# Help ! I can't find my work bench !



## snowgoer (Feb 5, 2011)

I love this amazing website and admire all the creative people on it. Every time I see a photo of a pristine work bench surface makes me wonder do they actually work in this place ? To say MY workbench surface is not like that would be a gross understatement. (Get to the point !) Please , someone, offer me suggestions ,insults, acronyms whatever works for you, to keep your work bench clutter free. aka usable .


----------



## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

Well snow, mine is usually got a lot of stuff on it and no it doesnt have a glossy finish. Mine is more of a stains here and there with lots of dings, cuts and drips from epoxy, stains and who knows what it is. But this is all because I use it. If I had a glossy top it would be because I spent more time cleaning and finishing it then usung it… if your using it its not going to be spotless or free of clutter, so why worry, just use it and be happy you have it to use!!!!


----------



## MattLinPA (Oct 18, 2015)

Don't do this…


----------



## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

My saw top and extension router wing are my work bench. If I wanna cut I must clean the 'bench'.









M


----------



## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

I'm pretty sure those pics you see are always right after a bench is built, before it's went to work in the shop. Then it instantly becomes covered with all manner of unidentifiable stuff that will be used at an unknown future time for a yet to be determined project. I believe it's the law of "flat surfaces", which states they must never be bare/uncovered/visible.


----------



## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

For me it's simple. Once it becomes such a pig sty that I don't have room to do what I need to do, I stop and take 5 minutes to put everything up. Then I'm good to go with a "photo friendly", uncluttered bench for at least an hour or 2.

I think Fred hit the nail on the head. It's not that those benches are always clean. It's just that their photographed when they are.


----------



## clin (Sep 3, 2015)

I'm getting a new, dedicated shop together and have a fantasy of having it clean. But one thing I'm finding so far, compared to my old, corner of the garage work space, is that it is much easier to keep a place clean if you actually have specific places for things.

I find 99% of the time, when I leave something on a work surface for more than a day, it's because I don't really have a designated spot for it. So it gets tossed onto the nearest available flat spot with me thinking "I'll figure out where to put that later." Of course later never comes.


----------



## snowgoer (Feb 5, 2011)

Thanks to all who offered help with my "flat surface syndrome". Fred Hargis , for me really but the finger on the problem. Seriously. I just cleaned the surface of my work bench. I have two. I feel like I've been to therapy. After lunch we will tackle the next one. Unless another project blocks my progress.


----------



## dyfhid (Jun 4, 2015)

Might want to look at the 5S Method. Some discussion about it here - http://lumberjocks.com/topics/100330


----------



## tomclark (Feb 16, 2010)

The main reason for messy workbenches is there is no decent storage under them. It is hard to put things away when there is no place to put them. These drawers hold far more than you can stack on top of the bench, yet everything is instantly at your fingertips, without wasting hours looking for lost items. Storage bases triple the size of your shop.

I use simple to build bases for my workbenches. Notice the size of the drawers and you will see that they are about like having four more flat surfaces almost the same size as the workbench top. And the metal drawer slides make getting to the storage a pleasure.

Try it and they will change your life, and make building projects a pleasure instead of a lesson in frustration!

This simple plywood construction goes very quickly.


----------



## Ger21 (Oct 29, 2009)

My table saw, assembly table, and CNC table are all covered in tools and junk right now. And, I'm in the middle of a project, so I keep shifting things from one table to the other.


----------



## MT_Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

I had the same problem. It is a lot better. Now I have more room for more stuff! UGH!

I do try to clean up after each project and put my tools back where they are supposed to be. More than once, I have give up looking for something and just bought another one. :-(

Here is my story.
http://lumberjocks.com/MT_Stringer/blog/series/6453

Good luck. Hope this helps.
Mike


----------



## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

It could be as the 7 Ps, prior proper planing prevents p#++ poor preformance?


----------



## Smitty_Cabinetshop (Mar 26, 2011)

One of the benefits of having a dedicated shop space is leaving open projects / tasks on the benchtop from one day to the next. It's when that task is done that everything gets put away, before the next task begins.

Everything does need a place to go, of course.

Fred's law of flat surfaces (they must never be bare/uncovered/visible) is so much like the Law of the Flat my dad and I have committed to memory: A cleared, flat surface will find itself covered in short order; it just will.


----------



## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

Actually I don't think the surface needs to be flat, or even level. If it approaches a horizontal posture of any kind the law states it shall be buried in something.


----------



## redesigningwood (Feb 13, 2016)

> My saw top and extension router wing are my work bench. If I wanna cut I must clean the bench .
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Dude. I thought i was bad! Thats awesome!


----------



## MadMark (Jun 3, 2014)

Yah, at least my shop is right side up lol

M


----------



## redesigningwood (Feb 13, 2016)

> Yah, at least my shop is right side up lol
> 
> M
> 
> - MadMark


Hehe, yea I tried to post from Iphone and it was flipped so I removed it


----------



## mojapitt (Dec 31, 2011)

There are many of us who don't have pristine shops. You don't find pictures of mine posted.


----------



## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

My bench isn't complete (98%) and it's already beat to hell and back and cut into the vise chop with a track saw.


----------



## JAAune (Jan 22, 2012)

Mine isn't pristine but it is organized. At the end of every job I try to come up with another organizational setup or system to make things smoother for subsequent jobs. Stacking projects on top of machines is a major no-no so if I see that happening, I know it's time for further improvement.

Common methods to accomplish this involve throwing out junk, removing unused tools or equipment from the work area and installing more shelves or hanging organizers.


----------



## conifur (Apr 1, 2015)

Live on a 36ft sail boat for a year, a place for everything and everything in its proper place.
My shop is the same, it is a mind set, now granted I dont put something away that I know I will be using on a project repetitively, but on my bench I have a miny tool board with my measuring and most used hand tools, a similar rack for my chisels. I find it unnerving and depressing when it is a mess, and I am Anal Retentive, but I hate hunting/looking for something, inefficient use of time!!! So for you others, time to see a good Therapist!!!


----------



## xeddog (Mar 2, 2010)

Mine gets so bad that every once in a while my wife (bless her heart) goes out and tries to clean things up. I think it's actually her way of telling me to make her something, but hey.


----------



## Finn (May 26, 2010)

When I was a young man starting in the sheet metal trade, I realized that I was spending five minutes to find the tool that I would then use for five seconds. I trained myself to put things back where they belong and I now use that experience in my woodshop and in my home. When I cannot put my hand on any tool I want, I stop what I am doing and start putting things in their places and in that way I find the tool I was looking for and the shop gets picked up. Now I do wade through sawdust on the floor for weeks at a time…...


----------



## bearkatwood (Aug 19, 2015)

For crying out loud Tom, do you hire a maid. How in the world do you keep a shop looking like that. I have to come watch you work. I know there has to be little elves helping put stuff away  very tidy shop. Looks very functional, I could destroy that with one project.


----------



## Nubsnstubs (Aug 30, 2013)

Tom, just paying for the drawer pulls broke my bank, then there's the cost of the slides at $7+ each. I counted 116 drawers…....... Man, that's a lot of drawers. Am I right on the count, or did I double count some?

What Mill is that in the second to last picture?

My saw is my workbench also. It's outdoors with no roof overhead. When it looks like it's going to rain, everything must come off the saw, put in the tool crib (living room), and the saw/workbench gets covered. Fortunately, I live in Arizona, so the saw is uncovered most of the year. ................. Jerry (in Tucson)


----------



## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

Tom,

I always enjoy looking at your shop….Nothing like being organized…..That's the way I like it…Having plenty of storage is the ticket…..


----------



## tomclark (Feb 16, 2010)

Brian, When you have a bench full of drawers at your fingertips, it is just as quick and easy to lay tools down in the drawer where they go as it is to pile up your bench and make a mess.

Jerry, The drawer pulls used to cost about .30 cents each in boxes of a hundred from Stanley. I bought two boxes, plus dozens more boxes for products I made. You can make your own wooden ones for pennies each. I never pay over $3 each for 22" self-closing drawer slides -even today. Shop on the net… The drawers work so well that it's like they float on air, so opening them is not a hassle.

Rick, Thanks. Being neat is just as easy as being a slob. Lots of shop photos here.


----------



## snowgoer (Feb 5, 2011)

I keep coming to this discussion for more ideas. Tom Clarks photos got me started making cabinets to go under my work benches. my thoughts are now, if you don't need a deep drawer for a particular tool, make shallow drawers or you will be right back to a clutter situation hidden by a drawer fronts (still can't believe Toms shop exists !)


----------



## drcodfish (Oct 17, 2015)

Two things for me:

1. I have and use a tool tray in my bench. A lot of people are down on tool trays because they encourage/support clutter. For me the tool tray is the 'tool motel' for the tools I know I will repeatedly need while I am working on a particular project. Once that project is out the door all the tools go back to their regular homes and we start over again.

2. I think the orientation and proximity of your equipment in the shop has a lot to do with how organized you are … or aren't. I have vertical shelving (sort of like Costco shelving) in the middle of my shop. This shelving is at my back when I am working at the bench and just off to the left and forward of my table saw. The chest high shelves hold the tools I am always reaching for (or looking for if I have forgotten to put them back on that shelf) like the tape measure, the steel ruler the squares, the pencil can the marking knife.

I have not yet built the chest of drawers for under my bench, (this year I SWEAR!) but when I do I will have a nice wide drawer deep enough to hold all this stuff (Except of course the pencil can)

'Organized' is relative, and for me it is a distant relative: I'm not good at it, doesn't come naturally to me, but I try to clean up and sort and organize at least a couple times a week.


----------

