Part of your time will be dedicated to improving the workshop. This is the biggest truth that a maker can tell you. Your workspace will always require a piece of your attention. At Curious Goblin we are no exception. From the beginning, we have assumed the workshop as a project that we work on continuously. After all, by improving our workshop we are creating conditions for creativity to flourish and consequently generate greater potential for our customers and followers.
We started in a space with very little of workshop. Far from the spirit by which we organize our workplace. As we conquered space, we built and applied the principles of our storage philosophy.
Uniform
It is important to establish uniformity, as long as it does not obstruct creative work. Thus, we define the ideal working height and standardize all surfaces. The countertops are all at exactly the same height, just like any other surface where we can work.
When using the miter saw, just place it next to the countertops and we are sure that the piece of wood to be cut, however long it will be, will be supported. Thanks to standardization, the workbenches and tools in the workshop work as a team.
Modular
Each project has specific characteristics and needs. No two projects are the same. Whether in terms of the surface they occupy, the time they take or the tools they need, all jobs are different. In this way, a rigid workshop layout would never work.
In order to face the unexpected that defines the work we develop at Curious Goblin, we created a modular system. In addition to defining the ideal working height, we place the heaviest power tools (table saw, thicknesser, etc.) on cubic volumes with wheels. In combination with the workbenches, also on wheels, the combinations are multiple. We are able to have a large work surface, several smaller ones or none and have the space free. At the same time, the workbenches work as a team with the heaviest tools.
Accessible
“Drawers are where things go to die”
We never get tired of this phrase. We hate drawers and any containers that make us to open them to discover that what they keep is not what we are looking for. What is out of sight, put away in a drawer or kept in a box, is forgotten. Opaque drawers and boxes were banned from the workshop.
At Curious Goblin accessibility means that everything must be quickly accessible and visible. The tools are scattered on the walls, always within reach of everyone, even if our hands are busy in the middle of a task. Smaller materials and consumables are grouped by type into transparent boxes, which are also easy to reach and open. There is a box for sandpaper, another for glue and so on. We even have a box with only keys and another with sprockets.
Wireless
After the drawers, the wires are the next enemy in the list of targets to take down. However, unlike drawers, we still live with wires. Much to our pity, not all power tools have a battery version. For this reason, we continue to trip over some wires occasionally, but we trust that technological progress is on our side. In the near future none of our tools will need to be attached to the socket to function.
In addition to preventing trips and falls, which is more than enough reason in a workshop where safety always takes priority, that is not the only reason for choosing batteries. When work begins at the workshop and ends at the customer’s place, we never know what to expect. With cordless tools, we can even finish a project in the middle of the desert and this will not be an obstacle.
None of these principles are valid in themselves. Like work in the workshop, things only work when in a team. It does not help to have work surfaces at the same height if we cannot combine them. It does not add much to use cordless tools if it takes a long time to open and close boxes in search of a replacement battery. Nor is it much use for specific consumable terms for each application if we never remember them at the key moment.
Curious Goblin is a team and a set of projects, but also a workspace. To work, you need each of these elements to grow a little bit every day. Our curiosity is about teaching us something and customers help to increase our portfolio. In the same way, we try to make our workshop a little more functional.