Tales of the unkept shop...

[Silvan]

I was doing something in the shop yesterday and I needed some bench room. I ended up cranking the blade on my table saw all the way down into the table in order to find some place free of stuff.

Sometimes I wonder why I have a workbench. It stays piled up with tools, scraps, rags, bits of steel wool. I clean and organize my shop at least once every couple of years, but then everything gradually returns to my usual state of disarray. I use things, then throw them on the workbench. Tools that leave the shop don't always make it back, and I have another pile of stuff in a box in the den that I've been meaning to take out and put up for six months or more.

I learned this from Dad I guess. At least I can eventaully *find* my tools. His just disappear forever. I've bought him several sets of wrenches and screwdrivers over the years, and when I go to find one of them, all his toolboxes are empty except for the odd sized stuff, and there's nothing hanging on his pegboard except an ancient, rusty handsaw and a baby food jar with a few odd screws in it.

I guess I'm looking for someone else to say "me too" so I don't have to feel like I'm all alone in the world.

[Givens]

Feh. When your shop is so dark and cluttered and filthy that everybody, including yourself, is actually afraid to go in there (especially at night) then you know you've hit rock bottom.

[Me]

Sounds like mine. I have to dig for tools. I'm building new kitchen cabinets so I took one of the old ones and stuck it on the wall above my workbench. Now I can reach up and verify a measurement and toss blades and clamps and pencils and stuff up there and close the door real fast before stuff falls out :)

[Ernie Jurick]

It depends on what I'm working on. Lately I've been refinishing a bedroom set, so the bench is cluttered with every scraper, brush, sander and related tool in the house. If I'm building something I keep it pretty clean. A place for everything and everything in its place, etc., etc.

-- Ernie

[Ernie Jurick]

LOL! And why do we hang on to every piece, no matter how small? I miss my workshop wood stove, which ate them for me and kept the place warm.

-- Ernie

[Mekon]

My local council (what is the Merkin term for them? City Hall?) is about to bring in a ban on new wood stoves - still, I can just do something else over the two weeks of winter.

Mekon

[davkap]

"Don't put it down, put it away" It works all the time......

[Urser]

Hah. Around here, it's...

Don't put it down, throw it toward the far corner.

...and that goes for EVERYTHING. Tools, half-full cans of paint, dead animals, you name it. The place is a total shit hole. Few go there during the day, and nobody, not even the dog, goes in there at night. You open the door at night and peer inside, and you can sometimes see eyes glowing in a distant corner or under the workbench. Seriously. It's pretty goddamn creepy.

[HarryM]

Sometimes keep a tool on the workbench all day, but everything goes back to its place at the end of the day. The schedule goes something like this: tools away, scraps to the trash, vacuum sawdust and shavings, blow off dust and myself, and usable lumber to the rack. Therein lies my problem -- nearly every piece of lumber is potentially useable. It gets out of hand at times. High school art students get scraps of exotics for jewelry projects. Knife builder neighbor gets larger pieces. Pen/pencil maker stops by from time to time. In between, they overflow my shelf of little pieces of rosewood, wenge, padauk, zebrano, bubinga, etc. But I'm a compulsive cleaner. Sometimes clean the shop several times during the day. "Cup of coffee? Sure. Wait a second while I clean up." harrym

"Silvan" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

[Norman D. Crow]

Dare we say "anal"?(LOL) Nahmie

[Gnube]

Sounds like fun to me - I don't have a shop, and there's no chance I'll get one, everything lives on shelving in a cupboard and I have to break down the gear and clean up every day no matter what!

The bit that's really strange is that I save more or less all the bits of offcut wood too - now that's nuts in my position, but it still makes as much sense as when the rest of you do it! ;O)

I spent about 47 years more or less avoiding wood on the grounds that it was pretty tricky stuff to deal with, and always changed size when your back was turned, and this made getting two bits the same size something I'd sometimes dream about. About 6 months back this all changed, I hung up my mouse (3d Model maker) and started enjoying myself with wood - I figure I got abducted by termites or carpenter wasps or something - I don't even understand the lust for more wood to play with; Sure having fun though!

First real "project" was a hole in the wall where the plumber had to have access for repairs, and it seemed to me that it might be better if there were a door there, over a week or two the plan emerged and I have made last week 2 doors and a sort of home brew hinge plate arrangement on either side of them, and I am still amazed that it's my fault.

I made one concession though, I used my 3d model making ability to make them in the virtual world first. This meant I had plans to work from and more important, dimensions! In virtual world they took about

3 minutes, but in real world about 3 days! I hope that will improve as I get used to what everything does and how it does it better!

I'm getting clamps and things as I need them and as budget will allow. I don't want to win the lottery I just want to win a barn full of seasoned timber! ;O)

Having a blast!

Take Care, Gnube

[Norman D. Crow]

Oops! Hit send too quick! Right now my tablesaw is serving as a platform for the Skil 12" 3 wheel bandsaw(hey, it was a gift!), because the bench has the resident unfinished project, the "work table" (4' x 4' 3/4" ply on saw horses) seems to have suffered an explosion in a sanding factory(gotta put all that away). Current workspace is the front porch because it's too hot & muggy in the basement, & not enough room for the steps I'm building for SisIL. Now SWMBO tells me we probably have company coming next May, so it's time to forget ww'ing and finish renovation of upstairs bathroom & bedrooms. Let's see now, the last time I saw that big "C-clamp", it was on the shelf under the Shop-Smith, *right*? Nahmie

[Charlie Self]

Wish I had decent CAD or modeling skills. I try and it spits in my eye, because I don't have time to keep what I gain...seems like those times I back of for a few weeks, I forget 101% of what I learned. Then, it's start from a little behind scratch.

If you win a barn full of wood, you'll need a second barn full of tools to work it.

I built a 32' long set of base cabinets in my VA shop. It took something under

3 weeks for me to again be unable to find things, and to find space where I could lay out project parts. When I get back, there's another wall with 32' of space--guess what that will get? And guess how long before it's buried, too.

Charlie Self

I think we agree, the past is over. George W. Bush

[Steve Kreitler]

Now, there's a nifty tagline!

Steve

[Igor]

Or, when she doesn't.

[Steve Kreitler]

I'm as bad, if not worse. I'm only able to work in my shop occasionally, but once or twice a year, I have to pull everything out of it, sweep, vacuum up all the dust, and reorganise the wood piles. Doesn't do any good, but I try. My problem is that when I put something down, it instantly dissapears. Hopefully soon I'll be able to afford to build a bigger shop.

Steve

[Steve Kreitler]

I don't buy lumber- I get it all "pre-used", or as scrap from a cabinet shop. I always have lots of ply and mdf scraps for building jigs or prototypes, and more oak and maple than I can find to time to work, with a smattering of other wood types. Almost all of the pine I use is discarded waterbed sides (often surprisingly good lumber). In fact, today I'm on vacation and planning to begin work on a new deck-style porch built almost entirely from old waterbeds. Oughtta be fun :)

Steve

[Charlie Self]

You're in trouble already. Any shop that's "not quite as large as I wanted" is going to end up messy. Of course, so is any shop that's as large as you want, unless you're super neat.

Huge shops mean you need two sets of portable tools, one at each end: that generally means that when you work in the middle, you pick from BOTH ends, and everything becomes mixed.

Charlie Self

I think we agree, the past is over. George W. Bush

[George Berlinger]

so, what is one to do....be a neat-freak...or...just have one big.....messed up shop....so far, i got a smaller shop for tools....n pole-barn for wood storage. tractors n such......never ends..

[Jim Mc Namara]

cuz you just *know* you're gonna need them sooner or later! LOL!

Jim