In the last update, I mentioned a big clean out and more orderly storage. Well in the intervening time some of both have been achieved. Fishing tackle boxes have helped organize some of my small parts (small parts being a large part of my modelling collection ;-) and decisive throwing out and recycling means things are looking a lot less untidy in a few areas. Last but not least, I have finally used up a Bunnings voucher and I now have a work bench and shelf instead of one shelf and no workbench.
Let me explain, I have a boltless shelving unit that comes in workbench height similar to this though with the MDF sections being 1220mm * 610mm. It stores things well and you can work on top of it but that's about it. An early upgrade was to string some threaded section across between the steel lengths to prevent the MDF pushing out the length sections and popping out downwards under load. Not really workbench material.
The trip to Bunnings netted some more threaded section, nuts, bolts and importantly, a piece of 1220mm * 610mm * 18mm hardwood marine ply and a piece of 1220mm * 610mm * 12mm marine ply. With some 30mm * 11mm Tasmanian Oak, the 12mm board is now a middle shelf with edges so things don't fall off. The top piece is on its second coat of Cabothane and waiting for the heat to pass before more coats.
Things are looking better after tossing out dozens of containers that had nothing in them but were waiting for a rainy day. Opaque round containers so that they don't store as well as squarish ones and you cannot tell what's in them till you open them up (unlike clear ones). Also a decision to start recycling some of the polystyrene foam I had been hoarding freed up a large container. All this means space and reorganizing the things I do want to keep. And so the saga continues...
P.S. the benchtop is 18mm hardwood marine ply to provide a decent platform for mounting my vice in a permanent way rather than being fixed to my folding workbenches of this style as it is now.
