Very well laid out!

I have yet been able to garner a spare room but will in the near future, so I will use your article as a guide in setting up what will work for me.  This is very useful info for any modeler who doesnt have a dedicated space. I currently have a large desk in the living room so i can at least be out with the family but a dedicated work space is needed at times.  

Missing item?

The shop is awesome, but seems to be missing a test track.  Even if no engine work is done and the track is unpowered, one needs it to test the rolling of cars and measuring clearances, coupler heights, etc.

Thanks for sharing.

Karl Siefert

Philadelphia, PA

Test track

I have a piece of flex track to check coupler heights but I've never felt a need to test the rolling characteristics of freight cars nor check clearances. Just my way of doing things...

Jack

Power sander

how do you cope with the dust ?

Don't ask why I ask ..

cheers, Leo

Power sander...

I don't build with wood!

On my current project, I have been sanding some pieces of wood for jigging up parts to solder but most of the sawdust ends up below the table of the sander. Also, I always sand on the left side of the counter-clockwise spinning disc so the dust or metal chips go down rather than up into the room (or my face).

There is a shop vac port on the sander but I haven't felt a need to use it. The sander (and other power tools) will be the subject of a future Tool Shop article...

Jack

This is different than my world

I think I fall more into the Charlie Comstock category of organization. While this looks wonderful and I do confess to having a 2000 square foot workshop attached to the old barn for large tooling, my basement railroad suffers from my inability to clean up anything along with the chaotic input from three large dogs and a cat. In my world, it's all over the place and it's really irritating when my latest project parts have been moved off of the chest top freezer by some well meaning soul. My design preservation buildings are weathered by a dog chewing on the corners. I control the weathering with dog bones, knowing when to stop the action through years of experience. When it just gets too cold or lonely in the basement, I migrate up to the kitchen table by the woodstove and then the cat becomes the defacto design consultant casually pushing unattractive packaging off the table for the dogs. Trees made with catnip are of particular interest. I would be willing to submit an article on design spaces from the cleanliness is next to impossible group which I suspect is underrepresented.

I'm really impressed but it ain't gonna happen here. I have never worn a suit in my life and I'm 63.

Workspace

Nice

Nice clean workshop. There's a saying about such a clean workshop, "A clean workshop is the sign of a sick mind".  

It's also has what every model workshop should have, a Sherline lathe and mill.

You must have cleaned up before those shots because I know a lathe and mill will fling those tiny scraps of metal all over the place.

Bernd

Nice...

Bernd...

You're correct, I cleaned up my shop before those photos. But I always put everything back "in its place" before starting a new project. For a project such as building a resin freight car kit, I'll put some tools back when I'm done with them during the duration of the project but those projects don't take that long so completely cleaning up isn't much of a need. For more involved scratch building projects, I'll stop every day or so and put most of my tools away and clean up the workspace. Otherwise, I find that I waste time looking for a tool or picking up scraps looking for the small part that I need...

Jack

This is different than my world

Pete...

Your comments are very funny. You should think about expanding them and submitting it as a "Reverse Running" commentary!

Jack

Jack

I'm hoping you took that in good humor. Keeping a clean bench for me is almost impossible. My problem is I have to many different projects going at one time and any horizontal clean area is fare game to put things down on. After a while I can't find my tools because they are buried under several layers of projects.

Perhaps some day I'll have a clean work bench but I doubt it. It's always nice to see somebody else's work area and drool over how nice it looks. Perhaps I should post a few pictures of my work area? Naw, I'd be to embarrassed.

Regards,

Bernd

well, it's all based in petty envy.

Jack, I think your space is wonderful, don't get me wrong. I just know what my world is like and when I see Charlie's layout with coke cans holding down a turnout , I relate to that in a less intimidated fashion. I deal in tonnage sometimes when I'm going to the dump after a bad week. I clean up with a John Deere tractor. I work with molten glass and one of the great attractions for me in the railroad is that I can actually hold it in my hands. I have lathes and grinders and all the big fun tools and it is just very different when you worry about your clothes lighting on fire. My biggest enemy in the trainroom is dog hair in the gearboxes or the cat pouncing on a coal drag.. It ain't gonna change but I love this hobby and all the ways of approaching it.. MRH is just a godsend, thanks to Joe and Co.

Thanks for the article.

Pete V

.

Sweet

  I definitely liked the article.  Your room looks well laid out. GOOD JOB

Usable work space -- Gen 1

Somewhere in the 1980s' plethora of model magazines I read the words of a 'main man' (of the rank of, say an Andy Sperandeo) that " ,,,,, any modeler I've ever known had about 12" x 18" of usable space ,,,,,  no matter how much acreage he had set aside"  [adjusted for scale, of course].

I'm glad to see that the Old Guard have passed the mantle, in this respect at least, to people who plan, use space well, keep their computers close buy, and have substituted a rack of styrene for what used to be had only at the LHS.

Gen 1

Great Shop!

You have a great shop space there Jack, thanks for giving us a look. 

The only thing missing from your article is a picture of what your shop looks like when you have not just cleaned it up to take pictures for an article.

Someone else posted that a clean shop was a sign of a sick mind.  My father always said a clean shop sees no work. [grin]

I like the raised shelf behind your work area.  The pocket for holding bottles and tubes, etc. seems like a good innovation and the handy outlets a real bonus.

Enjoying your articles and looking forward to more.

Regards,

Great Shop!

Kevin...

You asked a fair question. Here is what my shop looks like this morning:

I'm in the last stages of building a Proto48 Fairmont Weed Burner...the model is sitting on a piece of thin plywood after being painted orange. As is typical during a project, the tools that I am continually using (tweezers, needle nose pliers, etc.) are on the right corner of the cutting pad. The yellow tray in the back left started out holding detail parts for the project but, since most of those have been incorporated into the model, it is now holding leftover pieces of brass angles and channels.

I've been using my lathe a lot on this project so it has been moved out onto the peninsula table:

The small chop saw which is fitted with a metal cutting blade has also been used a lot on this project and is in the back right corner of this table.

I can easily live with this level of "clutter" during the construction of a model but do clean things up when it gets too bad. I've been working on this model continually since the end of November and have had to stop and clean up several times...

Jack Burgess

Now that's more like it!

Or at least it makes me feel better

Jack, there are a couple of implicit messages in your article regarding drawers. One, you don't need that many, and that space can often be used more productively, for example your strip-storage bin. Two, shallow drawers are much better for our purposes, dealing with small models, parts and tools. Deep drawers just gather "layers" of stuff and make everything harder to find.

I got clued into this before building my workshop and am very happy I did. Most of mine are 3" high. Bulkier stuff goes in cabinets.

-- Bill in Seattle

Drawers...

I completely agree with you Bill about drawers. The drawers directly under my modeling bench are only 2.5" high (partly due to the need to get my knees under them) and those under the drill press are only 2" high. I have two taller ones under the soldering station...they are 4" high. That was done specifically so that detail parts (Grandt Line, etc.) could be stood vertically in them. That is what is stored in the top one and it has worked fine. The bottom one is being used for brass tubing, DA brass wire, etc. and it has resulted in a lot of wasted space...

Jack Burgess

Pic 13 Scrap Drawer

Jack,

Great article, one of the best in awhile. Only issue with junk drawers is they fill up quickly.  What is your routine for it?  Do you dump, sort or save frequently?  A few more words would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Joe