SmokinJoe

After 15 years in Western Australia, I've moved back east to Brisbane in the very wet Queensland (home of Chris Callow).

I'm in the process of setting up a new workshop, which is quite a challenge. The one I had in Perth evolved over several years. I need to get set up very quickly in my new home if I'm going to get back into racing any time soon.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or photos of how other racers have set up their workshops. Whatever I do now I'll have to live with for maybe 10 years, so I'm interested to learn about what others have done to establish effective work shops.

Bill Vargas

My Feedback: (5)

a must for every man cave!

BV[sm=shades_smile.gif]

djlyon

Bill drop the Senecas and get Stars & Stripes. They are better a little cheaper and still from the Indians

Denis

garys

Bill, They may not have your flavor of colored water in Oz, he'll have to substitute it with something better. I'd suggest he puts beer in the fridge instead of Coors Light

daven

My Feedback: (1)

This is my work area. Nothing overly fancy, just cozy in the winter and summer. Keep the beer in the house and most of fuses stay straight

No matter how big of a workshop you have, you will fill it up. I built several planes under the stairs before I got this insulated and sheet rocked.

Good lighting is a must, so is having plenty of outlets. I painted some of my peg board white, but not all. Wish I had painted it all, the white tends to reflect the light, and the brown seems to suck it in.

A TV and radio is a nice distraction, especially if you like baseball.

If I had to do it over, I would have installed some sort of dust collection system to help keep things a little cleaner. Having an airconditioner in the garage is a must if you want to spend any time out there in the summer. Leaving the door open is fine, but in the evenings you get all kings of critters flying in, and I don't like to have to put mosquito spray on to build planes.

A pull down ladder to get into an attic is nice to have, but it does get very hot up there in the summer.

Steve J

My Feedback: (4)

One nice feature in my shop is a "gutter" around my building table. I cut a 1x2 down a half inch and then wrapped it with another.

Randy Etken

My Feedback: (10)

I put sheet rock on the top of my building table. Only cost a few dollars, you can pin to it and when it gets mucked up with epoxy just turn it over and use other side or put on a new piece. I stated with 6 pieces and use about one a year.

SmokinJoe

Randy,

What is in the Sheet Rock? I've not seen that in Oz.

I like the idea as I've just about destroyed a Melamine bench top with spilt epoxy over the last 5 years.

Randy Etken

My Feedback: (10)

It is the product that they put on the walls of a home, tape it and paint. A 4' X 8' sheet is around $5. It is a plaster covered with paper. Check a lumber yard or building supplier.

Super Splatter

Sheet rock

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheetrock

its called gyprock in OZ, I guess

bulletbob41

Dave that is a very nice shop you have there.Steve i love the gutter idea,might have to do that myself.

Fxrs_tim

I like that idea too. I had a friend that did that to his building table. Additionally he drilled holes in the gutter, then cut PVC in 1/2 (lengthwise), and then glued it to the bottom of the gutter. He had a couple of fittings at the opposite corners which then led to a central pipe which was connected to a shop-vac which was enclosed under the table. Anytime he got a collection of sawdust in the gutter, he flipped on the vac and the dust was gone almost instantly. He was clean enough that he had the setup in a spare carpeted bedroom! He's a lot better builder than me - my carpet would have been one big epoxy glob after a while!

Tim

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

Notice too, all the shops have the bench as an island. Getting to the other side or having room to let big projects hang over is handy.