Pretty as a picture
As you know Ive been doing another shop upgrade, which is now completed. That, coupled with the timing of a family visit, has my shop looking too nice to work…
As you know Ive been doing another shop upgrade, which is now completed. That, coupled with the timing of a family visit, has my shop looking too nice to work in.
The latest (and probably last) upgrade was twofold, in that I needed it to look better for photography and to be better organized. That involved converting many cluttered open shelves to enclosed cabinets, and getting rid of years-old junk and simply eliminating other shelves. Two of the eliminated shelves used to hold some mismatched parts bins the cheap plastic kind with lots of little plastic drawers, half of which were cracked or broken, meaning that dozens of yogurt cups filled with screws and other fasteners were scattered all over those shelves.
Instead, I built a dedicated hardware and parts cabinet, and filled it with several dozen colorful plastic bins, each labeled as to its contents. The open cabinet is attached to the wall where a set of ugly junk shelves used to be. Everything is now very easy to find, and looks good to boot.
The shop upgrade, which began two weeks ago by painting the entire floor, just finished at about 2 oclock this morning. Please understand that Im not a clean freak, a fact that anyone who knows me will verify, but this was one of those once-in-two-years kind of total cleaning jobs. Right now, my shop is so clean you could eat off any surface in there.
The timing of all this happened to coincide with a visit from family later this week and, eager to show the shop to my dad in pristine condition, Ive been taking care of a hundred other things Ive been putting off in my office instead, keeping the shop looking great.
In fact, the shop looks almost too nice to work in, a rare occurrence. Its only temporary, though my current book project is on hold while family visits, but when they head back home, I head back out to the shop to start on a brand new, two-year, get-it-all-dirty-again cycle. The difference is that I now have more room, better organization, higher photo potential, and I can easily find any hardware, fastener or tool more easily than ever before.
I cant wait.
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
