4x4 North

I’m always trying to optimize my shop space. To be able to do multiple thing in a limited space or not have a single piece of equipment occupy a large amount of real estate. I’ve got a few things in the works. But no pictures right. What have you guys done to optimize shop space?


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Absolutely nothing. Actually I did build a basic tire rack since I seem to always have a few sets kicking around and I can store stuff under it. My shops a mess though. I really need to clean it right up and toss a bunch of crap out.

The big thing for me is getting stuff OUT of the shop. I built an outhouse for the air compressor, which was a big help. I also built a small cabinet/shed by the door (outside) for buckets of waste oil/liquids, extra jackstands, cribs, dunnage, etc that isn't used constantly.

The other thing is I made everything I can mobile. The lathe and mill are not, but prior to that the only thing in the shop that couldn't be moved by it's own wheels was the furnace. That means things that aren't being used can just be shoved tightly together into a corner or otherwise out of the way. The parts washer fits nicely behind the mill.

The filing cabinets have really helped for consumables and special tools. I also built a consumables rack for short pieces of steel, wood, sheet goods, etc, although I hate that it's inside the shop but I don't see any other solution.

My small welding cart is also a welding table, and with a receiver mount on it I can put the bench grinder in it, or a vise, or anything else I decide can have a 2" stock attached to it to fit in there.

I want to make some sort of a universal base mount for swapping other things onto, like my stupid tire changer (it lives in the "garden" shed with my other seldom used tools) and tube bender. Haven't decided how I'm going to do that yet.

I also built in some cabinets high up for things that really aren't used much at all but need to stay dry. Stuff like my supplied air setup for painting/stripping, fans, UT Cleaner, etc.

the outhouse for the air compressoris a good idea. Let the neighbors deal with the noise lol. plan is to get a c-can this summer with plans to build a divider wall and have my air compressor and waste oil/filter storage on one side and the other for parts storage

right now I have a all steel table that is my axle/transmission/tcase building spot. which for the most part happens maybe once a month for a couple days then it just takes up space against the wall. Doing some measurements if I cut approx 8 inches off one end, then add wheels it will actually fit under my countertop on the other wall. this would free up almost 8ft of wall space.

One thing I did that freed up alot of space for me was getting rid of flat surfaces and building appropriate sized work bench/tables. Originally I had a a bench that spanned almost the entire back wall and I only really used a fraction of it to do actual work, the rest was just a flat surface to place shit and was always cluttered. Also built a big shelf up high in the back corner and mounted my air compressor and bender up there as well as other misc items I use rarely. Its worked so well for me that I will build another on the other side this year
Next area to clean up is the one wall I store all my steel, Ima build a covered rack for it out side

This is an old potato photo but you can see my shelf with compressor mounted high. gives me room for my lathe and bolt bin underneath. Also the steel rack on the wall i need to move outside




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Chopped the table and added wheel now it fits under the other bench. And has freed up room for me to bring my little milling machine over.


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The key to efficient use of shop space is efficient use of the vertical space over any occupied patch of floor space. Note the cabinets on the wall above the lathe. They're just shallow enough that you can get an engine hoist over the center-line of the lathe and just high up enough that they'll have appreciable clearance from parts on the lathe even after the lathe is on leveling pads.

My Covid isolation project was my shop cleaning/organizing
and it’s taken about as long as this virus, progress has been similar as it started out rough train wreck and had slowed down but is still kicking waiting for it’s second wave. Anyways I had zero for budget and simply used what I had as scrap or unused stuff. My shop was bad enough the rear suspension work on the wj I needed 37’s to clear the stuff on floor and everything had a place but was simply to hard to put away and it got out of hand. I threw everything in my shop into groups or piles on the floor and nothing got put way unless it was easy to use. The best thing I did was on the left side I drilled holes for all of the common things, hammers, bars, pipe wrenches type of stuff right into the “fab” area where I usually work. The vice is there and it’s by the shop door so it’s easier to work if a car is in there and I can weld right in the vise without moving anything. The shelves for all of the power tools works really well. This area has helped so much. I organized my tool boxes and built drawers, one for kits like pullers, the other to organize cutting discs and such. They are rough but again I’m not a carpenter and had to adjust to use what scraps were free and on hand.

Finally got rid of the behemoth four post hoist that was in the building when I moved in. So much room for activities now. Where I could only have two vehicles in the shop if one of them was a short wheel base I can now have three customers vehicles in there.
In this picture the buggy is occupying the third spot for customers vehicles it actually can go sideways along the front wall



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Tetris win!