Converting a pig shed into something useful+ various bodges

[timbo614]

Great thread - but boy-oh-boy you are making me feel tired just reading about your rapid progress!

 

[curtisrider]

No progress today, I got caught up repairing a petrol water pump and decided some house keeping was needed so I tidied the workspace and fixed some other bits and bobs.

Powertools, It's called barn paint, its quite thick stuff and is time consuming to apply for a first coat but does look neat afterwards! You can buy it pre applied but it is very expensive but then it depends how much free time you have and what your budget is. There are varying qualities of the stuff but from what I've gathered the cheap stuff is actually quite good, we used it on a section of the house 5 years ago and its done really well on the feather edge but has washed off on the smooth planed doors although i'm not sure if we got round to putting on a second coat...

Cheers for the kind words SteveF and timbo614, I've been trying my best to work fast but not let it suffer on quality! I have learnt so much doing this, I've made mistakes and had to make compromises but fortunately they haven't been detrimental to the end result so far!

 

[powertools]

Thanks for reply l am confused by wood treatment these days and don't know which way to go a friend has recommended sx70 but that just seems to be a stain.

 

[curtisrider]

I've been in Bulgaria for a week hence no update, I have got the tall wall up and 2 lots of concrete in (4-5" thick). I have put some wire in the floor ready for an inbuilt light so that working on cars is a little easier and there won't be lights/wires to trip over! The floor isn't anywhere near as smooth as I would usually get it even though we have done loads of floors before this just wasn't smoothing nicely and floating it would have been hopeless as the sections were too wide to reach. I will be concrete planing it ready for epoxy anyway so it'll smooth out substantially I hope and then I will be able to get sorting the other half of the place!





In a few days time I can get the other concrete in and a ramp into the building then I can finish off the small wall and move the stuff out ready for the epoxy

 

[whoknows]

I registered just to follow this thread. Good job buddy. Keep us posted. (hammer)

 

[MattRoberts]

Going to be so great when the floor is complete! Keep it up, and keep us posted!

 

[curtisrider]

I was busy today so only got a door made. I wanted to use T&G but it was expensive and not available locally in treated form so I went with 18mm marine ply and a 5x2 frame instead. The ply was glued to the frame and also nailed for extra security. I also routed a v groove into the ply to make it look like T&G which I think has worked out alright, far better than keeping it plain! I need to decide on locks next but at least it'll be pretty difficult to break.





The grooves had saw dust in after rounding the edge, but you get the idea

 

[curtisrider]

Cheers guys, I am really excited to get the floor done so I can move in there, the other half of the building is ram packed and becoming a nightmare to work in.

 

[Charlie Woody]

Good solution! Did you put insulation inside the ply?

 

[curtisrider]

I'm going to once i've installed the lock gubbins, then I will fit an OSB inside skin. It'll be a VERY hefty door!

I spent quite a long time today getting the door frame finished, lots and lots of routing out to cover the door hinges as they are a difficult profile to match! I think it's turned out fine though, fits tight and flush although aesthetically I'm not won over by my solution for the angled bit above the door... perhaps a light up there will break up the weird chunky look! it functions fine and that's really all I should be worrying about.

The door frame has been reinforced with steel to make it that little bit harder to break into, I'm looking forward to fitting the locks and handle, it'll look more complete then.

 

[lurker]

I think many of us are envious of your workspace and workrate.
Looks like you will be up and running before winter arrives.
Keep posting

 

[curtisrider]

Cheers! I have been getting the short wall sorted, and now have sockets everywhere I still need to get the other 2 sections of strip lights in though.

I got a little too excited about putting my big bench in



Extractor arm now all functioning



Currently how it all stands, loads of stuff to be removed for sale/scrap which will make some room I hope!









Wood workshop is a mess but is slowly losing all the metal work stuff, the Commer and the BMC will have to stay for now though.

 

[curtisrider]

I couldn't be bothered to tidy this evening so I decided to try and make more mess by attempting something I have been wanting to try for a while.

I have a few extractors but they are all small and not suitable for 4" hose apart from an electra beckum unit I have which throws out more fine dust than it filters... I can't afford anything decent so I figured I would need to make something instead.

At the start of this thread I posted an image of a cyclone from a redundant grain store system, I got it out of the pile of 'potential project bits' and started tinkering. I had some spare boot seal from my Porsche that makes a good seal for a MIG welder wire reel than I have trimmed a side off to make an adaptor for the motor unit to fit on.









The motor unit is from an old wind tunnel my old school was chucking away and it is VERY powerful for its small size. I slipped it on top of the cyclone and put the cyclone into a bucket to test along with 6 metres of piping.



It works an absolute treat! I'm very chuffed, a fine mist of nasty dust comes out of the exhaust side which I will vent outside rather than filter as it all exits into a hedge anyway.

 

[curtisrider]

:shock: It's been a while since I've updated this, I've been super busy and the workshop has just been a total tip. I was fortunate enough to be let loose in my friends dads garage which they were clearing, I was told to take whatever I wanted as the rest was being chucked :shock: needless to say I took as much as I could and have distributed it to others in order to prevent it being wasted. I also sold my house and needed somewhere to keep all my home stuff for a while.... and so the workshop ended up being a total dump yard.

This has been massively disheartening and it seemed no matter how much tidying and sorting I did, there seemed to still be piles and piles of things that needed organising, chucking or moving. I've spent the past few days really going for it and I've been trying to give everything a home, I've also been trying to figure out where stuff should go to make refurbishing the wood workshop easier.

I'm now closer to a point where i'm happy, the floors are nearly cleared and just the work bench areas need sorting out now which I hope will only take an evening.

Metal workshop:



Wood workshop:



Green Ikea boxes are £1 each and fit perfectly in my cupboards and filing cabinets, I got myself a label maker and I have been labelling just about everything:



This little book unit was being chucked out at the school I taught at and makes a handy organiser for smaller stuff:



Metal rack for useful offcut lengths that was made out of bits of scrap pig gate, it's a little bit covered in spare storage boxes currently but being on wheel makes it easy to shift about if I need to use that workspace:





Little pillar drill put onto a small cabinet and on wheels so it can be shared between work spaces until I refurbish my Fobco and also get a floor stander (you can see some of the mess from before when I tidied up):



We need a shared space for storage, so an old pig building that was ready for demolition has been saved and will have racking fitted and is just about able to squeeze in the JCB in the centre section so we can shove pallet loads in there. I ripped off the sides and took out some of the internal walls, most of the studs were rotten so I have replaced them all with recycled timbers from a barn my brother has converted into a house. I need to replace the roof sheeting and remove some more internal walls but it should be a good space once completed

 

[curtisrider]

Slow progress but at least something is happening!

I only had one door in the building and figured that it was pretty unsafe in the even of a fire so I bashed a hole in the wall and fitted one that can only be opened from the inside. This nicely tied in with me replacing the wooden section of the wall as it was totally rotten!











The only trouble with doing this is I totally underestimated how long it would take!



I managed to finish it at about 11PM including making all the window frames, phew!

I've also taken down the dividing wall inside, it has moved along one bay making the wood workshop smaller but this was important as otherwise it's a squeeze in the metal workshop as I have two projects vans on the go. I've also whacked in the last bit of internal floor so it's all now level, it's just the outside ramp to do and then the cement mixer can be tucked away!





I'm going to add some extra lower noggins so that when I build the new workbenches they can be attached to the wall nice and securely. I'll order the wood for the benches after Christmas, then I can get rid of those wood working benches!

I've also been rewiring this side of the building as the old stuff was awful, the lights are now in and half the sockets are in also. Once the campervan is out then the space will look far better!

 

[curtisrider]

Another step in the right direction, the Commer has been moved out of the wood workshop and into the metal workshop. This is good for two reasons, one as I now nearly have the wood workshop clear ready to actually get it functioning and two because that means the Commer may get some love soon (There's a T25 Doka that needs finishing first!).



It hasn't moved for quite a few years...



Temporary home until I reshuffle stuff, It'll go on a rotisserie when I get round to making one!



Other than that some more wiring has been done and the new separating wall is in but I forgot to take photos....

 

[lurker]

I am envious of the space and your workrate

Am confused though is this Norfolk or Nottingham?

 

[curtisrider]

Thanks! I used to live in Nottingham but i'm now in East Anglia as I missed it so much!

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Slight jealousy here too!

All the best though - must be nice to have such a space to go into and lose yourself for a while.

 

[curtisrider]

Thank you Stanleymonkey, I often find myself getting lost but unfortunately it's more because I can't find my way through the piles of stuff that needs organising!

On the left you can see the store room with storage on top.



The store room has always been a bit rubbish both in its construction and the way it has been used. Access is from the wrong side since I moved an internal wall. I pulled it apart and put up a new supporting wall for the beam. The other side received a new supporting beam and the rest removed. The new floor is 7ft instead of just under 6ft so I actually have some head room! The floor was also never finished and basically it was just awful. Inside I will remove the steel racking and use it elsewhere, replacing it with deeper wooden racking. Above will have a wooden rack to the top and for now the rest of the floor space will accommodate my camper vans roof as it's always in the blooming way!













I have also been building some benches along the walls. I'm waiting for the top to arrive (the current stuff is temporary so I can place tat on them) but as you can see I have put a shelf in that is split so boxes go in front and behind I can store 3m long extrusions, quite happy with that use of space! The bottom will have drawers when I have spare wood/time.



I need to shift 4x wood working benches and then I'll get some space back! The table saw station will probably take up nearly as much room though...