Steve's workshop - Painting the outside walls

[Steve Maskery]

I've been making the best of the good weather today. Ive finished grouting the back and the LH side and given the back wall a coat of paint.The grouting is not exactly invisible, so I don't know if I should go round and give it another grouting to smooth it off, just sand what is already there, or leave it as it is.
Not much to photograph, but for what it's worth:

I've also started to make a brand new jig, and I've started a new thread in the Jigs forum for that.

 

[lurker]

You might get the wall painted quicker if you used a bigger brush

 

[AES]

Nah, don't be silly lurker - there's no room for a bigger brush between the back wall and the neighbour's fence :lol:

But seriously Steve - thinking about springs for your planer knives you wrote about in a recent post, not so long ago our Aldi (or Lidl, I forget which) had a plastic box full of all sorts of assorted compression and extension springs - different wire gauges, diameters, lengths, etc. It was only the equivalent of a few quid and I've already dipped into it once or twice with success. I'm sure there are more springs in there than I can use in a lifetime, and there's also bound to be something I'll need that isn't in there, but OTOH I think that such stuff is always handy to have around "just in case".

Ditto, they also had a plastic box full of a wide variety of various tap washers, O rings, fibre washers, little rubber discs, etc, etc, in differing thicknesses & diameters. Again I thought "useful just in case" so I bought and they have indeed come in handy for a couple of odd jobs.

I know I'm not based in UK, but often (not always but often) the Aldi and Lidl things I see being discussed by UK-based Forum members seem to appear in our Aldi & Lidl a few weeks later, so you may want to keep your eyes open next time you're in there.

(And OK, yes, I'll bite. What's that new jig for? Setting the left-handed right-forked quadra-plunked clapper valve I suppose? Or is a knurled flange bracket wobbler adjuster)?

AES

 

[Eric The Viking]

And OK, yes, I'll bite. What's that new jig for?

'S easy, that one: painting workshop panels...

 

[AES]

Thanks ETV. Obvious when one thinks about it!

AES

 

[BearTricks]

I'm tempted to post a thread on my workshop revamp now, as a way of showing people what not to do.

So far I've started putting new (old spare ones from the house - this was supposed to be cheap) floorboards down only for the entire concrete foundation to crack when I bolted the roofing battens down to support the floor. Maybe one time it was on solid ground, but a nice network of rat tunnels underneath has seen to that. The door frame just fell off one day meaning all my tools ended up in the front room for security until I refixed it (to the annoyance of my girlfriend). I started painting the old stone walls only for the mortar to start crumbling, so I had to learn pointing for the first time in my life.

Several bags of cement later, twice the amount of paint than I'd calculated, and various sundries I thought "screw it, it looks like I'm doing a proper job after all". I wanted it to cost maybe the price of a few tins of paint. I'm cladding some of the walls now in reclaimed timber, partly for aesthetic reasons and partly because fixing them would require some serious time and skills and I don't actually own the building so there's a limit on how much of my own money I'll sink in to it. The only thing left to go wrong now is either the roof caving in or a nightime visit from the local neighborhood scallies.

I aspire to something like Steve's workshop, maybe one day the girlfriend will forget about this mess and let me start a project like that.

 

[BearTricks]

Nah, don't be silly lurker - there's no room for a bigger brush between the back wall and the neighbour's fence :lol:

But seriously Steve - thinking about springs for your planer knives you wrote about in a recent post, not so long ago our Aldi (or Lidl, I forget which) had a plastic box full of all sorts of assorted compression and extension springs - different wire gauges, diameters, lengths, etc. It was only the equivalent of a few quid and I've already dipped into it once or twice with success. I'm sure there are more springs in there than I can use in a lifetime, and there's also bound to be something I'll need that isn't in there, but OTOH I think that such stuff is always handy to have around "just in case".

Ditto, they also had a plastic box full of a wide variety of various tap washers, O rings, fibre washers, little rubber discs, etc, etc, in differing thicknesses & diameters. Again I thought "useful just in case" so I bought and they have indeed come in handy for a couple of odd jobs.

I know I'm not based in UK, but often (not always but often) the Aldi and Lidl things I see being discussed by UK-based Forum members seem to appear in our Aldi & Lidl a few weeks later, so you may want to keep your eyes open next time you're in there.

(And OK, yes, I'll bite. What's that new jig for? Setting the left-handed right-forked quadra-plunked clapper valve I suppose? Or is a knurled flange bracket wobbler adjuster)?

AES

Those Aldi things are in stock over here on thursday if it's what I'm thinking of. They have a box full of o-rings, a cable management set, various other stuff. I think four or five different sets in all.

 

[AES]

Yeah, that sounds like it Bear Tricks - I've not noticed the cable management set you spoke of, but as I said before, very often stuff that you UK-based Forum members mention as being available over there pop up in our Aldi & Lidl a few weeks later - or sometimes, have already appeared here a few weeks before. I guess all these big companies have some sort of central purchasing organisations.

Anyway, my basic point was if they're like me and "fiddle about" with stuff, members may find that having stuff like a box of assorted springs, a box of rubber & fibre washers, etc, etc, are not bad things to have at your elbow.

AES

 

[Steve Maskery]

I was out and setting up scaffolding and trestles and stuff by 8am today, so I got Brownie points from Ray when he arrived.

Although I haven't blogged it, I've grouted all the cempanel that we had installed and given it all one coat of Semtex, although it hasn't covered anywhere near as well as I had hoped. But we were able to make a start on the upper row of panels.

I had hoped to arrange them symmetrically, but the top edges of the bottom row are not completely flush along the top, because the path is not perfectly level. So the panels are staggered vertically on the top row but just about in line with the bottom row vertically.

Of course, there were many angled cuts, but it was easy to measure from a horizontal datum, and also then check it against a piece of OSB left over from the walls. The trickiest part was notching out for the blocks that look like purlin ends and will carry the soffit.

Sometimes I need longer arms.

When we were laying out we each checked each other's measurements.

It didn't stop us from getting one cut wrong, but it was not too catastrophic and didn't hold us up much.

As ever, Ray took the high road and I took the low road

Although the day had started bright, most of it had been, not exactly raining, but the air was wet. So it wasn't great, but we didn't have to stop, and by the end of the day we had done all the LH wall apart from the two end panels, which will need to be fitted around the soffit ends.

I have a very obliging NDB1 neighbour.

More tomorrow and I hope we can do the same on the other side.

I was supposed to be going out singing this evening, but I am absolutely.....

 

[UrbanSpaceman]

I've grouted all the cempanel that we had installed and given it all one coat of Semtex

I thought you liked the workshop

 

[Steve Maskery]

Ah. I think I might have used Sandtext...

 

[Wizard9999]

Looking at that last picture and how it shows the workshop towering over the fence with your neighbour it still amazes me that you got planning permission. You hear so many stories of disputes between neighbours about much smaller workshops, I guess you must be a very lucky or very charming chap .

Terry.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Actually, you know, the two are not mutually exclusive...

 

[JonnyW]

Hi Steve. I've been reading this thread with great interest - and wow what a thread and what a build. Really nice job and well done to you on so many levels.

Can I ask you a question? - see on your router table, what do you finish the surface off with? (the white stuff!) - is it a paint finish or some kind of melamine?

Kind regards

Jonny

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Jonny
It's Formica (if not that brand then similar).

PS I should say that it is actually a pale blue/grey rather than white. That is deliberate, as brilliant white plays havoc with the camera. This is much more gentle.

 

[JonnyW]

Thank you Steve. Appreciated.

Keep the pics coming !

Jonny

 

[griggs]

That last picture does make it seem immense

 

[moosepig]

It's looking good! An amazing WIP thread.

As for the size, I can only dream.... my "shop" in a converted shed is just under 10' x 8' and the walls are only 5 feet high ](*,)

 

[Steve Maskery]

Looking at that last picture and how it shows the workshop towering over the fence with your neighbour it still amazes me that you got planning permission

Nah, it's a dwarf hedge.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I thought we were going to leave the end panels until the end, but Ray decided we should finish the wall.
Yesterday I had a few issues with dust. The specs I wear are safety glasses with a 1.5D prescriptionbut it takes only one tiny spec to make my contact lenses agony. So today I made sure that my AirCap was charged up. Much better.

The end pieces at the front have to be fitted around not just the blocks that support the barge boards but the soffit ends as well, so there is some careful measuring to do if this is going to be right:

Fortunately all was well and the LH wall is now clad.

Then we trundled round to the right and did the same.

I can't get a very good photo of the RH side, but it is all clad except for the two shaped end-pieces.

There will probably be a bit of a hiatus until next Wednesday now as I have a lot of other stuff going on and only some of it is enjoyable. I might get a bit of grouting done if I am lucky.