My kitchen, my workshop

Question:

What do you do when you want to do some model railroading but you don’t have a workshop or even a work bench?

Answer:

Take over another space on a temporary basis.

Location, location, location

My garage is the likely location for my mighty N scale empire. Since the garage is not yet ready to house a layout, I’m operating on the portable method. I like to make things and pretty much all my modelling work takes place in the family kitchen, except for anything that produces hazardous fumes or noise. Airbrushing for example takes place on our backyard garden furniture but that’s another story!

Tools

I have set up specific tool kits in flat tackle boxes to make set up and tear down easy and fast. You can see a few of them here. Flip the lid and everything is laid out ready for you. Need one specific tool part way through the project? Grab the kit that has it. Running out of bench space? Take out the tools you need then stack the kits. For me, the kits often make the difference between modelling and not when I have limited time, or I’m starting something at 11:00pm.

Bench top sander

I use a bench top sander for hand laid track projects. I bought it from Harbor Freight for less than $100 and it is an essential addition to my tool set. Here’s a sander they are offering for $39!!!.

The sander is a wonderful machine and portable enough to be set up in just a few minutes in my temporary workshop. I use a folded towel to protect the bench. Most of the things I am sanding produce a minimum of dust. For anything that does generate a lot of dust, it’s off to the backyard. So far the other family members haven’t mentioned the sound and I think it is not much worse that the washing machine or the dishwasher for most sanding jobs. Again, noisy jobs get done in the backyard which is viable even in winter in Northern California.

Fast turnaround

It took only seven minutes to get out all of the tools and materials on the bench in the picture above (not including the frying pan, mixing bowl and coffee mugs!). And before you remind me that mess is easier to make than clean up, I had the whole bench cleared in about ten minutes at the end of the session.

No space for model railroading is no excuse for not making something

For a long time, I didn’t start any N Scale projects for reasons that included ‘no space’. I’m more of the opinion these days that space for modelling is where you make it. Being organized and spending the minimum of time setting up and tearing down makes the most of your modelling time. It has the added benefit that your workspace always starts out neat and tidy.