How do you reduce the mess while working on your layout?

I gave up on woodwork and went to modular use of folding tables which are bolted together and then carpet pad was used to make it seamless, which also quiets the racket..scenic materials were glued on top. The last tear down back in Wisconsin was the last straw..what a mess. Hauling that stuff around...the wife not happy, etc. It doesn't hurt that I am also lazier by the year while saving my back from another fiasco 

Close my eyes? 

 

I try to do my sawing outside as well. 

 

Painting takes place (usually) in the garage.

 

Foam carving definitely takes place in the garage (shop vac waiting).

 

I try to vacuum up filing and scraps right after doing the work.

 

George

I do everything in the basement. At the end of the day If I'm finished with the project I then clean up the mess, otherwise I finish it the next day. Art: I've seen your work bench so I know what I do would drive you crazy. (LOL)

I built some shelves for the basement, your basic 2"x4" studs and 4'x8'. I bought BC plywood and would sand them in the driveway and cut them in half before taking down to the basement.

 

Then one winter day I wanted to make another set. It was OK until I decided to sand the sheets in the basement workroom.

 

OMG

 

Dust EVERYWHERE.  I thought I could just vacuum it all up. No. It would stick to stuff. Dust in the grease in my bicycle. Dust on the under side of things. Not only that, the dust got moldy over time. I had to pitch some old benches left behind by the previous owner. I am allergic to black mold.

 

It was then I figured out that shelving can't have dead air pockets - I got some wire shelves eventually for my trains. Next time I will freeze my rear off before I ever do that again.

if you can seal the room up I would do all the sawing in the room. a window fan exhausting some of the dust in the room helps. when the benchwork is done you do a complete cleanup and you are ready for track. sawing, especially with power saws sends dust everywhere. in my shop in the basement I have dust collection on the tools and an exhaust system and the place still gets dusty so confining the mess all to one room means only one room to clean.  

It is possible to contain much of the dust from cutting or sanding.  You need to use tools that have dust ports that can be hooked up to a dedicated dust extractor.  I recently sanded with a 6" random orbit sander connected to a HEPA dust extractor and there was virtually no dust in the air or on the work itself.  They are not cheap so unless you like to do woodworking and have a lot of projects, the cost won't be worth it for most people.  That's when you need to make friends with a woodworker with the right tools who wants an excuse to show them off or will let you borrow them.  Otherwise, stick to doing all the dust producing work outside and wear a mask to protect your lungs.

 

Mike A.

Hello Art • I do all my cutting on a table saw in the garage. No heat in the garage.  In the train room, I use a powered mitered box, with a shop vac by the blade.

You have to teach yourself to clean up after every project or it will soon get ahead of you. 

I don't.  I keep the door to the workshop closed so dust will not float into the trainroom but that is it.  I have a type of paint booth in the storage area of the attic that prevents overspray from getting into the trainroom, etc.  

 

My problem is that I just make a bigger and bigger mess as I go along on a project and only clean up at the end.  I always start out with a clean workbench and every tool in its place and nothing on the floor.  As I work I just set down the tools I using and throw scrap custs of wood and plastic on the floor, etc.  I either complete the project and then clean up, or sometimes, it gets to where I can't find my tools and all anymore in order to continue, and I halt and "reinitialize" the workshop first.  

I have a 12" band-saw that I use whenever possible as it is much less messy than circular saws...not without it's own mess though. Just easier to keep in one spot.

 

Two shop vacs are available, one in the shop (big and NOISY) and the other is about a two gallon dry-only vac that is used on and around the layout. It cost $5 at a garage sale and has well earned its keep.

 

One last trick I've done is to place a furnace filter on the inlet side of a 24" box fan and then let it run for the time I'm downstairs. It pulls in a lot of the fine dust particles instead of letting them land on the layout. Each filter is only a few dollars and I can still use the fan elsewhere in the summer.

 

But like Passengertrain says, you have to keep up with it...

 

Neil

My layout and shop are all in my barn without any separating walls.  I have worked at buying the most dustless tools that I can.  I still get some dust but actually very little. I have deferred buying tools until I could get the tool with the best dust control. If you haven't as yet looked into Festool Tools and their dust extraction systems it might be of interest to some of you. They are pricey but they really do eliminate a huge amount of dust.    

Their track saw and jig saw in combination with their HEPA dust collectors are fantastic.  The same goes for their Mitre saw (Kapex).  You really can do without a table saw with their system.  The same goes for their sanders and router in combination with their dust extractors. They do not discount their tools other than some reconditioned ones that they sell once in awhile.  They also offer 30 day money back if you are not happy with any tool for any reason. Some dealers offer free shipping.  You might want to take a look.

Buzz

Being a retired contractor and working in other people's homes on a daily basis you soon learn all the tricks to leave their home as clean as it was when you started..  Clean it up as you make it.  I now have a 70 gal. micro dust vac from Harbor Freight that is just wonder.

http://www.harborfreight.com/m.../i/m/image_12006.jpg

A lot of good ideas, thanks.  I get tired of running up and down the stairs in the garage when I sawing either outside or in the garage, but I think it's worse to have a huge mess in the layout room or the rest of the house.  I have thought of trying to contain all the dust in the workshop room in the basement, but it is really hard to do and very hard to clean up afterwards.  Too many tools and parts bins, and etc. to clean and dust afterwards.

 

I have a heated garage, but the driveway is a little brutal when the wind is blowing and it's below freezing outside.

 

Art

 

Art

I don't.  I make a heck of a mess when I'm working on the layout.  I finally reach a point where I can't find tools I have laid down somewhere.  Then I straighten up and get going again to create another mess.

.....

Dennis

I went with Mianne bench work and had Home Depot do all the cutting of the plywood for the top. I can't handle a full sheet of it anymore anyway. Sold all my power tools when we moved last year, all I have is hand tools and a couple of battery drills. I do very little sawing here and only on really small boards with a small hand saw. Then clean up the mess when finished sawing, before tracking it all over the place.

 

Power wood working tools in a basement is just one big mess and you can never get it all cleaned up. Saw dust goes everywhere, places you wouldn't even imagine. Even if you cover things up they still get dusty. You will be finding it years later. A very good dust collection system may help a lot. The best thing would be separate building, detached from the house. Or as you have suggested, take everything outside, but that is a real pain. One can lose interest in the project very quickly having to do that all the time.

All my major cutting has to be outside. Like r2r said, there's just no way. Too much of a mess inside. The vacuum cleaner attachment on the saw works good if I have to be inside the garage for wet weather. I run a fan in the window down stairs near the trains if I'm doing something dusty or smelly down there & I usually open an opposite window to promote a decent draft & that works pretty good. I run an air purifier down there 24/7 & that seems to help with dust from the cloths drier too.

Throw everything under the layout, and put the skirt up. Now it looks nice and clean in the train room, just don't look under the skirt

Sawdust is just a cost of building a layout. My big saws are located in other spaces (which I almost never clean), but my saber saw is only used in the train room. I also did a lot of drilling of the benchwork to install the lighting and while laying track.

 

If the piece being worked on, is not attached to the layout, then the mess is mostly in the aisle, and we vacuum up later. If it is on the layout, I have a small drop cloth that I use to catch the bulk, then finish with the vacuum after the work is done in that area. That could be weeks or months, which is one of the reasons I don't run trains very often.

I do what Spence does, clean up the basement every day. Cutting wood probably creates the most mess especially when using a jigsaw or 7-1/4" radial saw. I have the broom and dust pan ready, if really messy I use the shop vac, before the sawdust tracks across the concrete basement floor. Air brush painting is done in a outside power vented paint booth. It should be interesting once all wiring in completed and tested, next comes plaster scenery application to grade elevations never worked with plaster scenery before, it may be quite an adventure.    

Since I do not have an official layout as such and it is on the floor of my carpeted basement, I really don't have much of a mess to clean up. Though I am a neat freak about my railroad. Must be the Marine in me. LOL

 

Anyway, I tend to clean up after a get something new perhaps, but that is it. Oh, I also clean the track at least once a week to keep dust and debris from accumulating upon the track thus hampering operations.

 

 

Pete

One of the first things they taught us in cook school in the Army was to "clean as you go".
Clean up one project or work area as soon as you are finished before you move on to the next. It is a pain sometime but really pays off at the end of the day when there is no huge mess to clean!

My layout is in the garage so it can sometimes be a mess.  When it comes to dust, I will open both garage doors and use a leaf blower to blast as much away as I can.  I then clean the layout itself with a shop vac.  

When I'm working on the actual layout, I use magnetic trays to hold screws, etc.  I keep all of my tools in a bucket until I'm done, then it's back into the toolbox.  I really try not to lay tools on the track...I've been known to crack a few diesel snow plows plowing into misplaced tools lol.  

 

 

 

Condo living necessitates a process to keep a relatively clean work environment. I try to work in the most confined space possible when sanding and cutting indoors. I turn off fans and close air ducts. When possible make all cuts necessary for the current project at one time or at least  as soon as possible. Vacuum after each cutting and sanding process is complete.