Building a home machine shop what did you wish you had?

[Bc'z]

The dry/clean air is a must. If you paint stocks or Cerakote, definitely a paint room with exhaust fan, waterproof walls for easy clean-up and plumbed heat/air.

And LED lighting.

Two things I don’t have in my shop that would make a huge improvement. And if you run a rotary phase converter wire it outside the shop so you don’t have to listen to it.

Now i thought it takes a real painter to throw down in a hay barn.

 

[Greg Y]

One thing I did for dust control on my blast cabinet is plumbed 2" conduit to the cabinet from a 5gal bucket. I put water in the bucket and pull through the bucket with a shop vac. The cabinet dumps below the water line and the shop vac from above and through the lid sealed up tight. The abrasive hits the water and stops all of it right there.

I did this after seeing a friends paint booth which was set up similar....and dust free.

 

[Jeff Buchanan]

Brett-It takes a lot of sweeping, waiting for the dust to settle, spraying water on the floor, and too much wet sanding after the final coat of clear…you’re starting varsity and I’m just a JV practice player!

 

[ricco1949]

Best advice I received when I set up my shop was from my machining mentor. He told me so separate my wood machines from my metal machines with a partition wall to keep wood dust off the metal machines. Even with a dust control system there is enough dust in the air to settle on everything when wood working.

Rick M.

 

[Riesel]

I ditched the wood stove and window unit for a minisplit system 6 years ago. Good move. Ditched the minisplit last year when it took a month to get parts and put in a regular hvac system. Better move. It keeps up winter and summer and my electric bill has gone down.
A sink is an absolute must have!!!!
Do not try to store common raw materials in your work room.
Radio or tv for some tunes.

Ditto on the HVAC system

 

[Bc'z]

Brett-It takes a lot of sweeping, waiting for the dust to settle, spraying water on the floor, and too much wet sanding after the final coat of clear…you’re starting varsity and I’m just a JV practice player!

Everything up to the polish is just prep work, I've washed the shop 3x's this week. Kinda glad I ain't working on cars.
What I need to know is are you able to charge extra for the spooning?
Extra beer money is always a good thing

 

[STORM2]

I thought of another thing as long as we’re building this community shop. We will need a bead (media) blaster cabinet. Hope we have room for a big one.

 

[B Nettesheim]

A bar full of bourbon

 

[Sniperhandle]

My home is in Lemmon, part of the town lays across the line in ND.
I've also got a place in Powers Lake ND where I spend most of my time. 20 miles from Canada and maybe 60 from MT.
In the winter I keep 2 townships and a couple hundred oil wells open.

-20 is pretty regular up here -30 to -40 not uncommon

snirt

 

[X Count]

A Hass TL1 or Hardinge with hybrid manual controls / CNC retrofit and a prototrak mill.

 

[Cigarcop]

A bar full of bourbon

I got that….. but I’d trade it all right now

 

[hogpatrol]

No shop but if so, besides the usual, a nice surface grinder and cutter grinder would be my addition.

OT, back in the '60s when help wanted ads were in newspapers, there was one for a machinist that said "must know how to run a circus grinder". Probably composed by a clueless secretary that didn't hear the word surface, I called and asked if I had to bring my own monkey".

 

[xr650rRider]

Plus... a real "central" type system, you can get a true filter carrier. I dont know about you guys, but my shop can get dusty/oily and a real filter would have been a nice feature, too.

I built a box that sits above my 36K mini split head unit and is contoured and foam lined on bottom so that it's sealed. On top is bracket for a 1"x12"x36" air filter. Never have to mess with internal filters.

 

[dryhumor]

Best advice I received when I set up my shop was from my machining mentor. He told me so separate my wood machines from my metal machines with a partition wall to keep wood dust off the metal machines. Even with a dust control system there is enough dust in the air to settle on everything when wood working.

Rick M.

All my woodworking machines are on wheels. I roll them outside under the lean to to use them. Then I can hit them with a cordless blower before rolling them back in. My walk thru door is 48” wide.