Advise on setting up a workshop

[Bill Raby]

   I finished my first rifle build a few months ago and it turned out great. Much better than expected. Gave it to my dad for Christmas and he REALLY likes it. I was living in an apartment at the time and working on it there was just not going to happen. So I built it in my parent's garage. It was not exactly the ideal way to do it. The 35 mile drive out there three times a week for a few months got to be a bit old pretty fast. But I am totally hooked on it now.

   The next one will be a bit different because I bought my first house a couple weeks ago. Moving sucks!!! But the exciting part is setting up the workshop. Plan was to set it all up in the living room. The dining room looked like the perfect place to put a milling machine and drill press. Only problem with that idea is that there is a woman moving in also that I kind of like having around. She was not too excited about the idea of a milling machine in the dining room even if I painted it a color that matches the dishes. I guess women are just weird that way.

   Looks like the shop is going in a room in the basement. Milling machine, drill press, and all the casting equipment are going out in the garage. I never set up a shop before focused on building guns. Its a fairly small space but big enough. I got two workbenches in there along with a jewelers workbench. I was a goldsmith for 20 years. I bought one of those fancy gun stock vises and put in a couple overhead LED lights that look light the fluorescent tube lights. Nice and bright. I am looking for advise on setting everything up. I have most of the basic tools along with milling machine and drill press. I have a few good chisels, but need a lot more. Even have a small 5 axis CNC mill, mold making and casting equipment. And there is enough polishing stuff to make your head spin. Goldsmiths tend to get a bit carried away with polishing. I need to pick up a band saw. What tools do I still need to get? Any advice on getting set up is welcome.

   Next build is a fusil de chasse kit from Track of the Wolf. I got everything except the barrel and lock. Not in stock yet. I am anxious to get started.

[Mike Brooks]

You probably have more tools than I do and I have been building guns for a living since '96. I'd just by gun building tools as you discover you need them. keeps you having a whole drawer of chisels you never use. I have had a shop in the basement several times, it's OK. I now have partitioned of an area in my machine shed/garage and have it heated. Much better than having all the mess in the house.

[thecapgunkid]

Mike's right and you came to the right place for advice. You'd do well to  consider this forum a part of your tool inventory. 

 I built this in my garage out of notched planks which are substantial enough to enable me to confine and control the heating



I bought tools as I needed them and learned that my shop is a work in progress to this day.   As you learn you will want change.

I never thought my bench would end up being removable  but kept my tools grouped and visible.  That ended up having a positive impact on cost because I don't have a lot of tools I don't use all the time.

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid

The Capgun Kid

[SingleMalt]

I have mine in a storage room on the other side of my carport. 14' X 7'. I built my bench in an "L" shape against two walls from 2 X 4s and 3/4" plywood doubled for the top with a shelf halfway. I also attached it to the wall studs. I've used this set up for almost 15 years.

[deepcreekdale]

I just finished moving to a new house myself last year so I feel your pain. I was lucky many years ago, my wife didn't complain when I turned a bedroom in our first house into gun building room. She is a keeper. I have since worked in garages, basements and everything in between.  This move  though, I built a 16 X 26 foot metal building for my shop with benches running along 3 walls. I usually keep about 3 projects going at any one time and need storage for barrels, stock blanks etc and could easily use a bigger building. I have seen magnificent rifles come out of workshops set up in closets, behind washing machines etc but personally, I find a small space inefficient and frustrating. After the first dozen times of rattling your 46" barreled rifle against the overhead light or against the wall, it begins to lose its appeal. Try to get the most room you can if possible.

[Dennis Glazener]

I have had a shop in the basement several times, it's OK. I now have partitioned of an area in my machine shed/garage and have it heated. Much better than having all the mess in the house.

I agree with Mike. I have a 24 X 36 detached garage and my first gun shop was one of the bays in this garage. It worked fine until winter time. I was not a full time builder so it was hard for me to heat the work area since it was not partitioned from the other 2 bays it took a good while to warm the shop up to where it was comfortable and I might only work 4 or 5 hrs and shut the heat down for the night. Then the next day same thing all over. Some days I didn't think I would be able to work in the shop so I didn't start heating the shop, other days I started heating it and never was able to do any work, just a waste of propane/kerosene.

So I ended up moving my shop into the basement of our house. Heat wise and convenience it was great until the first time I opened a can of finishing oil. Down the steps comes my wife, "what in the world are you doing" who me, nothing but opening a can of finish! So you know what she thought of the smell after each coat of finish. Also there is the smell of cutting fluid when I use the lathe/mill/drill press. I swear she smells it before I even get it on the work piece!

So make sure whoever shares the house with you is not bothered by the smells of finish/cutting oil etc. The older my wife gets the more she is bothered. They give he a head ache that stays until the odor is gone.
Dennis

[conquerordie]

My workshop is a five foot long bench in my basement. I'm 6'1" and have I keep my head between the floor joists in order to stand up straight. Not the ideal setup, but I've built several guns this way. Don't skimp on the lighting. I can never get enough were I'm at.
Greg

[oldtravler61]

  Dennis I agree. I have a pole building shop. A shop in the back yard 10x12 an one in the basement. There is no where that I don't get the odor lecture......Mike

[Bill Raby]

   I hear you on the smell thing. Some women have a nose that would put a blood hound to shame. When I first started living with her I found out that she does not like the smell of hoppes. How can anyone not like that? She really notices how my black powder guns smell when I bring them home! My dad always wants to go shooting and he lives pretty close to the shooting range so I bring him along when I go on the weekends. I just clean them at his house afterwards. Workshop has door going out to the garage so I figure I can just open the door and put a fan by it when I am doing anything that smells bad.

[Eric Krewson]

My first shop was in the basement, I used it mostly for bow making. It is impossible to scrape on a bow and not bring sawdust and wood shavings up into the house after a work session, the yellow osage sawdust would drift up into the house and reach every nook and cranny. After a year or so of this my wife had no objections to me building a stand alone shop next to the house.

The total turn key cost for my shop was only 19K, this was 15 years ago, of course this is in Bama where things cost much less.

[smart dog]

Hi Bill,
I worked in basements and corners of attached garages.  I really like a detached shop with space and windows. It is just a much more pleasant place to work and I do better work there. If you are going to use a basement, try to figure out a way to vent air with a fan, perhaps through a basement window. Also, try to install a door at the bottom of steps to the basement to block noise and contain dust. A door at the top is fine but a bottom door is better if possible.  Finally, don't skimp on lighting. Install enough in or from the ceiling and have plenty of outlets for task lights.

dave

[SingleMalt]

That's a really nice shop Dave.

[KentSmith]

For advice id say get good light. Your setup sounds fine but id get a couple incandescent lamps so you can throw light from other directions than overhead. If you have windows natural light is hood when the sun is up. Make sure the bench is the right height for you. Build some supports out of scrap to hold up and support you longarm while the other end is in the vice. 

[Kingsburyarms]

LIGHTING...... Make sure you can see with multiple shadow angles... My Dentist redid his office and I got these - Perfect Bright location lights -

[Bill Raby]

   Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like I have it fairly good already. And some of you guys are just making me jealous! I would love a stand alone building to work in, but I bought a house in the suburbs and there is not much of a yard. I have about 7 x 13 feet of space to work with. Some machines will be taking over my parking space in the garage once the milling machine gets here. Not looking forward to moving that thing. It is not going to be the ideal setup, but I am incredibly happy to finally be done with apartment living and own a house. Until now I had to drive 35 miles to work in my parents garage, passing through Minneapolis along the way. This is going to be so much better.

   I really, really like that dentist light! Those things sure are expensive. I think I am going to add in a couple of those LED tube lights. Got one in right so far over front of the workbench and I think that it is plenty bright enough on its own. But second on the other side of the room would make things a bit better. I understand how how important good lighting is. I think LED photography light might be something to add. Mount it on a stand it would be good for directional lighting. They put out enough light that you can set it up far enough to be out of the way. I like the idea of the LED lights mostly because they do not get hot.

[SingleMalt]

 Costco has self contained two bulb LED fixtures with pull chain and cord for under $30. On sale, they're under $20. One can "daisy chain" three together.  Very bright and very low heat emission. I've got three in my shop and I can't say enough about them.

[Mark Elliott]

Follow this link to a virtual reality tour of my shop; http://www.markelliottva.com/wordpress/studio-3/
.   It is 540 sq feet enclosed.  The forge area is 180 sq feet. If I had it to do over,  I would have enclosed the whole thing, included a roll up garage door for moving in heavy equipment, and would have also just put the forge under a shed roof on dirt.  The concrete is dangerous for casting.   

For bench lighting I have regular incandescent light fixtures with LED bulbs.  They are much cooler than the halogen lights I had before.   Of course there is copious amounts of overhead fluorescent lighting.  I some times have to cut that off because I can't see the shadows I need to define a shape.

You need plenty of electrical outlets for one thing or another.  I have drop boxes suspended from the ceiling for some equipment.  They are very flexible, no pun intended. 

There is also an exhaust fan in the back room where I have the heat treat oven and do soldering, and welding as well as a little forging and bending using a gas torch.   Acordingly,  there are lots of fire extinguishers.  I also have smoke, heat, and CO detectors as part of the security system.

[smallpatch]

Hey Dave!!!

Show off!!!!

[tddeangelo]

For those using buildings outside the heated/finished home, are there humidity concerns for affecting the wood while it's being worked?

I have a big shed with electrical power that I use for a general workshop (and deer butcher shop!) and I have found when working on deer in the winter that my kerosene heater does enough to take out the chill to make it comfy even when things are down into the 20's. I didn't build the shed, but it was build with double walls (I don't think there's insulation, but I could be wrong). Meaning- they put the exterior walls up and then sheeted the inside of the framing with plywood as well, leaving dead air space between the exterior/interior sheeting, which I guess is its own kind of insulation, to be fair.

But there's no way for me to control for humidity out there.

This would be the place to set up to work on rifles, which I have been threatening to do for a while now...at least as far as space, lighting, and separation from the household (and three kids, two dogs) is concerned.

I'm just worried that it'll be a detriment to the wood while working on it to be outside a humidity controlled environment?

[Bill Raby]

   I would imagine that concerns about humidity depend a lot on what part of the country you are in. But I doubt it matters very much. People have been doing just fine building rifles for a few hundred years with no control over humidity. In any case, you can get a small humidifier at Walmart for only about $20. Dehumidifiers are more, but not too bad.

[tddeangelo]

I'm in southeastern Pennsylvania. It's not Florida, but it's pretty darn damp, almost year round. I rather dislike that part of living in this area, lol.

[Mark Elliott]

I live outside Richmond, VA on the swamp.    It gets very humid in Summer.    I use an dehumidifier in the Summer in addition to a window AC just to keep the humidity down to 60%.   It is not an issue in the Winter.   Right now, the humidity is around 40%.
 

[little joe]

My ceiling is to low make it at least 8 ft.

[Waddie J Paddock]

Hi Bill,  sounds like you have a good start.  I do my work in an attached garage which is about 750 square feet and heated.  Nice to see another Minneapolis member on the sight.  Congrats on the new house!  Dewey 

[ron w]

I painted my Harley the same color as the living room walls,.... she still spotted it right away.