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| Space-Saving Home Shop |
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Issue #297 - October
2006 For many of us, there just isn’t enough space for a big workshop. We end up sharing shop space with the garage or basement, which usually means one of two things. The tools get spread out and take over the entire space, or they get put in long-term parking against the wall, and they’re seldom used. Although enlarging your shop may not be an option, it is possible to make the space you do have more efficient. And that’s precisely the idea behind this home shop. Although it’s hard to tell from the Photo, this shop has an unbelievably small “footprint” of only 50 square feet (the size of a small storage shed). Yet it functions like a much larger shop. Five Workstations - The secret to making such a small shop work “big” is due in part to a unique arrangement of tools and cabinets that creates five major workstations. These include a station for the table saw, router, miter saw, and planer. And there’s a large, |
| sturdy benchtop on
each side of the miter saw station.| Each workstation can be set up in a matter of seconds. Equally important, it can be reconfigured just as quickly to perform a secondary function or get stowed out of the way. Space-Saving Strategies - But these workstations are really only one part of the story of this shop. We’ve also incorporated a number of space-saving strategies, which are detailed in the Online Extras above. Time & Money - Of course, lack of space isn’t the only limiting factor when setting up a shop. You also have to consider time and money. To save both time and money, we purchased six pre-assembled cabinets for about $240.Two shop-made end assemblies create tool nooks for the workstations. And we customized the cabinet doors with pegboard panels. Finally, we built benchtops, fence extensions for the miter saw, a flip-top planer cart, and a cutoff bin - all to get this shop working to its full potential. |
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