Fecn
Established Member
Here it is - My workshop (if that's not stretching the meaning of the word a bit) measures a whopping 6ft wide by 14ft long and as you can see it's at the pinnacle of workshop design and construction.
The spacious interior featurs all mod cons such as bare live wires, designer wall-gaps and a convenient drip-feed water supply from the rooftop rainwater storage facilities. Internal storage spaces are suitable for storing large numbers of small insects and rodents.
Well.. that's how it looked when we moved in at the start of May 06. After we'd been here for a couple of months, we got the living room double-glazed and there were some left-over windows which I saved from the skip. The shed/workshop rebuild project was born.
Unfortunately, you're going to get no WIP pictures for this. I was expecting things to take a lot longer.
I stripped the old shed down to the brickwork+timber frame with frightening speed. It took me literally 15 minutes using nothing more than a claw hammer. Although they weren't rotten, the old boards on the shed were so dry and brittle they pretty much fell apart instantly. Hitting things with hammers can be so much fun
With the help of my 60-year old mother (who is in no way burly or butch, but still loves playing with power tools - I learned my first DIY skills from her), we clad the shed in T&G boards and trimmed the ends flsuh with a circular saw. In one day, we replaced all the wood. After that, my mum went home.
It took me two more days to sort out new felt for the roof and treat the timber. - The large frame hanging on the wall with the windows is to hold a 16mm triple-wall polycarbonate roofing sheet... fold-out canopy for working outdoor... extra security when it's folded down. I'll order that from screwfix one day.
The mess of planks on the floor is the old workbench from inside - The interior only got completed about a month ago.
And here it is...
The walls have 65mm of fibreglass between the outer and inner layers of T&G which makes the whole place lovely and cosy. The shop heats up in about 2 mins as soon as you use a power tool. I've taken to leaving things messy and making vacuuming the first job each time I go in. 5 mins with the shopvac and the place is cosy. (It'll be hellishly hot in summer) - I plan to put up a 6mm ply ceiling and bury another 65mm of fibreglass up there too.
I laid the floor (18mm softwood ply) over the top of the existing rough-pouted concrete. There's a membrane, underfloor insulation, battens and then ply. The whole lot's less than three inches thick (or seventy six and a bit millimetres for you metric folks I varnished the floor to help keep it clean - It makes it very easy to sweep up sawdust.
The floor was my first time ever working with plywood. The workbench was my second. (You could call the workbench my second woodworking project.. the nappy changing table where I hijacked CYC's thread was the first. https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11426&highlight=changing ) The workbench is still a bit of a WIP, so it's not actually screwed in place yet, and the worktop's not held down. I'm planning to run dust-extraction and compressed air to a number of points around the workbench... and make a couple of the shelves slide. I'm rather pleased with my full-extension drawers. Bottom's for sanders, middle's abrasives and top's nails, screws and a few airtools
Now it's time for the obligatory tools...
Planer/Thicknesser and grinder - That's one shelf that's getting drawer-slider - The deep shelves are great for storing small machines.
Some Drills, Some Drillbits, A Router, Some Router Bits, Planer, Saw.. and a few other things that came in plastic cases
Table Saw - Ryobi ES1825 - Amazingly.. cunningly, the new workbench just happens to be exactly the same height as the table saw making the whole workshop into one big in/outfeed table. I have to swing the TS around to actually use it, but I can just-about get an 8x4 sheet in the shed and rip it. I've got a double garage and some roller-stands as well, so if I'm going to be doing a lot of sawing, I'll move the car out and the TS in.
SCMS - It's a B&Q Jobbie... Macalaster... It's actually not bad now that I've replaced the factory-fit blade with something with a respectable number of teeth for crosscutting, and straightened the fence.. and removed the little metal plate that seems to have no purpose other than to block the dust extraction port - The slide mechanism is nice, there's plenty of power and the angle-mounted motor doesn't get in the way. Accruacy isn't up to that of £400 saws, but it cost about 1/3 that and I'm happy emough with it.
The Pillar drill is a fairly recent purchase - I've yet to build a propper place for it to stand. It's destined to live near the door on a rolling stand. Since I delve into bits of metalworking too, it's quite a useful addition for me.
The shopvac is a bit deafening, so I tend to wear ear defenders most of the time I'm in there. The bandsaw and mortiser were freebies, given to me by my window cleaner.
Teeny compressor in here at the moment although I have a bigger one should I need it. That 'thing' behind it is a router table (on the basis that some router table is better than no router table) - It actually works OK.
I've still got to make better use of the walls - I've got plans for shelves and all sorts in there to make use of those wasted spaces.
Well.. that's all for now - Thanks for looking at the pictures... and if you read all my words too, thanks even more.
Fecn
**Edit 20/06/07 - Updated image URLs
The spacious interior featurs all mod cons such as bare live wires, designer wall-gaps and a convenient drip-feed water supply from the rooftop rainwater storage facilities. Internal storage spaces are suitable for storing large numbers of small insects and rodents.
Well.. that's how it looked when we moved in at the start of May 06. After we'd been here for a couple of months, we got the living room double-glazed and there were some left-over windows which I saved from the skip. The shed/workshop rebuild project was born.
Unfortunately, you're going to get no WIP pictures for this. I was expecting things to take a lot longer.
I stripped the old shed down to the brickwork+timber frame with frightening speed. It took me literally 15 minutes using nothing more than a claw hammer. Although they weren't rotten, the old boards on the shed were so dry and brittle they pretty much fell apart instantly. Hitting things with hammers can be so much fun
With the help of my 60-year old mother (who is in no way burly or butch, but still loves playing with power tools - I learned my first DIY skills from her), we clad the shed in T&G boards and trimmed the ends flsuh with a circular saw. In one day, we replaced all the wood. After that, my mum went home.
It took me two more days to sort out new felt for the roof and treat the timber. - The large frame hanging on the wall with the windows is to hold a 16mm triple-wall polycarbonate roofing sheet... fold-out canopy for working outdoor... extra security when it's folded down. I'll order that from screwfix one day.
The mess of planks on the floor is the old workbench from inside - The interior only got completed about a month ago.
And here it is...
The walls have 65mm of fibreglass between the outer and inner layers of T&G which makes the whole place lovely and cosy. The shop heats up in about 2 mins as soon as you use a power tool. I've taken to leaving things messy and making vacuuming the first job each time I go in. 5 mins with the shopvac and the place is cosy. (It'll be hellishly hot in summer) - I plan to put up a 6mm ply ceiling and bury another 65mm of fibreglass up there too.
I laid the floor (18mm softwood ply) over the top of the existing rough-pouted concrete. There's a membrane, underfloor insulation, battens and then ply. The whole lot's less than three inches thick (or seventy six and a bit millimetres for you metric folks
I varnished the floor to help keep it clean - It makes it very easy to sweep up sawdust.
The floor was my first time ever working with plywood. The workbench was my second. (You could call the workbench my second woodworking project.. the nappy changing table where I hijacked CYC's thread was the first. https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11426&highlight=changing ) The workbench is still a bit of a WIP, so it's not actually screwed in place yet, and the worktop's not held down. I'm planning to run dust-extraction and compressed air to a number of points around the workbench... and make a couple of the shelves slide. I'm rather pleased with my full-extension drawers. Bottom's for sanders, middle's abrasives and top's nails, screws and a few airtools
Now it's time for the obligatory tools...
Planer/Thicknesser and grinder - That's one shelf that's getting drawer-slider - The deep shelves are great for storing small machines.
Some Drills, Some Drillbits, A Router, Some Router Bits, Planer, Saw.. and a few other things that came in plastic cases
Table Saw - Ryobi ES1825 - Amazingly.. cunningly, the new workbench just happens to be exactly the same height as the table saw making the whole workshop into one big in/outfeed table. I have to swing the TS around to actually use it, but I can just-about get an 8x4 sheet in the shed and rip it. I've got a double garage and some roller-stands as well, so if I'm going to be doing a lot of sawing, I'll move the car out and the TS in.
SCMS - It's a B&Q Jobbie... Macalaster... It's actually not bad now that I've replaced the factory-fit blade with something with a respectable number of teeth for crosscutting, and straightened the fence.. and removed the little metal plate that seems to have no purpose other than to block the dust extraction port - The slide mechanism is nice, there's plenty of power and the angle-mounted motor doesn't get in the way. Accruacy isn't up to that of £400 saws, but it cost about 1/3 that and I'm happy emough with it.
The Pillar drill is a fairly recent purchase - I've yet to build a propper place for it to stand. It's destined to live near the door on a rolling stand. Since I delve into bits of metalworking too, it's quite a useful addition for me.
The shopvac is a bit deafening, so I tend to wear ear defenders most of the time I'm in there. The bandsaw and mortiser were freebies, given to me by my window cleaner.
Teeny compressor in here at the moment although I have a bigger one should I need it. That 'thing' behind it is a router table (on the basis that some router table is better than no router table) - It actually works OK.
I've still got to make better use of the walls - I've got plans for shelves and all sorts in there to make use of those wasted spaces.
Well.. that's all for now - Thanks for looking at the pictures... and if you read all my words too, thanks even more.
Fecn
**Edit 20/06/07 - Updated image URLs
