Garage Shop Layout

Scappoose, Oregon, 29 Aug 2008—It's more than I ever had before.

After we moved from California a few years ago, I wanted to start woodworking in earnest, but the house lot is too small for a separate building. The only option was the garage, nominally a two-car, but if we put the Ford Escort in with the SUV, there wouldn't be room for anything else, not even the Gorilla racks.

So, the Escort stays out at the curb and the SUV goes in and out a lot.

The garage ceiling starts at about 8 1/2 feet in height at the door and decreases toward the back to less than 7 feet, reduced drastically by the HVAC duct. Behind the furnace is a small storage room, (paints and BLO mainly), so that cuts into the shop depth. Of the garage floor area I have about 13' by 18' available for actual work, once the car is removed.

Still, I have a very usable shop with plenty of storage and all the tools I need to apply my woodcraft.

A Roll-away Solution

Looking from the house entry door toward garage door. The whole left side of the garage holds all the tools. I usually move the car outside and roll the tools into the center of the floor to do any work. It adds a few steps any time I need to use a saw or planer, but what the hey, no job to go to anymore so I've got the time. Details of stands and tables.

Below, view of the street end, with the Grizzly dust collector, Ridgid bench planer, clamp rack, and melamine outfeed table/work table, plus the workbench.

Moving further back from streetside, we have the miter saw station, cabinet system, and drill press station. These do not move.

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And farther back in the corner, from right to left, you can see the router table, Jet band saw, and clunky Riobi sander mounted on a kitchen cabinet. That's the Ridgid jobsite table saw folded up in front. The household central vacuum system is located in this corner, so there's some wall space gone. (More on the router table here if you're interested.)

About four feet above the band saw is the bottom of the HVAC duct, which spans practically the whole back of the garage. Isn't that a clever design?

Left side of the garage, showing furnace & water heater, trash bins, and my lumber cart with Gorilla racks behind. Doesn't leave room for much else unless I put the bins outside in the rain.

Left front of garage showing knockdown worktable legs, a paint/glue/assembly foldup table I've had for 15 years, and some very old hardware boxes. On the floor behind the foldup are two HD buckets with cutoffs. I just can't bring myself to toss cutoffs, and sometimes it pays off.

My Philosophy

I've got more than a lot of woodworkers have, not as much as some. You make do with what you have. I don't feel any need to apologize for the pieces I've turned out so far with this roll-out, portable workshop setup. The pleasure is in what these tools can put out.