John As you say, what ever size shop you get, you'll fill it up. First, are you really going to get one or two other people to work in there with you, or is that just wishful thinking? It makes a big difference. Each person could use up to 500 square feet of work space, plus the extra instruments?they'll be working on. That means you'll need a 2000 square foot building. But if it's only you, you can only work on?2,?maybe 3 instruments at the same. I used to have a shop 12? x 36, and included a 3 x 12 work table. I usually worked on only one piano at a time, although occasionally?I?had two pianos in there. What I didn't have?was office space, (that was in my house), and I didn't refinish, although?I had fan in there when?I did touch ups and sprayed plates and soundboards. ? My 12 x 36 shop was?a Morgan portable building, with a?big double door on one end,?through which the pianos came, and a?side door. (It was at the?end of my driveway). I insulated it myself, and ran my own electric outlets?and lights. It worked great for many years.?? Wim -----Original Message----- From: John Formsma <formsma at gmail.com> To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 3:48 pm Subject: [pianotech] ideal shop size Looking for input on the ideal size for a workshop for my needs. What I am projecting (in the future) is no more then three people working in the shop at any one time, and probably no more than two people. For the present time, it would be only me, with no more than two or three projects going on at the same time. Complete rebuilding is where I want to end up, but do not plan on doing refinishing myself. But it might be good to have a small room that could be kept relatively dust-free -- just in case some spraying needs to be done. Any thoughts on the number of square feet a shop like this would need? I have proven again and again that I can easily fill up whatever space I have <G>, but I'd like to keep things as efficient as possible. What are things that you wish you had in your shop, or things you wish you had done differently when planning and/or building a shop? Thanks in advance, -- JF -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090321/9b04abc6/attachment.html>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC