Official Luthiers Forum!

   Came back from Santa Rosa inspired to take my building more seriously. SO - I am looking to convert my tiny spare bedroom to a workroom. (In the past, I have only used it for spraying lacquer and wood storage).
   I have been searching online for pictures of other folks' work areas - but, almost all are much larger. Has anyone seen a bare minimum layout for 2-3 guitar/year builder?
   So far, I have a bench top bandsaw, drill press and table saw and an undersized vacumn unit. I want to build a new workbench with a lazy-susan top and someday add a thickness sander.
I welcome any tips or Ideas - Thanks!

You spray lacquer in a spare bedroom? YIKES!! At least take that to the yard.... sure your neighbors will make fun of you, but those fumes are toxic man.

As far as your work room goes. Have you seen Kathy Matsushita's site? She builds in her home and looks to have a very nice set up.

http://pweb.jps.net/~msmat/htmlpages/oddsandends2.html

I work in the basement and have crap everywhere. Someday I will actually build a confined shop, but that gets in the way of guitar building.

:-)

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

what size room are we talking here? The real key to working in a small room is good location of tools set-up with each task in mind. My shop is 30' x 30' ( a lot of room for 3-6 guitars a year) but whem I set it up I found I did not take good consideration of the storage location of tools based on task procedures. I am working this out but still don't have it fine tuned yet. and find myself having to walk around my L shaped work area to go get a tool. I have a 48"x 72"x 48"x 72" L bench right in the middle of the shop. the thinking at the time was the ability to 360 deg walk around. like I said thiugh my mistake is in the tool storage. So take care to know where you will be using what tools and layout so that they are stored in a place with easy access at the times you need them.

Great question and actually a question I was going to ask myself. I am also converting a small extra bedroom to guitar only workspace but will use my basement for spraying or the major dust making.

Mine is still under construction but here is the layout.


I laid out the design using the shop design application at GrizzlyDon A38597.7307638889

_________________
Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Wow Don thats one seriously large Cat you have got there

I think it's a dog, Russell.

At least-I hope it's a dog.

MontyMonty Cadenhead38597.8503125

No, it's a cat. The Don's here like their cats. And he's not that big.... you should have seen my 21 lb kitty who wasn't overweight.....

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Jimson,

I manage to get by with a tiny shop and a covered patio.   My shop is 9ft x 14ft. Here's an image of my shop:



I have all my dust making stuff out on the covered patio -- my bandsaw, drill press, table saw, chop saw and drum sander. I also do all my sanding with my random orbital sander out there too.



Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

Don,

How were you able to copy that file to post it? I can't seem to find any other option other than to save it to the grizzly website.

Thanks,

John

John, I captured it to the clipboard using Shift Print Sceen. I then started Paint and pasted it into a new image with Ctrl-V. I then highlighted the part I wanted and copied and pasted it into another new file.

_________________
Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

with a 2-1/2 ft deep closet along the short side. I sprayed in there 'cause I equipped it with a nice exhaust fan when I was building model gliders (balsa dust).

BUT - I really like the idea of moving the saws outside under the carport! The neighbor on that side might be an issue but it doesn't take that long to fabricate parts. It's almost winter in the northwest now butthis could work.

Wow Jimson, that is a small space. I thought mine was a small space at 185 sft. Here are some pics of my shop. I have a full size cabinet saw, 24" homemade drum sander, 14" delta bandsaw, 4" jointer and a 20" x 80" bench with upper cabinets above it plus a 28" x 50" builtin gobar deck. The best thing about my shop is the loft I built in. The loft stores all my materials, jigs and fixtures.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

rod, your unisaw looks to about the same vintage as mine, though i haven't resprayed it a lairy red.

you've certainly made very efficient use of your space.

Michael, I still have a couple of thing to go into the shop. I am making a cyclone similar to the one mentioned in the cyclone post and it is going to go in the corner bewteen the sander and the bandsaw. Than I want to make a knock down spray booth in the corner where the ladders are.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

have you thought of putting the cyclone outside in an enclosure. in your small space the noise will be a factor, as well as its footprint. the same can be said for the compressor.

Haven't thought of the enclosure for the cyclone yet. Don't know if I can get it quiet enough outside versus inside the shop. I have a small compressor that is under the gobar deck. I plan on building a "sound" box for the compressor to cut down the noise.

I will definitely re-look at the outside cyclone suggestion thought.

Thanks Michael

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I just finished my small shop. I kept it to 120 square feet so I wouldn't have to get a permit and by the time I finished, the codes had bumped the minimum size up to 200, so I might add a shed roof addition in a few years. I have a band saw and drill press as my big items. My table saw is in the garage and never would have made it up the hill anyway.


The copper roofed structure to the right is my neighbor's new timber framed hot tub gazebo made with purpleheart timbers. I’m wondering how much I can shave off for bindings before it becomes noticeable.






I thickness with a safety planer before taking down the road to a buddies thickness sander.









Organization is the key to working in a small area, which I'm still working on.






Requisite cat.

_________________
Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

Jim, something that I do is look for a way to store the things you`re not using everyday away from being in the way of work. For a long time, the rear of my shop looked more like a kitchen because of the wall cabinets and countertop. You`d be mighty surprised at what you`ll find in cabinets after a couple years!
Also, don`t forget that space overhead. Sometimes being short of stature comes in handy!

_________________
Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

[QUOTE=Jimson] It's almost winter in the northwest now but this could work.[/QUOTE]

Jimson, what part of the Northwest are you in?

_________________
Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

Thats a nice little shop you got there Scott.

_________________
Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Thanks Dave. It was my summer project. Well my project from LAST summer which turned into my summer, fall, winter, spring and another summer project.

_________________
Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg