Opinion: Shed-Dwelling

Classic bike enthusiasts can often be found in garages and workshops. How can you make the most of your spannering? Karl Bentley muses upon sheds and other places of violence…

As the adage goes, it’s not what you’ve got, it’s the way that you use it, and this could be applied to our sheds and workshops. Now, I know some folk still dream of a few feet of indoor working space and I appreciate it, I really do as I too have been at one time a kerb-side mechanic. But for now I’m talking indoor workshops. No, come back! I’m not going to go over the same old ground, you know clean spaces, fluorescent lights blah, blah. No, I’m more interested in what ‘we’ can do to our fettling space to make them more amenable (aka pleasant, fun even).

Okay; I need a workbench, worktop or whatever. I’ve used everything from purpose-made benches to the good old work-mate and everything in between. The best ever bench I had was made from cut up railway sleepers, others have been made from old kitchen worktops. However you do it, you really need a flat space. Why? Well, so you can inspect all that gouged out metal that was once an engine or gearbox, plus it’s a handy place to put a RealClassic„¢ mug of tea or coffee.

A really good bench is one you can bash things on and to help you a vice can be very handy. Now vices are not something you buy very often, so save up and buy the biggest one you can. I do have a love of big vices, I blame my apprentice days for this. The best place I’ve found for a vice is at the end of a bench and if you can have more than one bench, put it on the one that’s going to get dirty. Hacking, filing, chopping and bashing stuff always leaves a mess.

One trick I picked up is to keep my hacksaw next to my vice, along with a flat file. It saves you a lot of time looking around, trust me.

What makes life easier in the shed is where I keep this rag-tag assortment of tools that I’ve gathered around me over the years. A big box you keep everything in is a start. I keep my spanners in roll-up pouches so that I can carry them around. My sockets live in a socket set case, again so that I can carry it to the work. The next stage is some sort of tool cabinet with drawers and trays. It is a lot easier to have screwdrivers in one place and pliers, etc, in another.

I must confess I’ve never gone along the pegboard route of hanging ordinary tools up, but I believe it works for some folk. I do hang up specialist tools and some of the more bulky items. I use big nails for this, driven into big sheets of marine ply mounted on the wall for this purpose. The tools that some folk forget are the drills, grinders and the more fragile measuring instruments. These go under the bench in cupboards so I can find them when I want them but don’t keep tripping over them.

All my hammers I leave lying against the bench ready to hand, well… you always need one to tap something into place. Finally, old habits die hard and I always wipe off my tools and put them away each night. That’s the thing to remember to do, put them all away each night. It might sound daft but over the years I’ve found it easier to keep track of everything and it’s amazing how it makes you rethink a mechanical problem if you have to get the tools out once again. It also seems to make a piece of fettling that was taking so long last night finish up quicker today.

Now I’ve shared my bit of shedology, what’s yours?