iBob List member mniemi4210@comcast.net kicked this one into gear -

Subject: [BOB] What's your workshop look like?

...maybe some of you with bike workshops would send us a pic. I went and bought some bike stuff yesterday from a local guy who lives in a mansion and his basement workshop was full of cool stuff. I could spend the afternoon there just checking it all out. The centerpiece was the old VAR workstand he had.

I don't yet have a workshop but I'm trying to set one up--gotta get rid of all the junk in the way first. My plan is to hang some of my favorite old jerseys from the ceiling for a splash of color to the otherwise drab space.

A few of us dug right in and sent some photos or links into the list, but rather than have to track down archived threads, it seemed a dedicated page might be in order. So - here we go!

If your photos got included and you don't want them here, pop me an email.

If you haven't yet sent in your photos, feel free to send the link or photo to me, and I'll add it. I've now revised this main page so it is not so photo-laden. Clicking on an iBob's name below will take you to their workshop photos. (Note - some links will open separate webpages which have been constructed elsewhere.)

Of course, if you want to be listed, send me what you got!

iBob's Listed:

Erik Brooks - Jim Clark / Topcat James - Cyclofiend Jim - Bill Connell - Chris Cote - Jim Foreman - Charlie Fortner - Sarah Gibson - Dan Goldenberg - John Gorham - Kris Green - Beth Hamon - David J - James Johnson - Andy Marchant-Shapiro - Christopher L. Martin - Kevin MacAfee - Patrick Moore - Jon Muellner - Charlie Petry - Jeff Potter/OYB - John Speare - Steve Sweedler - Carey Weitzman - Alex Wetmore

A couple folks have pointed out this Gallery of Workshops:
www.biketoss.com

Cool stuff - check it out!

Ode to those on the road - The Traveling Toolboxes of the Pro Team Mechanics
Click here to see the photos

Erik Brooks Workshop:

I'm stuck at home today, and used some time to offer a belated 'entry' into the workshop thread. I haven't properly figured out this Flickr thing. There's more descriptive text that you can see by clicking on each photo during the slideshow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51974350@N00/sets/72057594055926971/

Erik Brooks
Seattle, Washington, USA

TopCat James' Workshop:

Howdy from New Mexico. Here are a few pictures of my "shop", which is actually an old 70' mobile home located in Moriarty, New Mexico. The entire mobile is the bike shop except for those parts of it sharing duties with the home/business office, exercise equipment, computer room, and electronics shop.

(more...)

Jim's Workspace:

I get to work on bikes in the house during the winter, but upon project completion, tools go back in their box and things get tidied up - it's our household "project" space, so there are consistent demands upon it. In good weather, I work outside.

I envy all of your basements and well-sealed garages....

(more...)

Bill Connell's Workspace:

I love seeing other people's shops, it inspires me to actually organize my bike stuff. Let's revive this thread in about 4 months when my shop is consolidated in the garage again, it'll give me a good excuse to clean it up. At the moment, it's slowly migrating to the basement as i do some winter tinkering, and the basement is a little too small to photograph well.

(more...)

-- Bill Connell
St. Paul, MN

Chris Cote's "Old" Workshop:

I have half of a 24x42 unfinished basement (minus the furnace, oil tank and large chimney) as my workshop now, but in the last apartment I lived in, I had a roughly 8'x8' shop.

(more...)

Chris Cote
Buxton, ME

Jim Foreman's Workshop:

I'd have to say that my basic work area is the garage but I keep it uncluttered enough so I can always get the car inside. I can't see parking a $20,000 car in the driveway so you can keep a $200 lawn mower in the garage. About the only time when the cars were relegated to the driveway for any period of time was (more...)

Jim Foreman

jimfore@icon.net
http://www.JimForeman.com

Charlie Fortner's Bike Storage Shed:

"Raisin' a Bike Barn" with Charlie Fortner

A few months ago I posed a question to y'all about bike storage lockers, and from the dearth of responses it seems no one had built their own. So with a new circular saw and a bunch of lumber, I struck out on my own. You can see the results here. http://rentrof.net/gallery/bike_shed

It is ~8' wide, 6' deep, 4'x5' (back x front) high. It fits 7 bikes and might fit 8 if there weren't baskets and bags on some of the bikes. Total cost will probably be ~$600 when it's all done. Overall the framing took most of a weekend (this was my first framing job), and the other tasks were completed piecemeal over the evenings of the next couple of weeks. I learned LOTS and wouldn't hesitate to do this again.

Sarah Gibson's Shop:

its just that catch all fer bicycle bits and where i work at home ifn i dont get things done at the shop mostly i just hang out there and dig thru stuff always searching fer something...

Sarah Gibson
Kansas City, MO

Dan Goldenberg's Shop:

Located in my basement.

Dan Goldenberg
Seattle WA

John Gorham's Workshop

Here are a couple of mine.

John Gorham
UnionBridge, MD

Kris Green's Workshop:

I've loaded photos of my basement workshop here - flickr.com/people/olyfixie.

I didn't shoot the end of the basement that has another eight-or-so bikes hanging because the floor space beneath was untidy, but after seeing Alex' I somehow don't feel quite so self-conscious.

Kris Green yes, the fishy-complected fat guy sweating away on the rollers
Olympia WA

Beth Hamon's Workplace/Workshop:

This first one's of me at work, technically that could be considered "cheating" but there it is. (more...)

Beth Hamon - Portland, OR

Dave J's Workshop:

I used to have a full unfinished basement. But now I have just a small space to work (spare wheels and such stored in the attic or shed). Things have a tendency to err, umm, "spill out" into the living room. (more...)

-Dave J.

James Johnson's' Workshop:

i've attached a few pics of my shop, which is in a sort of cinderblock building behind my house. i'm in the middle of a number of projects, including building out some freebie bridgestone frames i recieved, and tuning a friends un-bobish bianchi.

(more...)

Chuck Kitchline's Workshop:

Here's my "workslop". No basements down here, but who needs one when you can work in the driveway about 50 weeks a year! http://chuck.kichline.com/bikes/workshop/

Chuck Kichline
Austin, TX

Andy Marchant-Shapiro's Workspace Description:

Ah, workshops. When I lived in upstate NY, a large section of the basement had been partitioned by the previous owner to do woodworking, with a nice heavy workbench, a grinder, all the goodies. So, of course, we had to move to Wisconsin, and the house had a workbench--in the detached garage, which made it uselessly hot or cold, except for spring and fall, when it would be merely mosquito-infested.

My spouse didn't care for the house, and we wanted each of the 4 kids to have some privacy, so we built a new house. And my spouse, who designed much of it, remembered me!

My basement shop is relatively small, at about 9'x9', but it has a deep laundry-style sink with running water, a workbench that I put together from heavy shelving stands and plywood (I miss the old 3" thick bench, but I can replace the top on this one for about $10 whenever I want), lots of storage (some above and below the bench, some in 4 "cubicle shelves" that I picked up when they got eliminated at work), the water (of course) and two electrical circuits, each with its own breaker.

Oh yeah, we had them put in an outside vent so that I could build an exhaust fan above the bench for soldering and/or chemical activities. Works nicely. And the door locks, so that I can keep small hands out of sharp objects and/or holiday/birthday presents of which they shouldn't yet know.

The workbench is about 8' wide by 24" deep, and the 3' (approx) between the top shelf and the workbench itself is backed with a perforated board for hanging tools. The fan is mounted through the top shelf for exhausting noxious gases, and two "cubicle shelf" flourescents (retired from work) on the bottom of the top shelf provide good working light. Bike stuff, house stuff, toy stuff, rocketry and electrical/electronic stuf f occupies much of the free space, but I recently got organized and most of i t is in labeled boxes (on top of the shelf above the workbench) or drawers (i n plastic boxes on the wall next to the stack of "cubicle shelves").

Have I mentioned that I love my spouse?

Christopher L. Martin's Workshop:

Here are 3 .jpegs of my basement workspace at home here in deeply rural Springfield, Illinois. (more...)

Warmest regards,

-Christopher L. Martin...
Deeply rural Springfield, IL

Kevin McAfee's Workshop:

Greetings - Saw your posting on the various lists so thought I would send pics, now that I straightened it up. My shop occupies the top floor of a 26X28 garage that I built a few years back.

(more...)

Cheers

Kevin MacAfee
St Paul, MN

Patrick Moore's Workshop:

Okay, I'm in. I dragged out my digital camera and took two photos. The work area is in the southeast corner of my garage, and facing the garage from the outside you are looking, more or less, east. There are opaque glass windows at the top of the east wall, under which the bikes hang. The bottle of grappa is meant to accompany the chain stewing in the crockpot.

(more...)

Patrick Moore
Albuquerque, NM

Jon Muellner's Workshop:

Hey Jim,

Here's a few shots of my little basement workshop. Some Seattle iBobs have been down here, but I thinkÊthe cool, tomb-like atmosphereÊscares them.Ê (more...)

Jon Muellner
Port Townsend, WA

Charlie Petry's Workshop:

Here is "My Shop" hope to have inside pictures as soon as the electric is hooked up.. (more...)

-- Charlie Petry, PA

Jeff Potter's OYB Workshop:

Here's the OYB Shop Empire, starting with a 3D "stand in one place then turn around" view of the workshop area, including my shipping desk. (more...)

-- Jeff Potter

outyourbackdoor.com

John's Workshop:

I've wanted to post some pics of my shop for a while, but I kept hesitating because I wanted it to look nice, neat and professional. (more...)

John
--
John Speare Spokane, WA USA
http://www.johndogfood.com/john/bikes.html

Steve Sweedler's Workshop:

Here are two pics of my basement workshop, sorry to be so late to the meeting.

Steve
Plymouth, New Hampshire

Carey's Workshop:

Between the stuff my partner and I have accumulated over the years we manage to field a pretty decent home shop. (more...)

- Carey

Alex Wetmore's Workshop:

Sometimes I go overboard.

This is one of those times.

http://phred.org/~alex/pictures/house/basement-01-06/

A painstackingly detailed walkthrough of my basement. If you actually read the whole thing you'll probably even know more about the basement organization than my wife (or me if I'm tired). I used a flash when photographing this stuff. I hate flashes, but basement lighting is really tricky.

alex