My main modeling workbench is a desk which I hauled out of a gov’t supply depot dumpster, some 30 years ago. It’s built like an Abrams tank. Unfortunately, it’s also the desk I use for my work-at-home job… and sometimes things get, er, seriously messy, between hobby and work needs.
Anyway, a couple weekends ago, Bruce C. gave me one of those Akro Mills drawer units. I already had one, but hadn’t “populated” it much. It, and lots of cob job “organizers” were all over my desk, to keep tools roughly at hand, but out of the way.
I’ve been using small shotgun shell boxes and square fruit containers from the grocery store to org my crap. But in recent weeks I’ve needed to sometimes use two computers, or a second monitor, and the lack of free desk space has started to drive me nuts.
Back to Bruce’s drawer unit. I heard a recent podcast on how an unexpected condition can jolt one into a new mode of thought. And this Akro Mills unit was that jolt for me. Last week I cleared my desk, put the two AM drawer units on it, and tried to picture a storage whatever to handle all the rest of the stuff that wouldn’t fit, yet needed to be at hand. I had 20 inches to work with, and spent 10" on a design matching the height and depth of the AM units. This is a “dry run” at seeing how the new rack would work.
I’d done it up in CAD and lasered the parts out of scrap from a project last year.
The more difficult rack had to hold my WIHA drivers… Ain’t cheap, so can you blame me?? I’d made a holder for those a couple years ago, and basically designed the second 10 inch rack around those design features. And today I made / adjusted the shelves over the whole thing.
Not everyone’s cup of tea, but this bench makeover will make my life a lot more pleasant switching between hobby & work activities.
Cheers,
Cliff
And that doesn’t take into account the mobile workbench I use for building outside. Here’s an unexploded view of it at the end of a day.
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