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Hello. I am about to embark on a complete craft room over haul and re-organization due to a basement flood. I'm old school, devoted to wood mount rubber stamps, of which I have quite a collection. My current thinking is to build heavy duty shelves and align the stamp sets alphabetically somewhat like books. Does anyone here organize wood mount stamps in this way and if so has it worked ok for you? I recall seeing a posted photo like this from I believe Michelle Zindorf. Is there any other advice you might give me?
Also, my tall project table bit the dust in the flood. Do you have a recommendation for a work table?
I'm so sorry about the flood. It sounds like you'd like a higher table again? IKEA has various sizes of LINNMON table tops that can be placed on adjustable legs. I've done that for a trimmer station that's taller than my table and desk.
Here's one of the Linmonns but they come bigger (up to about 78") and much smaller: LINNMON Table top - white - IKEA There's also a corner piece, though I just used another table for an L.
I had a glass company cut a 1/4" piece of plexiglass (instead of glass) and polish the edges as a table protector. They provided flat "bump-ones" to put under it so it wouldn't slide. I can also put stamps on the top after using them and they won't slide - or disappear!
If you're not near an IKEA, shipping costs may be prohibitive - you can check on line. Good luck.
Drawers were intended for tools, so they can support the weight of punches
The work surface is counter-height so I can stand or use a barstool to work
Since it's metal, my magnetic rulers and MISTI magnets (and some fun ones, too) stick to it and so they're always handy
Also, since it's metal, it's less likely to get damaged in case of another flood (and the lower shelf is 10" off the floor, so the things on it would likely be okay, as well)
I took the bottom shelf and front support for it off so I could roll the file cart that houses my 12" papers underneath. I also put a small table underneath so that I could put other things under there, too, but I'm in the desert and in a second-story apartment, so not exactly flood-prone, lol...
The curtain rods holding my tapes are attached directly to the pegboard. Happily, the spacing on the brackets is exactly the same as the holes on the pegboard. I have staplers and hand punches in one of the baskets, enamel dots in another one, the base and control for my Ott Lite (so it doesn't take up space on the desk to the right of the workbench where I sit to color and fussy-cut) and some teensy nail art tapes in another one, and the larger one houses two sizes of MISTI, my envelope punch board, my small Martha Stewart scoring board, and a foam mat. The hanging cups hold dimensionals, other adhesives, and my Corner Chomper and Crop-a-dile. The smiley cups have acrylic blocks (cuz you just never know when you'll need one...)
__________________ ~ Sue Happy for no reason...
Last edited by gregzgurl; 05-14-2017 at 01:27 PM..
[QUOTE=gregzgurl;21468481]It's not pretty, but VERY functional, so I use (and recommend) this workbench from Harbor Freight:
The things I love about it are:
Built-in light
Pegboard (see below)
Two outlets on the side
Drawers were intended for tools, so they can support the weight of punches
The work surface is counter-height so I can stand or use a barstool to work
Since it's metal, my magnetic rulers and MISTI magnets (and some fun ones, too) stick to it and so they're always handy
Also, since it's metal, it's less likely to get damaged in case of another flood (and the lower shelf is 10" off the floor, so the things on it would likely be okay, as well)
Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't have thought of using a work bench, but I can see how it could work. I'll have to consider when I next reorganize my work space.
Oh dang! I am sorry this happened. I feel like every other day someone is telling me they have flood damage lately. :(
Cool looking Sue! i esp love the part of built in sockets!
I use a small drafting table. You can get them on sale at art stores. It is still a big surface area. Drawbacks-no shelving, etc. I took some wood and ran it across the support bars underneath and made shelves. I have an old architect's clamp on light with both kinds of old bulbs. They do come with accessory parts.In all fairness-I had this when I started stamping.
The legs are metal. I dont know if they would rust from a flood, but that would not be ruined inmmediately.
I have not seen the stamp idea yet. I have a lot of wood too-I just keep them by category in plastic bins on shelves. I am not sure if the collective weight of them being stacked will hurt the rubber over time though.
Drawers were intended for tools, so they can support the weight of punches
The work surface is counter-height so I can stand or use a barstool to work
Since it's metal, my magnetic rulers and MISTI magnets (and some fun ones, too) stick to it and so they're always handy
Also, since it's metal, it's less likely to get damaged in case of another flood (and the lower shelf is 10" off the floor, so the things on it would likely be okay, as well)
I took the bottom shelf and front support for it off so I could roll the file cart that houses my 12" papers underneath. I also put a small table underneath so that I could put other things under there, too, but I'm in the desert and in a second-story apartment, so not exactly flood-prone, lol...
The curtain rods holding my tapes are attached directly to the pegboard. Happily, the spacing on the brackets is exactly the same as the holes on the pegboard. I have staplers and hand punches in one of the baskets, enamel dots in another one, the base and control for my Ott Lite (so it doesn't take up space on the desk to the right of the workbench where I sit to color and fussy-cut) and some teensy nail art tapes in another one, and the larger one houses two sizes of MISTI, my envelope punch board, my small Martha Stewart scoring board, and a foam mat. The hanging cups hold dimensionals, other adhesives, and my Corner Chomper and Crop-a-dile. The smiley cups have acrylic blocks (cuz you just never know when you'll need one...)
Sue, thanks so much for your review/photos! I've had my eye on this work bench for quite awhile but was unsure about it. All of your reasons for loving it are the reasons I was looking at it. This will definitely move from the 'maybes' list to the 'must' list.
Thank you everyone who has responded. I have some time to think about options until the basement is ready to move back into. :-) Everyone have a super day.
Hello Everyone. This is how I ended up organizing wood mounted stamps. Most are Stampin Up. I am now sorting my non-SU stamps into themes and storing them in clam shells, labelling and 'filing' those with the SU sets on these shelves. The shelves are sturdy. I'm very happy with this approach, partly because I can easily see what I have and my stamps are 'out' but not in disarray. Have a good day!
Looks great!Just curious how many stamps sets do you have, I am around 500, but I have some in iris carts, and some in large containers in the closet, basically all by theme, it looks like this would make things easier to find.
I was going to answer your original post but you've already got everything sorted, my suggestion- if you were going to sort bynumber or alphabetically, would be to use the Evernote program alongside with it to easily find your stamp sets.
So it sounds like you sorted everything by theme then, is that right?
Hi Doris. I have about 500 sets that are SU. But I also have some non-SU stamps. I have kept the SU sets together in the sets as they are manufactured and organized them by set name, alphabetically. On the top row, there is Halloween, followed by Christmas sets, then the remaining sets are alphabetical. For the non-SU stamps, I am sorting those stamps by theme and putting them in the clam shells and naming the theme. For example, Mermaids-non Stampin Up. Then that clamshell is filed in the M's. I'm very happy with this approach. It does make everything easy to locate. I've started an Excel spreadsheet for the SU sets.
Reinventing the wheel, again
