Hobby Room/Workbench questions

[AMT4EVR]

GREETINGS, fellow builders,

As I'am revamping my hobbyroom, I've placed WHITE pegboard on some walls and also on the walls around the workbench to reflect lighting better.

LIGHTING; What do you like?, the hum and buzz of CFL bulbs or the LED ones that cost more, what gives more light.

WORKBENCH; On the bench top, I placed a sheet of white paper and over layed that with a sheet of plexi-glass. Good choice or bad for the plexi ??. The bench will also have more lighting overhead.

PEGBOARD; On walls now, so that I can hang parts, tools, clipboards etc, and I can stop digging through endless boxes of stuff to find what I need.

Did I do good ?, what's your take on this, any comments are always welcomed if there's room for more improvment.

THANKS!! John

[bpletcher55]

JOHN ,SOUNDS GOOD TO ME , THE PLEXY CLASS WILL CLEAN UP EASY ,AND THE PEG BOARD WILL WORK WELL ,AS FOR LIGHTING I USE CFL LIGHTS ,

[Harry P.]

You need to get one of those large, "self-healing" cutting mat/work surfaces.

The plex is no good... cutting on it for a few days will leave you a work surface with dozens of slashes all over it, plus it'll kill your X-acto blades real fast. The self-healing cutting mats are far superior, and they come in a variety of colors and sizes. Do a google search for "self-healing cutting mat."

For lighting... whatever general overhead lighting you have is fine unless you want to change it. As fas as actual task lighting for your work surface, I use an LED magnifier desk lamp. The LED light is "daylight," not the yellowish light of an incandescent bulb or the bluish light of a fluorescent. And LED lights produce zero heat, and they are very long lasting and energy efficient. I wouldn't consider any other type of lighting.

I have one like this:

http://www.parts-express.com/workbench-led-magnifier-56-led-5-lens-with-3-diopter--350-024?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pla

Pegboard on the walls is a great idea.

[1930fordpickup]

John look for the closest Hobby Lobby . They carry the mat Harry is talking about . I like the pegboard also. Just do not glue your project to the Plexi.

[Harry P.]

Here's where to find the cutting mats:

http://www.google.com/#q=self-healing+cutting+mat&safe=off&tbm=shop

[Ace-Garageguy]

Harry's right about the lighting, but the LED units are still expensive. Remember though, that they will last just about forever, so you only buy them once.

If the LED price is still too high for you, compact florescents no longer buzz, are incredibly cheap now, and are available in several color temperatures now too, so getting a "daylight" balance is entirely possible.

I personally prefer a cabinet-grade plywood work surface, as it lets me pin, jig, fixture and clamp things to it easily.

[Mizozuman2]

I just sit at my desk. But I love reading these kind of threads. Gives me ideas on what to do in a garage, if me and my mom were to ever move before I move out.

[Harry P.]

Harry's right about the lighting, but the LED units are still expensive.

This is the one I bought:

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/420036/Realspace-Clamp-On-Magnifier-Task-Lamp/

[Ace-Garageguy]

I just meant the bulbs themselves are pricey compared to CFLs, which have plummeted in price since their introduction.

Home Depot and other outlets have LED bulbs that will fit in just about every socket imaginable (including my existing work lamps) and they're dimmable, which most CFLs are not. But they are still considerably more expensive.

When my CFL bulbs go out, I'll be replacing them with LEDs.

[Cato]

Sewing stores also sell the healing mats but much larger. Mine is 36 x 24. I think they are cheaper than the hobby mats for their size.

[Harry P.]

Sewing stores also sell the healing mats but much larger. Mine is 36 x 24. I think they are cheaper than the hobby mats for their size.

Mine is also 24x36.

They come in all sizes... see my link above.

[1930fordpickup]

Thanks for the link Harry. I had no idea that you could get a mat that size until I looked at the link.

[Matt LeBlanc]

My bench top is the preformed counter top from the box stores.I have a large piece of glass on top of that.Its smooth and flat.Cutting on it does not scar it.

[dartman]

I use a piece of tempered glass and a self healing mat.The mat is good for cutting and the glass cleans up real easy.I have a piece about 18"x18".

[Skip]

Sounds good, agree on self healing cutting mat, doesn't have to be a large one as long as you use it. Plexiglass will hold up well with just that one addition.

Lighting, go with LED and at least one small fluorescent tube light, LED lighting produces a harsh read that bright light the fluorescent softens it just a tad bit. In addition to room lighting, above my Hobby Bench (24 inches) I have a 36 inch strip LED light which I found almost blinded me until I started turning my large fluorescent magnifying lamp on with it.

Bench top is a section of Formica countertop, cleans up and is great to work on.

[Tom Geiger]

Here's my bench. Note that on top of my bench, I work on a board, and a piece of glass. The glass is great since you can't hurt it. I get paint and glue on it and just scrape it off. Lighting wise, I have a couple of clamp on lights from Home Depot. In the picture you see one hanging off the shelf, I now have two, and the light standing near the wall, I have them all on a power strip so I can turn them all on/off at once.

[Aaronw]

For the lights I went with track lights and LED bulbs. The track lights are easy to install and you can move the lights around on the track. I've got 16 feet of track and 12 fixtures, about 1/2 spots and 1/2 flood, when I want more light I can move them all right over my desk and I have enough lighting to film a major motion picture on my bench.

The LEDs are not cheap, but they are supposed to last 20+ years, they are instant on vs a couple of minutes for full brightness with CFLs. They are even lower wattage and have practically no heat. I have the equivalent of nearly 800 watts over my bench, but draw less than 100 watts. If these were all incandescent lights I would roast like a rotisserie chicken.

I also bought a set of LED under cabinet lights which I put under the bench. They are great when I drop a small part on the floor.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I have the equivalent of nearly 800 watts over my bench, but draw less than 100 watts.

Now that's impressive. I thought my paltry-by-comparison 400 watt equivalent was bright...

[DrGlueblob]

I like OTT Lights. Have an OTT near where you paint, and you'll get true color light as opposed to the blue-ish flourescents. OTTs are expensive, but one is enough to go along with your other lighting sources.

[Danno]

Here's where to find the cutting mats:

http://www.google.com/#q=self-healing+cutting+mat&safe=off&tbm=shop

Gee, Harry. You mean you didn't pay 4 times as much so your mat would have the XActo label?

[Teddy J. Tannehill]

My vision is not has good as it use to be so I have one of those lights with a magnifier glass....It has allowed me to keep building in the 1:24 and 1:25 scale like when I was young. I like the peg board idea I've always wanted a way to have my favorite items "tools" easy to find and use....Still after endless try's with trays, drawers, boxes and organizers....what ever tool you need ends cleverly disguised as itself at the bottom just out of view...or "Fallen of the edge of the floor"....Murphy's law I guess. One of the "Builders" Suggested organizing your spare in "Like Groups" in containers such as all wheel and tiers together, all clear plastic and transparent red together...Engine parts. chassis stuff. ect..... Great idea....I need to do that one of these days.

[slusher]

Harry's right about the lighting, but the LED units are still expensive. Remember though, that they will last just about forever, so you only buy them once.

If the LED price is still too high for you, compact florescents no longer buzz, are incredibly cheap now, and are available in several color temperatures now too, so getting a "daylight" balance is entirely possible.

I personally prefer a cabinet-grade plywood work surface, as it lets me pin, jig, fixture and clamp things to it easily.

I Went to the Battery and bulb Plus store and got a 3 pack of the daylight florescent bulbs for my desk lamp and over head lights here in the model room. Most stores just carry soft white. They make a big difference...

[Dave Ambrose]

I like fluorescent tubes for over workbench lighting. They give you nice even lighting, without shadows. Now days, a magnifier light is a must for fine work. Between the two, I seem to do well.

[alan barton]

OK guys, for what it's worth, here's my theory on parts storage that has served me well for over thirty years. Before that I was a "boxes full of random stuff" kinda guy.

First, you need a large number of uniformly sized boxes. In a former life I was a photography teacher at a high school and the photo boxes were a perfect size. I now have a rack on each side of my bench with ninety boxes for a total of 180 boxes. Believe me, it is easy enough to fill them!

Avoid round containers like the plaque - they waste tons of room!

So, lets say you have a box for tyres. One day the box fills up. Instead of starting a new tyre box, you split your existing stash into street tyres and race tyres - now you have two boxes but with a different range of tyres in each.

One day the street tyre box fills up. So, you split the stash and now you have say, radial tyres and crossply tyres. When the Radial tyre box fills you split it and now you divide them up into , say, Goodyear radials and Firestone radials.

So now, when you are looking at a picture of a car in a magazine that you just HAVE to build you go straight to the Goodyear street radial box and BAM! you've got what you need!

So the rule is, never double a box, always split a box. This way you don't have to think ahead and think " how many boxes do I need, what do I write on the front?" because you never start a new box until one fills up. That's when you can decide what you are going to call the next box, determined by what you have in the box you are going to split.

It's dirt simple but it works wonderfully for me. I am not an organised person by nature so for me this is as good as it gets. with my current range of boxes I can pick all the pieces I need to buidl a car in around half an hour with very little digging or fossicking.

Hope it works for you.

Cheers

Alan

P.S. Glass top and self healing mat, the only way to go!

[DrGlueblob]

Another thing.. Remove the Carpet Monster from your work area. I have a white tile floor in my silversmithing shop, and a light wood floor in my model room.. Close enough. Get rid of anything that looks like a carpet or rug.