Official Luthiers Forum!

My shop is 12' x 22' and with the shelves, tools and wood racks there just isn't any more room to hang things on the walls. I'm looking for ideas for storing guitars/parts in work and guitars under repair. I would like to be able to build at least two guitars at a time and also have at least two more completed guitars for repair.

I need inspiration, how do you do it?

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Here are some bad ideas to avoid, from my experience:
1. Don't try to take over the laundry room as it destroys domestic tranquility.
2. Don't try to hang a drying guitar from a rafter unless it is far away from the garage door track.
3. Don't get into the jig, jig, jig mode.
4. Don't save plywood,

Here are some things to do:
1. Throw out the old glue bottles.
2.. One of each tool.
3. learn to french polish
4. make your shop portable.

Oh and one more important one.
Learn to say NO.

_________________
Ken

This link show several shots of the D'Angelico / D'Aquisto shop reconstruction, including a rack I've seen copied elsewhere, if you have the room.
http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/Tours/Lillibrid ... #D'Aquisto
You could probably do it as a knock-down too.
In my shop, I store WIP on a shelf in the closet containing my dust collector.

_________________
Dave
Milton, ON

Thanks guys, the top shelf idea is the kind of thing I am looking for. Keep em coming, I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to get a handle on this.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve, I've got about the same size shop and I have the same problem. All I can say is "Look up!"
If you see anything that helps here...

Most of my parts (of guitars-in-progress) are stored on shelves under my main assembly work bench. Assembled boxes (bodies) are stored on a high shelf, the underside of which is the top of my go-bar deck. My biggest difficulty is storage of guitars in the shop for repair. I haven't worked out a good system for that yet.

_________________
Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

My shop looks like a cross between Todd Stock's and Haans'. I have some 2' deep shelves that are about 20" below the ceiling that I can convert to hold bodies and guitars. I also have a 16' three-tier lumber rack along one wall that was real useful when I built furniture but now I think I'll redesign it for mostly guitar-specific storage with deeper shelving. I built it to easily hold over 1000 lbs of lumber so that should help with my storage problem considerably. Thanks again folks for all the ideas

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Ken,
Thank you. I am laughing out loud at your post because I know each item is true and learned from the real life School of Hard Knocks.

Ed

Wow your shops are huge compared to what I've got. It's 10x11, with a 3'x3' corner out for the door, and a 2'x4' closet where the electrical panel resides, and sump pump hole and plumbing clean out. Its about 90 sq ft, so Storage is a MAJOR issue. I modified other sections of my house to store guitar parts.

_________________
Dee Tee

------------------------------------

"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right."

I have at the time a 2 car garage (attached) My problem is I have to park my golf cart in it and an extra refrigerator inside. I go around the property and when folks remodel, they give me old cupboards and counter shelving. But I am out of room for even those.

I am going to buy or rent a building for a shop. Or a new house with a bigger shop on it or lot big enough and not full of snobs to build a shop.

I remember asking Bryan Galloup once during my schooling what size of shop I should use. He said 1400 to 1600 sq, ft. I thought that was way over. Another lesson in learning to listen. I had about 1300 at my old home in OK. Moved to Branson MO, Move to a gated community of snobs and now a garage. Oh how I miss the old days.

But learned a lot from the Boss on how to store stuff and make space work as he had a small area in his basement and built 30+ guitars in it a year and for a bunch of years. Now he has 3 stories of great shop.

Might just go to shops in your area and get ideas in real terms.

I have been pondering this same question over and over. I have 2 spaces that I use to build - my garage for the messy steps - and my basement office. Problem with my office is that it is..... "my office".... and during the day I actually see clients here occasionally. So... every time do a step on a build I need to be able to quickly put everything away at the end of the night.

The problem I encounter has to do with handling multiple builds at once - as we have 3 going on right now.

I've often thought it would be nice to have stackable cardboard (or plastic?) boxes with removable lids to store all parts for a specific build. I've not found the right box yet - as I've not decided on dimensions. There are times when wish I could put in EVERYTHING once I start a build - and that would include unbent binding - as I typically don't bend it at the same time as my sides. Sounds like I need a box about 17"-18" wide x 34"-36" x 6". I've thought of building a shelving unit that could hold all these (Possibly under a gobar deck)?

Still dreaming and thinking.

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Paul, I really like the system Filippo came up with. It reminds me of the drawers they keep paper in in art supply stores. Maybe Filippo will post a picture, but he has shallow but spacious drawers that slide out with enough space to store everything for the project at hand.

I'd like to see that. I actually have a set of cupboardS in my office that have 2 pull-out drawers each - a total of 6 drawers that I can store a complete guitar on IF I CLEAN THE CRAP OFF OF THEM!!!

I'll try to shoot a photo later.

_________________
P A U L B U R N E R
Burner Guitars

Since my shop is small too, 8'x20', almost ever decision is weighed againt "where to put it". I manage to continue to improve the use of cubic air space. Walls are mostly lined with shelves, benches (2), and standing machines. As someone mentioned above, I have a 24" deep by 19 ft long shelf about20" below the ceiling. Lots of wood and parts get stored there. I still find that for part of that 19 ft that I need to divide the 20" height into several additional shelves to made wood more accessale and use some wasted air space above it.

I bought some cheap clear small storage boxes with lids from Hobby Lobby (about $1 per box for medium size and $1.50 for large). I store "like" articles in each labeled box and can stack boxes on top of one another (e.g sanding cauls box, safety gloves, glasses & respiratiors refills box, cleaners, lubricants, liquids box, pickups box, electrical wire, ties, components box, glue box, etc. etc.) . I limit it to two boxes high so I can easily pull out bottom or top box. These boxes actually behave much like portable drawers. I can quickly pull one or more down to the bench, use the tool or consumable and return the boxe(s) when finished. The lids keep all dust out so it is easy and quick to houseclean shelves and box lid tops. This keeps the dust level down compared to a bunch of small items sitting on a shelf. The double stacking makes dense use of the storage space depth and height, not wasting much air space. It also keeps me from spending large amounts of time "searching" which is a problem or me when I am not organized.

Ed

Man - to the OP: Thanks for asking this... I'm even jealous of you guys that have even a dedicated 10'x10' room, so I'm always up for storage tips.

This is my "shop" in all it's glory - picture taken while sitting on the foot of my bed. Good thing I'm single!!!

For a long time I didn't even have a workbench, did all my work sitting on my bed and used the computer desk as a "workbench" and did all dusty work in the bathroom where its easy to rinse the dust away.

Now I got a flat with too many rooms but each of those rooms are very small, so I use a U shaped workbench kind of thing, but lots of empty space under the bench and can't figure out what to do with them, on top of that don't have much money so can't buy nifty units to store little bits like purflings, sandpapers, etc.

I haven't got too many things so space isn't much of an issue now but once I add a few more stationary tools and dust collectors/stationary (rather than portable) belt driven compressor, not to mention more wood, things will get more tight.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com