Joanne Box - Bench

My work room is in a spare bedroom. I chose a U shaped layout so I can easily swivel my chair to each work station as needed. It is late in the day and overcast outside but I usually have a lot of natural light with the window, skylight and a high ceiling.

I repainted and reorganized this room about two years ago along with adding the Harbor Freight bench. I made the wooden shelves for the 6" table I used prior to this bench and like how they now fit. I added some IKEA magnetic utensil strips to keep my most used tools at hand. I get lost when I have too much clutter on my work space and find these strips a no fuss means to store tools versus racks. The bit holder in the drawer is a cardboard cat scratching pad refill. It can be cut to any shape and is the perfect height for this shallow drawer. No more lost bits and wheels.

I re-purposed an old computer desk for my soldering station and use the pullout keyboard to store solder. I used lag screws to attach the vise to a short board but not to the desk. It is heavy enough to stay in place and if extra leverage is required I can use a c-clamp to secure it to the table. It can be pushed to the side in case I need more open space.

My treat this year was the GRS Benchmate Stone-Setter system. Using Jett Ballistic Fixturing Compound to make fixtures to hold odd shaped items in the holder also makes setting stones a breeze. I now wish I would have purchased them much sooner. The majority of my tools and supplies come from @RioGrande.

I bolted my bench shear to a scrap 2"x10" board. This allows me to exchange it in place of the vise and can be secured with a c-clamp when cutting heavier metals.

I used to have my lapidary machines in this room too but decided to move them to the garage when I redid this room. It now stays a lot cleaner in here.

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