Can't believe I'm getting organised

[The Rat]

My hobby desk has been described as the messiest this side of the Klingon Empire. Don't ask how I know that. Getting tired of looking all over for what I needed next, so a trip to the store was needed. In Canada we have a chain called Dollarama, which prices most of their stuff at a dollar, with some more expensive stuff, but rarely over $5. Got these 2 pieces for a buck each:

20230118_135009 by Dave Bailey, on Flickr

All masking tapes in one compartment, along with rigging line, and Dymo tape for panel line demarcation. The other is 2 different masking liquids, Micro Set and Micro Sol for decals, marked 1 and 2 so I know in which order to use them, and Kristal Klear for small windows. The bottle top for the Micro Set cracked, so it was decanted into a small glass vial. Also an old brush for applying the decal solutions.

20230118_135254 by Dave Bailey, on Flickr

Next one has 4 compartments holding commonly needed stuff. Bottom two are the most commonly needed paints; black, white, yellow for prop tips, flat red to go under the gloss red, flat varnish, RAF Interior Green, and a small bottle of Future. Top two have cotton swabs, toothpicks, blades and drill bits, and a load of small glass vials for mixing or diluting paints. 10 for a buck! Also some plastic droppers for getting small amunts of paint, thinner, water, etc.

20230118_135403 by Dave Bailey, on Flickr

Large pill bottle (one of the benefits of aging  ) holds all files of various shapes, and a selection of sanding sticks. All the scratching and grinding stuff is together!

20230118_135433 by Dave Bailey, on Flickr

Another pill bottle holds tubes, instead of having them scattered around. 2 of AK Metal Paste, aluminum and dark aluminum, an a tube of putty.

20230118_135458 by Dave Bailey, on Flickr

And something I picked up cheap at the local supermarket, a deep container that holds all types of glue. Less chance of knocking over a bottle of Plastruct when it's corralled by walls.

This arrangement will no doubt get modified as I find different ways of working, but for now things are a lot easier.

[kerick]

I built some holders for different tools by cutting 1 1/4" or 1 1/2" pvc pipe to convenient length and glueing them to a strip of plexiglass. Just tall enough to hold exacto knives, paint brushes, etc. and cheap to make too.

[Rick Lowe]

Less time looking for something elusive is more time gluing things together = a WIN!

[Dizzyfugu]

Stay calm, this will only last until the visitors have gone... 

[McColm]

I've tired the tidy-up method and put things away but found I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I have gone back to the messy workbench at least I know where everything is. Each to their own.

[zenrat]

I tidy mine up roughly every quarter.
It's overdue.

[Scotaidh]

Mine tends to get tidied between projects.  Once the new project gets under-weigh* then the clutter gradually returns - greeblies, paints, plastic scraps, etc.

It'll be worse from now on, 'cause I've decided that if I'm doing a Whif that structurally alters the kit, I'm also going to do an OOB version of it to display side by each as I'm tired of trying to explain my Whif-deeds to my admiring but ignorant fans.   


*  nautical term, befitting my naval heritage, as in "weigh the anchor and get under-weigh" - as opposed to the army "on your way, lads"

[Rheged]

Congratulations on your tidy and well organised workbench, I applaud your efforts and hope that this process serves you well

Since my current  work bench is  the kitchen table in winter, and a table in the summerhouse in more clement times, I have to be tidy and able to pack up totally at 20 minutes notice.  Everything fits neatly into three 30 litre lidded  plastic crates. Painting tends to be an outdoor/good weather occupation so that things can be left to dry.  I'm not a particularly proficient modeller, playing with words is more my thing.   All I need for that is the laptop and a notepad.  In extremis, I can even do without the laptop and write out a backstory longhand with only a  reference book to help.

When I am allowed medium term workspace to strip down and repair anything mechanical, I am obsessively neat.  The bench is covered with a sheet of paper (usually a chunk of redundant wallpaper)  and every single part cleaned and then laid out with a written note of what it is and where it came from.  I even managed to repair/clean/service the drive mechanism of Mrs next door's video recorder.   That was five years ago, and it's still working.   Initially, she feared that it would have to be thrown out!

I don't, however, do  electronics;  they are like dragons.  If you believe in them, they work but as soon as you have doubts, they vanish/pack up/sulk.

Writing things down, whether where a piece goes, what was done when or who said what at which meeting, has dug me out of a lot of heffalump traps in my professional  life and I should imagine that most of us could tell a lot of stories.........

 

[PR19_Kit]

Careful, that way lies sanity.............. 

[Gondor]

Writing things down, whether where a piece goes, what was done when or who said what at which meeting, has dug me out of a lot of heffalump traps in my professional  life and I should imagine that most of us could tell a lot of stories.........
 

That's why when at work an email is best for communicating instructions etc. as there is proof of what has been said.

Gondor

[Rick Lowe]

Writing things down, whether where a piece goes, what was done when or who said what at which meeting, has dug me out of a lot of heffalump traps in my professional  life and I should imagine that most of us could tell a lot of stories.........
 

That's why when at work an email is best for communicating instructions etc. as there is proof of what has been said.

Gondor

"If it's not written down, it never happened."
or
"A mental note is not worth the paper it's not written on." 

[Wardukw]

Two signs I used to have on my desk..

A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind .

From destruction comes inspiration.

To this day I live by the first sign 

[zenrat]

Writing things down, whether where a piece goes, what was done when or who said what at which meeting, has dug me out of a lot of heffalump traps in my professional  life and I should imagine that most of us could tell a lot of stories.........
 

That's why when at work an email is best for communicating instructions etc. as there is proof of what has been said.

Gondor

"If it's not written down, it never happened."
or
"A mental note is not worth the paper it's not written on." 

Sometimes, when I was running meetings it never happened but I wrote it down anyway and then signed the chairmans initials for him to prove it.   

[NARSES2]

Sometimes, when I was running meetings it never happened but I wrote it down anyway and then signed the chairmans initials for him to prove it.   

The most powerful position on any committee is that of secretary, because at the end of the day your the one who decides what happened at that meeting 

I hope I never misrepresented what had happened at meetings I'd taken the minutes of, although I was asked to a couple of times and that led to an interesting situation, which I came out on top of  . I also knew at least one secretary whose minute taking was such that they were never waved through on the nod at a the following meeting. Never worked out if it was deliberate or he just thought the task was below him, I tend to think it was the later.

[Old Wombat]

Sometimes, when I was running meetings it never happened but I wrote it down anyway and then signed the chairmans initials for him to prove it.   

The most powerful position on any committee is that of secretary, because at the end of the day your the one who decides what happened at that meeting 

Which is why Stalin was never the President of the Soviet Union, he was the General Secretary, as were the true leaders of the USSR that followed him.

Two signs I used to have on my desk..

A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind .

From destruction comes inspiration.

To this day I live by the first sign 

I still have a two-sided sign on my desk which states "A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind" on one side & "I can be neat! I can be efficient! But why make everyone else look bad?" on the other.

I live by both of them!