The old woodshop

[nico]

So, we bought an old farm last autumn, and after some fixing upping we moved in here in the spring. We have a bunch of extra buildings, former stables, one of which had been partially converted into a woodshop. Nothing really fancy, but a very usable space for me.
I'm not much of a woodworker but it's a good space for me to tinker with engines and what not. I've never had a shop at home, at our previous house my shop was about half a mile away but moving here meant my shop is now about 15 miles away, which apparently is too far for me, it's become a bit of a PITA to go there which has resulted in me not being there a whole lot. So, it's about time to realize this "dream" of having a shop right at home.

Here's what I have to work with.. As you can maybe see a lot of hand tools were left behind, which I was grateful for Not that I really need them, but who says no to free tools? A lot of this stuff is from the 60s, which is pretty cool too, especially for a person who enjoys basically anything vintage


It's not a huge space, about 20x20 ft, but I'm not gonna be having any vehicles in there. There is another space right next to it and the idea is to have this as a general tinkering area, and do all the wrenching on the snowmobiles/mopeds and what not in the other space. So this space will have a bunch of stations basically (construction/welding, cleaning, engine assembly/disassembly, porting, sandblasting, etc), for which it should be plenty large.

This is perhaps a bit more of a project than it sounds.. I don't have a whole lot of demands but there is one major problem with this space right now, as you can see on the next 2 pics



Yea, so the guy who built it wasn't exactly the tallest! I on the other hand am 6'5 tall and a ceiling this low makes it impossible for me to be there longer than a couple of minutes. I'm not claustrophobic or anything but it just drives me nuts.

Conclusion: I need a higher ceiling.

First thing to do was to see if the ceiling was actually a structural part of the building, which luckily it wasn't. As I said this building has been a stable before, and around 1960 they got rid of the animals and this shop was built. There is one beam that supports the roof, which will have to stay, but all the other beams you see on the first pic are just there to keep the ceiling up. So basically everything that is in the way for my head can be removed, which was good news.

While I was investigating that, I also found out that the ceiling is insulated with about a foot thick of sawdust mixed with wood snips. Obviously if the ceiling is gonna come down, all this is gonna have to come down too..


I started out by removing most of the junk that was stored up there. Next I put a hole in the ceiling, put my wheelbarrow underneath it with a "hose" made out of a large garbage bag, and started pushing wood snips down the hole. After about 10 wheelbarrows (and climbing up and down each time) I realized that this method was going to take forever and I had to figure something else out.
So figured what the hell, moved some stuff out of the way, put a larger hole in the ceiling and just started sweeping the sawdust down the hole straight onto the floor. I figured if it's down there at least I won't have to climb up and down all the time, and even if I have to move everything twice that'd save me a lot of time..
Well, this turned out to be a brilliant idea, and has resulted in that I'm now about halfway through with the insulation, after about 8 hours of work.

Some more pics then..
One side cleared. You can see the new hole in the back.


Still got the other side to go though...


Downstairs things looked like this.. Dust is literally everywhere but the good old snow shovel makes quick work of moving the stuff around
The hole in the wall leads to the other space by the way. I'm not sure yet if I'll be reusing this insulation (it's free after all and seems to do a good enough job..) but until I make up my mind it's dry there and not really in the way. If I want to get rid of it that other space actually has doors so getting rid of it won't be too much of a hassle.


The snow blower made getting rid of the stuff even less of an effort but made even more of a mess too


And finally a view of the extremely dusty "sawdust room".. Which will probably be a project for next year.



This first stage (raising the roof and making the space usable) should ideally be finished around mid october because that is when I have to start working on my racing sleds again. I'm not so sure I'll make it but I guess we'll see!

 

[Amitygravel]

Looks like a neat place.
Keep the photos coming as you make changes.
How about some pictures of the tools that were left behind.

Craig

 

[neutral]

looks like it has alot of potential. i'd like to see these sleds you're talking about aswell

 

[930dreamer]

Yes, more pics of everything. I wouldn't have a issues with that ceiling height.

 

[blue dog]

You have a sawdust room, i believe a garagejournal first.
great place.

 

[Kevin54]

Don't use sawdust as an insulation. The dust from it can explode in the right circumstances.

 

[wolflrv]

Take all that sawdust and put it in a pile somewhere outside. Toss grass clippings on it for about a year or two and turn the whole pile twice a year. You'll end up with some killer compost for flower beds and such and all for free!

Cool space btw...will be watching this thread!

 

[BigRed390]

You can't replicate character like that place has! I like it a lot!

 

[nico]

Yea I'm a bit hesitant about reusing the sawdust, but it has pros and cons.. But to be honest I'd rather use a modern insulation.
Thanks for the compost tip, my girlfriend will love that And with about 8 acres of grass there's plenty of clippings..

I think it does indeed have a lot of character. Nothing prefab, everything in there was handmade exactly as the guy wanted it. Coming in there for the first time I could really see how this guy used to work in there, just by looking at how the tools were organized. They were even hanging from the ceiling, just to have them nearby. I figure as it was now must've been close to perfect for him, just felt very well thought out.
Another funny thing that I think says a lot about him and his way of doing things, is that the feet for the bench in the middle actually go down into the cement floor. Apparently that's where it was supposed to be, not to be moved, ever! It's a bit low for me but I will raise it and keep having a bench there, where it's supposed to be

Pics of tools will have to wait for a bit, I packed almost all of them down in boxes so they wouldn't be in my way. There's a lot of stuff that I have no idea what they are for, so I'll definitely upload some pics later and maybe you can help me identify some of them.

Here's a couple pics of my sleds though..
This is a 69 Olympique that I've been racing for 2 years now, I think it's safe to say that it is Sweden's fastest one lunger, it's never been beaten in dragrace As soon as things get curvy or less than perfectly flat it's a different story tho.. I was planning on putting the engine in a more stable chassis this year but I don't have time to build a new sled so I'll just see if I can find some more power in the engine and keep bouncing around for another winter

Another project I'm working on is a 1970 Blizzard clone with 71 645 engine:

And this one should be fun once it's running.. A 71 Blizzard 246 clone with 1970 776 engine

 

[ishiboo]

DEFINITELY do not reuse the sawdust, at least anywhere in the building. As Kevin54 said, sawdust can be explosive and as flammable as gasoline.

Awesome building though. I know how the low ceilings go, and I'm also 6'5". Fortunately mine are 7'

 

[magnusk750]

Hej Sverige from swedish expat. Keep the posting coming. Is it a Storvreta welder I can see in the pics? Must have been great sales of those, basically they are 'everywere' in old farmsteads. About insulation, especially in barns, do use modern cellulose fibre insulation such as Termoträ. Environmentalfriendly, treated against fire and reduces risk of extent moisture.

 

[nico]

Okay, definitely a no for the sawdust then! Saves me a lot of a work and probably a big mess too.

Hej Magnus, I actually haven't really looked at the welder too much but it's definitely a model from back in the day. Funny thing with it is that as you can probably see the handlebars (or whatever one would call those) are broken, and need to be welded
So much old stuff has been left here in the barns and outdoors, I've probably only seen half of it so far after living here for half a year. Just today I discovered an old plow or something while mowing the lawn. It was in a spot that I've passed by dozens of times, but in uncut grass. I stopped at the right spot and noticed a piece of rusty metal barely sticking up through the grass, and it turns out there was a 6x4 foot thing attached to it. We have about 20 acres of land, and who knows what else is out there hidden between the trees or in high grass. Some of this stuff laying around here has got to be almost 100 years old. The stables were first built in the 1920s but have been extended and rebuilt over the years. This woodworking shop was the latest change I think, which happened around 1962.
One of our neighbours grew up here so he told me a lot about it. His father is the one who built the shop as well as our house, and his grandfather built the house next door and the original stables. Both died a long time ago and I've never met either of them, but if his length is anything to go by, that for sure explains the low ceilings and doors everywhere!

 

[Amitygravel]

Wow !
When you said sleds I was thinking well , not that kind of sled ! Too cool !

Definately agree on the cellulose insulation. Pile it in !

Craig

 

[magnusk750]

But, just to mention; I very much doubt that sawdust can cause explosion in a house. Sawdust in big amounts with much air in it can cause explosions in sawmills, but compacted and held in place as insulation in a building; no way that it can cause any explosions. It's been used as insulation in buildings for about 100 years until rock and glass wool came into the market in 1950s or 1960s. Sawdust is even rather difficult to light when compacted. I once asked a friend who is a fire engineer if sawdust is codified or classified in any way for fire matters. As far as he knew it is not, in Sweden, but his experience is that if an older saw dust insulated building have burnt, it's mostly only the outer few centimeters of the sawdust that has burnt, rest is untouched.

About the welder, not that it is important, but these were made by a small company in Storvreta, Erikssons mekaniska verkstad if I remember right, and it must have been quite a seller for them as they could be seen very often in farm shops, small repair shops and so on. They've stayed in my mind as my uncle have one in his farm shop and Storvreta is close to my hometown Uppsala. Quite cool how a small local manufacturer could have success before globalisation.