Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Close quarters work stand

Or perhaps, the correct term is work hang.

Regardless, a recent move gave me the opportunity to move my previously off-site workshop on-site. The change has been immense - where before the round-trip travel time to my old space dictated spending ever diminishing stretches of time in the 'shop, I can now pop and in out while doing other things. An undeniable improvement in the amount of time I get to work on projects, while spending more time with my family.

What my new workshop lacks, however, is width. At 15'x8', it's pretty narrow in there, especially with all I've jammed in there; decades of magazines, books, bikes, tools, parts, rolls of carbon fiber.

A traditional work stand has a pretty wide base. The best are heavily weighted shop stands, not meant to be moved around. A non-option for me, since I need something that doesn't take up space when not in use. Folding stands tend to require a pretty wide footprint when in use, and aren't exactly un-intrusive when folded. Bolting something to the ceiling that can fold up and away seemed like an obvious choice, especially when I can bolt other things up there to facilitate other work - overhead dust collection, routing the hoses for my vacuum pump or targetted task lighting via a jointed arm being the first use cases I've come up with so far.

It's all constructed out of 80/20 parts, bolted to a 2x4 that is in turn secured to the ceiling beams via lag bolts. The bike attachment is just a cheap bench mounted clamp I cut down slightly - it's actually pretty terrible, and at some point I'll find a better clamp. All in all, though, I'm very happy with it, and excited to start working on the projects it will facilitate.

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