Hi Andy, width is a little thin but length is fine A Myford sized lathe would be fine depending on the door position with a small mill at the far end and maybe a pillar drill too. A workbench might not be essential, you might be able to mount an engineers small vice on the drill or mill table. I had a 10 x 6 foot brick outhouse in Scotland and never suffered with rust. It reached zero degrees twice in 4 years.

I suggest you don’t do tool grinding in the workshop, carry the grinder outside to bring tools. Don’t do what I did, store the grinder on the floor.

I went in to get a hammer, turned round and tripped over the grinder.

I broke my hip and was taken to hospital 105 miles away.

My basement workshop is 3m x 1.4m and has plenty of room for my 7×14 mini-lathe, mini-mill, and a drawer unit next to the lathe. It'll be even better when I build a new stand for the mill to include multiple drawers instead of the current single shelf. Some tasks get done outside, of course, but like Andrew said…better than nothing!

I started off converting my Wendy house at the age of about 10. just a bench and a small vise , no power but a hand drill.

A mini lathe can be used as your drilling machine by having suitable tools to put into the tailstock to push the component against a drill bit held in the chuck.

Your biggest problem may be damp and keeping the rust at bay.

Good luck

Bob

My first workshop was a lean-to on the side of my house, it was barely wide enough for the worktop and me, but it had enough space for my lathe and pillar drill. It's where I built my first stationary engine and started my Britannia. Something is better than nothing.

One trick is to put all your shelving up high, attached to the walls and don't bring it down to floor level. Save all your floor space for machines and benches, with all space below benches and machines also used for shelves/drawers etc.

I keep one 8" bench grinder/belt linisher and a welding vice on a stand permanently set up outside the workshop door, covered in plastic to protect from rain when not in use. Saves both space and mess inside. Both were cheap garage sale purchases so not particularly treasured.

Another good tip is BEFORE you fill the shed with tools and benches and shelves etc, go in and paint the walls and ceiling white and the concrete floor a light grey or cream in durable concrete paint. Makes the small space look bigger, tidies it up no end and helps tremendously with light if you don't have large windows etc. Makes a huge difference. But you will never do it once the shed is full of stuff.

Andy my shop is 2.0 x 2.0 (6.5ft x 6.5ft) it's all I have but its surprising what you can fit in if well laid out. I have a lathe and mill plus 6ft x 2 ft of clear bench space for building. I put shelves up on the walls and fitted a shelf under the benches and below that I store the saw, grinder and other stuff.

I insulated mine with 50mm polystyrene sheet from Wickes which works really well. The thing that a small shop does make you do is to keep it clean and tidy if it becomes a mess with stuff lying about everywhere it wouldn't be pleasant to work in.

Go for it you won't regret it.

Edited By Ron Laden on 15/03/2022 08:07:49

Edited By Ron Laden on 15/03/2022 08:14:37

Andy, A picture of my shop below just to give some idea. I have a 15 inch deep bench to the right where the mill sits, a 24 inch bench to the left plus a 24 inch bench at the far end with the lathe. If you went with something similar having a 15 inch and 20 inch deep bench you would have a working space between of 27 inches, cosy but quite workable. Or you could go with 2 x 17-18 inch benches, if you go with a mini lathe a 12 inch bench will house it as I had mine on that size of bench when I started. Depends on what machines and bench size you need lots of options.

Get your priorities right. Make your outhouse a bedroom and use your bedroom as a workshop. If you have a partner make bunk beds The space is after all bigger than a camper van. Apart from kings and lords the separate bedroom is a recent invention of the affluent.

Hi Bazyle

I have just got my priorities right.

My wife left me a month ago and stayed with the next door neighbour until she got rehoused. She finally moved out today. Hurrah! Because I no longer need a front room, my son is decorating it and is using it as his bedroom.

His bedroom will become my computer room and workshop.

Not that I use my computer much, everything is now done on an iPad Pro.

I have not got a workshop at the moment, just a wooden shed with a few tools in boxes piled in with other junk. Some of them might be ok but might have been attacked by the rust worm.

I was bidding on EBay for a Unimat 3 with lots of equip,ent but was outbid and it sold for £1,100.

I found a larger lathe, a bit bigger than what I really wanted but it was too good a bargain to miss.

It was a brand new Myford Ml10 that has never been used. I hit it for £1,000 and negotiated £100 for delivery.

So it is going in the spare room.

The front room has laminated flooring do that is coming up and being replaced with carpet.

The laminate will be put into the bedroom/workshop. I hope to just lay it over the existing carpet but have not researched it yet. The laminate is to stop any dwarf dticking to my wheelchair wheels.

So, I have got my priorities right as you suggest. A workshop whereas before I could not get to my shed and my (ex) wife would not let me go into a workshop for over 5 years.

Hi Andy, that's not to bad of a small space to make a start, with carful planning it's surprising what you can fit in, it is storage space that may be the problem. Below is a photo off part of my garage and is about 2 X 2 and contains my Warco 220, my Boxford and my Warco Major milling machine and it has enough room to work on any machine without being cramped, but there is only storage for tools for each machine.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 15/03/2022 23:05:47

David, when I said a plywood base layer, hopefully you understood I meant the laminate goes on top of this.

If you wanted a slightly quieter top layer for your wheelchair you could buy a large barrier mat to go down on top of the laminate. I have two huge ones (over an Ardex K80 top layer) on my garage floor. They don't hide swarf and can be easily hoovered. They're just not very good at tolerating weld spatter and freshly soldered parts!

Nicholas, that's a tidy arrangement. Do be careful when walking past your mill's y-axis hand wheel. I cracked the protruding handle on mine after walking into it – more than once. It now has a stubby handle instead.