Building a workshop

Gentleman,

I have been messing with straights on and off for about 10 years now. Recently many things in my life are starting to line up and there maybe a possibility of me starting my own business. What I am looking into is doing stock removal razors. With this in mind I have looked and have a general idea of tooling. Now my question for you guys if you could build a workshop from the ground up what size of building would be a good size for something like this. I don’t have plans on putting in a forge. But I will be doing all the tempering and heat treating of the steel. I will most likely go with a bador or Kgm grinder. Still not sure on that yet. I will have a full size drill press and band saw. I will also most likely have one or 2 buffers. And most likely a small post anvil and maybe a leg vice. I have set a 3 year time line for this project as I want to get it done by the time I’m 45. My only limitation is that it will be in my back yard. I have about a quarter acre or so, but I don’t want them building to take up the whole back yard. I look forward to your guys thoughts on this matter as I’m would really like to start getting the ball rolling. Thanks again

20x24 is what I have. I have a nice selection of wood working tools and my shed is about 1/2 what would be comfortable. Likely in the summer I am going to add a little, but I am limited with how much yard I am allowed to occupy.

I was thinking 20 by 20 but if you having issues with a 20 by 24 I may have to go a bit big. But thank you for the reply

I think Charlie Lewis’s shop is 24x30 and Joe Calton has his shop set up in a two car garage. I think it depends on what you think it will expand to. Charlie’s shop in nice, but he has another building so it is just his steel working stuff in that shop.

No matter what size it is, it will be just a bit too small. :)

I work out of a two car garage (25'x25') with no cars in it. One side has all of the tools (some are on wheels to move them out of the way). The other side is a work area that I try to keep open.

Build it as big as you can afford. Then, go a little bit bigger. :)

My finish shop is 20' x 30'. I wish it were bigger. That does not include the forge shop or heat treat area.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by criswilson10

No matter what size it is, it will be just a bit too small. :)

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+1.............:rofl2:

I,m with Cris and Tim

+1 to Tim's comment. I constantly with my shop was bigger, and if I could expand it, it's just a matter of time before I'd find *that* too small. :)

I have my friends shop to do my forging in& am getting my grinding & finishing equipment together to use in my 20' X 40' shop building.I was going to set up a forge shop but having a #6 Beaudry & a 50Lb. Little Giant to use I don't need to do that now. Unless I can find some real good deals on power hammers & the like. Just love large equipment but for this work you don't need real big stuff.

Slawman

Second or third or whatever building as big as you possibly can. You can have a 10,000 square foot shop and in six months it'll be packed and too small.

I'm working out of a 24'x30' with a 14'x30' drop shed for hot work. Of course I pretty much do everything from work on the bike to gun smithing, but there are plenty of times I wish I had a separate clean room for leather work and such, or just more room. May add another drop shed to the other end in the future.

Anyway, since your talking about not doing forging, you could get away with a much smaller shop, especially if your not as scattered all over the place like I am. I'd say a 15"x20", or maybe 20'x20' would work well for you. Just make sure when you design it to think about how to add on to it later. A benefit of keeping it small is that it's easier to heat and you could add AC for those hot days as well.

A/c is a must lol i looks like I’m going to go with about a 20x20. I’m also going to add another 10ft at the end for storage of my lawn equipment and pool equipment. Yes i have a lot of ideas lol. And since the wife wants a pool I’m thinking part of the extra ten feet is where i can put all that stuff at

After spending 4-5 hours in my garage/workshop cleaning it and only getting about 10% done I think of one of my many faults and that is organization.

If I get rid of the junk and organize my shop will be much bigger!

That is the thing I am drawing and redrawing and figuring out the total set up before I even get a set of plans made up. I have a pretty good idea it’s now more just figuring out what if any wasted space