Let's See Your Boat's Workbench, Tool Shed, Tool Box . . .

[thinwater]

In many boats the nav station can be made into a work area. With GPS in the cockpit we don't use paper as much. Pleanty of storage for the thin plastic storage boxes in chart trays. I replaced the beautiful table top (I still have it at home) with something I didn't mind scratching (the replacement is heavily varnished and doesn't look bad). I do still keep paper charts and plotting tools there, but that is an occational use now. It makes a nice location for small projects.

Heavy tools and larger parts are kept elsewhere.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by daddle

Stanley and others make them. I recall finding them at Target, even. Bigger ones I found somewhere online...Amazon maybe.

They are heavy nylon with heavy nylon zippers. You will not break them. But the zippers will stick unless lubed regularly....like any seagoing zipper.

Thanks.

I think I am going to convert from tool boxes (2) and a bunch of plastic "food" type containers to bags. Too much air is being stored in the boxes.

[Randal Johnson]

Some pictures of my oil change system and work bench.

Oil change/polishing system on Dora Mac - Photo Album Powered by Social Strata

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by Randal Johnson

Some pictures of my oil change system and work bench.

Oil change/polishing system on Dora Mac - Photo Album Powered by Social Strata

Very Very nice!

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Randal Johnson

Some pictures of my oil change system and work bench.

Oil change/polishing system on Dora Mac - Photo Album Powered by Social Strata

Yeah. And your bench vice. And your drill press.

Now I'm depressed.

[Stillraining]

The vice Iv got, the Drill press....well...maybe next time...

But where's the lathe and the welder?..

[matauwhi]

G'day, mates. Lots of tool bags and bins. One right in the companionway steps for every day use. Nice tool locker with others. I like to be able to shift the vise to where I need it. A drill press...chuck the drill motor in the vise...and drill away! Cheers.

[daddle]

Originally Posted by Randal Johnson

Some pictures of my oil change system and work bench.

Eh? Now if it was a sail repair and splicing bench I'd be jealous Joking, nice work.

[ShipShape]

Hi dirtysouth,

Two years ago (on a different forum) I posted the same request. One of the replies made that big happy light bulb turn ON in the best way! I ABHOR toolboxes and bags - not only am I likely to break a nail rummaging for tools, rummaging wastes time, plus dirt and other undesirable unmentionables always collect in the corners and bottoms of boxes and bags. I wanted a way to store my tools where the tool I needed was immediately and easily accessible, and I didn't want to hear sockets and screwdrivers roll with each passing wake. Here is the pic from the 'light bulb' reply that flipped my (proverbial :) skirt.



Note the messy sloppy inconvenient bins with tools in them (rummage rummage) but the way he keeps his saws is Cool!

Here are some pix of how my boat looked when I bought him:



Most, if not all, boats come with a table/settee set-up. I hated, as in HATED, trying to protect the table from boat repairs as well as rummaging through the storage under the settee cushions for parts and tools. So it was an easy decision to convert the table and seats into a workbench. (I'm not gay, and my husband has his own boat, so there weren't any bow-babes to tell me that they needed a pretty table and silly place to sit.)



Storage is good, I wanted to preserve the cabinets and shelves.



In this picture, note the table legs and base for the cushions, which is also a storage area under the cushions.

A few months and brain waves later:



The seats and table are gone, I designed a workbench with a flip-top, and am using the table legs as two seat-supports for winch seats I found at Bacon's for cheap. Someday I'll have time and money to buy real seat supports and make some real seats. (Forever the optimist :)



Here is the workbench with the top flipped open. Notice, from the fourth picture, I recessed the tool storage and cabinets so that there is a place to rest your feet - kinda like the bar for your feet under a, um, bar. It worked out perfectly!



A pic from another angle, with the table top folded over.



Here is a view from the front of the workbench - since the table dropped to make a "bed" it takes two seconds to remove the seats. It is easier to access tools with the seats out of the way, and since everything on my boat is either broken, or attached to something that needs fixing, I use my tools frequently. (An understatement!)

Pull out the bottom drawer on the left to access the storage underneath; the cabinet in the middle has a removable bottom and shelves to access the storage underneath it. The tool-boards on the right slide out - I got the idea from a combination of using peg-boards to store tools and the dude's way of storing his saws in his toolbox.



Here is one of my tool boards - I used hooks and sheets of soft polyurethane cut and screwed to the boards to hold my tools. I've taken this boat through some really rough stuff and everything stays in place - nice and Quiet. All the tool boards slide out:



I designed all the cabinets with removable shelves and bottoms. When I bought the boat the batteries were alongside the engine - they got hot, prevented engine access, and were impossible to check. The base with the slide-slots lifts out and I put the starting battery under there. Wonderful access!



I put half of the house bank under these two cabinets.

There isn't one single second that I've regretted replacing the table and couch with the workbench. And the funny thing is - before doing so, I desperately wanted a vice, and designed a way to mount the vice on the workbench top and remove it and store it underneath using the same bolts and boltholes - and haven't needed a vice a single time since. Go figure!

For those of you who do your own boat work and have a SWMBO in your life - send her off to a nice resort spa for a few weeks while you replace the dining room area with a workbench. FYI, gourmet cooking is my passion, and meals are just as savory at the workbench as they are over the galley sink or in the cockpit. And even though this boat has a full-size chart table, now I always peruse charts on the workbench.

Life is good.

Priscilla

[Healer52]

What an elegant solution (and I use elegant in the engineering sense)!

[Stillraining]

Fantastic job Shipshape!....Thanks for sharing.

[James S]

Wow ...those are some very elegant solutions as Healer52 says...both in engineering and execution....very nice Priscilla....and what a beautiful boat.
Thanks for the ideas.

[ShipShape]

Thanks for the compliments - hopefully a few of my ideas have greased some gears! I encourage everybody to do their own boat work, and part of what gets it done and makes it fun is having ACCESSIBLE tools and a place to work. One interesting thing I have noticed about having the hand tools stored like that is they don't get rusty. (I do not oil them, and it is Very humid here.)

Unfortunately having all the tools on one side of the boat makes him list a good bit. But I'm simplifying and standardizing everything on the boat, so in a year or ten I'll be able to get rid of half the tools. I hope ... I replaced all the thru-hulls and seacocks a year ago - will I ever need the thru-hull wrench again??? Of course I will, two weeks after I get rid of it.

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by ShipShape

Unfortunately having all the tools on one side of the boat makes him list a good bit.

Keg-o-rator starboard side...Problem solved..

[PieRatPeat]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Keg-o-rator starboard side...Problem solved..

The only problem I see with this idea is that as you consume the keg, the boat will start listing again. Of course, as you do you'll also find yourself more predisposed to lose tools over the side, so this may be a self-correcting problem...