I built a new workshop

Background

My first real workshop was in the basement of the house I grew up in Pakistan. Over the years, I had built it up to be quiet capable and executed many projects from there. Recently, my parents moved out from that house into a new place. I figured this would be a good opportunity to rebuild the workshop in the new place with everything I had learned so far and with access to more tools and funds (i was a student then, I am a professional engineer now).

This blog post is a showcase of that workshop. Its not done and I will continue to add and improve parts of it, but I am comfortable with the state that it is in to share it with the world.

Walk Through

The workshop was designed to be versatile so that it can be used for a variety of projects and store all the tools and materials for it as well since it is built in the storage room on the roof. So far, it has been mainly used for general house projects and wood working but I do plan to improve metal working capabilities as well.

I built 2′ deep mounted workbench running the whole length of the shop with a recessed miter saw station in the center. On the wall above, I built some shelving. I will most likely rebuild these as I feel like they don’t have the right dimensions and don’t make best use of space.

Under the workbench, on the right, I have tote bins that I have put wheels on so that I can drag them easily. These are mostly used for storage of parts like electrical stuff, cables, plumbing, safety equipment etc.

On the left, I have some tools stored and my air compressor. The air compressor was a great addition to the shop as it allows me to use air tools and have compressed air for cleaning ready to go.

On the wall in the middle, I have mounted pegboard with electric power tools on the right and hand/air tools on the left. I am happy with the usability and aesthetics of the tool wall.

You can notice here that my tools are a collection of ones I purchased in Pakistan and ones I purchased in the US. In Pakistan, mostly Chinese brands are available and it can be challenging to find decent quality tools for a reasonable price. Cordless tools are especially hard to find hence you can see that I have all Ryobi tools that I bought in the US and have carried to Pakistan over the years. More recently, better Chinese brands like Total Tools are becoming available in Pakistan so now I am able to source more tools locally and only get more specialty stuff from the US.

On this end of the workshop, you can see the Dewalt air hose reel and coil air hose on the wall. In the middle, I have a shelf with some tools, tool bags and storage bins containing mostly tool accessories and hardware. On the left, I have another pegboard dedicated to store clamps.

The main star of the workshop is this mobile wood working bench which has the table saw integrated into it. I keep finding ways to improve this bench but I am happy with it overall. I have built a drawer under the table saw to store accessories for the table saw.

And a wood vise. This is great to hold wood work pieces. I plan to add holes on the vise and the bench to support bench dogs. This should increase the usefulness of the bench even further.

The table saw dust collection port is designed to be quickly attached and detached as needed.

I am using the space under the bench for tool storage but I think this area can be improved to make it more efficient. Maybe adding a shelf in the middle will help use more of the vertical space.

Future Plans

I still have many ideas of improvements and additions I want to do to this workshop to make it even more efficient and capable. The goal is that I can just think of a project, walk in and execute it efficiently and safely.

The next few things I want to tackle are a dust collection system that is easy to use. I have already started working on that. I also want to rebuild the shelving and organize the things on them better. I also want to build a mobile welding bench that I can move all of my metal working tools to including my welder, bench grinder, cutoff saw etc.

I will keep adding updates to this post over the years as I develop the shop further.

I hope you enjoyed this brief showcase and can draw inspiration from it for your own shop. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions below.