8404 Diorama Studios

As The Fortress of Solitude continues to take shape slowly but steadily I arrived at one of those “I could have had a V8” moments. Mind you, I wasn’t even in 8404 North when I had that realization. I was staring at the same 2×4 sheet of peg board I’ve stared at since setting up shop lo those many years ago; The Fortress of Solitude being an actual by God studio has windows (okay they’re sliders to outside, but they also function as windows). I can look outside and see the world – not count how many 1/4 inch holes there are in a 2×4 sheet of peg board! How cool is that? Cool enough that I’ve flipped the design of the space 180 degrees so the worktable is facing the world. Storage can go along the wall, I want the view.

At first I was going to design and build my worktable, then the thought occured to me that maybe it would be just as easy to buy one ready made and just assemble it. Nice idea, convenient at first thought; then reality set in when I investigated the prices. An 8 foot wide by 2 foot deep by 30 inch high workstation would run roughly 900 to 1000$. Very bad choice. The best choice is to go with the first option. Design and build it myself, the materials will come in under $100; thankfully I was fortunate enough to be of the generation that had shop class in school you learned what end of the hammer you use to drive a nail and the difference between a flat tip and crosstip screwdriver. So we build it.