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Tips/Techniques Workshop Organization- things that have made a difference for you

Tips/Techniques
Dan Dubeau said:
I've always wanted to build a Burke bar (search essential craftsman on your favourite video depository....:D). They look even better. Another project 42.....
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Video Depository - sounds like a toilet for YouTube.

Perfect name if you ask me!

Burke Bar is a new term for me. I looked them up. Still made by the Burke Family. They have that curved end built in.

I've always called the straight version a pinch bar, but it seems they have many names too. I have 2 pinch bars but one is bent. Hard to believe I did that. But I remember doing it. Someday. I'll straighten it. Or not.
 
Ironman said:
tying one end to a fence charger and sitting back and watching a guy get a charge out of it. Back when lunch boxes were metal, it lent itself to some great events.
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Ive seen several fellows suffer the indignity of an electric fence ( getting the local town know-it-all piss unkowingly on the wire was a good one) but the best ambush wiring I ever seen happened in front of our local small town show hall.

A local mechanics son discovered another town boy had taken his girlfriend to the show on a date...and he was pissed....This was back in the mid 60's when air cond wasnt common in vehicles so everyone had a couple of those old wire frame "coolly cushions". While the show was in, mechanics son lifted the hood & wired up the coil to a couple bare wire spring coils of that cushion...man you should have seen the commotion inside that car when it fired after the show...one of the small town legends that lasted a long time!!
 
In addition to all the metal stuff I also have to figure out where to put scrap wood but it's the electronics parts that are a real bear.
I am reminded of my son Misha every time I do something with my electronics as he and I worked out a file storage approach for all the surface mount parts.
If I only buy a small strip of resistors for example they are in an envelope and in a small box or parts drawer. But once I started buying resistors in reels of 5000 pieces at 0.00542 ($27.10) each verses 0.026 each for a strip of 10 ($0.26) I needed more than a large box to store all the reels and make them easy to access for a particular product run.

Misha came up with the file folder approach. All the resistor values from 0.0 to 10's of megohms now fit in 4 file totes. When I organize production I go through those and fill up a tote with just the folders I need for that product in the order that they show up on the BOM and assembly instructions.

The only thing that doesn't fit in the totes are the long tubes holding semiconductors but most of those are also on reels or short strips or trays. After all, one doesn't buy 1000 pieces of a $65 processor for a production run of 25 units.

1710093707224.webp
 
I USED to be against labels... Until I came across a game changer.

Print out your labels like normal...then take all them old refrigerator magnets that everybody loves & apply to them.

Cut them out and stick them on your box, when you're unhappy with drawer placement you simply move the label.

I'm not a clean freak but I don't like a mess for long either. At the end of the day(99% of the time) everything goes back to where it belongs. If I'm in the middle of a larger project and I start tripping over shit or can't find a tool I stop and do a quick tidy, put stuff back where it belongs and I find it much more efficient that way.
 
slow-poke said:
Ahhhhh..... the retired life;-)

As painful and boring as it was to organize all the hardware it pays off with near zero search time for that elusive fastener you need right now to finish whatever project is under way. I had buckets just like Phil showed, no more big buckets.
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For me, there are really only two choices and organization isn't one of them. The choices are keep it or pitch it. I don't believe for a single second that organizing anything would actually improve overall efficiency in my life. I'd spend 3/4 of my time organizing and end up too tired to do anything. My brain is perfectly comfy living in chaos. But I confess that there are a few things that do benefit from organization. I like my shirt and pants on the bed post cuz I don't like running around the house naked looking for them. I like my toothbrush and paste in the drawer next to the sink for the same reason.

I don't really like taps all in one tray touching each other. Those little buggers have koodys, and it spreads fast. So I keep them in their original containers in a tray. That way they can't infect each other or dull their cutting edges. Same goes for inserts. All in containers at one side of my carbide insert tool drawer. Carbide insert tool holders on the other side. Hss stuff in another drawer.

My tool boxes seem to be having sex at night when the shop is locked because I swear there are more there than I remember buying. All but the latest one are full. No drawers are labelled, but I am working on a map of what is where. I'm already thinking that's probably more time wasted.

I'm an old man. Time is my most precious commodity. I don't have much left - at least not what most would call quality time. So for me time spent organizing things is time wasted because I don't like doing it. It is possible that projects take longer because things are not organized. But that has to be weighed against the time spent organizing and in particular re-organizing or organizing things I rarely use. But more importantly, I don't enjoy organizing so that has to be weighed against the joy I feel when I'm making something.

I'm a piler, not a filer, or a filer wanna be. I am happy with who I am.
 
I just finished my endmill and tap reorganization/toolbox consolidation and found the top of my workbench again. I view organization (for me anyway) as a constant evolution of throwing cheap, quick and dirty solutions at the wall, just barely adequate for the job for a while until more accumulation of tools/material/parts etc bust the dam wide open again. Every once in a while it'll become a big enough problem that I'll have to put projects on hold, and make IT the project for a while until I come up with a full assed solution to the problem. I've never been a naturally organized/neat and orderly person, it takes effort to stay this way, but only in the past couple years have I found it worthwhile to do. I have a very visual/photographic memory and remember where everything is that way. Keeping that in mind, I like having things out in the open when I can see them, and remember they exist. Well organized drawers are not ideal for that but a necessary evil to keep things clean.

I get the aversion to neat shops and having things organized, but for me there is a baseline level of organization that must be maintained in order to actually be able to get anything done in any reasonable and efficient manner. If that takes a bit of time to maintain, then so be it. It'll pay dividends on every future project. DURING projects on the other hand, it generally looks like a bomb went off, but I know where every part and tool is under all that chaos. :D. At the end of a job though, everything must go back home. If it doesn't have a home, that's when the chaos starts.......

Making homes for things is where the cheap, quick and dirty philosophy comes from. OSB walls, cheap shelf brackets, and scraps of plywood make quick and dirty shelves that you can move around as needed. Various sized containers, and boxes hold projects and can live on those shelves. Jamming a shelf up on a wall somewhere to get stuff off a bench, or the floor takes at best 5 minutes, and the pay off is immediate. My shop looks like a patchwork quilt of half assed storage solutions. Because it is. They were quick. They were cheap, and most importantly they're done (for now). Perfection is the enemy of completion.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
My shop looks like a patchwork quilt of half assed storage solutions. Because it is. They were quick. They were cheap, and most importantly they're done (for now). Perfection is the enemy of completion.
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I think we are more alike than different. Especially not wanting things in drawers. I wish I could have a million surfaces...... LOL!

I never reach that point where the mess is a greater challenge than the project. But I do put things away where I can remember them. I am VERY visually organized. In fact, I am spatially organized in 4 dimensions (time is a factor). It isn't in one of those piles someplace. It's in that pile right there near the back right corner. That's why I refer to my shop as "organized" chaos.
 
JustaDB said:
Lemme guess: you don't like your turkey touching your mashed potatoes touching your peas, either...
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Actually, I like to mix them all together. That way I don't have to pick favorites. If I did, the turkey and potatoes would be gone and my wife would be screaming at me cuz I didn't like her peas.......
 
Susquatch said:
Never saw a big pinch bar with a hook on the end like yours. Did you bend that or get it like that?
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That's a stock bar . I use one here when needed . :) My most favoritest :D bar is my die hook . That SOB will lift the end of a 4500 lb lathe or mill with no problem . If could make them I sure could sell a lot of them .
 
Ironman said:
My wife is urging me to buy this 6000 dollar storage drawer system, and last time I choked and never spent the money. I'll deal with it, I promise....

EDIT figured I better put in the link
https://tmgindustrial.ca/products/1...-with-68-pegboard?_pos=3&_sid=389560bf1&_ss=r
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I was getting excited until I saw peg board ........ I hate peg board. What I found I like is 3/4 ply. Either screws for stuff hanging like wrenches, holes drilled and 3/8"s dowels glued in or little racks for pliers and screw drivers an L brackets for hacksaws and such. Every wall surface either has shelving in front it or ply and its all covered.

i've posted this before ....... why we must keep striving for organization

mcgyvers passage of time-800x491.jpg
 
There isn't a piece of pegboard in my shop because I feel the same way. Some people like it but they own stores.
It doesn't stop me from buying a good product and replacing the pegboard. I find most Chinese products require a bit of rebuilding. Recently bought a welding corner clamp on sale $5 that was off square by 1/8" and the mill made it square in a hurry. So the peg board will go, and I have been thinking of unbolting the top drawer/cupboard sets and make them a separate stand alone unit with a top.
 
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I find as I age, that black is a hard color for me. My eyes slide over it and a black flashlight can't be found. I put bands of yellow electrical tape on it to solve that one. My wife has done puzzles all her life and shape recognition is a well developed feature. So if my shop is too disorganized I can't find stuff, and i draw an outline of it and she finds the tool or part quickly....and then the best part....she starts sweeping the floor. Sometimes losing stuff is handy;)
 
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