How is your shop set up?

CMS3900

CMS3900

Well-Known Member
Hey Knife Dogs,

I purchased some power hammers a while back and took the last few weeks while work was slow to re-arrange the shop and do a ton of cleaning. Now I am trying to re-setup everything, taking the time to change some of the ways I had things setup before and find room for my new equipment. From the knives I built this past year the one main thing I learned was that I need to pay closer attention to where I put certain tools to prevent cross contamination of work space. For instance, I plan on putting my 2x72 closer to my forging area then my drill press/woodworking/buffer area.
So, I was wondering how your shop areas are set up and what your work flow is like. How do you have things arranged in your shop to make work easier? What tools do you try to have isolated for dirt reasons, and how far should you go to isolate them? I’d really appreciate any tips or ideas on how to set things up efficiently.
Thanks,
Morgan
 
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Thanks Ed, I hope some people chime in on this because everyone works differently, and it would be interesting to know what makes some peoples shops efficient for them.

Today I started moving stuff around to get a idea of what I was looking at in the forging area. Just trying to figure out the relation of the hammers to the forges, to the possibility of a press down the road.
(Ignore the bead blast cabinet, it was just in the road.)

The hammer on the left is a Bradley 150, and the green hammer is a Little Giant 100 I am rebuilding. The Bradley will be rebuilt once I have the LG done. Also, I have a friend who is working on getting me some nice 8x8's for under the hammers, as well as newer motors and possibly a VFD for the Bradley. The Bradley throws a additional kink in the works because the Dies are parallel to the long axis of the machine, perpendicular to what the LG is. I would like to have both machines comfortable for lefty's and righty's as I am a lefty but most of my friends are right handed. How to accomplish this in the space, as well as keep the forge a comfortable distance from the hammers is the next task, and any suggestions would be appreciative.


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My shop is a lot smaller, a 14' x 22' room and a 9' x 14' room. I am in the construction stage right now and am ordering the metal for the roof today. I plan on having my forge in one end of the 9 x 14 and hope to have a small press and a small hammer in there as well before long. The other room will have my grinder, dust collection, and everything else. I am trying to talk my neighbor into selling me about 1/4 ac of land so I can build a bigger shop but for now this is all I have room for. Must be nice to have room for two hammers and friends in your shop. I would have to have skinny friends.:) Ed
 
Your shop is close to the square footage of where I am trying to stick everything in Ed. I am fortunate that machining and fabrication are my family's trade and we have a good sized building. The trick though is carving out a section to setup this stuff without disrupting other operations. If I may ask, how far away do you keep your grinder from the benches where you do fit up and assembly, and how much dust collection do you use? When I was doing handles this year I found myself running back and forth to the grinder a lot and wound up bringing dust and contaminants over to my fit up and glue up area. This is something I am trying to plan for and avoid now.

Congrats on the roof, you should post some WIP pics of your shop.
Thanks,
Morgan
 
I am just setting things up and have forged a few knives that I have messed up or have not finished. The shop has been so full and life so crazy that I have not gotten that far yet. I plan on using a 1 hp dust collector and a large "funnel" to catch the dust from the grinder with a water trap. I was an HVAC system install foreman so I will just make the funnel. I also plan to use some household box fans with good furnace filters to help clean the air. The heated room is only 22 ft long so I plan on putting the grinder in one end and my finish table in the other but they will both be in the same room. Ed
 
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