Rocketman702

Kevin, My advice is never stop doing woodwork, improving your skills, and improving on your shop. The day will come that you build a new garage/shop. Here are some things to consider from my experience developing a woodshop in a small space. My shop is contained in a three car garage. That sounds big but my wife has other ideas. It is really not big enough for three cars in the first place, nor big enough for all our stuff stored their, and my shop. In a pinch you can get two cars in along side my shop, but that has not occurred in a long time, and never really possible in our new house (garage is smaller). Now, normally only the wife's car lives in the garage at night, and her space includes my sheet good storage. The normal garage stuff is on a huge shelf, 3x15', hung from ceiling on chain. Boxes of stuff and a large TV cabinet that I build currently prevents use of the other car space. No garage has the size for all that a family needs. Or, the stuff we can't part with that continues to accumulate in what I call my space - the garage! My shop takes up 10x15.5' of floor space with 8'ceiling. In that shop square footage all the garden tools, a water shoftener, and our extra fridge take up space and have nothing to do with my woodshop. The remaining 4.5x10' of the one car space is taken up with storage of other stuff not related to woodworking, and that stuff is only accessable if you open the garage door.

Consider a Shopsmith. The big space saver in my shop is my 510 Shopsmith and it makes my shop possible. You may want to consider the economics of replacing some of your machines with a Shopsmith (see Shopsmith.com) and selling those that it would duplicate in capability. The Shopsmith provides excellent capability and accuracy and only takes the floor space of a 10 speed bike. Individual machines take up a lot more floor space. The Shopsmith provides a 10 inch table saw with removable table extensions, a lathe, a drill press, a 10 inch circular disk sander, and a horizontal boring machine, as standard. Many attachments can be added and that use the same basic motor/system. I love my Shopsmith because of all its capabilities. I am able to change from one system to another in less than a minute. I have been impressed with it's accuracy and space saving attrubutes for a long time (purchased mine new in 1996). Shopsmith gave me a 6" bandsaw attachment almost $600 value (6" cut limit and 10.75" throat) for free when I bought the system new. You may not want to part with your 14" bandsaw. If you had a table saw maybe a smaller band saw would due. Check out the Shopsmith home page. My bandsaw is usually on the machine, even when not in use and takes up no space. I created a place to store the bandsaw, quick and easy, on a corner of my assembly table. My shop consists of the following: I have as small 48x24x36"hi work bench(a machinist vice and no wood vice - with 8 drawers below for small tools. A 40x21" router table with storage below for saws/extra router, routing jigs (it serves as an outfeed table for my Shopsmith. A 10" radial arm saw and stand I made that is almost never used (I should get rid of it). A 66x32x30" and 22"hi assembly table w/8 drawers for power tools, hand tools, supplies, router bits (I keep a bench 4" belt sander on the lower section and my chopsaw on the top section of my assembly table most all of the time). A 24x28x30"hi cart with a small compressor on top, short clamps and bandsaw blade storage on sides and back, a storage drawer and space for power tools like a bench sander, grinder, chop saw or a planer (but I do not have one) below. A 48x28x18"hi toolbox that has three graduated smaller toolboxes in side it plus storage trays for hand tools, power tools, drillbits, blades, painting tools and supplies, etc. And, I have a rack on the wall for clamps and clamp-on straight edges shorter than 48", levels, and storage shelves. I use a large Sears shop vac (does not fit in my shop space anymore) that I hook up to the Shopsmith, when needed. A Shopsmith could inprove you limited shop space utilization, and I found it to be the best economical choice to boot for the small work shop and capability to do most any woodworking task.

Wood storage. I see wood standing on end in a corner in your shop. I would also suggest you consider a wood rack hanging from the the wall or ceiling of your shop (7' ceiling is not much) to free up the floor space and provide a place for your stock to become climatized to the level of humidity in your shop. At only 7' ceiling hight your are very limited in ability to hang something from the ceiling. My storage racks are three double rectangle hoops of 1x hang down 16" from the ceiling (I have 8'4" ceiling), are spaced almost 4' apart, screwed into the ceiling joist, and right over my Shopsmith. I can get 8'lumber in and out of the rack because I have 20' of clear air space to accomplish the task. They can hold and support lots of 1x 8' to 12' stock. I placed them in a way to be able to accept and remove boards, support them adequately constructed of good quality wood and enough screws. I also found additional uses under the rack for storage attachments for other things, like a runner for a clamp-on light to provide high intensity flood light on the specific area where I am working (mine runs right above the Shopsmith - the light can be moved over the table saw or bandsaw tables. I also store clamp-on 48" straight edges under the wood rack. You may find other things to add to it or hang from it near your ceiling, for ready access, like ear protection equipment, etc. I also have one rack for relatively small pieces of sheet goods over one of the car spaces that never sees a car. Your shop seems limited to a wall storage system for lumber. My advice is figure out and effective use for that air space as lumber storage, and free up the floor space.

Lighting. I see a few bare light bulbs in your shop. They produce harsh light. Lighting looks to be a problem too in your shop. Change them out to low profile florescents for better light and enough of them to provide less shadows.

Assembly area. Where do you assemble larger porjects, and where do you cut sheet goods? I have a great space advantage over your shop, when no cars are in the garage. I have four saw horses, kept outside, and I cut most sheet goods with a skill saw in the garage, using two clamps, a spacer gage, and my great old possession, a 1"x4"x8' piece of pine, which is straight as an arrow (been using it since 1980, when I built my second home). When I have a large project in process and partially assembled or being stained and finished, there is still room for the wife's car at night. Where do you assemble or cut anything larger than you can accomodate on your workbench?

Efficient storage. I can see from construction of some of your work benches that you have to dig to find stuff. I see the potential of wasted air space that could be better used for storage. I see wide supports (and no drawers with small face frames) on your work benches and storage areas. I use such space by thinking hard to come up with storage design and in trying to use all the volume I can within work benches for full extension drawers, etc. You may want to someday consider redesigning and rebuilding some of them to make more efficient use of the volume, using quality drawer guides and face frames with as little as possible. I found I could solve the problem with 1" wide face frame stock, drawers with less than 1/2" lips, and solid bottoms, backs, and sides. The closed fronts of drawers in workbenches keep things inside easily and readily accessable, clear of the accumulation of sawdust, and make cleaning the shop easier with everything on wheels.
Cussioning the floor, not or cold. I suggest you get good quality floor mats which can easy the load on your feet, knees, and hips. It will help keep you working more confortable and longer. We are all getting old at the same rate and joints are where it is really at when it comes to age (I's 64).
Mobilize everything. "Everything" in my shop is on wheels, including the Shopsmith. I would think you already have everything on wheels, so you can make room to assemble your larger projects in your small shop.

Plan before you build. I redesign every one of my projects on paper several times, before I get started making sawdust. I learned woodworking from my Dad, and he was continually making improvements on his designs until he passed the point in construction that it prevented changes. If significant functional improvements were possible, he would find a way to rebuild. He recognized when it was good enough, and when it was not possible and accepted that fact. But, he never stopped thinking how to improve his work, especially when it was possible he would build the same project again, and better. I am proud to say I have some of his work, completed when he was in junior high school. If he was still alive he would be 95 years old.

Hoping you find some of my advice useful to you,
Mitch