Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing For the working gunsmiths out there...

I'm in the process of setting up my first gunsmithing shop. I have quite a few years of working for other shops. but this is my first foray into the real world of working for myself. I have a great space to work with, but I'm hoping for ideas on how you guys have set up your shops, and why. I am looking for any ideas that will make the shop more efficient, etc. Any worthwhile sugestions will be appreciated.

You can PM me pics of your set ups as opposed to taking up space here.

Thanks for your replies!

Set it up to suit yourself, we can't know what suits your sensibilities. I would take pains to keep the woodworking area sealed off from the metaworking area though. Nothing worse than having your lathe and mill covered in sawdust.

I agree with gnoahhh, have a separate room for stock work, wood and fiberglass dust is a mess. Don't know what type of work you're going to be doing so it's hard to tell you how to set up your shop. You're going to have lathes, Mills, surface grinders, sanding belts, buffing wheels? if you get into bluing, parkerizing, nickel plating, spray-on finishes, make sure you have a separate building for that as that stuff is corrosive. You said you worked for a few different shops then you should have an idea of how you should set Yours up

After "quite a few years working for other shops" one would think that you yourself would have pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't work for you. It's gonna be your shop.

Yes sir!

My years were spent in two shops, one very large and one very small, neither was a general gunsmithing shop. Since this is my first personal shop I was hoping for some insight on what others may have learned through trial and error with thier set ups.

Maybe you are not quite ready.