New Workshop

[Alan Waddington 2Participant @alanwaddington2]

Might be worth looking at some of the American forums for inspiration, they tend to have much bigger “shops” than us Brit’s.

Talking of ingenious use of space reminded me of buying a tool and cutter grinder from an old guy over manchester way, he had a very impressive workshop in the cellar of his terraced house.

The only way in to the cellar was a very steep narrow staircase with limited headroom, accessed through the kitchen.

When i marvelled at how he got all the machinery in, which included a hardinge lathe, he laughed and said

“ Oh that’s now’t, i had a couple of Bridgeports down there at one time “

[Anthony KnightsParticipant @anthonyknights16741]

It's alright for people in certain parts of the world who have plenty of space. My son lives near Darwin in Australia and his "garden shed" is bigger than my house. He isn't a model engineer. In the UK I have to make do in a 10 by 20 ft garage. With a bench either side and storage racks, I can fit in a mini lathe, a small mill/drill on one side and a bench drill and home made tool grinder on the other. What available space is left has to be used for everything else. Operations involving large amounts of sawdust are done outside.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Hi , as a fellow Kiwi, you have a fair choice of sheds available here in NZ, there are Skyline and Versitile, they do more than just garages, then there are outfits like Goldpine, and they do other than hay sheds, infact if you get one of the latter at the moment you'll go in the draw to win a Gator (to the uninitiated, a small 4 wheeled farm vehicle), They have 2 sheds in the latest flyer, the Angus Barn, it has 3 bays, so it has a floor area of 12 M x 8 M, and 3 M height. Or the Jersy Lifestile Barn, its 9 M x 9 M X 5.2 M high, and a 4.5 X 9 leanto down one side, They have a 22% discount at the moment. I imagine these Colour Steel clad sheds are unlined.

My shed is a double Skyline garage with a single front door(originally 6 M x M), I extended it 3 M.

Ian S C

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

If building space is not a restriction perhaps the way to go about it is to build something you can extend ad infinitum. So build to the width you might like and can easily span, say 12ft, by a multiple of 8ft (because sheet are that size) and when full extend the 8ft dimension to 16ft, etc. until you need a bicycle to get down the length to where you left the spanner….

They do suggest cooks when designing their ideal kitchen should think twice about over extending and keep everything within a couple of steps of the sink. The equivalent for us would be mill, lathe, and main bench forming 3 sides of a square only 4 or 5 feet gap in which you stand and can reach each easily. Then put the storage and lesser machines wherever is left outside that core workspace.

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