Thread: Time to improve my work environment

A word of caution. I had a similar situation on my place and closed in the open end, used the space adjacent to the fence, etc,etc.

Long story short, went to sell the house and the council gave me hell. No approval, needed engineers certs, pest certs, fire rating compliance, plans, etc,etc. Lost 3 potential buyers because I short cut the system.

What I am saying is, we don't know whats in the future so anything you do needs to be ok with council otherwise you or family members are going to have a drama in the future.

With my extensive building background, you would have thought I would know better but expediency and 'she'll be right mate' approach cost us dearly and stress

The school of life is an unforgiving teacher

Thanks for taking the time to pass on your warning.
I'm certain all will be good based on previous experiences with this council regarding other proposed works on my home.
Basically, the buildings here pre-date building and town planning permits. There are several examples of breaches of the code in the house for instance that are allowed to remain because the codes didn't exist when the building was done. (Minimum side setback, minimum clearance under timber floor etc) So long as the basic shape and use is not altered I can do pretty much what I want. Found this out when I bought the place and my conveyancer couldn't source permits for anything on the block despite fairly obvious signs that some extensions had been done in recent years. I had fairly extensive conversations with council at that time.
Council basically said they have no idea what is on the block other than a description of "A residence" and a "Non habitable outbuilding". Therefore no way of knowing for sure if any work was carried out in 1995 without a permit or 1885 and therefore exempt.
Jim
ETA: Sorry, should have also stated. I did speak to council regarding the work I'm doing now. No structural alterations taking place and below min $ amount = no building permit required. No change to current use and no change to existing size = no town planning permit required.
J

I didn't have time to read it all but I will tell you what we did when all we had was a 3m x 6 m carport.
At the open end we welded up a frame and covered it in corrugated opague (forgot what it is called, old timers ) you know the stuff they use for skylights in sheds.
We hinged it to the top of the carport and put a couple of supports legs on, so we could lift it up and use it as extra shelter. Was nice when the sun was shining and sheltered for the rain when it was down.We built a timber frame on the side and covered it with hardyboard and put an old window in.
The timberframe allso supported some shelves. We bought the adjustable brackets and supports from M10 and used pine boards for the shelving.
Underneath the shelves we had an old steel tableframe covered in a couplle of sheets of construction ply, that was the workbench with the compressor living underneath it
All our machinery was on wheels and lived alongside the other wall, then we rolled them out when we needed them.
We had a 6" jointer, a 13" thicknesser, a routertable, a tablesaw, pedestal drillpress, sliding mitresaw plus all the other incidentals.
Served us well for a few years until the cyclone made mincemeat of it all.
Don't know about a heater, we do not need them up here but a pedestal fan worked well in summer.
Now we have a 9m x 4 m workshop and are running out of room.
Go figure
Cheers
Wolffie

Thanks Wolffie,
I haven't really turned my mind to the machinery yet. I've downsized my TS to a Durden pacemaker which means my buzzer can now go as the Durden has a small one attached which will suit my needs now.
I have a 15" thicky in my storage shed that I really really miss. Getting it out and usable is high on the list. I reckon your idea of castors is the way to go.

Got a fair bit done today. Most of the framing for the large wall is done.
Attachment 218503

Plus the start of a kick-out to house the compressor.
Attachment 218504

Also in this section is the solution to another issue. When I first bought my SCMS it was heavyish but manageable. Now...with two discs buggered and now a hernia...soon to be fixed I hope, I have to be really careful about lifting. I've got a bench in my workshop where I can put the SCMS so I don't have to bend but it's awkward to lift it out everytime I want to use it.
So, my solution is to put a shelf in the kickout that I can just push the SCMS back onto. No lifting.

Hit an issue with the bottom of the walls. Because the slab goes beyond the wall, water will pool there and rot out my bottom plates.
Attachment 218505

Fortunately, I'm one of those guys that never throws anything away so I happen to have some dampcourse left over from some mudbrick work years ago.
That should fix it
Attachment 218506

So far, I'm happy with progress.
My roofing plumber apprentice son has scored some old sheets of corry for the outside cladding and I lashed out for some R3 wool batts for this wall. $50 bucks worth.

Cheers
Jim

A bit more progress.
All the corry tin work finished on the main wall.
To save some time and effort, I painted all the sheets with one coat before I put them up. I intended to give them a second coat once they were up but after looking at it I probably won't.
Attachment 218851

In the above photo you can also see some pine lining on the floor I scored from daughters reno. She pulled it off dado walls her home originally had. They were laid horizontally so some good lengths there. Not sure where I'll use them yet.

Just another shot of the wall.
Attachment 218852

Finishing that kickout so I can put my compressor under cover is the next bit I think.

Actually, doing a bit of searching here comes first. Someone put a remote drain on their compressor. Need to find that again.
And I need to refresh my memory on how to lay the line-out so you get water drainage out of the lines etc then dig out my bits and bobs for the line to see what I need to source.

Cheers
Jim

Jum, I have all my tools, bar the lathe on mobile bases. I have two types of mobile base, Gary Pye and Carbatec. I prefer the Gary Pye ones, ease of assembly and use. 1 finger can move my Thicky/Jointer/Bandsaw around a clean floor. That is the key to using mobile bases, keeping the floor clean, not having carpet squares for the dogs in the way.

Looks like a good build.

Thanks Pat,
I'll probably have to make my own base to suit the thicky. It has relatively small spindly (is that a word?) legs. They're fine for normal use but I don't think they'd cut it in a mobile situation. Should only cost me the price of some decent castors.
Cheers
Jim

Found what I was looking for re the remote venting of a compressor. Link HERE

BobL, are you around?
You obviously used what you had laying around. Are the bits you used costly since I'll have to go buy them? What kind of place sells stuff like that?

Cheers
Jim

Interesting build Jim. I will be following this.

Bret

Better make yourself comfortable then Bret.
My projects tend to take a fair while to complete.
Jim

Originally Posted by Grandad-5

Found what I was looking for re the remote venting of a compressor. Link HERE

BobL, are you around?
You obviously used what you had laying around. Are the bits you used costly since I'll have to go buy them? What kind of place sells stuff like that?

Remote venting:
1) standard 24VAC home retic solenoid.
I had a couple left I recovered when I removed part of the garden when I built the new part of my shed. I have see these in bunnings for $18"
2) 240-24VAC power transformer
This transformer came from my old rectic system. You can get these from a retic shop or cheaper still if you are prepared to do a bit of soldering and woring from places like Jacay for $10.
3) one small standard 240V switch
This came from a demolition of my sisters old place. Bunnings.
4) Some home retic wiring.
5) Just wire the transformer, the switch and the solenoid is series - it's that simple

Ah hah! I just had a lightbulb moment. They're garden irrigation parts.
Sorry Bob, I didn't make that connection.
It's all good now.
Thanks for popping in.
Jim

It was a lovely weekend here in beautiful downtown Bendigo.
The kind of days one really wants to get out and get something done in.

Insulated and lined the kickout. AC sheet on the back wall and ceiling. Pine lining on the sides. Starting to look like something now.
Attachment 219387

Number 1 daughter came to help. Here she is learning how a power point is wired under the watchful eye of the old man.
Attachment 219388

Also got a couple of sheets of chipboard up the top of the wall.
Attachment 219389

These sheets have been laying around for some time so the edges have swollen a bit. Quick run with a handplane levelled them off nicely.
Not quite big enough offcut to fill in the centre but a couple of pieces of "D" moulding will cover that.

I'm planning on using the pine lining for the bottom half with a bit of MDF architrave as a dado moulding.

Painting that chipboard will be fun. It'll soak it up bigtime. Think I'll have to invest in a gallon of decent undercoat.

One other job tackled. When I built the saw bench, I made it run the full length. Now, because I want to put stud walls in, it's 100mm too long.
Like this.
Attachment 219390

I've chopped one end off.
Attachment 219391

Just have to do the other end.

That's it for now.

Cheers
Jim

Before posting this update, I did ask myself...."Should I spare the guys 'n gals on the forum the boring bits?"
Decided...nah.

Besides, I stumbled across a product I'd like to recommend.

Gave the old chipboard a coat of undercoat/sealer.
Attachment 219835

I really expected to have to give it 2 or even 3 coats before it would stop soaking it up.
One coat did the job to my surprise.

I used a Haymes product they call "Tricoat".
Acrylic based, interior or exterior use. Approx 60 bucks for 4 litres.
Supposedly, it's a sealer/primer/undercoat...all in one.

I can highly recommend it. If it covers old chipboard, it should cover anything.

Cheers
Jim