Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How Much Has Your Messy Workbench Cost You?

I don't really have a work bench.

But have learned to throw a blanket or towel underneath if you're working on stuff outside.

The only gloves I can work in.
Sometimes it's too darn cold to be working on stuff barehanded.

As I have gotten older, my fingers have no texture, and are as slick as a greased door knob. I constantly drop things. Pain in the ass. miles

Magnetic parts trays have saved me hundreds of $$ in NOT LOST screws/parts/pieces.

Sometime, 200 hundred years from now, an archaeologist will be digging through my shop ruins (it's already a ruin) and find about a thousand tiny steel check balls and two thousand tiny springs from chainsaw carb metering jets. He will ponder it for a while...and conclude that they are indeed tiny religious artifacts sacrificed to the gods to atone for fat fingers and poor eyesight.

I've moved my shop 3 times in the last 11yrs.

Found lost stuff all 3 times, especially that first move because that one had been in use for 20+ yrs.

Magnetic trays and telescoping magnets/grabbers help a lot.

Sometimes I'll use a large clear plastic bag with the bottom cut out as a see thru sleeve to catch things.

Absolutely nothing. My 2 workbenches are clutter free before I wander into the house. I never go to bed that my garage and workbenches are not organized and cleaned. The only exception to a clear work bench is when either an object is being glued or painted and must remain in place till dry. I use my workbenches multiple times per day. Have used it 2 times today before 8 AM. Will be using it while changing ATF and solenoid in transmission later today when it warms up. I do not have OCD. I have CDO. That is OCD put in proper alphabetic order.

And that is why I have a magnet on a stick in my shop.

A magnet doesn’t work on dropped primers 😮

Loosing a spring & knowing it has me really pissed at myself & I go on a complete tare to find it.

But seeing a spring on the floor & not having worked on anything for weeks will probably haunt me for life.

Decided to clean my bench up . Don't it look better?

Nor on aluminum, but it was a lifesaver the other day when I dropped a tiny screw on the floor. I knew it was there as I heard it hit, got down on the floor and did the cheek to the ground look and nothing. Got the magnet and ran it around and at first thought - nothing. But on closer examination, it had found the little screw.

My wife still kids me about a time many years ago when I was rebuilding the carb from her race car and I sent a small part into orbit when a large spider dropped onto the work bench (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

Call that an Indian Creeper.

Cardboard works good too.

A clean workbench doesn't stop anything from rolling off.

Work on a towel or carpet piece instead of a hard, slick surface.

Get an aluminum angle and screw it to the lower edge of your workbench top, making a small gutter to catch rolling screws, pins. etc.

Wear an apron. Use a couple of clips or velcro to fasten the lower apron edge under the workbench when you are sitting. But not so strong it will stop you from getting up. It will catch parts that jump the gutter.

Bruce

If you can't keep a job site clean and organized you aren't going to make it.