Jason Rodgers: My Shop in the Garage [pictures] - created 07-25-2011

Rodgers, Jason - 07/25/2011.15:33:02

When we moved into our current house, there was no room that I could dedicate to a shop. It was on our list of new home characteristics, and we looked at a number of houses that would have worked well, but the price and location of the place we found made it a steal. Fortunately, there is a 2-car garage. My wife's one condition was that I could do whatever I wanted to the place, as long as she could park her car and organize her gardening tools.

This project was fully permitted, took about 1 year, and cost somewhere in the ballpark of $2k. Basically, I gave up a space about the footprint of my car (Civic). At 8x11 feet, it's pretty cozy, but I thought long and hard about the layout. For what I do, it's going to work out fine. I've seen lots of folks posting questions and advice on the construction of a home shop, so this is my contribution to the topic.

This is the back left corner of the garage. Walls were already sheetrocked and insulated.

The first thing I did was plow out a channel in the walls to run new electricity. A 2x4 screwed to the wall was a straight edge for my Dremel with a Rotozip bit. (BTW, Rotozips must be worth their money: drywall dust kills Dremels dead, fast!) As you'll see in later photos, I very much underestimated the amount of space one needs to wrestle cable in the wall, and I widened those channels.

Fast-forward a few steps. Here is the long wall being built, with pressure-treated plywood glued down. Before this, I had to spend a day super-cleaning the concrete floor and then another day putting down a coat of masonry sealer. This was all per local code.

Both walls up, and some ceiling joists going in. The left wall is an outside wall and you can see the hole prepared for a window.

At this time, my wife was obviously NOT able to park her car in the garage. Everything to the left of this picture is all the boxes of shop stuff, benches, and freestanding tools. It was crowded to say the least.

Ok, window in, door up, and electricity roughed. I had three new circuits put in for this room. One for lights and heat (cadet wall-mount) and two for outlets (separate side by side in each box).

Thanks to my brother Daniel who risked "pink lung" to help me hang this insulation. All walls and ceiling are now well insulated.

My folks came for Thanksgiving 2010 and helped hang sheetrock (that was planned). You'll notice that we slapped another layer over the existing walls for a nice clean slate.

On the outside, we hung OSB. This will provide a durable surface to resist door swings, bike collisions, and for hanging garden tools(!).

Ah, paint and trim! Don't gush too much over the floor: it's just picture-of-wood laminate. Really warms up the place, though, and makes it feel less like a garage and more like a room.

Finally, moving day! First thing in was the benches. These are actually the frames of benches I had in the old house. Needed a little trim here and there to fit, but they're good and sturdy.

On top of the frames I put down a layer of 1/2" particle board, to tie things together, and then a layer of 3/4" melamine particle board for the work surfaces. Everything is leveled (with little feet) and screwed to the walls.

And then I barfed everything into the room! When you walk in the door, this is the wall to your right. (Notice the other random bits of non-lutherie stuff that aren't allowed in the house.)

This is the main hand-tool area, just to the left of the window.

Going counter-clockwise around the room, this is the wood stash.

And finishing up the tour with the wall to the left of the door (you'll excuse the piles, they're clean now). Drill press lives in the corner, and the band saw is on wheels to roll into the garage for sawing. I think this picture was taken in February, and there are a few more things hung on the walls now.

Not pictured is the under-bench areas. I enclosed the projecting bench to make a quiet box for my 5hp RIDGID shopvac (stapled old towels to the inside walls: works well). Other larger tools (6" jointer, belt/disc sander, bending iron) are on shelves, and more things are tucked under the benches on the floor.

Final shot of the outside: painted to match the existing garage walls, garden tools and bikes organized, and PLENTY of room for my wife to park her CRV. Speaking of, I must thank my beautiful wife for her patience and support (but mostly patience) throughout this project.

At the GAL convention this last week, Kent Everett said something about shops that really stuck with me. To paraphrase: to build a guitar, we must build a process to build the guitar, which requires building a shop to build the processes to build the guitar. Great, NOW he tells me! I no doubt that there will be aspects of this room that will evolve as I evolve my building process (and maybe the other way around, too). But for now, this place is great and I love walking into it.

Everyone has there own needs in a work space, and I carefully tried to consider and anticipate my needs. I hope that some of my solutions can give you some ideas and/or inspiration for your own shop (existing, in progress, or just in your mind).

Good job, Jason!

Nice work Jason!

Man..two mowers...your a real go-getter.

No excuses for not cranking out instruments now is there.

That looks great, I'd like to walk in there myself!

That looks pretty darn exciting. Looks like a great place to make wood chips!

Aw, y'all are just sayin' that 'cause now I know what you look like and can pick you out of a lineup.

A few words on drawbacks to this size of shop (aside from the size, of course): I thought, heck, a small shop will be easy to climate control. Yep, it is. A little TOO easy. I have one of the little Caliber III's and keep a regular eye on it. Just standing in the shop and breathing for half and hour can bump the temperature and RH a few notches. Running the drill press for a while (like with the Safe-T-Planer) can warm up the place pretty quick. And when I spent a sweaty hour thicknessing a back with a scrub plane? I think I raised the temperature 15 degrees and the RH about 20%! D'oh! There's a learning curve there that I need to work with before being able to use the room predictably. Overall, though, it's a fun little place, made all the more enjoyable by the fact that I created it myself.

At 8x11, your shop is smaller than mine - which I didn't think was possible. But you seem to have it well organized at this point so best of luck to you.

Jon, my first shop was a 10x11 finished room in our basement, laid out quite similarly (picture). It also had a good-sized closet that housed the drill press and wood stash, which was pretty nice. However, it was clearly not well organized, so this time around...

... you seem to have it well organized at this point...

... yes, I'm really trying to make a point of having a place for everything. More shelves and racks and storage solutions will gradually go up as needed. Along the lines of that notion of the shop itself creating your building processes, I'm trying to take John Greven's advice of having, "one tool with a thousand uses, instead of 1000 tools with one use." With the possibility of quickly hitting my maximum reasonable density of stuff, it's making me carefully consider new tools and reconsider the ones I already have. Nothing like boundaries to stimulate creativity and problem-solving!

Wow Jason, thanks for posting that.

I'm about to set off on a shop building adventure myself, and I will text you if I have questions. :-)

Fire away, Chuck!

Speaking of efficient use of space and a place for everything: I started today on a special drawer/shelf for my jointer and belt sander. It's an over-under configuration that is hinged to flip over to use one or the other. I'll probably have it finished next week.

Jason Jason Jason...(sigh)

I like how you have the stealth shop, from the street with the garage door open it looks like a normal garage, until........

Jason, having a small workshop myself, I'd be interested to see your drawer/shelf for the jointer/belt sander. Could you post it here (or another thread) when it's done?

Thanks in advance.

Nice use of space Jason. I would bet that you could build a Ukelele in a shoe box.

I guess the frost is off the ground, and it's moving day for the rats of MIMF.

I have been reorganizing my shop also. I moved the jet contractors saw out and lugged my old 400 lb Unisaw up the hill to replace it. I tore my bicep tendon a couple months back lifting a stove and have lost some strength in my arm, so I am more careful how I lift things now. I took the motor off and the top off and got the body of the saw down to a more reasonable weight - and then asked the neighbor (25 yrs my junior) to help me.

The unisaw has the motor mounted under the table, and I made shorter rails for a t-square type fence, so the overall footprint is smaller than the contractor saw. It makes a little more space in the shop.

I still need to sell off the excess machinery I have accumulated over the years; several bandsaws, a couple tablesaws, scroll saws and things I haven't used for a couple of years. As Henry Thoreau might say - these things are more easily acquired than got rid of!

I have been trying to curb my packratitis, actually do some of the projects I've scrounged materials for, and get rid of materials I no longer need. And the hardest thing - to not acquire more "stuff".

Jason,

Your shop looks like it is off to a good start. What will be your first project in the new shop?

Well, he needs to finish something in the next few weeks!! Something with

strings.

Thanks, folks. Took the family camping. Now, back to it.

Randy: Gimme a break. We all have our OCD's.

Stephen: Ooo, "stealth." I like it. However stealthy I might be, there's not a whole lot of action lurking within.

Brian: Yes, I'll post the tool flip-table here, as it's related to the efficiency of space in a small shop. It'll have to wait, though. It should have been finished last week, but a miscalculation of geometry does not allow it to flip completely. I'll have to take it apart and move the pivot point.

Barry: Why yes, funny you should mention it, I do have a ukulele in a shoe box. That's one of several incomplete projects. I should have entered the Orphan Instrument Challenge, but I wouldn't have gotten anything done.

Clay: My pack-rat tendencies can be found in an overflowing box of random stuff that I've skimmed from other projects and superfluae that I'm CERTAIN will come in handy some day. But my _first_ project? Good question.

Chuck: You're gonna ride me on this, ain't ya.

Yep.

Me too. I'm dying to see the ukelele shoe box.

Me too Jason. Think of us as your support group.

Well great, now that we have a support group, Jason, what other projects do you have that would keep you from getting an instrument done? Home repair, landscaping, etc.?

Even with those things, and family, I'm certain you can get something simple like a Uke done.

Ah, I feel the love!

This week I'm installing hardwood floors on the stairs and in the upstairs hallway. I'm going to get that tool flip table finished, though, even if I have to sneak down there in the dead of night.

What has really stalled me this summer is a) realizing that my DP arbor and chuck have wobble, which is preventing me from b) using the Wagner to thickness all the waiting projects, and c) the new arbor and chuck on backorder from Grizzly which should be here this week and will set me free. That is unless d) I become obsessed with some other ridiculous means of hot-rodding my tiny shop, which is not beyond the realm of possibility.

While I'm rambling... I have been thinking about a super-simple sort of tahitian uke made almost entirely of off-the-shelf Home Depot materials. As a matter of fact, I think that would make a great Instrument Challenge, which I would dominate.

And the other ukulele, to clarify, Barry, is IN the box, where it has patiently sat since winter of 2009. It'll be a firecracker, though... someday.

I am contemplating making a box fiddle, a la Savart. Perhaps you could make a Savart style uke, Jason.

Yeah, that's on my list, too, Clay. I really liked Mottola's article in AL years ago about a Savart bass.

Anyhoo, I finished the tool flip-table this morning. Check it...

Here it is retracted under the bench, below the go-bar deck. No need for knees to go under there, so even though the front of the table is even with the front of the bench (or maybe an inch past), it's not in the way.

Extended...

Benchtop tools, TRANSFORM!

And flippity-do-da, there's the sander.

I made some simple latches to keep the table flat when in use.

The tools do sit a bit low, with the table at 18" off the floor; but with a little stool I keep in the shop, they're at a good height when seated.

This frees up a lot of shelf space under the benches, and now I don't have to lug them up to the benchtop to use.

While I was taking pictures, I snapped a couple shots of my shop vac quiet box. It's just a simple box of OSB wrapped around the frame of the bench. There is a RIDGID 5hp shop vac in there with a fine filter. On the inside of the box, I stapled old towels for sound-proofing. The hose comes out the front and connects to my mini cyclone. I have yet to rig up a better switching system, but right now it's switched on and I just plug and unplug from the wall. It's pretty quiet. The rush of air through the cyclone is actually louder than the vacuum motor. The true test is the noise that can be heard in the house. Our bedroom is above the garage, and the bed is directly over the shop. From my wife's side of the bed, you can't hear it!

When not in use, hoses can be curled up and the cyclone bucket can be set out of the way.

Make sure you don't overheat the vac. Getting some movement of air through the box would go a long ways toward preventing heat buildup.

Right-e-o, Barry. It's not completely sealed. The front and back walls of the box don't meet the underside of the bench, leaving about a 2" gap at the top. You can feel some good air flow with your hand under the bench. I haven't used it for extended periods, though, so I'm monitoring the temperature of that air on longer runs.

Gotta hand it to ya Jason, you may have found your calling.

That is pretty cool, and REALLY small.

you may have found your calling

What, super-tiny-sizing shops? Hey, Chuck, want I should come down there and put your shop in a shoe box?

Oh I could use that!!

Hi Jason,

That's a cool flip-top shelf Jason. Well done!

I love your transformating tool slide! I've been thinking of stuff like that for years in the kitchen. I've seen for sale, devices similar to the "Credenza" type thing they used to make for typewriters that use a mechanism with springs to move the item in use from "low inside" to "high Outside" - if you did something like that, you could even have the tools at bench level.

Chuck: You'll have to get on my wait list. I don't see an opening for several years out.

Clay: Yes, I've been meaning to get something like that. Aside from gradually damaging both the plug and socket, it's a bit of a pain to reach across the bench to plug and unplug.

Brian: Thanks, hope you can use the idea.

Andy: I think I know what you're talking about. Some sort of contraption with levers and arms and springs and parallelograms and such. That'd be a cool solution. Remember that this thing is pretty heavy, though. I forgot to mention that the table rides on Rockler's heavy duty drawer slides, rated at 150 pounds. Might be coming pretty close to that.

A couple more days of hardwood flooring, and then I might be able to make some headway on one project or another!

A couple more days of hardwood flooring, and then I might be able to make some headway on one project or another!

What's it going to be?

I'm finishing up a new OM-ish size outside form. All the materials for that instrument are lined up for jointing, gluing, thicknessing, etc., but I'm still waiting on that new chuck and arbor from Grizzly (grrr).

Jason, forget about making guitars, just charge other luthiers to make shops for them.

Don't give up on me, yet, Stephen! I gots some good ideas... just give me some time!

That's not going to be easy!

Hey! An offset body shape! I like that a lot.

No, it's not easy, Chuck, as I found with the uke'-in-a-shoebox! This is going to be my daughter's terz (or 3/4 size, or Martin size 5-ish) guitar. It is scaled-up from my plans for the uke' (which I've also scaled-up again for my plans for an OM-ish steel string). Thanks, Mark! The biggest challenge I found with this body shape is establishing and maintaining a centerline. Not only are the bouts tipped, but the bass side is a little wider than the treble. Plus, the neck and tail blocks don't sit on a plane perpendicular to the centerline. I've made things tricky for my first instruments, but I had to ask myself: do I want to put all this time and effort into an instrument that looks like all the rest, or an instrument that looks like I want? Might not be a good idea, but I tend to do this to myself in most aspects of life. Sometimes it blows up in my face, but eh.

Looks like it's just crying out for fanned frets if you ask me, but I wouldn't want to simplify life for you. Is it going to be her dowry?

Randy, you smacked the nail on the head! This shape is 100% the result of playing with shapes that accomodate the asymmetry of fanned frets (the nut tilts one way, the bridge the other: the upper bout tilts one way, the lower bout the other). To once again demonstrate my lengthy belaborment, I first began sketching shapes like this in 2001. The uke' was officially drawn up in 2007. The uke' and OM will have fanned frets, but I thought the kids' first guitar should be fairly standard.

Jason,

Going back to your space -saving ideas, what about those gismos they use for sewing machines. This link says that they have a capacity of 40 pounds. Could be good for hiding a machine "in" the bench.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/hardware/page.aspx?p=41821&cat=3,48759&ap=1

Yes, back to the thread...

Barry, that's very cool. That'd work well with the bench grinder I've been looking for on craigslist. WAAAAAY out of my price range, though. I'm sure a crafty fellow could rig up something similar. Ohh, don't get me started!

Go on now......get down there and whip something up.......you can do it with some flat bar, springs and a shoebox!

Wanted to show off one more little toy. As you can see, I obviously have no room for a drum sander. My thicknessing is done with the Wagner, followed by scrapers. Problem is, the Wagner makes a gawdawful mess. I made this little vacuum hood and it works like a million bucks.

This is no more than a plastic Thai food take-out container with a hole cut in the side for the shop vac hose. Along the bottom, to create a gasket of sorts, I stitched a flange of neoprene (cut from an old knee brace). At the top, I needed something sturdy to sink the little hooks into for the rubber bands: a mostly-used roll of masking tape (peeled off to just the right diameter!) was epoxied in. It's rough and crude, but works amazingly well. Very little dust escapes, and I can do my thicknessing without ending up ankle-deep in shavings.

Very clever.....and you can see what's going on at the coal face.

Thanks, Barry. Yes, the visability of the action is quite helpful, especially since I do my thicknessing freehand. And even though the cutter is "Safe," the hood puts another layer between all that spinning (highest RPMs: 3100-something) and my hands.

The fun thing about this setup is watching the dust swirl in the hood. See all that dust wedged up there at the top? The relatively small size of the container, along with the low clearance at the table, means velocity stays high and the chamber is evacuated very fast. This was the plan, but I think I lucked-out: the vacuum has to remove the shavings faster than the cutter can toss them.

Very clever indeed.

You have been using this to make chips I hope. Chips of a guitar sort??

Yep! Thicknessed a top and a back... for two different instruments, but chips all the same.

If there was a "like" button, I'd be pressing it.

Ha-ha! More than once have I read a post here and went looking for the "like" button. Allow me to press the "thank you" button.

It looks like something I saw in an Austin Powers movie.

Have you made a guitar yet dude?

You mean the Swedish... er... yeah. No, I would not recommend that!

"Made," as in past tense, as in, "I made a guitar and it is now complete would you like to come over and play it?"

No.

But I did start another one. That's gotta count for something... right?... right?... guys?...

(sigh) I have a problem... and it's not just my gratuitous use of ellipses...

ha ha ha.....I think we should all put you on deadline ha ha. You take longer than me.