MadaboutKitcars

AKA my new workshop:




It's an 8' x 8' (2.4m x 2.4m) shed with a stable door (To allow me to get some air in there and keep the cats out. Paws + swarf = unhappy kitties). The interior is going to get insulated with foil backed solid board foam, and then a skin of OSB will go over that. Then I'll be building some benches for the machine tools, and getting a sparkie to come out and hook up some power.

Then move these in - an Axminster ZX25M Milling Machine (Second Hand):



And an Axminster SC4 lathe (also second hand):



Then I'm all set to make expensive brillo pads and odd shaped door-stops.

Jason, you lucky devil. How did you get permission to erect it that close to the house.

My orders were, yes, you can have your workshop but put it at the top of the garden.

Two positives really from your perspective, the second being no would be thief
would break in that close to your house.

Only real place it would go, Den. She said I could have the workshop, but wasn't keen on getting rid of the trees in the far corners of the garden. Fait accompli...

I even went to the trouble of laying out how big it would be on the ground. She was ok with it. She was still ok once I'd built the base... But the first words out her mouth once it was up was "It's a lot bigger than I expected"

I just countered with, "I get that a lot, but what do you think about the shed"

I don't suppose anyone knows a decent sparkie / is a decent sparkie in the Northampton area? I need power out there, I don't think a couple of solar panels on the roof will cut it...

nice shed and nice machinery!

Don't know a sparkie up there, but you will probably need 4 or 6mm Steel Wire armoured cable directly from your fuse box, to a new consumer unit in the shed to keep it all safe and isolated!

Where did you get your Milling machine and lathe from - they are my next purchase - not that I know what to do with them, but as you say, you can never have enough brillo pads and door stops!

Nice shed! Is that about 10' square, or bigger?


Pity I'm not closer....

I am fortunate that my fiance is enthusiastic about my workshops. I had already put in a wood shop on the ground floor and a metal shop in the basement.
Over Christmas we converted a derelict boxroom into my design office. It needed new ceiling, four walls and floor replacing and the door moving. (I only got it done as I had a call from relatives in Australia, at the beginning of Dec, that they were visiting in Jan and wanted the extra bedroom. Six weeks work got it done and the bedroom is now an office.)

It is only 8'x9' floorspace but with 10' headroom!

My fiance learned to plaster to help me get it all done in time.

In return we are converting the adjacent 12'x13' guestroom onto her design studio and workshop.

Does your garage have a separate consumer unit? If it does it would be pretty simple (electrically) to run a feed from there. That's what I did.

Hope the floor is strong! I recently bought an Axminster (Jet) pillar drill. It was so heavy I had to cut a whole in my nice wooden floor and lay a concrete pad for the drill.

Woodsmith - 8' square - any larger and I think I'd be living in it...

Robin - the consumer unit for the whole house is in the garage. I was going to get whoever does the electrics,to run a feed from it to a separate small consumer unit in the garage.

I'm hoping that I can do a lot of the work myself, and then get the electrician to do the final hook up so I can get that all important part P certificate you need these days.

Seriously for a minute...

The equipment you are planning to install in "the shed" is not particularly heavy on electricity. A typical 1hp motor takes less than 1 kw - normally about 750 watts.

So - what I think I would do is to put a small consumer unit in the shed with probably just 2 circuits - lights and sockets. It would need an RCD of course. (BTW you are only supposed to use spurs in a shed - not ring mains)

Then - at a convenient place on the outside of the house (behind the shed?) fit one of those industrial style outlets - the blue ones with round pins - can't remember the name right now. They are the sort also used to make a temporary hook up to a campervan or caravan. You can get IP65 - waterproof versions. You could then just run a "temporary" flexy of suitable rating (15amp) to the shed.

I think it would be a lot cheaper to do it like that. And you could always unplug the shed and take it with you if you ever move - haha.

Cheers, Robin

8' square, about the same as my office.

The electricity demand won't be high, unless you are planning on having more then one machine on at a time. That does simplify things a bit.

Do make sure the security is good though. Sheds have been broken into for lesser valuables.

At least you can watch them dragging the milling machine out...

A cheap IP webcam is nice so you can check on the shed wherever you are in the world over the internet! You can also set them up to start recording when they sense movement.....

That will cheer you up... being able to replay when they smashed the door open

Security wise, I have a very heavy duty bolt / hasp thing that is fixed in with coach bolts. I'll be replacing the screws on the hinges with security ones, and the door is alarmed - tied in wirelessly with the house alarm which is monitored. If anyone does tear the door off to get in, plod will be on the scene in a bout 5 mins.

They may have managed to get the mill off the bench by then...

Interesting idea re the power Robin - the only problem with it is that the garage, (where the power comes into the house and where the consumer unit is) is on the opposite side of the building to where the shed is situated. I'd still have to trail a cable across the garden to get to it.

Take a spur off the house, probably easier to use the upstairs circuit as your house looks like it has concrete ground floor. Must be a power point somewhere in that corner of the bedroom. Use the cavity to run down to a working height and use a camp site socket as Robin described.

I am no electrician but I wouldn't go that way, running a spur and using the machinery you have is not a good idea, you would be better running a new cable from your consumer unit in 4mm then onto armored cable out of the house to a fused garage switch box in the shed and run a ring in the shed for your power and another for your lighting.

I spent most of the day insulating the shed with celotex - brilliant stuff, so quick and easy. Also got some of the internal sheathing up as well, before calling it a day, and going in to watch the rugby. On balance, I should have continued in the shed...

I got them both from eBay - right place at the right time. They're both Axminster branded, but they're the same as many other lathes and mills in as much as they're made in china.

Consensus is that it's not that much of an issue these days, and the lathe in particular is known for being pretty damn accurate out the box, and this was in an engineers workshop prior to me getting it - so I assume they'll have looked after it and set it up right.

Pics of the insulation and internal sheathing going in:



As I said before, Celotex is marvellous stuff. Measure, slice with a stanley knife and then snap along the cut.



I've used 30mm thick boards in the walls, stood off from the exterior boarding by approx 15mm by some galvanised staples hammed into the uprights at regular intervals. Allows for an air gap between the exterior boards. Then it's just friction fit between the uprights, and any joins between boards done with aluminium foil.



I'm covering the walls in 9mm OSB boards - just screwed to the uprights. I'm doing the gable ends first so I can run the OSB up to the upper 'rafter' and screw it on there as well - then I'll insulate the roof with 25mm celotex (there's not as much room up there for any thicker plus an air gap), and then board over it as well.

and rentable value is...

Depends on how many plants you can squeeze in, just the hydroponics to go now! ;-)

I know a kitcar man that may know where to get some

It's been a while... The workshop got put on hold for most of last year due to lack of time and a lack of funds - but I've got cracking again.

I've finished boarding out the walls and celing, caulked the seams and painted it all white to reflect the light. Painting was a real bitch, as the OSB is uneven and required 'stippling' to get the paint to cover.

Or did, until my arms gave up and I bought a cheap Earlex HVLP sprayer to finish it off. Apparently it looked too much like fun, as Pauline kept pestering to have a go.

I've also had the electrician in and he's run the power to the shed and installed 6 double sockets, a sealed strip light and switch and a mini consumer unit.







Power is via a 6mm armoured cable from the garage, where it's hooked into the house via a spare way on the main consumer unit.

Next job is to lay the flooring (some garage floor / heavy vinyl courtesy of costco) and then build the benches.

I had forgotten about this shed, surprising how quick time passes by.

More progress!

The shed floor is your normal tongue and groove job - so I laid an extra layer over the top of it to beef it up and to ensure the loads where spread evenly. I used waterproof flooring panels:



I then laid some heavy duty vinyl flooring that Pauline found at Costco - it's supposed to be for garage floors, is very thick and weighs a ton. It's not to easy to cut either! But it'll make cleaning up easier - we'll just have to see how it copes with swarf.





With the flooring down, I needed to think about workbenches. I did think about building my own out of timber or welding some frames up myself... But I saw an advert for some nice looking tables on eBay of all places. They mentioned they could do custom sizes, so I measured up, rang them and ordered two - one for the back gable wall, and one to go opposite the window in the gap left between the other table and the wall with the door in it.

I also asked them to weld some nuts into the legs so I could put some adjustable feet in to ensure I can level them up. The floor should be level... But no harm having them.

They arrived, and they just bolted together:





The larger of the two will be where my mill sits. It has two additional supports bolted in place in the centre of the bench, spaced as to pick up the bolt holes of the mill base.

The company that makes the benches doesn't supply the tops, so it's down to personal preference what you put on them. They suggest 18mm MDF, or steel plate for hot work if you're doing any. I went for 18mm marine plywood and then bonded a .7mm stainless steel sheet on top:



Wipe clean, oil and cutting fluid resistant - and if my mate is to be believed, could be used as a make shift morgue.



So - time to start moving machines in.

I asked my friend to give me a hand, and we managed to get the mill in:





I've been really paranoid about the Mill weight - it's 220Kg... But the bench hasn't buckled, the shed hasn't sunk and my friend and I didn't kill ourselves getting it in.

Anyway, that's as far as I've got. Now I need to call in another favour at the weekend to get the lathe installed under the window.