My shop has 1100 square feet in an "L" shape on the ground floor. I have 12-foot ceilings and southern exposure, so the light is terrific. I painted the floor white and put in lots of fluorescent lights to make it easy on the eyes. This drawing shows the floor plan of the shop and the placement of the equipment. I've written an article, called Workflow Planning which explains why I arranged things the way I did.
Plan view of Carleton Woodworking
Two loading docks (Photo A) give access to the building. The one on the left opens into a common area and the one on the right opens into my shop. Most of the time I use the common dock, because there is a no-parking zone in front of it, but I open my door during the summer months because the light is so wonderful. The door just to the left of the loading dock is an elevator that goes from all the floors to street level - a great help when taking out the trash.
Photo A
Once materials are delivered to the common area, I take them through the double doors (Photo B) and put them into the appropriate bins in my wood storage racks. As you can see, I don't have a lot of extra materials. I try to order just what I need for the job at hand and not tie up my cash in inventory I might never use.
Notice the dumpster on the right. When I first rented the shop, I debated about whether to have a dumpster, but I'm glad I got one-it's nice not having to worry about the trash. I have trash cans throughout the shop. When they get full I empty them into the dumpster, and when the dumpster get full I put it out on the street.
Photo B
The "rough dimensioning" equipment is close to the wood storage area (Photo C). I crosscut solid lumber using a SCMS. The bandsaw, jointer, planer and table saw (out of picture further to the right) are close by to rip, resaw, joint and plane raw materials into dimensioned lumber. Notice the blue "Panel Handler." This is a cart that flips from vertical to horizontal and then raises and lowers. I can unload panels directly off the delivery truck and then roll the panels to the table saw. Once there, the cart flips to horizontal and acts as an infeed table to the table saw. It allows one person to handle those heavy sheets of MDF easily and safely! The "parts cart" in the middle of the picture holds parts for my current project.
Photo C
This second picture of the "rough dimension" area (Photo D) shows the spacing between the table saw and other tools. The pile of 5/4 poplar on the parts cart will be cut up for parts for an artist who works in the building. Note also the big slabs of bubinga on the back wall. My web site shows a picture of a table I made out of part of one of the slabs.
Photo D
Photo E
The table saw (Photo F) is placed in the center of the shop both to give it sufficient clearance and to make it available for both rough dimensioning and parts creation. There is a sliding table for panel processing. Jigs, the miter gauge, etc. are kept close by under the table on the right. Note the plug next to the on/off switch. Having the plug at arm's reach allows me to unplug each time I change blades. Also note yet another "parts cart." I have four of them and could probably use five. Every project gets its own cart so I can roll parts from workstation to workstation while keeping different jobs separate.
Photo F
The bench space (Photo G) contains all my hand and power tools. The tool chest was one of the first pieces of furniture I ever made. I made it years ago to teach myself dovetail and mortise and tenon joinery. The table behind and to the right is a torsion box I made to use as a combination assembly table/base for my vacuum bag. It sits on adjustable sawhorses so I can raise and lower it as needed. If I have a large assembly, it leans up against the wall. Currently I'm pressing up a panel. The glue I'm using is urea resin, which doesn't cure at temperatures below 65 degrees. Since the weather just turned cold, I've put electric blankets over the assembly and put moving blankets over them to hold the heat in. Even though it's still 70 degrees in the shop, this arrangement helps the glue to cure.
Photo G
Most of my clamps are kept on rolling carts (Photo H) so I can bring them around the shop easily. Smaller ones are kept in 5-gallon pails. Others are kept on a rolling cart or on the wall.
Photo H
Photo I shows the office corner where the PC and phone are. Aside from word processing and accounting software, I have CAD (Autodesk's AutoSketch) on the machine. I use CAD for all my work - that's why I have the big monitor. The old dot-matrix printer uses continuous paper. With the CAD program, I can print out full-scale drawings onto the continuous paper and then glue them directly onto scrap. This lets me make patterns quickly and easily for pattern routing and other tasks.
Everyone asks me about the dust and the computer. I've had this arrangement for over four years and it's worked without a problem.
The computer is the only machine in the shop that stays on 24/7. I schedule an automated backup to Internet (atbackup.com) every night at 1am. For those of you who keep real assets on your PC, I recommend that you check out this facility.
Photo I
Hope you enjoyed the tour.
Kim Carleton Graves
Carleton Woodworking
Last updated 11/04/01