Hello oh makers of high quality models.
This weekend sees me moving house, which is a drag, but Mrs Steve has decreed that the event will take place, and so I have been dragged along for the ride.
Mrs Steve is also currently the size of, if not a bus, then at least a ford mondeo due to brewing a child, and, much to my annoyance, has been reading all sorts of books which seem designed to terrify mothers to be about the awful things which can happen to children - most of which seem to be things I did as a kid and enjoyed immensely.
The upshot of this is that ALL hobby activites, even such things as painting toy soliders etc have been banned from the house incase the child ends up growing a second set of legs, horns, or something equally as awful. fumes, I think, were the issue that sealed my fate.
As the is a shed the size of Windsor Castle at the new house, all dull things such as lawn mowers, empty fish tanks, the cat when it's being a pain etc will go in there, leaving the garage entirely free for me and my hobbies.
A man who knows his way around a chisel and lumps of wood is making me a great big work bench ( out of seasoned oak so even clumsy lumps like me might be able to more than three months use out of it ) so that bit is taken care of. I am also going to re-roof said garage so that it is water tight - it currently has a vast hole in the roof, so I suspect will not be much use in winter as it is - and while I'm doing that I will be adding insulation, insulating the door and will probably put some off cut carpet down.
Lastly, a load of tools have either been ordered or have already arrived, based on advice provided to me in a previous thread, and so I will no longer be building models using a razor blade and an old file as my main tools.
All well and good so far, but the question now is how to organise all this stuff into a practical working area.
I have given much consideration to the "dump it all in the corner, and hope the thing you want is on the top of the pile" method, but this has been less than sucsessful in my current working enviroment so I have come to the conclusion that I need to be better organised.
So, I am looking for your advice on these things.
Do you have a clever way of storing your wood so it doesn't bend? How do you keep the most commonly used tools around you, but don't clutter up your working area etc etc etc.
The areas I would like to know about your choices are:
1) Lighting - desk lamps? light the whole area? daylight bulbs? What do you find is good.
2) storage - how do you store different items? any clever methods or neat tricks you have come accross? Any good makers of storage devices you would recommend?
3) seating - what do you sit on - stool, big comfy chair, desk chair? And is it wise to add more than one chair - pro is that it's good for visitors, cons is that it might encourage visitors when you don't want them.
4) Do such things as kettles and possiby a place to store beer or a radio have a place in a hobby room or are they a distraction
5) lay out - do shelves work? Or are they just a pain if your sitting down most of the time? Should tools be kept in cupboards out of the way? Or maybe hung up on the wall.
Any advice on any or all of these topics greatfully recieved. Even if you have things one way, but would prefer it a different way.
they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so if you have any good things to suggest, please add a picture.
Or just add a picture of your work area and point out any bits you find either good or bad.
Thanks very much in advance
Steve