Eighty square feet is about the size of a large bathroom. It is also the size of the shop where furniture maker Jim has been producing chairs, tables, and cabinets for twelve years. His shop is a converted tool shed behind his house – 8×10 feet, with a single 100-amp circuit, one window, and a ceiling height of 7 feet 4 inches. He has made furniture in it that has sold for four figures. He considers the constraint a feature.
“A small shop forces you to be intentional about every tool you buy and every piece of equipment you own,” Jim says. “I can’t have a jointer and a planer and a table saw and a router table and a bandsaw. I have to choose. I chose the tools that do the most work per square foot.” His list: a cabinet table saw on a mobile base (the most important machine), a lunchbox planer that stores under the workbench when not in use, a 14-inch bandsaw (the second most important machine – does everything a jointer does for furniture making purposes, with less footprint), and a workbench that fills one complete wall. No router table. He routes freehand or with a fence clamped to the workbench.
The workflow is disciplined by necessity. One machine deploys at a time. The saw occupies the center of the shop when in use; the bandsaw rolls in from the corner when the saw rolls out. Lumber is stored outside under a tarp and brought in by the session’s needs. Finished pieces leave the shop before new projects start – there is no room for finished work in progress. The shop is a production environment, not a storage environment.
Twelve years in, Jim has no desire for a larger shop. “I’ve visited shops ten times this size and I’m more efficient here,” he says. “The constraint has made me a better craftsman.” Tell us about your smallest productive shop – we want the square footage and what you’ve made in it.