TOMCAT 13, GARRY/HEARTLAND, DAVE IN THE HAT, & FRISCO,
YOU’RE SICK SICK SICK!!! HOW CAN ANYONE BE THAT NEAT!!! I WISH I WERE!!![:D]
Its under their somewhere[;)]
The longer I work on one project the more messed up my work area gets. It’s not always neet. I do like having a neet area and a place for everything. Knowing where everything goes keeps me from throwing tools in the trash when I clean up. I put a lot of thought into my workbench. I kept the tools I use the most closest to me so I don’t have to keep standing up to get everything. Almost everything that I built my workbench out of was free, found or trash.
Well, it’s been a few weeks, but I think I can call this “Workbench version 1.0” — now it’s time to get building stuff…
Someone ( I think it was Jack Work) once said that no matter how much room or storage space you have, a project always ends with the minimum workable space available which is usually less than 24 X 18 inches.
Peter Smith, Memphis
Here is a shot of my work space. It is a cut down door on two file cabinets.
This is the test unit
And here is the test track
Jim
Many years ago I went to a store that sold new and used office furniture. I bought an old wooden oak office desk, it was 3 ft by 5 ft. The desk was going t o be stripped down and refinished. It was still painted gray with a gray linoleum type material glued to the top of the desk. I got the desk for $25. I stripped it down and refinished it myself. I put a formica top on the desk. This desk is about 95 years old.
The drawer storage is nice, and the pull outs shelves are real handy. I have 2 swing arm lights on the desk. There are several storage type parts cabinets and a big tool box with sliding drawers for the small tools to be kept in.
Every time we move (5 times) I have brought this desk along.
The Cedar Branch & Western RR’s maintenance HQ is a little cluttered, but functional. However, the shop foreman has been heard to mutter on more than one occasion, “Now, where did I put it this time?” The shop is fully equipped with a test track, tool assortments, various stored parts and pieces, and quick access to the main line for test runs of locos and equipment.
An old computer desk with a hutch serves the need well.
This thread reminds of me another one I saw in the Glock Forum dubbed ‘Show us your reloading bench’. There we saw people have a science lab for reloading and I only got a reloaderer mounted on a kitchen bench trolly.
Once again, you guys are so lucky that have dedicated space for a work bench even if it’s just a recycled desk. I have taken over so much space at home already for my new 8X5 layout in N so I can’t possibly ask for more space. So I only get to work on my stuff on our coffee table which gives you backache even just after 30 min. I guess we need to move I suppose but then again, only just halfway through my new layout! LOL
T Jack: I believe you have the ideal work bench, good on you, I managed to get a lot of my crap in an old tin chocolate box, some of those benches look like work benches at the Boeing plant ! ! How could you possibly use that much stuff??? could you be the guys with 400 kits stored away? or 250 locomotives stashed away in boxes under the bench??? One bench looks like an industrial manufacturing plant for train stuff(nevermind the cost of it all)
Heres a shot of my workbench. Its a mess and its normally like that.
I gots two. I decal and glue on my computer desk (comeptes with Homework) but dremeling and painting are limited to the garage. Painting goes on in an old computer box taped to the tabletop surface. A gooseneck lamp shines into the box and can be mopved to avoid overspray, and the inside holds a Rubbermaid plastic turntable, I can hold small models underneath, do pot touch up undr there, and on top for overall unbstructed blasting.
I like Garry’s it’s so new looking. And trains behind are added bonus. Though I’d hate having to carry to staging.
"Opps! &%(&^%%$(& that ^%&(^$ thing fell out of my &^$#^&&**% hand!
Is it common to have a workbench under one’s layout? I have a computer desk that I’m thinking of fitting under a 55 inch high section of the layout, hoping I can fit my big head between joists on an L girder bench.
I’m a tick under 6’ so this seems like it’ll work and hopefully I can even keep my head out away from under the bench edge. If not, a smaller chair/stool should do it. Anyone have pics of their under the bench work work bench? (Can ya say that 5 times fast? 
This is a photo of mine from a couple of months ago. My airbrush and paintbooth are in a different room. I have a lot more hanging on the peg board these days. The gooseneck lamp and magnifier are from fly tying but are really helpful. My unbuilt kits and scenic details are in plastic milk crates stored under my layout.
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My workbench is not so clean.
Wolfgang
I started out building models on a students desk in my bedroom, where my eldest brother had built many models before going off to the Air Force during the Korean War. I inherited his bedroom and the desk when he moved out, the summer before he joined up. I got seriously in model railroading (age 13) after we moved to the city, and built many structures (to scale), plus a caboose, out of Birdseye Foods postersfor my American Flyer trains–on that same desk. Then my next eldest brother and my dad built a 2x8’ workbench in the basement, where I happily built a lot of HO models and my first O scale steam loco. I spent many happy hours in that basement workshop and I still heave a big sigh every time I think about it.
Years later, when I moved back from Colorado, where I worked on the kitchen table of the cabin I lived in, I moved into my folks’ summer cottage, where I set up shop on a small table in the corner of the living room. Like some of the guys whose photos show them, I made a of hutch to sit on the back of this 24x36" table, supported on one end by the three plastic parts cabinets inherited when my eldest brother and mentor died at the young age of 36. The reason for this rambl
I use a roll top desk as a work station, For most projects it has just enough room to work and My tools are all close by.
Capt
I’m in a similar position. To maximize my space, the workbench needs to go under the layout. I measured the top of my head at 55" when sitting up straight (I’m 5’10"). Next mockup before final construction is to put appropriate depth bookshelves at 30" and 60" height, respectively, and see how I like/feel working at the shelf underneath. The extra couple of inches are to allow me to put in bench/task lighting, and to keep me from feeling like I’m going to bang my head on the underside of the shelf.
The drawback is that 60" is a higher than desired layout height for me, and means using a step to work on any deeper portions. Also, 60" may be too high to see cars on spurs in back of the main, and similar sight line issues.
A thinner construction tecnique than L-girder is probably going to be necessary. Adding layers of 2" foam on top of a frame is not going to work any better. Foam might be OK if set inside the frame. So far, 1/4" ply laminated to 1" foam, set inside a frame looks the most promising for keeping overall benchwork depth minimized, while still leaving room for vertical variability in the terrain.
Again, I’m making maximum use of shelves on vertical tracks to mock up the situation before committing.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
Heartland YOU WIN! My vote goes to your workbench. Your work room looks more like an office. That chair looks comfy too.
Heres my under the layout workbench. Its not usually this messy, but I was ballasting and doing some scenery work.
I think I have the same brand of clock! Honestly, guys, you’d be surprised at the hominess you get from a common clock above your workbench. I always had an old-fashioned electric (Westclox, I think) alarm clock on the shelf above that roomy workbench in my folks’ basement, when I was a kid, since I was Down in the Depths, with the furnace, water heater, washing machine, and fruit cellar (Mom was an inveterate canner). A few years ago I was looking over a favorite John Page article, from the early '50s, “Savaging Sheet Metal From Oil Cans (any of you older guys do that?)” and noticed a common electric kitchen clock hanging above his pegboard. I went out to Wal-Mart, laid down about five bucks for a battery-operated kitchen clock (batteries not included, of course), and propped it up above my “back bar.”
Now I no longer have to back out of my closet workshop to check the time; I just tilt my head and look up. (Incidentally, I put my wrist watch in my sock drawer when I came home–early–from the last day of operation of my final job and haven’t worn one since. I bought a battery-operated pocket watch–now that they no longer put watch pockets in pants. I bought a clip-on card case, had a shoe repair shop stitch up the open side, and I clip it inside my waistband whenever I need to keep track of the time. AND I TAKE IT OFF THE MINUTE I WALK IN MY APARTMENT DOOR!) I no longer get wrapped up in a project and suddenly discover it’s after 7PM and I haven’t prepared supper yet. And like I said, it somehow makes my Cozy Nook seem cozier.