Do you have a workshop?

Maintaining things in a SHTF or WROL will become critical to your survival. How will you sharpen your axe when it eventually becomes dull. What if you need to replace a part in your firearm... What if you need fix some mechanical component that you can no longer buy at your local hardware store or your borehole pump stops working... These are all situations that a workshop would be excellent for.

Firstly the building or structure:
A garden shed or motor home converts nicely into a amateur workshop. They require little modification except for shelves and possibly electrical supply or lights.

Secondly tools:
Yes, tools and machines are expensive but they pay for themselves many times over. You don't need to buy everything at once either. Setting up a "shadow board" with common tools that one uses often isn't that expensive if you buy it bit by bit on a monthly basis. If you work it into your prepping budget you can buy a screwdriver set this month, and a pair of pliers the next... and so on. Second hand shops often have great tools at a fraction of the price of the new ones. What about a anvil for shaping metal?

Thirdly machines:
Having a milling machine or large laith might not be the answer here. Although they can do some incredible things they require a lot of power. A single phase laith with less than a meter between centers should suffice for almost any machining you might need to do. For milling you could use a pedestal drill and fit it with cutters instead of drills... Manipulating the bed will help you mill out whatever you need. What you also want to look for is something like a compressor that can run a multitude of equipment like drills, riveters, grinders and so on but doesn't require that much power. Additionally air can be stored in them long after the power fails. A battery operated hand drill that can be recharged is also a great idea. What about a hydraulic press? A small generator could also be a huge asset. Many other things can fall into this category depending on your setup

Fourthly, storage... :
Things like cabinets for power or pneumatic tools and shelves for any assortment of things, tool trolles to make certain equipment mobile and bins or bottles for consumables. Perhaps designated areas where you store raw materials or useful scrap metal. A good workbench doubles as storage as well.

Something to consider fifth is consumables:
These could include... Nuts, bolts, washers, rivets, glues or epoxies of any kind, soldering, welding rods, nails, screws, industrial cloth, sanding paper, chemicals like acetone or paraffin, Saw blades, cable ties, tapes like masking and isolation,grease and oils, electrical wires, pins, globes, gloves, grinding disks, gas like argon and oxygen, car and firearm parts, Pipes and pipe fittings and so on.

The layout is also important, not only to maximize space but also to enable you to work with items in your workshop without any hinderence. Setting up a number of power outlets is also a good idea. What do you guys think?

 

Seems like you are sorted! I love that old school bench drill! A lot of people don't believe that having either technical knowledge or equipment will be critical to your long-term survival. The more things you can do yourself the less reliant you will be on others.

 

Definitely! Technical skills are very important. They might not be 'cool' but they are very handy. I remember an ex girlfriend of mine being very peeved about my technical career choices. If you pick up trouble with your solar installations you could always rely on these trusted old tools. There is no power like elbow grease. They have worked for many years and by the looks of it they could last many more! I think that a blacksmith type individual will be worth a lot in a SHTF situation.

 

I would go nuts if I didn't have my tools or a workshop.

 

Being a Southern male, there is a law somewhere stating that I am required to own a workshop. So, yes I have a workshop in which all of my tools won't fit, thus I have to rent storage space (trying to get my youngest son to take a bunch of my tools and power tools, but he hasn't much space at all, lives in a dang cabin). Another law in the American South states that a man is required to own several rolls of duct tape -- keeping at least one roll in his truck. The color of duct tape one owns is currently not mandated, however I see the requirement of owning multiple colors of duct tape in the offing. You've got your classic silver, your black, your camouflage, ..., and the ladies often prefer pink duct tape.

 

Yes. Unfortunately I can't post a picture but later maybe I can take a photo.
It's located in our garage, my father made it and it's pretty awesome. We have every tool which is needed and a quiet place to work. I usually go there even if I don't really need it, but I want to sew or draw something.

 

I have the equivalent of a four car garage with a single double door. I've spent a lot of time out there over the years repairing my broken equipment and or storing the stuff to do the same.

Of recent I have cleared out a lot of my stuff....as it got overcrowded...overstocked...over stored. It was difficult making a decision on what was to go and what was to stay..but decisions had to be made as space was becoming at a premium ..even in such a large garage. 25' x 40'.

I have heavy support beams running through the middle at the ceiling... 2 pieces of .2 x 12s ..a double beam. I have used this with a come along to lift out engines. with a chain wrapped around the beam.

My freezer is kept out there along with my large upright air compressor.

I want eventually to get a bigger tool box ..as I am also fast outgrowing my current tool box.
I particularly need separate storage for my specialty tools....gauges, special pullers and presses....tap and die sets manual vacuum pumps...etc.etc.

One becomes quickly spoiled with such an garage and also combined with an air compressor....and 220 volt ac power.

I also have a stick welder as well as a wire feed...to help with certain jobs.

I am not a trained welder but know enough after watching and speaking with welders at this shipyard..to do simple jobs.
Anything highly complex I will pay a professional to do for me.



Also over the years I have mounted in one corner my reloading equipment....which has rapidly expanded over the years. I have two different reloading presses on my reloading bench...and the equipment/tools to support.
Recently obtained a vertical cabinet to store much of my gear and supplies...calipers, micrometers, gauges, bullets, dies shell holders...etc etc etc.
I got tired of keeping this stuff in buckets.


No smoking allowed in my garage....no drinking either. As I am often want to declare...I am not against drink. I am against stupid.

I don't smoke and definitely don't believe in drinking when working with machinery..and other such dangerous gear.

And especially no drinking when reloading. This is doubly self explanatory and doubly stupid to drink and reload.


One can become blessed and very spoiled when one has such a priceless resource as a place to store and work under a roof ...and particularly if one remembers the days of working/struggling outside or in the rain/weather.


Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

I have a shop and just about every tool needed for woodworking. I found this browsing around the internet. Its a book called "The Lost ways" and i think for any survivalist it has valuable information on how to make your own medicine and the old techniques that we have lost over many years. https://tinyurl.com/ycapd98a

The first thing it teaches you in a video in the link is how to make your own medicine with wild lettuce. I had no clue that it had medicinal value. I really thought it was just a weed to get rid of, but along with that it teaches you hundreds of useful techniques that can help when we kiss the grid goodbye

its kinda off topic but i hope it helps guys!!
Peace, love and prepping

 

I actually have three shop buildings and two 20' X 40' sheds and am thinking about adding another one. I keep outgrowing what I have and needing more space.

 

Having a workplace outside the house also helps keep the peace with the wifer.

"Grrrrrrrr Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" Looks like its time to go work on whatever. I also keep an office, a once-bedroom across from a bathroom. Such are places of peace; an attempt at tranquility in a non-tranquil world. Keep your liquor in your office area.

The wifer has her sewing area and the kitchen and the den (which is way too cold for my aging body).

 

My wife and I both have a lot of hobbies and the various shops are for different things. One is mostly devoted to machines and tools. It has a metal lathe/milling machine, drill press, wood lathe, table saw, compound slide miter saw, bandsaw and various belt sanders, grinders and hand tools. I also have my stick welder, ox/acetylene rig and tig welder in that shop.

Another shop is mostly for my wife to do her painting, crafts and furniture refinishing in. It also have a scroll saw, a chop saw and a drill press. My last shop is sort of divided up into areas. One is for leather work, one is for fly tying, one is a lapidary area with diamond saw and rock polishers, there is a big desk where all my knives are along with my wood carving stuff and knife making grinders, belt grinders and polishers. The walls and the overhead is fishing stuff and hardware. I have one carport for my boats cleaning tables, sink and an old claw foot bathtub that I keep live bait in. Under another is for the outside tools like a cement mixer, mowers, wood chippers, tillers and such. A gazebo has smokers and BBQ stuff and a chiminea. I am thinking about setting up another small place for a forge and my anvils.

I have been fortunate in that because I own my own business nearly all of this stuff was legally tax deductible. I either used it in my business or made and sold things that I made under my Family enterprises company name. I spend most of my time, when I'm not on this computer, out in my shops making and doing things. I'm a little bit of a mad scientist inventor and make all sort of things. I used to do a lot of gun work and leather for guns but am not doing that as much now.

For years while my kiddo was growing up we made things all year and sold it to pay for Christmas. We usually made a couple thousand dollars every year selling stuff on the side of the road starting the day after Thanksgiving. My Daughter worked and then got her cut. She also paid for most of her own school clothes working for the familly company. It is hard to seperate my hobbies from my businesses.

 

gosh, I could not live without a shop, it's more important than a house.

here's a corner photo of mine

 

Unfortunately, my workshop consists of the Yellow Pages and a Credit Card.

I am not handy or mechanically inclined. I never have been. It never interested me. It always frustrated me. It is a skill, mechanical aptitude, I admire. I wish I was better. That said I do have a pretty complete set of tools. I think I could fight my way through some rudimentary carpentry, and would have tools available if somebody else knew how to use them. I am pretty good with guns, but a long way from being a gunsmith.

Don't ask me to repair the car, or do plumbing or electrical work. You would have a better chance of seeing God than seeing any of those things get fixed.

 

here is a drill press I picked up a while ago. I'm going to incorporate it into my line shaft. I have another like it but a few sizes bigger. That one had belonged to my granddad. He put a induction-repusive motor and a auto transmission on it. That transmission is handy. He put auto transmissions on much of his equipment.

 

RandyT...

That looks like an olde Machinist type shop drill which takes taper shank drills bits or what are sometimes called flat sided drill bits.


You have to seriously watch yourself around gear like that ..belt driven with no guards on the belts ot shafts. You don't wear loose clothes or long hair round such belts or shafts.

Have a drill press still boxed up here. Will get round to putting it up one day. but this one has a large chuck on it...or in other words..is not taper shank or flat sided drill bits.


Thanks,
Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite

 

We called them morse taper drill bits. I probably have over a hundred tapered drill bits of all sizes and adapters to use other size tapers. Also have a conventional chuck on a taper that will fit the drill press.

 

here's a photo of my big drill press.

 

I have a few shops, here is a photo of my basement bench.

 

I don't have one yet, but I will when I get my own dirt. Having a place to work and build and fix stuff is the only good thing about living in a sticks and bricks.

 

I'm not allowed to touch equipment like that without adult supervision.