a better way to layout your workshop

Get _The Brief Guide To Joinery_ *FREE E-BOOK* here:

DO YOU LIKE MY WORKBENCH? I have build PLANS here:

FULL ARTICLE:

BUILD PLANS FOR SALE:

US & CANADIAN AFFILIATE LINKS

DOWELMAX:

DOWELMAX 3/8" Kit:
DOWELMAX 1/2" Expansion:

BLADES:

TOOLS:

BITS:

SUPPLIES

INSTAGRAM:

MUSIC:
Epidemic Sound
Use my referral link and start your free 30-day trial:

[therestorationshop]

With the same "do I use it" process you could take a long hard look at say... your dining room, living room, etc. Move those to the small area in the basement and expand your shop in their place. Rethink "bedroom" as a Murphy bed in your shop.

[lincolndickerson]

Several suggestions. 1) Have a place for overflow consumables like sandpaper. Have easy access to several sheets/discs of the grits you use in the shop and have a “shop pantry” somewhere. With any luck, outside the shop mabye a cabinet in your garden shed or basement (depending on dampness), under the stairs... Easy to get to the reserves but not clogging up valuable small shop space. 2) Like cleaning, sharpening is quick and easy on chisels and hand planes if you stay on top of it. So do it as you are putting it away. (see Rob Cosman 32 sec to sharp if needed) 3) I work with a 9x12x2 drawer carcass that was disgarded forever ago (anything of that size will do) on my work bench as a tray. I put the things like small tools, glue, tape… in there as I am working. At the end of the day I put everything away in 1 lap around the shop emptying the tray as I go. 4) I have several 5 gallon buckets around the shop for trash. I find keeping the trash, cutoffs, shavings… off the benchtop and floor makes the shop more spacious while working. Size of the container can vary depending on preferences and projects. 5) For the french cleat crowd make the holders for things like bits, tape, glue, marking tools… so they standup off the wall for those times you need several of them during the project and just put it on the workbench. Less travel time and so easy to keep things organized while the project is in progress.

[mishinka]

Scott Walsh is a real woodworker, he get things done with ease not overcomplicating but without skipping craftsmanship, functionality and detail. Thanks to your channel I'm more excited to keep up my woodwork and put to practice what I learned in school. Thanks again!

[CoreyShockey]

Lighting! Yes. I used to have 3 40 watt bulbs in my garage shop. Having replaced them a few years back with LEDs, I can testify that cuts and measurements are more accurate when you can see what you are doing.

[mikestone]

Try arranging your storage by time: when you put tools away at the end of the day, put them in the top drawer. If there are more than some fixed number of tools in the drawer (8 to 12, depending on the size of the drawer), move the excess to long-term storage. If you find yourself shuffling the same tools in and out of long-term storage every day, allocate another top drawer for frequenty-used items. In a short time, you'll find yourself pulling almost all your tools from two or three drawers whose contents you know by heart.

[colemine]

This was amazing. You really don't get a sense of how small your shop is in normal videos. I mean .. you know it is small but.. the 3d rendering really put it all in perspective. You have FOUR doors that you you have to plan around. You do amazing work in that small shop. This has me rethinking a few things. Thanks for this video. I have new hope for my space.

[MrCBERGDORF]

One thing that I have recently learned is to paint your walls and ceiling white. That will help with the lighting as well. I am in a garage, and I never took the time to notice the beige walls and soot covered ceiling. Now that I am focusing on improving the shop, the walls and ceiling all got painted a clean bright white.

[robertjames-life]

So glad I finally got my dream shop, a converted pole barn. 1000 square feet. Superman has his fortress of solitude, I have my shop. 😊

[filldev]

If you choose to do the graph paper layout, which I like to do in planning many things in the early phase of design because it’s so easy and flexible, consider making some pieces that represent the room YOU need to use a station. It’s too easy to miss that part of the space without a strong visual cue. Similarly, you could cut some layout pieces that represent, for example, long stock that needs to be used at a station.

[ehRalph]

I use the drill press a lot. Can’t imagine registering concentric holes and repeating operations on a fence, or drilling accurate holes in small plastic, wood, or metal parts, or even cutting a bunch of plugs and dowels by hand. Last year I finally built a good add on DP table w fence, dust collection, & t-track for stops and hold downs. Best improvement ever.
Also, my dad made everything from his own shop tools and jigs and fixtures to furniture, toys and classical guitars, he kept things organized on 18”-20” wide shelves along a wall in his basement and used a clear plastic curtain to keep dust out.

[Miniac]

I find that when it comes to organizing similar items that aren't physically identical, I like to sort them by size. It's very difficult to find that one tiny thing in a bin with a bunch of other large things even though all the individual items are similar in use/theme/etc.

[Rusty_ok]

I used vinyl fence cut into strips to divide drawers. Thin enough to not take up and space tough enough to stand up to some rough handling.

[stephenbozzone]

Great video. Added benefit of keeping organized is the time you save looking for stuff. I’ve even bought things that I couldn’t find only to find it a short time later.

[bengarland]

I don't even have a workshop (nor a garage) but I totally enjoy watching these videos. So well done and concise -- and funny without going overboard.

[rolandrivard]

Great vid! I'll be moving from a small shop... to an equally small shop. The move presents a clean slate to get better organized. I loved the bit about not buying more tools. Lol. Who'd fall for that. 😂

[slim]

For years I'd been meaning to build some wall cabinets to replace the open shelves on a wall in my small shop. Things were disorganized and cluttered as I packed more and more stuff on those open shelves. Things also became covered with sawdust. I longed for neatly organized wall cabinets like I saw in some YouTubers' shops. Looking for a temporary solution until I could build those cabinets, I went to a local big box store and bought a bunch of different size plastic lidded storage containers. I standardized on three container sizes of different widths and heights, but all 14" - 16" front-to-back. Then, I rebuilt the shelves so I could cram as many of these containers on the shelves as possible - one shelf for tall containers, one shelf for medium, and one for short. Now I pull together a bunch of related items, pack them in an appropriate size container, use a piece of masking tape to label it, and put the container on the shelves. Things remain together, dust-free, and easy to find. I can rearrange easily by simply moving stuff to larger or smaller containers, if necessary. For example, my dowel jig and the various dowels currently fit in a small container. But, if I buy a bunch more dowels someday, I can just move that stuff to a medium container. Also, I bought a bunch of different size 4-mil zip-lock bags from Amazon to help keep things (such as all the dowels of each size) organized within the containers. For me, this turned out to be so much simpler and more flexible than dedicated wall cabinets, that I'll never go that way.

[jasonschoening]

One thing that has helped me a lot is to alternate between "productive" projects and organizational ones. So one day I will be building thread racks for my wife's quilting machine, the next I will be adding drawers to the weird space under the spindle sander. This helps me stay focused on organization but not so much it overwhelms or drives me nuts. I just pick one thing to do next. It also help prioritize my scrap, because I can plan to use the remnants of one project in the next and consume them instead of storing them for all time.

[ChristopherSalisburySalz]

I love the 3D model of your shop. It's fascinating. It looks extremely small in the 3D model but in your film it seems bigger.

[Pete_]

Great advice, Scott. And I don’t mind the title. I know you make solid content. I often find cleaning my shop afterwards difficult. Having 4 acres, 3 children, 2 jobs and 1 wife, my presence is often abruptly required elsewhere. And I always make the mistake of wanting to quickly finish the job before running to the next task. At 46, I still have a lot to learn. E.g. from videos like this.

[BariumCobaltNitrogn]

Couple tips from an electrician with a woodshop. When you buy lights, find the color temperature you like, usually around 6K but higher (more blue) seems brighter to some. Then get the same color temperature for all your lights. When you build a cabinet or bench, mount some receptacles or wire mold strips into the sides, power strips are bad and good sources of fire and overloads. If you have power but no switch where you want a light or tool, use inexpensive wireless switches mounted next to your regular switch. Also lights should always be on a separate circuit breaker from anything else. No plugs.
If you are just starting to put a shop together, make sure you have at least 75-100 amps available and if not consider putting a sub-panel in, it's not just convenient to isolate this power but will prevent fires from overloads.
It's better and not that hard to add surface mount receptacles with conduit on the wall than running cords all over the shop. You only need one or two circuits if you only use one tool at a time. Try to put dust collection or extraction on it's own circuit if you can. Every removable connection, every plug, power strip and cord is a point of failure so having just one on the tool cord is best.