Poll - Where is your shop located ?

[Glenn]

Where is your shop located?
There were 122 votes

Structure that was converted (Old barn, chicken house etc. in a former life)
38 votes or 31.1%

Building built for that purpose.
33 votes or 27%

Where ever there is room enough for a fire and anvil.
21 votes or 17.2%

Lean-to or shed roof with one or more open sides.
15 votes or 12.3%

Outside no roof ( one set location)
15 votes or 12.3%

[Dutchmancreek]

I built my shop attached to my other work shop, on a poured concrete pad. It has a metal, insulated roof and metal siding. Windows on two sides and wide doors on opposite walls for ventilation.

[julian]

my forge is in a little corner of the backyard adjacent to the garage, where my grinder and other tools are (in a little corner of the garage). all in all a little shop I took the poll on the homepage, too

[FredW]

Mine is a 16' square metal building in my backyard that used to be for storage and lawnmowers. The lawnmower still goes in there but I move it out when forging. A garden shed.
I also have a larger 40x30 shop that has my woodworking and knifemaking tools in it. Grinders and such.

Fred

[Rantalin]

My shop is behind the garage, out of site, as my parents consider it an eyesore and I have no place to put it inside the garage. The forge, a small two burner propane forge, is on top of a gutted propane grill lined with some brick. The "anvil" sits on a sawhorse, which has a lightweight vice bolted onto it. Not the best setup, and I want a permenant shop, but I'll be done with college and moving out in a couple of years, so for now my setup is just fine.

[skunkriv]

Rantalin

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Someday you will own your very own "eyesore" like most of the rest of us! :D

[JerryCarroll]

I had a 24'x40' pole barn with a 6' overhang the 40' length for a porch before I retired. Walls are 12' high with a 16' peak--no windows for security--10' wide door on the end toward the front of the property and a 36" walk in door bout 2/3 the way back on the porch side. 12" stack is on the backend of the building thru the wall and up 3' above the peak. Floor is 27 tons of fine packed road mix gravel. The barn is behind my garage/woodworking 24'x40' 2 story building. My family calls my place "the Carroll compound".

[dief]

My shop is in the half bay of a 3&1/2 car garage attached to our house. I pull my truck out and have enough room to move around - built a 6 by 20ft rolling gate in it. The power hammer, flypress, anvil, drill press and work bench are lined up against the wall. I wheel my propane forge out to near the garage door. I also have a post vice on a pipe with three feet I can bolt to the flloor when I need a second vice. I have a small coal rivet forge I drag outside when I need to use it. The wall behind the power hammer has a 8in round hole in it so I can work stock longer then three ft. I built the garage before I joined the way of the hammer so the ceiling is only 8ft. If I had to do it over I put in a higher ceiling with supports for a trolley hoist. The garage and most of the house is built of Perform Wall - 10 in thick walls of styrofoam and concrete so the DB doesn't hear me - except when I use the powerhammer. When I get a some spare time (ha) I want to add a power exhaust vent to the ceiling - a bit more covenient then the fan in the window.

[Nick]

Mine started life as a barn. Then it was an airplane hanger (to this day it's called the Hanger as much as the shop). Then it was a storage building. Now it's a blacksmith shop, with a small area for storage.

[matt walker]

Built as shop 2001. Mostly dirt floor. 30X60.
Matt

[Michael]

Covered patio, next to my woodworking shop in the yard. About 20 feet behind the house. There's a power outlet for the blower, covered on 3 sides but the 40 yr old corregated metal is rusted and leaks. 8 inch flue pipe running up thru the roofing. Burning charcoal.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Glenn:
I didn't see a "built as a shop and slowly converting into storage of followed-me-home-items" option
-Aaron @ the SCF

[ThomasPowers]

Well after about 25 years I finally got a purpose built shop, 20x30, 10' walls, each end has a 10'x10' roll up door and I've scrounged almost enough stuff to put the 20x20 coal forge extension on it, didn't want to soot up my *pretty* new building so only propane in it.

Prior to that:
1920's collapsing detached garage

Collapsing chicken coop---firing the cannon down the groundhog holes *inside* did help!

Nice two story "mini-barn" shop, concrete floor, 110 & 220 power, wood stove

Detached garage with brick floor

Shade tree

Carport

Shade tree

Access to a swordmaker's shop

Collapsing detached Garage

This covers 4 states, 6 cities and with the new smithy about 27 years

Thomas

[Hillbillysmith]

Mine is just outside next to the house for easy acess to power for my grinders, blower, etc. it's all open, which is a rel pain cause I have to carry in & out all of my tools hammers, anvil, grinders, etc. I do, though, have an old vise bolted to my bench outside. It stays there, but I keep it well greased, and i have to leave my coal forge out there, but I tarp that off too. i have enough room to make a perminant building, but ( and I think alot of you could agree, I don't have the funds to put up the building, and right now), and I have to clean up alot of junk that is left over from my grandfather. But, for right now, outside will have to do while me and a friend of mine scrap the junk metal (I keep what I can use of coarse) and burn the collapsed buildings.

[Marc]

My shop takes is in what the previous owners of my house called a "garage". Other than being a nice word for Scrabble, I can't find much use for something called a "garage".

It's 24 X 26, with a 7-1/2 ft ceiling. Most of it is the forge and related use, but 3/4 of one bay has the table saw and other wood-related stuff.

[proudwhitetrash]

My lab is out behind my house in the "garage" is bout 24x24. It has a fuel oil furnice and is insilated. One 8ft door and a man door and two windows. Right now its a catchall. But as soon as i can im going to put up building of somesort. I don;t have a forge right now. My anvil is just a railroad tie that my grandpa gave my dad many years ago (at least now it has a purpuse)

[metalmaster1766]

My workshop is a pole building/barn, whatever you want to call it. 24' by32' with a 10 foot wall, 4/12 pitch roof. it was built just for a small workshop, to fix my cars and to gather small machinery for a machine shop, well i took up blacksmithing, and collected way to much stuff. this spring (well right now) i am adding an addition to the building, 10' by 32' long lean-to, may possibly use a 10' wall all the way around, but this section is going to be dedicated to only forge and foundry work, i probably wont be putting walls around it till next spring.

Ron Smith

[Blackbeard]

I dont have a workshop yet.Set up my forge in the backyard. Have plans to build a little workspace soon though!
Bb

[Archie Zietman]

My forge is just under a roof on poles, I dunno the dimensions but it's kinda small, like ten by fifteen feet or so, and most of it is filled with clutter and mess. :D

[cheftjcook]

I am fighting for elbow room around the tractor and snowblower in the garage right were my wife says her car should be. Oh well, a man has to have priorities, Right?
But it works fine for now, I hope to build a large shed for a shop this year right behind the house. Kind of Out of sight, out of mind from the neighbors.
Tim

[Finnr]

Right now I am set up on my porch with plans to build a shop for the forge this summer. Probably good thing I am single . Somehow I don't see a Mrs taking kindly to coal smoke right next to the kitchen door.
Finnr

[keykeeper]

Currently, I'm using an 8 x 10 or so enclosed shed attached to a larger storage building. All forging outside in modified 55 forge, my little anvil situated on a stump. The shop area stores everything when not in use. Two swing open doors about 3 x 6 each with tool hangers for hammers, tongs, etc. Just swing open the doors, fire up the forge, and go. Wide open doors alow easy access for anything needed while forging.

It's not the size of the shop, it's how you use it!!

[Frosty]

My shops have been varied over the years. Started in the backyard of my parents house with entirely improvised tools except for hammers.

Moved to Alaska in 72 and suffered a hiatus of smithing for some 7-8 years. Slowly got back into it, mostly as an alternative to knocking off a half rack of beer every evening after work. (This is typical for off duty drillers, especially out of town drillers) Most of those operations were around a camp fire, some more sophisticated than others depending on how long we were in a camp.

Home at the time was a mobile home in South Mountain View (A neighborhood in Anchorage) where I kept everything stowed in a shed and the arctic entry. I unpacked and repacked every time I wanted to do any smithing or fab work. To keep the neighbors mollified I did a LOT of gratis knife sharpenning and light metal repair, some light fab, etc. PR is important you know.

Around 95' I ran into a local bladesmith through a farrier aquaintence and rented space in their forge. I escaped THAT situation, short money, tools, equipment, trust and respect for my old "buddy."

I met my wife online in the winter of 96', got married july 11th 97', bought 30 acres of woods and started building the house. In the past going on 10 years most of my smithing has been outdoors, then under a tarp tent attached to the front of a 40' Connex (shipping container).

Four years ago we subdivided the 30 acres, selling 15. This paid off a bunch of debt and left me enough to start construction on a real shop. I lucked out and bought a 30' x 40' red iron steel shop kit just before steel prices went through the roof. I spent almost $10,000 on the foundation and slab, mostly because of a building boom but also because of all the stuff I crammed into it.

Well, I've been putting the new shop up, mostly solo, for three years now and would've had it closed in last fall if I hadn't taken the dirt dive and shattered my arm last sept. I'll get it close in this summer though.

It'll have a separate machine shop area inside to keep the machine tools clean but the bulk will be a fab shop and smithy. Deb gets room in the "machine shop" for her fold forming, enameling, repousse and other metallic pursuits.

Frosty

[ThomasPowers]

Finnr---you just have to find the *right* lady I still remember my wife telling me "I think you should buy that: anvil, triphammer, bader grinder" and then when we moved to NM allocating part of the money we made selling our old house for a shop and professional moving of my equipment from OH.

Good luck on the search!

Thomas (23 years of marriage in August)

[CurlyGeorge]

Mine is in the back of a one car garage. I put in a 12" square roof vent with a 12" fan under the roof, and a hood hanging above my forge. I finally got the derned thing to draft and it now works very well.