Let's See Those Toolboxes & Workbenches!

[Nephasth]

We've seen tons of fine examples of craftsmanship in this hobby, but it wouldn't be possible without the tools! Show us what you're working with; toolbox, workbench, woodshop, paint booth, 5 gallon bucket with a rope... Where does your magic happen?

[Le Chuck]

Where does your magic happen?

Are you wanting pics of my bed or my shower?

[Nephasth]

 

[harveybirdman]

Cool thread, when I hit the shop this weekend I'll post some pics.  My dad came up with a nice trick to put casters on heavy table-saws etc, that otherwise were not structurally intended for them.

[ArcadeSeeker962]

PL1 referred me to these tools for working with crimping and quick disconnects:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00164C0KW/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i04

http://www.amazon.com/Klein-11046-Stripper-Cutter-Inches/dp/B0000302WS/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1336706197&sr=8-11

I'll be buying these eventually, but I would like to see what other members of the BYOAC forum think of the choices I made. I've been reading the Project Arcade Book, and it has been very helpful in all of my other decisions for my arcade cabinet.

[loz1962]

If this is what your looking for, then this is where the work happens when I can commandeer the conservatory. The 6ft round top is a removable mod  on top of a 4ft oval Oak table thats highly polished, and protected by a layer of foam rubber. The tool kit is the basics, but I have 6 other tool boxes scattered around the house ( small house). Trying to sneak another tool box in behind my missus back.

[Louis Tully]

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[spkywlnt73]

My work bench has been everything from my pooltable to a pair of saw horses with an old door layed across them! I'm interested in seeing some of these work stations/areas. Awesome idea for a thread Nephasth! I'll post some pics later of my current setup.

[Dawgz Rule]

Are you wanting pics of my bed or my shower?

Should be more careful drinking coffee when I read this stuff.  Too funny.  Now to clean up the mess.

[kahlid74]

Where does your magic happen?

I don't think there's a room in our house that isn't safe from magic happening.

When I get home I'll post pictures of workshop.

[TopJimmyCooks]

The Bureau of Wood Adjustment:



Half a 2 car garage, walled off from the other half.  The bench is the 2x4 based one from New Yankee Workshop plans, with shoulder vice/dog holes, cheapo face vice.  The box underneath has four drawers on the other side for small tools. 

Note the junior B.W.A. bench near the door as well.  Good for working on bartops.   

[mcseforsale]

My workshop is 1/2 of our 2 car garage.  The other half is taken up by my kids bicycles and my bicycles (yes...plural).

It's a bit messy in the middle of this build (about a month ago..), but I had just put away all the crap from my bench.  It's 6' x 3' laminate counter that I picked up from HD.  If I'm going to be jamming on something, I use the 3/4 plywood bench at the back wall.  

I have enough tools to rebuild a car...sans lift, and enough wood working tools to build my cabs, some fences..whatever.  My main hobby is and always will be building/refurbishing 80s BMX bikes.  I love building wheels from scratch (there's something cool about putting those weak parts together and coming up with something so strong...)



Leaning on the bench, watching the little man kick the crap outta bad guys in TMNT (heros on the half shell).



I turn these:



Into these:



AJ

[elkameleon]

OMG I want! That sure takes me back to my early 90's at the BMX track.

[Nephasth]

Great stuff guys! Keep it coming!

I was a diesel mechanic for a number of years, so my tools reflect that. My interest in woodworking is growing, and I'm envious of all of you with large selections of woodworking tools. Some day, some day...

I don't really have a specified work area, sometimes it's the kitchen table, sometimes it's a hotel room... But since we moved into our new house, the garage has been pretty handy.

Here's my box. I want to build a decent work bench for where the bikes and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- are sitting. The side locker is full of manuals and misc parts. I'll be throwing up some peg board behind the box soon. That little cabinet with all the little drawers... yup, filled with Molex.


Sockets.


Wrenches.


Pliers.


Drivers.


And too many specialty tools to post up...

[ArcadeSeeker962]

That's an amazing set of tools, Nephasth. It's a bummer that my family doesn't have a garage(we converted it into an apartment for my grandmother to live in). As long as this thread continues to stay active, I'll post a link to my final choice for the disconnect crimping tools, so that the members here can review my choice.

[smalltownguy]

I recently redid my entire work area. Moved my workshop into the furnace room of my basement, clearing my workshop and turning it into an aracde.

The resulting work area:

[BadMouth]

I'm amazed at the quality of the work guys like RyoriNoTetsujin and Martijn have turned out without much of a place to work.

[mcseforsale]

I'm amazed at the quality of the work guys like RyoriNoTetsujin and Martijn have turned out without much of a place to work.

+1,000,000

This ^^

AJ

[yotsuya]

I'm jealous of your storage space, guys. We're looking to move this year, and space for my stuff will be a big factor.

In the mean time, this is my "workspace":



Awesome tool setup there, Nephasth!

[TopJimmyCooks]

So true, I'm super impressed by the dedication to carry your project and tools and materials down flights of steps to an open air courtyard to work.  Props to all the shopless out there.  Or drive to a remote workspace.

Me:  Hmm.  I really need the porter plunge router for this job.  . . . I'd have to move the Pinball machine over two feet to get it off the shelf (pinball machine is on a wheeled dolly). . . . Maybe I can just use one of my other routers that happens to be laying on the back bench.  Its already plugged in and has some type of bit in it already, way to go!

Hmm.  I know I've got a perfect piece of wood for the project, on the lumber rack under two other boards, which are kinda heavy and which would  require me to take the stepladder down off the wall hook.  Oh well, this offcut I just stepped on, that's been on the floor of the shop for 3 months, will do quite well. . . . . . . .. . . . ... . . . . .

Hmm. the temperature is more/less that in my fondest hopes.  Let me turn on my dedicated fan/heater.

Hm . . . . . .  It's a nice/nasty day outside - let me open/close the garage door - wheres the clicker?

My shop spoiledness knows no bounds, but I do appreciate it.  I like to be able to let something lie ignored for a few months if it's pissing me off.  

[Nephasth]

  That gave me a bit of a chubby...

[Louis Tully]

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[yotsuya]

Nephasth - That's some mad organization. 

Yotsuya -  Dude. That's so badass it makes using a ruler and pencil seem wrong. 

This is what I used for the master file:

[Nephasth]

Now you HAVE to start a projet thread!

[yotsuya]

Those parts are for the jukebox I am building, an arcade sign, a cherry master machine, and replacement panels for my existing cabs.

I bought a 4ft x4ft sheet of metal for $25, and the shop teacher taught me how to use the plasma cutter. I tried to use every inch of that sucker.

[yotsuya]

PBJ-

I'm trying to convince him to buy a wood CNC machine for the wood shop! If I do, I'll trade you a custom cut Pac-Man for a pinball and case of beer.

[Rando]

Looks like some car guys above,
I have something to make you jealous: My Garage has a pit.

I have no automotive abilities, though I do have an old car.  Basement has 2 doors into the garage.  One is to a few stairs taking you up to the garage level, other is to a large pit that you can park your car over and access the undercarriage.

Wish I knew what I was doing so I could utilize it, right now it just accumulates bugs. 

[moknitro]

While I haven't actually built anything yet, I'm rather envious of you guys and your set ups. I was starting to build up a nice collection of tools until my tool box disappeared... At the moment I've got a table set up with a small vice and all my tools are in a rather large box. My garage has already been converted in a distribution centre/office for my house mate's business.

[Ond]

Great topic idea,  here's my set up.  The work bench I built from oak in 2005.



Here's some of my favourite tools to work with, some are good quality like the Metabo sander and the Triton saw while others are cheap like the two Ryobi routers,my drill press gets used often as does the Bosch hand drill. The Ryobi stuff may be cheap but it's never given me any trouble, the routers are just a bit underpowered.  One day I'll invest in a better router, maybe a Dewalt or a Metabo.  I had a Makita router I really liked, more powerful than the Rybobi's, it got used so much and got clogged with MDF dust that it burnt out .  The Dremel type tool is very handy too.  The PC under the bench is a P4 Dell I scored from work, in fact I scored 5 or 6 of these with monitors, they were all destined for the scrap heap as part of an IT refresh, there's nothing wrong with them at all and they make good test rigs for apps destined for my arcade projects. I shovelled as many as I could fit into my car boot on the day  
The high swivel chair I picked up at a Firestation bric-a-brac sale for $5.  The low roller stool comes in really handy when I'm sanding projects or working on stuff near to the ground.   Not pictured is my saw table with various fittings, one of the best investments I've ever made!

[Nephasth]

  The finish on that workbench is beautiful!

Nice floor jack too!

[TopJimmyCooks]

here's what I build in the shop between pinball projects:





Kayaks!  Man I need OND's swivel chair so badly!  and a workbench pc. 

[harveybirdman]

Our Shop, I say our because this is pretty much my inheritance


Shop 1 by harveybirdman1, on Flickr


Shop 2 by harveybirdman1, on Flickr


As I mentioned earlier Dad came up with a pretty clever idea to make the table saws and sanders mobile throughout the shop

Take one of these

Metal Beware by harveybirdman1, on Flickr

Add an extra bed frame and some cheap casters and...

Stable and mobile

Stable Saw by harveybirdman1, on Flickr

The wife is yelling at me, but I'll post my two FAVORITE tools.

First this thing is helping me fix router mistakes already, I have to come up with a sweet name for her

AWESOME Sander by harveybirdman1, on Flickr

And finally, this 12V lithium gem makes drilling and screwing almost better than sex

Better than sex drill by harveybirdman1, on Flickr

[Louis Tully]

.

[DaOld Man]

^^^^ + 1000

[eds1275]

Damn you guys and your workspaces. It's not that I have nowhere to work... but no storage outside so my tools live in the house, which means I have to clean them before bringing them through. I usually work in my yard, I have a pretty big lot so I just work in the yard. I plan to build a 10x13 workshop this year or next. Probably next. It's going to have some intense dust collection built in, lots of tool storage, and space for my 2 10 foot kayaks. Until then, I work outside when weather permits.

[kahlid74]

The unfinished part of our basement became my defacto workshop.  I built the first workbench and then realized quickly I ran out of room so I had to build a second.  At 6'5" every workbench I've ever been at is uncomfortable so I made these at a height of 40" so they would be more comfortable for me working at.

Here's the first workbench.  It's got my industrial touchscreen monitor in the wooden box for tunes in the workshop when I'm making magic.  Got the swivel monitor too in case I need to do computer stuff.  Table top is MDF with 4 coats of glossy wood stain giving it a plastic/rubber feel on the surface.


This is the second bench I built as I quickly ran out of space on the first.  I wound up then building a drill recharger/holder hanging on a cleat system since my drills were scattered all over the workshop lol.


Here's when you walk into the workshop from the finished part of the basement.  Miter saw is on a movable stand whose sides come up and hold steady for when cutting long pieces of lumber.  Starting of Battletech pod in the background as well as prototype 42" rotatable Showcase cab stand.



And the obligatory server rack and networking equipment shot:

[Woodshop Flunky]

here's what I build in the shop between pinball projects:





Kayaks!  Man I need OND's swivel chair so badly!  and a workbench pc. 

Nice work! 

It's really interesting to see what others are into besides the games.

[codefenix]

Here's the first workbench.  It's got my industrial touchscreen monitor in the wooden box for tunes in the workshop when I'm making magic.  Got the swivel monitor too in case I need to do computer stuff.  Table top is MDF with 4 coats of glossy wood stain giving it a plastic/rubber feel on the surface.

Is that an original Game Boy I see standing there next to the wood glue?   

[kahlid74]

Here's the first workbench.  It's got my industrial touchscreen monitor in the wooden box for tunes in the workshop when I'm making magic.  Got the swivel monitor too in case I need to do computer stuff.  Table top is MDF with 4 coats of glossy wood stain giving it a plastic/rubber feel on the surface.

Is that an original Game Boy I see standing there next to the wood glue?   

It's one of the many pieces of inspiration I have littered around my little shop.  It helps to drive me by remembering where I've been.

[Paul Olson]

Here are the only pics I could find. As usual, taking new pics would require a lot of cleaning.




Edit: I forgot to post a pic of the tools. This is a newer pic with the toolbox moved across from the workbench. Now just this back wall is for working, and the rest of the garage is arcade.