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Tools of the trade, and workstation


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What is your favorite tool and why? Also, how do you organize your workbench, paint's, tools, and what not? I just have a basic plain old bench to work on. Not bad, but not as neat and organized as I'd like. Plus the white shelfe makes it hard to see alot of parts.

One of the best tools I've seen, and I had one at one point but lost it a while ago, was a small pen shaped peice with a micro suction cup which was designed to hold those clear lenses while glueing theme onto the body. It's so hard to work on those without getting your fingerprints on the inside of the lenses!

If you have any way cool tool's, or a really neat workbench, please post pic's here! This is about as neat and organized as mine get's.

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DSC08907.jpg

Edited by FujimiLover
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I don't have a picture of it right now, but my work bench is a commercial wooden door that I got from Craigslist. It's 8 feet long (tall). I also have a glass door from an old stereo cabinet on top of it. It makes a great work surface. It's perfectly flat, and and I spill paint or glue on it, I can just scrape it off with a razor blade.

A battery-powered Dremel is a very handy thing to have. It spins slow enough that it grinds plastic, whereas the 110AC version spins so fast that it melts plastic.

A Sherline lathe and mill are really handy B)

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Work station.

5ft by 30'inch Office Desk

cut up and modified for building and computer use.

It gets quite messie during projects.

PC240015.jpg

Still working on a better way to Organize it and still have everything with in reach.

and my fav tool lately is the my new cordless Dremel with a PE cuttin wheel.

dremel.jpg

Still have the Original corded one from 22+yrs ago for back up.

Misc. tools

ModelAltoandtools-03.jpg

Not shown are my Exacto knifes,1 with a New blade, PE Razor saw, and 1 for a Puddie knife.

I have about 5 all together floating around.

But I'm lucky enough to have a whole Hobbie room and then some.

Edited by Zukiholic
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Wow, that is one confusing workstation. I can't imagine it be good for the computer to get all that modeling dust and paint near it/on it. My computer station is to the left ot my workstation. Seperate, but still close enough I can get from one to the other quickly.

I thought about getting some sort of fancy spice-rack that can hold all of my bottle's of paint in a neat and organized fasion. Right now there just put away in a clear slide out container.

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This is my desk in the corner of the Toyshop and I don't care how much space I have I always end up working on a 12"x12" space I guess It's the nature of the beast

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This is the whole Toyshop a 12'x12' shed that I like to call HOME that I share with this guy

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He's not much of a talker he just sits there with that dumb grin on his face.

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My Dremel is the most inportant tool I own next to my mag. light

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This is my other Dremel but this one has been turned into a paint mixer and that is all it gets used for

r01200v1.jpg

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My Dad has the dremel tool you pictured on the top, and I have the one on the bottom. I much prefer my Dad's dremel tool as it gives me a much more precise control. The bottom one feels too clunky and difficult to work with on some parts of the model. Wonder if there is a micro-dremel tool?

My working companion is Itunes with over 5 day's worth of music, and my cat who sit's on the shelfe above me.

Edited by FujimiLover
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Here is my workstation.

I am currently working in my temporary apartment right now. So I am working off of the coffee table. I am boxing everything up and going on the road in a week, so I will be working on the kitchen table in my RV. So everything of mine has to be portable and ready to move. So the tackle box and a cardboard box stores everything I have.

Tool%20Box.jpg

Work%20Bench.jpg

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I don't have a picture of it right now, but my work bench is a commercial wooden door that I got from Craigslist. It's 8 feet long (tall). I also have a glass door from an old stereo cabinet on top of it. It makes a great work surface. It's perfectly flat, and and I spill paint or glue on it, I can just scrape it off with a razor blade.

I went with a door too, a large, solid core door with a 2x4 frame on casters, with drawers underneath. Mine doubles as a woodworking bench, so I covered the surface with a sheet of white masonite as it's easy on the tools and cheap to replace if you mess it up. It's nice and bright, and paint, glue and other goo can be scraped off quite easily.

My favorite tool is probably the airbrush, I'm so used to it by now that it would be totally impossible for me to build models without it. I love my Dremel as well, and I also like those small, simple things that make live so much easier. The sprue cutter is one of them, and the sanding sticks (the cheap kind women use for their fingernails) are great too. One very handy thing that you probably can't buy in the stores is my multi-purpose aluminum block. It's just a perfectly flat and square 10x20x30mm piece of aluminum that a friend and fellow model builder machined for me many years ago, and it's very useful as a sanding block, scraper, bending jig, straightedge, spacer and about a hundred other things. I can't remember what I had in mind when I asked my friend to make it, but it has become one of the best and most versatile tools in my collection. Thanks again, Roger! :unsure:

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I really couldn't pin-point the most important tool in my arsenal, but I'll narrow it down to two.

My paint booth:

sb1-vi.jpg

My dehydrator:

dehyd1-vi.jpg

Without the dehydrator I'd be watching paint dry more than assembly.

My house has a dedicated basement workshop. It's approximately 25x12. It's more than enough room to build, but as any guy, I'd love more space. I have a spare room I'll be cleaning out and working on just for that. Mainly to move my builds and display cabinet's into.

Here are a few shots of my hobby room:

cleanhob1-vi.jpg

cleanhob2-vi.jpg

cleanhob3-vi.jpg

These photo's are from when I cleaned it in Oct. '08. IT is now a disaster. I'm working on about 4 projects.

I think part of the cleaning process of the room helps rejuvenate the creative juices and get to building again.

Chris

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Here's my model area. It's part of a 10' x 20' room inside a 20' x 40' steel building. The other aprt of the hobby room contains 2 benchtops that are 3' x 8' each. One is for cutting and grinding and the other is the assembly area for my stained glass projects.

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My favorite tool would have to be my Wahl sander.

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My favourite piece of equipment is a sheet of glass from a 1940's Dodge truck that I found at a car dealership that I worked at during my school holidays back in the late 50's & early 60's when I was a kid, I asked the dealer principal if I could have it and he said it's "yours" and I have used it on my hobby desk and in other situtaions as well that did not involve model builder it's been invaluable and would hate to see it broken or lost.

Dingo :D

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