Suggestions needed

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That is a picture of my 1940s craftsman wood lathe i inherited from my grandfather.

It is occupying the best space i have for my office desk.

I have no real place to put it other than where it is now.

I dont want to get rid of it.

I need a flat place for a laptop and paperwork in that spot.

Ideas and ways to implement? I had a thought of making some sort of trestle table with a rotating top like an ild sewing machine. Lathe on one side, desk on other, indexed locking pins to keep in proper position.

Ideas???????

Well...honestly, I think I'd start with some general organization. Looks like a lot of stuff scattered everywhere. Try purging, organizing, etc...and you may find plenty of room for the lathe. I almost had to do a "where's waldo" to find the lathe in that picture....

What Klayfish said. Although, I'm as guilty as you when it comes to cleaning up my shop.

Trust me, in the list. Im shocked by how bad this place has gotten without me realizing it. Ive already hauled out a full truckload of E36 M3 this week, and am well on my way to another.

My office relocation has definitely snowballed at this point. But in a good way.

Dibs on the Goodyear blimp if it has to go...

And on a safety note, get an outlet cover man!

pinchvalve wrote: Dibs on the Goodyear blimp if it has to go...

Thats been around since i was a little kid. Aint going anywhere.

And yeah, need an outlet cover on the lathe....

Take several steps back, and open a garbage can with a contractor bag. Pick ONE shelf, decide what it will be best at holding, and empty it entirely. Whatever you decided will go on that shelf, put it there(asterisk). Repeat ONE shelf at a time.

Asterisk: if it's chemicals, how old are they? Are they open? Will they suck water out of the air and be ruined?

E36 M3 tools, those little cheap things you buy with an instruction sheet or one time use. Is it broken? Are the instructions missing? Are any pieces missing?

Throw it out. Half bottles of brake fluid, the card from an air gun or jb weld, boxes of empty boxes.

Have you used it in the last 2 years? No? Get rid of it.

I'm still working on my garage and the car port , but just stopping and focusing on 2-3 square feet at a time instead of the whole mess makes it a lot easier. Sure, you'll move some things around a bunch, and may wind up with miscellaneous stuff you don't have a home for yet, but it will work itself out.

DO NOT try to do it all at once. You'll get burned out and clouded by project creep, and wind up keeping or trashing the wrong stuff.

In reply to RevRico:

Pretty much what im doing. Again. Two years after the last time.....

How the berkeley did i collect this much useless E36 M3 in two yeaes?????

Shelves. You need shelves. You can multiply your "flat surface" area dramatically.

As for the question, I'm keen on the rotating top. Kinda like an old sewing machine. Tools that appear and disappear are cool.

Shelves shelves shelves. I have a "fluids" shelf unit that makes it super easy to put away stuff like that wd40, paint, and oil that I see on top of your mini fridge. Mount it up high or put it against the wall under the thermostat and it'll occupy space you wouldn't otherwise use. Make it shallow so you don't bury stuff behind other stuff.

That blimp does not look like shop equipment. Put it somewhere else. Attic, closet, hang it from the ceiling, but it doesn't go in the shop. I'm not being mean, just trying to say - you need to keep a line of demarcation on "not shop stuff" and keep it out of shop space or it'll end up more storage space than shop space. It's hard to get work done when there's a blimp on top of your workbench.

Plus a hunnerd on shelves.

I have some free standing shelf units that take up floor space but I really like to hang shelves on the wall. Pine 1X roof sheeting is cheap compared to shelving board, just be selective. Orange or blue store. Screw together with drywall screws.

A nice sturdy parallelogram hinge, so it stays upright and doesn't drain any oil out of the lathe head. Released, it sits squarely under the desk, and when lifted and locked, it sits just in front of where the desk front is now.

If you say there's a lathe in that picture, I'll believe you

Pine sheeting shelves in the basement, that would otherwise be wasted space. Got fancy w/ these and backed them w/ luan. Still don't break the bank.

travellering wrote: A nice sturdy parallelogram hinge, so it stays upright and doesn't drain any oil out of the lathe head. Released, it sits squarely under the desk, and when lifted and locked, it sits just in front of where the desk front is now.

Dude, exactly what i was hoping for. Have any links?

I looked at an old singer sewing machine today to see how they did it, and had to scratch that idea.

And everyone else:

Shop cleanup is in progress. So is purging. I actually have quite a lot of shelf space, but too much crap to fit. Crap i dont use, dont need, but cant bring myself to throw out.

If anyone wants to go in shop dum0ster diving, im game. Believe me, that picture is only about 10% of what im up against.

Because of you guys I just put an ad up in the 2017 classifieds. Free ship come and get it. If anybody's in Charlotte North Carolina area and once free ship come get it.

Ok, the idea was clear in my head, and I feel like I have seen something similar before, but now my Google skills are failing me. If I can't find something, I'll try to draw up how it would work on break tomorrow.

In reply to trucke:

Berk. You.

Berk 5S.

Not really, I've just had too much of it at work.

Yeah, we quit at 4S...

The first load of free crap left last night. Place is already getting better.

Still haven't found the lathe though.....

Ooooooooo....

What about the hand cranked jacks to lift the lathe up to tabletop height? The kind witb the spinny handwheels? Then a couple of dogs to lock into place, and a hinged plywood cover to make a desk when tne latbe is in tje down position?

I have no idea what tbe spinny handwheel lifts are called, or where to get them cheap. Or if this would even work....

How heavy is the lathe? Look at the hinges they sell for kitchenaid mixer lifts. Maybe use two sets depending on weight.

Lathe with jackshaft and motor go about 150lb.

Those "stand up folding desks might give some ideas.

second thought, not what you are looking for.