Workshop Ideas?

[Lauren Rosenthal]

I am trying to rearrange / re-organize my workspace so that it's more efficient. I have about 700sqft that includes the design area and the workshop (all in one big room with 12' ceilings. I'm looking for some workshop inspiration. How do you store your mats, your incoming and outgoing work, etc? Is there some kind of blog for this? Framer's workshop porn? Help!

 

[Cliff Wilson MCPF]

I am trying to rearrange / re-organize my workspace so that it's more efficient. I have about 700sqft that includes the design area and the workshop (all in one big room with 12' ceilings. I'm looking for some workshop inspiration. How do you store your mats, your incoming and outgoing work, etc? Is there some kind of blog for this? Framer's workshop porn? Help!

The biggest problem discussing this topic is that each layout and needs are so different. I could talk about what we do here, but my workshop area is a little bigger than your whole space. (About 800 sq ft) Of course, I have about 13000 ft of moulding plus a large area for three people to work.

Mike and Andy have done a great job in a similar amount of space to yours, but I don't think they have your ceiling height. They also had the luxury of building walls where they wanted them and they started with a relatively square foot print.

That all said, we put incoming work into print sleeves (usually used for display, but offer nice temporary protection) then store them in drawers, or vertical racks in one corner off the shop.

i built mat racks next to and under my wizard. Half the front of the wizard "table" is mat storage and the end is glass storage.

we also have 12' ceilings and I have installed the wire storage shelves above my wizard, the dry mount table, and the bathroom door for horizontal moulding storage.

hope that helped?

 

[Jim Miller MCPF GCF]

Our shop tables all have been built for strength and storage. The 48" x 96" main work table shown here was built in 1992 and painted white. It accommodates a 60" matcutter recessed in the surface and holds about half of our matboard inventory in vertical bins on both sides. 6" deep shelves on both sides hold most of the hardware items, tables, specialty adhesives, etc. Tables of similar construction hold other glass, foam board, and the rest of the matboard.

The tables are built out of 1/2" and 3/4" particle board. Screwing together the vertical, perpendicular edges using aluminum right-angle stock makes the tables very strong and stable. The particle board in our newer tables is covered with white melamine, which is smooth, durable, and looks good. If you would like the plans, I could send them to you. We cannot attach files to private messages here, but if you send me a private message with your email address and I'll attach them in an email.

 

[Liz Chase]

we also have 12' ceilings and I have installed the wire storage shelves above my wizard, the dry mount table, and the bathroom door for horizontal moulding storage.

Thanks for your ideas, Cliff. Would you mind posting a photo of your wire storage shelves that you use to store moulding? We can always use new moulding storage. Thank you.

 

[Cliff Wilson MCPF]

This is a picture above my drymount table.
On the other side of the room is a similar setup above my Wizard.
There are only 3 shelves on that side.
1 similar shelf is above the bathroom door.

 

[Liz Chase]

Thanks, Cliff, for posting that photo. A picture really is worth a thousand words. We are planning a reorganization of our workshop area and these ideas are all very helpful.