Do you clean the workshop up every day?

I did clean my workshop once. Ah yes, I remember it well, I were only a lad then !

Now I just about clean myself !

Workshops are not showrooms, clean the kip when you cannot find what you need and just get on with the job.

Life is too short for Housecleaning.

Every evening machines get brushed down and benches tidied, floor hoovered at least once a week, depends on amount of mess made, everything returned to it’s correct place. Most probably comes from a lifetime working in aerospace and medical equipment where everything has to be clean and tidy, a tidy bench is a tidy mind is something that was drummed into me at about 18 years old.

Not the whole workshop but at the end of each session I thoroughly clean any machine that have been used. In addition I put away any hand tools and measuring equipment.

Eric

Clean the floor?? I'm lucky if I can see the floor between all the jobs lined up for repair, build etc. The spiders have a wow of a time swinging from the rafters, the lathe is abused with swarf and sawdust from wood work projects and the whole workshop has a good clean out once in a while - normally when the gremlins have stolen a small screw or something. I see many of us on this forum treat the workshop like an operating theatre, matching original machine paint etc etc - I just don't have time for that. My workshop, small as it is, is a wonder to behold to all who visit it, I fix electrical, mechanical, wood stuff etc etc and sometimes have time to get on with my own projects.

As an Apprentice, all Instructors drummed into us that a clean machine was a safe machine.

So at the end of every session swarf is brushed off the machine and into the swarf tray. Sometimes, also during a busy session as well to prevent having trails of swarf flailing around.

When the tray starts getting full, work stops until that has been cleared.

(Being keen on recycling, the swarf is pounded down into cleaned food tins, When full, the lid is put into place and the edges of the can hammered over. The can then goes into the recycling bin. )

On the floor of my shop is hard plastic matting with holes.so stray swarf falls through. Two or three times a year, everything is cleared off the floor and the mats taken up for "The Mucking of Geordie's Byre" This is when as much as possible is swept up and given the canning treatment as well. A good time for finding dropped washers, nuts etc!

Keeping the shop tidy (A place for everything, and everything in its place ) is also a big help in finding tools and equipment, as well as keeping the place tidy.

Although you might not think so if you saw my shop! Mostly, I do know which pile its in, on the heavy duty shelves.

Howard

I can't work in an untidy or messy workshop, I find my workrate falls off dramatically and I get frustrated when I can't find what I want, so I often stop mid job and have a tidy up, sweep the floor and put the tools away, then get back to it, calmed, refreshed and invigorated by the zen in tidying up! Last job on Friday is at least a 30 minute tools away and tidy, sometimes longer. I remember when I was an apprentice, and was alone in the shop when the foreman came in and said, "I got to go out lad, so your'e in charge, tek't phone messages an ave a bit of a tidy if you get the chance" In about 4 hours I completely reorganised the place and cleaned areas that had been untouched for ages. He arrived back, walked into the workshop , stopped dead, grinned and said "bloody ell lad, you took me at my word" and I was the golden boy for almost a week! If he could see that workshop now he would weep!

Phil

I'm ashamed to admit it but being an ex instructor & doing what Howard said with my group of apprentices; I have sadly got into the routine of giving my cave a good going over just once a week, not every session, .. . lathe swarf cleared away, any mill swarf goes down the same route, machines wiped down & oiled,with the machinery colours now looking its age ( 8 ) I sometimes wonder if I have cleaned up at all. The floor matting gets lifted once in a while... & gets a severe looking at with brush & Hoover. It must be my age .

George.

Sometimes you HAVE to clean up as you work.