Workshop planner: which maker machine fits my home?

By the Lindenmaker team

Specs and sources awaiting check

Work it out for your workshop

Worked example

For pottery and laser engraving in a garage with an outside wall, no window and two sockets:

  • Electric pottery kiln: check first. Measure the maker's footprint plus the clearances in its manual against your space. Whether a kiln can use a normal plug depends on its power. Check it with the 13A plug checker. Keep the room ventilated while it fires, as the maker's manual says. Check the maker's noise figure if others will hear it. Running a supply out to a garage, shed or garden room is a job for a registered electrician.
  • Pottery wheel: check first. Measure the maker's footprint plus the clearances in its manual against your space. The maker's spec says what supply it needs. Check the maker's noise figure if others will hear it.
  • Laser engraver or cutter: check first. Measure the maker's footprint plus the clearances in its manual against your space. The maker's spec says what supply it needs. You have an outside wall for an extraction duct. Plan the route before you buy. Check the maker's noise figure if others will hear it. Running a supply out to a garage, shed or garden room is a job for a registered electrician.
  • A kiln, or a supply run out to a garage, means a registered electrician.
  • Building a base or bench in the garage? Plankley does the building maths.

Source: Electrical Safety First, awaiting check; HSE, awaiting check; Office for Product Safety and Standards, awaiting check; IET (BS 7671 Wiring Regulations), awaiting check

Pick the crafts you want to take up and where the machines would go. The planner checks each kind of machine against your space, your sockets and your ventilation, flags anything to sort out first, and gives you a workshop plan card to print.

How it works

Each machine gets a "Will it fit?" check on space, socket, ventilation and noise. A check only says "fits" or "problem" when a maker's published spec or official guidance backs it. Otherwise it says "check first" and tells you what to check.

Kilns, and any supply run out to a garage, shed or garden room, come with a signpost to a registered electrician. We never give wiring advice.

FAQs

Does it recommend a brand?

No. It tells you which kinds of machine suit your space. Where we've checked a model's specs against the maker's UK spec page, it lists the models that fit.

What happens to what I type?

It stays in your browser. We don't send it anywhere or keep it.

Read the guide: Setting up a home craft workshop

Sources