Having a workshop at home is an extremely common dream for those that enjoy working with their hands, whatever form that may take. With DIY enjoying a second wind of popularity after the coronavirus pandemic, there is a new generation of people willing to learn tricks of the trade, or even just to pick up a hobby that involves working with one’s hands.
But the forward march of technology has the potential to change the face of your workshop for the better. What are some simple ways in which you could take advantage of a new era to improve your workshop, and bring it well and truly into the 21st century?
Smart Lighting
One of the bigger commercial leaps in recent years has been in relation to the development and iteration of ‘smart’ objects. Electrical items that can talk to one another via WiFi or Bluetooth connection, and which can be affected remotely through the same, are considered smart. Voice activation has also been folded in as a factor, and all of the above could be highly useful in a home workshop scenario as home automation systems leave us truly spoiled for choice.
Smart lighting, for example, could be installed at numerous points around the workshop. A voice command such as ‘more light’ could be programmed to increase the brightness of set bulbs, allowing you to control the ambient light levels and better see what you are doing. You could also programme lights to activate in different areas, to save on energy bills and improve workflow.
Updated Tools
It would be difficult to talk about modernising your at-home workshop without acknowledging the potential need to modernise your tools themselves. Power tools are indispensable to handiwork, and have been in use for decades upon decades; today’s tools bear little in common with those of yesteryear.
While many tools are equipped to stand the test of time, there is an awkward era of cordless power tools where the batteries were low-power, low-capacity and had a tendency to succumb to ‘lazy battery effect’. If you want to be able to use a cordless impact wrench without needing to recharge it for each lug, a new set of power tools would be highly advised.
New Workbench
Not all innovations have been purely technological in nature. Which the development of electronics and electrical tools has undoubtedly defined a new era of workmanship and hobby-craft, there have also been some more conventional breakthroughs with regard to engineering and handiwork. These breakthroughs truck in craftsmanship tradition, and serve to make life much easier for the average workshop owner.
They can also be incorporated into a wholesale redesign of your workbench, for better workflow and quicker results. Some of these engineering breakthroughs involve vices and vice action; new designs incorporate quick release and hitherto-unseen levels of manoeuvrability, making manipulating materials easier than ever. Incorporating a routing table into your workbench can also dramatically improve your workflow, reducing the need for bespoke cutting setups while ensuring the entire workbench remains useful to you.
