When I built my home I had regular stares built to the attic. It is a high pitch roof and I have about 600 sqft for an office, engraving area, reloading bench, gun rack and photo area.
I swore that I would never have a shop in basement again. When
we bought our house there was an enormous garage.
I was able to make a room of 9' x 12' with two windows.
The windows a 60" x 30" and this lets in so much natural light , its great.
I once saw the perfect building up for sale in Royal Oak, Michigan.
It had originally been a Tool & Die shop. I think it was about 20' wide
and 40' long in the shop part. An office and bathroom in the front.
The best thing was it had 15' ceiling and glass starting about 5' going
right to the top of the build, on three sides. This ran the entire lenth of the three wall.
Sort of a gold fish bowl.
Yoga people bought and turned it into a gym. Oh well.
Hi Tira
about 5 years ago I built a 30'x40' shop and that is where I do all my custom rifle building. As soon as I figure out what I need as far as equipment to do the engraving I want to do the shop will be the place. Right now what little engraving I do is done in the shop with the work held in a vise. I know that I have to graduate from that wetup for my work to get better. Hopefully after the GRS class I will have a good idea what I need.
In our previous house I had a small engraving bench set up in the corner of the master bedroom. I'm in the basement now......as well as my engraving bench
Hi Tira.
I have an upstairs room, about 12x14 feet with a 6x8 foot walk-in closet.
This is a nice room with a 10 foot North facing window for good light.
I also use a part of my garage for the "dirty" end of things such extensive metal prep and polishing.
This should be big enough to work well, and it does.
But just like most people I tend to get 3 pounds of poo in a 2 pound poo jar.
Never seem to have all the space for the good stuff (read junk) I think I can't live without.
But ain't life fun!
John B.
While I really have not started engraving yet, all my piddling is done in a 28X28 garage. With a wife, adult daughter and two grandaughters in the house,
The garage is the only place I get some time to myself.So all my tools and TV for Nascar Races is there.
I am in the planning stages of a 16X20 building on the back corner of our lot, so I can get all my woodworking, rifle building and craftworking in one dedicated easy to heat area. It is a sure thing a corner will be for the engraving.
I do all my engraving in a spare bedroom in the house. Nice and sunny but the trouble is I tend to do the engraving side of things in the evenings.
The 6m x 3m garage is where I do all the messy and dirty work. No way in the world can you fit a car into it anymore. When we first brought the house, about 15 years ago, there was a gap of about a week when it was physically possible to park a vehicle in it!!!
In every room of the house there are books from here to africa and bits of drawings and variouse items. Mary calls it "creepage" and every now and then makes me tidy it up. Which is a good thing because I get to re-discover all this stuff that I forgot I had in the first place. 3 months later it's usually buried again somewhere in the house.
My space is in a spare room upstairs, about 10' X 11' and is a combination engraving room/library/computer station. It has southeast facing windows across one entire wall which I face while at the bench. I split the room down the middle with a seven foot desk which is built like an "L". This makes both workspaces (engraving set-up and computer/library set-up) U-shaped workspaces. The back corner behind the engraving stuff is where I keep my artist's easel and associated material. Its small but efficiant. Besides, Miss Mary says she can watch TV downstairs now without the constant tic-tic-tic or the compressor noise, depending on which tool I'm using at the time. Just trying to keep Mama happy!
Since I got rid of the ex I converted a bedroom into a jewelry and engraving studio, the garage into a casting and polishing room and another bedroom for my clutter(I may need a couple more rooms for the clutter)
Other than the job I have that pays the bills so I can have a work space, I practice several art forms - I paint, draw, carve spirit faces in cottonwood, scrimshaw, make jewelry and now itching to carve metal. Needless to say, my whole house is my studio, I have work areas through out -- The cat doesn't seem to mind one bit.
Tira, my basement is the engraver den, hunters den, air rifle range, and home of all my woodworkers tools.
I smoke my cigars outside when the projects are done.
Kent
Had a shop out side of home for many years but the rents where getting crazy I do wholesale for the trade in NJ and know everyone who comes in, the rest is all shipped from out of state my rent was going to $1,000a month for a small 13 X 9 office when I said who needs this. My wife of 27 years also we found out has stage four cancer, with having the office in my home I can see and take care of her as well so for me it is a blessing. I started out with an old used desk next to our bed in a house that was ready to fall over and $200 to our name Hand engraving has been a God sent. Today I have a nice home, new car and helps pay for my wife’s treatments. I may be in my basement but I have to say it is hooked up personaly I think it's one of the nicest rooms in the house and it's rent free!!!
this past year i took a job with a jewelry store that was expanding,they have been a whosale client for some time.now i have a great office with a wall of windows ,the first time i have had a office with windows in 20 years.i also have a office inthe basement at home.there is not always time to finish things during the day so during busy times i work at home at night and weekends.i actually get more done without the interuptions of the store.db