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Shop Is your shop messy or spotless?

Shop

What does your shop look like?

  • A total junk yard

    Votes: 8 10.0%

  • Organized Chaos

    Votes: 38 47.5%

  • Well used but messy

    Votes: 27 33.8%

  • Jam packed but room to move

    Votes: 23 28.8%

  • Not enough tools to be really messy yet

    Votes: 6 7.5%

  • Everything has a place & is in it

    Votes: 16 20.0%

  • No clutter anywhere - nothing on surfaces

    Votes: 3 3.8%

  • Spotless - you can eat off the floor

    Votes: 2 2.5%

  • Showroom Shop

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    80
I was buying tools, tool boxes, etc., & flipping them to get the kind of tools, tool boxes, etc., I wanted. I now need to move a bunch of stuff that is just taking up space. Clear that all out & I should mostly be good.
 
Dan, I look across the shop & I see a ton of unfinished projects. Bench & associated storage, unfinished. Hardware storage, unfinished. Racks & shelves, built but organization unfinished. Etc., etc., etc. Thing is, it's impossible to say, "Today I'm going to sit down, sort fasteners & store them" because stuff is scattered all over the place. Each time I'm in the shop I do a bit of this cleanup & a touch of that organization. It'll come together eventually. It's merely [snort] a matter of time.
 
Unfinished projects....that would be a great name for my youtube channel. I've got a lot. Seems like I go through stages where I knock a pile of them off, only discover even more lol.

Tackling my hardware storage is an upcoming project. I just bought 10 new sortmaster jrs to go with my big sortmasters that I store nuts/bolts etc in. I will be making a roll around storage rack for them all, and my other hardware storage devices. I've also bought a bunch of small locking totes to store bigger bulky stuff and get it up on shelves. The label maker has been getting a workout lately. I do stuff like that on weeknights after the kids go to bed. An hour or two here and there and a lot of little projects get done. When I have time on the weekends I can take a crack at the bigger ones like my stock rack that I've been chipping away at for a few weekends now. Currently working through some back/neck issues that are keeping me from finishing it, but it's getting better.....managed 2 whole hours out there last Friday, and 2 more Saturday. Sunday was a hold the couch down day....

25.4mm by 25.4mm I'm getting there.
 
I was using a Dymo Rhino 5200. (I only remember that because I just had to order more labels)
https://www.dymo.com/label-makers-p...-industrial-5200-label-maker/SAP_1755749.html
Picked it up used years ago, and it works great for heat shrink tubing. Admittedly this is the first time I've used it for something other than that. I've got another one that plugs into the computer that I use for regular labels but I can't seem to find right now though....oh the irony....

I don't know about longevity of these labels. I ran out the of the dymo ones that came with it, and haven't used the cheap ones I bought to replace them yet.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
Picked it up used years ago, and it works great for heat shrink tubing.
Click to expand...

It's not obvious to me what you mean when you say it works great with heat shrink tubing Dan...... What's that all about. My mind is even more blank than usual right now.
 
Susquatch said:
You didn't say, so I have to ask. Have you ever had problems with it? Any surface materials to avoid?

Also, can I assume you use brother labels too?
Click to expand...
Yes I use brother labels as well, to assure that I don't have issues with compatibility.

I dont use them on bare wood... because woods often have oils that make the labels fall off eventually, where I need to label wood I finish the wood and then as always, alcohol wipe.

When I use lables on wire I use the thinnest (also the cheapest) and I wrap the label around the wire to leave the ends flying off like little flags. The tape ends stuck to each other adhesive sides facing each other. They never fall off and are cheap
 
Susquatch said:
I LOVE THIS! I never knew it existed! I have always bought sheet labels for wiring - small squares or strips you stick to the wire or wrap on. This is WAAAY better!

Thank you!
Click to expand...
No problem. Happy to help someone else spend their money :D.

I don't use it often, but occasionally I'll build an electro-mechanical fixture or something at work, and it helps to make me look competent, and much better than I actually am lol.

I used to use flags, until I stumbled into the Rhino for pretty cheap (I think it was under $40). It was right after I just finished a big fixture package, and with the promise of many more as the customer loved them, I wanted to make the next ones better. Never got another one from them, but have got a few different packages from others, so it wasn't all wasted money.
 
Last edited:
TorontoBuilder said:
Yes I use brother labels as well, to assure that I don't have issues with compatibility.

I dont use them on bare wood... because woods often have oils that make the labels fall off eventually, where I need to label wood I finish the wood and then as always, alcohol wipe.

When I use lables on wire I use the thinnest (also the cheapest) and I wrap the label around the wire to leave the ends flying off like little flags. The tape ends stuck to each other adhesive sides facing each other. They never fall off and are cheap
Click to expand...

Jesus Murphy. I am learning too much tonight. I've always wrapped them all the way around and they do come off sometimes. I'll have try the flag approach next time.
 
@Dan Dubeau & @TorontoBuilder

So the labels I started asking about are just the regular labels. For example, I use plastic office trash cans for waste metal chips. One for copper, one for brass, one for stainless. And big trash cans for aluminium and steel. The labels always come off the plastic trash cans. They also come off of those little plastic drawers in parts organizer's.


I'll have to try 100% alcohol wiping first.
 
I need the “It’s ok but I’ve got lots of plans to make it better” option…

My wife always says she “hates” how messy my shop is, friends say “I can‘t believe how tidy your shop is” and I think “I wish I didn’t have to keep it as tidy, I’d love not to have to clean up every time I use my shop”.
 
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