I just finished the semi-annual deep cleaning of my shop. It hadn’t been done since well before I spent the summer getting ready for a big fall show and a very busy Christmas season. I need a new vacuum cleaner. Not much has changed since I last posted shop shots. There are some new shelves over the sink and polishing hood and electrical equipment for niobium coloring and electroforming. Following is a link to new pictures of my shop if you want to take a look. Hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year…Rob
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Rob, Great Shop!!! I like how you have it arranged with very specific work areas and I really like your pull-out Draw Bench too, Great Idea! Thank you for sharing your Shop with all of us!
Great looking shop! Looks like everything has its place.
Hi Rob!
Happy New Year!
So funny, i just did my annual studio cleaning today too!
my shop is teeny, and i keep most things in tackle and tote boxes, so I mainly just have to dust…and vacumn…
the tiny space weirdly was a library…floor to ceiling library shelving…but! there is a library ladder, so thats good…but the benched hinder its use, so thats bad…i used 10 swiffers!…i wash them and reuse!
julie
For me, I reach a point where I just have to reset. Once clean and organized, there is the period of time where I have to rediscover where everything is. I wish that I could just swiffer. I am looking at vacuum cleaners right now because the old one is toast. I share the cellar with two cats and their litter box, so I put a lot of time on my vacuum cleaning up after them. I am looking at cleaners that allow me to separate what I pick up and return some of it to the refiner. One of my best purchases recently was a pile of shop towels from Costco. I think that it was 50 for $22. They are just the right size for most purposes and I just rinse them out in my shop sink and wash them when there are enough dirty towels to justify a wash load. I have always used old bath towels and they are just too big and fall apart. Sounds like you have an interesting shop space. I would love to have a window or two and even a door to go outside, but then I would be challenged to get my shop dark enough for annealing and some soldering operations. If we ever build another house, it will have first floor space for my shop. I also play with identifying the most active parts of my shop and designing a scaled back version that could be installed in a much smaller space should we ever move to some sort of “facility”. Since we are 73 and 74, this is much more likely than building a new house. Hope you are enjoying your holidays. We could always have been in Buffalo. What a mess. I went to the University of Buffalo and I know what winter can come up with there, but this storm was an outlier…Rob
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Lovely shop! It looks great. And so clean too.
An old gold/platinum smith friend of mine once said “A dirty shop is a shop that is loosing money.” Just think of all of those metal laden “sweeps” that don’t get refined and reused. Like you when ever I start a new piece I clean my bench. It helps “comb my mind” and gives me a fresh perspective on the new project. Sadly my husband Tim doesn’t care. And the cats are total slackers too. I get anxious and unable to concentrate when surrounded by clutter and dirt, so the cleaning and organizing falls to me. As for the issues I see that other folks have mentioned the issue in their replies I have a couple of tips. We have a “Wall Mount Shop.Vac.” https://www.toolsource.com/vacuums-c-370_381/5-gallon-wall-mount-vacuum-p-132909.html It’s affordable takes up very little room and has a really long hose. Our studio is about 800 sq ft and it reaches all of it.
As for the issue of pets. Like many of us we share a studio with our cats.
The same friend who gave me the quote about a dirty shop shared his choice of a cat litter trapper. https://www.chewy.com/iprimio-cat-litter-trapper-ez-clean/dp/134598?g It’s da bomb. I got one and it really and truly works. It is two layered with a honey combed top. I splurged and go the Jumbo one. I’m thinking about getting another smaller one to put at the bottom of the basement stairs for Tim and I to use to help trap any floor sweeps on our shoe soles that may have metal in it.
-Jo …who now has to get to the bench.
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I just finished the 2023 semi annual cleaning of the shop. I like to take a series of pictures after each cleaning to compare to the previous one. There is a link below if you want to see them. This was a deep cleaning where all the floor joists above my shop were dusted for cobwebs, heat ducts dusted, overhead pipes and wiring too. Then the usual removal of everything from all the shelves and then the shelves were dusted and cleaned. Cleaned out the polisher vac and cyclone for swarf that can be refined. All new chemicals after the containers were cleaned. The only thing new from the last cleaning is a magnetic pin finisher. You can see it in one of the pictures. We are ready to go in 2024. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I look forward to hearing all about your jewelry adventures next year…Rob
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I forgot, I installed a new vent over my casting bench…Rob
I wore out a brand new vacuum doing this job. I need a recommendation for a good, small portable shop vac with a long hose and filter system that will either allow me to collect the debris or a filter that I can send to the refinery. Oh, most of what I vacuum up in my shop is cat hair and cat litter, then the usual jewelry shop dirt…Rob
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Hi,
i need one too! thanks for the shop update. you reminded me that i only have a week left to clean my shop!
so, is the bench to the left of the welder your casting bench?
and, what are the two units on either side of the magnetic pin finisher?
julie
It is a kind of all purpose bench where I try to do anything that will need to be vented to include casting, resin work and boiling pickle. The two units either side of the pin finisher are an ultrasonic cleaner on the left and a rectifier on the right to work on reactive metals…Rob
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Hi,
cool tools!
i am heading out to the studio with a box of swifter dusters!
i need so many…i wash them and reuse!
floor to ceiling library shelves…the one time of year i dont prefer them🤣
julie
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