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I have a lot of "stuff" in my garage/shop too. And to keep peace in the family, I have to have things so my wife's car almost never has to sit out overnight. I have workbenches along one wall and created a bunch of storage by building a 6 foot wide balcony over that bench wall. I hang a lot of smaller tools on pegboard, so they are easy to see and find. The other thing I have done is put lots of things on casters so I can move them around easily. I have a set of dollies with casters that fit under the wheels of a vehicle and allow me to fairly easily move a vehicle sideways for more room to work. I have a heavy metal welding table just outside the bay door and usually do any welding outside or immediately inside the door. I hope to eventually add a large exhaust fan. I remember the dream shop series in Hot Rod Magazine, and I think Car Craft also did one. You might be able to copy them if you went to a library that microfiches those magazines. The yearly indexes should be on the computer somewhere. Another thought would be to do a map of your garage with graph paper and do arrangements your equipment with cutouts made to scale. The lathe may have to be really well held down to work properly, as should the large compressor, but much of the other equipment can and probably should be fairly portable. If you do mount equipment in a stationary location, plan for the maximum amount of clearance you will ever need between the equipment and another stationary object, like the wall. Under workbench storage is real handy for items that you don't have to have out all the time, especially if they are on wheeled dollies. I like the idea of having one bay as deep as possible, so you can work on long vehicles without having to leave the door open. But what works best for you in your situation might be very different than what works for somebody else's situation. And you will probably change your layout and keep changing it. I hope to build another building that would be 90% storage, just to get rid of some clutter and to get some stuff that sits outside under cover. I also would like to have a separated area for a woodshop to avoid the sawdust problem. If I had it to do over, my attached garage/shop would be twice as big as it is. But that is not the way I did it and remodeling would be difficult. So I do the best I can with what I have and end up moving stuff around a lot. Good luck!
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