Author Topic: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea  (Read 7792 times)

Offline Eugene

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Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« on: May 11, 2014, 04:15:36 PM »
Just a bit of an intro.

I built my wee shop as an attachment to the existing garage after the Planning Officer had turned his back. The garage is as big as we are allowed without planning permission but it still wasn't big enough for two vehicles and the gardening gear plus some workspace. It takes eight or nine months for his hopelessly dilatory department to issue permissions, so stuffim.

It wound up as a 13' x 6' space, double skinned with an apex roof, two windows and a five foot wide door to allow big thingies to get in and out. I won't bother to post all the construction pics, we've all seen a wooden shed before, but here's a snap of the initial frame going up, followed by the finished article. The only hiccup was when the rain we had in the winter overwhelmed the drainage and water came in over the brick plinth and soaked into the Sterling board floor. Clearing the drains and relaying the floor lost me a couple of weeks.





I have an aversion to kitchen wall units in workshops, especially small ones; the doors are inconvenient when open, the units are never the right size, and they look crap anyway. I had an idea of making bespoke cupboards to fit the available spaces, but make use of a rolller shutter instead of hinged doors. I had a bit of 18mm ply lying about that was basically sound but not too clever cosmetically, so if it didn't work out I hadn't lost much; it was worth a try.

I had a dummy run on some scrap, routing a curved channel and fiddling about with bits of flat stock to see what was needed for a smooth running roller; standard off-the-shelf timber and router bit sizes worked well enough after I'd eased the rear corners of the slats with a Stanley knife.

Making the chassis was simple enough I just made sure the two side members and cross pieces were the exact same size, routed out the roller channels plus one for the back panel then glued it all up using wooden dowels. I took some trouble to make sure it was all square, I think if it was skewed the roller wouldn't run smoothly.





Mocked up in position above the headstock end of my lathe it looked promising. It's not too far back nor too tall reach, and I've got good access to the lathe countershaft and change wheel train.



The roller (properly called the tambour) was next; having worked out the length required I laid out a frame on the bench and filled it with the appropriate number of slats, held all nice and snug with wooden wedges; again I took pains to keep everything square. The sides of the slats where they run in the grooves were stopped off with masking tape for 3/8" to avoid getting glue on them and interfering with the fit. The second pic shows the muslin backing material laid out ready to be glued to the slats. 





The process of gluing up isn't one I could photograph, you've got to move pretty smartish laying down a smooth, even coating of PVA wood glue, stretching out the muslin and rolling it down to remove lumps and air pockets. When all was dry, the ends of the slats were cleaned up and any excess muslin snipped off.

Final assembly prior to paint looked pretty good, so I popped in a pair of wall brackets, splodged some paint on the carcasse and varnished the outside of the tambour.








Chuffed!

I'm using it for measuring gear pro tem, that will probably change. The next one will be floor standing at the tailstock side with storage for lathe tools and accessories and some slidy out shelves to put bits and bobs on as I'm working. Hope you didn't fall asleep!

Eug


« Last Edit: May 11, 2014, 04:42:16 PM by Eugene »

Offline Pete.

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2014, 04:41:57 PM »
That looks like a lovely corner of the country to be living in Eugene :)

Offline Eugene

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2014, 05:06:35 PM »
Pete,

Mid Wales not far from the headwaters of the Severn; very beautiful and very, very, wet. Most of the water that buried Bewdley and Tewkesbury in the winter landed in our garden!

Eug


Offline awemawson

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #3 on: May 11, 2014, 05:13:47 PM »
The planning officer cannot object to your workshop so long as it is for your own personal enjoyment, and is less than 4 metres to the apex and not in front of the building line .Planning restrictions have been significantly rolled back. We are in a Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and I'm quite surprised what I can do legally in my curtilage.

Lots of info here:

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline dsquire

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2014, 06:01:34 PM »
Eugene

Very nice yard and shed. You definitley are going over the top making the tambour door cupboards. With a start like this I can only imagine what is yet to come. I'll be siting back watching.  :D :D

Cheers  :beer:

Don
Good, better, best.
Never let it rest,
'til your good is better,
and your better best

Offline Eugene

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2014, 04:08:59 AM »
Andrew,

As I had it from yer man at the time, the max footprint we were allowed without planning permission was 30m square; so the garage was built to a 5m x 6m footprint on an overlarge concrete slab. The additional area of the shop (as a one piece item) would have taken us over the limit, and I had no intention of hanging around for nine months. As you say, the shop addition is now in the clear, and making a virtue out of necessity, I now much prefer a separate shop. The Management having seen it finished and filled up then requested that I make one for all her gardening kit; so there was another bullet through the foot! Duly done.

We'd had difficulties with the department beforehand; I'd laid a concrete slab for my kennel block and Brain Death, on site for another matter said I needed permission for it; not the building, the slab.  :( Joy of joys he decided to stand on it, presumably to admire the view, and went in over his shoe tops ..... it was only about two hours old! In fact we were in the clear, it was more than the regulation distance from the roadway (9 feet?)

Then there are the oil tank regulations ..... :(

Eug

« Last Edit: May 13, 2014, 04:07:31 AM by Eugene »

Offline awemawson

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2014, 05:40:01 AM »
He's obviously a jobsworth  :med:

I do hope that you charged him for removing and relaying the slab he damaged, plus something for the stress and anxiety he caused  :lol:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Jonny

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2014, 02:59:16 PM »
Very nice indeed.
Do me garden as well.

Offline Eugene

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Re: Eugene's shop ... with a space saving idea
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2014, 03:40:13 AM »
Quote
Do me garden as well.
Jonny, see The Management, I'm just the labourer, groundworker and carpenter. "I know my place".

Eug