Close Quarters---

[old mart]

What you need, Brian, is for Heath Robinson to redesign your wurkshop.

[Mcgyver]

No, that's an inside wall. .

then just tell the wife it'll add character to the living room....and you won't need a little roof on it!

[OaklandGB]

I like the idea of hinging the top edge or even the left edge allowing the storage unit to swing up or to one side allowing access to storage behind it. Depends on whether you could mount it on the edge of an upper shelf and there is enough upward swing room Maybe mount the storage unit to a piece of plywood, then a piano hinge to allow it to swing up and away. Maybe one of those shock absorber type closers could keep stuff from bouncing around in the drawers as it is moved up and down.

My tiny area along the back wall of my garage is similar. The only thing that I find is a problem, is when working on a long piece of work in the vise or on the drill press. It has to be positioned carefully so as not to hit or interfere with other stuff nearby. But, have always a way to make it work.

I have some small drawer units on a shelf. I just might try to make them piano hinged on the front edge of the vertical shelf supports (3/4 inch wood). That way I can use the shelf space behind and access it by swinging the storage unit "open". Hmmmmm.....

[Bob Engelhardt]

Out in my unheated garage I have a stick welder, a mig welder, [etc, etc] ...

Oh, now wait a minute! You said "My machine shop is an annex off my design office, and measures 7 foot x 8 foot." That gets you a lot of sympathy (& admiration), but now we know the full story: "Oh yeah, I also have a 24 x 24 2 car garage full of tools, but that doesn't count because it's unheated." Uh ha! 😄😄

[brian Rupnow]

When we moved to this house twenty one years ago, I had an electric furnace which I set up in the garage. At that time I was still heavily involved with hot-rod building, and worked in the garage every night and on weekends even thru the winter. Eventually due to old age and flagging interest, I sold my last hot-rod and got rid of the electric furnace to make room for a band-saw. My wife parks her car in one side of the garage and the other side is filled with my welders. I do very little work in the garage now. It's colder than a witches tit out there.

[garyhlucas]

My 'shop' space is very tiny too. The fully enclosed CNC Mill/Lathe is 5' x 3' with a rolling tool cart under one end. A Husky wood top 2' x 4' rolling workstation has most of my hand power tools, and on top is a 12" drill press, bench grinder, 6" x48" belt sander, and a Portaband on a Swag table. On the other end is a rolling 26" wide tool chest, with the little Dewalt tablesaw on an old B&D folding bench. The top of the CNC has a shop vac and the dust collector, and an ultra-quiet air compress lives behind the rolling tool cart under the CNC. So about 4' x 8' for all my equipment. I do have a 10' x 10' shed with materials, no tools. My office has my computer, and the 3D printer and a large desk for electronics and close assembly work.

My big worry is no longer having space for a shop when I eventually give up this house. Having traveled a whole lot for work and spent months in hotel rooms I find I really don't feel the need to own a whole lot. I am getting ready to put my 26' sailboat that has been on shore for 13 years back in the water this spring. Just big enough for a summer home at the shore. So maybe my next house isn't a house but a Toy Hauler RV.

[tlfamm]

Well, my shop is nearly the same size, it's in the old coal bin...

My basement shop is also in the old coal bin (13' x 6') of my 110-year-old house. That space is over-populated with two workbenches, several tall metal cabinets, two rollaways+chests, etc. The workbenches support a 7" lathe and a 7" metal shaper. The ceiling is a bit low (7' 8").

Outside the coal bin proper is a 4' x 7' area containing another rollaway with drill-press and an oil-burner. Utilization of the total space is anything but ideal, and moving around it requires twisting and turning, and some care. Still, after reading of Brian's situation, I can hardly complain.

[Dan Dubeau]

I won't complain about my 14x20 single car garage anymore.

[J Tiers]

.......... The workbenches support a 7" lathe and a 7" metal shaper. The ceiling is a bit low (7' 8").

So you are getting double duty on that floor space! Isn't that cheating?

The workbench here has nothing on it but one of the toolboxes. And, of course, whatever is getting worked on. If I put the lathe on it (it IS a "bench model"), I'd have no room at all. So it gets a "bench" stand.

Outside the coal bin proper is a 4' x 7' area containing another rollaway with drill-press and an oil-burner. Utilization of the total space is anything but ideal, and moving around it requires twisting and turning, and some care. Still, after reading of Brian's situation, I can hardly complain.

True enough.

I could expand mine to make it one area of 12 x 7, but that would take out a wall that the mill and drill press are against, actually deleting usable wall space, so I do not like the option. They are on one side of it, a rollaround and shelves are on the other.

Doing that would also make access to some furnace controls problematic.

[tlfamm]

....

Doing that would also make access to some furnace controls problematic.

A visit by my burner technician will require a minor shop reconfiguration & cleanup in order to provide access to the burner. Part of the joy of having a shop in a coal bin.

[BCRider]

When we moved to this house twenty one years ago, I had an electric furnace which I set up in the garage. At that time I was still heavily involved with hot-rod building, and worked in the garage every night and on weekends even thru the winter. Eventually due to old age and flagging interest, I sold my last hot-rod and got rid of the electric furnace to make room for a band-saw. My wife parks her car in one side of the garage and the other side is filled with my welders. I do very little work in the garage now. It's colder than a witches tit out there.

Brian, my situation is the opposite of yours by the sound of it. I started out with a closet under my parent's basement stairs. And with each place from there on I got slightly bigger and better. Now the whole basement and fairly big double car garage is dedicated to shop space. And the ironic thing is that in the middle of the basement behind the rolling plywood material rack is a pair of doors that opens to the heating unit and hot water tank and some small under stairs storage... and that little utility area is the size of my original understairs shop.... I smile whenever I think of that.

There's no doubt in my mind at all that by far my finest shop project ever has been my building of my present shop. It'll be a very serious downsizing when I can't deal with the size of this house, yard and other things around here and move on to a place where they strain my Cream of Wheat for me.. But the plan is to still have a small workshop area even then.

Well... it's either the opposite or you're simply beating me to the next step....

[dian]

when i had a two car garrage it was crowded, especially because i had to be able to work on a car in there too. now that i have a big shop, i find myself running about 10 miles per day, my feet hurt in the evening.

[Mcgyver]

I started out with a closet under my parent's basement stairs.

Ohhhh I used to DREAM of lworkin' in a closet under the stairs! Woulda' been a palace to me. I used to work in an old water tank on a rubbish tip!

[jmm03]

this thread reminds me of an old Monty Python skit, "oh, you think you had it rough..." Jim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE

[BCRider]

Ohhhh I used to DREAM of lworkin' in a closet under the stairs! Woulda' been a palace to me. I used to work in an old water tank on a rubbish tip!

Luxury.....

Jmm, dive in, you're next. The rest of us is already there....

Mcgyver, would it be a sign of my impending mental breakdown that by the time I got to "DREAM" I was already hearing the thick accent in my mind?