Midwest Woodworker

I am now in my sixth (!) house, the newest by far, but with a very small two car garage for a shop.  One thing I promised my wife was that if we moved somewhere that gets a lot of snow, I would make room for her car in the garage.  The Chicago suburbs definitely qualify in the snowfall department, so... even though I have a two car garage, I had to make my shop layout flexible enough that I could rearrange easily.  Because I was coming from a one car garage shop down in Decatur, I was used to creative shop layout.   It took me a few months of head scratching and suffering clutter before I came up with a design that serves all my current needs.

If asked, I have always said that my ideal shop would be 24 ft by 24 ft with 10 ft high side walls and be detached from the house.  Obviously this new shop is not on that par, so I continue to strive for organized and efficient work space.  Since I often have to move machinery around to complete certain tasks, I make sure I am not jumping back and forth between them too much.  This takes planning and patience, both of which I have quickly grown to accept. 

Since I became used to working in an even smaller space in my last shop, I find that once I move my wife's car out I do really enjoy having 400 square feet to utilize on my shop days! 

With the exception of the radial arm saw/bench, every tool is on a mobile base so I can quickly rearrange for a large or complicated process.