Official Luthiers Forum!

I am just getting started with Sketchup (free version) to plan out a new workshop layout. I know some of you have found tools in sketchup (jointers, sanders, table saws etc.). Can someone point me in the right direction where can I find these things to include in my drawings?

Thanks for the help.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Never mind... I hit the motherload.

I am still looking for a wide belt sander though.. if anyone knows where I might find a model of that.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Grizzly.com has an online workshop planner, for others interested. It has drawings of every shop machine they sell. Objects move easily, rotate, etc. Very comfortable little program to use. May have some limitations. I haven't used it for 2 yrs.

Brock, if you type "luthier" in the library search, you will find one of my early shop layouts I was playing with. There should be a drum sander in there.

Reminds me, I oughta update the library with my current layout.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Brock, you have a wide belt sander? Lucky guy! If it is just for the purpose of planning the shop layout, find the machine that has the size closest to your sander and use that.

I don't know how many machines you can find in the Sketchup object library, but unless they closely match the sizes of your machines, it might be a better idea to actually carefully measure the ones you have, draw them up as simple shapes and use those. Size matters in this case; much more than the degree of detail, anyways. If your shop is huge and you only have a few items in there the accuracy is not such a big deal of course, but I have never seen a luthier's shop like that!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Brock - It has been a while since I looked at Sketchup. Where did you find the shop tool outlines?

Thanks,

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

Look in 3D Warehouse (File->3DWarehouse-> Get Models) amd search from there. These are user uploads of models. You'd be surprised what you can find. The Sketchup library is pretty good, but if you download someone else's model, you can break it apart, pick what you want and delete the rest. Pretty cool. I took someone else's router table and made it into a motorized dish sander in just a few minutes.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Well... no, not yet. But it is in the 2008 plan (so I can stop mooching off Tim McKnight's big machine) I want to make sure it will fit.

Actually the real reason for the new layout is I got a big dust collector from ClearVue.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com