Shop amenities?

[Slowhand Bob]

We sometimes do shop pictures but lets do that concept from a different perspective, for those with a dedicated shop or leather working area, what amenities do you like to have at hand?  Sometimes these may be very practical and other times they may just be there for comfort or even entertainment.  You might even try to avoid some items as excess or distractions, give your opinion.

Me first.  Heat and air, for four season comfort and also an apt size refrig.  There is cold running water at a large single bay laundry sink, hope to add hot water this spring or summer.  Large TV with DVD and hope to lay cable out to shop in the near future, kinda like working side by side with Chuck while watching his excellent videos!  The old Lazy Boy recliner got exiled to the shop also when the wife decided a new one was in order for the house.  I guess I could cook on the hot plate but never have, so lets call it a shop need.  I recently purchased a new laptop and 11x17 printer/scanner for the shop and do want to add a small coffee pot to get me out there earlier in the mornings.

Yore turn....   

[rickk]

I've been running a part time leather business for over 10 years now. I don't make a living off of it, but it helps pay for "toys".

Most of my work is done on a 2 foot section of my reloading bench down in the basement, squished between a Dillion and a Lee press. There is a 12" x 12" poundo board sitting in there to sort of hold the space. A few hammers hang from nails in the overhead floor joists. I have a couple of home made tool holders filled with commonly used tools in that area. There is a large pile of "scrap" pieces of leather that seems to have grown behind my Corbin swage press that sits next to the Lee press.

Behind me I have about a 4 foot wide section of shelf space filled with filled with plastic storage boxes that are full of hardware and less commonly used tools, and on top of the shelves are typically 4-5 partial hides. The actual work area really doesn't seem to take up a lot of space.

Sometimes I need to bring a hide upstairs and lay it out on the kitchen floor on a jig I made up to get a straight line on one edge. Everything else seems to be able to happen on my little 2x2 work space.

To be perfectly honest, if the space was bigger it would probably just get filled with assorted junk and shrink back down to 2x2 anyway.

The house is heated with a wood stove which is in the basement, so it is typically nice and warm down there in the winter. I lack air conditioning, so in the summer the basement workshop is the coolest part of the house.

[Major 2]

It did have, a refreg, micro wave, Air Cond., a TV , DVD player  ,3 work benches and a lot of power tools.

Now they belong to the ages ... course Ins. came through I should have a new building in about 4 weeks.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Major 2,

I have a ' hunch' ... when you get that new building dialed in, you will wonder how you ever dealt with the other building.

As for my own 'space', it is an unheated uninsulated 1 1/2 car 1942 era garage. So right now all the leatherwork is done at the dining room table ... (nothing freezes there overnight .... yet ...*S*)

I have added a 60A panel (off the main panel in the house) and rewired it.

I keep having these fantasies of buying an old heater/air conditioner that is being removed and building a lean-to extension for the garage that will hold it and a sawdust extraction system. But right now that is all that this is: a fantasy.

[Mogorilla]

I was in the garage for ~4 years, last year was so cold hear in Missouri even my Yeti self couldn't work.  Wife got me a new bench for Christmas that year and told me to arrange the basement as I wanted.   I have the bench, gun safe, two sets of shelves, refrigerator, couch, coffee table, two rubber made storage for most leather, hanging 36 inch tube for other leather storage, and am preparing to build a reloading bench.   The couch is mostly used by my 9 lb poodle, he likes comfort and will lay there for hours while I putter. 

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Iwould say, counting both fall and spring, that I get about 6-8 weeks of comfort out of the shop.

Then I get evenings and nights as spring turns to summer  .... sigh

I gotta get that heater ....

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

  I have an eleven hundred square foot garage and shop combination, we've lived here for thirty eight years now, when we first moved here, my garage was a four car garage which I divided, I have all I need in my shop, and it's as homey as I can make it, with all the little do dads that a guy likes, TV, cable, stereo, VCR, CD, and DVD player, two phones, a small Frig. five work benches, one designated to loading ammo, one for doing gun work, one for power tools, and two for leather work/ wood work, also two banquet tables, one for cutting sides of leather, and the other one set up as a photo box with defused light for my picture taking.   a loft for storing, and an under the loft for storing too. four office chairs, a couple stools and two captains chairs, don't really need them out here, but my wife wanted them out of the house, they do come in handy when friends and family show up, I would really like to have a place two or three times bigger than this, for me the more space the better, and I know a lot of pards are like this too, a shop is a VITAL part of any home, every man NEEDS his own MAN CAVE, just as my wife enjoys certain parts of our home, having a place to go and just do my thing is Heaven to me. On my leather benches, I have everything I need for most tasks right at my finger tips double on some things just for convenience, I've had my shop in many different configurations over the 38 years we've lived here, and have settled for what I have now, after 38 years, I know pretty much where everything is, but get a surprise once in a while with something I forgot I had, all in all I wouldn't trade my shop for anything. The one big thing I would like if I could afford the bill for it, would be cooling and heating, this would really finish things off nicely, but here in California that isn't feasible, as it is we pay about $750.00 during the Summer months for two months that would double with my shop added to that.   

[bedbugbilly]

I do my work when I'm in AZ.  We just have one car and a two car garage so I have a 2' X 6' bench with two base units underneath and two wall cupboards above.  All my  tools are within handy reach and I can sit on a stool and work away.  I also have a 4' X 8' storage cabinet which holds all of my leather as well as some power tools, etc.  On the other side of the garage, I have a 2' X 5' workbench that I keep clear to cut straight sides on hides, cut belting and do dye work.  All I have to do is open the garage door and I have a nice view of the desert.  I have a patio chair handy that I sit in to do my stitching.  I used to listen to a radio all the time when I had my custom millwork/woodwork shop back in MI but now, I enjoy the peace and tranquility of silence.  I'm just a few steps away from the kitchen if I want a cup of coffee.  I do custom work but it's a "hobby" since I'm retired.  When I'm back in MI for the summer, there is too much work to do so I keep the leatherwork for winter.  Of course there is no heat in the garage and it does get colder here once in a while - I then adjourn into the house to either stitch or do patterns, but by in large, if it's too cold to work in the garage - it will wait!  My better half has been very understanding about me having to have something to do to keep busy and I'm very happy with my little workspace in the garage.  After having had several large workshops in the past, I've learned that the smaller the space, the more careful you arre about not getting it cluttered up.  My tools are in a rack on the back of the bench or hanging on the wall at the back of the bench.  Everything has it's place and when I'm done with it, it goes back to where it belongs.  What can I say other than my wife loves the look of a clean bench top!   

[KidTerico]

I have a 1750 square ft. garage. It is totally finished. The wall are white dairy board that can be sprayed down. The ceiling is suspended with recessed lighting.Its cream color with brown grid work. The floor is light blue fiberglass with red and blk. speckles. It has hot water heat in the floor. I have a gas fire place for heat and looks also. It is white with a full custom mantel. I have seperate air conditioning for the garage. It has 56 feet of all white custom counters and cabinates. The tops are red on some and blue on the reat. I wanted the old drive in look. I have a frig. sink, hot and cold water with a ceiling hoist built in. I have a Boise HD TV  with a seperate full Boise sound system for my CDs.I have more leather tools than needed but had to learn the hard way.  I have 16 foot doors. One on each end. Before leather work my hobby was snowmobile drag raceing on the PRO circuit for 22 years. I guess I have about every 18 volt tool , air tool and hand tool ever made. My wife always says if we run out of money we will never have to sell the house. We should be able to live off of selling just tools. KT

[GunClick Rick]

   I got a bisquit  

[Tallbald]

My "leather shop" shares space with two wood lathes, a small metal lathe, a 17 inch drill press, a 1953 Delta jointer/table saw, a 13 inch planer, a dust collection barrel, a 3x5 bench, a large tool box, and a 20 gallon horizontal air compressor.  All this in a 1 car garage with 60 amp service. A radio and kerosene heater, along with a wall mounted fan are all the comfort things I have out there. It is insulated for which I'm very happy.My wonderful wife doesn't mind me bringing stuff into the house to work on, so she and I get to be in the family room or kitchen together when she's quilting and I'm doing my thing. Don

[Major 2]

  I got a bisquit  

One of the best lines ever ...

[WaddWatsonEllis]

I'm with GCR .... and it is a SMALL biscuit1

My house, at 1150 sq ft, is actually smaller than most of your garages .... no heat/AC, no running water, no computer, no DVD, no radio (the garage, not the house),,,

When I bought the house, the garage had one lonely light with a plug on it. Now there are six incandecent spots and four neon shop lights, and foun 220V/20A plugs, four fourplex 110V15A plugs and a 60A panel to run them.

The next step is to insulate and soundproof the walls ... in mid summer it is often 110 plus here, and the garage does not get workable until long after CCNR restricitons on noise have come into effect. Cranking up my table saw reminds me of an auxilliary power unit on a small helicopter starting up .... So an I&S would help both with immediated usability and the cost of keeping the within human range once the garage is heated and  A/C'd.

Putting water into the garage would not be too difficult ... if I was 20. The house is but six feet away and water pipes only about 20feet away... One just has to crawl into the crawlspace, dig the trenches, yada yada.


Hot water ... Insinkerator makes an instant hot water heater that does not heat unless the tap is turned on ... but from what I understand, it is like the poem about the girl with the curl in her forehead. When it is off it uses almost no electricitiy whatsoever, but when  it it used it uses lots of electricity.

[GunClick Rick]

 

[Dalton Masterson]

My work area is the "leather room". When we bought our house 5 years ago, we bought a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, attached metal shop/garage with the mindset of reloading room/leather room. Well the reloading has a small shop area built into the front of the garage, which is attached to the house via a breezeway/future greenhouse area.

The leather room is the former bedroom of a wheel chair bound former resident. I have a bathroom, phone, internet, wide doors, and my tv all right here in the one room. I want to reorganize and build a real bench instead of the drafting table I use now, but other things come first.
The one thing I would HAVE to have in my leather room, is probably the tv. I can put on Encore Westerns, or whatever, and listen/watch as I work.

The nice thing is that the garage, breezeway, and the house are all connected in such a way that I can go pretty much anywhere on the property, other than the small yard, without leaving the house. Kind of a baby fortress setup. Now I need to dig a moat to keep the neighbor kids busy....
DM

[Rayban]

Got pretty much all I need in my attached-garage shop......cept a urinal.

[Tallbald]

Out the back door after dark.......

[Johnny McCrae]

My Leather Working area is in one corner of our basement. My only amenities include a CD player on which I play Fifty's Rock & Roll along with vintage Cowboy Songs. I also get to smoke a good cigar while working on my leather projects.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

One of the few 'upsides' to being unable to keep a woman (Hell, to even finding one ...) is that I can work whereever I damn well please ... 'course that may also be one of  the reasons that I send women screaming .... LOL

[Ned Buckshot]

I hear ya' WWE, anything you want like sitting in the shop at 3AM in nothing but your underware!

Ned