Do you have a military mindset in your workshop: "A place for everything, and every thing in its place?"
If so, just keep an extra 1/16 allen wrench in/on the same drawer, shelf, box, right next to the spokeshave.
They can...
The magnets often need to glued, as the Chinese factory can be hit and miss. I had some that fell off the tool, leaving all the magnets still stuck on the tool.
Larger holes, to allow a screwdriver shaft or wrench handle to hang through, are easily made with wire cutters.
If you find you need that allen wrench everytime you use your spokeshave, make a wooden custom storage box for both items. In the meantime, keep both spokeshave and wrench in the orginal box. It might help to mark the special wrench with a dab of bright nail polish--small allen wrenches can hide.
No military mindset here. Everything does have it's place though. The problem is that items that while rarely used items are always in their place,that my age I don't always remember where that is. :-)
I'll keep an extra wrench around just in case.
I use a lot of stuff on the lathe that use different size allen wrenches, so I have a dedicated magnetic tool holder over the workbench for them..
I try to either label the place they go or stick the extra bits or whatever near them, so I can just reach for the one that I need.. The other option is to open the drawer on the tool chest and find the right size in the pile of allen wrenches, but that just takes too much time if it's a tool that you use often.. For things that I use a LOT, like the olan tools or hollowing tools, I stick those wrenches on rare earth magnets on the lathe stand.. YMWV
Did Santa bring those spoke shaves for trimming your Baltic birch? lol
mac
Please remove splinters before emailing
Last time I cleaned my shop, I couldn't find a darn thing. :-)
Of course not! The only time a workshop gets cleaned up is when someone is tired of looking for something and that's exactly when you're most unable to find it/them.
Clip one to each tape measure? That way, you'll be sure to find a tape measure, the one missing the allen key, when you want to adjust the shave.
Confession time... I used to work that way, not really bad, but messy enough. Then, my wife became a fan of the show "Clean House"!
Over the last several years, I've gotten myself into the habit of putting _everything_ away at the end of _every_ session, and normalling (slipping in a little sound mixer speak! ) all stationary tools.
I've rearranged the shop into short and long term storage (hot and cold), with the short term storage as close as possible to where the item is used. Why was my HVLP rig stored in the main work area? I even got rid of stuff I'll honestly never use again, including some tools.
All the scraps get picked up and filed, and in-progress parts get grouped, shrink wrapped, and labeled. I leave myself to-do lists for the next session.
I used to call people who did this "anal". Now I realize how little time it takes to do, 5-10 minutes per session (one to two beers!), and the extra time the habit creates.
I'm not anal, though! 'cause I only vacuum once a month!
I like to try and keep things neat as I work, but when you're up to your neck in alligators...
I've just spent four hours putting away and organizing the top of my workbench. I can now use the bench. I'm going to have to come up with a better storage system as I've run out of room to put thing.
My most enduring problem is the myriad of nuts, bolts and screws that hide in little pill bottles all over the place. Yup, I've got several of those 64 drawer mini storage things, but the little plastic bottles still multiply exponentially because there's always more categories of things to store than there are drawers.
My current plan is to buy some storage that could be considered a little more along the professional line. The ones I have in mind are more solid, have better partition capabilities and the best part is that they nest together. I can buy and add to them as I wish and they'll all match, unlike my four different versions of 64 drawer thingies that stand out so much because they're all so different.
-MIKE- wrote in news:gj349q$v6t$2 @news.motzarella.org:
Cleaning (verb): (a) Removing the dust from something, such as your short term memory. (b) Hiding things from yourself. (c) The act of moving things in order to destroy one's short to medium term memories of item location.
See also: Organization
Puckdropper
I am in the countertop business. Yes.. shock to all. What that means, is that when I am on my back, popping screws upwards into the bottom of a countertop, that the screw I reach for, from the container, is indeed the length of screw I want. There has been a $
500 difference between the 1-1/4 and the 1-1/2 before. The 1-1/2 popped right through the laminate. OR so I'm told.When I pick up a screw from the floor, it goes into the garbage.... NOT back into the screw box. My guys are instructed in no uncertain term to do the same. In fact, the 1-1/4 screws live between the 2 and 3 inch screws. All by themselves. The 1-1/2 screws live between the washers and 3/4" screws. It all makes sense when you think about it. If I can buy 1000 screws for $ 20.00, why gamble with a $ 1000.00 countertop?
I also leave the last bit in the drill, and the last bit in the router... because.. what if it is the one you want to use next? (If it isn't, you still haven't wasted any time.) If there is a bit that constantly get switched back and forth.. I buy another router. They're cheap enough and that way the precision routers get less work and let the HF crap do the dirty work.
When a router gets used, it goes back to where it came from. That way EVERYbodyin the shop knows where it is and it stops that 'wherethefukkizzit' look... which annoys me because I PAY for that look.
When I reach for a tool that is supposed to be in a certain place and it is not...that is okay if it is being used. If it is not being used, I get real pissy. And when I am pissy, it doesn't take long for the rest of the guys to start feeling pissy, because it only takes minutes of my day to ruin somebody else's rest-of-the-day.
In all fairness, they are all getting it now.
The one thing I still have a real problem with, is cut-offs. At what point do I keep it, in what configuration, in what colour...yadda yadda. "Wow, this is a nice colour to make a pen out of." Then, in my best Lewis Black imitation; " But Nobody IS going to MAKE a PEN out of THIS!" It then hits the garbage can. Invariably followed by: "Are you throwing that out??"
I gotta' admit...
I gave a bunch of that stuff away. What nobody wanted got recycled.
A very interesting concept!
We leave the NY Sectional Chart out in the airplane...
Depends on how much time is wasted looking in the drill index for a bit that is still in the drill or having to remove the existing drill bit, put it in the drill index and chucking a different size. Guess it depends on how often a particular size is use AND how pissy your are with your rules.
Then, in my best Lewis Black imitation; " But Nobody IS going to MAKE a PEN out of THIS!" It then hits the garbage can.
Bet you have an IP camera permanently trained on that garbage can ~ don't you?
But if you look in the drill first?
Very pissy. I pay for that right. And pissy does not equal unreasonable.
Naa.. I trust my guys.
Yup, and I trust my cat not to go rummaging in the garbage can, but I still put the lid on it. :)
I guess that all depends on whether you're the pisser or the pissee.
I measure them against one from the bin before putting them back.
I have half a wall of stacking bins, up to workbench height. For my most common species I have one for 3/4" and up and one for thins. Less common have one bin, and really uncommon get mixed together into one. If it doesn't fit in the bin either it goes in the trash or something else has to come out of the bin into the trash to make it fit. I sometimes bend the rules and pile up some scraps on the floor or somewhere until it's time to clean up, but when I clean up that's it. It also makes a good place to stack up some boards on top out of the way.
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