All Replies on How clean is your shop?

I put tools away, blow, sweep and vacuum after every project. That could be a two day project or a two week one. But I do like the look of it clean. And when the work is done I like to bring it back up to snuff.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://gagnerwebsite.com/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

I have 53 projects on the go at this moment… so what do you reckon?

-- Drink twice... and don't bother to cut... @ larrysworkshop.wordpress.com For lovers of all things timber...

Cleaned mine up yesterday am…....its dirty again, oh well.

-- Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgement.

I found the floor last night. Does that count?

All the tools are in their proper places, it’s cutoffs, scrap, and hardware I am having storage issues with keeping my shop messy, not to mention yard tools, BBQ pits, and the seemingly ever present fencing material for my back fence. I have been wanting to get out into the yard since early October and get the fence done, but it has been raining so consistently that I step out into the yard and I almost immediately sink in mud…

As messy as it is though, like I said, I found the floor, which is an accomplishment!

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

Hey Lazy Larry…....................... probably 53” of sawdust…..................LOL

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

Depends, during a project, a mess, between projects, pretty clean, I can even see the bench tops. LOL But that doesn’t last long…

-- -Curt, Milwaukee, WI

53!? what the heck are you doin online? get to work before its 54

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

I just finished assembling a box this morning, so I followed my usual routine of cleaning the shop before I started to put the finish on.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Good for you Charlie….........LOL

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

My shop will never be clean ! Just like my house :)

-- John in Belgrave (Website) http://www.extremebirdhouse.com , http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112698715866

my floor is completely covered in planer chips – kinda like going to the circus – cement floor so it’s easy on the feet!

-- -erik & christy-

I keep it clean as I go,and never go off and leave a mess. All those years in the Air Force made it a habit.

-- It must be jelly baby, cause jam don't shake like that...

i can relate john :P

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Super messy and disorganized, currently. I am trying to build a new multifunction tbench in the back of the garage, As I build a section I put the tool there, so far my router table and miter saw now have a home, everything else is in limbo, for a few mor days. As this project moves along I get more and more organized, when I started I had barely enough room to get my mitersaw out, and lay out the 2X4s, I still need to squeeze by the table saw, but it is coming along. In a couple of days I will be finished enough to house most everything, and get rid of a 3’X3’X4’ mobile tool cabinet I built a few years ago. Then it will really start coming together.

-- Even a broken clock is right twice a day, unless, it moves at half speed like ....-As the Saw Turns

I keep mine very clean. I often stop in the middle of a project or after a procedure and clean up then start in again. I dont like a lot of sawdust on the floor because it gets slippery and dangerous.

-- Wayne - Plymouth MN

I clean up after every project. Sometimes after different stages of the project. If I cut MDF and there’s dust all over I’ll try to get it up more quickly. Shavings from a plane on the floor don’t bother me as much. I just hate having tons of bench space all covered by tools, so I try to put things away often.

-- some day I hope to have enough clamps to need a clamp cart!

I usually managed to clean mine up each day. But that is according to my standards, of course. My wife’s standards are somewhat higher than mine and she is fond of pointing out what a messy shop I have. :)

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

Snowy:

You took the words right out of my mouth. I seldom finish a project without cleaning up several times. I simply like to work in a clean area. I exasperate my son and my son-in-law who have no share in this “quirk” of mine.

When people visit, I often get comments like ” When are you going to start using this shop?” or “Don’t you ever use these tools?”

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

scott… meh my shop my rules…i even got a mens only sign on my door

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Cluttered! I try to clean it nightly… and anytime I start loosing stuff!

I stop to clean often. It’s one of the most important things I feel I do in the shop. Not for the cleanliness or need for order but the contemplative zen moments it affords me. When I get stuck on a problem or need to come up with a new project I’ll start to clean. I don’t clean in any orderly way but follow my hands around the shop. This way of cleaning might be heard to explain, but here goes…

I’ll, for example, move a cup of nails to where they belong. While doing that I’ll see something where it takes me and move or clean that, thus moving back and forth around the shop in a zen like non directional flow. Cleaning the shop as the shop directs me with no thought needed thus allowing my quiet mind to ruminate on my current issues, pondering solutions. I don’t always finish cleaning before some revelation hits me.

My shop is always messy and clean at any given time. When I finish a project I am not quick to clean up since there is aways a reason to revisit my last actions to refine a project. Hence I always leave router bits in the router they’re last used in at their set depth.

-- ~Just A Guy With A Hammer~

My shops in pretty good shape right now, I like it clean and everything in it’s place. Even when it’s clean I can’t keep up with some of the shops that look like operating rooms.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I like to have a clean shop, then I can find what I’m looking for and not wasting time. My wife suggested that if I put as much effort into helping with the housework it would be as clean as my shop :) I just don’t seem to have the same incentive indoors. I spend most of my time out in the shop so I like it clean.

-- Canadian Wood Chuck (Bruce)

Well I clean after most projects, however a few are not finished so therefor I do not clean until I need to do the finishing, Bench top sometimes get to cluttered and have to stop and put away tools that I will not use again for project . Like other I like making dust therfore means that I am working on something.Don’t get in the conerrs too well though. Keep it tidy and keep it handy is what I do.

-- In His service ,Richard

so trashed i cannot even find my lathe,my life is one big organized mess. it seem to work for me.

-- Roper - Master of sawdust-www.coloradocustomworks.com

my shop can get very messy but as messy as it gets i can still find where everything is. i know where i used everything last

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Love to keep the shop clean. Very seldom do I leave the shop that it’s not picked up and cleaned. On a heavy work day, I will usually do a partial cleaning sometime during the day and then again before I leave. I have enough trouble tracking down my tape measure and pencil as it is. lol.

-- John @ http://www.thehuffordfurnituregroup.com

Aren’t the words “clean” and “shop” in the same sentence a contradiction in terms?

My family has been instructed for years that they’re welcome to use anything I have in there as long as they put it back exactly where they found it. Not where they think it should go, but where they picked it up!! – lol

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

I run a pretty tight shop but there is always room for improvement and I am working on it right now.

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://americancraftsmanworkshop.com

300 days later…. Still waiting for mine to be clean enough for workshop pictures.

-- There's many a slip betwixt a cup and a lip.--Scott

22 yrs in the Navy and my Dad always told me the job is not done until the tools are cleaned and put away and the shop is cleaned. I adhered to that as best I can.

-- Dudley Young USN Retired. Sebastian, Fl.

Waiting for you to give mine a clean Mark. LOL

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

O I’m hiding in there under one of the many piles of sawdust grumpy looking for the light of day and a vacuum

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Roper, if you can’t find you lathe, you’re making me look GOOD!

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

My shop is like one of those mood rings. Catch me on a bad string of days and it looks like a bomb went off. Still not sure which comes first though, a clean shop or a better mood…:)

-- "The way to make a small fortune in woodworking- start with a large one"

Heidi just cleaned ours and I updated my workshop pics. Then it went back to messy.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

I usually clean it before I finish something, during the winter. When its warmer, I move the piece outside or to the shed and finish it there. It’s been clean for almost 1 1/2 weeks but after tomorrow, it won’t be for a while as I’ve got a couple things to build.

Greetings Mark: I keep my shop cleaner than a Safeway chittlin’..... I detest clutter and filth, and I’m my own worst maid…. I’m the same in the house, and my wife knows it,too. Sure, it gets messy while doing a project, so I keep the door locked so noone will come in and disturb me while cleaning up. Someone once told me they could eat off my floors and cabinets….. that’s a little extreme, I think, but close to true when the shop is top-notch clean. What can I say…..... I’m a neat-nick, not an old beatnic…..... keep on keeping on.

-- " Don't ever wrestle a pig in a mudhole....he'll be having more fun than you..!!

i cleaned my shop before i moved my tools into it .

and plan on cleaning it as soon as i get the dust collector going ,
i now have all the parts ,
but its been down to -2 outside and under the shop ,
so maybe next year ?

-- david - only thru kindness can this world be whole . If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure. Dan Quayle

ya whats the deal with the cold weather down there is that normal? not to sound so canadian lol

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Every Thursday afternoon is a shop clean and tune time. If I miss a week it just gets to be to much work to get it all done, then I don’t want to do it at all. Being a born Procrastinator, it’ I don’t schedule it, it won’t get done.
I clean up at the end of each day by putting stuff away, and a quick sweep.

But Thursdays are for a good clean up and maintainence time.
Organize the scrap and take care of the lumber rack.
Put everything away from the past week. I open everything up and check belts and stuff, vacuum everything from inside the equipment and wax all the iron down.
Take care of saw blades & bits, all cleaned, any thing that needs to be sent out for sharpening gets done. Then if I have the time I try to keep up with plane irons & chissels.

-- Taigert - Milan, IN

Mark,

You are invited for coffe-steak-and a bud, but first you’ll

have to help me clean the shop!!!

-- Bob Kenosha Wi.

I did a little straightening up yesterday before going out to celebrate with friends. Not perfect but it will be once I make a mess again today!

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!

A clean shop?
It’s all relative.
My wife prominently displays a sign that reads “Dull Women Have Immaculate Homes” By that standard, I’m one very exciting guy!

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Bob I’ll help you clean the shop but you have to let be bbq the steak ;D

I find it amazing how long it takes to clean a shop but how quick it gets messy again.

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Being in SoCal I am able to work outside much of the year, and the place I am renting right now has a very small garage. Everything gets rolled out at the start of the day and rolled back into it’s home at night. It is generally clean after that. If the wife is helping the shop vac is the first thing that comes out before the tools are rolled back.

-- bigfish "I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it." Vincent Van Gogh

i love working outside which for me is only 4-5 months of the year. I still have my neighbours yellin at me because when they open their garage they got sawdust everywhere which I find funny. They love me lol

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Since I made adapters to hook up my Delta 1-1/2 Hp Dust Collector SS Model # 50-760 most of my dust problems are controlled. My friend was over the other day and commented on how clean my floor was. I told him I had used the TS, jointer, planer, and bandsaw that day he said “How long since you vacuumed?”. I told him I hadn’t and he was amazed. I’ve signed up for a class involving lathe work for this Summer and I’m sure when I start using my lathe I will have another dust/chip problem to solve.
I try to put away every tool, finishing supply, and fastener that I’m not using on my current projects away every time I’m done using it/them. My shop still looks somewhat of a mess. ;-)

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Cleaning my shop is at the top of my things to do tomorrow list.
Can you say ….Procrastinator ??
But seriously folks , I wish I could keep it somewhere between spotless and cluttered , but it is always one or the other with no happy medium : ( Maybe some new meds would help ! LOL

Happy New Year to Everyone of you wonderful people out there !

-- When did quiet and quite become the same word ? I'm guessing about the same time as your and you're did.

just like i say to my wife….i’ll help you clean the house tomoro lol

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust