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Messy Shop!
- Thread starter Tom Kamila
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2009
- Messages
- 50
- Likes
- 28
The shop looks fine to me. What mess?
Messy is fine but trip hazards at my age are a no-go.
I agree! I also have "age appropriate tripping syndrome."! I am trying to be conscious of that issue. I'm working on it!
Looks about normal to me. I missed the "clean up every day" gene.
A place for everything, and everything in its place. It seems your shop meets that sentiment. It is how it is destined to be.
The ceiling insulation looks concerning, but besides that, creative minds work with no stopping, even to clean up!
Ya I've fixed that a few times after a closed form explosion. I just began turning again after a thirty year life "walkabout". It's on my list.
Tom,
A few comments:
Your shop looks like things get done there. No other comments about its appearance necessary!
Once, my shop had a similar appearance as yours, and my wife took one look and asked, "How do you find anything?" "Simple," I said, "It's in this room somewhere."
Another time, unannounced, a collector of my work called and said he was in town and asked if he could come by for a short visit. My shop looked like it was nuked, and when he arrived I apologized about its condition. No apologies necessary, he said--I would have been disappointed if it was any other way. Chaos works...!
PS: I remember you from Central NE Woodturners...Paul
A few comments:
Your shop looks like things get done there. No other comments about its appearance necessary!
Once, my shop had a similar appearance as yours, and my wife took one look and asked, "How do you find anything?" "Simple," I said, "It's in this room somewhere."
Another time, unannounced, a collector of my work called and said he was in town and asked if he could come by for a short visit. My shop looked like it was nuked, and when he arrived I apologized about its condition. No apologies necessary, he said--I would have been disappointed if it was any other way. Chaos works...!
PS: I remember you from Central NE Woodturners...Paul
Greetings Paul from our common experience in the early nineties at the Central New England Woodturners! I've followed your work over the years. It just keeps getting better and better. I'm back from a career as a vocational teacher. Returning after a thirty year absence, new forms same old finish.
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A perfectly clean desk or shop indicated someone not getting much done. Working with those people proved it. ORGANIZED is a different subject - looks don’t matter much, as long as you know where everything is when you need it.
I would be right at home!
robo hippy
robo hippy
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2021
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- Roulette, PA
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- www.reallyruralwoodworks.com
Looks like mine. Maybe cleaner than mine, actually...
I’ve got the same mess - just less room to contain it…
That doesn't look bad, and judging by your work, it's totally justified. Your shop shows dedicated intention.
My "shop" is wedged into an unheated 3 car garage, along a couple other hobbies and 35 years worth of family clutter and reflects my usual state of mind. Dusty, cluttered, and haphazard.
My "shop" is wedged into an unheated 3 car garage, along a couple other hobbies and 35 years worth of family clutter and reflects my usual state of mind. Dusty, cluttered, and haphazard.
Yeah.....I noticed some electrical cords on the floor.
It's near impossible to have a perfectly safe shop, but that would be an easy fix.
=o=
Yeah Odie that's the feed to the lathe. Need conduit imbedded in the concrete floor for that one. The biggest pain is when trying to sweep up the floor. I don't walk through there much, too much junk in the way!
When I die I told my son all my buddies have permission to riffle through the shop and take whatever they want, it's all up for grabs except that machinist tool box in the pic. That was my dads, he was a mold maker. He close the lid on that when he retired in the early seventies. It is just the way it was the day he retired. A real time capsule, sacred space in my shop. I told Eric you need to take that one it's your legacy!
When I die I told my son all my buddies have permission to riffle through the shop and take whatever they want, it's all up for grabs except that machinist tool box in the pic. That was my dads, he was a mold maker. He close the lid on that when he retired in the early seventies. It is just the way it was the day he retired. A real time capsule, sacred space in my shop. I told Eric you need to take that one it's your legacy!
We need to see some pics of your Dad's tool box and contents.....that sounds very interesting!
As for the power cord to the lathe......instead of embedding it into the concrete floor you could easily install electrical outlets in the ceiling and hang the power cords straight down. That's what I did.
=o=
They make electrical cord floor covers in various sizes for that situation. If its somewhat permanent you can get them with adhesive bottoms to secure them to the floor.
What I need to do is hammer chisel a trench and lay some conduit for both the feed and the air supply. The lathe has some pneumatic controls for a foot operated clutch. The insides of my closed forms are turned from the end of the lathe and that hose is in the way all the time! I pored that floor in 1977 by my self. To spread it fast enough I had the driver give it a good drink to lower the slump. Should be very easy to hammer it out. It's just another one more item on the list!
Here ya go Odie. Notice all the cardboard calculators and hand math calculations, no calculators back then!
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You could also run conduit along the rafters and drop your power to the lathe from above.
I used to be a messy shop until I did a face plant on my metal shelving unit after tripping on something on the floor. Thankfully, I was wearing my half mask style dust mask and that saved me from some additional damage other than my tweaked neck! It became a safety thing for me with the added benefit of finding things I need by looking for them in “their” place rather than looking on every horizontal surface in the shop. It was the only time I’ve tripped and fallen…many other “warning” trips. It only takes one good fall and you’ve injured yourself out of the shop!
My shop turns into a dump during anything other than turning a lump of wood. The bench is a mess (almost unusable), the floor is a mess, and it just becomes frustrating. And dangerous. High schools shop teachers and manufacturing settings, they'll 'insist' that you keep your workspace clean, tidy, and organized. I really need to adopt that same attitude in my own shop. It's just so much more of a pleasant place to be when its clean and organized. And, well, safer.
I had to wire in a PM 24 inch planer. The electricians said best bet would be to run it through the ceiling. That is the most practical. They left a cord hanging from the ceiling and I can roll it up and out of the way if needed. Since I did residential concrete work for 30 years, you could do the trench and then install conduit, and then pour the concrete back in, or run it through the ceiling. Ceiling is the easiest/less work option.
Wonderful looking tool box Tom! An heirloom for sure!
robo hippy
Wonderful looking tool box Tom! An heirloom for sure!
robo hippy
I think I'll go with the trench. like I said earlier, When I poured the floor in 1977 I had the driver give it a good drink to lower the slump. You know how that will weakens the mix. Shouldn't be a big deal. The hanging hose gets in the way all the time.
Just get a concrete saw and make two cuts the width you need and it should break out fairly easy. Probably easier than hammer and chisel.
I grew up in small rural town in the 1950s when it still had many trade/craft workshops in it, which I frequented as often as their owners would tolerate. They included a bootmaker, saddle maker, tinsmith, blacksmith, saw miller, saw doctor, carpenter and motor mechanic. All of their workshops looked chaotic and intriguing to me.
I recently saw a photo of Bill Jones' bone turning workshop that reminded me very much of those trade/craft workshops from back in my childhood hometown...
I must say that I'm amused, or perhaps just plain bemused, by the fastidiousness of some people's workshops. It looks like they are more about making a workshop than making things in them... 
If your experience of workshops began in a school workshop, where everything has to be highly organised and tidy, then perhaps the perception could develop that that is how workshops should be. I ran a number of different pottery teaching studios many years ago, so I know the imperative of doing things that way in those contexts, however, for those of us who are a bit more relaxed in our personal workshop practices it is therapeutic to see that wonderful photo of Bill Jones' workshop.
Does anyone have more photos of workshops like Bill Jones's. For example, here is one more, a short 2min clip, in which we can we get glimpses inside the workshop of Robin Wood, the UK pole turner...
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyj8jHwiTxM
I recently saw a photo of Bill Jones' bone turning workshop that reminded me very much of those trade/craft workshops from back in my childhood hometown...
If your experience of workshops began in a school workshop, where everything has to be highly organised and tidy, then perhaps the perception could develop that that is how workshops should be. I ran a number of different pottery teaching studios many years ago, so I know the imperative of doing things that way in those contexts, however, for those of us who are a bit more relaxed in our personal workshop practices it is therapeutic to see that wonderful photo of Bill Jones' workshop.
Does anyone have more photos of workshops like Bill Jones's. For example, here is one more, a short 2min clip, in which we can we get glimpses inside the workshop of Robin Wood, the UK pole turner...
Good plan.
I would say that I "try" to put 10 things away when I go into the shop, but that hardly ever works....
robo hippy
robo hippy
I don’t think 10 things would even make dent in my usual mess!
There have been times where going into the shop is more like dumpster diving.
Every so often I find something I didn’t even remember I had!
Occasionally, I find items that I could not find 6 months ago so I went and bought new ones. My daughter complains about my shop. Told her I keep it that way so she can't find and borrow all the screw drivers. (she keeps borrowing them and I never see then again)
As for "messy" I make such a mess in the shop that I only shovel it out once a month or so There is a sign on the door which is also the name I make and sell items under, "The Wretched Mess Workshop."
As for "messy" I make such a mess in the shop that I only shovel it out once a month or so There is a sign on the door which is also the name I make and sell items under, "The Wretched Mess Workshop."
Tom Gall
TOTW Team
Me too. And many times I don't even know what it is and what it is used for.