Another shop thread, small space, too much stuff

[21incher]

The most important thing to me has always having a good sturdy workbench with enough room to work around on all 4 sides.  3 side access and the side against the wall becomes useless plus a junk collector. Dust collector and drops are second then Everything else can be movable.  Thoughts into a bench and dust collection system are a good place to start with and size your bench to your project ambitions. I started with  a 4x8 but am now down to a 4x4 solid 600 pound bench with a very flat dog hole top and am happier with it. Tools are stored under it and not on the top or it will always be cluttered. Have fun.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, the plans I have are for an 80" bench, but I'm cutting 20" of that when I build it next winter. I'll be able to walk all around it to.  I can get bench casters if I want to move it, Lee Valley has them. When set in place the wheels are off the floor, so it ain't move'n. But it won't be moved very often, if ever. Can't see it anyway. A bench comes in handy on the outfeed side of the table saw as long cuts come off the saw. Just lay them on the bench. 5' is lots long for me, I've never built much over 3' wide or 4' tall.  Except a loom, which is not built like a cabinet. It's build from sticks that are pegged and when not assembled it's just a pile of sticks and 2 (or 3) 5' rollers, literally. Except the two sides are permanently assembled. I have seen old barn looms where those sides have pins in the joints and the sides can be taken apart as well. But one person can assemble a loom, just have to think of the proper order it fits together. ;)

I've made work tables out of plywood, but only 5-6 feet long, never 8'.

[aigheadish]

My 8' bench is a bit large but it came with the house and allows me to procrastinate or vary between projects. My mind is such that I'll start something but then move to something else mid-stream. I'm trying to do that less but it seems I don't work that way. 

Dust collection will likely be my next endeavor. Right now I just have a couple plastic hoses running and it leaves a lot to be desired. I did, for the first time, attach the dust collector to the the miter saw and it's pretty amazing how much dust that sucks up!

[WV Sawmiller]

Bill, 

   If you try bull riding you may find you need brain surgery pretty soon after.

   I started my woodworking in the USMC hobby shop. I needed a picnic table and thought they were too expensive so I bought the lumber and built my own. The price of picnic tables in the big box stores started dropping as soon as I started on my project. By the time I was finished I had about $80 invested in my table and they were down to selling for $30 in the store. And my table always wobbled/rocked as I never could get it level. (If I had it now with my mill I could fix that. )

[doc henderson]

I had an apartment in Albany NY.  It had a front and rear entrance.  the back went onto a patio and had an outdoor storage closet that was 3 x 6 feet.  It had no electricity but shared a wall with the apartment.  I was able to measure and make a hole to tap into the outlet inside the apartment and run lights and two duplex 110 V plugs.  I make an upper shelf and one at waist height with a slide out.  this was my bench, and I also worked on the slab.  I even built an under cabinet for a large conference room table on the slab.  I had a cheap tabletop drill press with drum sander accessories.  A chop saw.  I otherwise had mostly electric handheld tools.  I built a spring pole lathe that used a screen door spring attached to the overhead beam from the deck above.  Adapted from a Roy Underhill.  

[SwampDonkey]

I ran the cyclone off the shop vac and attached to the planer today. Works good for me. Fills a big Rubbermaid garbage barrel. But I never ran that much material through, so there's all kinds of space in there to fill. Maybe 10% full.  Beats shooting planer chips all over the floor.   Making sawdust and sticks this morning for the loom. More yet to make, then all the holes to drill, which have to be straight through vertically, so the drill press will be put into service. 

[Wlmedley]

Bought a bench vice a couple days ago at Harbor Freight. Got it installed yesterday and it seems to work pretty good.Need to put some pieces of wood inside of the jaws but not really sure what kind of wood to use. I suppose some sort of softwood would be the best and would like to fix it so they could be easily removed if needed.

[doc henderson]

I think either hard or soft is ok, just use caution if clamping pine with oak in the jaws.  I bet the majority use pine, if they do not have a sawmill.  looks set up for wood screws that do not penetrate the thickness of the jaw wood pieces.

[WV Sawmiller]

Bill,

  I forgot to mention on my outside shop I had a 3" Ohio flea market bench vice mounted on the same upright my workshelf and outlet connect to. I use it to hold my bench legs while I bore the tenons on them. I broke it hammering on it a few weeks ago and bought a new 4" vice from HF last week and just removed and put the new vice in last weekend.

[beenthere]

Made one of my wall to wall (13 ft) work bench tops from a 40' length of oak laminated truck flooring. Cut into 13' lengths and ripped 6" off one for a back splash. Truck flooring was surfaced to 1-3/8 " thickness. Have this left-over 12" piece.



Another workbench top is made of 10' lengths of 3/4" Doug fir plywood and sits on three ex fabric-drawer cabinets. Provides for a steel vise and a bench vise. Been in use for 40-45 years now. Have to work some to keep them visible. 

[aigheadish]

Bill let me know how you like that HF vise. I have the smaller blue vise/anvil that I've just mounted to a board which I then clamp to a bench but it may be nice to have a built in one...

[doc henderson]

BT.  That scrap would make a fine utility cutting board.

[SwampDonkey]

Network here had a DNS error, so my post went to the beyond.   It was weird there for a bit the forum was the only connection I could make even pulled up threads from the notification. No other site was loading. Did a reset on the network and back we are. 

But anyway, my bench is an L shape, about 18 feet long and 24" deep. 2"x4" with melamine on top and a shelf under that with 1/2" plywood on top. Vertical 2"x4" every 4' or so across the face. 

The actual work bench isn't built yet, but for now I just use a steel framed bench with shelf and 1" butcher block on top. Can wheel it around. I use it to cut off firewood lengths into shorter stuff, so it's multi duty.   Comes in handy around the table saw and planer to lay stuff on to. 

[Brad_bb]

1. No matter how much space you have, we'll have a tendency to fill it.
2. Any flat horizontal surface will become filled with stuff.
3. Improvement and effeciency are a continual process and not a destination.  You'll never totally get there, but the continually improving will improve everything.

Do you really need 3 chairs?  I have one folding chair in my shop that is only out when I'm areally tired and need a rest.  A lot of great tips on this thread from others.  Finish the interior of your shop and make it bright.  You won't regret that.  Make use of vertical space on the perimeters. 

So I am as bad or worse than all of you, but I am working on it.  I was going through one of my 2 rooms last night and started using cardboard boxes to box certain things together just to get some sanity. Trying to figure out what to do with each little thing would take forever so I grouped them up in boxes to get them out of the way so I could move the bigger stuff, rearrange and vacuum.

I have talked about this before, but I dicovered Ron Paulk's workbenches a year and a half ago and his methods are the most effecient use of small and large shop space I have ever found.  He incorporates a table saw, mitre saw, and two router tables into a single light weight bench on wheels that easily retract, with his vacuum under the table which sits on the wheel cart so it's all one easy to move unit.  Miscellaneous tool storage inside the bench.  Roll the whole thing against the wall or roll it out in the middle to get the room you need on a particular side.  The table saw being on the end makes the bench the outfeed side.  The benches also eaily pop apart for easy storage or transport.  There are several versions depending on what you need to do.  I have this one and one without the tools almost done.  Oh, and his system allows you to add tools in a modular way to the bench when you need them -spindle sander, wood vise, pocket hole jig and more.  Seriously you should check out the videos, and he sells plans for all the workbenches.  A lot more good videos on his youtube channel with other great tips and tricks.  It also got me to work more with better quality plywood and get better plywood and plunge router skills.  TIP:  Use a Track saw to break down plywood when needed as it is very accurate, far superior to a table saw, and takes much less space to break down plywood for projects.  FastCap makes brackets to mount the tracks on your wall or garage door to store them out of the way.

Paulk Smart Benches
New Caster improvement
Building the smart Station

[Wlmedley]

Austin, I think it's a pretty good vice. The main thing I like about it is that you can push on a lever and open or close it without having to crank the handle. Only thing is unlike a regular vice you can't clamp a chainsaw bar in it to sharpen your chain but I guess you could route some pieces of wood to put in the jaws so the chain would clear. Its also got a dog on the outside jaw that can be slid up and used for clamping against a bench dog for wider boards. I don't have any bench dogs yet but plan to get a few. Just kind of hate to drill holes in my new bench. Also bench needs to be around 2 1/2"s thick for vice to be flush.Mine is slightly higher than the top of bench so I plan to shim it down a little bit.

[SwampDonkey]

Was making more sawdust and sticks today. It's kinda cool outside here @ 14° all day. It was kinda roasty again in the shop though, windows open to the top and door open a foot or so. That dropped it down to 70° after awhile, but the fire was almost out to.

Just put some wood in for the over night out there and it was 85° with 20 % RH when I locked up shop. I had'r down to 17% when I was machining the wood this morning, with it all opened up for outside air. It's not a dry air day outside either, been squalls all day. App says it's 66 % RH outside. I just putter around in the mornings. Long winter and lots of puttering to do yet. Love a warm, dry shop. 

[aigheadish]

Brad I'll check those out. I love the idea but don't have the skills on my own, maybe I'll check out his plans. 

[Big_eddy]

One thing I forgot to mention. I have a 30' retractable power reel mounted essentially in the center of my shop ceiling. Doesn't matter which tool I'm using or where I roll it to, I can quickly and easily power it, then when done, the cord is gone. Probably the best $75 or so I ever spent. No permanent drops, no cords on the floor, reaches every corner of the shop, and out of the way when not in use. It has a three plug end on it, so I can plug in 3 grinders with grinding wheel, cutting wheel and wire wheel, of random orbital and belt sander or saw and shop vac or......

I've shortened the cords on all my "stationary" tools so they won't reach the floor, so I never have to worry about rolling over them or rolling them up. I've got them all so they just hang out of the way for easy hookup on the non-active side of the tool

For the bench grinder, instead of wheels, I made a pedestal out of an old brake rotor and a piece of pipe. The rotor is heavy enough to be stable, yet to move, I just tilt it and roll it on the rotor edge. 

[aigheadish]

Good call eddy! One of those was on my Christmas list for the in-laws but they went rogue! 

[Brad_bb]

Skills?  It's cutting plywood using the plans.  They're in both english and metric.  From building these I've found that I actually like working in Metric, even though it takes some getting used to.  You can get the Parf guide for making the holes in the top.  That guide is really easy and nice to use.  The guide costs a little, but you could always sell it after if you wanted to if you can find anybody else that wants to make such tops, rent or split the cost.  If you were here in the states, I'd let you use mine.  I am just so convinced that his system is the most effecient I've ever seen and it's going to make my projects flow so much smoother.  I've never liked cutting plywood before being so awkward, but doing this I've learned new techniques that make it super accurate and easy.  Track saw is the key to breaking down plywood accurately.

[aigheadish]

Ha! You are unaware of my ability to follow plans or cut straight lines! 

I did look at some track saws yesterday online, while avoiding the snow. I may have to look into one sometime.