A clean shop is a safe shop. Though it is hard to be clean, it only takes a little time and effort between procedures to pick up and sweep. It all seems to happen at once. When routing, the cable gets wrapped around another cable and then pulls a finished piece of wood on the floor to receive a nice ding. When clamping, the glue bottle seems to always want to get in the way and once again fall to the ground. There are so many different scenarios and quick fixes for these avoidable dilemmas however; just cleaning and putting back sometimes doesn’t always work. Practicing organization and visualizing tool placement and also shop de-clutter will go along way for a successful and safe project. Let us tackle one at a time. Practicing organization. What I try to do on all projects is think of the following chain of events. When gluing, its makes sense to have the clamps handy but also out of the way. Now, this sounds like a no brainer….right? Well, if the shop has a size limitation and there is really no room to place items such as clamps conveniently close by; it can be a little challenging. I have seen some woodworkers build a little rolling clamp cart to have when needed then push it away when done. Or another way would be to have a box on wheels for irregular and various size clamps. The key here is organizing. These items can be rolled away and placed lets say in the corner or even better under a stationary tool. Another way to keep clean and organized is to designate an area for scraps. I always have a problem throwing away small odd shaped scrap wood. I don’t know what it is but, I have this thought that I will use it down the road on another project. I would say maybe 5 percent of the time this is true, and the other 95 percent of the time it collects into this pile of wood that eventually gets in the way. I now have an area just for these pieces of wood. It’s called the waist basket. Well, I don’t throw all of it away. Another keys is think about the steps involved in using your tools and also where they will go when temporarily put aside until needed for the next step. This can get a bit frustrating when deep in thought and concentration the drill starts to slide off the worktable or the cable from the router keeps folding back into the line of sight. A great solution would be to have an existing sub table maybe on rollers for just tools that are need for the task at hand or even wearing a tool belt sometimes will go along way. On my worktable I have a sub shelve that will keep tools out of the way when not needed, and maybe a surface of a stationary tool that’s available for temporary storage. Now the biggest problem some people and even myself have to overcome is clutter. Get rid of unnecessary stuff. I call it stuff because it turns into stuff after building up for awhile. I find even in big shops that there are items that don’t belong being there. A functional shop should not be for storage of unrelated items that just get in the way. We are all guilty of this from time to time because something small eventually grows into something big and will make for a frustrating and needles reaction ………like long overdue cleaning.
Article by: Joe Palumbo Alexis221 Woodworks
A neat place to store my hand tools
Storage is a must....I have lots a cabinet space to use
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| Setting Up Your Own Woodworking Shop |
| Complete plans & details for building the perfect shop. Includes several design layouts on all skill levels. Setting Up Your Own Woodworking Shop |  |
