Cleaning the shop

I’m no where near as obsessive as you are, but realize that I should be more diligent than I am about “serious” cleaning. I vacuum or brush stuff off my benches as it builds up, but the floor generally has to wait a while. Fine dust that deposits on machines is not an issue for me, so I vacuum or wipe when I feel like it or when my wife volunteers to help with the deep cleaning. To be honest, my wife is more obsessive about cleaning my shop than I am, but she feels it’s a way to do her part since most of what I build goes into our house.

-- Bill, Thomasville, GA

I find this to be most interesting. I have just finished putting the first coat of paint on a project. The shop looks like Hiroshima after the bomb. I definitely need to clean it before I start another project. I hate having to look for things. I have been looking for my rechargeable screwdriver for two days. Have no idea where it is.
When you get old, you forget real easily. Did I mention that I forget things?

I use the same space to woodwork and finish projects. That way I am sure to clean the shop from top to bottom and remove all dust before finishing each project.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

I try to clean up every time I’m done for the day by sweeping and putting tools away. I have a small workshop, and it doesn’t take long to have things get out of control. I find it much easier to spend a few minutes cleaning up a small mess when I’m done for the day versus spending hours cleaning huge messes by neglecting to do it for a day or two or even several days. An exception would be leaving tools out, set up, and ready to use again when I’m in the middle of something but stop for the day.

-- Measure "at least" twice and cut once

Bert, I’m the same way.
My former mentor (now long gone) had me clean the shop at the end of each day. I’m not talkin’ about mopping, but general tidy and put away cleaning.
I always know where my “stuff” is, and it sure makes my next day easier.
Call me obsessive if ya wish, but everything has a place in both the home and the workshop.
Now I’ve gotta dust off the keyboard. :)
Bill

-- [email protected]

Heck when I put everything away, next day I forget where I put half the stuff!! LOL

But I do try and keep things tidy :o)

-- Bill, central NY...no where near the "big apple"

Thank you guys

-- Bert

I guess my problem is that in the course of trying to clean/organize, I find something else to work on. When doing finishing work I do keep my 4×8 assembly table clean. And I do keep my table saw clean because that can improve accuracy. Any other tool I happen to be working with stays clean as well. Other than than though I should probably go to confession.

I bought one of those school type dust mops (5 footer I think) but I spend more time shaking it out that using it. And having a multi-purpose shop my solution seems to have been to keep building more benches that only serve as places to move stuff to.

Now in my defense, my shop is constructed as “ladder-framed” (2×6, verts 10’ apart with horizontals every 2 feet from the floor to the ceiling) and clad with bright white ribbed steel. It is a lot of work to hang shelves/cabinets.

I’m finishing a few projects now and just today was thinking I need to spend a week out there to restore it to clean space so I can repeat the process in a few months.

How often do I clean my shop? Not nearly as often as I should…

-- Malcolm Laurel - http://MalcolmLaurel.com

hay Bert.
I built my wall mounted flip-top stations for this exact reason: easy clean up (by no means finished products to display on LJ’s but they work for now). Ease of keeping a tidy workshop is something I found very desirable in all forum posts here on LJ’s. Is the reason why I bought a dust collector and air cleaner as well. With a simple push of the broom, my work area is 100% clean. I’m in the progress of learning / making wall cabinets for hand tools and such so that there is ease of organization and less dust fuss.

-- The Carpenter Bee is derived from the Ancient Greek word wood-cutter "xylokopos/ξυλοκὀπος"

Thank you all

-- Bert

I’m with Holbs on this one. I have a wall hung tool cabinet with my most used tools, directly behind my bench. I’ve taught myself to put things away right after use. Other things that always seemed to get in the way are clamps. All of my spring clamps are in a draw near my bench. I have a roll-around clamp rack for bar and c-clamps and no longer leave them around.

My dust collector is on wheels with a 20’ hose. Easy to reach all corners with a minimum movement. I still need to sweep-up but its not an everyday thing.

I hate the clutter as well. Seems that the clutter adds to stress. My shop time is therapeutic.

-- Nicky

Bert, you’d freak out if you saw my place.

Like many of y’all, I try to pick up the tools at the end of the day. I bet I sweep and dedust everything around once a month. I finish all of my projects in the same area where I do everything else, so dust can be a problem. For this reason, I have resorted to fast-drying or rub on finishes for now. If I brush on anything and it stays wet for more than 15 minutes or so, I start to get dust nibs in my finish.

One thing I have realized is that when I get to build/design a shop one day, I want to break it into three sections: woodworking, metalworking and finishing. I have found that I do more metalworking than I expected, and the metal can and will stain wood and cause rust problems

-- The Wood Is Your Oyster

The Lumberjock formerly known as renners, you need a shorter name.
Yes mess is the only thing that really freak me out, especially when it it in the mind of people and this is very common

-- Bert