Aaron W's workspace infrastructure projects.

[aaronw]

Project 510's thread on his workspace inspired me to get to work on some of my own.

I'll use this post to cover my current model related support projects as well as some past ones. Home built tools, storage, jigs what have you. Everything short of actual models / model parts.  


I'll start off with a couple of past projects, some very simple, some more involved. I may have posted some of these older projects in other threads, but reposting since they fit the theme and I can collect everything into one place.


Glue holder

I made this one about 20 years ago. After dumping a couple bottles of glue in quick succession, I went to the hardware store and cobbled together a holder to give the tippy bottles more stability. Just a PVC pipe cap, a plastic electrical box cover and a dab of 5 min epoxy.
No more spilled bottles of glue.

 


After my last move (2012) the old one went missing so I made a new and improved version using a PVC slip fit to threaded reducer and a galvanized pipe flange as a base.

 



When I started building with styrene sheet, I made up a cutting guide, using a coated (Formica?) wood round and two squares. One square is screwed down to hold the plastic sheet in place, the other is loose to act as the cutting guide. I made this over 20 years ago, and it still sees a fair bit of use.




 
Scratch building supplies organizer

I came up with this one about 10 years ago. I got tired of rooting through my box of plastic, brass and aluminum whenever I was making something. I bought some 2" and 3" ABS pipe, and made a base from a pine board. , I've got 6 tubes of 3" ABS for the various styrene rod, strip, tube, and shapes. Behind those are 4 tubes of 2" ABS for the brass and aluminum rod, tube and strips. I have dividers on the side to help separate the various sheet stock. The last row goes the full length behind the tubes allowing extra long 24" sheet to be stored.   




Of course we always need a place to show off our creations. This is a display case I made in 2013 or 2014.

[aaronw]

A paint rack I made a long time ago. It is not up to my current standards but I only had a handsaw at the time and hadn't done any woodworking in several years. Not super pretty but it worked, and shows the value of that evergreen school wood shop project, the spice rack.

I made the base wider for stability and used the backside for storing extra tall bottles, mostly glue and Alclad metallic paints.

I has done a good job and is still serving on my bench.

[handiabled]

Some great looking organizers and display you created. I really like the cutting guide idea!

[aaronw]

Paint spray booth

I built this in 2010, and it is still going strong. After pricing pre-made booths and seeing many used minimally adequate fans I decided to make my own with a 450cfm blower (about twice that airflow of most booths of similar size).
The filter is a standard HVAC air filter, cheap and easily acquired at just about any hardware store. I use old desk calendars as a liner for the bottom of the booth. These were readily available to me at work, with whole unused calendars from the previous year often being tossed out. 

 




Behind the filter I made a plenum (the holey board) this is supposed to help make the air flow more even instead of being focused on the center where the main fan intake sits. There is a lip for the filter, but I have found no need to secure it, the air flow holds it in place and it has shown no sign of wanting to fall out of place even when the fan is not running.



It has a working area of 24" wide by 20" deep. I sized it with the idea I could fit a complete 1/72 B-36 fuselage (minus wings) or a single wing into the booth which was about the largest subject I could see myself building. I had originally planned to enclose the opening more to improve the fume extraction, but that has proved unnecessary, and having the large open area has been helpful.



The heart of the beast, a 450cfm shaded pole blower (aka squirrel cage). This type of blower sort of resembles a water wheel, and leaves the motor completely out of the air flow. It accounted for about 2/3 the cost of the paint booth, explaining why many of the commercial paint booths for modelling have smaller fans. When I made this I think I spent about $200 total, with the fan costing about $120.




and as it sits today at the end of my bench


 

[TJ]

Excellent use of things that you wouldn't think of. I like the glue bottle holder and evergreen organizer

[Leon]

Those are some great looking projects Aaron!

[project510]

Great stuff Aaron! Love the spray booth and your display case! I've been thinking about building my own case and using the fans from current booth. Cant wait to see more!

[Tojo72]

Your additions look great

[aaronw]

Thanks, and I hope this may inspire others to spruce up and organize their spaces as 510s thread has with me. 



Enough with the old projects for now. I've started a new project. 

Over the past few years "life happened" and my modelling space has just turned into a mass of "I'll just put this here for now". After years of this it is now pretty much an unusable mess. Watching 510 rehabilitate his area got me looking at mine, and I got some ideas.

Weather and free time has delayed my getting started, but this week I did finally get started. The rain has gone but it has been replaced with stupid hot, so I've been limited to only a few hours a day of working in the morning and evening, but progress is progress.


Older photo of my work bench when you could actually see it... A neat freak, I am not. 

When we moved here in 2012 my Wife and I each claimed a room for our hobby spaces. Up to that time at best I had only had a small table in the corner of a room. Excited to have a whole room, I built these workbenches shortly we moved in.
I always liked the idea of having working area "in the round". Not really practical to do a full 360, so I settled for a J shape. The long bench on the left is broken into "task areas". The idea being to have an area dedicated to scratch building, soldering, spray painting (paint booth is out of view but at the far end of the lefthand bench). In practice this has kind of worked, they do collect stuff. 





The tip of the "J" or wing on the right was originally supposed to be a space where a visitor (Wife, one of the kids, my Dad when visiting) could work on something, but in practice that hasn't worked out. Even in this photo you can see the inevitable any flat space creep. Instead the guest area has just been clearing a spot on the bench on the lower left side of the photo, the few times there has been a need. 


The underside of this wing has become a huge junk magnet, so I've decided since there really isn't a need for leg space there anymore I'm going to build a storage unit under the desktop with drawers and shelves.


I have a habit of changing my mind on the fly, so this drawing is what is in my head right now. Not to scale and other than the outer dimensions which are solidly established it is very much subject to change as I make it.


My thought is to have it double sided, with a space on the inside devoted to storage of sheet goods like sand paper, as well as other small items that are handy to have close by, but not on the bench top. I have many small shoe box sized totes I keep my stalled projects in. The long inside shelves will be for these totes as they will not be super easy to get at, but they are stalled projects, and don't need to be easy access.

The outside I'm looking at a shelf for smaller books, and misc storage space. I may move one of my 3D printers over to this area so having some drawers and shelves should be useful.  

[aaronw]

and on to the actual work.

I do have a covered small woodworking area, but small spaces and cramming stuff into every nook and cranny leads to doing larger projects in the driveway. Breaking down full sheets of plywood is always a driveway task, even when I don't have a mess in the shop area.


The tracksaw was a Christmas present. First chance I've had to use it and I'm liking it. Much cleaner cuts than my old circular saw. It is also a slower speed motor than traditional circular saws and made specifically for cutting metal, but with the multi-material blade it cuts wood as well.
Making small pieces from big pieces.







Starting to take shape




Cutting some of the shelves. The track saw is nice for bigger pieces, but a table saw is still the king for long thin boards. I'm rehabilitating a older better quality table saw, but this one has been with me a long time and still does the job so long as I take my time and ensure the fence is straight. I treated the saw to a brand new blade specifically for this project. 

As can be seen from the clutter in the background, another project on the list is reorganizing the wood shop... So much stuff, so little space.



Fitting the long "stalled" project shelves. The "back board" is just a slip fit for now to help keep it all square.



Tacked with the nail gun, and clamped while the glue dries.
  

and wrapping it up for last night as the light is going. Back piece popped out so I can add some glue to the backside of the shelves, before refitting the back side.




and back to the grindstone. 

[Medicman71]

Very nice work! Can't wait to see the finished product.

[aaronw]

Going to have to put this on hold for a bit. I'll be working out of town for two weeks, leaving today. I was going to try and get some more work done on it yesterday, but my wife wanted to spend some time with me before I go.



I'm not going to complain that she still wants to hang out with me after 25 years. 

[project510]

Congrats on 25 years and on making progress. I did the same thing. a few hours here a few there. Next thing you know you have a usable space. It will all come together eventually. Good luck!

[406 Silverado]

Jun 26, 2024 13:56:27 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Going to have to put this on hold for a bit. I'll be working out of town for two weeks, leaving today. I was going to try and get some more work done on it yesterday, but my wife wanted to spend some time with me before I go.
I'm not going to complain that she still wants to hang out with me after 25 years. 

    Totally understand that Aaron. My wife does the same thing and it's a good thing. There for a while I was spending around 30 ish hours a week on the forum when we got it back up and running in late 2022 and then time at the bench which was an additional 4-5 hours per week. As you can probably imagine...she started wondering where she fit into the picture of my free time.    I took the hint before it graduated to the next stage of...

Now that the place is up and running for the most part, we've started spending a LOT more time together. We went to Bandera, Tx for 4 days and had a total BLAST together. 

Lots of good ideas going on in here. Inspiring stuff bro. 

[TJ]

Ooh a track saw.....me likey

[project510]

Jun 26, 2024 15:16:59 GMT -5 TJ said:

Ooh a track saw.....me likey

Haha I thought the same thing. 

[kyledehart5]

Good stuff!! This is a great start you've got going there. If I ever get the chance to have some dedicated hobby space then I'm going with a J or U shape too. I like to be able to spread out and have my work surround me. Not at all feasible in my current situation, but thats ok.

[handiabled]

Cool! I'll be watching to see how it all comes together

[aaronw]

Jun 26, 2024 15:16:59 GMT -5 TJ said:

Ooh a track saw.....me likey

After watching a couple of videos on track saws last night, I guess technically is is a circular saw with a track... Apparently "proper" track saws have a plunge feature which this saw does not have.

All I know is it was half the price of even a cheap track saw and it is working quite nicely for me. The build quality of the saw and track is quite good and the only real disadvantage I can see compared to others is dust collection, since it has a wide open guard common to circular saws instead of the more enclosed blade of a plunge type track saw. I can buy a lot of brooms with the hundreds of dollars saved. 


This is the saw if you are interested.

Evolution R185CCSX+

[project510]

If it rides on a track designed to fit the saw... its a track saw. Circular saws can make plunge cuts its just a bit more.. interesting lol.

[TJ]

Jun 28, 2024 5:19:55 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Jun 26, 2024 15:16:59 GMT -5 TJ said:

Ooh a track saw.....me likey

After watching a couple of videos on track saws last night, I guess technically is is a circular saw with a track... Apparently "proper" track saws have a plunge feature which this saw does not have.

All I know is it was half the price of even a cheap track saw and it is working quite nicely for me. The build quality of the saw and track is quite good and the only real disadvantage I can see compared to others is dust collection, since it has a wide open guard common to circular saws instead of the more enclosed blade of a plunge type track saw. I can buy a lot of brooms with the hundreds of dollars saved. 


This is the saw if you are interested.

Evolution R185CCSX+

It seems to do the job.  And you do most of your sheet breakdown outside so who cares about dust collection.  I'm currently using one of those Kreg Accu-Cut jigs. Its ok but.......

[406 Silverado]

Jun 28, 2024 5:19:55 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Jun 26, 2024 15:16:59 GMT -5 TJ said:

Ooh a track saw.....me likey

After watching a couple of videos on track saws last night, I guess technically is is a circular saw with a track... Apparently "proper" track saws have a plunge feature which this saw does not have.

All I know is it was half the price of even a cheap track saw and it is working quite nicely for me. The build quality of the saw and track is quite good and the only real disadvantage I can see compared to others is dust collection, since it has a wide open guard common to circular saws instead of the more enclosed blade of a plunge type track saw. I can buy a lot of brooms with the hundreds of dollars saved. 


This is the saw if you are interested.

Evolution R185CCSX+

  I've got something pretty similar that I picked up around 12 years ago off of the MAC truck only it's the Dewalt 20volt version. Handy tool to have around the house....especially being cordless. 

[aaronw]

Got a little more progress done.

Added some shelfs to the inside, I'll use these for sand paper and similar. Still debating what to do on the bottom. 



and a shelf on the outside. Again not 100% decided for the lower area. Probably books or magazines, never have enough shelves for those.

The large open area on the right will be some drawers at the top and space for books and magazines at the bottom.




Starting the drawers. Trying something different that I've seen done. Simple wood runners instead of drawer slides. The bottom will stick out past the sides, and I'll add blocks to the inside of the unit for the drawers to slide in.








 

[kyledehart5]

Very cool!! Great work going on here

[TJ]

Some really cool ideas

[project510]

Sweet sweet progress. I assume this means the weather has been a bit better? Cool stuff Aaron!

[aaronw]

Jul 21, 2024 19:50:05 GMT -5 project510 said:

Sweet sweet progress. I assume this means the weather has been a bit better? Cool stuff Aaron!

Yeah it dropped back under 100 this week, so other than mid day when the driveway is in full sun it was tolerable to get some work done. That 110+ weather is for the lizards. 

[TJ]

Jul 21, 2024 23:25:12 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Jul 21, 2024 19:50:05 GMT -5 project510 said:

Sweet sweet progress. I assume this means the weather has been a bit better? Cool stuff Aaron!

Yeah it dropped back under 100 this week, so other than mid day when the driveway is in full sun it was tolerable to get some work done. That 110+ weather is for the lizards. 

We haven't hit 100 yet. But the 95 ish with 90% humidity makes it hot.  I'm outside all day delivering the mail so I'm sweating off my sweat. Then I can get back in my mail truck which averages about 125-130 degrees with no AC of course.

[aaronw]

Jul 22, 2024 4:32:33 GMT -5 TJ said:

Jul 21, 2024 23:25:12 GMT -5 aaronw said:

Yeah it dropped back under 100 this week, so other than mid day when the driveway is in full sun it was tolerable to get some work done. That 110+ weather is for the lizards. 

We haven't hit 100 yet. But the 95 ish with 90% humidity makes it hot.  I'm outside all day delivering the mail so I'm sweating off my sweat. Then I can get back in my mail truck which averages about 125-130 degrees with no AC of course.

Yeah humidity is a real thing, I've been to the south, I couldn't live with 60% + humidity.

The hottest day so far was 114 but it was also very dry. The humidity only hit 8% that day.

[aaronw]

I actually finished this a couple weeks ago, but was in a rush to get it done before heading out of town for work again I was literally loading the car as paint was drying. Paint on the outer surfaces grey stain on the inside. I find latex paint always feels slightly tacky with heavy items like books. Stain doesn't seem to do that and dries much more quickly than enamel paints.