building a shop

Aaron Johnson

Aaron Johnson

Well-known member
OK...finally sold the house in Illinois, but now have bought a house in Indiana, but I need to build a shop.

I'm thinking 30x40 or 40x60 cleary metal building. 40x60 would let me park the RV and Trailer inside.

Anybody have experience here or some good plans.

What I have to put it in is the standard stuff
Air Compressor, Tool Box, work bench...etc...etc...
But I also have:
Mill
Lathe
2 spitfires
golf cart


etc...thinking a loft would be nice too...
 
You will lose yourself at garagejournal.com

More than enough resources with guys who've built all types of garages, buildings, shops, barns, etc.
 
We keep our cars in a 5k sq ft shop my dad built a few years ago. He can probably offer some suggestions. His is a Morton building. He can keep his trailer inside and we have four race cars with tons of room to work. Lmk if you want to connect with him.
 
Gordon Jones":lw8ktlyy said:
Other than heating, you can never have a shop that is too big. G
Click to expand...

They're like hard drives....they fill up fast with all sortsa stuff. It can't be too big. Do yourself a favor and map it out on graph paper with your trailer, cars, cart, etc. all to scale. It'll make it easy to see what goes where. Also, you can never have enough power outlets. Good luck.

PS-any chance you're coming to the dance? I have crew space available.

Dayle
 
Aaron, You won't always be young and won't always have young eyes. Build in lots and lots of natural light for the daytime and lots and lots of bright surfaces to make the best use your artificial light in the evening. Expensive but worth it.
 
A friend of mine built a 40x60. He made a partial loft just around 3 walls 8' wide. Supported the outer edge to the roof joists with chain and axle straps. Made for a lot of room without having to build spans across the shop etc.

I thought that I had a picture but couldn't find it right now.
 
A loft, over the trailer keeps spare parts, supplies and "stuff" out of the clutter below. Used a simple pickup truck bed hoist, from Harbor Freight or other supply house, to lift parts up to the loft. Adapted a 110v winch motor to it.

A good car lift keeps disassembled, or stored, cars up in the air and frees up more floor space. A 2 post is good if you like your suspenion in droop, easier to repair the suspension. A 4 post is good for doing set up and alignment up off the floor. I got tired constantly jacking it up and crawling under the car.

A corner to place all of your larger, seldom used tools. Put each one on a separate dolly.

Plenty of 110v and 220v outlets, good lighting and cabinets to put things in.

A dedicated area you can keep clear and reserve it for disassembling, teardown, and with places to put all the parts that come out of the car, without loosing your working area.
The FIRST Law Of Mechanics: Junk Expands To Fill All Available Space.

I have a bad habit of "working on the pile method." Get focused on the task at hand, pull out the parts and tools, complete the task. Quickly move on to the another task. And pile everything on top of the just finished previous pile. After a few tasks are accomplished. I stop for lunch. After lunch, I add more to the same pile, now working on a different car. THE BEST THING FOR A GOOD WORKSHOP IS TO DEVELOP GOOD WORK HABITS. PUT THINGS AWAY. I always stuggled to maintain that policy... Too many things to do, so little time. I would rather waste time looking for something in the pile!!!...

p.s. The Second Law of Mechanics is: Get A Bigger Hammer.
 
Google sketchup is a very easy to use piece of CAD software with tons and tons of prebuilt objects.

When I was laying out my shop I figured I'd get generic "car", "drill press", etc. I actually found a '65 mustang fastback and the exact model of 1940s era sears floor drill press. Very cool stuff and easy to use.

Also, it's all free.

Kyle
 
Aaron,

Had 'em both ways; workbench in front of car(s), and workbench beside car(s). Better in front of cars.

Compressed air and extendable work light in all 4 corners of work area really handy.

Need 3 HP (240v) minimum compressor if using air tools. Build in drip legs and filters at each drop.

Keep welding, chip making and grit producing operations away from workbench and assembly area. Makes for long walk to precision tools, but better. (most used tool in my shop is 6" belt sander, then drill press) Place most used machine tools closest to work bench/assembly area. If much welding or liquid coolant operations, consider power ventilation. Can't believe the "fallout" without.

Based on building construction, consider small, manual bridge crane from engine area(s) to workbench. I have photos. Under $250. Saves lots of room otherwise required for engine hoist. Probably not suitable for heavy V8s.

Running water handy. Tub for scrubbing blocks really handy. Takes up space, but less bitching than taking block to bathroom tub. Floor drain probably needed; even a "field drain" might work.

Storage VERTICAL! Can never have too much shelving. Small, inexpensive pallet rack will hold a lot of boxed "stuff", and can be accessed from both sides. I have yards of the vertical, slotted, wall shelving brackets, and yards more of 2x6, 2x10, and 2x12 shelves. Don't know why shop and garage hasn't collapsed.

Refrigerator/beer a nice amenity. Freezer handy to "shrink" parts for bearing fit. (less bitching than using one in kitchen)

Pegboard for most used hand tools handy behind workbench. Gets emptied race weekends, but still preferred. (Wife even knows where they are)

And I could go on.

RJS
 
I have 30x50 Cleary building and I think it is well built building. I have hot water heat in the floor and it is the smartest thing I ever done.
Chuck
 
c mathis":7sou2o9x said:
I have hot water heat in the floor and it is the smartest thing I ever done.
Chuck
Click to expand...

My wife works for a mfg for that product... I really regret not putting it in my shop. My single biggest shop regret...
 
c mathis":1esa02as said:
I have hot water heat in the floor and it is the smartest thing I ever done.
Chuck
Click to expand...
+1 or 2 for that. I don't have it in my floor, but the guy that does a lot of my parts has it and boy is it great. Uniform heat in the whole room and and keeps your feet warm, which is huge in the Northern Winters.
 
I'm so jealous of you guys with proper garages. All these years working out of a standard 2 or 3 car garage. Sigh.......................
 
As far as heating is concerned hot water sounds great but I would assume that you would have to leave it on all the time. I would think in a cold shop it would take a while to warm up. For my 1500 sq ft steel shop with 16 ft walls I got two Dayton gas radiant overhead heaters from Grainger. I put one over each of the main work areas but I usually only use one. It only takes few minutes to warm up a work area from under 32 degrees to 60 since it warms directly with radiant heat. Eventually it warms the whole shop. I don't work in the shop everyday so its perfect for me. I only spent around $75 for propane over the entire winter.
 
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