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What does your workshop / workbench look like?

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Here's my workshop in its early stages of construction - picture the table tops and floors covered with building materials, wood working tools, chainsaw etc and you'll be 'about there' for its current appearance :p

Shed Upgrade (5).jpg

Let's be generous and call it 'a work in progress'....:D

One daft thing I did though - to keep it snug in our not-so-very warm environment, apart from glass wool insulated walls, I lined all the walls with foil-backed bubble-wrap insualtion material then, a few months afterwards, wondered why radio reception from within was particularly cr@p.....

It actually took a few days before the penny dropped :rolleyes:
 

Ian

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Aug 23, 2006
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@kellys_eye - not only do I have the same wood/workshop overload (I've been working on clearing it today), but I've been fitting those exact same Racco 44 cabinets this week! Sadly two of them arrived damaged from CPC, so I'm getting the replacement ones tomorrow (then pics!).
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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@kellys_eye ... I've been fitting those exact same Racco 44 cabinets this week!
My next iteration of workshop needs more 'wall' - those cabinets are indispensible and make storage such a breeze but I don't have enough to cover all the parts I currently keep.

I've got boxes and boxes of stuff under all the benches and am sick of scrabbling through them for bits!

I wonder if there is an 'ideal' workshop??? I seem to outgrow every version I start. Almost the minute they're finished! The current one is #4 since I moved here 8 years ago and I'm already considering another version :rolleyes:
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Yeah, workshops grow to 125% fill the space available as soon as you start using them.

I've struggled with parts in neat tidy drawers because I simply don't have the room, and they tend to be very space inefficient.

I've taken the approach that if I'm going to have parts in boxes to scrabble through, those boxes will be small, uniform, and I will keep a list of what's in each box.

I have chosen Ikea CD boxes, and I place all components in zip lock bags (or anti static bags) marked with a bar coded label and whatever other stuff makes sense.

So, box number 6 happens to contain mostly diodes, and I can pull that down and search for something, or I can go to my index and find the part I require, get the box and bag number, and pull it out. Amazingly enough, it works most of the time.

The problem is with bigger stuff that won't fit in these boxes. That is indexed similarly, but it goes in bigger boxes of random size and placed somewhere that I'll remember (or not). So I can know I have stuff, know what the box is labeled, but the box is hiding... :-(.

One of my colleagues has parts bins lining several walls. I wish I had that much room - but he had pretty much dedicated his house to being an electronics lab.
 
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Ian

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Aug 23, 2006
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I've just finished up installing the last shelves and tidied up all of the mess (at least in that corner ;) - so I've uploaded a pic. I've wanted a proper work area for over a decade, so it's nice to finally have one. I'll be christening it tomorrow with some actual projects :D.

I need to label all of the drawers and add some storage for hand tools, but that's about it. This is the last time it will be this tidy ;).

20170922_143645.jpg
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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awwwww maaannn.... if my wife sees that I'll be getting hot tongue and cold shoulder for the next few weeks.

Does it have to be THAT tidy????
 
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Terry01

Jul 5, 2017
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Kellys eye,i know I'm just learning electronics but when do I learn the bit where you use a chainsaw? I've been thinking.....I know you know lots of stuff but I can't think where even you would use a chain saw. Do you have some party trick where you can strip the ends of cable with the saw at full revs or something cool. :D
 
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