Here's a tour of the late Grant Imahara's workshop. He worked on robotics and, I believe, props in there?
He's got a pretty significant amount of capability -- "CNC mills, laser cutters, lathes, paints, electronics, work tables, and, of course, multiple 3D printers" -- built into a space that looks closer to a 1-car garage than a 2-car garage.
I have a workshop/gym in my 2-car garage and his space doesn't look much bigger than mine. (It is, however, infinitely cooler than mine)
He's got the tall ceiling, yeah, but he wasn't using it in any way that I can see.
Power hookups likely wouldn't be an obstacle if one was recreating this in a residential garage. Would just need 220V for some of the machines I bet. Key here is that for Grant's line he surely you running all of the power-hungry machines at once as he was (to the best of my knowledge) working on bespoke one-off projects.
In the video, they call out that it's "about 5 or 6 hundred square feet". An average 2 car garage is ~360 square feet, so it'd definitely closer to a 3-4 car garage.
You guys have garages? That would be the #1 issue for people in my circles. I get that the thread has that as a premise, but to assume that it's larger than the size of the vehicle you need to house in it surprises me. Also, where does the vehicle go? is what I've always wondered when hearing of american garage startups.
Edit: just re-read the OP, they do mention 2-car specifically actually
Seems like you're outside the US, so I can share some fun little garage facts:
(context: I live in the american quintessential "suburbs", cul-de-sac and all.)
Around my parts, garages are ironically barely, if EVER, used for the cars! Something that surprised us when we moved here. Many houses around here are good examples of american excess; I've seen a couple houses with like between 4-6 cars(!) and all of them are just parked in the driveway (remember with all that space we also have room for like 6-8 cars in a driveway parked 2-by-2 behind each other). People just park all ("all" lol) their cars in the driveway, and then the garage is used for any number of things:
- "shops" for wood/metalworking, or crafts
- table/chairs for those "garage startups"
- giant freezers for meats/breads/etc for larger families
- massive amounts of STUFF -- I've seen way too many garages here that are just filled with hoarder-levels of STUFF. It's disturbing.
Personally, our garage is a 2-car garage, and we put our 1 car in there, and I use the rest for my little hobbyist carpentry area. Not enough space for a full workshop, but when I need more room I pull the car out to the driveway for a bit, then put things away and pull the car back in when I'm finished. That works well enough for me for now.
American suburbs are a bizarre place for sure. Hope that clears some stuff up!
At a point, machine tools need three-phase power, which may not be available in a residential area. Little hobbiest machines don't, but heavy duty commercial grade machines often do.
In the UK lots of second hand industrial equipment requires 3 phase 415v. It can cost a lot to have this installed by your power company. I used a 3 phase converter.
He's got a pretty significant amount of capability -- "CNC mills, laser cutters, lathes, paints, electronics, work tables, and, of course, multiple 3D printers" -- built into a space that looks closer to a 1-car garage than a 2-car garage.
edit: here's the actual link https://youtu.be/hsCSTO8SaQU