See, this is my current workspace:
Now, be honest. Doesn't that seem like a cozy little disaster waiting to happen? I actually knew where pretty much everything was, but it is crowded, messy, and it definitely could interrupt my groove and cause problems in a long painting session. Yes, it got cleaned up every couple of months, but the ground state of my painting table has long resembled this.
I decided that it was time for that to change. I might be confined to the basement for my hobbies, but I can indulge in a better painting layout. So, when I saw an ad for a workbench at one of the big box hardware stores, I decided to check it out. The demo one in the store looked pretty nice, and so Wednesday night, after the Cub Scout meeting, I went and picked one up.
Thursday night, I started putting it together. It actually went together pretty nicely.
But, I had only the one drill, and I had to keep drilling pilot holes, then switching to put the screws in, etc, etc. I ended up the night with the workbench looking like this:
Naturally enough, I remembered that my wife had bought me a cordless drill several months previous, mainly for Scout stuff and the odd household repair, and I had set it aside and never used it. So, I charged it up, and Friday afternoon, I quickly got the rest of the table assembled.
What is not apparent from the pics is that one of the boards on the top was a bit warped, and I did not like that. I also did not want to chance some small part falling down and getting stuck in between the 2x6s. So, yesterday, I went looking for a top - anything that was 2' x 6' would do, as long as it was sturdy and would have a decent side when cut. The big box store was out of anything useful that could be cut to size, but they did have a 2' x 6' panel that would work.
Once it was finished, I could start loading it down with my painting stuff again. This time, I intend to keep it neat. Well, neatish, anyway.
Tonight, I should be able to head down there, put an old movie into the DVD player, and happily paint (or pretend to) for a couple of hours, and maybe even accomplish something.
And, as an added bonus - my son wants me to build him a larger layout for his trains. I learned some stuff in building this workbench, so when I rebuild my gaming table, and build him a new layout, they should both benefit from this experience.
