The Build Begins (Workshop in Garage)

[Lons]

I had to rearrange the shap recently to accommodate longer lengths of raw material. For economy and flexibility you understand.
Scratching my head today as I pondered how I could better utilise the space available, I concluded I could replace two cupboards and a table with wall cleats and. if it works out gain 18-24" of floor space. I have loads of 12mm off cuts in 48" lengths I could use hence the question.
I suppose I could do an experiment before laying out for 18mm

If you're concerned about the thickness, I wouldn't be, just glue strips of your 12mm to double up to 24mm

 

[billw]

I guess it does entirely depend on what you’re hanging on them! I’m sure 18mm will be total overkill for me but I suppose I just don’t know what I’ll be needing to put on them in ten years’ time.

 

[DBT85]

I guess it does entirely depend on what you’re hanging on them! I’m sure 18mm will be total overkill for me but I suppose I just don’t know what I’ll be needing to put on them in ten years’ time.

Do us a favour. Cut one that's 60cm long, put 2 screws in it and hang from it. I'm sure it won't move.

Edit: Sorry Bill i got you and artie mixed up!

 

[Bale]

Just a caveat to what I posted a few minutes ago....
I've used 6mm cleats for small, lightweight cabinets in a domestic environment. 12mm cleats in my own workshops to hang tool cabinets from the wall. In a commercial environment we used 2"x1" softwood because it was convenient and we had miles of it in stock. Any queries, hit me up.

Pete

 

[Benchwayze]

I store planes flat on the sole. I rest them on small slips of timber to keep the soles from conact with the shelf just in case damp from a timber shelf finds its way onto the sole. Planes are made to cut wood so I'm not too worried about the blades being damaged by a timber shelf.

John

 

[John Brown]

So today I finally got started, and all I can say is that trying to put a 2440x1220 sheet of 18mm ply 950mm up on a wall on your own is, quite frankly, difficult. However, it is achievable. From my thread about potential designs, this is where I started.: -

View attachment 96362

've got a bit more work to do tomorrow and Sunday before I put an update photo.

To do list: -
1. second piece of 18mm ply (smaller thankfully)
2. lighting rig (3 600x600 LED panels with 2 blank panels as spacers)
3. French cleats

After that I'm onto cabinets and benches. Have decided that aside from the bench, all units will have castors even if I don't plan on moving them. You never know!

It might seem difficult, until you've dragged 8 1220 by 2440 18mm sheets of OSB up onto your shed roof single handed.

 

[clogs]

all's well so far but I think I would have sorted the floor out first.....
easy to do with an empty shop and oh so nice when cleaning up.....
keep up the good work.....

 

[billw]

So today I waited all day for my new (cheap) track saw to arrive, which I need to tidy up a terribly uneven job done using my current circular saw, luckily I left some margin in the cut just in case so once I shave off 5mm it'll fit nicely on the wall and I can get the second ply panel fitted.

Instead of doing nothing I started making the frame for the LED light panels, it's just a lot of 28x18mm softwood at the moment, and I'm still figuring out the best way to structurally strengthen it. The back edge will sit on top of the ply boards being attached to the wall, but as it is just over 600mm wide it will definitely need some assistance!

Took a quick photo....

I used the panel to test every section (there's 5 in total, 3 will be lights, two are just thin ply blanks) to make sure I didn't get to the end and find out I'd gone wrong. Admittedly one or two are a little tight, but hand pressure alone works to get the panel in.

There's only a plug on that panel as I tested it out, I'll wire them all up properly and attach to the lighting circuit at some point. I changed a double socket yesterday and knocked out the electrics in the entire house, so I hope my next attempt is less eventful.

Everything feels like veeeeeeeery slow progress at the moment. At least I have all the required timber for the initial set up now, and 4 full sheets of 18mm ply which will hep me get cracking on new benches and cabinets.

I've decided on a 1800x600 bench, the first cabinet is 1200x600 and will be partially flip top and house the thicknesser, the second cabinet will also be 1200x600 and be mainly used as a sharpening station (and thus involve water, so won't have any electrical stuff near it as that's just me asking for trouble). The bandsaw will have its own mobile single stand, and the planer will go on a board that will fix to the MFT benchtop. The bench will also double as a router table. All the cabinets with clear surface area will be the same height (865mm which is comfortable for me) so I can pull them together to make a large surface for finishing, and also as in/out feed tables for a future mitre or small table saw.

All the tops will be Valchromat, I haven't ordered it yet but since I can pretty much create all the units and then fix the tops on last then I will just get on with using up the ply first.

Also in the meantime I'm looking up potential designs for the cleat system, there's obvious things like drill bits, chisels, etc but also some great ideas for saws, hammers, and measuring tools. I'm literally going to try and get as much stuff as I can onto the walls which will leave all my drawer space free for things that just aren't suited to being hung up.

So plenty to get on with, I just have to somehow reverse my mum's dreadful habit of hoarding so I can get rid of the sheer volume of useless tat that she insists on keeping "just in case".

 

[matkinitice]

I'll be watching this closely.

I'm starting my garage build in the next few weeks, but it won't be till spring until things get interesting so I'll share details then.

Out of interest - the LED panel. How are these wired into the lighting system? Is it just live/netural - with earth if needed? The "plug" on that image is confusing me - though I believe from the panels I was looking at the plug is for testing - can you share an image of the connection closely - minus the plug.

 

[DBT85]

I'll be watching this closely.

I'm starting my garage build in the next few weeks, but it won't be till spring until things get interesting so I'll share details then.

Out of interest - the LED panel. How are these wired into the lighting system? Is it just live/netural - with earth if needed? The "plug" on that image is confusing me - though I believe from the panels I was looking at the plug is for testing - can you share an image of the connection closely - minus the plug.

Typically the panel itself just has a lead with a locking barrel connector on the end. The panel will come with the little box (typically a 240v ac to 12v dc transformer) that connects to the barrel connector at one end and will usually have live and neutral tails hanging out, or terminals to wire into.

From there you can do what you like pretty much. Mine are all daisy chained on some 1.5mm (overkill) 2 core flex as no earth was needed. Connected together with wagos. All just goes to a plug on a socket on the lighting ring. Still controlled by the light switch but if I want to I can easily put a smart plug on the entire 600w of LEDs in my workshop and shout pointlessly at Alexa to turn the damned things on.

 

[billw]

Out of interest - the LED panel. How are these wired into the lighting system? Is it just live/netural - with earth if needed? The "plug" on that image is confusing me - though I believe from the panels I was looking at the plug is for testing - can you share an image of the connection closely - minus the plug.

Yes, as @DBT85 says the wire coming off the panel clips into the transformer (each panel comes with one) and then there's just a L/N connection coming out of them. Just a case of running cable to hook them all up and then straight into the lighting circuit. The plug is just because it was easier to juice it up from a socket that was close to hand rather than messing about wiring it into the actual lighting circuit temporarily.

 

[billw]

Still controlled by the light switch but if I want to I can easily put a smart plug on the entire 600w of LEDs in my workshop and shout pointlessly at Alexa to turn the damned things on.

I'm liking this idea!

 

[DBT85]

I'm liking this idea!

I have the plug ready to go, just not sure if I can be bothered! The switch is right next to the door and with no windows its literally pitch black in there with no lights on anyway! Its not like a little lamp in the corner of the room that you can't be bothered getting up to turn off, if I turn these off from the middle of my workshop I'll smash my shin on something getting out!

 

[billw]

... if I turn these off from the middle of my workshop I'll smash my shin on something getting out!

Well actually I have the same. The garage circuit powers one 60W bulb, but the switch is at the front and I always use the back door so when I go in it's pitch black. Maybe getting a remote control switch might be the answer.

 

[DBT85]

Well actually I have the same. The garage circuit powers one 60W bulb, but the switch is at the front and I always use the back door so when I go in it's pitch black. Maybe getting a remote control switch might be the answer.

Oh yeah for you it makes sense then. Smart wall switches are expensive and most want Neutral in there too which most uk wiring doesn't have in the switch box. So its either a smart bulb or put the light on a smart plug.

 

[billw]

So today's progress was slow. The second piece of ply is now up on the wall. Meets the other sheet perfectly at the bottom but there's a 1mm gap at the top. It nearly brought me to tears. Just kidding, it's completely irrelevant.

The frame for the lights is complete and being left overnight for the glue to dry on one end (which takes FOREVER in cold weather as I discovered the hard way). I've retested a panel in it and it fits but it's *very* tight. At least it won't fall out. Probably.

I was going to fit some of the cleats but found that my entire supply of screws are either 1" or 1 1/2" and I need, yeah you guessed it, 1 1/4" so they're now on order. I've decided on a 100mm gap between cleats, this should allow for smaller units to sit above each other and larger ones to have relevant support. This should give me 6 or 7 rows of cleats, depending on how far up I decide to go (I don't want to go too close to the lights). The bottom row won't be cleats, just support. This is mainly to stop me getting tempted to hang stuff on it that will get in the way of the units which will be just 50mm below.

Each cleat row is 3090mm wide, so I think that's plenty especially since I don't think there will be many large units that cover multiple rows. At each end of the ply boards is a blank 415mm wide section, I haven't decided what to do with them yet, perhaps storing longer things like clamps, or cubbyholes for temporary storage of components or things I need for a particular project to avoid them getting mislaid.

Here's the wall.....

The 415mm bits are due to the garage door and the tap. How convenient they were exactly the same width! The timber standing up is for the cleats.

And here is the SketchUp of the first unit that will be made. I'll probably do a separate thread for this so I won't comment too much on it here.

 

[DBT85]

That's a whole lot of cleats! The few i put up I just got the first one up and horizontal, then put one in above it as the actual cleat (so point down) and then used a spacer (just some 6mm aluminium bar in my case) to sit the next cleat on. Check for level obvs but it's a damned sight easier than trying to just bang them all up on their own and you'll get perfect spacing and parallelism. Once the first one is up you don't need to hold the weight of the next ones either.

Get a drawer in under that thicknessesr too! I assume you downloaded the model or did you model it (the thicknessesr) yourself?

 

[billw]

That's a whole lot of cleats! The few i put up I just got the first one up and horizontal, then put one in above it as the actual cleat (so point down) and then used a spacer (just some 6mm aluminium bar in my case) to sit the next cleat on. Check for level obvs but it's a damned sight easier than trying to just bang them all up on their own and you'll get perfect spacing and parallelism. Once the first one is up you don't need to hold the weight of the next ones either.

Get a drawer in under that planer too! I assume you downloaded the model or did you model it (the planer) yourself?

I overordered on timber in case I made a mistake .Given the panels are acceptably level, the first one will be placed right at the bottom and I've already made some 100mm spacers so all being well it should be a very quick job to get them all up.

Drawer - yes I did think that would also help with structural rigidity, but I wanted to measure the height of my thicknesser first as the only model I could find was the DeWalt and mine's Metabo. It's inspired by about three other designs and I've borrowed elements from each, although the big difference is the fact that the top surface is completely flat and there's no extrusions at either side.

 

[artie]

Remember that wall cleats often end up being a very 2d solution.

I have to give in and ask.

What's a 2d solution?

 

[DBT85]

I have to give in and ask.

What's a 2d solution?

Lots of tools spread out on a wall with a "depth" of say 50mm. Compared to a cupboard or something that can occupy the same wall area but maybe be 400mm deep.

The issue with the latter is obviously that if you can't see the thing you want or it's behind a load of other stuff, it gets forgotten about or is a pain to access so you waste time trying to find another way rather than move 13 tins of finish you've not used in 2 years but kept just in case.

One neat solution to that is for a say 400mm deep unit that is actually 2 or 3 shallower units sandwiched together with hinges. If you want to get to the thing in the back top left corner you just open the front 2 leaves out of the way.

Generally I can't abide normal cupboards. Be that in my kitchen or anywhere else!