Am I a redneck or what? My workbench is a trashcan with a piece of plywood over it.
Well, at least you have a workbench, all I have is a pool table with a delicate cloth on top…
Workbench? Wassdat? My pool table is off limits to me. I have a square table, a round table, my wife’s sewing maching table and two counters to work on when I assemble the few kits I have. No place really to paint anything yet. A pair of saw horses and a 2’x4’ 3/4" plywood out in the garage I guess. Unlike at where I lived before where I did some gluing at the kitchen table and my wife went and opened all the windows in the house, turned on every fan we owned and then went for a walk! I’m sure there’s somebody on here that wishes he had a trash can to spare. A real redneck would be using the backside of an old broken dresser out on his front porch!
[(-D][(-D]
My first workbench was an old metal kitchen cabinet with a piece of plywood fastened to the top. Funny thing is, now that I have what I can call a shop for building models, I still stay in that same 12x18 inch space as everything else around it is completely crowded with ‘stuff’ that ‘I’ll use someday’…
I wonder when someday will get here? My layout is on hold until the day after someday. I’ll be cleaning out the laundry room on someday.
There are times when that is all someone has space for. It works. Must be fun throwing things away thou…lol
Well at least it’s easy to dump your mistakes. [:D]
Enjoy
Paul
My workbench [(-D] is a sheet of 1/4 inch Masonite laid over temporarily-placed steel stud joists (held by spring clamps to the L-girders) on the 4+ x 8+ foot benchwork frame that will eventually become the Harukawa area of my layout.
It’s amazing how quickly 32 square feet of flat surface can fill up with junk!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Does your house have chrome wheels on it too?[:D]
I was at the city dump a couple weeks ago. Someone pulled up with a REAL nice solid wood 7 drawer desk they were throwing away…I now have a VERY nice new work bench![:)]
And you even have a spitoon in the lower right of your pic!! That means you’re a high class redneck - otherwise, instead of the brown & tan pot it would be an old coffee can!![(-D]
After about 30 years, ‘someday’ still hasn’t arrived. I just keep collecting more junk. Once in awhile, I just take a big stick and push it all off into the base of Reb’s bench. Usually when I have a complex kit or project that I don’t want to become part of the someday pile. Then the someday pile begins to grow again. Some Times, I envy the people who have seen their someDay come and go and are looking forward to the next one.
I decided to build the model railroad in the garage since I lease my vehicle every 2 years. My wife insisted before I laid one piece of track that I remove all the tools off the walls and section off one quarter of the garage for a workshop. She could not see me generating dust that would eventually fall on the scenery.
After the usual period of objections to any idea coming from a wife, I built 2 walls enclosing a section in the front of the garage. I added windows and trim and doors and it now looks like a switch tower. It keeps all shop work and tools in one place and cuts down on the dust that is created especially when using foam board.
It is one of the best ideas I EVER HAD.
Doc
A 79 cent work bench, O.K. now , how much was your most expensive locomotive??? priorities folks, priorities.
My workbench is a retired kitchen table. It’s sturdy and there’s plenty of room on it. What else do you need other than good lighting?
LOL! I just read what you guys wrote and am about to bust a gut!
The spittoon as it was called is just an old crock-pot I use to hold my soldering iron while it cools.
BTW a hot soldering iron makes nice fast ugly holes in a GP 50. Learned that one 10 years ago.
My new Work Bench Plan.
I’m planning to build the work bench under the Devinville yard as the module is 18" wide by 96" long. The height can not go below 41" at the underside of the top most frame as I have a large “Craftsman” roll around tool box that well be stored under module #2.
This thread is well titled. Investment in work areas is always well justified.
Doc, how about pictures? Pics of work areas are one of favorites.
I decided that a combination shop and layout room would be ideal for me. Regrets? Only that I wish the layout was 6 inches lower while it needs to be 4 higher.
joe-daddy,
Nice layout and work area. I wish I was that neat.
Will take a few photos and send them a long.
Doc
Thanks Doc, but as you probably know, neatness is a cyclic thing. I work and it gets messy. I stop, clean and THEN take the pictures and start back to work.
Lookin forward to your layout and shop!
Joe
Don’t sweat it. I have a great woodworker’s bench, with vises, storage underneath, etc… So when I moved and no longer had a garage for my second layout, my work bench became the support structure for that layout.
Ever since, I have used a scrap piece of plywood–much like yours, and sit on the floor with it when I build, paint, repair, and such.
I keep telling myself I am going to make a small table to allow me to raise the “bench” from the floor so that as I sit cross-legged, it will be over my legs. I could build it in an afternoon. Alas, typical woodworker: I keep looking for the right wood, over designing it in my mind, coming up with ways to make it a show-piece. It’ll never happen!
Crews
I hear ya.