A new workbench, a new shop layout
I have two shops in my house's basement: the "dirty" shop and the "clean" shop. The "dirty" shop is mostly for woodworking, light metalwork, that sort of thing. The "clean" shop is for 3D printing, electronics, and other things. Both spaces more or less evolved in situ, working around detritus, pieces for house upgrades, and so on. In the case of the "clean" shop, a giant DIY shelving unit occupied most of the room. For years, this is where the 3D printer lived.
As it did, until this week.
For years I've wanted to get rid of that giant shelving unit, but it really was load bearing. The size of the 3D printer left little else for it to go. At the beginning of 2024, I decided to try to build a cart for it out of plywood, but I never much liked the result. It was slapdash, crooked, and was so narrow it was likely to tip over.
The problem was always cost. The easiest way to solve the problem was to buy some sort of cart or bench just to hold the machine. Yet, the prices always seemed prohibitive. The result is as I kept building projects and evolving my electronics workshop, I steadily felt I was drowning in a sea of disorganized junk.
I finally had the idea a week ago to try to build shelves or a wall-mounted desk unit to hold the printer. When I ran the numbers, however, the total cost kept toward the frustrating. Complicating this was the wiring on the walls would require special care and mounting compromises. Not impossible but...
What finally broke the stalemate was finding a workbench on sale. The price was surprisingly cut low, with free shipping. When compared to the material cost of the wall-mount one, it was about even. It also so happened that this month's Patreon income came in and would cover half of the bench easily (thank you!).
With the bench purchased, I set about finally getting rid of that shelving unit. I disconnected my existing electronics workbench and the Switchwire. Then, I started moving damn near everything around. The Switchwire went on the cart I originally designed for it, and doing so made me even more nervous. It was even more top-heavy and prone to tipping. I was afraid a careless bump would send it crashing to the ground. The DIY shelving unit was cleared off, and shoved into a corner. As I swept the floor, the amount of reclaimed space was astonishing.
When the new bench arrived, I lugged the enormous box back up into the house. The effort made me a little silly (turn up the sound)...
There wasn't much to unpacking and assembling the new bench. I opened the box, and took each piece individually down to the basement. The hardest part was the bench top, which really needed two people to move. Somehow, I managed without injury. The following day I found myself with some free time in the afternoon, and assembled the bench itself. There isn't much to describe here, after an hour I had the new bench together.
Originally, my plan was to build a little C-shaped section of the shop with the new workbench behind me, the toolbox to my left, and then the electronics bench in front of me. I quickly found I disliked how cramped it felt, and how exposed all the wiring felt on the electronics bench. It simply would never look good on camera.
Following a suggestion from someone on a Discord server, I decided to try to put everything along a single wall. To do this, I first had to move three pieces of drywall which came with the house. And to move those, I had to clear a space for them. Another hour of moving things around and lugging heavy objects by myself I had the beginnings of my new shop layout.
On the new bench, I was able to put the CNC machine, the laser machine, the Switchwire, and the resin printer all in a neat line. It looked great, but, perplexingly, I disliked it.
The problem is that the CNC and laser machines were originally learning projects. I used them as practice to build up my confidence to build the Voron Zero. While they were amazingly successful in that sense, they were kinda failures as machines themselves. Sure, they work, but they weren't altogether well thought out. The open-frame design was a poor choice for each. Either they'd make a mess of the "clean" shop, or would be best used outside.
Moreover, they made the new bench feel rather cramped. I'd rather have some of that bench for working space, if only for the Switchwire and resin printers. Combined with the safety issues of the two remaining machines, I may move those elsewhere for now. Perhaps into the "dirty" shop. I may also consider rebuilding them entirely.
