A humble begining "Mclark3617"

[Mclark3617]

Not much by everyones elses standards, but i have everything i need ,i think, for now. You may notice my space is the dinning room table, what you may not notice is the looks my wife is giving me..lol. Although im sure most of you have seen this before..lol
I hope to progress to my own room soon, then i can make a dedicated bench, im already feeling it in my neck from working on the table.

By the way, how come my pic was cut in half,,,the right side didnt show up

[willofiam]

[Randy]

Cut the legs off of an old stool or a chair from Goodwill...your neck will love you for it !
I have the same tool chest in my watchroom.....really nice

Randy

[Mclark3617]

Thanks, its the Gerstner i got when i graduated my apprencticship over twenty years ago.
Ill have to try the stool thing,,,ive been resorting to working on my knees.

[Arutha]

From small acorns great oak trees grow!
Another solution is to make a raised work surface using short legs to bring the working height up. I think this has been suggested in another post somewhere. That is just how I started out except without the lathe, it took me a while before i could afford one.
Paul.

[Mclark3617]

I was looking at some raised tables like you suggest, and the lathe wasnt planned i just happened on a decent deal. I was gonna get one eventually though right?

[Arutha]

Damn right and lots of other tools, lots and lots of tools, and just when you think you are getting to the point where you have enough tools you keep seeing more tools that you need and wonder how you ever managed without them. When you have all the tools you need......er......come to think of it I dont think that ever happens

[Bob Tascione]

Thanks for posting this Mclark!
As William say's..you've got the fever. It's all over now! I'll bet within a year from now you'll be looking for a bigger house but for now you've got everything you need to get started.
Enjoy the free space while you can!
Bob

[Mclark3617]

My area is improving, I finally have my own room





Notice the new bench and L&R master cleaner, well new to me, im a sucker for vintage stuff

[Bob Tascione]

Congratulations on the new watch repair room Mclark,
and on that beautiful bench!

Bob

[Mclark3617]

Thanks, im ready to re-break it in

[david pierce]

McLark,
It looks like you are well on the way to having a first rate set up. I tried for a long time to work on watches doing watch repair on our computer bench. It was not an ideal situation but things really went bad after I dissasembeled a chronometer and left the parts on the computer bench. When I was able to get back to the repair I saw parts scattered all over the bench and the floor. I then realized that it was time to get a dedicated watchmaker bench and put it in a dedicated room. As you do this more and more you will find that you will be rearranging the location of your machines to suit your particular work pattern and accommodate other tools that you will purchase in the future.
You may want to cover the top of your bench with a green vinyl sheet. This is the same material that was used for drafting boards. Tom sent me a link and I bought a decent size roll of it for not too much money. It provides a really nice work surface for watch repair. I cover my movements on the bench with glass desert cups that I bought from Wall Mart for $2.00 each. They are the perfect size and work great.
david

[Mclark3617]

Yea,,it was really giving nasty kinks in my neck with a traditional desk, causing me to hurry at times, Needed to get into a more comfortable spot. And i was afraid to dig into a watch too far and find i had to wait for something and end up loosing a part from laying arounf to long. I would like to be able to go from start to finish in one sitting if possible.

[willofiam]

lookin good, nothing better than a nice cozy place to loose yourself in a watch. William

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looking mighty fine. You are on the road.

[Mclark3617]

Thanks guys, i do love the bench,,now just getting up enough nerve to tear something apart..

[Arutha]

It is worth getting a couple of these, as you tear down the watch you can keep the "sections" together, this is especially useful as it helps to stop getting screws mixed up.

parts tray.jpg (8.8 KiB) Viewed 26414 times

Make notes as you go and if you have a half decent camera then take pics too. Don't trust anything to memory!
Good luck,
Paul.

[david pierce]

Paul,
Those look great. Where do you get them?
david

[Arutha]

Hi David,
I bought mine from Cousins -
Try any of your horological suppliers and if you don't have any luck there just put "watch parts tray" into ebay.
Paul.

[david pierce]

Paul,
Thanks