Hi everyone, I've been a lurker on the forum on and off for god knows how long...probably not long enough!
It's been a great place to get inspiration and advice and I've only got around to posting a thread on my own projects in the hope that the questions I come up with are easier answered when you realise what the hell I'm trying to do!
Unfortunately my workshop is just rented at the moment; one day I'll build something exactly how I want it, but its bad enough trying to buy a house nevermind build a workshop when you're infected with 'motorsport syndrome'...
So its not exactly how I want it and I'm restricting myself to what I spend on it because its all really dead money when I move out! So any money I have available really only goes on things I'll take with me.
So my story starts out renting workshop space [read converted barn] from one friend, then outgrowing the area he can give me, so I rent from another friend [read converted piggery] until I outgrow that area, so I finally take the plunge and ask the farmer for a shed on my own...an old chicken shed! So the grand tour consists of walking through a dark shed, saying "I'll take this much to here!" Only problem is the existing tenants ain't too happy at where they're going once the deals done!!! (If you look closely towards the back of the shed you'll see them!)
Apart from the smell of the chickens, the place was solid but in a real mess, so over the first year every piece of wiring was stripped out, new lighting fitted, new roof cladding and the walls and floor painted. The workshop was meant to be for me to prepare my cars in, but I don't earn much money so I did any customer work I could to raise enough to go competing. This slowly turned into larger projects and within a year I was building full cars for customers:
You can see I repainted several times, mostly when I started new projects as I like to give customers progress photos and always wanted the place looking as nice as I could get it. Slowly but surely I made enough to pay the rent, get out competing myself and make a start on workshop facilities - built a store to keep everything possible tidied away and the day I built my first bench was a milestone!
After some advice on here I went with a bare steel top, painted underneath but regularly WD-40 + glass paper'd on the top and its brilliant!
This swiftly progressed to a big brother of a bench joining it; 2000mm x 1500mm wide castor bench to build race karts on:
Again, 50x50mm box section topped with a bare steel top - its at a standing height so you don't wreck your back leaning down and over the karts and it rolls up to the back of the truck so that the karts just 'drive' into the back for transportation as the truck has benches either side at the same level to avoid any lifting. Yeah; that's how OCD I want everything to be!!!
Anyways, I've now got to today (that was a quick nine years!) and I'm wanting to keep more of a progress thread to keep me motivated on my own projects that get shelved each time a customer project comes in, so I don't forget about them and years later wonder why I still haven't started them!
So the recent purchases have been a Mole hand bench grinder; never even thought about one before, but it came up in the local ads cheap and I thought it'd be useful for when you want to control more delicate jobs, so here it is!
The plan is to strip and rebuild it before mounting together with a electric bench grinder on a pedestal.
Also on the long and never ending want list was a pillar drill. I have a machinist who helps me out and he rents space from me for his kit, but sometimes you want a quick drill job done and setting up his mill to do this is often a bit overkill for the job, so I bought a cheap Italian bench drill:
The guy selling it was as dodgy as they come...and I couldn't test it because:
At one point he said "Its Italian mate...its just like buying a Ferrari..." which I replied with "Errr...I think you'll find its not at all like buying a Ferrari!!!"
But it was cheap, local and so I took a punt on it. Got it back to the shop, re-wired the plug and away she went, so lucky for me! The spring is only pulling back half way, but apart from that its pretty damn good with no play in the column at all. Once I finished my customer jobs for the day, I stripped it down into its main parts in anticipation of a clean up, paint and rebuild...especially after ogling over yaidunno's threads! Its hardly on the same quality level as his kit, but it'll do for the jobs I need it to do for now.
So here I am to date; not sure if this is half as interesting as some of you guys workshops, but hopefully I can keep this updated and you guys can hound me when I don't! Eventually I'll get my dream shop built, but for now this what I have to play with!
It's been a great place to get inspiration and advice and I've only got around to posting a thread on my own projects in the hope that the questions I come up with are easier answered when you realise what the hell I'm trying to do!
Unfortunately my workshop is just rented at the moment; one day I'll build something exactly how I want it, but its bad enough trying to buy a house nevermind build a workshop when you're infected with 'motorsport syndrome'...
So its not exactly how I want it and I'm restricting myself to what I spend on it because its all really dead money when I move out! So any money I have available really only goes on things I'll take with me.
So my story starts out renting workshop space [read converted barn] from one friend, then outgrowing the area he can give me, so I rent from another friend [read converted piggery] until I outgrow that area, so I finally take the plunge and ask the farmer for a shed on my own...an old chicken shed! So the grand tour consists of walking through a dark shed, saying "I'll take this much to here!" Only problem is the existing tenants ain't too happy at where they're going once the deals done!!! (If you look closely towards the back of the shed you'll see them!)
Apart from the smell of the chickens, the place was solid but in a real mess, so over the first year every piece of wiring was stripped out, new lighting fitted, new roof cladding and the walls and floor painted. The workshop was meant to be for me to prepare my cars in, but I don't earn much money so I did any customer work I could to raise enough to go competing. This slowly turned into larger projects and within a year I was building full cars for customers:
You can see I repainted several times, mostly when I started new projects as I like to give customers progress photos and always wanted the place looking as nice as I could get it. Slowly but surely I made enough to pay the rent, get out competing myself and make a start on workshop facilities - built a store to keep everything possible tidied away and the day I built my first bench was a milestone!
After some advice on here I went with a bare steel top, painted underneath but regularly WD-40 + glass paper'd on the top and its brilliant!
This swiftly progressed to a big brother of a bench joining it; 2000mm x 1500mm wide castor bench to build race karts on:
Again, 50x50mm box section topped with a bare steel top - its at a standing height so you don't wreck your back leaning down and over the karts and it rolls up to the back of the truck so that the karts just 'drive' into the back for transportation as the truck has benches either side at the same level to avoid any lifting. Yeah; that's how OCD I want everything to be!!!
Anyways, I've now got to today (that was a quick nine years!) and I'm wanting to keep more of a progress thread to keep me motivated on my own projects that get shelved each time a customer project comes in, so I don't forget about them and years later wonder why I still haven't started them!
So the recent purchases have been a Mole hand bench grinder; never even thought about one before, but it came up in the local ads cheap and I thought it'd be useful for when you want to control more delicate jobs, so here it is!
The plan is to strip and rebuild it before mounting together with a electric bench grinder on a pedestal.
Also on the long and never ending want list was a pillar drill. I have a machinist who helps me out and he rents space from me for his kit, but sometimes you want a quick drill job done and setting up his mill to do this is often a bit overkill for the job, so I bought a cheap Italian bench drill:
The guy selling it was as dodgy as they come...and I couldn't test it because:
At one point he said "Its Italian mate...its just like buying a Ferrari..." which I replied with "Errr...I think you'll find its not at all like buying a Ferrari!!!"
But it was cheap, local and so I took a punt on it. Got it back to the shop, re-wired the plug and away she went, so lucky for me! The spring is only pulling back half way, but apart from that its pretty damn good with no play in the column at all. Once I finished my customer jobs for the day, I stripped it down into its main parts in anticipation of a clean up, paint and rebuild...especially after ogling over yaidunno's threads! Its hardly on the same quality level as his kit, but it'll do for the jobs I need it to do for now.
So here I am to date; not sure if this is half as interesting as some of you guys workshops, but hopefully I can keep this updated and you guys can hound me when I don't! Eventually I'll get my dream shop built, but for now this what I have to play with!