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Comment by anon1m0us | Hacker News Reader

I'm in the process of creating such a space for myself. How much space should I dedicate to such a lab? I'm interested in IoT, robotics, databases, wood and metal working.

I'm designing the house around the room. I basically want to build a research lab where I could make any idea a reality -- within reason of course.

Could you offer any guidance from your experience with such a lab? I have a lot of questions like, What kind of floor should it have? How tall should the walls be? How much space do I need for each of the tasks I want to perform in the lab?

Which tools will I need and how much space does each one require? Can I make the tools movable or should the be fixed in place? Do I need a gantry crane?

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It kind of depends on what you're doing. Two of my friends have done the 'double decker garage' idea, which is to put the machine/wood shop on the ground floor and the office/electronics on the upper floor. My wife still believes that cars go in garages so I have yet to claim the full downstairs :-).

Things I find most useful in my space are the electronics bench, the computer "station" (3 monitors on a desk), and the "small fab" bench (3D printer, mini-mill (Sherline), various holding jigs). I've got parts and such upstairs but they could reasonably be anywhere.

My activities are primarily small circuit design/build/test, small mechanisms (robot) design/build/test, and algorithm research. These things don't have a lot of consumables per hour of engagement so they can go for a long time on relatively low additional investment.

For larger fabrication having a garage door and a concrete floor are essential. But the kinds of things you want to work on and create is pretty intensely personal usually. A friend who likes to build airplanes built an assembly hanger that was roughly 40' x 60'. I have never found the space I have above the two car garage (and the same size square feet wise) to be an issue.

What I have done over the years is look at the projects on the queue, and the things I want to learn, and then built to support those efforts.

Awesome!@ Thank you. I didn't realize there were benchtop mini-mills like that. That's perfect for what I want to do.

I think I'll have enough space! I'm pretty much interested in the same things.k

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