Benchroom Tour and Comments

This is the fourth article in a series about reorganizing my benchroom (my shop is divided into two sides; my machinery resides in the other half).  You can read the first article HERE, the second article HERE and the third article HERE.

My benchroom is now fully operational once again.  Of course, the work is never completely done, but it’s done for now.  The following are pictures of the benchroom as it is currently arranged.

The two pocket doors at the left lead into an adjacent room that is used for many things, none of which are woodworking or wood storage.  In that room, I do my photography and if I need the room to shoot a really big item, I can open the doors and shoot from inside the shop.  Hung on the wall to the right of the doors are two projects from grade nine: a mirror and carved sign that reads “WONG”.  Just below the sign is a black power bar and below that, an improvised rack for my narrow scraps longer than 2′; the longest scraps double as a coat rack.  The yellow box on the bottom of the rack collects paper recycling.

On the adjacent wall, the brown door leads into the house.  To the right is a small bench equipped with a 5″ Record metalworking vise.  While the drawers contain a variety of hand tools and sharpening supplies, the bench top is reserved for metalworking and sharpening.  The magnifying lamp provides ample light for the bench as well as the drill press, which is just out of the frame.

Overhead, scraps of wood 1-2′ long are sorted by species.  Boards stacked upon each other mean that they are all the same species whereas boards stood up on end indicate a unique species.

By the way, the door is decorated with pictures from an old woodworking calendar as well as a self-adhesive measuring tape.  The white chart on the door illustrates some specialty bolts to save your bacon when you make a mistake like drill holes that don’t quite line up or countersink the wrong side.  The clipboard to the right is where I list what supplies I need to pick up on my next excursion.

Just to the right of the sharpening bench is my 17″ Steel City drill press.  In the corner is a shelf and power bar for charging batteries.  Below that is a shelf to hold drill bits at the ready and under that, my Festool CT26 dust extractor and Mirka CEROS random orbit sander hooked up and ready to be used.  Above the sander is a rack holding my supply of Abranet discs for the sander.  Above that are two rows of plastic divider boxes and a yellow toolbox holding drill bits and drilling accessories.  The 2′ aluminum stepladder is necessary to access the overhead lumber rack.

To the right, is my collection of card scrapers and hand planes.  The next two cabinets contain drawers for marking and measuring tools and assorted accessories.  Saws, a cabinet scraper and spokeshave hang from the wall behind the cabinets.  Just to the right of the Veritas Dovetail saw is a syringe rack holding five syringes labelled for different solvents and glues.  The open box to the right holds all things sticky – tapes and glues.  Up top is a cabinet to store less-often-used supplies, tools and accessories.

Behind the bench against the wall, is my black shooting board and a board with a notch cut in it for use with a fret saw.  At the right side of the frame, you can see my CD player, long straight edges and rules and breaker panel.

On the end of my bench you can see my beloved Tucker vise.  Behind the bench is a tall case holding dozens of plastic divider boxes full of fasteners.  The glass sliding door leads to the other half of my shop.  Above the door are most of my clamps and on the right side of the door frame I hang my safety equipment.

The tall cabinet houses finishing supplies, portable power tools and a microwave.  My four Krenov-style saw horses sit on the floor before the cabinet.  The shorter cabinet to the right is filled with lots of stuff.  I want it to ultimately be a catch area for parts of partially completed projects and more.  Atop the cabinet are boxes of hardwood shorts less than 1′ long.  In the corner I am storing dry lumber on end.  Long aluminum clamps are suspended from a wall-mounted rack.  On the floor is some stickered ash acclimatizing for an upcoming project.

Reorganizing my benchroom serves many purposes including improving efficiency and tidiness.  However, the greatest benefit from this reorganization is the open floor space.  After working with the bench in the middle of the shop for years, this expanse feels like a dance floor.

With this post, I’ve added an additional option to share this post – Google+ (the +1 icon).  You can find me at http://gplus.to/ChrisWong.