small workspace. What do you do to make extra space?

[Bryan L]

I have a small shop (19'x20'). I have had to work hard to make the small amount of room work. I am interested in what space saving ideas some of you have come up with over the years. here is what I have right now.

[Bryan L]

We have a landing that was taking up allot of space. I got my hands on some used file cabinets and put it on wheels and bolted some hinges to the landing. Gives me room to stuff the bikes and kids toys under the landing.

[fendermender]

I was just looking at my clutter today and shaking my head.
I filled 3 trash cans a couple of weeks ago,one today, and there is still more to go.
I like the vac. on the ceiling. My big -old school shop vac. takes about 3 times more space than it should. Even my shelves need about half of all the crap to go away.
Thanks for sharing your pics.
Randall
Austin Tx.

[fendermender]

OOPS. Now I see the shop vac under the work bench.
What is that hanging from the ceiling?

[Bryan L]

its an air cleaner. 3micron filter inside. It has two speeds, loud and quite I put a carbon filter on the outlet. It works really well as a smog eater but I wanted some type of filter to cut the smell. As its an attached garage the wife complains that it smells when I get working. She wishes my hobby was wood work rather than steel

I do have a vac on the wall above my work bench. It was laying around the garage for the longest time and I claimed it Its actually really nice to have a small vac when on the bench. If I need to suck some fumes or clean up the bench it makes it a snap.

[mjb]

I like the swing out cabinets.

I noticed most of your stuff is on wheels. That is what I have done so I can make room when I need it. It can be a pain to move, but it allows me more room when I need it.

[fjk]

hi

for both my basement and garage i've had to cram 10#s of stuff
into a 5# bag. some of the things i do
- put everything you can on wheels (which it looks like you did)
- put shelves/bins/storage/etc _everyplace_. like under your
welding table or chop saw. also, wherever you see bare osb
there should be a shelf or something :-)
- hanging things on pegboards/walls just doesn't work for optimizing
on space. use shelves/cabinets/etc wherever you can. for instance,
the two cordless drills over your wooden workbench are using way
to much valuable real estate...
- don't be afraid to bury things. i have a bunch of stuff on a pegboard
that i don't use that often. if i left "free" would use up too much space,
so i park my roll-around tool chests in front of the pegboard. the few
times i need the stuff, i move the chests.
- get taller tool chests -- the 'stuff per cubic foot' factor
can be huge
- store things disassembled (such as the roller/stand next to your
chop saw.
the basic idea is to find every available sqft of wall or floor space or cubic
foot of storage space, and figure out a way to put the most stuff in the
space you can

Frank