Stokes' ProjBlog

Look upon my workbench, ye mighty, and despair! November 4, 2011

With the wrap-up of the big Artisan’s Asylum buildout, I was finally able to outfit my own 100 square foot workspace and unpack the 64 cubic feet of stuff in my assigned gaylord*, everything shipped over from the old Willoughby & Baltic space on Joy Street.

The huge new Artisan’s Asylum space is part of the former Ames Safety Envelope factory on Tyler Street. The slim majority of the place has been divided into 50 and 100 square foot rental plots, separated by chest-high partitions. Even with wood, welding, machining, and electronics shops — each nearly as large as the entire space on Joy Street — there are more than 100 of these private spaces. My space is #7, directly behind the front desk. It’s also next to the electronics shop (E+R, for electronics and robotics) where I do most of my work.

I installed a built-in workbench, spanning the short end of the space and wrapping onto half of the longer wall to the left. It’s built from 2x4s with heavy, salvaged modular desk tops forming a smooth, durable work surface. Since I intend to do various types of work in the space, I built the workbench to be multi-purpose, with both a low area for seated work (e.g. computer stuff) and a larger, higher area for standing work (everything else).

* Yes, ‘gaylord‘ is the proper term; stop snickering.