A while back, I found a large dinner tray in a dumpster at my business complex. In the ultimate “train modeler moment” of I can use this! I grabbed it to give it another life. I figured I could use it work on my projects… well, turned out to be a better idea than I thought.
1) Helps keeps those little peices from rolling off into the black holes of the carpet, or even worse, hitting the bare floor and taking the bounce into the dark underside of the heavy bookshelf
**2)**Helps keep glue and paint, in case of a spill from marking up the counter, or your work surface. Really importand if say, you are working at the dinner table cause the train room in the garage is hotter than you know what.
**3)**My favorite: Flexible Allows any place to become a great place to work on your projects… Simply pick up your work surface and carry it with you. In my case, during the RV trip, I could pick it up outside, to the table, or put it away up in the bunk, with out haveing to put away my current tools for the job at hand. At home, I found it was great as I could work on a project, and if I got stumped for that one little part, I could just pick it up and put away as I was, until I can get to the store and get what I need without stopping my progress, or loseing track of what I was doing. Prevents from risking loseing your work surrface becausee you dont want to move anything. I plan on getting more trays so I can basically have, several work areas with out cluttering up my bench or risk mixing parts.
My wife found some dinner trays,( even some with small places that would be for side dish, but would work great for screws, couplers, or the small detail parts to stay put while working). Sat Target, but I think any good houseware store should have them.
Many years ago I built a project rack with 16x32 trays (they stacked into a support frame that had an 18 x 34 footprint.) Turned out the trays were too big for most projects, and the 72 inch high rack was inconvenient for use anywhere, so I ended up giving it away.
Your solution is much more elegant! Now all you need is a support rack, sized to fit your trays and low enough to roll under the edge of the layout when not in use. Another handy accessory would be a TV tray (the foldup kind with legs,) and you really will be able to model anywhere!
Thanks Terry. Kicker was, I had planned on bringing my NCE PowerCab with me so I could set up and run some trains. I grabbed my old .22 rifle case to hold about 4 switches and 8 peices of flex track. Had great plans of setup some switchin in the cab, just pin the track to the foam in the cushion… But, I left it in the box on the kitchen counter DOH! Next time I guess…That would have been so cool.
It wa skind aneat when I set up outside, alot of folks walking around camp in the evening and quite a few would come over and see what I was up too. I usually got the same reaction…“You brought all that with you?” [:D]
Nevermind the TV trays. What I wanna know is, “how do you afford to fill an RV and drive it further than the nearest gas station?” Seriously, the TV tray idea is a good one… Especially the ones with side dish compartments. Guess, I’ll have to start keeping those Hungry Man trays, huh?
Well, as I told one guy, “Hey, all this train stuff is still lighter than a bag of golf clubs!” [:D] So there. I started the trip at Caboose Hobbies (were in CO, so I was all fired up abd bought a bunch of stuff. I knew I would have a lot of free time, I figured why not?!
Ok, and the real secret to my success? I am part of a modular based HO club here in Phoenix. Granted, I am one of the only guys who has a large home layout, but I go to shows an set up at events with al the time. So, I have the storage boxes for trains for travel and my toll box is designed to be on the go. Everyting I need and have, to work, paint,assemble, or repair, is that yellow tool box. So me packing up for the trip, wasnt much different than me getting ready for a show.
Marlon, Funny you mention the gas thing… it was a bit painful, we drove 1800 miles and I spent around 600 on gas. We just purchsded the RV about a month and half ago for 15,000, but I got the loan for 16,000 which gave as a 1000 bucks for gas and all the campground fees at the RV parks. They avearage 30 a nite or so. It was our Honeymoon/Vaction thing so I wanted to do right.
Yeah, I finaicned my gas. There is joke there I am sure[swg]
For years I’ve been using a TV tray to build models while watching TV in the living room with my wife. My model building output has gone up and my wife is not a model railroad widow. Maybe this is being an arm chair modeler.
I am a HEAVY DRINKER (diet cola). I use the cardboard trays that a case of 24 drink cans come in. I guess those who use adult beverages could doi similarly.
I keep project by project in drink trays, use drink trays to hold stuff I am spray painting with bomb cans.