Mark Wells - Bench Exchange

Hello,
Here’s my bench (by which I mean whole studio space). I was going to just post one picture of my main bench and soldering station, but I got looking at other people’s spaces and then got excited. My studio is a mix of proper tools and stuff that I Frankensteined together (mostly the organization stuff).


So this is my main work area. It’s made of an old banker’s desk that I added leg extentions to (to make it about 8" taller). My favorite tool is the Knew Concepts saw from RioGrande seen with my other saws hanging from a plastic cloths hanger holder. The Foredom (also RioGrande) is hanging from a wood dowel that is hanging from my lighting box (which is 6 pot lights all positioned just a bit out of sight. The pliers and cutters are hanging off of shelving support brackets–which worked really well for me. The gravers (which I can barely use) are in what used to be the stamp drawer and are held upright with some of the foam that was packing my rolling mill. Hammers in the lower left are held upright by a small strip of wood with v-shaped notches cut into it. Just to mention it: the white headed Delrin hammers are ones I made myself. Emery/sandpaper in the little papers folder (blue) just beside the hammers. The sweeps catch apron is a deer skin and it gets its shape from a length of electrical wire stiched around the edge.

A close-up of the bench top area. The purpleheart file holder is labeled with which shape the file is and the first row is a 2 cut and the back row is a 0. Behind that is a whole swack of drill bits and some saw blades.

My soldering station. The big grey disks on the desktop are steel cut-outs from some kind of industrial fan casing. The ventilation is provided by the big white machine under the desk (a Quatro Velocity X2). On the shelf to the left is my ultrasonic and Magnetic Pin Finisher (which is pretty new at this point but I like it so far).

My rolling mill on a home-made shelf (which is too tall and not bolted to the floor, but I already had it and I didn’t get around to making a new one). And my stump and ‘anvil.’ The anvil is (obviously) rail track–which I cut in half with an angle grinder. Don’t do that, and especially don’t do it in the shop. It made a horrible, horrible mess and took forever.

Awkwardly placed polisher unit and the most important things in my shop–that I’ve never used and hope never to use (the fire extinguisher and eye-wash station).

Any questions? Or advice/suggestions on how I can improve my setup?

2 Likes

Looks pretty good. Just put your buffer where you mill is then you just
need something strong for the mill. I can’t imagine cutting that track with
an angle grinder. You are obviously determined. Torch is the way to go. If
you get bored look up sheer for cutting railroad track.
Good shop!