Cleaning Up Shop
After we planted our trees today, the boys and I cleaned up my shop. It was a big mess, and kind of a downer to go out and work in.
Before
Buckets strewn about, extension cords, air hoses, and welding leads all tangled, grind dust and welding rod stubs littering the floor, it was nasty and really bummed me out. There's something like thirty buckets in that picture, and I don't think I've swept in a year lol
Lately I've been inspired to get the shop cleaned up and expanded so I can start taking jobs and making money, but I'm not bringing customers or new machines into this mess. I'll be getting a tig welder and a plasma cutter soon so I can do more types of jobs. With those two, I'll have a pretty well equipped home shop, and there'll be very little I couldn't do.
During
That pic was from an hour and a half in. Progress, but not yet half done. We stopped there for lunch. Buckets stacked, shelves rearranged, and a little bit of sweeping done. The shop is 16x20 feet (5.5x6.7 meters roughly). Not a bad size. Plenty of room to work and store material, and not too big. I dont need a full two car garage, that'd be too much space for me.
After that, work really started getting done. I put the air hose reel on the ceiling rafter above my table and fabricated a handle extension so I could reel the air hose up easily. That'll be really helpful. I also pulled out all the machines and swept and blew out under and behind them. Compressor, stick welder, table, and drill press. I got rid of the big trash barrel, and opted for three buckets hung next to my most popular work places. That way I'll have a small can nearby instead of throwing trash across the shop and missing. Plus, that giant barrel still had trash in it from over a year ago. Chicken feed bags from the first chickens, and even a big roundup box from the previous owners! What a waste of space! Also, with the trash cans hanging, I'll be able to sweep without having to move them. I love little details like that in a shop.
I moved my table too. That way it'll be centered under the big LED shop light I bought a while back. That brings it closer to both the chop saw and the drill press. Fewer steps from one process to the next, and better lighting. Eventually I'll build a better table. This one from my step-grandpa is so rusted out that I can't ground to the table when I'm welding. I'll put a downdraft cutting table on too when I make it. A proper fitting and fixturing table would be a hell of a feature in this shop.
After getting the garbage taken care of, Sam helped me organize and label my big tool box.
We emptied it all out onto the table and took a quick inventory, then put it back in sensible groups by drawer. Sam manned the label maker, with my help on some of the spelling.
End result is pretty frikkin sweet. I'm missing a lot of tools from various projects over the years, but they're easy to replace. No biggie. This box has a ton more space than I need currently, but that's good. I'll get more tools as the shop grows, and it'll fill up quick.
I must've swept and blown that floor ten times today. I'm pretty proud of the shop now, and can't wait to start advertising and taking jobs. I'm excited to be adding capability too! Just a few hours a week will bring in some pretty significant money for us, and we'll be able to make some progress on savings and debt busting. Also, there's layoffs at work lately. The bottom fell out in our market in the last couple months, so this'll help us out a little for security in the unlikely event of me losing my job. Add on that I'm not welding at work anymore, and it's kind of a no brainier to be welding more at home. That's a skill that I don't need to be losing.
After cleaning up shop, I took the boys to supper. Then baths and bed before church tomorrow morning after the girls get home. A good productive weekend!
All action for the good of all.
Nate.
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Amaaaaaazing. Love a tidy shed and so awesome you can do some jobs from home with a real life skill. I have been organising my shed too. Nothing like yours lol.
I don't wanna work a job anymore, so I'm gonna make my own job so now I can work two jobs. Makes sense, right? 🤔🤣
That is a shop after my own heart! When I built my husband's shop eons ago, everything was labeled and had a place. I even traced outlines around things that hung on the walls so they could go back where they belonged.
But he is not an organized person.... And this was what it looked like most of the time:
He did go out and hoe it out this year, and mostly one can still walk in there, but the benches are no longer cleaned off...
That is a shop anyone would want to walk into. Hope you get lots of jobs!
Yeah, that's about what it looked like! I'll get on the outlining level soon. Have you heard of 5S? It's a production organization system that uses outlines and places for everything. Very optimized and efficient. I've never worked in a shop that doesn't use it, and I'll be implementing it a little at a time as the shop gets running.
Nope, but knowing my husband, I thought it might work, but alas....
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