This is a current picture of my shop. It is a little over 25,000 square feet and the manufacturing area is climate controlled. It has its advantages as you can imagine. There are some drawbacks though. There are 21 other people going through my stuff on a daily basis. We run 2 shifts, so during the week you always have other people around drawing your attention away to solve their problems. As a small business owner, you have to spend way too many hours running your business to finish a hobby project in a reasonable amount of time. It balances out to be able to make parts on state of the art equipment though. In case you're wondering, I am doing all the work on my Pup myself. It would go faster if I had my employees help but it wouldn't be near as much fun.

Whatever size shop you have, it is very important to keep it clean and organized. Nothing is more frustrating than spending extra time looking through a bunch of junk to find something you need. Time spent keeping your shop organized will pay itself back many times.

If you are scratch building an aircraft similar to the N3 Pup, it is handy to have a couple pieces of equipment you don't normally see listed as required on most plan sellers' list of required equipment. I don't know how you scratch build without a mill and lathe. I know, you're thinking that's a big chunk of money that would be better spent on aircraft parts. Instead of buying that new drill press, check out ebay and pick up a used Bridgeport mill. It will do everything a drill press will and so much more. I recently purchased a Monarch 10 EE tool room lathe for $800.00 on ebay but you can purchase an Atlas or Craftsman for as little as $100.00. Follow the link below for a look at some of my equipment.