Below 265 SQ/FT oled's jack-of-all-trades workshop

[oled]

I have always wanted my own workshop. We have lived in a housing estate for a number of years, and I've been using other people's workspaces and sometimes going to my workplace in the weekends, to work on projects.
4 years ago my wife and I managed to save up enough money to buy a 125 m3 (1345 SQ/FT) house, which had a small extension of appr. 24 m2 (258 SQ/FT), a flat-roof building with two rooms.


As our new house needed a lot of work, we agreed that the extension would eventually be my workshop and tool storage, making it easier for me to work on the property. My wife dedicated a room in the house for her arts and crafts projects. We were both happy with this.
I do all renovation work myself. I was raised on a farm and my dad taught me to repair anything. I don't like to hire tradesmen/contractors, will happily spend much more time learning something myself than hire it out. Also, we can't afford hiring anyone.

For the first year or so, the extension was filled with a mess of moving boxes and building materials. The room was fully isolated, but there was no functional heating, only a broken electric heater. There was originally a door from the extension to the house, but we soon removed that because of remodeling of the living room. So now there is only one access door to the extention, from the outside.



The first thing I managed to do that was actually workshop-related, was to assemble these drawer cabinets, which I got for free. They needed a bit of repair. I managed to get all the drawer slides working and knocked most of the dents out of the cabinets. I put a butcher block on top (an old counter from a shop I used to work in). The cabinets were a bit too low for a workbench, so I made four bases out of scraps of particle board. I found the vise in the trash, years before.

 

[oled]

I removed the wall between the two rooms of the extension, and removed the carpet. Can't find the pictures of this right now. There was a nice level concrete floor underneath.

Anyway, how to get on with the project? I decided to make some wall storage for tools. Had some second hand particle board and scraps of OSB, they would have to do.



I had these second hand shelves taking up space, so why not put them on top of the tool wall.



So that ended up with a bit more than 6 meters of tool wall. Now for some paint.



I did originally want to put in a garage door instead of the normal door. The building is the size of a one car garage. But I didn't in the end. I am a trained mechanic and have restored cars in the past, but nowadays I mostly work on my own daily driver, so didn't want to reserve the space for this. Car repair jobs will be taking place outside.

As you might have spotted in the corner, I bought a vintage air compressor, repaired it and installed it in the workshop. Need to find some photos of that.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Nice build out. Smaller workshops force a person to be more space thrifty and creative. In the mid ‘70’s I built and repaired motorcycles from the frame up in an 8 foot x 8 foot building. The rear wall had a recess lined with foam insulating sheet to accommodate the front wheel for 3 inches more work space. Motor oil and often used service parts were stored in recesses between wall studs. As is sometimes said, that was the good old days. I met my good friend of 50 years in that building when he heard about me from others about getting a repair.

 

[larry4406]

Very nice!

Welcome aboard!

 

[theoldwizard1]

Good start ! I like the high shelf. Might want to do a second one.

 

[gatewaysysop]

Beautiful looking area, but then almost all of the Danish countryside is spectacular. Can I ask what part of Denmark this is in?

 

[oled]

Nice build out. Smaller workshops force a person to be more space thrifty and creative.

Thanks. I agree, you need to be creative in small spaces to make it work.
I feel most inspired when looking at the small spaces here on GJ.

My biggest challenge is that I like to tinker with all sorts of things. I am not just building a woodworking shop, or a place to store our DIY tools and materials, or a place to store my mechanics tools, or a place to tinker with old computers and electronics, or a home office. I am trying to have it all at once, in this room.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Thanks. I agree, you need to be creative in small spaces to make it work.
I feel most inspired when looking at the small spaces here on GJ.

My biggest challenge is that I like to tinker with all sorts of things. I am not just building a woodworking shop, or a place to store our DIY tools and materials, or a place to store my mechanics tools, or a place to tinker with old computers and electronics, or a home office. I am trying to have it all at once, in this room.

The best way I found to do that is to have tools only in the shop and all other materials and domestic items in another storage building. My present workshop is now 1100 square ft with three devoted rooms and absolutely nothing it there other than tools, equipment, and the item being constructed, refurbished, or repaired. The storage barn is 20 feet away and is 360 square feet. The mower, pressure washer, and generator are also kept there. When I had the small shop I built a hot rod car right outside by using the building as a tool room and for subassemblies work. I made a hoist frame by setting two power poles in the ground cut to proper height with a steel beam lag screwed to the top as an engine hoist.

 

[oled]

Beautiful looking area, but then almost all of the Danish countryside is spectacular. Can I ask what part of Denmark this is in?

Sure, it's the eastern part of Jylland, just north of Aarhus.

 

[oled]

Very nice!

Welcome aboard!

Thanks Larry!

Good start ! I like the high shelf. Might want to do a second one.

It's good storage for spray cans, paint and oil etc, I saw it in T-Handle's workshop

 

[slim_grim]

Looking good! I dig the color. I've had loads of fun getting my little space sorted.

 

[oled]

I tried a couple of vices for the workbench, but didn't like any of them and sold them. Then I found this vintage one, at a bargain price. It's a Heuer Front from the german vice manufacturer Brockhaus Heuer.



They still make these today, the new version of the Heuer Front look like this:


On their website you can read a lot about their history. They made vices since 1927. My model was made between 1957 and 1969. Mine has the number "67" stamped on the front part, so I am guessing it is from 1967. The model name "front" refers to that the front part is the moving part, as they used to make another model which had a static front and moving back part.



I took it apart and cleaned old paint and surface rust off.



Then gave it a layer of anti-rust primer and some coats of hammerfinish paint.









Very happy with this. It is virtually indestructable. If the moving/sliding part should ever get worn, which it is not yet, you can just tighten the bolt a little bit.

 

[oled]

Was out sniffing the snow with my buddy this morning. He likes the cold and the snow, I don't.
It's -12 C today (10.4 F).



Around the time that I was making the tool wall, I found this vintage air compressor. It is made in Denmark. The company still exists, but nowadays they just import compressors from other countries and put their name on them, they don't produce anything.
I know a guy who used to work there. He said my compressor is from the mid 1960s, and no spare parts are available anymore. But it's a machine that might last forever, especially with my limited use.
The pump part is made of cast iron. The whole thing is so heavy that I couldn't lift it out of the car boot when I got home.
I payed the equivalent of 67 EUR / 78 USD, that was a really good price.



It would run and produce pressure, but that just fizzled out again, somewhere below the pressure switch box.
When I finally got around to having a look at the problem, it was simple. The check valve / one-way valve between the pump and the tank did not close. It was located inside the fitting where the pipe from the pump is attached. Since I couldn't get a replacement, I took the fitting off, removed the old valve, and fitted a standard check valve from a plumbing supply company. Since then it has worked perfectly.



Later I saved this 150 liter air tank from scrap, painted it and got it set up with the compressor. It was not scrapped because of corrosion, just someone who didn't need it anymore, so I got it for free. I added a pressure regulator, for working with my finish nailer. I might also get a paint sprayer at some point.

 

[zanyad]

Nice finds on both the compressor and tank!

 

[oled]

Nice finds on both the compressor and tank!

Thanks, I am very pleased with it, compressed air in the shop is such a nice thing to have.

 

[oled]

I wanted to build a large workbench/table next. It's a couple of years ago, and all my money was going into supplies for renovating the house, at the time. So I wanted to build it from free materials. My dad had taken down some pallet racking, which had shelves made from 22mm MDF. I got a stack of those and started cutting some strips.



I know - It's a strange material for a workbench. I found that screws didn't hold well in the MDF, but glue worked great.







I wanted originally to have a table with a built-in jobsite table saw. And I had for a while. Don't have any pictures of that. But I never became friends with that cheap table saw, ended up throwing it away and putting a temporary table top on the table, while thinking about what to do instead.
A few years went by. I bought a track saw and watched a lot of Youtube videos about making stuff with track saws. That gave me the idea to put a Festool MFT-inspired table top on the work table. I bought a piece of phenolic plywood and drilled the hole pattern with the UJK Parf Guide Mk II. It is a bit expensive, but I figured I might be able to sell some MFT table tops to other people, and make it pay for itself that way.





And now it was easy to drill the hole pattern. Table top done! This actually happened last week. So this table ended up taking about two and a half years to finish.
I added a paper roll at the end of the table, making it easy to pull paper over the top if I need to paint something.



First test of the MFT system. I need to make some kitchen cabinets and some shelves and stuff, so it's going to be used a lot.

 

[Geoff289]

Greetings from Australia.

I just stumbled on your thread and have found it very interesting. I'm a little bit into all things Danish at the moment as we're watching this Danish crime series on TV at the moment.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11081102/

I've been surprised that the weather always seems to be warm and sunny in Elsinore where its set, not the snow and ice I was expecting.

Anyway, looking forward to more posts.

Venlig hilsen

 

[oled]

Greetings from Australia.

I just stumbled on your thread and have found it very interesting. I'm a little bit into all things Danish at the moment as we're watching this Danish crime series on TV at the moment.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11081102/

I've been surprised that the weather always seems to be warm and sunny in Elsinore where its set, not the snow and ice I was expecting.

Anyway, looking forward to more posts.

Venlig hilsen

Hi Geoff
Thanks. Never seen that series, is it any good?

If they filmed it in the summer, on sunny days, then I guess it is sunny all the time It's mostly raining here. We usually have a tiny bit of snow in january/february. No ice. I don't even have winter tires on my car, just the all-season ones.

 

[Geoff289]

Hi Geoff
Thanks. Never seen that series, is it any good?

If they filmed it in the summer, on sunny days, then I guess it is sunny all the time It's mostly raining here. We usually have a tiny bit of snow in january/february. No ice. I don't even have winter tires on my car, just the all-season ones.

Hi Oled,

This series is quite watchable, not the best crime series I've ever seen (that would be this UK series https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2303687/) but it mostly fulfils the main requirement of a crime series in keeping you guessing until the end as to who the perpetrator is. It probably loses something in translation as we watch it with English subtitles.

Some of the acting is a bit hammy and some sub plots and other aspects are a bit implausible, but overall we like it. The main detective guy drives around in an open top Mercedes 4WD and lives on a boat, not on the water but effectively in dry dock in a car park by the water. They must pick their days to film it.

No danger of snow here in Melbourne at the moment as we endure a run of 40+C days.

Your workshop is coming along very nicely.

Det var hyggeligt at snakke med dig.

 

[oled]

I want to make a box or cart with basic mechanics tools, to roll out in the carport when I need to work on my car. There's a bit too much walking back and forth to haul tools, it annoyed me the last time I worked on the car. Also, who doesn't like a tool organizing project?



Starting with sockets, I dragged out everything I could find, and ordered some cheap socket rails from Amazon. I can see already that I need some more rails, and I need a few more sockets. This stuff never ends.
These are what I've bought over the years. I guess I've been repairing mechanical stuff for about 30 years, in my own time, and doing it as a job for maybe 12-15 years. As opposed to other places in the world, your workplace supplies all tools here, when you work as a mechanic. So everything I own was bought to use in my own time.
I only use metric sockets. It's a mix of brands, I see at least some Bahco, Irimo, Hazet, Facom, Biltema, KS Tools and Expert (a good, but unknown StanleyBD brand).

To make this box complete I will be buying a set of 1/4" deep sockets, a few 1/2" deep sockets, and a couple of impact sockets. Also, my 6mm stud bolt socket (is that the right word?) has disappeared. Looking online, it seems that you can buy a set of four of those for almost the same price as one.




I recently bought new ratchets from Force. It's a Taiwan brand with a nice quality, at least of the stuff I have tried. I don't like the type that has a lever to switch directions, I think they take up too much space when you are in a tight spot.
Facom makes a good version of the ones I got, but one Facom ratchet costs more than I payed for all three of these.

For a box I was looking at this one, combined with some kind of rolling cart with shelves. But not sure.
Price is 99 EUR / 115 USD

 

[littlebean]

Hi, looking forward to watching your progress

 

[oled]

I bought the cheapest, saddest three-drawer box on Amazon. It will do the job. The drawer slides seems to be better than expected at this price range (47 EUR / 55 USD).
First I ordered most of the missing sockets, and started bolting the socket holders inside of the top compartment.



And here it is all done. I have all usable sizes of normal and deep mm sockets, Allen/Hex, Torx and XZN/triple-square. Also a few E-torx, might get more sizes of those, as there is still a bit of room left. The top left three sockets are stud bolt extractors, these come in handy when you need them, although it is not very often.



Now it was time for the ratchets, extensions etc. I ordered a piece of Shadow Foam, amazingly it was possible to have that shipped from England without having to pay extra customs fees.



And then on to the cutting. It's easy to cut, but hard to make it look good. I ended up re-doing one of them.
The first one is 3/8" and 1/4":



Next one is 1/2":



Last one is miscellaneous stuff. Impact sockets. Oil filter socket. Angle gauge. An oxygen sensor socket. And there's room for more in the future. I feel like a few large Torx impact sockets could live here.

 

[littlebean]

that's come out nice, given me a few ideas as well so thanks

 

[oled]

This was parked at my work, must be the latest new tool, I wonder if it runs on M12 or M18 batteries?

 

[oled]

I've got pliers for the tool cart rounded up. The Bahco needlenose ones were online auction buys.



In my surplus tools bin I found Bahco 160mm side cutters and a quite old Bahco 224 (water pump pliers), it says Sandvik Bahco, so will be from the 1990s. Sandvik is a steelwork/mining tools/machine tools company, which owned Bahco between 1991 and 1999.



A friend gave me the Channellock 307 years ago, I almost forgot I had it. It's really good with rounded bolts, bleed screws etc. I think this model is discontinued now?
The big guy is a Kamasa, it's a swedish tool brand, but on the opposite side it says "Japan". Don't know who produced it.

 

[oled]

I know you can buy these things, but this was made on a day when I just felt like building a simple thing in the shop for a few hours.