The Framers Forum

A shelf placed at the end your workbench, and a little lower, allows you to quickly clear your work surface of tools in readiness for the next job. The shelf should be low enough that anything on it will not obstruct items which overhanging the table, but at the same time your most frequently used tools are always conveniently at hand.

Before


After

John
I have a handy "trough" at the end of my workbench - my wife likes to stick scalpels in it - blade up - just to add to the excitment of the working day. Trough or no trough my bench is rarely clear to the point of seeing all of it - i am just impressed that you could easily find your scissors.

Hi John,

I tried the trough idea years ago, it didnt suit me, I personally just didnt like the idea, (each to their own). What we do now, is have a set of wooden kicthen shelves under the bench, I had to put a back on it myself, but 3mm MDF did the trick, everything needed, like tapes, points, guns, etc, is kept there. I also have 2 sets of very tall bookshelves, with 6 shelves in each, one each side of the workshop, everything else is kept with maximum of 3 or 4 steps of the bench and very handy.

I use the space under the benches for mountboard and MDF, where its away from all those mucky fingers of customers and their weans.

I am also maybe one of the lucky ones to have 2 fully equipped workshops, both with benches that have virtually disappeared...hahahaha

Steven

John - is the object in the plastic box possibly the most important workshop aid - a sandwich?

A sandwich??

No need for sandwiches when you have a fine works restaurant. Well doesn't everybody?

Actually Mark, the box contains one of those cloth pouches which is full of fine crumbly bits of rubber - handy for removal of light grime and marks from mounts etc. It tends to shed crumbly bits at a steady rate, hence the plastic box.

Sheer luxury. Even a CMC against the wall. !!!
Space is a premium in our workshop.. Mountboard is stowed under the worktop which is about 7 feet long and unfortunately wall to wall..

Quite handy though having a wall on the left hand side, coz I have a tool hanging board, which includes pegs for the tapes and cord. All one has to do is do the stretching exercises that we all do and stretch the left arm out and up. Tools immediately to hand...

Will try and get a photo posted on here.

Sadly John it's not a CMC (at least in the conventional sense). Our Wizard perished in the fire which destroyed our premises last year. It is sorely missed.

What you see in the background is an ancient Valliani mount cutter. The laptop beside it is to help calculate the settings for multi-aperature mounts, which we seem to be doing more and more of. (Is this a general phenomenon or is it just us?)

If you need help with posting the photo let me know, I'm sure we would all be interested in seeing how you have laid out your workshop to make best use of the available space.

We cannot use the 'trough' approach as the workbench is enclosed on 3 sides. So the next best thing is the 'shadow' type of rool rack.



Hopefully the size is not too big now. that it takes ages to load...

Nice image John. And good example of efficient use of space.

(Where is the 'shadow' for Mark's sandwich though? )

my wife is looking over my shoulder at the examples of neat, well organised workshops. " do you want to send a picture of yours" was the mocking comment. Its the artistic temperment! is my excuse for a very messy workshop. I am lucky enough to have a very large space and infact its "relativly" well organised. I have two very large plan chest - customers work is stored safely and organised for easy retreval. Of course i have a large hotbed press, thats covered in all sorts of things.

As for sandwiches - new years resololution was to cut back on visits to the bakers next door. Its working but the bakers stopped talking to me, my wife says i was probably his best customer.

why is it that however well organised your tools are, scalpels always manage to fall off workbeches and land point first alarmingly close to your feet?