A whole lot of not a lot...

Do you ever find yourself just sat in the workshop enjoying your own space?

Don't have much I can do til another tool arrives lest setups be disturbed, so just sat here with some easy rock, a smoke and a beer feeling utterly at peace.

Ought to do this more often, I've come up with several ideas for next phases and methods for future setups...

Bliss!

J

Been there got the tee shirt

H

Not so good in an unheated workshop as the winter draws on, but thats the only drawback I can think of.

Sadly, never, because there are always two people with extreme dementia in an adjoining room potentially about to do something messy or dangerous that will require my immediate attention.

There is always something to do in the workshop as I tend to have more than one thing on the go at once

@old mart - got a lovely little ceramic heater to ease that work...

@Bill Phinn - sorry to hear that. Might be a situation I'm in before too long as went through it with grandparents. Never know, could 'get lucky' and go before they do. Got a long standing agreement with an old pal to bump me off if I get too squiffy though, so hopefully he'll come through...

@Dalboy - both machines currently have setups waiting for the same tool unfortunately. Thought I had bore mic's bigger than half inch... I don't!

Never, not enough room for a seat for a start. Darn cold at this time of year too. Much prefer to sit and cogitate in the design office; like I'm doing now, complete with beer.

Andrew

Small tubular heater on back of Myford drip tray set to thermostat and timer for on after sunset and off after sunrise. Lathe s plastic cover traps most heat. Mill also covered with plastic and ultra low wattage heater on 24/7. Heat escapes from both Sources and keeps well insulated workshop comfortable. Fly in ointment: darn cold making 'leap' from warm house to warm workshop. Gave up smoking 30+ years ago. Dont drink much and not at all if using machinery. No seating - standing room only. So, warm and keep happy by making something. Need to eat and calls of nature unwelcome interruptions.

John

To answer the question. Yes i do enjoy sitting in the workshop. It's not very big but well insulated, so does not take much Lecky to get it warmed up. At this time of year have a dehumidifier left on 24/7. Although it does not come on much but in the last week has produced about 4 litres of water.

I do confess to looking at the Mill & Lathe more than i use them.

Steve.

I tend not to use the cramped workshop as a meditation spot, though on warm afternoons there is a spot outside it I use as such.

Not sure but my unheated workshop might be warmer as a "bedroom" than parts of my hardly-heated house, in very cold weather!

One-inch foam board above the ceiling, below the wriggly asbestos-cement roof; same material on the single-skin concrete-block walls, behind sterling-board; external "double-glazing" made from twin-wall polycarbonate roofing sheets, on the large, single-thickness glass windows. .

Oh, and a luxuriant growth of ivy now covering at least a third of the roof. That must add to the insulation.

It's surprising how warm it seems to become after an hour or so doing any work in there.

Just about room on the floor for a lightweight camping mattress and sleeping-bag, if I shuffle things about a bit and sweep the floor....

'

My "design office" is split over two places. One is the front room where the PC, with TurboCAD installed, lives. The other, which I use only infrequently, is my local pub, with table space for a notebook (the paper type, not a little confuser) and a couple of pencils.

Clean up if it's too cold

Hoovering brushing, moving, shifting, tidying and after 30 mins you're toasty and can do some decent work

If you're workshop is perfect... then do somewhere in the house, the stairs, the shower, whatever

Never fails

I too confess to happily spending the odd 1/2 hour just sitting in the workshop and looking at my toys.

I've even been known to pause a job so I can soak it all in.

Jim

I had to take the drivers seat out of my toy car while it was having some bodywork done, I put it in the workshop out of the way and found it to be a great place to escape the rest of the world! The only drawback was that it was a bit low to the ground, it's back in the car now so I have to stand and cogitate...

My workshop is comfortably warm even in winter. It allows me to relax in the clean half and contemplate pleasurably that which beckons next for attention.

This week I have spent time persuading a new 8” 4 jaw self centering chuck to run true. I eventually managed to get it running within .0015” of true. My noddle was assisted in the process by much cogitating and resting of my old fundament. Some/much of this thinking time involves soaking up the workshop atmos and allowing my kit to vie for my attention.

Here in my sanctum I have no desire to compete (or time sheet to fill in) and peace rests easily on my head.

At 75 and 76 respectively my wife and I have all the aches and pains that come with being aged but we count ourselves so lucky that we retain our marbles.

So +5 to all those that give their time and patience to the care and well being of Parkinsons and Alzhiemer afflicted humans – they are angels on earth!

Rik

I live alone (during the week at least) anyway so my own space isn't something I'm short on.

However, after cleaning my grandfather's house a number of times for him as he got less mobile, I realised that I was never going to smoke in a house I owned...

So the workshop, as a separate building became a place where I could do so in relative comfort, and I can confess to spending many a happy hour sat on my workbench smoking a beat-up falcon pipe and listening to late night R4/World Service programmes.

I have now quit smoking (despite the pipe, I'm still young enough that it makes complete sense to do so) and do find myself pausing rather less in the workshop... Although I did recently find myself spending 5 minutes dancing to some old-school 2-tone/ska music in there, mostly as a kind of celebration of clearing enough space that it was possible.

It's held at about 12C year round by trace heating, which is not warm, but enough that wearing coveralls or a jumper I'm at a comfortable temperature... Ice Climbing, all manner of Water Sports, and stints working in the North Sea have all adjusted my physiology to cope with the cold

Very much! Clears my brain even if I don't get much done.

Neil

The dehumidifier seems to help keep frost at bay with good insulation.

At work I purchased a brand new scrap Austin Princess drivers seat for £2, a box tubing frame to mount it at a comfortable height completed my workshop chair. It was probably too comfortable as you could easily nod off on the night shift. It was very adjustable with seat squab and back adjustment.

Mike

That ahd crossed my mind Mike but good TR7 seats are valuable to use for that! I'm a bit short of space in there at the moment as I have two pillar drills, my old tired one and a recent Fobco Stasr donation that I intend to renovate when it gets a bit warmer and I get the Ruybd Tuit out...

The only time I sit in the workshop is when I am milling a long (Time) job on the mill or marking out at the bench as I have arthritis in the spine, unfortunately I just can't sit when using other machines in the workshop. I just have a simple stool for that part it also comes in handy as a small table to put things on when working.