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.. Here's yet another shop question guys How would you use the space in the pics? I threw this together to give myself ideas on how to make the most of my garage, and have a smaller room inside that's environment controlled. I'd rather not try to keep the whole thing controlled as that would make my wife very unhappy when she gets the bill in the mail.. But I want to make sure that the size I have in here is big enough for what I need. What would you guys do different than what iI have done in the models? ( I know there isn't a door )

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It depends on how you work. I have always gotten by with a smaller portion of my shop as the humidity controlled assembly room. I want more room for power tools!

In my last shop, my assembly room was about 60 sq ft with 1000 sq ft of shared machine room. My current assembly room is about 100 sq ft with 500 for machines (not shared).

I keep a lot more stuff in my assembly room than just wood and hand tools too. But I do break one of the cardinal rules of lutherie by having storage above my work benches.

Both of them have been long and narrow (less than 6'), only wide enough for a full length bench and floor space to stand in. Works for me.

Good luck.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

In the figure above - on the guy's left - stretch the bench to cover the whole length of the wall to meet up with a bench in the 72.5" space. Make wide broad and strong shelves in the 72 inch space to store wood, and use the bottom of the shelf and top of 72" bench as a go bar deck. The long bench would be nice by the window.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Looks pretty good Jason and hello from another Michigan guy.

My one suggestion is to try to plan in a sofa to sleep on somewhere - when you start buying lots of wood and tools you may need it.... Voice of experience here....

Like this?

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Hesh.. I made a nice bunk-bed above my benches, see? Already on it man!

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If you aren't going to be parking a car in there (I assume you will be working in there) then really the door is non functional and you aren't going to be opening and closing it. IF that is the case, I would buy some Styrofoam insulation and block it off and do the same with any windows, as insulate the rest of the room. If you did that, climate control costs wouldn't be as bad and you could use the whole thing.

That would be my compromise. It's probably cheaper than blocking off a part of the room with drywall and you would have much more space.

From a real estate point of view you have also enhanced the value of your home. Not sure if you ever plan on selling it, but if you do, a half a garage is a tough sell. A fully insulated garage would go a lot further.

Anyways, just some more ammo for you.

That's a valid point. I would love to just insulate the whole thing, vapor barrier the concrete, and slap a floating (easily removed) floor over it and be good. If I have a choice in the matter, I wont live here for more than 5-6 years. It's my first home and we got it more for the price than anything else, hoping to make a bit if/when the market ever comes back.. so maybe doing any walls inside would make a non-functional "garage" a harder sell. Definitely something to consider. I'm at least going to get it wired up, there's only one plug and its on the ceiling for the garage door opener. Ty for the input fellas!

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Pretty easy to build a wall that can be easily taken down if and when you want to sell. You can just put down the bottom plate with either about 5 blobs of PL (polyurethane construction adhesive ) or 5 tapcons (screws for concrete) or so. Screw everything together and don't go crazy with the amount of fasteners. I would lean towards using the PL because if you want to take it down you can knock the wall out with out damaging the slab. Tapcons can do some damage to the slab.
Plywood for the walls would be a higher initial cost but if lightly screwed to the studs could be easily reused or sold to recoup your out lay. You could do sheet rock and tape the seams from the back side so you don't bury the screws to make removal easier.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Way-to-go Jason!!! Looks like you have the "alternate sleeping quarters" thing already nailed.....

Since we are in the same climate here is some info for you that may help when designing your shop. I have to run a dehumidifier slightly more than half the year and a humidifier during the other times.

The humidifier is no problem but the dehumidifier generates heat as it takes water out of the air and the amount of heat generated by the dehumidifier in a shop sized room can bring up the temp 5-6 degrees when it's in the 70's outside.

If at all possible you might want to install a bathroom type exhaust fan on the upper part of a wall or ceiling and having it over your primary work bench would be helpful too. This will permit you to take the warmest air near the ceiling out of your shop and if it's near your bench may be helpful too with fumes from things like epoxy, CA, Burritos.....

I installed a 100 CFM bathroom fan in an upper corner of my main shop and that thing can take the temp down about 2 degrees in 20 minutes on hot days.

Looking good and soon you will be building guitars!

How deep should my benches be inside my controlled room?

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Which window are you going to enter that back room from?

I didn't know that there is a general rule about storage over your workbench, but here in earthquake country, it's a good idea both in home and shop not to have any unsecured item up high that could hurt a lot if it landed on your head. Or on your guitar.

Folks, if you go to Grizzly's home page, look down on the left hand side for the Shop Planner. Very useful. It gives you a 2D grid on which you can place walls, windows, etc. and icons for machinery, benches, shelves and other furniture. I may be old fashioned in that I still find 2D adequate for this kind of stuff.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I even get nervous seeing all those folks with their chisel collections hanging a foot or two over their bench....