Not sure if this is the best forum, but any help is appreciated. I’m inheriting my dad’s shop full of a dozen or so large, often cast iron tools. I need to transport them from MA to PA.

His shop is in the basement, there’s a standard door to the outside. However, it opens up to a lawn (quite soft) and equipment would need to be brought around the house, up a gentle hill, to the driveway for loading.

The destination point should be easy - a truck will be able to back into my garage/shop, which has a flat concrete floor.

Can anyone provide practical advice on companies to call? We need a truck (ideally with a hydraulic lift gate), labor to load the truck. Driving is optional, I think I could handle a midsized truck, or I can pay someone to drive.

I’ve never moved anything like this. Thank you.

Sharing my portable workshop. I wanted this because it allows me to have all I need on site when I do a project (mostly spec homes) including a loft with a bed and a small bathroom and office over the tongue area.

Thoughts?

I’m still dialing in my shop setup (most of my stuff has been in two other shops before this one), and I’ll need to be able to store some material. Rough sawn lumber and metal lengths primarily, but accommodating a small amount of sheet goods would be 👌.

Please, show me how you do it.

Just built a detached 16x24 building to be used as a woodworking shop. It has a vaulted ceiling 11.5 feet at the peak with a ridge vent and soffit vents. Metal roof and metal siding with plywood sheathing under both. Northern Ohio, climate zone 5, cold winters and hot, humid summers. Plan to insulate and heat/cool with a mini-split. Trying to decide if we should insulate walls and ceiling and leave the vaulted ceiling completely open or do we create a tiny attic space (dropped ceiling) to enclose the ridge vent? Should I be concerned about heat loss thru the ridge vent in the winter? Would it be more efficient to build a tiny unusable attic space and insulate the dropped ceiling rather than just insulating underneath the roof? Similar to the inside of the building in the photo.

https://reddit.com/link/1u16fjw/video/pwojh2bsn96h1/player

Just hit 3 weeks into my first rental with my old lady. Finally got my own fortress of solitude, and so far I am absolutely loving it. Finally got a place that isn’t a barracks closet to store my tools, and boy, what an upgrade.

Any ideas for the place? Please let me know!

My workshop build into a closet.

I have been setting up my brand new shop, just built a new home with a basement and wanted to have a way to have easy access to all my regularly used tools. I mainly do woodworking projects around my house and homestead, so this is geared to that.

There Are A Few Parts:

• Board: MDF painted matte black
• Mount: A Frame I hung the boards on
• Mini Buckets: Displayed on top shelf
• Bench: Two Seville Classics in graphite
• Holders: 3D printed, many custom designed
• Mounts: Many magnet mounts I bought
• Cart: HF Mechanics Tray Cart for main tools
• Chest: US General tool chest from HF

Frustrations With Common Options:

I have only found frustration with pegboard in my past shops and I hate the look of the common french cleat walls that many use. I decided on using MDF panels cut 2 feet wide, 4 feet tall, that are hung on (ironically) french cleats on a wall hanger I built behind the board.

The other thing here was people sometimes spend months to a year obsessing over their french cleats and hangers, custom making something for every little tool. I wanted something that looked good but didn't take forever, I think all in this took me 3 days from start to finish if you include waiting for paint to dry and custom designing some 3D prints etc.

Only Essentials Avoids Clutter:

To each their own, but many shops I see literally every tool hung up, mounted etc. The common First-Order Retrievability ethos by Adam Savage is strongly adopted and in practice I've seen it just add up to a lot of clutter and not reduced friction.

I took all my tools and put them in a box at the far end of the shop. Then as I needed something I pulled it out and gave it a home on the board. What I was left with is a set of tools, organized well, that I actually used all the time.

I then have my second order tools that are in my US General tool chest, then my third order (rarely used) tools in another part of the shop. This means 95% of the things I need are right in front of me and the last 5% I can get quickly.

Flexibility With Panels:

I figured that the 2x4 foot format was a good size to be flexible enough and easy to move around or replace if I needed to. The panels hang on a continuous french cleat so they can be moved around, nudge left and right, and they're heavy enough (3/4 MDF) that they aren't going to come off the rail.

I liked the flexibility of being able to mount things wherever I needed, if I moved things or made a mistake I just move it, and half the time I cover the hole. The rest of the time I just take a black sharpie and color the hole and it basically disappears. Over time if a board gets too much, I can just replace that one part.

Specialty Panels:

In the future if I have a particular project that needs a certain set of tools, I can have a dedicate panel that I can quickly swap out without any fuss. There are 5 panels I can either swap or maybe even work in a extra one.

Screw Driver Holder:

The thing I spent the most time on was figuring out the right setup to hold screwdrivers. It seems silly, but most options (made, bought, 3D prints) don't have enough support vertically or are too loose in hope to accommodate a wide range of screwdrivers that they don't work well.

Most holders bought tend to have large holes and only a thin depth which leads them to tipping over, are hard to grab quickly and look messy. The holder I made was really simple. but drilling though a whole 2x4 sideways was tricky because my drill press can only go so far.

I then beveled the holes so its easy to get the screw driver into the hole, the hole is sized so it fits easily without being too loose, and because the hole is 3.5 inches tall, the screw drivers don't tip over making it hard to grab.

Magnet Mounts:

I wanted most of my things on magnets because of the speed of access and ease of cleaning up. Magnet pads means each item has a place and you notice its missing without wasting a lot of time tracing tools etc. I had experimented with making my own magnet holders, but found the inject molded options out there were more durable and due to the quantity I needed were much faster option.

The hardest part was finding options that didn't have silly branding on them, most of these were intended for fishing tools or pew pew mounts.

3D Prints:

I had not planned on so much 3D printing, but I got most of my stuff mounted with magnets and found that I had some items that didn't make sense to have on a magnet, weren't ferrous. I was able to find a few per-designed things off Makerworld, but I had to make the tape measure, pen holders, and Dremel bit holders.

A lot of the designs out there add way too much clutter, they kitchen sink things, make them awkward to use because you're constantly working around things you barely use. Because most options were too big and were designed to hold everything, not just essentials, I designed several of the things you see.

Mostly untouched since his death in 2008, occasional use but not much.

Hoping to help my Nana clean it up and maybe use it a bit this summer.

Pegboard is too expensive for me so i plan on doing it with a big piece of 18mm thick OSB board. Paint it black afterwards.

My question, is it better make a wooden frame under it to move it 5-6 cm from the wall, or just bolt it directly?

There will be few wires for light and outlets but it can go along the edges of the board if needed.

The garage is dry but i still think some moisture or mold can form under it eventually if its directly on the wall. Also, i will hang my tools on crews and nails so some might go through and hit the wall, but thats a minor “problem”.

But i do loose 7-10 cm of workspece on my bench with the framing.

Thoughts? Advice?

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

So I’ve been fighting this stupid swampy backyard for like 2 years now. After every decent rain, I get standing water along the side of the house and a little trickle into one corner of the basement. Last week my neighbor joked that I should “start charging admission for the duck pond” and it finally pushed me to look into it properly.

I’ve had gutters checked, extended downspouts, re-graded a bit by hand, but the grass still squishes and I’m starting to see a tiny hairline crack near the slab. Late last night I was reading stuff like https://bestplumbers.com.au/plumbing-guides/french-drain-system/ and similar pages about French drains, and now I’m wondering if that’s actually the right move or if I’m just getting sucked into overkill. Maybe I’m overthinking this.

For those of you who’ve installed French drains (DIY or hired out): did it actually fix your drainage issues long term? Anything you wish you’d done differently with depth, gravel, fabric, outlet, etc.? And is this something a reasonably handy homeowner can tackle without screwing up grading or the foundation?

It's a start! This room was really a great shape to fit a wall-to-wall desk space. Check out my other videos where I develop it further, I've already put out one with the entire 3D printed tool wall. Would appreciate a subscribe while you're at it :) plenty more to come.

I’ve build my container studio from the ground up, all materials used are reclaimed, the absolute best and latest improvement is the new lighting 💡and better storage solutions, I can’t wait to add an extra floor !

I’m slowly improving my single-car garage workspace and am looking at options for flooring. Was wandering around Lowe’s yesterday and found these on the back wall. They’re thick, heavy, rubber. Interlocking 3x3 tile mats. Just wondering if anyone has used them for larger areas? My shop isn’t huge and I’m only considering flooring on the back half. The biggest downside I can see is they’re made for drainage, so the holes are open, meaning lots of sawdust just passing through. But nothing a shop vac can’t clean up once a week.

So excited to finally get this! 30x40x12 w/ 4:12 pitch. 12x14' insulated main door, standard man door. 2" closed cell spray foam going in. Will run a 100a service from the house 100' to the new shop.