Shop pics. Tool list.

[ggcustoms]

I have a line on a lateral move within my company and I would work mostly from home. Part of the job would be fixing little box monitors so I would "need" to have my own little shop at home. I would be starting from scratch either in a corner of my pole shed or building another little spot but of course this would mostly be my sled shop but with a little woodworking here and there and some other little stuff. I've seen some stellar set ups in the background of some sled pics on here and would like to see some more if you guys wouldn't mind.
What would you recommend for a set up? Size? Essential tools? My brother has always had a nice set up for a shop so I never really needed many tools but he's in the process of moving and I need my own oasis dammit.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Goinboardin]

1. Heated
2. Lighting
3. Good electrical supply, and plenty of outlets. I hate tripping breakers all the time with welding much more than a tack weld.
4. Space: more the better, working on trucks outside sucks.
5. Tools. Lots. I use any project as an excuse/justification to buy the pertinent tools. Anything from a 3/8 ratchet and socket set, nut drivers, wrenches (don't forget ratcheting wrenches), to a (minimum) 25 gallon compressor, impact gun, welder, chop saw, drill press, 3 jaw puller, torque wrench, floor jack, skill saw, die grinder...can never have too many tools in my opinion.
6. Storage. Some tools don't get used often. Tool boxes and shelving are key.
7. Workbench and good vice. I built a tall, heavy, aluminum decked bench, about 30"x48" top size, on locking casters with a storage shelf near the ground. It's handy. There's a wooden bench fixed in a corner too.

I don't have a great work space but it does the job for sleds. Currently renting a house with a too small of garage but making the best of it. It's really showing me that when I do buy or build a place I'll know what I want and will have to budget accordingly. As an example, I know I want heated floors and enough space to wrench on vehicles while the sleds are still inside. I also want 230V service for a real welder.

Have you checked out the garage threads in the fouled plug section? Couple guys on there have some recent threads with good ideas.

 

[Pro-8250]

Goboardin hit the nail on the head.
Good lighting is a must. I currently have fluorescent but I think LED may be the way to go. Open shelves, no doors. You can't be without a good vise, period. I bought a good one and bolted it to a steel welding table I built. That and my wood work bench are permanently mounted. Other wise most everything else is either wall mounted off of the floor or on wheels except the drill press. Just haven't got to that yet. I think it weighs more than my sled. Came out of a machine shop and it's older than me. It's a beast and not junk like you get today. Someday I want to get a Rigid pipe vise tri stand. This picture is old but I just installed a 50' air hose reel next to my air compressor with a switched outlet and quick disconnect tri coupler. My air compressors have to be portable. Other than tools, I have.
Flat screen TV with a Bose Home Theater System.
Apple desk top.
Microwave.
Pizza oven.
Toaster.
Toaster oven.
Fridge.
File cabinet.
Clothes dryer.
Shop vac.
Hand held battery vac.
30 Snowmobile DVD's.
Two beds on wheels with sheets, blankets, and pillows
Two high quality bar stools so I can watch the Vikings and Twins suck!
Jimmy Johns phone number.

 

[ggcustoms]

Thanks fellas. That's what I was looking for.

Have you checked out the garage threads in the fouled plug section? Couple guys on there have some recent threads with good ideas.

I have not seen that, I'll check it out.

 

[joshkoltes]

it really depends on what you find for real estate. you might find a house with a shop you can build into something special. you may only be able to find a house in which case make sure you have enough real estate to build one, and that the zoneing laws allow you to build what you want. a lot of these new subdivisions have a bunch of nonsense covenents claiming your house cant exceed the size of your house of similar crap.

id try to find a house separate from the shop due to two stroke smoke ingestion and if you have other people in the house you can start a sled at three am if you want.

location will determine price obviously. in my case im pretty close to the mountain so I paid way too much for a very crappy house. im not sure that's every where but if you can move anywhere some people on here may be able to give you a few listings close to where they are.

around here we have a few major realators
I used era realty
cottonwood properties has the higher end places
then of course century 21 and remax

 

[Bcorn]

Goboardin hit the nail on the head.
Good lighting is a must. I currently have fluorescent but I think LED may be the way to go. Open shelves, no doors. You can't be without a good vise, period. I bought a good one and bolted it to a steel welding table I built. That and my wood work bench are permanently mounted. Other wise most everything else is either wall mounted off of the floor or on wheels except the drill press. Just haven't got to that yet. I think it weighs more than my sled. Came out of a machine shop and it's older than me. It's a beast and not junk like you get today. Someday I want to get a Rigid pipe vise tri stand. This picture is old but I just installed a 50' air hose reel next to my air compressor with a switched outlet and quick disconnect tri coupler. My air compressors have to be portable. Other than tools, I have.
Flat screen TV with a Bose Home Theater System.
Apple desk top.
Microwave.
Pizza oven.
Toaster.
Toaster oven.
Fridge.
File cabinet.
Clothes dryer.
Shop vac.
Hand held battery vac.
30 Snowmobile DVD's.
Two beds on wheels with sheets, blankets, and pillows
Two high quality bar stools so I can watch the Vikings and Twins suck!
Jimmy Johns phone number.

Nice!

 

[Indy_500]

1. Heated
2. Lighting
3. Good electrical supply, and plenty of outlets. I hate tripping breakers all the time with welding much more than a tack weld.
4. Space: more the better, working on trucks outside sucks.
5. Tools. Lots. I use any project as an excuse/justification to buy the pertinent tools. Anything from a 3/8 ratchet and socket set, nut drivers, wrenches (don't forget ratcheting wrenches), to a (minimum) 25 gallon compressor, impact gun, welder, chop saw, drill press, 3 jaw puller, torque wrench, floor jack, skill saw, die grinder...can never have too many tools in my opinion.
6. Storage. Some tools don't get used often. Tool boxes and shelving are key.
7. Workbench and good vice. I built a tall, heavy, aluminum decked bench, about 30"x48" top size, on locking casters with a storage shelf near the ground. It's handy. There's a wooden bench fixed in a corner too.

I don't have a great work space but it does the job for sleds. Currently renting a house with a too small of garage but making the best of it. It's really showing me that when I do buy or build a place I'll know what I want and will have to budget accordingly. As an example, I know I want heated floors and enough space to wrench on vehicles while the sleds are still inside. I also want 230V service for a real welder.

Have you checked out the garage threads in the fouled plug section? Couple guys on there have some recent threads with good ideas.

Spot on! I just bought my first house this past spring, made the hunt a little hard for myself as I was super picky about the garage. Landed a 4 car attached garage on the edge of town. Garage is in an L shape, front portion of it being 22' deep x 36' wide and the back section of it being 18'x18' making half of the garage 40' deep. Fully insulated and heated with a 50k btu natural gas heater. Spent a week painting it, and painted all of my cabinets and workbench to match. Space is key, especially for sled projects as I like to take my time on sleds and per-fect them, so you need the room to let things sit around. TOOLS TOOLS TOOLS is huge also, I've been buying tools since I was 12 years old when my I kept busting up my Trail Indy's since my dad had nothing. Good luck! Here's mine, has a few more motorized toys since the pics

 

[rdr99]

Power, lots of it. 240V plug ins for welder, plasma cutter, compressor, dust collector, etc. Well insulated, high enough to get a lift in. Air lines everywhere, outlets every 4 feet.

 

[ggcustoms]

Good ideas.

Plasma cutter, yep, I think I need one of them. I mean, they're a necessity right? Ha.
I have a good amount of tools now but I have a pretty extensive tool list for myself for Christmas. Just waiting to finish some other issues then I can start to acquire and plan. I have a set up in mind, I just don't know if it'd be the most efficient.
I love seeing those shops where you just want to hang out in and try to find something to do.
Spotted Cow on tap too I suppose.

 

[srt20]

Plasma cutter, yep, I think I need one of them. I mean, they're a necessity right? Ha.
I have a good amount of tools now but I have a pretty extensive tool list for myself for Christmas. Just waiting to finish some other issues then I can start to acquire and plan. I have a set up in mind, I just don't know if it'd be the most efficient.
I love seeing those shops where you just want to hang out in and try to find something to do.
Spotted Cow on tap too I suppose.

Im gonna need the address to your shop!

Cow on tap FTW

 

[mountainhorse]

Are you looking, realistically within your budget and needs, for a full-blown shop that you can pull cars/trucks sleds into... or a good shop for small repairs with work and a place to wrench on sleds etc?

An Hi-cube cargo container works pretty darn good for this.
Old insulated refrigerator units work great for this... 9 foot ceilings and ability to have lift beams inside.. makes for a cheap warm place... and you can move it in the future or sell it if needed.

Sure a traditional workshop is nice...but a container shop is a nice stop gap... I've seen some pretty decked out units.




.

 

[Pro-8250]

Are you looking, realistically within your budget and needs, for a full-blown shop that you can pull cars/trucks sleds into... or a good shop for small repairs with work and a place to wrench on sleds etc?

An Hi-cube cargo container works pretty darn good for this.
Old insulated refrigerator units work great for this... 9 foot ceilings and ability to have lift beams inside.. makes for a cheap warm place... and you can move it in the future or sell it if needed.

Sure a traditional workshop is nice...but a container shop is a nice stop gap... I've seen some pretty decked out units.




.

Are you talking about a Conex box? You can actually get them fairly cheap. We have used them on job sites forever. Hard to break into and they are portable. We are looking at getting one next spring for a house me and my kid are going to build for him. Storing tools etc. One hell of a gang box! And the beauty is you don't have to pay property tax on it because it's portable.
http://www.pacvan.com/sem/conex-box...age_Chicago_IL&utm_content=Conex_Boxes_(Exact)

 

[mountainhorse]

Yup..

.

 

[turbolover]

Working outside sucks. Get as much room as you can.
However storage space and work space are different. You don't need to heat storage space.
If it is a sled work space then I would have a smaller heated work area to wrench in and a separate space to store stuff.

Cabinets to store tools and a nut and bolt bin.
Having a handful of different size bolts and nuts available is pretty helpful when you lose one or need to change one.

I went from a 20 x 24 shop and a one car garage, to a three car garage and no shop when I moved.

I can still store my tools and 2 sleds and still work in the 3rd bay and move cars outside if I need to work on bigger projects.
I wish I had a separate workshop to just leave stuff sit if I needed to but it wasn't in the budget when we built the current house.
Future plans.

 

[sledhead685]

Maybe an example of what not to do if you can help it?

 

[joshkoltes]

Maybe an example of what not to do if you can help it?

I used to feel this pain



I didn't upgrade to the biggest space but I think a guy always will want more

 

[sledhead685]

I used to feel this pain

I didn't upgrade to the biggest space but I think a guy always will want more

Never too much. Someday my roommate and I will graduate and get real jobs to support our expensive habits!

 

[mountainhorse]

Compressor sound cabinet in the back corner Indy? .... Any details on that?

.

 

[SRXSRULE]

Compressor sound cabinet in the back corner Indy? .... Any details on that?









.

Ive done that a few times and it helps a bunch with noise. I found that if you box it in 100% and insulate the inside of in you can make it VERY quite. If you have a compressor that runs a lot and you add a vent for heat to get out, you loose about 50% of the sound deadening.

Another thing that helps a lot with the noise is piping your inlet air filter for the compressor pump to the outside of the building. Doing this trick will likely add moisture to your air supply so a drier is needed. Eric

 

[warreng417]

A really good workbench and keep everything on wheels. Too much benchspace causes clutter (for me anyway). A guy I work with says everything in the shop must earn its keep haha! Put stuff you dont use up high so floorspace is open. Corners are wasted space so put things there that dont move (compressor). Insulation, heat and cold beer are also important.