New workshop - your recommendations

Started marking out the garden for the new workshop today. Decided I need to start so it might be done this year and I don't spend another winter looking at my freezing garage wishing I could be metal bashing

It will be 12' by 8' internal. Double layered flooring laid cross wise over 50mm insulation on concrete over hardcore. Walls and roof will be 50mm insulation with log lap exterior (felt on roof). All walls and ceilings boarded out. Small windows looking west. Moisture and vapour barriers.

What I want are your learned thoughts about anything else I can design in or should consider. So far from reading "shed" or "workshop" threads I have gleaned:

- you can never have enough power sockets: I intend to run power from the consumer unit in the garage via a conduit to a smaller consumer unit in the workshop. This will have a lighting circuit and power circuits. All my machines (lathe, mill/drill, shaper) are converted to 3 phase from inverters so don't need a huge fuse rating (10A I reckon?) for this circuit. Other stuff (pillar drill, grinder, bandsaw) are single phase

Can I have the machine lights (bench height) on the same circuit as the ceiling lights (probably fluoro tubes) ?

- flooring: needs to be cleanable and durable, any suggestions?

- layout: there will two 2' doors in one of the 8' ends. I consider this the "dirty" end as it is closest to the doors so easiest to sweep muck out onto tarpaulin or the like

But what about swarf control? From the mill and shaper the blasted stuff flies everywhere so will reach all corners of the workshop unless I do something. Pointing the shaper towards the door is one possibility so the swarf flies that way! Maybe a perspex screen around the mill/drill?

Any wall adjacent are not occupied by a floor standing machine will be benched

Anyway those are my thoughts at this stage. Any other considerations or suggestions gratefully received

John

For flooring I can recommend solid black rubber conveyor belting. The smooth faced stuff I have in my shop is about 13 mm thick, quite a hard rubber and chips don't seem to embed in it. It is a good sound and vibration absorbent material, and is easy on the back and legs standing on it. It is a good insulator against cold and damp. Sweeps very clean. I got mine from a friend who works at a cement factory, the belting was beat up one side but very good the other. The plant had replaced a mile long belt, and it was going to landfill. My friend cut off a few lengths for our use before the several truckloads of it were scrapped. The belting has worked well for me.

Lots of power outlets and good lighting is important.

A fire extinguisher and a phone extension for dialing out in emergencies is a good idea (you may be parched some evening and need a friend with ale to come to your assistance, if nothing more serious). A normal phone can be set up with no ring so you can't be disturbed but if need be you can still dial out.

An alarm system tied into your home security system if available is a good idea. Many home security systems have a medical emergency function nowadays with a button that can be pushed for one touch medical emergency response in addition to fire and break-in response as usual. If you have a serious cut or burn injury or have some sort of bad medical event while working, having some way of letting responders know is a good idea especially as we get older. Don't count on being able to yell to your partner, get to the house, or being tough enough to drive yourself to the emergency room. It's never happened to me, but has happened to two friends now, so this is why I am harping on it.

JD

The insulationis a bit light, 4-6 in would be better.
Don''t forget to allocate floor space for the vacuum and dehumidifier.
Design in security. A counterweighted plate to cover the window.
Design the doorway so that there is no threshold plate. Have the door close against the floor slab and open outwards over a slightly lowered path. but with a 4x2 gap. When you need to you can fill the gap with a bit of wood and run tool and loco trollies straight out.
Put doors on the space below the benches and use cupboards not shelves above.

Jeff

Hmmm do I know anyone with a mile of surplus belt? wow big ask mate Already got fire extinguishers. Good call on the emergency aspect. I once almost severed the end of my ring finger cleaning my motorbike chain with the engine running when it got dragged into the drive sprocket

Bayzle

50mm of Kingspan too light? Dehumidifier bought. Windows will be about 30-50cm high at the top so access will not be easy. Like the idea of the floor running straight out with no lip. Doors will open out so can do this. Good idea on the cupboards.

Thanks guys

Hi John,

Re: lighting running from ceiling lights. Should be possible if you can wire from the lights to each machine position, it could just be an extension of the switched ceiling circuit or run a permanent live (plus neutral and earth obviously) to each position so you can switch the machine lights individually. Either way would be easy enough if you're planning on running a trunking system around the wall and branch off with conduit to each light.

I've run 4"x2" PVC dado trunking around my shed. PVC due to it being non corrosive. The sockets fit into the trunking and I have lights on the ceiling via conduit and tubular heaters at the back of each machine, well actually just one behind my mill as that's all I have in there for the moment.

Use metal clad sockets and conduit on the front of benches so you don't have trailing leads from the back of the bench, across the bench.

Take an earth from one socket to the vise in case you are holding something in the vise that goes live.

Don't ask.

Conduit loops fastened to the ceiling to hold cheap Ikea shower curtains for chip control, can be wrapped up round the conduit or tied back when not in use.

John - are Ikea shower curtains fireproof? I just had a mental image of putting a brazing torch to one side and having a chip control shower curtain go >WHOOSH<.

If you do not have open lights in the shop I can see the curtain idea would work well, but if there is open flame, probably wise to verify fire proof aspect before using them.

Like they say at some car companies - "SAFETY THIRD!"

JD

Also a good RCD.

Ah yes, good point. The circuit feeding the workshop should be RCD protected.

Assuming you've been reading the LED lights thread it might be worth wiring a 12v ring to a suitable psu.

Consider having one small bench that is higher than usual - perhaps about 44 or 46", close-up work is much easier with your elbows resting on it. I have never regretted building mine.

As to swarf pinging all over, fix a clear Perspex sheet about 6" square or bigger, screwed to a 6" strip of copper or something bendable and that in turn fixed to a decent strength magnet. This can be positioned close up to the source of the chips and angled to bounce them downwards into the lathe tray etc.

Hi there, John,

Your outline specification mentions 'felt on roof'.

In my experience, roofing felt isn't what it used to be!

I suggest that you investigate the sort of corrugated iron that comes with a thick layer of insulating foam already bonded to its underside.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

When I converted my single brick garage that's attached to the bungalow, I gave the brickwork three coats of a vapour barrier, fastened 2x4s to the brickwork forming a framework, 2" EPS between said framework then Stirling board over that, painted white, as is the floor.

Before doing so, the garage would either be boiling in summer or freezing in winter.

Now, however, the temperature gets no lower than 5° overnight and in summer no higher than 10-15° no matter what it is outside.

Heaven

Surprisingly humidity appears absent, as nothing appears to be rusting now, whereas before it was a constant battle.

Insulate, insulate, insulate to anyone contemplating such, you won't regret doing so.

Geoff - Time to fix carport leak.

I did what you are doing about 5 years ago and you seem to have most points sorted so just a few pointers from my experience.

(1) Traditional roofing felt, as mentioned, is not a good long term idea, I used the newer adhesive backed polyester roofing "felt" after coating the wooden roof with bitumen primer. The polyester covering was then stuck to the roof,thus eliminating the need for roofing nails. After 5 years the roof is still perfect and should reach the expected life of 20 years.

(2) I used garage floor paint on flooring grade chipboard and the floor is still in good condition

(3) I made bench tops from 38mm kitchen worktop and they work very well.You can pick up slightly damaged ones very cheaply .

(4) I covered the inside of the glass windows with double walled polycarbonate sheets, sealed to the window frame. This served to improve the insulation and provided some security since they make seeing into the shed more difficult, while letting light in.

(5) Plenty of metal clad sockets-then add some more!

Doug

I did the same as OuBallie; & am getting much the same summer / winter set temperatures, when we had the cold snap earlier on this year the outside was -4 to -6* & the garage thermometer read + 5* an hours warm up with the two oil filled rads soon got it settled up to +12 - 16* nice & cosy! the other addition I put in was to plasterboard the roofing rafters & line the above space with 'space blanket' which when unrolled expanded to 6" thickness which helps a great deal.

As for the floor' I painted it garage 'grey' floorpaint & bought some of the foam floor tiles from Machine Mart (usual disclaimer) which are comfy underfoot & also help retain heat but do tend to have swarf stick to them (access to conveyor belting would be a boon) but I have made an acetate chip shield the full length of the mill table & ea. end so it has cut down on the amount of chips flying about. The roll up door has 'space blanket fixed to the panels which does the job fine but cosmetically ugly, I'm thinking of replacing this with the same type Celotex insulation as the walls & considering I don't have any windows (side/back walls back onto neighbours gardens) no security issues there.

Electrics are via a new ring mains fed from the house DB via RCD MCB's for the power & lighting, through a DB in the garage & then also protected by plugin RCD's for ea.machine.I started out with 5 double sockets(10 sockets) off the ring but have now added extension leads which give me access to a total of 20 sockets..only a single garage I know but have still turned around looking for the nearest socket! so the message is.. sockets,sockets & more sockets & when you have finished with cupbords /shelving, if you have space ..stick another socket in it. . As with Geoff I have not noticed any discernable rust anywhere in the garage apart from some on old MS stock that has been lying around prior to converting the garage, & which I have now cleaned up & have lightly oiled /greased prior to storing down at the storage end (roller door).

I always take one of my wireless phones in with me as these have a intercom facility built in, along with my mobile, so contact with SWMBO, or anyone else is not an issue, plus if you have your priorities set you should have your radio, kettle, teabags/coffee already in there & these are the first items to be switched on so you should be looking at..

1. lights on.

2. kettle on.

3. radio on.

4. Sit on your collapsable bar stool & ask your self ..what was I going to do? 

Have fun buildng your man cave, & some pics posted as you go along would be nice.

George

Edited By mechman48 on 03/05/2013 16:49:24

5. log in to wireless connection on laptop and open latest digital ME.

One handy thing, well it was when Mum lived with me, a Dick Smith kit intercom, although it did give me a scare one night when the neighbors cat got shut in the workshop, and pressed the call button!

Ian S C

Hello John,

My two penn'orth would be to paint the upper cupboard doors in blackboard paint, they make top class notice boards etc. I used old kitchen units, they are remarkably strong when a plywood back is screwed to them.

My bench vise sits at a 45 degree angle on the end corner of the workbench, long lenrths stick out of the door.

Clip frequently used tools on a rack under the wall cupboards. Reference charts under perspex up on the ceiling

Brian

Hi Bazyle

#5. - Nice one! never thought 'bout about that .

John

Consider running a 13A radial fed from a RCD fused spur for most of your sockets. You can have as many as you like and it is easy to add extra sockets when you need them. It may be easier to run machine lighting from switched fused connection units from this circuit as well because the cable run will be near the machines. If you do use an RCD FCU, place it somewhere accessible so it can also act as an emergency stop.

Also have separate circuits (possibly a 30A ring) for heating and for higher load equipment. Some motors have high startup currents that would trip your 13A radial.

Not sure about the suggestion to have sockets on the front of benches as they are more prone to damage and ingress of swarf etc if not covered and they get in the way of drawers and cupboards.

If you have any metal work tops or any other metal structures it is a good idea to have permanent earths. i.e the vice as already mentioned.

Don't like the idea of having individual RCDs for each machine. Permanently wired RCD protected circuit(s) is the best idea and less expensive.

A minor point but what about a doorbell extension? - I have missed the delivery of important supplies when in the workshop.

Surprised no one has mentioned Part P and nor will I!

Regards

John