# cleaning shop



## woodtickgreg (Dec 10, 2011)

The time has come once again to clean my basement shop so I can work on some projects. It is very apparent that I do not have the discipline to clean as I go and put things away. I just get a tool out use it then drop it and keep going. I have piles of stuff everywhere, my workbench has become a lumber storage rack, the rack is full, the table saw out feed tables have become the work bench, piles of wood everywhere as I can't seem to throw anything out, but I do use it. Saw dust and wood chips cover everything as I don't have dust collection other than a shop vac and air filter when I remember to turn them on. I dread this task but it must be done, I've once again gotten to the point that I can't stand it and it's stopping me from working! my pattern seems to be work on a couple of projects, trash the shop, procrastinate, grumble, and then finally bite the bullet and do what I should have been doing all along so I can get back to work. Am I the only one with this affliction? In a way I sometimes think that it's a good thing that I don't have a bigger shop as there would be more to clean!


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## Kenbo (Dec 10, 2011)

I clean my shop after every visit. I also clean as I go, putting tools back where they belong. There is a huge safety concern when a shop is left in an untidy state. Reaching into a pile of shavings and having the tip of your finger find that chisel that you misplaced is no fun at all. Having items leap for freedom off of your workbench, only to find your toes as a landing point is a bad way to start your day. Tripping over that small piece of lumber that would have taken 5 seconds to put away, and cracking your head on the corner of a bench is......well you get the idea. Once the initial clean up is done, it only takes 5-10 minutes after each shop visit to get your shop back to a perfectly clean state. The next time you visit your shop, you can start working at your project immediately, instead of having to clean up your mess from your last 2 visits. There is also the factor of keeping your tools in their top working order. An unkept tool, that is full of dust and dirt, is not a properly kept tool. It does take some effort to get it to a clean state in the beginning, but some willpower and preventative cleaning and maintenance is all it takes to have a fantastic work space, every time you visit. Try it, you'll wonder why you never did it before. Post some photos of the before and after and good luck.


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## woodtickgreg (Dec 10, 2011)

Funny thing is I used to do those very things, don't know how I got away from it, seems like once the mess starts it just snowballs into carnage.


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## Kevin (Dec 10, 2011)

Kenbo said:


> I clean my shop after every visit. I also clean as I go, putting tools back where they belong. There is a huge safety concern when a shop is left in an untidy state. Reaching into a pile of shavings and having the tip of your finger find that chisel that you misplaced is no fun at all. Having items leap for freedom off of your workbench, only to find your toes as a landing point is a bad way to start your day. Tripping over that small piece of lumber that would have taken 5 seconds to put away, and cracking your head on the corner of a bench is......well you get the idea. Once the initial clean up is done, it only takes 5-10 minutes after each shop visit to get your shop back to a perfectly clean state. The next time you visit your shop, you can start working at your project immediately, instead of having to clean up your mess from your last 2 visits. There is also the factor of keeping your tools in their top working order. An unkept tool, that is full of dust and dirt, is not a properly kept tool. It does take some effort to get it to a clean state in the beginning, but some willpower and preventative cleaning and maintenance is all it takes to have a fantastic work space, every time you visit. Try it, you'll wonder why you never did it before. Post some photos of the before and after and good luck.



That does it. I'm going to clean my shop. I've tried everything else to keep from cutting, bruising, breaking, and contusing myself. Maybe you're on to something.


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## Kevin (Dec 10, 2011)

woodtickgreg said:


> ... seems like once the mess starts it just snowballs into carnage.



I miss carnage. It was extreme organization compared to what I have now. :bomb:


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## woodtickgreg (Dec 10, 2011)

I miss carnage. It was extreme organization compared to what I have now. :bomb:
[/quote]

Thanks kevin, I don't feel so bad now. I'm not the only one!


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## Mike1950 (Dec 10, 2011)

You are not the only one. Everyone has to have their own style- You got the cleanys and the piggys and I am at the bottom end of the piggys. I clean when it gets to be a disaster and then start again. :wacko1:


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## CodyS (Dec 11, 2011)

Kenbo said:


> I clean my shop after every visit. I also clean as I go, putting tools back where they belong. There is a huge safety concern when a shop is left in an untidy state. Reaching into a pile of shavings and having the tip of your finger find that chisel that you misplaced is no fun at all. Having items leap for freedom off of your workbench, only to find your toes as a landing point is a bad way to start your day. Tripping over that small piece of lumber that would have taken 5 seconds to put away, and cracking your head on the corner of a bench is......well you get the idea. Once the initial clean up is done, it only takes 5-10 minutes after each shop visit to get your shop back to a perfectly clean state. The next time you visit your shop, you can start working at your project immediately, instead of having to clean up your mess from your last 2 visits. There is also the factor of keeping your tools in their top working order. An unkept tool, that is full of dust and dirt, is not a properly kept tool. It does take some effort to get it to a clean state in the beginning, but some willpower and preventative cleaning and maintenance is all it takes to have a fantastic work space, every time you visit. Try it, you'll wonder why you never did it before. Post some photos of the before and after and good luck.



I agree totally, mind you my chisels couldn't cut butter... and I have no stone :wacko1:.

My 'shop' (or in other words the room I am working in atm) got to a horrific stage so I spent half a day cleaning/organising it. After I did that it really does only take a few mins to clean up. I got home after a family thing today and the carpenter had been in there and it took all of 5 mins to pack everything away and get my stuff back (by this I mean it was scattered over the whole floor and house :wacko1:) to start working. 

I have found that one of the most important things is to have a place for EVERYTHING and if it doesn't have one then it goes or I make one. Once things are back in there place it is simply a quick sweep and maybe a hoover.

Just my opinion that suits my environment and experience level...:i_dunno:


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## Mickey Cassiba (Dec 11, 2011)

I too am among the piggys, though in my outdoor studio(patio), I don't have to worry about piles of shavings and dust. The incessant south Texas wind takes care of that for me, and the neighbors get free multi-colored mulch. Tools do get put away, eventually, but wood stays where it is, if I move it, I'll never find it again. My mesquite pile is the only thing I keep semi-organized...gotta keep the wormy stuff separated from the fresh, or it alll gets wormy. And the ebony lives in the house.


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## woodtickgreg (Dec 11, 2011)

cleany or piggy? reality sucks, guess I've become a piggy:sad: I think it also has to do with trying to do to much all at the same time and juggling life in there somehow, and having limited shop time sometimes. If I have to choose between cleaning the shop or working on a project it seems I will always choose the project.


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## Daren (Dec 11, 2011)

woodtickgreg said:


> In a way I sometimes think that it's a good thing that I don't have a bigger shop as there would be more to clean!



I sometimes blame my messy shop on it's small size...but you are right if my shop was bigger it would just be a bigger mess. 


.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Kevin (Dec 11, 2011)

Mickey Cassiba said:


> . . . . And the ebony lives in the house.



Alright pal, fork it over. You been holding out on us. 


Seriously I know that stuff is hard to come by but at least it grows down there. Next time you come across a little extra I want to propose a trade with you. 

:no dice. more please:


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## SlickSqueegie (Dec 11, 2011)

It must be a shop cleaning weekend. My fathers stuff came up to Michigan when I moved him here and he's a retired electrician.
Stuff consists of a ton of nuts and bolts a whole crap load of Sta-kons and little tiny nuts and bolts for circuit boards, risers for the boards in broken/crushed/ripped boxes full of stuff I have no idea what to do with. of course I love the fact of having a hardware storehouse full of items at my disposal but this is 20 lifetimes worth of Sta-kons nuts and bolts. and an absolute mess now that my lumber rack fell on the stack and just destroyed the boxes. I need to at some point organize and catalog and sell this whole lot, but the thought of that sends shivers down my spine. so in fresh new (all the same size) boxes they go. for now.....
This was also an area right behind my miter saw with no dust collection  little tiny nuts and bolts, Sta-kons are mixed in "mounds" of sawdust! 
I have been at it since Friday after work and am almost seeing the floor.
I went and bought some 4X4s and pipe for a new lumber rack. 
This is a major pain in the A$$, but needed to be done for some time now. so its a gonna be a good thing after I get it done, but not until then.


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## del schisler (Dec 11, 2011)

The way i clean my shop it is a 12'x20' with 6 window's and 38" door. Now also have 2 of the 36" exhaust fan's one on one end i do most work in and the other one is on the other end of the shop behind the leath for dust. Now when i am thro with the shop i turn on the 1 fan and than use the air compreaser and spray air from one end to the other taking the saw dust and dust to one end. than from one end to the corner than use the delta dust colector and suck up the chip's and dust from the router and saw. My shop is what i call dust free. Also i use the air to spray at the top where my wood is stored which is on all 4 side's at the top so dust get's their but the air take's it out so not much is left inside. I air off all my tools also i can't stand to pick up a sander which look's like it just came out of the dust collecor . I like a clean shop. thanks for reading.


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## SlickSqueegie (Dec 11, 2011)

mike1950 said:


> You are not the only one. Everyone has to have their own style- You got the cleanys and the piggys and I am at the bottom end of the piggys. I clean when it gets to be a disaster and then start again. :wacko1:



lol you sound like me, the only benefit is once it gets disastrous, then cleaned. Its like a new shop all over again! lol :-D


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## Mickey Cassiba (Dec 11, 2011)

Kevin said:


> Mickey Cassiba said:
> 
> 
> > . . . . And the ebony lives in the house.
> ...


All I can get is trimmings...illegal to cut a live tree. I do have a branch or two, but teenie stuff, only about 4". However, if and when I do come by any, I'll be sure to post it
I missed a whole tree during the spring storms, chainsaw was sick. By the time I got back, even the twigs were gone:dash2:


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## Mike1950 (Dec 11, 2011)

" once it gets disastrous, then cleaned. Its like a new shop all over again! lol" Yes but in my case not for long. It is in the clean stage right now because I just finished christmas presents-5 white oak tool totes- 12 boxes and 5 end grain cutting boards =3 cleaning and still it was one helluva mess. :dash2: But if it was all clean it would mean that I spent my time cleaning and then it would be a cleaning shop instead of a wood shop-right?

Reactions: Like 1


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## Daniel (Dec 11, 2011)

My dad's shop is a perpetual disaster. He's constantly working on 5 different projects inside and out, and he's always focused on the work, not on the surface.

Every time I visit I try to clean up a corner - I figure if I cannot do the work myself, I will enable him to do it!


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## woodtickgreg (Dec 11, 2011)

Well I just finished cleaning enough to do some work now! woo hoo! Outfeed tables on the saw are clear, tools put away, lumber stashed as best as possible, mountains of sawdust swept, garbage toted out and now I'm ready to create carnage all over again! I even blew all the dust off the shop lights, much brighter now! and cleaned the air filter. Me so happy!


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## Kenbo (Dec 11, 2011)

I also went out and did some cleaning today. I don't know what happened, but I moved around some of my tools and now, I don't have enough room for all of my stuff. I mean, I had room enough for a new sander a little while ago and now, for some reason, I've lost that space. I'm going to have to think about this. :scratch_one-s_head:


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## Mike1950 (Dec 11, 2011)

Ken, I am sure that one of us will volunteer reluctantly I might add to take some of those pesky tools off of your hands so you can free up some room!!!!


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## woodtickgreg (Dec 11, 2011)

I feel your pain kenbo, I'm at the point that everything has to be on wheels and pulled out as needed. next big machine needs to be a dust collector and that will be parked permanently, hmmm where to put it.


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## CodyS (Dec 12, 2011)

woodtickgreg said:


> I feel your pain kenbo, I'm at the point that everything has to be on wheels and pulled out as needed. next big machine needs to be a dust collector and that will be parked permanently, hmmm where to put it.



Outside!! keeps noise down and after all you wouldn't want to damage your hearing (or that is a possible way to convince someone)


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## RexB (Dec 20, 2013)

Maybe you can post pics of your shop? That way we can learn and upgrade our way of storage, better tool racks, etc? 

I have 10x20 shed that I'm trying to figure a way to store more in less space!


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## ripjack13 (Dec 20, 2013)

Is there room overhead to use a pully system to raise n lower stuff?


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## Nature Man (Dec 23, 2013)

I'm just getting underway in woodworking, but it's easy to get overwhelmed in the organization department. Because my workshop is in the garage I always clean up wood, chips, and sawdust after each project because I want to keep a vehicle parked in the garage at other times. Recently tried to better organize wood I've been collecting, but am sorely behind in organizing hand tools. Hardware is woefully disorganized (screws, nails, nuts, bolts, etc.). I've concluded that woodworking is a journey, because I'm not sure I will ever be totally organized and functional! Chuck

Reactions: Like 1


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## ripjack13 (Dec 23, 2013)

You can use used coffee cans, kool aid containers, and pickle jars. My dad used to screw the lids of the pickle jars to the ceilings/floor joists and put nails,screws and whatever fit in them in there. My ceiling is too low for that. I use the kool aid containers and write on em with a sharpie and keep em on a shelf.
I also need to get another shelf system (the metal ones) for my wood to keep off the floor and dry em out in my other side of the cellar.


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