A Model Builders Shop
My shop at my old house
This is my shop at my old house which was sold March 2019. There were two rooms. One measured about 14×14 feet and the other was about 14×17. I finished the entire basement over the cinder block walls and added electricity. In the ‘wood’ shop where the table saw is I built a workbench the entire length of the room and made drawers with full extension slides and storage with standard doors. The bench surface is Masonite hard board. The board you see on the floor was supposed to be the back splash which I never did install. The drawers that you see in this work bench I took with me when I moved. In place of the drawers I added more doors that you can see in the next set of pictures. Besides building model boats I did build other things here like a maple table, some outside deck accessories etc. I enjoy building wood projects. The other shop was more of an assembly and building room. The two benches in the corners were meant to be an electronics table and a building table but those were used more as a storage table. The heavy duty shop table was given to me by someone I knew at a boat dealer. Love that shop table!
My shop at my old house
March 2019. Everything is gone. I patched the holes in the wall for the new owner. You can see drawers were replaced by doors. The painted floor, I used latex paint, shows some wear. Can’t find pictures of the other shop room in it’s empty state.
New shop, the beginning
March 2019. We had lots of things to move out of the area where my shop will be. Once the floor was clear I cleaned then painted the floor with concrete paint that was purchased from Home Depot. Of course grey. The wood desk in the back left corner was a spare desk my girlfriend had that will now be my soldering\electronics station. The shop table next to it I brought from my old house. On the right side in the last picture is a Home Depot Husky table that will be my standup work table.
Husky shop table
March 2019. The table has a very nice work surface. Too nice to mess it up. Later on I made a cover for it from hard board or Masonite. One thing it did not have were outlets. I bought a 4 outlet power strip that flush mounts in the top rail. I had a friend of mine cut the hole in the rail. This works great. In a shop you can’t have enough storage. I made a shelf that spans the leg brackets. The shelf surface is 1/4″ Masonite that is mounted to a pair of clear pine 1×2’s
Wall storage
April 2019. Before adding any walls I added outlets that I could drop lines down to workbenches. These are on their own 20amp circuit. I did not want to have a wall from floor to ceiling. Doing so would cause the workbenches to be further out into the room which would mean less space overall. And walls on the lower part were pretty much useless. So I extended some 2×3’s down from a floor joist and created a partial wall. The studs were covered with light plywood and everything was painted what else, grey. A shelf was added at the top which will store infrequently used or accessed items. Later on on this page you will see the rest of the floating walls and shelf storage.
Custom workbenches
April 2019. I built two identical workbenches that will host desktop power tools. The frames were made of 2×4’s. The work surface is Masonite hardboard on 3/4″ high quality plywood. Contact cement is used to adhere the hardboard and edging. The edging is store bought clear pine and it extends proud of the surface tops as a lip to prevent sawdust and anything else from rolling off the surface. Each bench has a shelf resting on the backboard as an additional place for things. Outlets were adding in the back for the power tools as well as in the front. Completed pictures can be seen below with the power tools in place.
Rack for tubing
May 2019. I really didn’t have a proper way to store the brass, aluminum and plastic tubing I had on hand. So I made my own rack based on the K&S rack you see in hobby stores. I used 1/4″ plywood from Home Depot. Cut the many pieces on the table saw, assembled it and painted grey. The tray in the front is for small sections that won’t fit in any of the slots.
Cabinets for drawers
May-June 2019. The drawers that I kept from my old shop needed a home. I cut stiles and rails on the table saw and dado’d slots for joining them together. Once assembled they were attached to the cabinet. The cabinet was painted, wheels were added then the full extension slides and drawers were installed. I made two cabinets, both are the same size to fit different size drawers. The workbenches and drawer cabinets were made so the cabinets would fit under the workbench. And finally handles were added which I meant to do for years.
Wood rack
I needed a proper space to store any wood that I using for the models I will be building. Made this rack which fits over one of the workbenches.
Large desktop power tools
I bought new tools for myself. They have all worked great so far. If you order the band saw be sure to order spare blade bearings as they wear out. I have not used the lathe much. I need to learn more about it and use it more often and practice with it.
Storage
With all the little stuff you acquire you need plenty of space to store it all. Besides the racks which are mounted on the walls, there are shelves high up to store boxed items that are not accessed that often. In the corner where I have all of the transmitters and RC equipment there is a shelf for charging said transmitters and other batteries. I use an old school Pioneer stereo for my sound system. There are four speakers wired throughout the shop. A Bluetooth audio device is connected to an input on the stereo. This device receives music from an iPhone 5s which I use only as an iPod. The music on the 5s is constantly updated from my Mac via iTunes Match. So anything I add to my Mac gets updated to all the other Apple devices I use.
Work benches
Here are views of each workbench. On the two desktop tools benches, there is a raised lip around the edge which prevents sawdust and other stuff from dropping on the floor. They both have a shelf on the backsplash, also with a raised edge. The cabinets can roll out if needed and the drawers have full extension slides. The main assembly workbench is an old shop table. The electronics bench is an old desk. At the back of both they have white melamine shelves which I also kept from my old shop. The Husky workbench has a hardboard top on it to cover up the nice original surface and it also makes the work surface longer and wider. The white table with the submarines is an old table that fits good in the cornet and works well for anything.
That's it for now
That’s a walk around my shop. Hope it gives you ideas on what to do with your own.