My new(ish) workshop

Sporky

I bought a house in May of 2019, and moved into it in January of 2021 - in between, apart from some minor gutting, demolishing, and rebuilding of the house, I ask the builders nicely to make me a new workshop. They were very happy to oblige in exchange for an excruciating amount of money, which I hid in the house budget. Here's how it happened - bear in mind there are gaps as much of it was during lockdown when I couldn't visit. The new house is built on (and slightly in) a rather steep hill, so the garden is on two levels, and the entrance to the garden is on another level.

My last house had a lovely garden room style workshop; the only real disadvantage of it was the low ceiling so as not to need PP, so the new one was just a teeny bit longer and wider, but quite a chunk taller. I also wanted even better sound and heat insulation, so we set the size at 7.3m x 4.3m internally as that nestled neatly between the RPAs of some TPO'd trees.

First the rickety old sheds were cleared, and a hole dug for the foundations. I'm not sure how they got a mini digger up the steps, and I'm not minded to ask.



Concrete slab went down, pumped via some very long pipes from the mixer at the front of the house (I'd guess it's 45-50m away). I missed that bit entirely, so next the walls went up. At this stage it looked chuffing enormous - this was, I think, my first visit to site after work had started.





Then the walls went higher and roof timbers went on.

Sporky

Then we missed the bit when all the insulation went into the inside - next visit the ply lining was all in place. I did see the insulation so I know it's there. Actually you can see some of it here before it went around the nibs.



Next visit the electrics were in, and they'd put up my air cleaner, which was nice. I celebrated by starting the dust extraction ducting. I did that bit myself. I actually rather enjoy the ducting installation; it's a nice combination of planning ahead and then botching it finished. For the previous workshop I even did sums to get the sizes right, but as this one is barely larger and almost exactly the same layout I didn't do sums. I did have to recut pretty much every piece though - just an extra 30cm each way messes up everything.



Next time I got to site the builders had rather kindly fitted all the flooring tiles for me - these are Plasfloor. I finished the ducting. I hope you all like pictures of ducting in various states of installation; there will be more in the next post. I'd brought a few assemblies over from the last workshop but had to rebuild most because of the higher ceiling.



Some of you may spot

Some of you may spot a schoolboy error in this picture. More on that later (about a year later).

Sporky

Gosh but ducting is ace. Actually I'll spare you most of the rest of the ducting photos; next visit the skirting boards were in place and I did more ducting. Also this time a different dog snuck in. At some point I'll have to work out how to stop that nonsense. Dogs in a workshop. Just silly.



Actually, that's it until the day all the machines arrived. I didn't take any photos of that because it was quite a long hard day - three flights of steps to get up to the workshop - and the machine movers didn't seem to be enjoying it much. They cheered up a lot when the scaffolders helped. One of the latter pretty much carried the bandsaw up the steps on his own, which was rather impressive.

Anyways, it's a lovely space. Roof is that black membrane stuff. It stays delightfully cool all through summer, and in winter a little oil-filled radiator keeps it entirely usable. Very good sound insulation too - even with the dust extractor and CNC machine running, from outside it's barely audible. So overall I know paying someone to build it was cheating, but I still think it was a darned good idea. Comments and questions welcome. 

[edit] Forgot to mention - part of the planning application/approval (we had a brilliant and very helpful planning officer) was that it should look "in keeping with the area, and of a domestic appearance". This was solved by wood cladding the whole thing. You might have guessed that was coming on account of the bits of blue timber stuck on the outside walls. This is the finished article:



The 45

The 45 on the door is a joke about the rear neighbours, who complained to planning, building control, environmental health, the architect, trading standards, and the police that we were building a second house in the garden. They are now "known to the police", so that didn't work out how they expected.  

PeteC

Now thats a build thread !  I know that workshop is going to be amazing. 

Sporky

I hope you want to see inside, because here are the inside photos (taken at various stages so it's intermittently a lot neater than these suggest).

Storage for fasteners and DIY stuff:


Main bench:


Timber storage and clamps:



The lathe (the big green machinist lamps were meant to go into my office, but I bought the wrong size and couldn't walk under them so they ended up here):



Mitre saw with stupid (but brilliant) dust hood:



Sharpening station (this cabinet has a lot of the lathe bits in it too):



The big CNC machine, here cutting ventilation holes into a door for the media cabinet in the living room:



The little CNC machine - haven't used this in a while, it just does PCBs and only works with my Windows 2000 PC...



A drill. Actually a really nice one because that knob on the left hand side of the top bit changes the speed - no switching belts between pulleys.



Little Bosch tablesaw - I had a big Electra Bekum panel saw for years and made almost nothing with it - this one is a lot more convenient and accurate.



Bandsaw - this was the first bit of wood working machinery I ever bought.



Incra router table. The positioner (the big gold bit) is really clever, but the base is awful. All solved now but painful to get to a working state.



And a more general view - here I've solved the mistake with the ducting I mentioned earlier - the extractor now has a full-sized 200mm main duct instead of the silly little 150mm one it came with - this has made a huge difference to how well it all works.



I should probably make something!

TTony

Looks like you’ve built an extra house in your back garden.

stickyfiddle

Ah, it's been too long since the last Sporky builds something thread

Some questions: 

What are the metal things sticking out of the mortar on the RH side of the 2nd pic? 
Are you aware that your bush appears to be looking at you? 
Can we see more of the dog? I've missed the dog! 

Sporky

I don't know the proper names of the metal things, but they basically tie the walls and nibs together. The nibs were added (effectively) by Building Control to ensure the walls stay (a) up and (b) vertical.

I am well aware of the bush; I am the one who made the giant googly-eyes and attached them to it.

Yes. Is there a specific dog thread, or does one make one's own?

PeteC

Very nice kit.   What make is the sharpener/grinder - i am on the hunt for a decent one? 

stickyfiddle

Sporky said:

I don't know the proper names of the metal things, but they basically tie the walls and nibs together. The nibs were added (effectively) by Building Control to ensure the walls stay (a) up and (b) vertical.

I am well aware of the bush; I am the one who made the giant googly-eyes and attached them to it.

Yes. Is there a specific dog thread, or does one make one's own?

All makes sense. The google eyes are an excellent addition. 

viz

Sporky said:
 

 the entrance to the garden is on another level.

Yes it’s a fantastic entrance!



Lovely workshop. 

Sporky

PeteC said:

Very nice kit.   What make is the sharpener/grinder - i am on the hunt for a decent one? 

A Tormek. Lots of jigs. I have a scary sharp set too, I still resent sharpening. 

prowla

Well jel, as the saying goes...

joeyowen

Quality thread!! It's amazing! 

TimmyO

Blimey. Fantastic job. 

axisus

Envy!!!!!!

Bloody cool.

Barnezy

Massively jealous of this. Enjoy! 

Sporky

It is a lovely quiet calming place, and unlike the previous one it stays cool in summer and only needs a teeny oil-filled radiator in winter.

Over the weekend I added some ceiling-hung power and put in rigid ducting to the mitre saw hood, which has made quite a difference. 

Next weekend I will do some more work on Lady BMcH's loom bench - I've already planed and thicknessed a load of ash. I'm planning my first mortice & tenon joints... 

fretmeister

I love the garden wall. Is it granite?

It has that harsh hewn look that I really like.

Sporky

It's made of gabions. In the next couple of years we're going to have to replace a big sleeper-based retaining wall just to the right in that photo, and I'm pretty sure we'll do that to match. 

fretmeister

Sporky said:

It's made of gabions. In the next couple of years we're going to have to replace a big sleeper-based retaining wall just to the right in that photo, and I'm pretty sure we'll do that to match. 

Nice.