run out of clamps, and that means waiting hours for the first batch to dry (which is why I like to have several projects running in parallel to occupy that time wisely).

  
  

• Design the Bottlenecks Out of your Woodshop Workflow

  Written By Bobby.
  In Workshop Layout

  

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  Think of your daily workflow in your shop like a highway system—eliminate the bottlenecks and you’ll experience what workflow implies: continuous progress.

  You step into the shop with the intention of getting something pretty specific done. Ever wonder why it took three times as long as you thought? You guessed it, unexpended speedbumps.

  You can continue to encounter them, spend time dealing with them as you go, then move on. Of course, you’ll re-discover them the next day or next week.

  I find that most of these “bottlenecks” in my workflow are recurring, and can be designed out of my shop.

  Interruptions in your pre-planned sequences also mean interruptions in thought, which leads to frustrating mistakes.

  
  

• How to Organize Your Thoughts on Woodshop Storage

  Written By Bobby.
  In Workshop Layout

  

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  There’s more to storage than plopping stuff on shelves in a particular order. If I have all of my oil finishes together doesn’t mean my shop flows well. Thinking more “big picture”, or strategically, about your shop storage will sync with the woodshop layout you worked so hard to get perfect.

  After all, what good is ergonomically arranging all of your tools if you have to traipse across the shop just to get a marking gauge?

  Take a minute here and let me comb your mind towards having the same consistent philosophy for workshop storage as you do your woodshop’s layout.

  
  

• Do This!

  Written By Bobby.
  In Shop Systems,Workshop Layout

  

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  Your shop layout can be ruined and made pointless by something trivial.

  Your jointing a bunch of boards, and when you’re done you plan on switching seamlessly to the Table Saw, which is positioned perfectly for that very thing.

  But, you have a pile of shavings getting in the way of your jointer operation, so you look for a brush to sweep them off the jointer bed. Not a brush in sight. Dangit, it’s over there on the assembly table near the sander. So you walk over there, grab it, and go back to the jointer. Perfect workflow? Fail.

  This could happen when you go to the Table Saw and can’t find a push block. If you have to keep looking for little things all the time, there’s really no point in arranging your machines at all.

  What is the answer?

  
  

• Tool Clusters!

  Written By Bobby.
  In Starting? Go here!,Workshop Layout

  

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  The Most Commonly Neglected Layout Strategy.

  Stack of boards. I can’t even get started making this cabinet until I’ve milled all 4 sides of these 30 boards.

  Tedious tasks like this can be made less annoying by adjusting your “manufacturing process” to eliminate unnecessary things like walking around, picking up all the boards only to put them down again, and losing track…

  
  

• Workshop Layout: What’s the Objective for Your Shop?

  Written By Bobby.
  In Design Process,Starting? Go here!,Workshop Layout

  

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  3 Questions You Should Ask Before You Even Start

  • Do you think of your whole shop as a tool?
  • What do you want your shop to do for you?
  • What do you need to do in your shop, both for now and the future?

  If you can answer these questions you have the basic strategic direction you need to move forward in designing your dream shop.

  The planes you use are shaped the way they are because someone asked what they want the tool to do, how people are going to use it, and how will they be able to maintain it. If you think to yourself how you are going to use your shop in the next few weeks and how you imagine it’ll serve you in 5 years, you can design a shop with the layout, comfort features, and infrastructure that will do all those things in a convenient way.

  In this article, I’ll walk you through my thought process of how I arrived at my current layout.

  
  

• Fast Fixes for an Under-Performing Workshop Layout

  Written By Bobby.
  In Shop Systems,Workshop Layout

  

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  I thought I had the perfect design. Everything seemed to flow, tools were arranged ergonomically, and everything had electricity and a dust collection connection.

  Then I used that design in real life.

  Most things were exactly what I imagined they would be like, but there were a few deficiencies I couldn’t ignore…

  
  

• Wiring Up Your Shop

  Written By Bobby.
  In Shop Systems,Workshop Layout

  

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  Are you tripping over power cords? Do you worry about what you’ll do when you buy a 240V table saw when you only have 120V outlets? Are you routinely tripping circuit breakers?

  As part of your overall woodshop design, assigning each tool to a circuit and positioning outlets to handle your current and future layout is one of the first steps…

  
  

• Musical Machines

  Written By Bobby.
  In Workshop Layout

  

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  Go Mobile with All Your Tool Stations to Add Instant Flexibility to Your Shop.

  
  

• The 1 Way To Arrange Your Tools

  Written By Bobby.
  In Workshop Layout

  

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  Don’t Copy—Instead Use Basic Principles to Arrive at Your Ideal Shop Layout

  
  

• Shop Space Where You Are – Part II

  Written By Bobby.
  In Design Process,Starting? Go here!,Workshop Layout

  

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  2-Car and 3-Car Garage Woodshops

  
  

• Shop Space Where You Are – Part I

  Written By Bobby.
  In Design Process,Starting? Go here!,Workshop Layout

  

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  Being creative means you’re able to make a shop anywhere. Plus 1-Car Garage Shops, and even an Apartment Shop!

  
  

• Revolutionize Your Woodworking Enjoyment, Part III

  Written By Bobby.
  In Design Process,Starting? Go here!,Workshop Layout

  

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  Forgotten design considerations woodworkers need to know.

  
  

• Revolutionize Your Woodworking Enjoyment, Part II

  Written By Bobby.
  In Design Process,Starting? Go here!,Workshop Layout

  

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  Streamline all of your workstations to optimize your shop.

  
  

• Revolutionize Your Woodworking Enjoyment, Part I

  Written By Bobby.
  In Design Process,Starting? Go here!,Workshop Layout

  

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  Critical criteria you need to know for designing your dream woodshop.