In between doing various other things, today, I spent some time getting photos "more organizee" so I could explain how I built myself a secondary work surface, in a corner of a bedroom. There wasn't much space, and what was there needed a custom-shaped workbench surface ... which explains this next image:
Photo A is a bit out of strict order, actual-sequence-wise (it's from about a week ago; not "at the start") ... but most people may not notice that from the details; and it's probably the best photo I have, as far as showing how the actual shape is basically a standard rectangle, which has had one long "corner" removed.
The main reason for wanting a non-rectangle is that I've slept in this bedroom for a dozen years now, and tried one desk or bench or portable table after another in the one-and-only place where such things could possibly fit into that room ... and anything square isn't a big enough work surface; and anything rectangular wants to bang the heck out of one's knees, entering or exiting the room. (Or worse, far more delicate parts: since desk corners tend to be at crotch height!?!)
Besides the slight oddness of the "as viewed from above" shape of the work surface, there's another major complication I threw in: I didn't want "legs" on this workbench, if I could help it. So, I basically had to either invent some gravity-defying machinery to hold the surface up ... or bolt supports to the corner walls.
Photos B, C, D, and E show how I've had that set up, mainly just for testing purposes, for most of a year now. I mainly wanted to know if I'd kill myself, or not, when entering or exiting the room. It passed that test, after a few minor adjustments ... so now it's time to make that a more permanent, useful work surface.
For anyone wondering: that chunk of used plywood used to be a closet door or something, from upstairs, that I'd cut roughly to shape, long ago (and then later did a bit of refining on) ... and then just plopped the board on top of a portable table. Gravity was the only support. That didn't make it very usable, except as a big shelf for holding clutter ... but even doing that was a step in the right direction, as having it in the room let me know if shape-and-size would work well.
A big part of the reason for showing that first image, which showed the custom-shaped board when it was just leaning up against a wall, was because camera distortion in most other images, makes it really hard to figure out the true shape. Looks more complicated than it is, or a different size or proportions, in some of these other shots ... hence showing that "overhead view" angle, first. Anyway ... moving on, to more recent work: in making that "tested" shape permanent.
Photo F shows the support board that will hold the shelf's back edge up. It's just a long skinny chunk of pine: basically, one inch thick by about four inches wide, by whatever the measurement was (been a long time since I first cut those boards!), from the left side to the right side of the work surface. (Give or take.)
Photo G shows the same basic idea; except that I used a shorter board, to hold up the left side of the work surface.
Photo H gives a better idea of what the process was, for locating the wall's interior "studs" -- that is, the actual upright chunks of wood holding up the visible part of the wall, and giving the wall good support, from inside.
Some tips, if you've never done this kind of thing:
I've found that with old houses that have seen a lot of prior renovation or upgrade work, you can't expect the uprights to be at any predictable and/or consistent spacing, from side to side ... so, I took a small diameter drill bit, and just drilled holes (in a spot where they'd be covered up, at a later point) in a fairly straight line, from side to side. The holes are spaced roughly 3/4 of an inch apart. When there was some solid wood behind the sheetrock or drywall paneling, I marked that location with a medium Sharpie marker, and kept going down the line. When I'd found the approximate location of the uprights or studs, I went back to those same basic locations, and drilled additional holes. Doing so told me how wide each upright actually was -- since I've found over time that sometimes there are two uprights standing, side-by-side, and they are both standard thickness (which is rare, but is nice and sturdy when it happens) ... but I've also found that sometimes what's behind the wall isn't standard thickness (such as in this case!) ... so it's best to know exactly where they begin and end. (As far as left-side to right-side of the uprights.) In this case, what I learned, from drilling lots of holes side-by-side when "looking for" the wooden studs or upright beams behind the walls, was that these uprights were only about 1.25" inches thick; give or take. Maybe 1.50" inches, if I was lucky. But sturdy! Once I saw how thin they were, from side to side, I did a test in a hole or two: threading in those big bolts, ever so slowly, after drilling appropriately-sized starter or pilot holes. Nothing ever fought me, or cracked, or anything like that. Those tests satisfied me that whatever was behind that wall surface was good quality, reliable, very solid wood.
I should mention that really old houses sometimes do not always have "nail plates" over electrical wiring, wherever it passes through wooden wall supports, so if you're dealing with a really old house, definitely take a LOT of care to be sure you're not going to drill holes through electrical wiring, inside the old walls! (But in this case, I knew that wasn't a problem -- and I never hit anything that felt like a nail head, when I was drilling; or worse yet, protective plates over wiring!)
The exploratory holes seen above are already half-dried. I had filled them all back in, using Dap-brand "DryDex" (I'll double-check the name, later; but I think that's the name of it) with no problems. It goes on pink in color, and turns a white color when it's fully dry. I just used an old butter knife to apply that putty.
You can also see a Sur-Form "file" or shaving tool, in some of these photos. I used that to trim down excessive wall texture blobs, as needed, in the areas of the wall where I'd be trying to attach flat boards and/or similar stuff, later on. (These walls had really thick, blobby texturing sprayed onto them.)
With the side wall, what I found was that I was only going to get one firm attachment point ... and I'd just have to make that work. (There was one other, about 3/4 of an inch out from the "back edge" wall ... but it would have been a major pain to try to get anything solid to "grab" into such a tiny spot, in such a difficult location, so after considering that one, I decided against trying to use it.)
The home's owner tells me that there used to be French Doors at roughly that location ... which probably explains a lot of the spacing and thicknesses I found. I don't think I found so much a single "two by four" as two layers of "one-by" lumber ... but again, you gotta use what you have; so when I got around to putting in some fasteners in that single location along the side, I took advantage of the thick-enough wood, and that it extended plenty far, vertically ... and I used strong bolts, rather than drywall screws or nails. I had to drill pilot (starter) holes, at each location, first, and then carefully and slowly turn the bolts in, with a ratchet ... but what I ended up with was two quarter-inch-thick, heavy-threaded bolts holding the sides up. (And many more than that, holding the back edge up!)
The way I got around the lack of a "back corner" support, behind the wall surfaces, was to use two heavy duty "L-brackets," to hold the very-secure back board and the much-less-secure side board tightly together. The two heavy-duty bolts will hold quite a lot of the weight applied to the work surface's left side ... and the "L-brackets" near the back edge of the side board will help to make things that much more solid, rigid, and strong overall. I'd rather over-build something like this, than to have it come crashing down on me, later on!
Photos I, J, and K show how I attached the supporting boards.
The wires visible here are just slapped up, out of the way, for now. When I had run new Internet cable throughout the house, I'd left the wires overly long on purpose, any time I wasn't entirely sure where the "end" of the wire would need to be; and thus, wasn't certain of exact length-of-wire needed. Ditto for cable TV style wiring: it's long on purpose, and will be shortened to appropriate length, in due time. But for now ... I just got it up off of the floor: messy or otherwise!
They may be hard to see in these photos, but there are some pencil marks (vertical lines) on various wall surfaces, in some of these shots. Look for them on the "front" wall, especially: the lighting makes them stand out better there. I probably also drew them a bit darker, since I didn't want to have to find the basic area where each upright was, a second time; if/when I later built additional shelves or whatever, above the main work surface.
Along the wall where the back edge of my work surface would be attached, I lucked out. Plenty of good solid locations for attaching stuff, on that wall! They were a bit thin, from side-to-side ... but the "drill lots of holes, to find out what's behind them" trick showed me where everything was; and how thick it all was, too.
Other things I didn't mention, but probably should, would include that I glued and nailed on additional strips of wood, to thicken up the "shelf" as it were, that the horizontal supports would be acting like; when I plopped the main work surface board on top of them. That gave me more "meat" to drill into, later, when I used a bunch of drywall screws to screw the work surface onto the horizontal supports. (By using screws and bolts, everywhere, if I ever need to take it apart, I can.)
Oh, and I primed (by brush, with "Kilz" brand General Purpose primer) both sides of the horizontal supports, once they'd each had the upper strips added to them.
Photos L and M show the top, screwed onto the supporting boards. The screws holding it on aren't visible, here, but that top surface isn't going anywhere!
Photos N and O round things out. As you can see by the assorted clutter in the last shot, it's not yet fulfilling it's purposes as a dedicated work surface, just for working on models and what not ... but you can see it's gonna be a pretty strong surface, in most respects, once it's done. It's moving along, step by step ...
The main reason I went into all this detail, word-wise and also picture-wise, is that I figure there may be other guys (or girls?) out there haven't done many major "tearing up a house" sort of projects ... and for them, if they want to actually do something like this, more details and things to look out for, would be helpful.
Keep in mind that what I'm showing here doesn't ONLY have to be used for supporting a workbench surface; or even a shelf. A person might want to do something like mount some sort of extra supports underneath a halfway-heavy paint booth's box or fan, or something like that, in a window opening ... and with a bit of planning and some careful exploratory drilling, this method would be one way to do it.
Last Edit: May 7, 2015 1:52:20 GMT -5 by wardster: clarity, typo's, lack of planning, etc.
In between doing various other things, today, I spent some time getting photos "more organizee" so I could explain how I built myself a secondary work surface, in a corner of a bedroom. There wasn't much space, and what was there needed a custom-shaped workbench surface ... which explains this next image:
Photo A is a bit out of strict order, actual-sequence-wise (it's from about a week ago; not "at the start") ... but most people may not notice that from the details; and it's probably the best photo I have, as far as showing how the actual shape is basically a standard rectangle, which has had one long "corner" removed.
The main reason for wanting a non-rectangle is that I've slept in this bedroom for a dozen years now, and tried one desk or bench or portable table after another in the one-and-only place where such things could possibly fit into that room ... and anything square isn't a big enough work surface; and anything rectangular wants to bang the heck out of one's knees, entering or exiting the room. (Or worse, far more delicate parts: since desk corners tend to be at crotch height!?!)
Besides the slight oddness of the "as viewed from above" shape of the work surface, there's another major complication I threw in: I didn't want "legs" on this workbench, if I could help it. So, I basically had to either invent some gravity-defying machinery to hold the surface up ... or bolt supports to the corner walls.
Photos B, C, D, and E show how I've had that set up, mainly just for testing purposes, for most of a year now. I mainly wanted to know if I'd kill myself, or not, when entering or exiting the room. It passed that test, after a few minor adjustments ... so now it's time to make that a more permanent, useful work surface.
For anyone wondering: that chunk of used plywood used to be a closet door or something, from upstairs, that I'd cut roughly to shape, long ago (and then later did a bit of refining on) ... and then just plopped the board on top of a portable table. Gravity was the only support. That didn't make it very usable, except as a big shelf for holding clutter ... but even doing that was a step in the right direction, as having it in the room let me know if shape-and-size would work well.
A big part of the reason for showing that first image, which showed the custom-shaped board when it was just leaning up against a wall, was because camera distortion in most other images, makes it really hard to figure out the true shape. Looks more complicated than it is, or a different size or proportions, in some of these other shots ... hence showing that "overhead view" angle, first. Anyway ... moving on, to more recent work: in making that "tested" shape permanent.
Photo F shows the support board that will hold the shelf's back edge up. It's just a long skinny chunk of pine: basically, one inch thick by about four inches wide, by whatever the measurement was (been a long time since I first cut those boards!), from the left side to the right side of the work surface. (Give or take.)
Photo G shows the same basic idea; except that I used a shorter board, to hold up the left side of the work surface.
Photo H gives a better idea of what the process was, for locating the wall's interior "studs" -- that is, the actual upright chunks of wood holding up the visible part of the wall, and giving the wall good support, from inside.
Some tips, if you've never done this kind of thing:
I've found that with old houses that have seen a lot of prior renovation or upgrade work, you can't expect the uprights to be at any predictable and/or consistent spacing, from side to side ... so, I took a small diameter drill bit, and just drilled holes (in a spot where they'd be covered up, at a later point) in a fairly straight line, from side to side. The holes are spaced roughly 3/4 of an inch apart. When there was some solid wood behind the sheetrock or drywall paneling, I marked that location with a medium Sharpie marker, and kept going down the line. When I'd found the approximate location of the uprights or studs, I went back to those same basic locations, and drilled additional holes. Doing so told me how wide each upright actually was -- since I've found over time that sometimes there are two uprights standing, side-by-side, and they are both standard thickness (which is rare, but is nice and sturdy when it happens) ... but I've also found that sometimes what's behind the wall isn't standard thickness (such as in this case!) ... so it's best to know exactly where they begin and end. (As far as left-side to right-side of the uprights.) In this case, what I learned, from drilling lots of holes side-by-side when "looking for" the wooden studs or upright beams behind the walls, was that these uprights were only about 1.25" inches thick; give or take. Maybe 1.50" inches, if I was lucky. But sturdy! Once I saw how thin they were, from side to side, I did a test in a hole or two: threading in those big bolts, ever so slowly, after drilling appropriately-sized starter or pilot holes. Nothing ever fought me, or cracked, or anything like that. Those tests satisfied me that whatever was behind that wall surface was good quality, reliable, very solid wood.
I should mention that really old houses sometimes do not always have "nail plates" over electrical wiring, wherever it passes through wooden wall supports, so if you're dealing with a really old house, definitely take a LOT of care to be sure you're not going to drill holes through electrical wiring, inside the old walls! (But in this case, I knew that wasn't a problem -- and I never hit anything that felt like a nail head, when I was drilling; or worse yet, protective plates over wiring!)
The exploratory holes seen above are already half-dried. I had filled them all back in, using Dap-brand "DryDex" (I'll double-check the name, later; but I think that's the name of it) with no problems. It goes on pink in color, and turns a white color when it's fully dry. I just used an old butter knife to apply that putty.
You can also see a Sur-Form "file" or shaving tool, in some of these photos. I used that to trim down excessive wall texture blobs, as needed, in the areas of the wall where I'd be trying to attach flat boards and/or similar stuff, later on. (These walls had really thick, blobby texturing sprayed onto them.)
With the side wall, what I found was that I was only going to get one firm attachment point ... and I'd just have to make that work. (There was one other, about 3/4 of an inch out from the "back edge" wall ... but it would have been a major pain to try to get anything solid to "grab" into such a tiny spot, in such a difficult location, so after considering that one, I decided against trying to use it.)
The home's owner tells me that there used to be French Doors at roughly that location ... which probably explains a lot of the spacing and thicknesses I found. I don't think I found so much a single "two by four" as two layers of "one-by" lumber ... but again, you gotta use what you have; so when I got around to putting in some fasteners in that single location along the side, I took advantage of the thick-enough wood, and that it extended plenty far, vertically ... and I used strong bolts, rather than drywall screws or nails. I had to drill pilot (starter) holes, at each location, first, and then carefully and slowly turn the bolts in, with a ratchet ... but what I ended up with was two quarter-inch-thick, heavy-threaded bolts holding the sides up. (And many more than that, holding the back edge up!)
The way I got around the lack of a "back corner" support, behind the wall surfaces, was to use two heavy duty "L-brackets," to hold the very-secure back board and the much-less-secure side board tightly together. The two heavy-duty bolts will hold quite a lot of the weight applied to the work surface's left side ... and the "L-brackets" near the back edge of the side board will help to make things that much more solid, rigid, and strong overall. I'd rather over-build something like this, than to have it come crashing down on me, later on!
Photos I, J, and K show how I attached the supporting boards.
The wires visible here are just slapped up, out of the way, for now. When I had run new Internet cable throughout the house, I'd left the wires overly long on purpose, any time I wasn't entirely sure where the "end" of the wire would need to be; and thus, wasn't certain of exact length-of-wire needed. Ditto for cable TV style wiring: it's long on purpose, and will be shortened to appropriate length, in due time. But for now ... I just got it up off of the floor: messy or otherwise!
They may be hard to see in these photos, but there are some pencil marks (vertical lines) on various wall surfaces, in some of these shots. Look for them on the "front" wall, especially: the lighting makes them stand out better there. I probably also drew them a bit darker, since I didn't want to have to find the basic area where each upright was, a second time; if/when I later built additional shelves or whatever, above the main work surface.
Along the wall where the back edge of my work surface would be attached, I lucked out. Plenty of good solid locations for attaching stuff, on that wall! They were a bit thin, from side-to-side ... but the "drill lots of holes, to find out what's behind them" trick showed me where everything was; and how thick it all was, too.
Other things I didn't mention, but probably should, would include that I glued and nailed on additional strips of wood, to thicken up the "shelf" as it were, that the horizontal supports would be acting like; when I plopped the main work surface board on top of them. That gave me more "meat" to drill into, later, when I used a bunch of drywall screws to screw the work surface onto the horizontal supports. (By using screws and bolts, everywhere, if I ever need to take it apart, I can.)
Oh, and I primed (by brush, with "Kilz" brand General Purpose primer) both sides of the horizontal supports, once they'd each had the upper strips added to them.
Photos L and M show the top, screwed onto the supporting boards. The screws holding it on aren't visible, here, but that top surface isn't going anywhere!
Photos N and O round things out. As you can see by the assorted clutter in the last shot, it's not yet fulfilling it's purposes as a dedicated work surface, just for working on models and what not ... but you can see it's gonna be a pretty strong surface, in most respects, once it's done. It's moving along, step by step ...
The main reason I went into all this detail, word-wise and also picture-wise, is that I figure there may be other guys (or girls?) out there haven't done many major "tearing up a house" sort of projects ... and for them, if they want to actually do something like this, more details and things to look out for, would be helpful.
Keep in mind that what I'm showing here doesn't ONLY have to be used for supporting a workbench surface; or even a shelf. A person might want to do something like mount some sort of extra supports underneath a halfway-heavy paint booth's box or fan, or something like that, in a window opening ... and with a bit of planning and some careful exploratory drilling, this method would be one way to do it.
that work table came out great..ok your inspiring me to get my rear end in gear and start organizing my room
Ok.... You asked for it.... Remember ... I'm a dedicated modeler and have been for the better part of 50 plus years... My wife and I are "empty nesters" so the inky people we entertain are family (entertain upstairs) and modelers ( downstairs!) here's a shot of everything as you would see if you were to walk in today... I do a fair amount of resin casting in certain areas so "things" get strung out on occasion... HOWEVER I DO straighten it up occasionally before indulging in a new, lengthy project... So without any sugarcoating or making excuses for the clutter and..... Without further ado I now present "the room" ..
The booth -
Resin bench, paint mixingng area- Nte the sigle,stage compressor on the bench? I generally have 2 airbrushed running at the same time... I have a dual compressor under the spray cabinet ... I've always got one backup ready to go with its own compressor which might be Ed for automotive primer or applying tri-coat paints, or Kandy paint in one and Kandy intensifier in another...
A small amount of paint stash... My House of Kolors paint is stored inside the spray cabinet...
When I hit a snag or waiting for,things to dry I walk into the other room and run a few laps... 1/32nd scale 4 lane !!
Last Edit: May 8, 2015 16:44:48 GMT -5 by Starryeyes
What's the story on the small drill press? Looks like a nice one...
And is that a blue bin full of Lego's I see, half-hiding behind something, in the first pic?
Yes sir buddy.. Those be an old box of Legos ... ! I use them for making my molding boxes... The drill press is made by Proxxon ... I bought the milling table And all... Also bought a small mitre saw as well for cutting thicker plastic... A mans gotta have "stuff" !
A few other questions for ya, StarryEyes; related to some things I'm seeing in your pics, above.
"Liquid Nails"? I'm used to seeing that product used for various construction projects around the home, or whatever ... but are you using it somehow for scale modeling stuff, too?
I almost missed the Dremel Drill press, there in the dark-ish far end of one shot. Did you not like that one? Needed more precision, and got the Proxxon, maybe? (I have one of the Dremel's and use it a fair bunch, when the need for that kind of thing arises.) Or is it just more like "nice to have two of them handy"?
I see the Citadel paints, in the first photo. Do you typically use straight water to thin them? Or are you using some of the fancier stuff that some figure modelers use? (I tend to use one of those products, myself, with most of the figure-type brands of acrylics: specifically, the "Lasting Flow" product made by "Miniature Giant". Just wondering if I'm the one of the only fans of flow improvers and/or drying retarders, made specifically for acrylic paints, amongst we car-type / big figure / car-toon modelers.)
Last but not least: "Martian Vodka"? Is that what the story is, regarding that tasty looking glass of lime green liquid?
A few other questions for ya, StarryEyes; related to some things I'm seeing in your pics, above.
"Liquid Nails"? I'm used to seeing that product used for various construction projects around the home, or whatever ... but are you using it somehow for scale modeling stuff, too?
I almost missed the Dremel Drill press, there in the dark-ish far end of one shot. Did you not like that one? Needed more precision, and got the Proxxon, maybe? (I have one of the Dremel's and use it a fair bunch, when the need for that kind of thing arises.) Or is it just more like "nice to have two of them handy"?
I see the Citadel paints, in the first photo. Do you typically use straight water to thin them? Or are you using some of the fancier stuff that some figure modelers use? (I tend to use one of those products, myself, with most of the figure-type brands of acrylics: specifically, the "Lasting Flow" product made by "Miniature Giant". Just wondering if I'm the one of the only fans of flow improvers and/or drying retarders, made specifically for acrylic paints, amongst we car-type / big figure / car-toon modelers.)
Last but not least: "Martian Vodka"? Is that what the story is, regarding that tasty looking glass of lime green liquid?
Ok buddy .. Here we go !! "Liquid Nails".. It WAS left over from a basement (home) project ... But who knows !! This stuff COULD be used in our hobby I guess ... NOW.... The Dremel Drill press lurking in the far - dark background is from my earlier modeling days.. Can't remember when I used it last but it did work well ...so I guess the answer would be "it's a great backup "!! PAINTS - I typically use the water based acrylics but also have oil base - just not a lot of use on most of my car-toon guys ...and yes sir you guessed it , good old H2O for thinning the water based ... Makes it very easy to blend colors !! Speaking of colors ,,, the Martial Martini was a result of washing paint brushes when using the water asked paints ... Hmmmm maybe I could patent it and sell it as "Martian Martini".. Look out SHARKTANK (the loan shark TV show)..
It's by Jim Kingshott, and it's called "The Workshop: Designing, Building, Equipping".
I should mention that it's not aimed at scale modellers; it's aimed at people who enjoy woodworking ... but other than that, to me it feels like a lot of what he's talking about is very relevant to our world. Stuff like needing enough space, needing enough lighting, etc. -- that's common to a lot of in-door, "working with your hands" hobbies. Lots of good ideas in that book -- probably because it's written by someone who has spent the bulk of their free time in one shop or another; and who knows that's their favorite place to be. Who better to go to for tips on improving your work spaces, than someone like that?
Last Edit: May 17, 2015 2:23:37 GMT -5 by wardster
I think you're right on target Ward. As you said there's tons of things in the book that would benefit everyone with a hands on hobby... One of my biggest downfalls as a modeler is never KEEPING things organized.. Or not having things where they really need to be... Therefore I sometimes spend precious modeling time searching for what it may be. It may be time for me the thin out some unused items and really go through EVERYTHING .. You know what I mean ? I know I for one have a bunch of things like "oh, it's still good I may use it some day" type stuff... I guess what I'm admitting to is too much "clutter" in my room.. It may be time to address this issue and this book might just hold the key...
One thing I'm becoming very conscious of is being grateful for the tools that I do have; and the space that I have to work in; and all of the raw materials (be it literally that, or kit parts) I have ... BUT ... six months or so ago now, I did have to go through ALL of that stuff, and decide if a certain object was something I was actually going to use, or if it was PREVENTING me from using other stuff, just by being there, and cluttering things up. Taking up space. Turning "working space" into "storage space". And, as you had said, also making it hard to find stuff! Worst case, "storage space" turns into "somewhere, hidden amongst all that crap". Ugh!
Yeah, it's definitely a struggle to KEEP things nice and neat and functional, over the long term.
And although I know "being organizee" would be well worth it, in the long run, I still haven't figured out a perfect way to GET organizee, and STAY that way!!
I do have two ideas along those lines, though.
One idea being: setting out an official time slot, every so often, to do the workshop de-cluttering chores and re-organization chores that will keep things running pleasantly and well. Before, I wasn't even setting a "once a year" time slot for doing that. Now I'm generally doing it "when things get hopeless enough that I have little choice". Ideally, I'll figure out how many times per year would be ideal ... and I'll stick with that schedule. (Be it every three months, or whatever.) In other words, look at available time as a "pie" and figure out how big of a "slice of that pie" I need to reserve, just to keep my various working areas nice / functional.
The other idea being: I may just set aside a certain portion of the garage, just for "might be useful, some day" items. And ONLY put those items there! (Not in with the rest of the stuff, which has a track record of being definitely proven to be useful.) Once the available, set-aside-for-that-purpose area no longer has any "open slots" for other crap, err, potentially useful stuff, then I will know it's time to de-clutter that area again. Given how much stuff I have, I'd probably have to set aside one such area just for things like half-worn-out tools, or garage sale tools that need to be worked on, before they'll really be usable. Another area for supplies that tend to stack up. (Good, unused lumber, for instance, being in a separate area than scraps which might be useful, a second or third time around.)
Last Edit: May 25, 2015 12:29:37 GMT -5 by wardster: clarity, other thoughts
Post by Starryeyes on May 25, 2015 18:34:27 GMT -5
Great reading Ward... I have an area free of clutter in the NEXT room under my stationary 32md scale slot at track... This sounds like a perfect place to organize the unorganized projects and "still good will,use some say" area... Then I can concentrate on complete kit builds instead of being OVERWHELMED with everything when I enter the room(s) I can see this is going to be a long running thread to check back on from time to time !!
Here's an update on that "secondary workbench" I'm putting together ... and upgrading, step by step, as I go.
This installment: adding a shelf for a TV, above the existing shelf or work surface. Black-colored "foam core" from a dollar store was used as a mockup material, to determine the shelf's shape. (As seen from above, that is.) I wanted it big enough to hold my favorite old computer monitor / DVD or game display device ... but I didn't want it so big that I'd be bopping my head on it, accidentally, as I sat at the bench and occasionally leaned over ... and I really didn't want it casting huge shadows onto the lower shelf, if I could help it. It took a little while of playing with the shape, before I decided it was as good as I was likely to get it ... but foam core is cheap, and less floppy than card stock, so it's a good enough template-making material. And since I only need to figure this weird shape out, once, the "used" foam core will go back into the "use later" pile -- making an already cheap-when-new product be even more cost effective, over the long run.
Then an old closet door -- (for a short closet, that was built years ago, under the angled portion of a roof; on the second floor of a house) -- volunteered to be cut up, to become the new shelf's surface. You can see the template sitting behind it, in the next pic. Thanks in part to the odd shape I needed, there was plenty of "scrap" material left over from that door, that I'm sure I'll end up re-using for other things, later. (Support brackets, or some other oddball bits and pieces?)
Next, I made supporting brackets, to hold it all up, out of "one by" pine boards -- with that process mostly being done the same way as before; so I won't repeat the explanations. I did make this bracket extend out, more, along the left side ... just to grab onto one more vertical support, through the wall's surface.
And here's a couple of pics showing the result, so far:
The idea of what's gonna happen, over on the right-hand side, will likely be a small shelf for pencils, X-acto knives, etc. ... but I may have some fun with it, too.
That upper shelf is not yet permanent, as shown. It's all just tacked up there, for a few days -- securely enough to hold itself up there, but not to hold a TV.
I'm waiting on purpose. I wanna be sure I like the height, and don't want to change things, before I bolt the supporting brackets in place.
(But so far, so good. I've made a minor tweak or two since the pics were taken; but nothing huge changed.)
Mentally, and partly "in reality" I'm working on making a window, of sorts -- (possibly a 1960s sci-fi spaceship porthole: we'll see where I go, with that) -- in front of my sitting position; just a bit right of center, along that front wall area. I'm planning on it between two vertical supports ("two by fours") located just above the new upper shelf (vertically speaking, coordinate-wise) and more or less in line with the orange square and the clear tennis-ball container full of nails (horizontally.)
I did some exploratory "digging," in the wall itself ... and cut out a rectangle, that I can put back in place if I want ... but I'll show that work, sometime later on. Certain parts of this will sort of be "dream it up, as I do things" sorta process ... but sometimes you have to see what you're actually dealing with, to see how do-able the plan actually is. There's nothing but a seldom-used hallway, leading upstairs, right in front of where that new window might be ... but it would still be sorta cool to have a fake porthole-style viewport to look through. (I have a few more of those closet doors, that might volunteer to be the ring pieces ...)
Last Edit: May 29, 2015 23:03:03 GMT -5 by wardster
