Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Luthier's Inspection Bench

I recently decided to close the small retail office space I've been using to meet customers for guitar repair consultations, pick-ups and drop-offs.  It represented a sizeable chunk of my operating costs, but more than that, I found myself losing a lot of time just driving to and from.  I couldn't do much actual repair work there and it seemed wasteful.

Having customers come to my home is okay, but I don't really like the idea of having to escort them to my tiny little basement shop. It's very crowded in there and having to remove my current projects from the bench to clear a space every time someone shows up is less than ideal.

I recalled the number of useful shop fixtures we managed to adapt from IKEA furniture when we were setting up the shop at Lee Valley, and had a look through the catalog. My idea was to build a small workbench that could sit in our front room. Something that wasn't too offensive-looking.

I found the Forhoja kitchen cart and realized it would work nicely with some additions. I made a full-length drawer for tools, a backsplash to carry a sliding base for an angle-poise office lamp, and an adjustable neck rest. So far it's working well.

Here's a short video: https://youtu.be/AWuBqj1HAT8