Improving My Workspace (My 100th Instructable)

For my 100th Instructable I have tidied up my workshop!!

I have a small workshop and a lot of tools, inevitably I rarely have sufficient benchtop space and it gets messy.

Also over the last few years I have "collected" various desks and drawers of various sizes and heights, none of which are ideal.

I decided that it was time to consolidate in an effort to make a more usable space.

21mm Marine Plywood (2 sheet 8ft x 4ft)

Circular Saw

Jigsaw

Drills and Bits

Screwdrivers

Hinges

Nuts and bolts

Screws

Stage 1

As you can see -- A Mess

I had found this little desk at an inorganic collection clearout (basically thrown out ready for the tip)

It had served well for a couple of years but was made of cheap chipboard and was sagging, plus the drawers were really difficult to open.

At work we were having an office redesign and these 2 shelving units were up for grabs, initially they were in my garage for 2 years or so, holding my homebrew beer and equipment, but due to health issues I am not allowed to drink beer any more so have sold all my homebrew kit.

They were a little too wide so I cut one down to size to be an exact fit in the gap. They were then screwed to each other and the adjacent drawers.

I removed the old kitchen worktop from the Kitchen drawer set on the right side of the picture and cut a piece of 21mm ply to fit, this was screwed down onto the kitchen unit and then checked for level, it was then secured to the chest of drawers on the left.

I also made an "I" beam to sit in the centre of the worktop in order to strengthen the worktop for a pillar drill.

I won this Industrial pillar drill in a silent auction for just $20, so I bolted this above the "I" beam with 12mm coachbolts, the excess thread will be cut off later.

I then used collapsible crates in the 4 shelf gaps underneath and some grey plastic trays under the drill shelf for storage, the grey trays were a skip find.

Picture a bit out of focus!

At the far end of the shed is my wood lathe bolted to a kitchen sink unit.

I don't use the lathe much so it taking up all that space seems a bit daft, so I unbolted it, and removed the melamine and MDF worktop which also contained an unused sink.

I cut another piece of 21mm ply as a new worktop and took off the cupboard doors, The lathe was put back on top for measurement purposes.

I bought (yes bought, I know, I'll try not to do this too often) some strap hinges and gudgeon bolts.

I then bent the gudgeon bolts to allow me to get the correct offset, I did this by putting them in a vice (at work) and then bending them with a length of scaffolding using brute force and ignorance.

I then cut yet another piece of 21mm ply as a base to bolt the lathe to.

I bolted the strap hinges to the lathe base in an appropriate position using M10 bolts from the "come in handy" box.

The excess thread was cut off using an angle grinder

I screwed a length of 4x2 along the front of the cupboard and to the worktop as a reinforcement for the gudgeon bolts, the 4x2 was salvaged from some industrial packing cases that were being thrown out from a trading estate.

I then measured and drilled holes for the gudgeon bolts and assembled the hinges and slid the bolts through the holes and did up the inside nuts to hold in position.

Then checked that the base was free to swing down, I found that the base would not sit flat so drilled a large clearance hole to accommodate the hinge and 2 smaller ones that the bolt heads could sit in.

I cut out the old vertical struts above the top cupboard shelf and put the lathe in (on top of a couple of 4x2 packing pieces) then marked its position.

I then opened out the lathe base, marked and drilled 4 holes and bolted the lathe to the base with m8 bolts.

Originally I was hoping that there would be sufficient room for the lathe to swing in and sit on the top shelf of the cupboard, but it fouled while swinging in, so I cut a recess in the top cupboard shelf to allow it to swing into position

Cut 2 handholds to allow easier opening and closing of the base and a small support foot at the back, I drilled 4 x 34mm holes with a spade bit and then opened them up with a Jigsaw

.

I added a retaining hook and eye to keep it in the stowed position, second picture shows lathe in position for working,

There is still space underneath for stowage of other tools, I may see if I can find some convenient sized trays or crates that fit under to minimize wasted space.