A Clean Shop

[Chaz]

There is something to say for a clean shop.

Our showing season ends by 11/1. By that time, this year, my shop appeared more like a place where a bomb went off, than an actual, working, wood shop. To try to go from one end to the other, you might have thought you were taking your life in your hands. A special forces obstacle course pales in comparison to what I had. Virtually every horizontal surface was covered with crap, both useful and not. I decided that I would clean house, so to speak, at the end of our '23 season.

I decided to begin by planning out what would happen and in what order. I planned new locations for floor machines. Next would be clearing the floor of dirt, sawdust, scrap. Then clear the benches and start bringing order to tool chests, cabinets and drawers. Straighten up wood racks. Install new (to me) overhead dust filter. Continue until finished and start cleaning up after myself when actually wood working. Go.

The project, to date, is ongoing, and maintaining momentum.

It's really nice having a shop that's clean, when compared to last summer. I'm starting to feel like a craftsman, again. I'm starting to feel good about hosting an open shop in the Spring.

It's gonna be a good year.

 

[Mike Davis]

It's been a while since I saw my shop floor...

 

[J_Graham]

I tend to work in a constant state of mess, it's just what helps me thing and create. But everytime my in laws visit my FiL insists on at least sweeping out shavings even if he isn't going to be working out there haha.

 

[Chaz]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a CleanFreak. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

What prompted the cleanup was a desperate need for work space for setup and assembly, and to be able to walk between work stations without mishap. There were tools, somewhere, under all the detritus that needed finding. Something had to be done. So I went Rule 5 on it.

Now if I could figure out a way to rid myself of the spiders that leave web trails that attract clumps of dust and other lightweight froons, all over the ****ing place. Thoughts of simply burning the shop to the ground, with the spiders in it, have crossed my mind.

 

[ScottM]

Sometimes I get so tired of a dirty shop that I put on a good dust mask and grab my leaf blower. It doesn’t happen often.

 

[pop-pop]

Sometimes I get so tired of a dirty shop that I put on a good dust mask and grab my leaf blower. It doesn’t happen often.

I recently purchased a Ryobi workshop blower at Direct Tools. 18V, 3-speed, each speed variable

On Low range, at minimal speed, I can move shavings and sawdust without stirring up a cloud. Also nicely cleans under things where a broom or brush is clumsy.

Not on the Direct Tools website at the moment. I paid about $50. Homer’s lists it for $59.

 

[FredP]

A clean shop Is the sign of a sick mind.
Around here it's a pipe dream!

 

[smallboat]

Last year at this time I had to replace the furnace located in my garage shop. to make the job easier I moved all the floor machines, one bench, clamps and wood storage to one side of the 2-car space. It was a minor miracle.
I cleaned the whole shop before rolling things back, some to new improved locations.
Having unencumbered access to everything motivated me to hit some back burner projects.

Now it’s hard to tell it ever happened, but I do have a couple projects on a holiday timeline that will force me to whip things back into shape. And the shop improvements are here to stay

 

[pcooper]

I clean two or three times a year....forget which years I did that though.... It's been a while since I did a deep clean, maybe never really, but I do sweep the floor often. I've seen shops that look like no one has ever cut a board in them, and some that look like they would go up in flames with one stray spark, mine's somewhere halfway in the middle.... I hope.

 

[danmart77]

There is something to say for a clean shop.
Chaz

Yea ... you're not building to meet a deadline.

 

[Keye]

Sometimes I get so tired of a dirty shop that I put on a good dust mask and grab my leaf blower. It doesn’t happen often.

The leaf blower has become my best friend.

 

[Chaz]

Yea ... you're not building to meet a deadline.

Actually, I am.

 

[Martin Roper]

The leaf blower has become my best friend.

I just upgraded from an 18v Ryobi 90 cfm model that I paid $29.95 for years ago to an 18v Ryobi brushless, 450 cfm one. It's one of their "Whisper" series and is surprisingly quiet. It was $159.95 at HD, so I got almost exactly the same cfm : $ ratio more than a decade later.

Pretty much all the weight is aft of the handle and when I first held it with a battery in place I thought the balance was really bad because the nozzle was pointed up, well above horizontal. Then I pulled the trigger and the force of the air rotated the nozzle downward. Push the "turbo" button and it rotates even more. I thought I might need to go to a 40v model to get this much power, but this will do everything I need it to do.

Now I have to be a lot more careful when I do a garage blowout.

 

[pop-pop]

I recently purchased a Ryobi workshop blower at Direct Tools. 18V, 3-speed, each speed variable

On Low range, at minimal speed, I can move shavings and sawdust without stirring up a cloud. Also nicely cleans under things where a broom or brush is clumsy.

Not on the Direct Tools website at the moment. I paid about $50. Homer’s lists it for $59.

Here’s a poor video showing this workshop blower on range 1 barely pressing the trigger.

IMG_4782.mov

Ryobi Workshop Blower video

ncwoodworker.net

 

[petebucy4638]

A clean shop Is the sign of a sick mind.
Around here it's a pipe dream!

If you are a woodturner, and you don't have at least 1' of shavings on the floor, you aren't working hard enough.

 

[bob vaughan]

If you are a woodturner, and you don't have at least 1' of shavings on the floor, you aren't working hard enough.

That's not an exaggeration

 

[petebucy4638]

That's not an exaggeration


View attachment 223798

That’s more like it!

 

[kelLOGg]

What's that thing in your hand?