Shop equipment options

[nautilus29]

I also wonder if the clearances around your Bridgeport are narrow. I don't know what you plan for the shelves and cabinets, but are they in an inconvenient location if you constantly have to get things from them or put things in them?

I cringe a bit seeing your sander and grinder where they can throw dust on your mill. I have that problem somewhat and it is a big PITA to have to keep covering things and cleaning as part of the workflow.

--ShopShoe

Ya I agree, I'm actually considering making a rotary table for the grinders and drill press. I saw one on pintress that sits in a corner and you just rotate the whole table until you have the tool you want to use in front of you. I think that would be a better option than grinding dust right next to the fine equipment.

I should have plenty of walk around for the mill. I drew the bridgeport up to it's max travel so I can move the table one way or another if I need more room to get next to it. I can have close to 4 feet of wall to table clearance if needed, and 2.5 feet even if the table is fully extended one way or the other.

 

[nautilus29]

I already own the lathes. The mills are just one of the routes I'm thinking about going. I really like the idea of going with a small cnc and large manual mill, but I have to decide if it's worth the money and shop space still. If I bought a larger precision matthews (940 model) and turned that into a cnc I could save around $2000 compared to what I have drawn up. That's a surface grinder haha.

Right now I roughly figured I'd have close to 10k getting the shop to the pictures setup... Ouch

 

[stanstocker]

I'd consider putting the SB lathe by the CNC mill. Then shift the Bridgeport so it's just clearing the rec room wall at the rightmost extreme table travel. Depending on the amount and nature of use of the grinder and belt sander you might want to isolate them as far as possible. Maybe even into the utility room if it's just air handler and such, although probably not a good move if it's also laundry.

You have a fairly large area devoted to the stock rack, so I'm guessing you break down larger pieces on the band saw and use the belt grinder to deburr. Getting the bandsaw and belt grinder closer together might be beneficial. Putting these on the rec room wall side of the shop might allow getting further away from the machines with grit and ease work flow. Out in the garage might be a place for stock and grinding/rough sawing if space allows. The less dirty work you have to do around the machines the easier it is to have your shop pleasing to work in.

Depending on the size and weight distribution of your drill press, a good roll around base could let you shift the drill press around and move it out of the way. The locking bases that are really heavy duty and sit down on pads when parked are great, locking caster sort of deals haven't been pleasing to deal with for me. There is a nice little open area in the corner on the lower left side of your drawing (woodwork area). If not already spoken for it could be a good spot for a drill press and shop vac to live out of the way but easy to pull out when needed.

If you are going to have anything on wheels that are fairly small, cut some PVC pipe rings that are an inch or so high and put them around each wheel. When moving across the floor these tend to sweep any bits of gravel or the like out of the way rather than tripping the wheel. Learned that trick with engine cranes

If you do most of your work on the CNC machines, optimize the shop to use these easily. In my shop I just have to accept that some infrequently used machines are not "optimally" placed or supported, but while irksome on occasion it's a trade off that lets me use the main machines quickly and easily without having to do the limbo to get to the tooling cabinets.

Have fun, it's never perfect in a shop for all work conditions. Pretty good most of the time is a fine accomplishment. Don't let it get you down. After 45 years of this, it's still a struggle to figure out how to set things up!

Stan

 

[awake]

What sort of woodworking are you planning on? You might consider dust collection, especially if it involves a table saw, jointer, planer. I'll warn you from personal experience that even with dust collection, using woodworking equipment in close proximity to machine tools will leave a film of fine saw dust on the working surfaces - be sure to wipe this off thoroughly before using the machine tools.

The ideal scenario would be to have 3 spaces that can be sealed off from one another: 1) machine tools, 2) grinding and welding, and 3) woodworking. I keep dreaming of such ... but so far I wake up to my same old overcrowded and mixed up half-garage!

 

[mfrick]

So years back I had my wood shop and machine shop in the same space, it didn't take long for me to realize that the dust collected on the lathe and mill and it became a reall pain in my side. If at all possible I would seperate the two shops. I have a very large dust collection system in the wood shop but there is still fine dust to deal with. The other concern I had was using a grinder in the wood shop sparks and dust don't mix very well, starting a fire is a great concern.
Mike

 

[nautilus29]

I should have mentioned, I do a lot of projects around my property\ house so I have a lot of wood working tools. Miter saw, table saw, and stuff like that. I put that area by my shop as storage for those tools and I figured I'd roll them out into the garage if I am actually using them.

 

[nautilus29]

I'd consider putting the SB lathe by the CNC mill. Then shift the Bridgeport so it's just clearing the rec room wall at the rightmost extreme table travel. Depending on the amount and nature of use of the grinder and belt sander you might want to isolate them as far as possible. Maybe even into the utility room if it's just air handler and such, although probably not a good move if it's also laundry.

You have a fairly large area devoted to the stock rack, so I'm guessing you break down larger pieces on the band saw and use the belt grinder to deburr. Getting the bandsaw and belt grinder closer together might be beneficial. Putting these on the rec room wall side of the shop might allow getting further away from the machines with grit and ease work flow. Out in the garage might be a place for stock and grinding/rough sawing if space allows. The less dirty work you have to do around the machines the easier it is to have your shop pleasing to work in.

Depending on the size and weight distribution of your drill press, a good roll around base could let you shift the drill press around and move it out of the way. The locking bases that are really heavy duty and sit down on pads when parked are great, locking caster sort of deals haven't been pleasing to deal with for me. There is a nice little open area in the corner on the lower left side of your drawing (woodwork area). If not already spoken for it could be a good spot for a drill press and shop vac to live out of the way but easy to pull out when needed.

If you are going to have anything on wheels that are fairly small, cut some PVC pipe rings that are an inch or so high and put them around each wheel. When moving across the floor these tend to sweep any bits of gravel or the like out of the way rather than tripping the wheel. Learned that trick with engine cranes

If you do most of your work on the CNC machines, optimize the shop to use these easily. In my shop I just have to accept that some infrequently used machines are not "optimally" placed or supported, but while irksome on occasion it's a trade off that lets me use the main machines quickly and easily without having to do the limbo to get to the tooling cabinets.

Have fun, it's never perfect in a shop for all work conditions. Pretty good most of the time is a fine accomplishment. Don't let it get you down. After 45 years of this, it's still a struggle to figure out how to set things up!

Stan

I'll draw up a new floor plan incorporating some of these ideas and see what it looks like. I don't really have an option to put the sanding equipment in the garage. It's not going to be fully climate-controlled like the shop is, so it will end up being too big of a pain to use that equipment. I think maybe putting the grinders, saw, sanders over where I have my oak desk might be a good alternative. I plan on putting my air compressor in the utility room, I could possibly also put a dust collection system in there too. Having that area be as far away from the equipment as possible plus having a collection system, will hopefully mitigate abrasive dust in the shop as much as possible.

 

[nautilus29]

I'll probably play with ideas tonight. I made cutouts so I can move stuff around easier. I made the doors moveable also lol.

Edit: I added a crosshatch to the bridgeport to help show clearances better. The crosshatch is open area if the table travel is limited out in the opposite direction.

Here's 2:

 

[nautilus29]

Here's another option that has some small tweaks. It gives me 8 foot of open wall for expanding in the future.

 

[Egret]

I'm bored, and since I'm not close to a pc I decided to draw up a rough shop layout just to get a visualization of how much space I have. Equipment is subject to change, but what do you guys think? Each square is a half a foot, the wide door that leads into the garage is only there to get equipment in the shop so although I don't want to put anything that's bolted down there it is usable space. As of now I just made it storage for my wood working tools.

I have rather strong views about mixing woodwork and metalwork and as your workshop appears a generous size would say put your woodwork and all grinding / sanding at one end of the shop with either a wall or perhaps a wipe down curtain between that and the metal area. This will save many hours of dusting

 

[Apprentice707]

I don't advise putting your Mother in Law in the workshop with you, far too critical, and will report your goings on to Higher Domestic Management.

 

[Brian Hutchings]

I always use a piece of graph paper to mark out the space available and then make up machine shaped, including allowances for table travels and operator, pieces of graph paper and shuffle them around until it looks right. Much easier than moving actual machinery.
Brian

 

[nautilus29]

I don't advise putting your Mother in Law in the workshop with you, far too critical, and will report your goings on to Higher Domestic Management.

My mother in law's bedroom is right above the shop. She's hard of hearing though, so I can get some pretty loud chattering on my end mills before I have to worry about waking her lol.

 

[nautilus29]

I always use a piece of graph paper to mark out the space available and then make up machine shaped, including allowances for table travels and operator, pieces of graph paper and shuffle them around until it looks right. Much easier than moving actual machinery.
Brian

If I get a bridgeport it will be bolted to the floor. So I know for sure that I'll have this shop planned out for months, and I'll think of everything I need to, and then when I drill the holes in the new concrete floor I'll have to move it somewhere else lol.

 

[CFLBob]

I always use a piece of graph paper to mark out the space available and then make up machine shaped, including allowances for table travels and operator, pieces of graph paper and shuffle them around until it looks right. Much easier than moving actual machinery.
Brian

I always used to work this way, but when I put my big shop in back in 2014, I did the layout in CAD. Yeah, it gives some advantage to have 3D models of things, but a large block that covers the amount of floor required and the height is just as good as a detailed model of a mill, lathe or whatever. The problem with the CAD is I kept going "that bandsaw (or whatever) isn't exactly like that" and spent time making the model prettier. So I have to work on not being so Anal Retentive about making it look real.

That said, the advantage of doing it in CAD is you can save copies of different layouts and compare them really easily. I just rearranged the shop this past January. Spent a few days trying different layouts in CAD and then another couple of days moving stuff. I think the CAD really made it easier.

I also have some woodworking stuff in my shop, although I hardly ever use it. Most of the time, I roll the tools outside to generate sawdust.

 

[chrsbrbnk]

I don't think it's real typical to need to bolt down a Bridgeport they don't seem to crawl around most of the time leveling on them was done with sheets of steel 1 to 2 foot clearance all around at extreme travel remembering the head travel . vertical clearance for pulling the draw bar wouldn't hurt.

 

[ShopShoe]

CFLBob,

When I use CAD for room layouts, I like to use layers to experiment with placements. This also allows planning for plumbing, Electrical, etc. Even greater if your CAD package can link to Bill Of Materials spreadsheets.

I am sure you know this, but I thought this post would put up more information for other readers.
Sorry if I overstepped by doing this.

--ShopShoe

 

[nautilus29]

I always used to work this way, but when I put my big shop in back in 2014, I did the layout in CAD. Yeah, it gives some advantage to have 3D models of things, but a large block that covers the amount of floor required and the height is just as good as a detailed model of a mill, lathe or whatever. The problem with the CAD is I kept going "that bandsaw (or whatever) isn't exactly like that" and spent time making the model prettier. So I have to work on not being so Anal Retentive about making it look real.

That said, the advantage of doing it in CAD is you can save copies of different layouts and compare them really easily. I just rearranged the shop this past January. Spent a few days trying different layouts in CAD and then another couple of days moving stuff. I think the CAD really made it easier.

I also have some woodworking stuff in my shop, although I hardly ever use it. Most of the time, I roll the tools outside to generate sawdust.

I'm sure I'll have a cad drawing in the long run. For now the free time I have to lay this out is too far away from a pc with cad on it. So hand drawn it is for now.

 

[L98fiero]

I don't think it's real typical to need to bolt down a Bridgeport they don't seem to crawl around most of the time leveling on them was done with sheets of steel 1 to 2 foot clearance all around at extreme travel remembering the head travel . vertical clearance for pulling the draw bar wouldn't hurt.

If you're setting up your mill/lathe in the basement or an attached garage it's a good idea to put rubber pads under the levelling feet so you don't get the vibrations/sound transmitted through the concrete floor.
I'm set up in a detached garage and my rotary phase converter is on 4 - Ø1½ 20 durometer urethane tubular springs and the 5 hp compressor is on four hockey pucks.

 

[nautilus29]

What software are you using for CAD? I've been using fusion at home but it doesn't seem built for 2d architecture.