Having recently purchased a new home, I have a room which will be exclusivley mine. Yes, I finally have my very own man cave. The first thing I need to set up is my rod building lathe. I have a Clemens with a 12' bed. I was thinking of making some sort of shelf running the full length of one wall as opposed to a table to set up on. I figure this would give me more usable space in the room over all. How do you guys have your building spaces set up? Do you stand or sit? Just looking for some suggestions to get me going on this.

Congrat's on your new home.:claps: Whats the dimensions on the room?

Thanks Tony. It's 10' x 12'. The Lathe will just run the length of the long wall.

IMO... haveing a counter space is a must. I wrap, dry, clean reels & guns,,,you get the picture and it doesn't have to be too deep either. I always stand so I was able to put drawers the whole length and plenty of space under the drawers for storage. Hight is important. I picked up 4' flourencent lighting at home depot, I centered and hug it directly over the blank and 5 ft from the wrapper, one does the job. Make sure you have all the outlets where you need them so that there isn't messy wires around. Haveing drawers,organizers and shelfs placed in the right places will make life so much easier. A small grinder doesn't have to be a bolted down which takes up more space ect.. I've had my room for about a year now and I wouldn't change a thing. Do it once and have a well thought out plan, take your time. Get ideas off other rod building sites too. My room is a little bit smaller then yours but it has a closet, you can always add one. great place to keep your clothes guns ect. ect.. I think theres still pics around of my room, I'll be glad to help.

I have 2 12 inch wide shelves , one about 4 feet above the other. The lathe is on the lower shelf and the dryers are on the upper shelve. This takes up minimal space in the room and yet I can have 3 rods drying while I still work on the lathe. Anyway , that's been my set up for about 5 years now . I also have these very large brackets on the wall above the top shelve for blank slorage. They hold about 20 blanks each when nescessary.

On my set up , I can build rods over 15 feet long although never see much above 12 feet long.


I have all the electricals going into a single box with about 6 switches plus a main. That way I can turn stuff on and off or everything off very easily and never have to fumble with the actually plugs.

I have a multi draw cabinet next to the lathe where I keep the reel seats , butt caps , brushes , cups , tape , hnd tools etc in labeled drawers. I have no rod building parts anywhere in the house except on the two shelves , the brackets and the drawers. . I do all the work on the shelves and I also have a place on the end where I clamp my rotary vice for teaser and fly tying and also jig tying.

Anyway , its amzing how functional the area is despite sticking out only 1 foot from the wall.

Toby I recently made a spot to wrap . I put up on the wall above the bench a white pegboard. I got hanger hooks for thread rolls, thin shelves hanging on pegboard hooks for essentials, drilled holes in the shelf for tools i.e. burnishing, pick, scissers, brushes etc. I put up an 8' double bulb florescent light. With the white pegboard the lighting made the area much brighter. I have the wrapper on a 8' folding picnic table. I was going to make a shelf for the wrapper only then decided the table would give room for another rod for drying or space for other items. I have a 4 plug outlet coming off a wall socket w/ extension cord. Works fine. Move it where ever you need it. My heat lamps are clamped to the floor joists above and along the wrapper. When the season starts I fold up the table and wrapper for xtra room . In minutes it's back together. Everything stays put , hung to the peg board. To take up any void on the peg board ,I hang a feeeew plugs for color. See u Wed.

Great responses guys, thanks a lot! I have some pretty good ideas of what to do in here now. I'll post up some pics once it's all done.