I have achieved the American dream. My wife and I have just built a house. I was able to incorporate a workshop of my dreams. I have a 20x15 room, well lit, with Heat and AC. I have room to build and display. I installed a air cleaner and I also have a paint booth. The best part…I have running water and a bathroom[:p]
My question is this. I’m looking for ideas for my workbench. My work bench is a 3 foot wide sheet of countertop over top of 2 base cabinets. I got a real good idea about putting piece of glass down to put directions under, thus keeping the directions clean. Also ideas about paint organizers and magnifier lights. Does anybody have any other work bench or work shop ideas???
Any idea will be appreciated no matter how big or how small.
I’m one of the lucky few that work in the Hobby industry, the hobby shop I was working in had several of the old Humbrol paint stands in a storeroom, which was to cleaned out, being told everything was to go to the tip, I managed to convince the owner to let me have them. I kept two and gave the rest away to my model making mates.
I bought a free standing wardrobe and removed the doors, to keep everything in it’s place, paint stands, model kit boxes, compressor, tools and my work bench is just an old desk, with a spot light over each end nothing special but it works.
I’m looking for ideas myself, I have a room and my sons offered to build a work bench but I’m having trouble deciding how to lay it out. Being Left handed, I want all the tools on the left, but I don’t think thats really pratical. I have decided to build a back board on the office desk I’m using and using tall medicine bottles that I gotten over the years, I want him to drill holes that I can insert them into to place paint brushes, pins, markers and various other tools in. If anyone has any photos of their work spaces, I’d love to see them.
I’m looking at building a workbench myself. One suggestion I have is to incorporate a block of polished granite in the bench. I do some light machine work at home, and I first became familiar with the granite surface plates through that activity. Now I am going to buy another one for my model bench. The accuracy is +/- 0.0001 inch so it’s really flat. A 9x12 inch block weighing 30 lbs costs about $15, and an 80 lb 12x18 inch surface plate is only $27! (The shipping may cost more than the block.) Having a flat surface that doesn’t flex is a great help for modeling and lots of other building activities.
When I get done I hope to have a spray booth at one end of the bench, the granite surface plate at the other, and a plate glass-covered work area in between.
The only suggestion I can make after completing my hobby room six months ago is this: when you think you have enough shelf space planned…DOUBLE IT! I’ve already filled the shelves as I had originally planned, but failed to properly anticipate room for growth and model display.
yeah you never can have enough shelf space, im constantly building shelves more my models and equiptment, but when i goto college in a year ill be living at my old house that my parents still own in Portland TN, and there i have a entire garage to put my workspace in, its about 12X 25 all it needs is AC and heat. then i can put all the shelves i want, it all ready has plenty though.
I posted my pics of my work area on the forum, I don’t have a garage so I have the spare room of my unit as my work area. I make a few sujestions about paint racks and stuff, any old cabinet with draws or shelves and a few wire baskets make a good tray for storing paint. I got a couple of old paint stands from the hobby shop I worked in, when they were being thrown out. Storage of made up models is another problem, where to put them. I had to buy a couple of second hand display cases, which measured 7’ wide x 3’ deep x 4’ high, only problem is getting glass selves at $150.00 a shelf. I also use two 5’ high x 4’ wide x 2’ deep Libuary shelves to store books and made up models in.
The ‘bench’ I have is a used drafting table about 4’ wide by 3’ deep. Completely adjustible, it’s covered with a piece of self-healing ‘anti-static’ mat I got from the dumpster of an electronics firm.
The current workbenches I have are 30" deep by 24 feet long constructed of 1 x 10 boarding boards. I cover the tops of them with 1/4" lauan plywood and when they get nasty I unscrew the lauan and replace it as it is cheap. One area I have for detailed modelling is 1 1/2" butcher block (I build kitchen cabinets for a living) on it I have an Omnigrid mat. One thing to remember is to make a “backsplash” for those times that you cut a very small whatever from the sprue and it goes flying. The backsplash keeps it in front of you so you don’t have to get down on youre hands and knees (very important at my age) to look for it.
I have a 4x3 folding table covered in newspaper that I share with my wife (new does stuff I dont understand with yarn). I have a light mounted to one side and folding chair. easy up and easy down. Have my small assortments of painst atools in a multi large tackle box.
Now we gonna change things around since she sees how serious I am about this. Gonna take the old bookself that we were gonna toss and make it inot a storage area for me.
if you got 300 square feet of work space, it seems to me what you need is time to work in it. you can find tips anywhere on work shops, but the best idea is to outfit it the way that is the most comfortable.( also, keep it uncluttered, clean and free of hazards.)
A refrigerator, for cold drinks. i can’t model without having a soda. and a tv so when your letting you parts dry you could watch a little tv. and snacks you have to have lots of snacks…yum
My workbench is a solid core door slab layed across two saw horses. It was originally for building R/C planes(nice and flat). The R/C became too expensive and I needed something to do when the weather wasn’t great, so I’m getting back into plastic modeling. I have a lot of small clear plastic storage bins for all the little odds and ends. The clear plastic makes it easy to see what’s in each one, and like gunney says, lots of light. I hate poor lighting in my workspace(i.e. shadows).
I am using an old computer desk and added plastic shelves to have some shelves. My compressor sits on the floor connected to a switchable powerstrip. Since i have mine in the garage I keep decals in bags due to the humidity here in south east Texas. I am looking for a small radio to have some tunes going while I am working away.