20 Foot Shipping Container Metal Shop

[Franko]

I do most of my planning with Adobe Illustrator because that's what I have and I'm pretty fluent with it. I made plan views of the shop and all my tools and storage boxes and worked with my shop layout for almost a year before starting the build. My shop is 12' x 20'.

 

[ogberi]

For storing rod and bar stock try cutting rings of 4" pvc pipe, about 4" long. Screw them to the wall vertically, with spaces between the rings, maybe 3 rings, a foot apart. You can store short and long pieces, you can see them and rummage around through the gaps, and handing a piece upwards to remove it is easy. Keeps them together, too. If you glue a cap to the end of one ring, you can mount it off the floor to hold smaller, shorter stock closer to chest level.

 

[catskinner]

For storing rod and bar stock try cutting rings of 4" pvc pipe, about 4" long. Screw them to the wall vertically, with spaces between the rings, maybe 3 rings, a foot apart. You can store short and long pieces, you can see them and rummage around through the gaps, and handing a piece upwards to remove it is easy. Keeps them together, too. If you glue a cap to the end of one ring, you can mount it off the floor to hold smaller, shorter stock closer to chest level.

I like this idea. Another solution is to put strips of angle suspended from the ceiling a few inches where it would be up out of your way.

 

[rrjohnso2000]

If it was me I would start thinking even leaner. What can I live with and without. Really only you can know what you really need and what is nice to have.

I would keep the large bench, to me that is a must, but maybe you could rethink it. Maybe its only 3/4 or half in size with solid wings that pull out. Or its only half as deep and you hinge a larger top to the wall that pulls down when needed.

You have two bandsaws. Maybe one would work. You could use a variable transformer and blade swap for wood and metal. Pain in the butt, but more space. Wheels have been mentioned.

I'll assume you have a stand alone drillpress. If you changed your small parts storage to something that could roll under the table portion and over its foot you could find a little more space. Most of the time it would be fine, sometimes you would need to roll the parts storage out to drop the table.

You mentioned making something to add stability to the lathe. I'm going to be lazy and not look back to see what mill and lathe you have. Depending on what you have maybe you could build a bit of a stand for it that puts it eight inches up the air. Build some slide out drawers for some of the heavy tooling you use once in a while. Useless if this throws off the working height.

You mentioned cabinets on the walls. Maybe cut these down in depth. I find that once it gets packed I loose things. It cuts down on space but opens things up a bit.

I want you work out all the bugs and let us all know because I really want to do this.

 

[samthedog]

If it was me I would start thinking even leaner. What can I live with and without. Really only you can know what you really need and what is nice to have.

I would keep the large bench, to me that is a must, but maybe you could rethink it. Maybe its only 3/4 or half in size with solid wings that pull out. Or its only half as deep and you hinge a larger top to the wall that pulls down when needed.

You have two bandsaws. Maybe one would work. You could use a variable transformer and blade swap for wood and metal. Pain in the butt, but more space. Wheels have been mentioned.

I'll assume you have a stand alone drillpress. If you changed your small parts storage to something that could roll under the table portion and over its foot you could find a little more space. Most of the time it would be fine, sometimes you would need to roll the parts storage out to drop the table.

You mentioned making something to add stability to the lathe. I'm going to be lazy and not look back to see what mill and lathe you have. Depending on what you have maybe you could build a bit of a stand for it that puts it eight inches up the air. Build some slide out drawers for some of the heavy tooling you use once in a while. Useless if this throws off the working height.

You mentioned cabinets on the walls. Maybe cut these down in depth. I find that once it gets packed I loose things. It cuts down on space but opens things up a bit.

I want you work out all the bugs and let us all know because I really want to do this.

The large workbench is a dilemma. If you make it with wings, then stability suffers. I also have a vice and very robust drawers and a shelf under the bench which makes it useful for storage (see image).

The bandsaws are a bit tought to consolidate as one is a horizontal metal bandsaw, the other a vertical wood bandsaw. Both are industrial and the smallest industrial machines I could find. I do quite a bit of woodwork and the wood bandsaw is extremely useful for ripping down aluminium sheet stock too. Your idea of storage under the drill is a good idea and I was going to put a shop vac or the rubbish bin there as there is enough room (see attached image)

The lathe and mill have little opportunity for storage underneath (again, see attached pictures) and so I'll be depending on cupboards. On the positive side, they are only 12 inches thick so they won't take up too much head-room.

The thing that eats up the most room is the woodworking combimachine however I am very reluctant to sell it as it is such a compact, robust machine. I will however remove the mortice attachment to make it narrower (again... see attached pic)

I have attached pictures of all the machines I want in the workshop and included the workbench. It will be a tight squeeze.

 

[samthedog]

I have been quite busy with work lately so progress has been very slow. When downsizing the work space you end up having to change your philosophy somewhat as every piece of equipment needs to be absolutely critical to what you forsee yourself building or working on in the future.

I have had to make a choice in selling off some machines in order to have extra storage space. The storage space is critical as the machines often have many optional extras and attachment that need to be stored and without these pieces, the working potential of the machines is significantly reduced. This leaves me with a dilemma - storage on walls or storage in cupboards and drawers?

I have downsized my workbench to a rolling tool trolley that I purchased for 75% discount -

I have also bought a LIsta cabinet and the gent threw in a small drawer unit to put on the top as well. It turns out he has a great deal more of used Lista equipment so I will be picking up more since he has 2 more of these rolling units, plus a large cupboard:

And also 2 stationary drawer units that I will stack on top of each other:

As you can see they are a bit dinged up and worse for wear but I plan on dismantling them and giving them a re-spray. I am also looking into changing all the locks out to the same lock so one set of keys will open everything. As you can see, some locks are missing so this will have to be done at some point after painting anyway.

I also picked up a rotating small parts storage unit. My reasoning is that with this unit I can have hundreds of small trays in a compact package, keeping the walls free for shelves:


So that is where I am so far. I will be chasing up the rest of the materials to insulate the container later this summer. My floor plan has also had to change as I have changed my storage plan. More updates to follow as I get started on the actual insulating.

Paul.

 

[brav65]

Paul I love your lathe. Did you do the restoration as it is absolutely beautiful. This is a very interesting exercise in design. Thanks for sharing.

 

[VaBob]

I know this comment wont really be that helpful to you, but.....

I just searched google images for "shipping container machine shop" and got some interesting photos. Seems like "re-purposing" old shipping containers is the new hip and posh thing to do. Everything from mobil concert stages, offices, work space, and living spaces. You might browse through some of them and get some ideas from there also.

 

[samthedog]

Paul I love your lathe. Did you do the restoration as it is absolutely beautiful. This is a very interesting exercise in design. Thanks for sharing.

Believe it or not I didn't do anything but change the motor to star configuration, changed the contactor and just toushed up the chip tray a little with a lick of paint. The machine was in exceptional shape when I bought it. It had 1 owner from new which babied it from when he had it delivered in 65. When he passed away it went into storage for a while and then I bought it. You can still see the grind lines in the bed and the screws have zero backlash to speak of.

I know this comment wont really be that helpful to you, but.....

I just searched google images for "shipping container machine shop" and got some interesting photos. Seems like "re-purposing" old shipping containers is the new hip and posh thing to do. Everything from mobil concert stages, offices, work space, and living spaces. You might browse through some of them and get some ideas from there also.

I did look all over the internet for ideas and found very little for a metal / hobby shop. There is a lot of info on making micro homes and such but nearly nothing that was particularly useful for building and planning out a workshop. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to document my journey and thoughts. I also want to document how I insulate, wire and light the container so others can use this as a guide later. All in all it is a very cheap alternative to building a shop and if you are only renting, it makes perfect sense if you have room for a container.

Paul.

 

[samthedog]

I have now sourced styrofoam panels and reflective foil for the walls. I will use 20 mm styro panels and cover them with the reflective sheeting. I will then use 9 mm ply over that. The flooring will be refelctive foil with 21 mm water resistant ply over that. I will screw the floor panels down and recess tie down loops into the floor.

I am also looking into having a travelling bridge crane so that removal of the mill table and head will be much easier. I will be picking up the crane and trolley on Friday and will be checking out some extruded aluminium as the beidge. It will only be holding 250 kg over an 8 foot span so I think the aluminium I have sourced will be plenty strong enough.

I have also picked up the cabinets and will be sanding and respraying them. SO far things are looking on track however I need to get the walls and ceiling sorted out so that I can control the temperature inside a little better.

Paul.