I'll need something to put my tools in...

[whiskywill]

I was able to finish the roof. I don't mean I was able to make it mostly weatherproof but i'll need to tidy up later, I mean it's completely finished. Every tile, every edge strip, I've even been round and painted over the exposed nail heads with the supplied paint and little pot of texture sprinkles. It's finished.
I know myself too well that if I leave the finishing touches until 'later', that later will never materialise.........

Know what you mean, that reminds me to put yet another job on my roundtuit list.

That also reminds me. I built my own house 26 years ago and had a 40mm long piece of skirting board which butted up against a half newel on the landing. I held back on fitting it until it was painted. There is still a gap there.

 

[eddieperkins]

If you make those top windows opening you will be able to get long lengths of timber up into the rafters for storage.

 

[Dandan]

If you make those top windows opening you will be able to get long lengths of timber up into the rafters for storage.

Hi Eddie, that is technically true, although I would have to stand on a ladder in the driveway in order to push them through, those windows are quite high...
I've omitted two ceiling joists at the front of the workshop, giving me a shallow angle to slide materials up through, I can get an 8x4 sheet up there without opening the front doors and I have some 4m+ lengths up there already. The only thing I couldn't fit up there is my spare 6x2 joist which is nearly 6m long but I don't imagine I'll be buying many more 6m lengths of timber.

Also, how on earth would you make a triangular window open...? Answers on a postcard!

 

[Noho12C]

wow, that's a great work ! looking forward to see it fully equipped !

 

[Dandan]

Hello all,
Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been a bit busy with life outside of the workshop for the last month or so, so progress has been sporadic at best.
We had a bit of a blitz of the garden a couple of weeks ago, to try to turn the building site back into something vaguely tidy, I had managed to spread my path of destruction far and wide so there was stuff everywhere. Six cars full of junk went to the tip and there is still a lot of stuff hanging about the place but it's considerably tidier, I can now even see the whole side of the workshop from the garden!



I now wish I had made more of an overhang at the rear, it looks a bit weird, and exposes the triangular window to more rain, I had a small leak last week which i've hopefully since sorted, but a bigger overhang probably would have prevented it. I was trying to be nice to the neighbours by not extending the roof too far towards their garden, ah well.

Despite the workshop being far from finished, I did have a little play with the new machinery, just, you know, to make sure it all worked ok...
I made a set of climbing holds for my little bouldering wall from scraps, it's nothing exciting but it did give me the opportunity to test out the planer, pillar drill, router table, bandsaw, table saw and belt sander! Who knew i'd need a couple of grands worth of machinery to cut some little blocks of wood



But I digress, back to finishing the workshop, we finally got the interior cladding finished! I say finished, it all needs filling and painting which i'm sure will be days of excitement and untold fun, but at least all the panels and insulation are up, I ended up with 2 full packs of insulation left over, no idea how that happened.



I need to start thinking about layout to make the best use of the space. I'm pleased to say I can rip the long edge of an 8x4 panel on the table saw without hitting anything, so i've got a good amount of space but that's no reason not to use it wisely.
The current plan is chop saw station the length of the left wall with storage below and above the worktop. That should be enough cupboard storage to be going on with, then put my metal tool chest on the back wall next to the bandsaw and perhaps the router table.
I'l build a bench for the back right corner under the window for hand work, then have space next to that for some kind of tall, upright storage along with perhaps the upright extractor.
What am I missing?
That still leaves me a lot of space by the doors for maneuvering large bits of work or materials.
I'll get sketching I think...

 

[AndyT]

That's a very professional looking build - more like a fashionable 'garden room' than a shed.
If you ever have to move (I'm assuming it would have to be forced on you) I think that will be a definite plus point.

 

[devonwoody]

Dan, I was very pleased to see your latest post above and can learn my tools have gone to a good home. My hands were starting to weaken and that step of my life had to go forward at a more slower pace than the past on this very friendly forum. You might have noticed that local members have offered to prepare some timber for me if in need .
Look forward to seeing your furniture projects in the near future.

John, Devonwoody.

 

[Dandan]

Progress has been pretty glacial for the last few weeks, the better weather meaning that there is often something more enticing to do at the weekend than to sit inside a wooden box painting things white.
But then I don't have a deadline to get the workshop finished, I'm not depending on it's use for anything specific, building it is a hobby just the same as the woodworking I hope to do in it one day, so I'm not going to force it. Now that it's weatherproof I'm happy to go at a slower pace, just as long as it's completely finished before the winter and I think I can manage that.

I began the laborious process of painting the inside, why anyone would choose to be a painter and decorator I'll never know. This probably goes some way to explaining my slow progress, it's just so boring! 90 sq m of ply takes some painting, especially when a lot of it needs to be done by brush because it's fiddly, all the cutting in along with the ceiling joists mean there is a lot of surface on a lot of different planes.
I pushed all the contents of the workshop into the middle so I can at least get all the way around without having to keep shifting stuff, but it means I can't use any of the equipment until the painting is finished so I can't even distract myself by cutting soffits or window frames as a break from the mind-numbingly dull brushwork. gah.



Still, starting to look nice and bright at least...



I've *nearly* finished the undercoat and I can guarantee there will only be one top coat regardless of what the finish looks like!

In other news, I bought the hardware for my big doors, I'm having a 3 door arrangement with 2 bi-folding to one side and one opening normally. I got the hardware from www.runners-uk.com and have to say it looks well up to the job, really chunky and very nicely made and finished. The hinges particularly look great and were a very reasonable price. The only odd thing was that I did get them to price up some brush strips for top and bottom of the doors but it nearly doubled the quote! I'll just get some from screwfix for 1/10 of the price as I'm planning to modify them a bit anyway and I wouldn't want to start cutting up the (I can only assume) gold plated, titanium alloy strips from Runners...



I also bought some hinge drills which I have been meaning to get for a while, and a hole saw set ready for doing my soffits, I was going to cut slots in them for ventilation (covered with bug mesh) but decided manoeuvering 4m long planks over the router table might be more bother than it's worth with my current set up so i'll go with a series of holes instead.
I got some PPE from the in-laws as a birthday present too which should make life a bit more pleasant when the dust is flying.



Next up is to finish the painting, along with skirting, then I can try and tidy the place up a bit before I get back to hacking at bits of wood to make the soffits and door/window frames, then it should just be the doors to make and I'm pretty much there!

 

[devonwoody]

Dan I think you will have the cleanest workshop on the forum looking at your paint job. (hammer)

 

[Ian down london way]

Re diggers. And rather off topic, many years ago I took my kids to this place http://www.diggerland.com/

It was GREAT !

 

[Dandan]

IDLW, one of my secret dreams is to own enough land that I can justify buying my own digger, I could re-landscape every 6 months!

I had a sudden bout of enthusiasm this weekend after finding nearly a whole tin of undercoat/primer in the back of a cupboard meaning I didn't have to return to the nearest trade counter for a third time to admit to my woeful lack of judgement in terms of paint quantities required. To be fair, the second tin of undercoat I bought went on like frozen butter, the coverage was appalling and it dried practically clear, but I was kidding myself if I ever thought it would have finished the job.
Anyhoo, with my paint stocks suitably replenished, I grabbed a handful of gusto and went at it. I managed to get a top coat on all the way around up to ceiling height and everything else is undercoated bar the centres of the beams because all the workshop gear was stacked in the middle of the room underneath them. Having everything jammed up in the middle shrunk the room by a full 86.4%, it was horrible to work in, squeezing past the impractically large 8x4 temporary door, stepping over and under power leads that all run to chest height on the walls, remembering the spare roller was in the cupboard that was now stacked face-to-face with another cupboard, this is exactly the situation I wanted to avoid by building a hoofing great workshop!

It came as a huge thrill then to realise that I was ready to stick some skirting on and push some gear back to the walls!



I just ran some spare bits of ply through the table saw and rounded the top edge over on the router table (I love having tools), I decided on a small skirting because, well, it's just a gap hider for the bottoms of the wall cladding panels and the lower it is, the easier it should be to push stuff hard up against the walls. I also decided to leave it bare wood, this was a completely aesthetic decision and laziness did not come into it at any point. No sir.



Then I had a half-assed tidy and a sweep, managed to decant a couple of cardboard boxes of bits and relocate a few items into more logical locations (I found planes in 4 different places, I only have about 6) and the place is looking a whole lot nicer:



All the tools are accessible again, so soffits are on the menu once I've finished off the last of the painting and skirting on the other wall.

 

[devonwoody]

=D> =D> =D>

Dan you are nearly there.

:lol:

 

[Born2bye]

Very impressive work, top quality workmanship, I am dead envious

 

[Superstrat]

What a great workshop and it must be extra satisfying building it yourself. What's the internal floor area?

I have a 5m x 5m garage workshop but, like most people, would love a larger workspace. I'm in the process of rearranging it just now but I can't seem to get it quite right. A limiting factor is that one whole wall is taken up by the main garage door.

I'd be interested to see your planned layout when you have one. I currently have everything on wheels, thinking it would be more flexible, but this just seems to make things worse as nothing is in a permanent place but it does make trying different layouts easier.

Like you, I plan to use one wall for a mitre saw station and main tool storage. I'm waiting on the delivery of a table saw which will be sited centrally with an outfeed/assembly table behind. I'm currently in the process of getting 16amp sockets installed for it.

What are you planning for dust collection?

 

[Dandan]

What a great workshop and it must be extra satisfying building it yourself. What's the internal floor area?

I'd be interested to see your planned layout when you have one.

What are you planning for dust collection?

Ooh questions! I'm sorry I never saw this post, but if it's still any good to you I will reply anyway;

The internal floor area is as near as dammit 30m^2, I squeezed all the permitted development regs until they squeaked so the building is as big as it could possibly have been. So much so that the lady from the council that turned up (presumably on a tip off from one of my neighbours) went away looking very surprised that it met the regs, she was convinced it would be too big, but her tape measure told her otherwise. But hey, what's the point in having limits if you don't work right up to them?!

I'll be interested to see my planned layout too, as I have no idea how it's going to look! I'll put in the bits that I know I want, and fit everything else around that I suppose. Even just knocking up the odd thing here and there has helped me see how I might want things in certain positions and so far nothing has been bolted down. I will try to make a CAD version now that I have most of my machines so I can easily move things about and get a feel for how it may work, but I think the real insights will come from just using it, I'm not too proud to re-arrange at a later date.

Dust collection, when I bought the machines I got quite a selection of extraction equipment with it, again I'm going to suck it and see how it works best but I have quite a lot of choice, 3 individual 'sucking' units as well as a filter unit (which I assume I fit in the ceiling somewhere..?)
I like the way YouTuber Matthias Wandel uses a separate unit for each machine instead of one large unit with pipes everywhere, I'd like to do something along those lines ultimately.

 

[Dandan]

I've been making some occasional progress on the workshop, I wanted to have the actual building 'finished' by summer including windows and doors and that seems unlikely now, but I'd hope to have it complete before the weather turns again towards the end of the year.
The reality is that it's my little folly, my replacement for wasting money on fast cars, so it doesn't really make a difference if I am building things in the workshop or just still building the workshop itself, as long as i'm having fun. No deadlines here, no sir.
I used my first bit of hardwood a couple of weeks ago, after returning from a climbing holiday, I wanted to make a replica of part of a route so I could practice it in my climbing shed in the garden. One of the holds is a specifically sized, single finger pocket which it was hard to replicate with commercially available holds, so I made it instead. No idea what wood it is (you'll hear that a lot from me in the future), but it's almost too pretty to get covered in chalk:



I've been cracking on with the soffits, decided to drill large holes and then cover the back side with bug mesh for ventilation, it's a slow old process, even through soft wood my puny pillar drill takes an age to put a 51mm hole all the way through.



Then after reading some information on here, I decided to get hold of some linseed based varnish as a finish, I like the idea of using a more traditional material, and aside from a price premium, it doesn't appear to have any real drawbacks. I opted for this snazzy stuff:



Which if you believe the spiel that comes with it, is some kind of super varnish from another planet. It has a high gloss finish, easy application, lasts for decades, is non toxic, food safe, all natural, in fact I'm pretty sure it forms part of a balanced diet if I ever get really hungry.
All I know so far is it goes on quite nicely:



I've not checked it since it dried so i'll report back after the weekend.

 

[TFrench]

What route are you training for? Wasn't it Ben Moon who made mock ups of the holds on agincourt so he could beat the frenchies to it?

 

[Dandan]

What route are you training for? Wasn't it Ben Moon who made mock ups of the holds on agincourt so he could beat the frenchies to it?

Hehe, that was the last question I was expecting on this forum! Loads of people have made replicas to train for harder routes so Ben Moon may well have done that, the most famous one was probably Malc Smith building a replica of Hubble in his bedroom to train on over the winter which resulted in a successful ascent, despite it being about 3 grades harder than anything he had climbed before.

I'm training for a route in Margalef, Spain called Nina Mala (bad girl), if you are really interested you can see the hold I am trying to replicate here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzfWcBrYfXM at about 3.10

 

[devonwoody]

Dan I know nothing about climbing but that piece of wood could split looking at the grain direction and appearance.

 

[thick_mike]

What route are you training for? Wasn't it Ben Moon who made mock ups of the holds on agincourt so he could beat the frenchies to it?

Hehe, that was the last question I was expecting on this forum! Loads of people have made replicas to train for harder routes so Ben Moon may well have done that, the most famous one was probably Malc Smith building a replica of Hubble in his bedroom to train on over the winter which resulted in a successful ascent, despite it being about 3 grades harder than anything he had climbed before.

I'm training for a route in Margalef, Spain called Nina Mala (bad girl), if you are really interested you can see the hold I am trying to replicate here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzfWcBrYfXM at about 3.10

You might be better off with an Abu Hamza style hook instead of fingers there.