Handy Shop Fixtures - Part 1

When working on building professional ventriloquist figures, one can easily have several projects going at the same time. While working on the heads, you might do a few steps on one head, set that one aside temporarily, and then work on another head for awhile or another part of the figure.

Where can you put the heads you are not working on that is safe and secure, and out of harms way? Nothing worse than having a head topple over and sustaining some damage, after all you hard work on it. I have a special rack that I made several years back, just for this purpose. Here's a picture of it with several heads on it in various stages. . . .

The heads are up out of the way, in a corner of the workshop, safe and secure, but easily accessed when I am ready to work on them again. This head rack has places for 6 heads. You could just as easily make it for 2, 3, or 4 heads, what ever your needs are. Normally I cover the heads with plastic bags to keep the workshop dust from settling on them, but took them off for the photo.

Back behind the heads is the main shelf area which you can store some of the parts for the figure being worked on if you wish. You could surely make a deeper shelf and have more storage room if you wanted. This size works pretty good for me.

I have found this head rack shop fixture so handy, that I thought I would share it with those following my blog. I have made a measured drawing of the head rack with a few notes to assist you in putting it together. Click on the link below to download a free PDF. . . .

Head Rack Plans

Having the heads up and out of the way also makes more room on your workbenches or work tables. But when you are working on a head on your workbench or table, what is a good fixture to set the head in so it does not fall over easily, and is easy to use? I will show you what I use in Part 2 of 'Handy Shop Fixtures'. Stay tuned! . . .