Could you set up a shaping room in your garage that could be put up and taken down so it would be a clean garage again. I would think the cheapest way would be to take four planks and drill each of them to a bucket. This would be the frame. Then nail visqueen to the wood to make the walls. So you have 4 buckets that make 4 corners, then 4 planks drilled verticallay to each bucket to make a frame where plastic wrapping could be nailed to and make 4 walls. If you want you could add a peice of visqueen on the top to add a ceiling to the room. After you are done shaping you could bring the 4 corner buckets to the center and the shaping room would fold in.You could sweep what fell on the floor. This could be a cheap way to make your garage into a shaping and could even be mobile. Assuming that you had adequate lighting, would this work?
Coming from a guy who has had a shaping room in nearly all places I have lived in the past 25 years,
shaping rooms in garages and clean garage should not be used in the same sentence.
Ask my wife.
“would this work?”
Nope. Foam dust gets everywhere and anywhere. Any attempt to contain it using your idea would be futile.
I used to shape under a tree in the backyard. Pearl City Hawaii 1971
My last shaping setup was under some trees where I strung tarps on ropes to make a roof, and made a crude platform with 2x6s and plywood.
Challenge Accepted.
I have thought of this… imagine taking a small greenhouse which is relatively cheap at harbor freight:
http://www.harborfreight.com/10-ft-x-12-ft-greenhouse-with-4-vents-93358.html
modifying roof to be flat… or more squat… then put ventilaiton, portable AC, and dust/foamdust collection system…
boom. clean and able to break down when needed…
buttttt… this isnt like a take down every day type thing…
My garage is trassssshhhhhed right now. too small and wife hates outside (a plus for me, as outside is then my playground…which includes garage! 
)
I built moveable walls using 2x4 studs. I screwed blue tarp from Harbor Freight to them.
I can store the walls by unscrewing a couple of bracing studs tacking them in place.
I always wanted to shape under some pier.
Can’t do that anymore.
I used a roll of 6mm vinyl and some spring-loaded telescoping poles to create a “clean barrier” in my garage. The kit came with a zipper that you attachs for a door. Here are some pictures of the box.
Here is my garage with the plastic barrier in the background. You can see the door with the goggles taped-on for a window. There are two black zipper lines. This allows me to roll the plastic up all the way to create an open entrance when I need it.
http://www.protectagroup.com.au/index.php?page=Dust_Containment_Solutions
zip wall is the best temp way to do it.
Having tried several variations on the visqueen enclosure, the closest to a wife-approved garage shaping room I found was a shop vac-hose-planer system, minimal use of a surform, and frequent vacuming of dust while using sand paper/screens.
Eventually I found that the best solution was to shape at my friend’s house…
Hey timely thread. I’ve just emigrated from uk to Sydney and now live in a rental so this weekend I just built this in the garage. It’s now covered in polythene sheet and should have lights installed this weekend. Shipping container arrives in 10 days with my tools and I’ve just met a guy who blows blanks down the road…happy as a pig in shit! Cheers rich www.thirdshade.com
Hey Rich, which part of Sydney did you wash up in? You’re lucky they didn[t turn you back at the border, the way the immigration debate is going over here these days.
Hi cass I’m in cronulla. Been here since mid September and loving it so far. Can’t wait to get my hands on my tools and get stuck into some new boards. The foam shop I came across was graham kings - I think he calls it south coast foam. Have you ever used it?
thirdshade,
i use kingy’s blanks for all of my poly boards. they are good - he’s been doing it for 50 years and knows what he’s on about. doesn’t have as big a catalogue of blank shapes and sizes as the big guys, but he’s got something that will suit almost anything with a bit more shaping.
he does have some old fashioned ideas sometimes though! and make sure you catch him when he’s in a good mood!
I shape in my workshop / shed. Lighting was the issue. So I installed my fluorescent lights on wood boards and suspended them from pullies in the ceiling (like the ones used for overhead clothes dryers). I extended the power cables and hooked them to bungy chord. Now I can raise or lower them to whatever height as required. Works a treat!
I used to set up a temporary plastic barrier each time I shaped, but decided it was just easier to clean. The best way I’ve found to cut down on the mess is hooking your planer up to a vacume with a hose. The more you use the planer the more the mess goes into the vacume.
The sanding dust is worse that the shaping dust. My solution is to use a Dust Muzzle over my sander and hook that into the vacume as well. It’s not perfect, some dust gets out, but it’s a lot better than sanding without it. Home Depot makes a vacume that can also be used as a blower – the top pullls off so it’s easy to carry around. You can use this to blow some of the dust out of your garage once your done vaccuming up what you can.
I just put in an order for a planer with a dust bag. Has anyone ever used one? I’d imagine a vaccum would be better, but the dust bag must be better than nothing.
I hung visquen from the ceiling and made a 4 walled enclosure and worked pretty well, although I didn’t use an electric planner. Sanding with a sander is kind of messy. I might have someone else do the glassing on my next board. I am also planning to use an electric planner with a shop vac.