In this article, you’ll learn how to set up your woodworking shop. I will show you how much it costs to set up your shop and which space is best. You’ll also learn which layout and tools to pick for your woodworking shop.
How Much Does It Cost To Set Up a Woodworking Shop?
The price of your woodworking shop depends on the size of it. It also depends on the kind of tools that you are looking to put within it.
If you just want to create a woodworking shop that includes the most essential tools, and you are on a budget, then you can set up your entire wood shop for under $1000.
Which Space Is Best For Your Woodworking Shop?
There are many different spaces that you can use for your woodworking shop. The most popular ones include the basement or the garage.
Some people use their attic and put up a wood shop. Others decide to build a shed within their backyard for the wood shop.
Can You Set Up a Woodworking Shop At Home?
Yes, this is the most popular way to set up a woodworking shop. If you have your wood shop at home, you can create projects on the weekends.
This is great because you can build projects whenever you want. You don’t have to go somewhere to start building.
With that said, if you want to build a woodworking shop at home it is important to decide on a big enough space. As I already said, either the basement or the garage are good places to start with.
Can You Set Up a Woodworking Shop In Your Garage?
It is possible to set up a woodworking shop within your garage.
There are however a few things to consider. You have to build the wood shop in a way that allows you to still fit your car in the garage when you are not working on wood projects.
This means you need a mobile workbench and shelves that don’t require a lot of space.
Can You Set Up a Small Woodworking Shop?
Most people think that you need to build a large woodworking shop that includes a lot of different tools to create good wood projects.
Often it’s enough to just have a small wood shop with a couple of good tools. It should also include a mid-size workbench to build beautiful wood projects.
You don’t need a large shop, you just need to set up your smaller shop right. It’s best have good layout and tool list to use the space as efficiently as possible.
Woodworking Shop Tools
Getting the right tools for your woodworking shop is essential. It’s also very important that you get these tools for an affordable price.
First, you have to decide which tools you need for your woodworking shop. That is because many woodworkers often buy too many tools that don’t get used very much. Only spend money on tools that you will use often.
When shopping for woodworking tools for your wood shop you need an exact list of which tools you need. You also need a way to get those tools for a discount.
Where To Get Tools For Your Woodworking Shop?
There are many places where you can get tools for your woodworking shop. This problem is, that most of these places sell tools for an expensive price.
Another thing to consider is that some tools might have reviews that are not genuine. This means the company might have paid people to make reviews about the product.
Look At The Reviews
So before you buy your tools from places like Amazon or Walmart, make sure to look at the reviews of them and see if the tools have been used by real people.
Oftentimes if you see people put up a picture with the review, the review is real.
How To Make Sure You Get High-Quality Wood Shop Tools?
When purchasing tools you might come across some that seem like a good deal. The problem is that these tools might be of very low quality.
This means the tools might break after using them a couple of times or even worse cause harm when using them.
This doesn’t have to be the case. You can get good tools for a discounted price if you know where to look. Check the guide above for more information.
How To Plan Your Woodworking Shop?
If you take your time with planning a woodworking shop, you can save money on tools and materials since you only purchase what you need.
With that said, the first step is to pick the right space for your woodworking shop. Most people prefer to build their wood shop at home. So, go around your home and find an ideal place for your wood shop.
It doesn’t matter if the space is small. There are many ways how you can still build good projects within small spaces.
After you have found your space, the next step is to get the tools that you need for your wood shop. For this step, make sure to take your time and only purchase the tools that you need. This saves money.
Make sure to also compare the prices of tools from different sellers to get the best deal for your budget.
After you have found a good space and the right tools, you can start to lay out your woodworking shop and make all of the tools and materials, shelves fit.
How To Build a Workbench?
In this setup, you can also build a workbench for your shop. This can be a standing table workbench or even a mobile workbench if you need to use the space of your shop for something else.
Lastly, make sure to also go over wood shop safety. This can prevent a fire and also serious injury while building. Make sure to have a proper dust collection system that keeps the air in your wood shop clean.
Woodworking Shop Layout
This layout of your woodworking shop is one of the most important things. This could be the difference between building woodworking projects with ease or struggling during the process.
With the layout, you ensure that all of the tools, materials, and equipment fit into your woodworking shop space.
You also make sure that you optimize your workflow so you can create projects more efficiently.
With that, you first need a floor plan in order to place everything correctly.
Woodworking Shop Set Up Ideas!
Also, I already said earlier in this article, the most popular places to build a wood shop are in the garage and the basement. But there are many more places that you can use.
Some of these places are the attic and you could also build your wood shop within a shed in your backyard, or build a shed and then construct your wood shop within it.
Here are some examples of woodworking shops that people have built with the help of this guide. You can use these as inspiration to get ideas for your woodworking shop.
The first two examples are from woodworking shops that people have built within their basements. Both of these are rather small shops but as you can see, people still made it work to build a beautiful shop.
Next, there’s another example of a wood shop within a basement but there’s also one that has been built within an outdoor shed. This is a unique shop, but still a great idea if you don’t have the space in your home to get the shop built.
Regardless of which place you choose for your wood shop or what kind of tools you want to use, you can make it work with all kinds of spaces and shop sizes.
Basic Things That Your Woodworking Shop Needs!
Here are some so the things that every wood shop needs for you to be able to build wood projects. You can go into a lot more detail, but if you are just starting, these are the minimum:
Hand Tools
When you first begin, you don’t need heavy woodworking machinery. Getting a couple of good hand tools is more than enough to get started with building beautiful wood projects.
Workbench
You need a place to build your projects on, this is where a good workbench comes in. You can either build a workbench yourself or buy one. Building one yourself is a lot more affordable.
If you are in a space where you can’t place a normal workbench, it might be best to create a mobile workbench. Then you can put it away when you have to use the space for other things.
Tool Shelves
Once you have gotten your tools, you need a place to put them. You can either build these shelves yourself or purchase them. There are many affordable options for tool shelves out there.
Material Storage
You need a good place to store your building materials. It’s important that this place isn’t too warm or too cold as this could not be good for the materials. In addition to that chose a place that doesn’t have a lot of humidity.
Set Up Woodworking Shop Dust Collection
A crucial part of setting up a wood shop is to have proper ventilation and dust collection so the air in your workspace stays clean.
This doesn’t cost a lot and makes working within your shop much simpler. You can watch the full wood shop setup guide on this page to learn how to setup a proper dust collection system.
Woodworking Shop Safety
Safety is a big part of setting up your wood shop and working within it. That is why you need to make sure to keep a view things in mind when creating your shop.
Always make sure to put open cables away when working on your projects. People oftentimes trip over cables and get serious injuries because of it.
Next, have a list of safety precautions with you when working on projects. This will make sure that you always keep the most important things in mind when building and don’t miss anything important.
Set Up a Woodworking Shop Conclusion
Everybody can set up a woodworking shop with the right guidance. If you are on a budget, you can set up your shop for under $1000.
Most people want to set up your wood shop at home. You can do this as well. But you first need to decide where to put the wood shop.
Many places work great for a wood shop, the most popular ones include the basement, the garage, the attic, or a shed within your backyard.
With that said, it doesn’t matter how small the space that you have is. If you lay out your wood shop in a good way, you can still build good projects within it.
Once you found a good space for your shop, you need to focus on getting good tools. With this step, it’s important to get the tools that you need rather than buying all kinds of tools that you won’t use later.
Putting Your Woodworking Shop Together
It’s also important to compare the prices of tools to get the best deals on what you buy. With that said, always look for real reviews by people who have already used the tools. These reviews should include pictures.
Then you can start to choose a good layout for your shop. Now you need to fit all of the tools and materials into your workspace so they are optimized for you to build good wood projects.
Focus on building a good workbench first. It’ll be the place where you spend the most time in your wood shop. Make sure to have good shelves that allow you to store your tools very organized.
When creating the material storage, make sure your lumber is stored in a place that doesn’t have high humidity or is very warm or cold.
Safety is another important part of building your wood shop. Make sure to have a list of safety guidelines within your shop.
Don’t have cables laying around within your shop that you could trip over and have a good dust collection system to keep the air within your shop clean.