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Southwest Illinois | We had an old shop that was built in the 70's. It was pretty typical, no windows, poor lighting, a loft for "storage" and a 24' long workbench. When we built a new one we pretty much avoided all of those. In terms of a work bench we really only used the workbench in a few feet area by the vice, which was next to the grinder. The remaining 20' of the workbench was mostly a stop for stuff before it got pitched. You know all the stuff you "might" use someday and eventually gets pitched after several months or a year. New shop has no work bench or loft. Loft was replaced by a 40x30 10' tall parts room, bathroom and office. Would never go back to a loft. Why? The steps to the loft collect crap. Plus I hate steps the older I get. Eventually it get's hauled up stairs only to be thrown away in a matter of years or decades. I will say we did miss some aspects of the work bench. We put our vice on a 6x6 piece of box steel buried in the floor. We had made a 4'x4' roll around table to move around and work from. We also bought a 3'x 4' rolling table that raises from a height of 30" to 50" tall with a top made of 3/16" plate. We use those a lot. When you are working on something on the other side of the shop no one wants to walk to the other side to use a work bench. After much discussion 5 years ago we eventually bought a StorLoc roll around tool box to store small parts, like light bulbs, assortment cases(roll pins, grease zerks, etc) and other stuff best stored in a drawer. We did have it made with a 2" thick maple top wrapped in stainless. It is 10 feet long so a bit more cumbersome to move around. It gets used, but not as much as we thought because it is so big. We like the storage aspect of it but again mobility seems to be the desire. Most of the time when you are working on something you just need a small work area, not 10 or 20 feet of work bench. My dad was totally for a big long work bench. Our shop is 80 feet long and had he had his way we would have had at least 40' of workbench. He sees know how much less cluttered it is. I think it's one of those things that you think you need until it's gone and then you don't miss it. Most equipment dealers don't have big long fixed work benches, neither do auto repair shops. But t the end of the day you need to make it the way you want. | |
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Work bench and storage for farm shop
