Shop cleanliness

[Ron Selzer]

Hit me the other day that since I have gotten on this board my shop is getting cleaner, STILL not clean enough to post pictures on here.
Helps that 8yr old granddaughter likes to sweep and vacuum when she is over here.
Dust collection I have had since 1988 as a stand alone and 2000 as piped still gets modified added to and improved every year or two since getting on here
Air filter was built in workbench 2001 and not changed since, got it right first time.
Shop vac has been improved by adding cyclone with bigger shop vac and 2" pvc piping around the shop.
Just seems like since seeing all the clean shop pictures I now keep the shop cleaner and now getting better about organizing it
Maybe part of it is that I am just flat out running out of room to walk, build or move

Ron

[Jim Fox]

Part of it for me is having places to put things. Finally starting to get cabinets and what not built. Things can actually be put away somewhere. They may not be their final resting place, as things evolve, but it is a place to store things and not clutter the horizontal surfaces. Dedicated piping for dust collection was a huge improvement 2 yrs ago for me. Having air filters helps out too. I have two of the smaller Wen units now, since I have an L shape shop with a giant header down the middle. Plus I have my huge down draft station (furnace blower) if I really need it.

Now I just need to work on a Shop Vac / Cyclone setup for the smaller tools and clean up.

To me it is never clean enough, but than again I may have issues. :D

[Bob Riefer]

I tend to tidy between big steps of a project, as well as in between projects. My reasons are that it is nicer (and safer) to spend so much time in a well-kept space... and, my brain feels cluttered if the shop is cluttered (and I certainly need every bit of brain power I can get to make projects turn out ok). :)

[Lisa Starr]

Mine tends to need a good sweeping, but everything is usually put away. Even if I'm going to need something again, I tend to put items away while I'm working. Hunting for something really makes me unhappy, even when I'm the one that left it sitting somewhere. I just find it easier to work when I can can just open the correct drawer/cabinet a grab the tool.

[Kevin Jenness]

I have a good dust collection (museum quality) but since I started turning more I just have to accept that my shop is never going to look like the one in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siizGKx-Kk8. A pushbroom and a grain scoop are frequently in use.

As far as organization, I have to put stuff away or I can't function. I hate misplacing tools and when I do I have a hard time moving forward until the missing item is found.

[glenn bradley]

I also put things back after using them even though I may use them again in five minutes. The difficult situation of pawing through all kinds of random stuff on my workbench to find the tool I’m looking for got left behind long ago. If I always put the awl back after using it I know right where it’s going to be the next time I want it.


As for sweeping and vacuuming, I do that between steps or phases in an ongoing manner. I never try to get absolutely every speck of dust because the very next thing I’m going to do will just put some of it back. I go after the lion’s share regularly and two or three times a year will get back into the nitty-gritty corners and under things.


Having a place for everything makes working a pleasure and clean up a breeze. I certainly have a number of things that seem to get shuffled from spot to spot but these naturally reduce over time as I find permanent homes for them. I’m not a clean freak but I hate working in a messy shop not to mention that cluttered or messy surroundings can lead to accidents.

[Jim Becker]

I'm like Glenn most of the time...tools, etc., go back to where they live as soon as the use if completed, even mid-project. I tend to do a heavier level of cleaning between projects or groups of projects, depending on the circumstances. I actually need to do some of that this afternoon, as a matter of fact, including emptying the cyclone bin which magically is full. Again.

[Ray Newman]

I periodically sweep up during the course of the work day. For a good many years, I did not. Then I was working on a project and during the course of the work a piece split off and dropped to the floor. Realizing I could not match the grain and color of the dropped piece, I started looking on the floor and sweeping up around the bench. Took me a good 30 minutes to find it in the chips, etc., accumulated on the floor and bench.

As for putting the tools away, I have a cabinet close to the bench with the most used tools hanging, others in drawers. Just to keep tools off the bench, assembly table, and the floor, I will put up tools if they are not going to be utilized right away. At the end of the day, I put them all up and it is easy to realize if one is missing. I really try not to keep edged tools in the bench tool well as I once nicked two chisels that I later needed the same day.

Putting tools away and cleaning up at the end of the day, gives me time to think about what could I have done to make the day’s work easier and what I need to do on the morrow. Same thing going into the shop the next day, getting out any tools, etc., puts my mind in the right “zone” to get things done.

[Doug Dawson]

There’s something about having a tool sucked up into the dust collector that focuses the mind wonderfully.

Similarly, with finding the wrong end of a chisel in the shavings. ;^)

[Bill Carey]

Like many here, I try to put tools away when they are no longer needed for the task at hand. I like a clean and organized work area, but I've been so busy lately I've neglected the basic clean up tasks to the point where my shop is about as dirty and dusty as it has ever been. I was walking around last nite turning off the lights and the bench was clear, tools put away, etc. But the floor and the shelves are awash is shavings, chips, dust, flotsam, jetsam and lagan. So, since the Bears were nice enough to giver me my Sundays back, no tools will be pulled out until the place is cleaned and swept.

[Clifford McGuire]

I have a good dust collection (museum quality) but since I started turning more I just have to accept that my shop is never going to look like the one in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siizGKx-Kk8.


I couldn't work in that environment.....well, maybe if I was a surgeon. :) That looks like an operating room.

I can tolerate a bit of dust and mess. It makes me feel good. Not enough to interrupt woodworking progress. But I also wouldn't enjoy it if I was always cleaning.

[Alex Zeller]

I usually wait until the end of the day to clean unless it impedes the next step of a project. I do try to do simple things like throw scraps of wood into a bin for burning as I make them. But sawdust will sit on the floor until the end of the day. On occasion I'll leave it for a day or two if I'm trying to finish up a project or a major step of a project. As for tools, I move them out of the way in the middle of the day only if they are going to be in the way. At the end of the day I move the ones that I want to clean under. While I'm not the most organized person I don't like to work around clutter.

[Kevin Jenness]

"That looks like an operating room"

The suit makes me think it's a law office.

[Alan Lightstone]

"That looks like an operating room"

The suit makes me think it's a law office.

Spent my career in operating rooms. Hopefully your workshops have less blood and yuck in them.

[Bernie Kopfer]

There is for me a difference between cleanliness and orderliness. Honestly I don’t do too well at either. Getting rid of sawdust, wood scraps, shavings and dust makes for a clean shop. But getting tools put away before everything I’ve used gets so deep on and around the bench that I’m calling myself names, seems to be how I have operated for years. Despite New Years resolutions to mend my ways I discover my eagerness to keep going on the project inhibits my conscious brain from stopping me and creating some order. BUT there is some hope! I’ve forced myself to wear a shop apron and am learning to return the tools to it when finished instead of laying them down and then looking for them and having to resort to more self deprecating name calling.

[Jim Becker]

That's true, Bernie. I'm more focused on stuff being where it's supposed to be so I can find it the next time I need it rather than having a pristine floor. (Which is pretty much impossible with my CNC machine at this point)

[Rod Sheridan]

I normally keep a clean and tidy shop for safety and efficiency.

Tools go back into their spaces frequently, and I clean up scraps and shavings several times per day.

The worst offenders are the lathe, hand planing and chiselling. The lathe has a floor sweep under it and I normally run it when turning, it keeps the shop air cleaner and Incan push shavings into the sweep frequently...Rod

[Ray Newman]

Tips on how to clean up your shop/garage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE_AdqLAXrg&fbclid=IwAR1MMdqkkNDVUw4leaj7y4QCkTadjIrwIi8Lvg3aE ApMlPwJFbW-D2kWBdQ

[Mike Wilkins]

Hard to keep a shop clean and neat in the middle of a project. I just wait until the project is done for a real clean-up and try to put things away after use.
Been on a clean out phase lately getting rid of useless scraps and tools that are no longer used. Great to free up storage space. Making room for new tools/toys.

[Kevin Jenness]

Two things I can't stand; losing track of tools and stumbling over crap on the floor.

Two of my former coworkers stand out in this respect. One exemplified the phrase "Always be knolling". His tools were either in his hands, laid out in an orderly manner on a bench or in his tool cabinet.

The other guy was the most productive worker in the shop, fast, accurate and able to have 3 projects in progress at once. If he (rarely) made a mistake it was fixed almost before anyone noticed. He had a habit, though, of saving time by snapping plywood trimmings into pieces small enough to go in the waste bin, which led to small shards littering the floor, inevitably fouling the wheels of someone else's tipcart.

I do at least keep the floor swept.