Show me your workshop

I'm currently in the planning process for setting up shop to build a 7 or a 10. That decision is a discussion for another thread. In any case, I have a 2 car garage and was wondering if people could post, if possible, a plan view of their shop on how they set it up. And, if you had to do it over, what would you do differently. Oh, btw, there may be a car in one of the bays from time to time....not mine

Thanks in advance for your help

OK, I just whipped this up so it's kinda lame, but you can get an idea.

Really cool things I did, or wish I had:

• man, the plumbed-in remote shop-vac is excellent. I didn't do it in the beginning, but I can't live without it now. I just made a new shop (for machining) and I'm buyin' another shop-vac for it. I used SCH40 PVC and aluminum duct tape, no fuss. just put an outlet on the other side of the wall controlled by a switch in the shop (like the compressor, below).
• remote compressor - did it from the start, most excellent. I only use one of the inside air outlets, so the bank of outlets was overkill. switch and indicator light in shop.
• I bought a heat pump with backup heater coils and cut a hole in the wall for it - excellent! I opted for a 230V model and am glad to have spent the money on it. it's always comfy out there after a short heatup/cooldown delay.
• good tunes! (iPod and good stereo)
• 12 double 4' fluorescent lights: just enough
• it's painted sky blue, with puffy clouds from shoulder-level down. cheery and makes sitting in the plane making VRRRrrrooooom noises even better!

Nossagood stuff:

• the floor is terrible; I used cheap, water-soluble garage paint and sand. not again! the new shop has a better grade of cheap garage paint - an epoxy - and it came out great.
• nowhere near enough storage. is there ever? I've got stuff stacked up pretty well, and only now as items are starting to get bolted to the plane for good is the shop opening up a little. engine/gear/canopy will soon make a *huge* difference. I'd put more large (i.e. deep) shelves up high next time, like a perimeter loft.
• it'ud be nice to stand on something other than concrete; that'll wear out the tootsies pretty fast. mats in front of common areas would make a big difference. Huh...maybe I should go get some tomorrow?
• I've evolved a 'cleaner' area and a 'dirtier' area. next time, I'll try to formalize that and make at least simple barriers. it's too risky to make metal bits when you've got wiring, instruments, etc. lying around.

S'all I can think of now, I'll throw more atcha if I think of 'em. Have fun!

Workshop

Here is a link to mine:
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~glaesers/RV7A/Workshop.html

That was before I started building (obviously). I've build the empennage and wings already and am now on the fuselage. I use both sides of the garage while working, but always keep things arranged so that I can move everything to one side so my wife's car can be parked inside at night - especially during the winter (or else I get to clean off any snow/ice in the morning - and I live in Michigan )

I have the wings stored above the garage door, and the rest of the parts (ailerons, flaps, ... and pieces waiting to be built) in the basement.

Dennis Glaeser

here's a few pics of my shop. it's a 2 1/2 car, plenty of room for my stuff and the wife's car...

outside looing in

work area for emp

rearranged for wings

with spars in place

My Shop

URL Link to my shop

Important stuff:
Heat
Light, and plenty of it.
Tunes. Did the radio thing for 6 months. Never realized how much repeat there was. Bought a 300 CD changer for christmas. Ahhh. Amazing how much "new" music I found with random play setting.
OIL compressor with BMF tank. Quiet and doesn't run often.

Well located air and power drops. I have an air reel (Home Depo) and 2 elec power reels in the cieling out in the "open" area, plus a coil flex hose hanging over the my big table. Other hookups available for use with long hose.

Think about where you mount your vise. It will be the "nastiest" area of the shop. Keep it as far away from the "record keeping" area as you can.

All bench tools on roll around cart. You really need to be able to easily reconfigure the shop for different tasks or different stages of construction.

My RV is normally spread around the shop but it only takes 5 minutes to roll everything to one side in order to bring a car inside (winter) for maintenance.

Good luck.
Let us know what you like about your shop after you have used it a while!

Shop

I helped my father build this shop about two years ago, just prior to our taking delivery of the RV-4 project. He laid the 20' x 40' slab in the corner of a large pole barn erected by my grandfather many decades ago. A number of steel girders were added to form a VERY sturdy ceiling, as well as providing a future location for an overhead pulley system if necessary. We then framed the walls & ceiling, added insulation, resulting in what is essentially a studio apartment custom made for RV construction. Looking back; building the shop was almost as fun as building the plane itself!

*resized the images to save bandwidth

More details on my site.

Hanging plans

Here's a simple idea I had for hanging the plans on my walls:



I picked up some cheap clipboards, removed the top part and screwed it to some hardboard I hung from the wall. Each set of clips holds quite a number of full sized sheets just fine.

Mike