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The main bench has a 3 ft x 8 ft area and is covered by white laminate. The edges are wrapped in 1-1/2" quality pine (without knots). About 3/4" of it sticks up and acts as a straight edge for cutting large sheets. The height of the trim is on purpose; I use a strip cutter which runs against the edge. On the end (closest to us), there is no strip, there is a radial arm saw next to the bench and the wood wouldn't be able to lie flat.
The bench set up hasn't changed a lot since the last time I updated the shop. The radio was moved to a shelf in the back. I removed all the old tape cassettes in place of CD's. It gives me a little more space to work with. I added a small wooden cabinet to put things on, it was there in the past, then removed, and added again.
Under the Bench: I keep all my scrap glass sorted by color placed in small boxes. Each box labeled by the color that's inside them. Under the main bench is basic colors, about 2 colors per box.
The bench has a built in cubby that allows me to store odds and endsm things like my scoring board. Originally I wanted to build a light box, but never got to it, that's what this space was supposed to be for. I keep hardware cabinets on top of the bench. Inside are: screws, drill bits, counter sinks, and taps.
The gray thing in behind the radio is the exhaust fan. It's a squirrel cage type unit. It had a door on the back that was homemade, it was made out of foam board (from vinyl siding) and a small weight. The pressure of the blowing air caused the door to open, and shut again when turned off. In the winter, I had a huge breeze blow onto me, like an air waterfall. Plus we've seen mice in the house, one stole my gum. :( That was the final straw...
I took the unit down, found a mouse nest, and my gum wrappers, along with quite a bit of paper towel. Just as well I took it down, that could have started a fire. I ripped out that homemade door, and made a door of my own. It's a box with a magnetically sealed door. When it's on, the door opens, when off, the door closes, and seals. This should help to keep the varmints out. But more importantly, it helps keep the breeze down in the winter. It's almost warm down there now...almost.
This is the solder drawer. It's not very neat, none of my drawers are. This draw only contains soldering equipment, soldering irons, stands, rheostat, scrap solder, etc. There's a few other things in there as well.
This is one example of my many, very filled drawers. This one contains: extra copper foil, odd sized foil, Q-Tips, clock parts, bells, and much, much, more. All of is craft related. The drawer next to that, contains things like: extra chemicals, paints, and the like. Another drawer just holds all my DEKA paint, epoxy glue and solder. Still other drawers contain: paper or metal orwrapping paper, or writing instruments. If you build a bench of your own, be sure to include lot's of cabinets and drawers. They will start out empty, but will fill very fast.
This is the rack that holds most of my chain. I have some on spools, but they fit just fine on a shelf. Everything is separated by color and size. A simple nail in a piece of wood glued to the wall, behind the gas meter. No wasted space.
These are the 12" lengths of my brass tubing. To the left, Morton strips. To the right, tube hinge for boxes. Below (not pictured), 15" lengths of wire, rods, tubes, and Morton strips. Above all that in the ceiling, I keep all the other metal things, like brazing rods, long brass pieces 3' long or longer, 24" Morton strips, and odds and ends. If you take a look at the first picture, on the ceiling you'll see a tube. This is a carpet tube screwed to the joists (go to a carpet store they should have some they can give you). PVC works a lot better, and is what I recommend you use to store the real long stuff. I keep mostly came in here. Some brass, copper, lead, zinc, border, etc, I don't use a lot of it, but it's there if I need it. The best storage for things like this, is what plumbers use to carry copper pipe on the truck. They use large diameter PVC and cap the ends. You could attach the pipe to you ceiling or bench with U-clamps. The end is glued and sealed, the other is screwed on. This keeps your came clean and dry. It's a very good idea if your shop is prone to flooding. Plumbers use it to transport copper tubing, and to keep spiders from building a home inside the tube.
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Started on 7-9-2001
