Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT A Space Efficient Scandinavian Workshop

[adanielsson]

Been a bit busy with other stuff lately but finally managed to get something done to the shop.

About to install an air heat pump to get the heating a bit more efficient, it'll go along the remaining unrenovated wall, so I replaced the old boards with new osb and plasterboard. I hate mounting stuff in only plasterboard, so osb underneath is worth every penny to me.

Namely, this wall..



Due to the difference in height between my property and my neighbours (that this wall is right on the border of) the lower 60cm of wall consisted of bricks, so I decided to do the new wall only over the timber frame and will plaster(?) that part to give me some extra protection against water and sparks.



And when I was at it I redid the last portion of the connecting wall.



I'll hold off on finished shots, since the corner was immediately filled with stuff once the walls were finished. The joy of a small shop.
I needed some space since I was attacking the lathe room next..

I made a box steel frame and covered that in a 20mm sheet..



And then another 20mm sheet, but this time one that has a ~1mm galvanized steel sheet glued at both sides. The resulting sandwich is incredibly stiff.




Screwed that in and then finished it off with some more aluminium finishings along the edges. Whats left is the one that covers the front edge. But I'll get something a bit thicker there.



Then with some help of a friend we freed the lathe from its legs and heaved it up on the bench..



Then I painted the other IKEA cabinet and got that one up behind the lathe.

 

[adanielsson]

Which brings the current state to something like this:





I am very excited about this area!

Beneath the bench you can see where the pipe storage goes through the wall, as well as the hole that goes through to the band saw. I'm planning on making some more shelves there so that they aren't hanging freely in the air. Then I'll do some kind of storage boxes on wheels or cabinets of some sort.



Just need to decide on what to do straight ahead, I need to cover up the water piping regardless. But I either do a belt grinder bench or I do the previous sink idea.. I'm a bit torn. Sink in there seems a bit off, feels like grinder bench would be more suitable.



Thanks, until next time..

 

[ole1damgaard]

It is looking really good. I am following this, lots of inspiration for my own workshop.

 

[littlebean]

just read through - shows that thinking things through is well worth the time, looks great!

 

[Bempa]

I really like all your clever soultions and design. whereabouts in Sweden are you located?

 

[jarhead]

Very nice use of the space, I am enjoying the journey

 

[bj383ss]

Sub'd. Great Work all around and really impressed with your planning and sticking to a central color Scheme. I failed at this miserably and am having to go back and repaint cabinets and pegboard.

Bret

 

[adanielsson]

Thanks guys!

I believe Eisenhower said somthing to the effect of: "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything". And I can really agree, as you said littlebean, even though I've had to adjust along the way and changed the plan, it saved me -alot- of work knowing kind-of where I was headed, which walls and benches I could do before others etc. It's easy to get ahead of yourselves. The only regret I might have is that I didn't do anything to the floor at the very start when the garage was completely empty (not that it ever really was empty since we had to move stuff in there on day 1 when it was in the middle of a snowy winter. But if I'd really wanted to I would have found a way.

Bempa, Thanks! I'm mid-north, in the Sundsvall area.

bj383ss, yeah I'm really happy with the paint approach, cohesive color scheme with a cheapish "wood & metal-water based paint", applied with a roller. Good surface finish, quick and easy to apply, It takes three coats, two wet-on-wet on day 1 and a final pass on day 2. Holds upp better than expected, especially on steel, and the places where I've managed to scuff paint off its super easy to just apply some more.

 

[Krokodil]

Love what you are doing here!

 

[manbike26]

This is great! Love the roll-up covers over the pegboard and the industrial green.

 

[adanielsson]

I just realised that it's been a good while since I updated here, I guess we have some catching up to do!

Lets see..

Bought a nice long hose reel for air and installed it besides the compressor, also moved the bolt storage to cover parts of it, still need to finish off the open voids.





Decided the day before christmas that I really wanted a big round table for christmas. So at like 17.00 I went out on a scavenging hunt to see if I could find any free materials. Found a few pretty decent pallet collars. Took them into the metal shop and cut off all hinges.





Chopped the ends off..



Which left me with a stack of planks. I felt pretty cheap at this stage, having spent not an insignificant amount of the short time I had (one evening) on getting to basically zero result still.



Anyhow, Laid them out depending on quality and size..



Got lucky and found a free sheet of MDF, 10mm that I could use to mount them all.



Turned it around, used a regular jigsaw to cut it round. Then spent a good few hours the rest of the evening sanding it smooth..



Stole some legs from an IKEA desk as a temporary solution (I won't tell you if they're still there..) So this is what it looked like at around 01:00, just in time for christmas dinner with the family the next day.



I'm super happy with the outcome. Looks scandinavian, was basically free except for the legs which I had bought earlier, and ISN'T perfect. So I couldn't care less if someone scratches or dinks it. I've treated it with a thin layer of white wash to avoid it from turning too yellow over time, and then used hard wax oil since it's made from soft wood that'll soak up anything.

A lot more to come...

 

[adanielsson]

More projects..

My brothers daughter (niece?) turned one last year, and I hate gifts, and especially buying gifts. So I took some 2x4 and spent a few hours making her a little toy car.



Some color and hard wax oil (suitable for childrens toys of course)..



..some wheels and its Done!





Real happy with this one as well, and she's just turned two now and the little car has been thoroughly worn in but still holds up (even having been used as a ride-along). Any guesses yet on the make and model? No? I'm disappointed.

OG Renault Twingo - of course. Arguably one of the best cars in the world. It was my brothers first car, since then I've also had one that I roadtripped (and slept in) around europe.





Heard they are turning collectibles now, so forget about those 911s... For the intrigued one, check out - that - interior -> https://twingo.guide/

 

[adanielsson]

Also did an overhaul and rebuild of my electric snowmobile, that I designed way back in 2018.







You steer it with having skis on your feet and leaning into corners. It's like a mix of jet-skiing, off-piste skiing and snowmobiling. The original vehicle is called LARVEN (english translation Larva) and is a 60s-70s swedish invention. I've always loved the vehicle but thought I'd make something a bit smaller that fits in a small car and is electric for cleanliness and noise. Mine was featured on Discovery Channel Canada way back, in its first revision.

The original one had the most funny marketing department, sending out ads like this one:



And having slogans like:

1. "Larven - motorized skiing"
2. "Larven - more than a snowmobile"
3. "Larven - more than a snowmobile at a lower price"
4. "Motor skiing - a new way to ski"
5. "Larven - on top of most things"
6. "Larven - the specialist in snow"
7. "Larven - for those with high demands"
8. "Larven - If you're a king, then you're a king"
9. "Follow me and you'll see that you'll get caught!" - Terhi 10 and Larven 7700

I did buy the rights to the trademark, since the original manufacturer was bought up and dismantled, and if I ever was to go after this for any kind of production run, I sketched a few similarly quirky (instagram) ads..

 

[adanielsson]

Ok, lets get back to some infrastructure.. I decided to tackle my sad woodworking space:



Got into the metal shop and fabricated a steel frame,



Bolted some MDF to it and painted it:



Bought a sweet powerful belt/disc sander, got an electrician to wire 380V to my bandsaw and install an extension coil. This looks much better..



Now about that sad trash can that was thrown out at work a while ago..



Into the shop it goes.. Needs some wheels!






And a fresh coat of paint





That's a lot better. Everything here is plugged in and ready to go and can be used both as it looks now, or can be pulled out for better access with larger items for cutting/sanding. Always plugged in dust collection is on my to-do list.

 

[adanielsson]

My shop is multipurpose.. It's been nice that me and dad can use it to wax all our skis in a warm garage finally. In the background you can see I've finally gotten hooks and started to populate the wall tool board:



Bought a new drill press. A lovely swedish Arboga from the 50s, 380V. Went very nicely together with the same era lathe.



Oh and the horrible woodworking bench that I had got torn down and replaced with some cupboards that got left over from renovating our clothes-washing room.





I am super happy with my pipe storage and cutting bench. It is very convenient..



Simply pull out stock (up to 3m in length) (never mind the pile of stuff to be sorted)



Stick it into the cut saw, all 3m of it.



And cut..



Love it. So easy and space efficient.

Lots more to come...

 

[littlebean]

looking really good

 

[yhprum]

Nice! I like it a lot. The green paint color is perfect.

 

[adanielsson]

Thanks guys!

I bought an AC/DC TIG welder recently, been welding with one at the uni and work for 10 years but never owned one. Felt it was time to upgrade my current welding cart (wooden IKEA cabinet with castors). As with everything, all dimensions were critical to get it short enough to be easily moved around, low enough to get in under my welding table, and narrow enough to fit through the doorway and not take up all space beneath the table when parked. It also had to load both MIG and TIG welder with 11L/300bar tubes.



















Still needs; Finalized storage container/solution below, proper hangers for hoses/cables, a pull&steer handle and some paint, of course.

 

[tjansson]

Nice nordic ski collection. I'm a Fischer guy, too. I just finished watching the Falun WC races.

 

[gearhead1960]

Love the Mini! Tell more about it............

 

[adanielsson]

Nice @tjansson , a fellow skier! Teah the fischers are pretty nice.

Careful what you wish for Gearhead!

Let’s do the cars then. In order of appearance.

1972 Austin Mini Clubman



It was my very first car, bought it for all the money I had (~$1k back in 2008).



Had never changed oil in a car when I bought it, first thing I had to do was rebuild the engine due to worn piston rings. So I did that the first summer with it. Borrowed a kind friends dads spacious garage.



Got it running and used it as my daily (summer) driver for 6-7 years. Did some modifications to it and general maintenance since it was basically always something to fix every year. Done lots of mistakes, learned a ton. Love it, lots of memories, I’ll never get rid of it.



2014 Volkswagen UP!



Bought it back in late 2018, spent the spring rebuilding the interior and converted it to a campervan. My goal was to make it look as much as possible like factory/3rd party van-conversion company deals.



Welded up a powder coated aluminium structure that slots into the rear seat mountings.



My SO wasn’t then an avid camper so I went a bit overboard with mattress layers, but it turned out super comfy.





The most difficult part was sewing a double layer tent with sufficient ventilation, rain-proofing etc.









We then loaded it up and spent a month sleeping in it while we roadtripped the Alps and northern Italy. Loads of fun - and compact living. It’s our year-round daily driver. Cheap to own/run, simple mechanics so you can do your own maintenance. If you want more pictures of the build look at the earliest photos at this instagram account (excuse the filters): instagram.com/upfalia/

 

[adanielsson]

2001 Volkswagen Transporter T4 2.5TDI

Bought it just when Covid started, stripped it completely inside and did proper sound and heat insulation along with a full custom campervan interior. Two other friends did the same thing. Plan was to head to Europe but covid lockdown happened. Sweden had less restrict rules which meant we were free to roam the country and therefore spent our time by ourselves in the nature.





Redid the whole interior last year as well as added solar, external bike rack and a huge roof box. Sleeps two, stores two bikes inside and two on the outside, unlimited amount of skis. Fridge. Water system. Kitchen. We’ve surpassed 100 nights slept in it around Sweden, Norway and Europe while biking, hiking, skiing or just sightseeing. Coldest night recorded at 0°F, hottest one at 95°F (not pleasant). I use it when the UP is too small. Super practical.



I’m definitely a car guy, I enjoy especially small, fun, unique cars. The Mini certainly fulfils these criteria. The UP is also not too bad. The van is the most practical thing I’ve ever had.

However.

What all of them lack though is a bit of oumph, a bit of that “tingle down the pants every once in a while”. The Mini only has just over 40 hp, the UP! 75 hp. At times, I dream about a 911. But however I look at it or other expensive sports cars, I can’t relate to them, they’re not me, I don’t wear sunglasses, I’m not that cool. I also suffer from something that prevents me from spending a large upfront sum of money - for something off-the-shelf, that works. On the other hand, I have absolutely no issue spending often times MORE money, over time, building something unique by myself, that often ends up working not as good as an off-the-shelf solution. Case in point with my electric snowmobile.

I bought a 1275GT engine last summer that I’m in the process of tearing down to bore and rebuild for the mini. To get some more of that oumph. My goal from when I bought it was always to do a nuts and bolts resto the day I have my own garage.

Lets see, that’s, now, I guess?

Why do I feel no urge whatsoever to fix rusty metal. This mini has seen a lot of owners of various skill levels. It’ll never be a concourse car. It’ll also never be a 911. If I were to tear it down, I’m afraid it might never be on wheels again, I’d likely loose interest in the restoration sadly, due to the bodywork.

So, I guess you’ve already figured the answer out by now, no? That low - flat table beside the Mini? The Audi 012 gearbox on the floor, I see a center-pinion steering rack as well. I thought it was obvious that I’m going to build a Lotus 49-inspired street legal race car.

 

[garfieldzzz]

All nice and interesting, but is that a Super Monster T on the bike on the roof of the Mini?
(Ok, i doubt it, Inguess the Big Hit makes it look bigger due to the 24“ rear wheel)

 

[adanielsson]

Haha, Sorry @garfieldzzz, it’s merely a regular Monster T 03. Still have it, smoothest fork in the world in my opinion. Just a smidge heavy for pulling manuals - but not impossible.

 

[littlebean]

the mini is cool and the UP conversion is brilliant!
looking forward to seeing the Lotus 49 inspired street car

 

[gearhead1960]

A little oomph is always appreciated. I would not do a restoration, but just keep the Mini going. A bigger more powerful engine is a step in the right direction. My Mini (BMW) is a 17 F54 Clubman ALL4 S that I've had tuned. Pushing 300hp and it's easy to exceed all legal speeds at any time and does on a regular basis

 

[samb]

Nice @tjansson , a fellow skier! Teah the fischers are pretty nice.

Careful what you wish for Gearhead!

Let’s do the cars then. In order of appearance.

1972 Austin Mini Clubman



It was my very first car, bought it for all the money I had (~$1k back in 2008).



Had never changed oil in a car when I bought it, first thing I had to do was rebuild the engine due to worn piston rings. So I did that the first summer with it. Borrowed a kind friends dads spacious garage.



Got it running and used it as my daily (summer) driver for 6-7 years. Did some modifications to it and general maintenance since it was basically always something to fix every year. Done lots of mistakes, learned a ton. Love it, lots of memories, I’ll never get rid of it.



2014 Volkswagen UP!



Bought it back in late 2018, spent the spring rebuilding the interior and converted it to a campervan. My goal was to make it look as much as possible like factory/3rd party van-conversion company deals.



Welded up a powder coated aluminium structure that slots into the rear seat mountings.



My SO wasn’t then an avid camper so I went a bit overboard with mattress layers, but it turned out super comfy.





The most difficult part was sewing a double layer tent with sufficient ventilation, rain-proofing etc.









We then loaded it up and spent a month sleeping in it while we roadtripped the Alps and northern Italy. Loads of fun - and compact living. It’s our year-round daily driver. Cheap to own/run, simple mechanics so you can do your own maintenance. If you want more pictures of the build look at the earliest photos at this instagram account (excuse the filters): instagram.com/upfalia/

This is ****** brilliant! Very unusual choice of camper van. Bet you get some strange looks at the sites.