My shop looks like a bomb went off lol
I got a great old rolltop for my birthday. I feel so bad altering it, but it’s so much more sturdy. I’m still struggling w the need for a separate power box for my shop and extra plugs. Any advice would rock.
A shop is very personal place. It represents your growth as an artist and reflects your approach to how you go about expressing yourself in whatever medium(s) you choose to work. Some of us are very specific about what we do and our shops are fairly simple in layout. Others of us chase interests and obsessions as they pop into our brain adding one more pile of “stuff” to help us explore that interest or obsession. Since retiring, I have tended to be the later as I have a lot of time and don’t make a living from my shop. However, I need to keep my shop very organized with everything in the right place. This comes from the fact that, prior to retiring, I was very busy with my career and went long periods of time away from my shop with very brief opportunities to use it. As a result, I had to keep it ready to use on a moments notice. The roll top looks like a great place to work. One of my benches was a large school teacher’s desk for a long time. Since you are posting on the Bench Exchange, you have had a chance to look at other artist’s shops. There is also a great book called “The Jeweler’s Bench Book” by Charles Lewron Brain. There are lots of good ideas in it. If I might make one suggestion it would be to but up more heavy duty shelves where you can store tools and supplies that you don’t use all the time. This will free up bench space and these tools and supplies will be where they should be when you need them rather than just moved out of the way for a project that doesn’t need them. Good luck…Rob
I finally got a little bit of order down there and now I’m fabricating the pieces that I need to make this into a good bench. I’m stuck on the engraving block holders since I currently can’t afford the GRS one at the moment so I’m trying to figure out a way to fabricate one.
Hi Kimberly,
I got a mini engraving ball and a bunch of stone setting tools and gravers a while ago and I’ve perched the ball on my bench pin a couple of times…which, as you know, is way too high, so I’ve thought about making an adjustable height shelf for the ball, too. I don’t think it should be too hard to do. You could use wood or a fairly thick acrylic sheet or even some aluminum sheet metal, which would be more expensive than the other two materials. My bench is an old watchmakers bench which has been reinforced with some heavy wood in the front, so there isn’t a problem mounting the shelf to something very sturdy. I just have to drill some holes in the right places so they don’t cover the bench pin slot or the hole for my mandrel and decide what kind of bolts or T-nuts or whatever I’m going to use to fasten the thing with. Adjustable height, with mutilple holes, like the GRS. I’ll take it as a challenge to figure out something cheap, and fairly good looking that functions well. I’m sure you can do the same!
-royjohn
Hi,
what about using your sweeps drawer as part of ball vise height solution…ie: put piece of wood over the top of it…or create a block to put in it…to create a surface for your ball vise
i have been looking for a adjustable height screw top stool to use…i saw a pic of someone using it for chasing and repousse…
needs to be tight…cannot wobble…
julie