Orgainizing Your Workspace (56K warning)

[demonstar]

How do some people work with it so untidy? 

[~arph]

 

I see I'm not the only one drilling enclosures on the floor indoors..while having a nice shed around the back 
Recently I've been trying to apply the rule that every day when I'm finished on the breadboard I put all unused component back where they belong. This has helped me a lot keeping my desk space clean and I wouldn't have thought it.. made me much more efficient. 

[sean k]

My excuse is, and it's pretty pathetic, is that the local possum crashes up in the roof so I don't want to disturb him, oops no its a she, I don't want to disturb her during the day. But summers on its way and I haven't cleaned up out there for years so I'm planning to get in there and sort it all out by christmas. Be good to be back where the drill press is just around the corner.

[ConanB]

Took some pics of my little work den on the weekend...



My attempt at organising my most used parts:




My trusty drill press:

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Conan, I hope your 'trusty' GMC drill press is trustier than any of my GMC rechargable drills were...

[ConanB]

Damn, now you have me worried 
So far so good, only issue I've had is to do with the cheap step bits I bought.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Don't worry, the GMC stuff is made in all different factories. My cheap Chinese drill press has worked fine for years. It's the batteries in those *&^% drills that went bad.

[sean k]

As soon as you buy cheap stuff pull it apart and load the mechanical with grease. They kinda skimp on that for some reason so if you load them up they'll last for years.

[runmikeyrun]

conan b, that pic of Bender is definitely warranted!!  I have felt that way so many times.  I have a picture of Doc Brown from Back To The Future on my bench.

My workbench is bipolar- i have a large thingie of little drawers where everything is neatly organized, a bunch of stuff in the appropriate boxes, even a file folder similar to Kurts, to hold schems, rub on transfers, etc and then i have a ton of crap scattered everywhere! 

Two of the best investments i ever made-

1.  One of those little vises that clamps to your bench.  It tilts, swivels, and is extremely handy for holding multiple strands of wire for tinning, re-soldering 1/4" plugs, and holding perf/vero while soldering.  Next purchase- one of those magnifying glasses with the two movable clips.

2.  Two 4 ft fluorescent fixtures.  They are $10 from home depot and i just screwed a couple of eyescrews into the ceiling.  They have a 5 ft long standard 3 prong plug so you don't have to hard wire them in, just use an extension cord.  I used to have one fixture, now i have two.  The extra light really takes away from fatigue, it was unbelievable how tired i was getting because i was squinting all the time, and how many mistakes i was making from not being able to see what i was soldering.  Plus it makes finding dropped parts easier.  Each fixture has a standard and a "daylight" full spectrum bulb in it.  The regular bulbs are brighter and lets you see more clearly, the other ones make it easier on your eyes after a couple hours.  I work in a basement with no natural light, if you're by a window during the day then disregard.

[ConanB]

conan b, that pic of Bender is definitely warranted!!  I have felt that way so many times.  I have a picture of Doc Brown from Back To The Future on my bench.

Yeah the Fry pic has been there for a while, back when I was getting extremely frustrated with a home coding project that was driving me mad!

I have another copy of that exact same pic signed by the voice actor Billy West when I met up with him when he did some work for us. Funny guy.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

2.  Two 4 ft fluorescent fixtures. 

Yep, exactly what I have here - but mine were from a dumpster of course 
And the older you get, the more you need a lot of light.
One reason: with more light, your pupils shrink, and you get a greater depth of field, so you don't need to duck your head around trying to keep stuff in focus.

[John Lyons]

Here is a about 1/4 of my workshop.
Yeah, I need to clean!



EDIT: I just have this one pic for now...fixed

[Auke Haarsma]

For some reason I can' t see your pics John.

[foxfire]

i'll be moving over the next month or so from my less than 800sq.' rental that i share with my lady to a 3 bedroom house. it is/was her grandfathers place. it also has a separate 2 car garage with a work shop in the back. he used to carve duck decoys so it's a nice sized little room with another room for storage off to the side. i'm super excited about the whole garage thing but, there is also a hobby room set up in the basement so i'll have a ton of room to spread out. the only down side is how much stuff i'll have to go through and sort out just to be able to get my stuff setup. granted i'll have at least one of every single washer/nut/bolt/grommet/bent nail/piece of rope/gasket/and thing i've never seen before that has been made in the last 50 years. i can't wait to get in there with my stuff. the idea of being able to work on a pedal whenever i want without waking my lady up is just too much.

John, if we use the "finders keepers" rule i'll help you clean up your shop?
rylan

[sean k]

Cool workspace John!

Isn't it funny how no matter how many more tables we fit in they always end up covered in stuff and we still can't find a decent place to work. It seems ones ability to start new projects is always in advance of one space to do them in.    

[jimosity]

I don't have a picture of mine, but I picked up a bunch of these style units; only mine has like 26 slots for parts...
I found them at Meijer in both the tools section and in the scrapbooking / crafts aisle (I guess they can be used to hold beads too).

These work GREAT for all my different capacitors.

I like the 60 unit stand up parts bins with slide out drawers for resistors a little better though.

[ConanB]

I use both of those types of containers. The drawers for easy access parts such as resistors, cap,s common transistors etc, and the flat lid-top one for jacks, LEDS, switches etc

[jakehop]

Wow, I would really like to have a cool basement workshop like you guys have.

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's very expensive to live here (I pay around 900USD a month to live here in the centre), so I can't afford to get an industrial basement anywhere near where my bike will take me. So I had to make the best of the situation, and "redecorate" my walk-in closet. Yes, there is a drillpress in there.

Kind regards, Jake

[jakehop]

That way, I can hide my evil projects when I'm not working and plotting for world domination 

[asfastasdark]

Jake, what guitar is that in the second picture? A PRS? It's beautiful!