shick, shick, shick, shick...

  The onomatopoeic title is the sound this puzzle toy makes as you attempt to solve it:

...and it's the sound I hear in my mind when I look at my workshop, because the puzzle is a good metaphor for my shop.

 The empty spot is where you have some available space.  The '1' tile is a new item you want to bring into the shop.  And oh-by-the-way, you'd really like to wind up with everything in the same positions they were in before... yeah, good luck with that.

 This is why shops need elbow-room; which is to say, more floor space than is apparently necessary at first glance, for this sort of thing and so you can move the actual work into and out of the work-space without a fight.  My shop has very definitely outgrown the available space, even after I find a new home for the Tesla coil which is currently occupying at least twenty square feet that I don't have to spare.

 There are tools and capabilities I need to add to my shop for which there simply is not space, even if I had the money or someone just knocked on my door and offered me a ShopBot, plasma cutter, etc, I would have to decline or put it in a storage locker until we move.

 And here's the case which is very much to hand: yesterday I took delivery of my first-ever real tool chest, and despite taking measurements before I made the purchase, I find that it will not fit where I had hoped to put it, and I am now faced with moving a 1,500 pound metal lathe about six feet, into a less-than-optimum position, to make room for said tool box.  Then move the power outlet, the tooling shelf, the overhead light, and so on and so forth.

 The last time I had to move that lathe, I had to borrow a shop crane.  Looking at the problem this morning, I still can't see another (safe) way to do it.  That shop crane is on the other side of the state now.  If I bought one (about $300), I don't know where I would put it when it's not in use.  I guess I could rent one.

 EDIT: no, I can't rent one, as no rental place around here rents them.  I tried to buy one, indeed, I even put my hands one which was notionally for sale, but since no store I contacted was willing to load the thing into the bed of my truck, I wasn't able to make a purchase.  Now I am looking at borrowing one... next week, the next time I have time off from work.

 I am running out of patience.  The whole point to my recent replacements and upgrades was so that I could resume working in my shop, instead my shop is now completely out of commission for the foreseeable future.  This is not progress.

 FML