Most home improvement stores such as Lowes and Home Depot sell kits and economy and professional workbenches, and Sears sells several varieties of the more upscale professional versions. You can make it yourself out of 2×4’s and plywood or MDF panels or anything that would function as an excellent tabletop. You need a sturdy workbench with enough valuable space for your work, and it can be a simple handmade unit, a kit, or a more professional-grade model. Electrical outlets and power strips with load protectors are useful for power tools, additional lighting, and other uses. In my shop, I have two double 48″ fluorescent lights on either side of the central work area, one bright LED bulb that’s centered in the room, and finally two short LED light strips that are situated directly over my workbench. If you can’t see what you’re doing, it’s tough to perform any maintenance, and your performance will suffer, as will the quality of the work. Lightingįirst and foremost, for the shop, it needs good lighting, and I’ll repeat that it needs proper lighting. Depending on where you live, you might be able to use a portion of your garage as the workshop, but it’s not an option for me due to the arctic-like temperatures throughout the wintertime. ![]() It is roomy and comfortable, and warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and I can get the room dirty if I want. My home bike shop is located down in the large storage room in the basement. Depending on your skillset and needs, you might do most of the work yourself and just leave the most difficult tasks to your LBS mechanics (aka the professionals). The floor space (square footage) must include enough room to maneuver the bikes around and incorporate bike stands to hold them during maintenance, storage for parts and tools, and a workbench for staging. Having a functional space to do your work is essential, and it needs to be comfortable and roomy enough to perform the maintenance. You end up doing the work out of necessity, pleasure, and for cost benefits, and who better to take care of your baby than yourself. Once you start to accumulate bikes and have been riding for a while, you usually start to become your mechanic doing the primary care on your bikes. The bikes have changed, and I have added a few newer tools, but the layout and set up is still the same. ![]() This is an older post I had made on my Home Shop.
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