The Easy Workshop Setup

Believe it or not there is an easy way to setup a wood shop layout in your floor plan. Every woodworker has faced frustrations of limited space from garages to the small outbuilding. Some are lucky enough to have an open basement. My workshop setup is in an older mobile home I refitted as a shop.

Us lucky guys have heat, air, and a fridge. To boot I even have a microwave. I would have a stove but I needed to hijack that power line for tools. We each do what we need to do when we start up our wood shop and then grow from there. Yet when it comes to the layout some can struggle.

What I will detail is the system I used in my setup and why. This is not the typical 12 point blog of ideas which take you to nowhere. I needed efficiency and low cost on a budget. What you will read about is a real world shop layout that works for me.

First Define What Is Most Important

If you work indoors as I do the most important piece of equipment is not my table saw. You should have something comparable to an Oneida air filtration unit at the top of your list. If you do not have one, get it fast.

This is no doubt the most important piece of equipment. It keeps you alive and healthy giving protection from wood dust. You are of no use to anyone if you are sick or dead.

Having named my most important piece of equipment the rest becomes easier. To save money on the setup of the air unit I wanted to place it near the end of the mobile home but at its centerline. The converted shop is a double wide trailer so it made it easy to place within one of the old back bedrooms.

Why do this? Aside from being able to isolate some of the noise, and those things are loud when they run, I could streamline the ductwork. I made holes in the walls from that bedroom so it would allow for a straight pipe to be run from the air unit to the other end of the house.

Ductwork for these units is very expensive. It needed to be as efficient as possible to impact my wallet as little as possible much less for efficiency of air flow. Nevertheless air flow for the unit was an important consideration in my choice as well. The fewer bends and turns the better.

From this point on the layout of all major equipment would follow this linear format down this main trunk line of ducting. It allows for minimal branching off the main pipe without the need to hook around walls.

Equipment Layout Based On The Ductwork

After the air unit was in place the additional equipment fell into place. It would branch to its first open port that served a dual purpose. First to clean the air on this end of the shop and it also acted as a pickup for the wood planer at a Y junction. Continuing down the main trunk line another split off was made for the band saw.

Additionally further down the line was another split off for the table saw. This one was a bit tricky for the saw needed its own footprint to work with. It was this tool that caused 4 curves in this branch including the initial split off at the main trunk line.

If you end up with something like this happening it is not a killer. My air unit is made to handle some twists and turns yet if added pickup is needed just keep the one port open for the saw and no other. My unit has no issues with pulling in the wood dust even if I have the second port open pulling air from the room.

If we continue down the main trunk line from the table saw split off we arrive at my cnc mill room. Here I curved the line slightly to arrive over the cnc mill. This is the end of the main trunk where I can clean the air within that room or do pickup at the mill if I choose to do so.

Nothing Is Perfect In Layout

My shop layout is ideal for me yet it is not perfect. It was the easiest way I could get the job done minimizing cost but get the most efficiency from my tools. The problem still remains for smaller tools in that they either are not close to the ducting or do not attach easily to it.

To give an example my router table sits in what used to be the kitchen across from the old living room which has the band saw and table saw. My ductwork is at 7 inches and the port on the router table is the old 2 ½ inch. That is not an ideal transition.

For some tools like the router I still will use a shopvac for the big chips and then run the open room port for dust collection. Naturally I wear a mask as well. So I still have some work to do in making this conversion complete.

There is a solution to this issue. I just have not upgraded the router to yet accept this as I have other tools. First put the tool on wheels. As an example I did this with my baby jointer. It is a benchtop model and typically I use my table saw for making edges for jointing. Nevertheless this baby jointer comes in handy.

Once the tool was placed on a stand I built a mobile platform with wheels. In this way I could roll it to the ductwork where I had fitted a hose. The hose connected to a port in the ducting and a piece of pvc pipe fitting was at the other end which will connect to the jointer.

This was an easy solution for my smaller tools which were not stationary. It was not worth running the ductwork to the tool so I ensured I could take the tool to the ducting.

Placing woodworking tables around these bigger tools can be sometimes challenging. It could beneficial to have tables on locking wheels if possible.

Shop Space Often Determines The Layout

For those guys who still work in the garage I feel sorry for you. That is a tough setup. There really is not an easy layout for this and everyones garage will be very different based on space and design. Odds are it is used for your vehicles or other storage further limiting space. To get a solid layout a dedicated space is really needed.

Yet for those in a basement a similar shop setup can be done as I did. Again the problem with a basement is that it often is used for other purposes as well. At least you are not parking your cars in the space. The advantage to this setup is that you can tie into the main power for the house. A garage that is separate from the house is more complicated in that regard.

Odds are that if you are reading this you are looking to build or setup a building for a shop. My advice is to do it on a rectangular shape. If you need a large open space for cutting sheets on your table saw adjust that room accordingly. Yet I would try to section off the air unit.

The trick to sectioning this off is for noise levels. Yet be very careful. The unit needs heat dissipation for the motor. In the winter that motor can warm up my entire end of the shop to where its warm enough to be livable but not comfortable enough to take my jacket off. The motor needs to breathe.

From there I will say an open floor plan is best for the rest of the shop space. Yet there is a catch to this. Allow me to explain. If I run my router table I kick a ton of dust in the air. The air unit will pull the dust from the air but it needs time. Once I am done if I want to get out of my mask to continue working I go to another room.

The benefit of sectioning off equipment into some rooms is that you can protect your air. The air unit while running will pull air in its direction. With a door shut to a room as I go in it allows me to have a comfortable working space for continuing the project or to work on a different project.

Open spaces are very nice for things such as table saws and band saws. Yet for smaller projects and having a few work benches sectioned off for a clean working space pays dividends as well.

A Must To Have As A Dedicated Room

For you guys who are looking at where to setup a cnc mill you may want to pay attention here. My cnc room is at the end of the main trunk line of the air unit in what was a master bedroom. I would not have it any other way. I absolutely love this.

My cnc is no baby mill. It is a big boy. I guess the added bonus for building it in that room as I did is theft prevention. No one is getting that thing out of there unless they hook it to a truck and pull it through the wall of the shop. Yet its main purpose for having its own room is twofold.

The first purpose is the isolation of noise. Even with it running a legitimate spindle it is loud when it is at work. I can shut the door to the room and not have to wear hearing protection as I work on something else.

The second purpose to it being on its own is keeping the air clean. The port over the mill will clean the air as it is running but again it can take time. With the door shut I can again isolate this allowing me to be mask free in another part of the shop.

Wiring Consideration For Power

One of the hidden things people think about after the fact is how to wire the building for power. This was a challenge for me especially as it was an older mobile home and we all know what the wiring is like in those. As always be sure to have a really good friend that is a legitimate electrician to help you.

Nevertheless in my case I needed multiple 220 lines. To add to this complication was the cnc mill needing a 220 carrying real amps that could be stepped down in its own box. A cnc will require power for multiple uses ranging from spindle from a vfd and transformer to the motors which drive the mill. Additionally in my case it needed a separate line for power for the computer running it.

These different pieces need their own breaker to protect the equipment and to also protect you. If you were to ever think that you would want a cnc setup some careful consideration is needed in terms of your power supply and how you will divide up what is available.

My saws share a dedicated 220 where when one is running the other saw is not. It is a manual unplug to then plug in the alternate machine into the same plugin so there is no chance of two running at the same time. The air unit has its own dedicated 220 as well which is reserved for it alone and no sharing of power.

To do this the stove and water heater power was hijacked as they ran on two different breakers. So it is possible to get what is needed from an older mobile home. The cnc power needed a new breaker at the main and that professional friend to help get it down the line to where it needed to go.

As you begin to think of your shop layout the needed power for equipment is a must to consider. Take the safe route and have a professional do it for you. Even if you believe you know what you are doing it can get really expensive replacing equipment trying to save a few bucks. As for the cnc it could kill you if done improperly.