A little spring cleaning
It seems like there has been just one project after another lately. I haven’t had a chance to clean up the mess from one piece of furniture, before starting the next . My off-cut pile was getting so big that I had to stand on top of it on occasion. The cold spell that we had a few weeks back helped, because I cut a good bit up and used it to heat the house for a couple of days. Now that the weather is warming up, and my shop workload is slowing down just a little, I have a brief window to get a bit of spring cleaning and reorganization done. The first thing that I addressed was my off-cut pile. A co-worker mentioned that he wanted to get some wood for a bon fire, and I jumped on the opportunity to give kiln-dried left-overs a new home. I cut all of the long pieces down to about 4′ long and made a neat stack, by the door, to be removed tomorrow.
Off-cuts from the last three projects
Now that I can move a bit more freely, I took a look around the shop.
Mess
It is pretty bad when you have three work benches, totaling about 24′ long, and there isn’t a single clear spot to work.
More mess
this bench needs to go
My main goal for this evening, is to tear down the workbench on the north side of the shop, and remove or relocate everything in that area. This will make room for my new floor mounted tools and my router table. Currently they are crammed into a corner, occupying most of my useable floor space. Most of the bench top tools are being replaced with the newer, larger tools anyway.
New tools are in the way
Even more mess
Since I am showing off the messy side of the shop, I may as well take you on a bit of a shop tour as well. Here is a PDF showing the current layout of my shop. It is carefully laid out to minimize the impact of the support column in the center of the shop, and to maximize the locations of the doors.
I can move my table saw closer to the door to the garage and cut as much as a 12′ long piece. I have angled my planer so that I can run boards in one exterior door and out through the other. With enough infeed and outfeed support, I can run a fairly long piece through. I think the longest stock that I have run is 14′, so far.
Wood rack
On the south side of the shop is my wood rack and Adam’s bench. He is in charge of his mess, so I will ignore it during my spring cleaning…
Adam’s mess
So, anyway, back to the north side bench. I removed all of the bench top tools mounted to it and discovered that it had developed tan lines over the last ten years…
Oh look, tan lines…
The benches are fairly basic. When I built the shop, I had some 2″x6″ pieces left over, so they became the support frames. I bought a couple 4″x4″ posts and used them for legs, then attached 3/4″ particle board for a flat top.
Starting the tear-down
Since it was constructed with nails, I knocked it apart with a hammer, and saved the old material for some later use.
Bench removed
With the area clear, I moved the larger tools in.
Big tools in their new home
This now frees me up a large area, about 8′ wide and 14′ long. I can set up my knock-down workstation for an extra bench if needed, and still have room to move.
Floor space reclaimed
Well, I have inhaled enough dust for one day, so I am done for today.
Midnight Woodworking 
If you think your shop was a mess you ain’t seen nothing. I step over something every step of the way. I guess I am used to it.
Jim
That made a lot of room.
Good job !