For your power you will want as much amps as your service off the house will provide, 100 amp minimum and 200 is even better. From what you are saying, you plan on adding equipment so you may want to check into having a separate meter and keep it off your house service. The more amps you run in the better off you and your equipment will be in the long run and enable you to add equipment as you expand. Be safer too.

If I was to build my dream shop this is what I would do.

200 amp service

I'd pour between 1000-1500 square foot foundation and I'd build two stories.

I would have a hot shop, machine shop and grinding room down stairs.

The grinding room would be separate and have its own dust collection system.

Dust collection for metal grinding either needs vortex buckets that stop sparks from making it to the filter bag or dust bag or they have a set of gates inside the tubes that only allow finer and finer particles to pass over the gate and make it to the final collection point.

In front of the gate is a separate container for each gate.

Tooling should be placed next to the wall and the center of the shop should be left for a table with layout capability.

I would have a nice acorn table.

The hot shop can be set up in a corner with the power hammer and press by the wall and the anvil, forge, and vice situated basically in a triangle, with a path to the larger tools.

There would be 4 work stations for classes.

The power hammer foundation is different for each hammer.

I have a 50 pound tire hammer. It needs no extra foundation.

Big hammers like Nazels do and they are specific so it would either have to be planned for from the beginning of the build based on knowing the weight of the hammer you have or would have to be dug out and poured specifically for the hammer you buy.

My grinding room would have multiple grinders for dedicated tasks.

The upstairs would have a clean room for finishing and making fittings.

It would also have a washer, dryer, bathroom and shower so that I got cleaned up before I went to the house and my work clothes were cleaned there and never left.

It would have a kitchenette and a lounge so I could eat lunch there and take breaks and allow for classes or hammer ins.

Fire safety is in safe practices and extinguishers.

Don't quench in over full tanks. Don't weld next to rags etc.

Insurance should be added for giving classes, having visitors and property theft of loss.

Lighting for grinding and finishing areas should be excellent, powerful and plentiful.

The rest of the shop can have normal lighting.

That's my dream feel free to take whatever you want from it.

Seth,

I won't get into specifics but if you have built shops in the past then you should know most of the basics. Things that I always stress are:

1) You can never have too much light or too many electrical outlets (both 110v & 220v).

2) If you are going to have a concrete floor then make it thick enough (with rebar) in one area for heavy duty tools like a power hammer. It's much cheaper to do it initially. Also have the concrete poured with a fall built into it so that should you ever have water in the shop that it will drain to one side where it can exit.

3) Have a large enough entrance to enable getting large equipment in or out without too much difficulty.

4) Engineer how you're going to remove the forge exhaust fumes ahead of time as in an overhead hood or an in-wall exhaust fan.

Have fun. New shops are exciting.

Very interested in this as well!

Great topic!

I am working in my garage and will eventually build a shop. Definitely looking forward to hearing what to do and what not to do!

Concerning Lighting..... just last week I converted my finish shop to all LED lighting.....WOW! What a difference versus the old 8ft florescent lights.

I started by purchasing one box (8 fixtures) total of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076FQ15R6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I installed them, and shortly there after, I ordered four more, for a total of 32 fixtures. Cost was about $300, about 1/2 of what it would have cost to replace all the 8ft tubes with LED tubes..... and I'm well pleased with the results.