The Shop Notebook

[zmotorsports]

Oh, and speaking of pens, my wife got my this "bolt action" pen for Xmas a couple years ago. Hand machined apparently, it is nice and heavy in the hand, takes standard ink cartridges, and writes much nicer than me.

Very nice pen. I reverse engineered and made several of these a couple of years ago. I made my cousin one out of aluminum as he has always been a positive influence in my life from when I was young and someone I bounced ideas off of as I went into High School and beyond. Great mechanic and I've stayed in contact with him over the years.

I then refined the design a bit and made my son and DIL matching ones for Christmas 2023.

Then I altered the design a bit by throwing a stainless steel ring in the body and made my wife and I matching ones last summer for our 35th wedding anniversary. We both still use ours a lot. My wife asks me to polish her copper pen on occasion but I let my go natural.

I have a full and detailed machining process of these pens on my Shop Projects 2.0 thread when I machined them.

When I first became a Snap-On Dealer 36 years ago I quickly discovered that I needed to be able to write notes and jot down what my customers needed me to do or get for them. I started out using what readily came to hand… my hand! At the end of the day it looked like a drunken tattoo artist caught me asleep and played a permanent joke!
Then one of my managers showed me his DayTimer 2 Page A Day wallet notebook. I have every month going back to 1990, with notes and scribbles from what I was doing, what I needed to do, and especially what my customers had told me what they were going to do!


Since I retired 6 years ago I don’t use it as much as I did while working, in fact I just noticed I’m 6 days into February and I haven’t changed to this month yet, but I can’t leave the house without my “Brain” cuz I feel almost as naked as I do without my pocketknife! But I do still have really important stuff in it…

Here’s the list of “must haves” for my new shop being built. So it still is a valuable tool I use. As a side note, the leather wallet is very well made, I think I’m only on #4 after all these years of daily use.

Sterling, I was a long time user of the Daytimer system for approx. 20 years. I had boxes of them in the closet and generally kept about five years worth. When I ordered a new refill set, the oldest one went in the garbage and they were rotated out as they aged out. I only retired from using the Daytimer system in 2015 when my new position required me to have a cell phone for remote email access. I retired the Daytimer system for an "app" version of notes and quite like it.

Although, if I'm being honest, if I had to choose between a cell phone in general and the Daytimer system, I would give up the cell phone and go back to handwritten notes in my wallet any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I HATE cell phones and what they've done to society, but that's a whole other topic.

Your handwriting is envious man.

Thanks Ryan. I'm embarrassed to say it has gotten significantly worse over the past several years. I used to be proud of it, not so much these days, but thanks.

 

[FJ 432]

Being that we're nerding out. My daily driver is a Pineider that I bought at Dramgoole's in Houston. Great pen and that store was amazing.

 

[Low Definition]

I started using the bullet journal method a couple years ago. I always wanted to have a journal but never could really get into it until I discovered bullet journaling. Mine is mostly to do lists and some documentation of things around the house. I am currently using an Exceed dotted journal (unfortunately recently discontinued, so will probably be using leuchtturm1917 next) for this and I really like it. The index feature, I feel, is the best part. As far as pens, I'm partial to pilot g-2.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Okay... Let's go full nerd.

This is my travel setup. It's a Dan Matsuda pouch gifted to me by one of you fair people. Inside is a titanium driver with bits stored in the handle, a TSA approved multi-tool from Leatherman, a black inked Jotter, a blue inked jotter, a red inked jotter, and a meechical pencil Jotter. The notecards store away in the side pocket.

No penlight ?

 

[Ryan]

No penlight ?

Of course there’s a torch. What am I? Some kind of a mindless brute?

This pouch has a hidden compartment in the spine:

 

[Dragfluid]

Certainly nothing fancy here. The important thing to me is to actually have it in a notebook and not on a napkin or God knows what. Just the plain old spiral bound things. I've got a **** ton of them. They are cheap, especially if you pay attention to sales during back to school time. One time several years ago, I happened onto a garage sale that had two boxes full of new not used notebooks. A quarter each! At that particular time, I was a talking head, working for ATRA, helping other transmission shops that would call in and every client's info was entered in the notebook that I was currently using. Then I would enter it in the computer. So I went through a few of them over four years. But still have quite a pile left. And if I see a good sale, I'll still buy 'em.
And I use a ballpoint. I know, a pencil should be used for sketching, but there's just something about the feel of dragging the graphite over paper. I like the smoothness of a pen. That's just me.
Granted, the one on the right should have a proper burial, but I still need to transfer a few things from it first. One of the things is my mom's eulogy that I wrote eight years ago.
I'll get around to it one of these days.
But the gist of this is, any project that I may have going on, gets put in a notebook. Some have their own, exclusive notebook. Like when we moved over three years ago. Nothing is stronger or more permanent than the written word. You can't forget it if it's written down!

 

[zmotorsports]

Certainly nothing fancy here. The important thing to me is to actually have it in a notebook and not on a napkin or God knows what. Just the plain old spiral bound things. I've got a **** ton of them. They are cheap, especially if you pay attention to sales during back to school time. One time several years ago, I happened onto a garage sale that had two boxes full of new not used notebooks. A quarter each! At that particular time, I was a talking head, working for ATRA, helping other transmission shops that would call in and every client's info was entered in the notebook that I was currently using. Then I would enter it in the computer. So I went through a few of them over four years. But still have quite a pile left. And if I see a good sale, I'll still buy 'em.
And I use a ballpoint. I know, a pencil should be used for sketching, but there's just something about the feel of dragging the graphite over paper. I like the smoothness of a pen. That's just me.
Granted, the one on the right should have a proper burial, but I still need to transfer a few things from it first. One of the things is my mom's eulogy that I wrote eight years ago.
I'll get around to it one of these days.
But the gist of this is, any project that I may have going on, gets put in a notebook. Some have their own, exclusive notebook. Like when we moved over three years ago. Nothing is stronger or more permanent than the written word. You can't forget it if it's written down!

That is exactly what I used when I started my career in 1988 as an Industrial Maintenance Mechanic. I kept copious notes on various pieces of equipment for quick reference, part #'s, etc. then it turned into more and more documentation that I carried over into my personal life and I've been that way ever since.

I only graduated to the more "aesthetically" pleasing journal style of notebooks about 20 years ago.

 

[67CarGuy]

I'm in the multi-notebook / use what's at hand camp myself, although not for lack of wanting to be more organized with my shop notes. When I'm not rushing myself, I use a 3-ring binder and some page protectors to store printed pdfs, manuals, etc. But then there are 2-3 lined pads in various locations, notes on my phone, legal pads, etc. all floating around. It can get confusing and frustrating to try and recall which notepad holds which secret to which project...

At one time I used Bento (a now-defunct database program, IIRC) to store various details of all the vehicles I was interested in (I have Jay Leno's appetite for cars but I'm multiple zeroes behind him budget-wise). Now I'm slowly transitioning to using Numbers (Apple's version of Excel) for similar database needs, although I intend to be more realistic in what I'm cataloging.

Despite the draw of glowing screens and near-instant "everything," there is an undeniable draw in having something tactile, something methodical and much more human-paced, to jot down notes, draw out diagrams, or scribble crazy ideas in. And being a historian of sorts (at least I like to think so), being able to page back through years of my own thoughts and plans can be its own reward sometimes.

 

[rharman]

Your handwriting is envious man.

< snip >
Thanks Ryan. I'm embarrassed to say it has gotten significantly worse over the past several years. I used to be proud of it, not so much these days, but thanks. < /snip >

I was going to comment on that as well. I am very jealous of people with nice printing/writing.

My dad had just beautiful printing. Mine.... Sometimes, I'm lucky if I can decipher it later.

BTW.... Happy Almost Birthday @Ryan.

 

[jives]

I use these college ruled journals.

Cost a buck or so at the re-use store. Front pages are for drawings and calculations for planned projects or random thoughts, rear pages are for tearing out with parts lists for the store.

 

[niget2002]

I have a shop notebook, but not everything goes in it. Most of my woodworking projects have a hidden panel somewhere where I wrote dime and did math while I was working on it.

A lot of my other designs are done in cad.

The notebook is more for scribbles as I do initial sizing of a project.

 

[poppakap]

Classic Notebooks

Our signature notebooks are offered in six different formats, with options in hardcover or softcover, four types of rulings, and a wide array of colors....

www.leuchtturm1917.us

A4+ dotted. Haven’t found anything I like as much for a shop book.

 

[Builder302]

I like the moleskin Cahiers notebooks, lined, dotted or grid. Combined with the 4x6 post it for daily to do or shopping list is a good combo. I got a leather cover from Amazon, can get 2 or three in there.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Those things are killer. I love the color… and the whole government-issue vibe. Sometimes, I like to fool myself into thinking I’m way more important than I actually am, and that thing plays right into the fantasy.

I have a couple of different addresses for you, shoot me a PM and I'll get one to you to try out.

 

[ptt49er]

I used to be a notebook junky - probably have 15 years worth of spiral bound notebooks full from work notes to personal notes. Switch over to OneNote almost 2 years ago and have really enjoyed the digital realm. BUT this thread has made me really miss using pen/pencil and paper!

What recs do you guys have for spiral bound notebooks? I like for them to roll back on themselves, which is hard to do with some of the other bound options.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

I have 3 NOS telecom related journals I picked up over the years in my hoard. One of the major employers in the area for years was Bell Lab's in Murray Hill NJ, so a lot of Bell/At&t/Lucent/Alcatel merchandise appears at local estate sales.



They even note that these are EVERYDAY journals and in a laboratory setting you need to use ANOTHER type of journal.



Hoarders gonna hoard . . .

 

[southpier]

i"ve bought and given away more moleskine & canson notebooks than i can remember. an empty notebook is just too intimidating for me. what would happen if i made a wrong mark?

i do like the computation notebooks shown a few times in this thread. the lined pages & little squares seem somehow welcoming.

yeah; i got some issues.

Q: do we have a "pen" thread to go along with this one?

 

[southpier]

. . . recs do you guys have for spiral bound notebooks? I like for them to roll back on themselves, which is hard to do with some of the other bound options.

Canson artist notebooks with heavy pages (accepts watercolors or prismacolor markers quite well).

just one example they make a bunch but i like landscape format: https://www.amazon.com/CANSON-Profe...-Notebook/dp/B0B21N67T6/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[NUTTSGT]

The military books I mentioned earlier were used by guy of all ranks in various jobs. I dug out one of my old ones I used during my time with Field Artillery.

"World Famous Romeo 5/11"





Some of the information I needed on hand while computing gun data. When I say "gun" I mean 8" SP Howitzer.
Left page, converting HE ammo to Illum rounds to mark targets at night for aircraft.

I made a pocket in the back to hold a few tools of the trade.

 

[83VillageRepair]

The military books I mentioned earlier were used by guy of all ranks in various jobs. I dug out one of my old ones I used during my time with Field Artillery.

"World Famous Romeo 5/11"

We used the same books in the Navy. I wrote hundreds of pages in them while on watch as Petty Officer or Officer of the Deck. I loved the smaller ones and the pocket memorandum notebooks. I have piles of them with pinouts for cable and wiring diagrams I made when fixing shipboard electronics.

I have been using the composition notebooks like Zmotorsports every since I got out but I got inspired by this thread and bought some of those 1917 Leuchtturm with the dot grid. I like the A5 size, big enough but easy to carry around. I like bound books because I like to see my thought process even years later including the mistakes. I you ever need proof for patents only bound books will do.

If you are into one day per page calender books check out the Collins Classic with the Japanese paper. I lucked into these when I worked in Samoa and I have been overpaying for them every since.

Amazon.com

 

[dscheidt]

I have a shop notebook, but not everything goes in it. Most of my woodworking projects have a hidden panel somewhere where I wrote dime and did math while I was working on it.

One of my favorite parts of renovation is finding where someone has jotted down some measurements, a sketch, or done some math on the framing or whatever. I found a bunch when I ripped the walls out of my basement, which was littered with basic arithmetic errors, which was on brand with the quality of the work....

 

[KnurledNut]

I use a vintage Wilson Jones metal clamp binder that holds loose papers. Inside is a mix of printouts, graph paper notes/drawings, quotes, and card stock references. I try to keep it rotated out to whats currently important. Physical inbox if you will.

Cool thread idea @Ryan.
Lots of good ideas, some I need to check out.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The military books I mentioned earlier were used by guy of all ranks in various jobs. I dug out one of my old ones I used during my time with Field Artillery.

"World Famous Romeo 5/11"

We used the same books in the Navy. I wrote hundreds of pages in them while on watch as Petty Officer or Officer of the Deck. I loved the smaller ones and the pocket memorandum notebooks. I have piles of them with pinouts for cable and wiring diagrams I made when fixing shipboard electronics.

I have been using the composition notebooks like Zmotorsports every since I got out but I got inspired by this thread and bought some of those 1917 Leuchtturm with the dot grid. I like the A5 size, big enough but easy to carry around. I like bound books because I like to see my thought process even years later including the mistakes. I you ever need proof for patents only bound books will do.

If you are into one day per page calender books check out the Collins Classic with the Japanese paper. I lucked into these when I worked in Samoa and I have been overpaying for them every since.

Amazon.com

We used the larger version for the Duty NCO at the barracks. You dare rip a page out of if the duty watch book without a very good reason or get your *** ripped by the 1st Sgt or Battery Gunny.


Short story about the "World Famous R 5/11".

I was stuck working in Battery (Company) Office after getting volunteered. A fellow Lcpl always answered the phone with the same greeting and when he EAS'ed out, I started doing the same thing. Pick up the ringing phone and answer it with a "World famous Romeo 5/11, how can I help you sir?" All went fine for months till one day the voice on the other end of the phone, quickly asks, "what makes you World Famous ?" Without missing a beat, I chimed right back, "You yell, we shell, on time, on target, all day." I hear laughing voice and asks to speak to Capt Grau, the Battery Commander. Just a minute sir. I let Capt Grau know the phone was for him and go back to what I was doing before the phone rang.

10 minutes or so passes, Capt Grau comes out of his office ( he was pretty cool and laid back as far as Marine Corps Officers go) and comes to my desk. "Lcpl McNutt, do you know who was on the phone ?" . . . ugh. . . . "No Sir I don't". . . "That was the Battalion XO" . . . . ah ****. . . a Lt Col. . . . Capt Grau laughed and said, "You made his day, he thought that was funny as hell."

 

[Kent_B]

I too keep a shop notebook, or shop journal as I call it. Have done so for nearly 3 decades now and consists of various projects with spec's, notes, diagrams, etc.

However, just at the start of this year I started a more detailed version and try to write in it daily before closing up the shop for the evening. Some nights it's a lengthy recap of what I did in the shop including random thoughts, other nights is a short sentence or two.


I use these college ruled journals.

I use the same things, and keep a few around the house. I keep one in the radio shack, one in my laptop bag and another in the garage. My penmanship is even worse than my typing.

I buy a few every fall when the back-to-school sales start. As for pens, I'm partial to G-2 gel pens. I got into that habit at work because they would write on soft surfaces such as antistatic mats.

 

[zmotorsports]

I buy a few every fall when the back-to-school sales start.

Same here. Last fall I picked up a dozen of them for $1/ea. Usually best I can find them for is around $1.49 or so on sale.

 

[Glemon]

I plan in my head mostly, make lists of things needed on a trip to the hardware store if the numbers of things needed is likely beyond my recollection abilities and attention span, and keep stray information, like the oil filter for the spin on adapter on my TR250, in with my tools.

Never thought to keep a journal, reading through some of this isn't really moving the needle in that direction.

I do keep records of car maintenance and work, servicing of appliances, etc. either in file folders or near the object.

When I was young I could remember everything, not so much now, but anyway, that wasn't really conducive to developing good organizational skills.

 

[Sbusmech]

I use notebooks daily on the fleet. Whenever I'm out in the lot or in the hallway drivers will come up and bombard me with issues they have. I'd forget if I didn't write them down. I don't use post it's or scrap paper which would be the cheaper option, due to it not lasting. I've used quality notebooks the vendors give us, and rite in the rain and some no names with water resistant paper whenever possible. You can see in the photo I have belt routing and relay diagrams etc. I know you can take a photo sometimes, but you don't always have the access for a good picture. Also I keep my old books for reference that have part numbers etc.

 

[zach540]

I found these ones at Staples that I'm quite happy with. A huge plus to me is they are perforated sheets as well for easy removal with prepunched holes for a binder. So I'm able to easily save sheets I need and can toss the rest of the notepad when I'm finished with it.


https://www.staples.com/roaring-spr...-ruled-80-sheets-green-11382/product_24489836

 

[Lassen Forge]

I fell in with the Filofax crowd - one of my better managers swore by them, and I followed suit.

Before then, yeah...

Regrets? Oh, plenty. Chief among them: Moleskine notebooks. Overrated. Inflexible. And yet, I keep using them, like an addict making excuses for bad dope.

I STILL buy the damthings, hoping for the old days when they were actually GOOD - Fliptops, the top was square ruled, the bottom was lined for notes. Our engineers noteboks were designed around them, and I burned through all 4 I had stashed before I realized they'd changed for the worse. AND the actual ones I liked went the way of the dodo's.

All my strucural bridge notes - replacing structural members from the 1930's, Air flow diagrams, torque/tigntening charts replacing rivets with A325s - were on those. A few years after I moved on to emergency management I turned them over to the guy who took over that crew, who said (So I was told) "I don't need this old **** from some dumb broad who left" and 86'd them. IDK if someone was sharp enough to grab them out of the trashcan - if so, cool, if not, not my prob, but I shoulda held onto them. Their loss.

I did have one of the engineers ask when they were drafting plans for the replacement span (East span, SFOBB) if I still had them. Told them the story, they were noe the happy about it. Lots of institutional knowledge into the *******. Your tax dollars at work.

 

[Norwell Equipped]

Oh Gosh... I wish I had........

 

[Ryan]

Kind of on topic, I guess… Needed a break from the usual grind in the shop—something pointless, something that didn’t matter. So, I grabbed a pre-painted leftover scrap piece from an old keyboard project and started messing around with the idea of a pen holder.

I’ll snap some better shots when it’s finished, but the idea is simple: I over-drilled the holes so I can 3D print friction-fit inserts (the black tubes you see in the pic) to fit different pens. Keeps everything snug, but still lets me swap things around whenever the mood strikes.

It's coming together... and I sized it so that my new work notebook will fit perfectly below it on my desk.

 

[Ryan]

How cool is this? Got a care package from @NUTTSGT , and inside were two green notebooks stamped Federal Supply Service. For the uninitiated, the FSS is a government outfit responsible for procuring supplies efficiently—which means this is pure, unfiltered bureaucratic stationery. And I absolutely love it.

Every time I crack one open, I’ll get a kick out of using them for things they were never meant for.

Thinking one will serve as a maintenance log for one of my hot rods. The other? Might turn into a brand book for Atomic—standard issue paint colors, inks, stains, laminates… all the materials I keep in rotation at the shop to build anarchy.

Perfect blend of function and irony.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Is there a civilian source for those or do I need to contact my buddy Sgt Love to order me some? The description probably goes something like this…
”Notebook Lined Green”! I love it! Doesn’t look like it’ll fit in my back pocket though.

 

[Dixie_Flatline]

Is there a civilian source for those or do I need to contact my buddy Sgt Love to order me some? The description probably goes something like this…
”Notebook Lined Green”! I love it! Doesn’t look like it’ll fit in my back pocket though.

You can search that NSN on the cover and they pop up in various places. These are 5x8 versions on Amazon.

 

[MongoTA]

Continue reading...

Shop Notebooks...

I never built or worked on anything with the intention of having shop notebooks to look back upon. It was maybe 15 years later when someone asked how I built my daughter's built-in platform bed, she always referred to it as her "Mousehole Bed". I went in the shop and found my note book from that time, as well as the others in my stash, some here, some there. Some covered with a nice layer of sawdust.

Opening them up and seeing years, actually decades, of thoughts put down on paper...to do lists, shopping lists, notes, jig drawings, cut lists, dimensioned drawings...it was, it might seem odd to say...a bit emotional? Somewhat fulfilling? It made me think of the things I designed and built in my own house, the design and thought that went into the kitchen design and the kitchen cabinets, the built-in library, my wife's desk and craft table, all the other buit-in cabinetry in the house, the wainscot, and of course, my daughter's Mousehole Bed.

Brought back a lot of memories, and a bit of confusion. Confusion simply from the scope and scale of the work, how the hell did I design and build it all, and the memory that I framed my house solo with nothing more than an estwing hammer, a circular saw, and a tape measure.

Anyhow, shop notebooks? I've sat down and thumbed through a few. They are good for revisiting memories. A few years go I had to give the shop shelving a good going over, in that process I moved most of my notebooks, loose papers, and measured drawings into a collective stack, to include my original house plans that I drew up on large format graph paper.

I don't think any family or friends would be impressed by the contents of the stack, except perhaps for the person who asked to see the design of my daughter's built-in bed. But they're perhaps a bit of a touchstone regarding semi-forgotton memories for this semi-old dog.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Is there a civilian source for those or do I need to contact my buddy Sgt Love to order me some? The description probably goes something like this…
”Notebook Lined Green”! I love it! Doesn’t look like it’ll fit in my back pocket though.

I think I put the link in the first page of the thread.

Edit: that was a link to the other thread I linked them.

Try this

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/keeping-note-for-reference-in-case-its-your-time.542985/#post-11045318

 

[NUTTSGT]

@Ryan

Glad you like them but anarchy ?

 

[Ryan]

@Ryan

Glad you like them but anarchy ?

Imagine a man in his workshop, surrounded by tools and blueprints, with a mischievous glint in his eye. He’s not just building cabinets or fixing old cars; he’s constructing elaborate devices designed to sow playful chaos in his neighborhood. Perhaps he crafts a remote-controlled lawnmower that roams freely, trimming hedges into whimsical shapes, or a mailbox that delivers confetti explosions instead of letters. His creations, while causing harmless confusion, bring a sense of unexpected joy and anarchy to the mundane routines of suburban life.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Imagine a man in his workshop, surrounded by tools and blueprints, with a mischievous glint in his eye. He’s not just building cabinets or fixing old cars; he’s constructing elaborate devices designed to sow playful chaos in his neighborhood. Perhaps he crafts a remote-controlled lawnmower that roams freely, trimming hedges into whimsical shapes, or a mailbox that delivers confetti explosions instead of letters. His creations, while causing harmless confusion, bring a sense of unexpected joy and anarchy to the mundane routines of suburban life.

Ohhhh ... anarchy like that..... I'm down with that type of rebellious mischievous.

Here's my anarchy war trophy from Desert Storm...

In my line of work, I need to be more subtle and discreet..... Good thing juvenile court records are sealed.

 

[Ryan]

Ohhhh ... anarchy like that..... I'm down with that type of rebellious mischievous.

Here's my anarchy war trophy from Desert Storm...

In my line of work, I need to be more subtle and discreet..... Good thing juvenile court records are sealed.

My rap sheet is not a blank sheet of paper.