A little light

The only natural daylight in the shop came through the patio doors which are behind the main timber doors, this meant that not only does the bench need to be up by the doors to be in daylight but the main timber doors have to be open, which isn`t always convenient.
Once the shop was up & running I soon realised a central bench was far more preferable , but as I wanted natural light over it I needed to come up with a cunning plan. The ideal position for the a bench would be in the mid position shown below making it handy for all machines, but alas its only illumination would be from a fluorescent tube.

The simplist solution to over come this problem was to fit a Velux window on the roof slope directly through the position of the  fluorescent fitting.  After some careful measuring the tiles were removed from the roof so installation could begin.

The roof is sarked & counter battened so the Velux doesn`t reach the main joists, there is insulation between the joists, OBS boards nailed to the underside of the joists, foam insulation fixed to the OBS & finally a covering of plaster boarded & skimmed, so installation wasn`t going to be quick.
With all the work involved in getting the window in & water tight I concentrated on the outside work.

Finally finished on the outside.

A close up shows the OBS board that makes up the lining of the ceiling & roof insulation.

With the outside finished it was time to start inside & first off a test hole to make sure I was in the right place.

Then it was full assult with an extra long jigsaw blade.

This last photo shows the roof brace which needed removing to allow the window to open, this was the next job to be done & involved some cramped working conditions in the rather small roof space.

A new joist & packer were bolted in place on the opposite side of the existing joist which was trimmed to allow the window to open.

With the insulation back in place I could start on the linings for the sides of the window, they are made from a pine worktop  as I intended to spray foam around the exterior of the lining so needed something solid that wouldn`t distort when the foam is sprayed in.

The worktop was cut to size, planed & a tongue formed on the edge to fit in the rebate in the velux, as the opening goes into the flat part of the ceiling I made a couple of wings & domino`d them on to the side pieces.

The top & bottom of the linings were then made, involving much messing about hand planing to get matching angles & tongues, but finally the lining pieces were glued together & pushed into the rebate of the Velux.

A few hidden brackets held the lining in place & spray foam was used to fill all voids, after which the wood work was finished off & the pine oiled several times.

The fluorescent light was refitted under the window giving closer illumination over the bench.

Shop made air filter

This air filter has been in use for a few years now & has proved most effective, it is based around a squirrel cage fan that was designed for long running periods as it had been salvaged from an industrial machine. The capacitor for the fan had been incorporated in the machines panel so I needed to source a new capacitor, e-bay was my friend there, once wired up the fan was capable of moving a considerable amount of air.

  

I constructed the unit from off cuts of 18mm MDF which were cut up so as to give me a box 20" x 10 1/2" x 9 3/4" when assembled.

Domino slots were cut in the panels to form the box & an aperture was routed out to allow the exhaust air out.

The base & 2 sides were then glued & dominoed together & the fan housing bolted in.

Over to the lathe & a piece of 26mm MDF cut to the internal dimensions of the box was fixed to the chuck & a rebated hole cut through it.

This was then glued & nailed in position.

The top was then glued on & whilst I`d got the nail gun out another piece of 25mm MDF was glued & fixed at the back of the fan for added support & to fix a bracket onto which the capacitor could then be mounted on.

View through the front of the filter.

I fixed a bracket & mounted the capacitor, temporarily wiring it up to see how well the fan sucked.

Happy with how it worked the gaps around the fan housing & the sides of the unit were filled with spray foam to seal up all nooks & cranies so the only air drawn into the fan had to come through the filters. Whilst the foam cured I went back to the lathe & cut a ring from 18mm MDF that the filter bag would wrap round & sit in the rebate.

The fine filter is a 0.5 micron hepa vacuum bag filter I got from a mate who runs a vacuum cleaner business, he recommended it for what I wanted to do, so i simply cut off the end of the bag with the vacuum connection in, wrapped it round the MDF ring & stapled it to the back of the ring. It sits nicely in the rebate without any fixings.

Chicken wire was folded in half & cut to fit inside the box,  a piece of pre-filter material (from the same mate) was sandwiched  between the chicken wire, this would form the pre-filter.

After a couple of coats of paint  pine bezels were made  to hold the chicken wire in place. Chains were fixed to the top of the unit for suspending it from the ceiling &  the wiring tidied up.

The unit was then fixed to the ceiling & wired into the lighting circuit so it could be easily switched on via a light switch.

The front bezel is held in place via 2 wing-nuts for easy access to the filters

Initial setup

Over the first couple of years of having this new workshop the layout got changed around a few times, I expect this is the way most workshops evolve, what at first seems like the ideal place for a machine soon proves not to be the case & so it was for me.

Luckily most of the bigger machines were on casters or were at least portable enough to be moved around as each incarnation took place. I had few fixed points, I had installed plenty of 3 pin sockets & as these, the lighting & 16-amp sockets were all in conduit these weren`t impossible to reposition.

More awkward were the radiators, I had run these off the combi boiler in the house via an underground duct to the shop & whilst not impossible to re-position,  this was something I didn`t want to do. At the far end of the shop I installed some kitchen wall & base units with worktop & sink, this & the heating were the main improvements over my previous workshop & both have made my working environment so much more pleasurable.

The layout below although different today served me for 6-7 years, I`m posting it as it gives an idea of my starting point & as the blog progresses it will show where things have been improved, though not everything has changed, but more of that later.

The first photo shows my old second hand workbench this was placed near the door with just a small set of drawers between it & the door, these drawers held small tools & fixings regularly used at the bench, above was a peg board tool rack. These where situated so as to maximize the natural day light at the bench that was available when the outer door was wedged open.

  As can be seen from the second photo next along the right hand wall was the table saw, behind it was the shop vac hooked up to a Dust Deputy cyclone, this could be connected to hand held power tools & the crown guard of the table saw (removed for photographic purposes)

The outfeed table of the table saw doubled as a shop built router table with removable fence, after which was the radial arm saw.

This had a perspex shroud around it to try & contain the dust, but I have to admit was not that efficient. Finally on this side was the pillar drill standing on a set of shop made drawers that house all my drill bits & anything associated with its use.

At the far end of the shop is the sink with plenty of storage for all manor of stuff  it also provides a surface for grinders & sharpening paraphernalia.

As we start on the way down the left hand wall first up is my chopsaw mounted quite high so as to allow long lengths of timber to reach down the shop, underneath are the piles of off-cuts, too good to through away but seemingly ever increasing.
Next to this is the surface planer, behind it more off cuts, a roller stand that lines up with the chopsaw & on the wall the removable fence for the router table.

After the planer is the large extractor that hooks up to all the big machines including the thicknesser next to it, this is on a trolley which allows it to be pulled out when needed & stored against the wall when not.

Finally after the thicknesser is a small bandsaw, a lathe & a next to the doors a mechanics set of drawers with an old mortiser on top.

This basic layout is what I`ve worked around when trying to improve things, my next posts will cover the different shop made items that have made the use of the shop easier & more enjoyable.

Workshop beginnings

One of the first things I did on moving to our present home was to build a workshop, this also entailed landscaping the back garden as not only was it very overgrown but also the lie of the land meant that the ground sloped from side to side.

So after removing 3 large trees & numerous large shrubs I was able to dig out the footings for the shop the spoil being used to level the land. Wanting to keep the ground from the house to the shop at the same level a retaining wall was built from the workshop to the house to hold back the soil.

The footings consisted of strip footings around the perimeter with steel mesh left sticking out which was bent over when the concrete had set, further mesh was then welded to this & a concrete slab poured on top.

All the concrete for the base was mixed by hand as access at this time was limited, the final slab measuring 28` x 10` 6" & containing over 10 ton of balast.

Once the concrete was set brick laying could commence, as the side of the shop was to act as a retaining wall for the lawn this was built from blue bricks, I`d also decided on insulated cavity wall construction as one of my main concerns was noise escaping from the shop when in use.

 With the brick work above ground level the rest of the land was prepared ready for turfing.
Whilst the front of the shop was going to be facing brick the sides & back were to be of block construction, not only did this mean a saving in cost, but also in time. Progress on the block work was quick & it wasn`t long before the roof could start & go on.

The roof was designed as an A frame to maximise the internal ceiling height, sarking ply was fixed to the exterior of the roof to prevent movement in the frames. This was all sprayed with preservative before being insulated & then OBS board being fixed to the under side of the trusses.

The roof was hipped at the back of the shop so as to softten the visual impact on our neighbours behind.

A pair of wooden doors & frame were made from redwood, T&G boards rebated into the front of the door frame, insulation behind this & then 1/2" plywood fixed to the back of the doors.

Behind these doors a double glazed patio door was fitted, not only did this give extra security & help reduce the noise emmited when working in the shop but also as no windows had been fitted this would be the only source of natural light.

Internally a DPM was put down & a fibre screed laid after which the walls & ceiling were lined with plaster board & skimmed, these were than emulsioned with white vinyl silk. All electrics were surface mounted in conduit & a hatch made to access the small space within the top part of the A frame.

The roof was tiled with reclaimed concrete Marley modern tiles, the sarking being batterned in line with the trusses, roofing felt layed over these, cross batterned & the tiles fixed.

With the hard work done the fun was just about to begin, but that`s another post.