Like most of the US at the moment, it's snowing and below zero.  Should be time for inside work.  But, I'm in a bad situation at the moment.  A week ago, I crushed my foot badly.  Prognosis is 5 more weeks keeping it immobilized.  I can walk, but difficult to stand and balance for any period of time.  And, running lathe or mill or grinding or sanding presents problems of keeping the boot and foot clean.  I may get a work-around for that cobbled together soon, though.

I read some old books/articles as I've been lying down with my foot up.  One of those was articles written by Roy Dunlop I think in the 1960's or early 1970's.  This was after his gunsmithing career was mostly over; he wasn't actively doing full time work.  He described his shop, the tools and equipment.  His power tools consisted of a 2 wheel grinder, a homemade belt sander, a jet brand round column mill, a Craftsman 6" lathe and a slightly larger English lathe with quick change gearbox.  He described his longing for a larger 10 or 12 inch Atlas lathe, but lamented he couldn't afford the space for it.  His tools consisted of screwdrivers, a few chisels, and rasps and files.  For sanding, he used 6 grits of sandpaper wrapped around files.  He switched the grinding wheels off his grinder to use buffing wheels.  He had 2 vises in his shop, a medium sized standard shop type machinist vise and a versa-vise for stock work.  

It gave me a bit of perspective on our relative wealth today in workspaces and equipment.  Plus, an appreciation of the skills of GT, BobW, Frankeore, and many others on this board.

On to the topic of this thread.  And a disclaimer.

I'm going to post a bit about finishing and organizing my shop space.  

IF ANYONE FEELS THAT THIS IS AN INAPPROPRIATE AND BORING TOPIC, PLEASE POST IT HERE AND I'LL DELETE OR ASK THE MODS TO.

Before I put some pictures in the next post, I'll describe overall what I'm doing, and what I'm starting from.

I recently retired, for the past 5 years or so I've been spending my free time outside of work building a new house and shop in anticipation of having it functional after I retire.  It's not quite done, but close.  I have three shop spaces.  

1)  Oversize 3 bay garage - shared rough work shop and vehicle storage
2)  Heated finished shop space for lathe, mill, etc with attic storage above
3)  Small basement shop under an original small 1920's house remnant, that I use for stock work, small work, and reloading. 

A bit better view of the gunsmithing bench; it's quite functional if it wasn't covered by junk and work in progress.  Some more shelving will help that.

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There's boxes of stuff from a cabinet on the floor; I had started moving things to make room for sheetrock before my injury.  This cabinet will be moved out into the access hall storage after the jewelers bench taking up the space is moved.

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The reloading bench is functional, if I could get all the horizontal storage put into cabinets instead:


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The access hall storage is very good for keeping a lot of fasteners, parts and general storage like bulk brass.

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The jewelers bench will eventually be moved into the "to be finished" space, and clear up this wall for more shelving to accept some of the bench clutter.

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Dave,

I agree with Greg. Please keep posting whatever it may be. I enjoy it all, and this one gives me hope that someday I may be half as organized as you are.

Hope your foot heals fast and well! Thanks for posting about your shops. It always interesting to see photos of gunsmiths shops and the stuff on their benches. That would be an interesting thread to start.
Good luck,
Cheers Richard

I enjoyed you post very much. Keep them going !

Boats

Sorry to hear about your foot!  Hopefully you heal faster than anticipated.  I've been down with a broken ankle before and we oftentimes just don't realize how much we take being mobile for granted!

I think this is a great topic, I need all the ideas and motivation I can get because my garage/shop is an absolute wreck.


SBoomer wrote on Jan 14^th, 2024 at 6:52am:

My shop is constantly cluttered.  When I moved to this place, I tried to limit the horizontal bench space to the minimum I thought I needed for projects.  It still is a magnet for clutter.  Every month or two I clear the benches and try to find permanent places for the stuff that likes to migrate to the bench tops.  It’s a never ending struggle.

Here’s a few shots of my shop & some background. It’s in a half basement above ground one end. 26x24. The other 26x24 end 4 foot crawl space used for storage.  Built the house 1975/1975 & shop went in same time. Small gas heater good fans no AC. Shop double door intentionally too small for a car, it’s not a garage larger door might have become one. 6 foot wide utility trailer will squeeze fit allowing heavy tool access 

Lot of work over 49 years. Kept my guns running, whatever was needed loading,  cartridge case work, metal or wood work. Also built several boats and repaired many more.  All my fishing rods built there reel maintenance and refurbishing used too. Penns and Abu’s mostly. Furniture construction and wood lathe work.

Main bench bolted to the foundation post. 10’x2’ 4 vises all iron screws with wood jaws. Fitted with several stops dogs etc. Top Pine Flooring on plywood . Scraped it down few months ago planed dead flat and oiled . This 3rd scrape down.

No storage on the bench top, not allowed, only working projects. Ready tools on pegboard hooks or top shelf. Most tools in job specific  tool boxes, pull out chisels scrapers etc, they are all in one box. Tray behind the bench catch all have 

Have a number of fixtures that clamp on the main bench. Big stuff presses etc on another bench this one runs portables. Upright holder for powder measures. Cartridge neck turner’s, Lyman Tru Line Jr  ( converted to 7/8)

Primary bench most important part of the shop.

Boats