glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 17, 2018 23:24:36 GMT
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Elsewhere on this fine forum it’s been noted that things are quite quiet here of late. I don’t know why that is for everyone else, but for me it’s the unending list of “just” jobs that I need to get done “before I can make a proper start”... Some of you may remember the lean-to storage solution that took up a chunk of my time last year, and the various DIY projects that SWMBO insists are more important than ancient Austin lorries. Well, since the storage, and in-between the indoor DIY, I have been steadily working through sorting stuff out in my workshop. I have rearranged toolboxes, moved and refurbished my bench, put up cupboards and wired sockets. Very little of which I have progress pictures of. However, in light of the whole “quiet” thing, today I thought I’d document the latest diversion that’s distracted me from stuff I should really be doing... Bear with me... One of my long term aims is to have a workshop that contains only tools, equipment and the space in which to use them. No stored spares, no unfinished (or unstarted) projects, no domestic overflow. Just space to get things done, and all the necessary kit to do it in one place. I am slowly getting nearer to this unreachable Nirvana, with my storage shed releasing previously unknown levels of space into the workshop area. I’m getting there. When I’m not wasting time reading about others getting there with their projects on here! 😂 One of my associated aims is to have a workbench, the top of which is uncluttered with anything other than a vice. I have an impressive bench, inherited from my late father, which is vast, heavy and ideal for the uses I’ve put it to over the years, with one exception; it’s always been piled high with junk. Toolboxes, trays of bolts, stuff. And a hoofing great bench drill. Well, part of my remodelling involved some spanky wall mounted cupboards from Aldi (on sale, total bargain), which meant that there wasn’t room for the drill any more if I wanted to be able to access the last cupboard. So I’m left with a freshly painted and tittivated bench, some lovely cupboards, but nowhere for my drill.  So. What to do? I have an elderly filing cabinet that I have used for years in the garage to store bulky power tools in. The recent remodel has left it redundant, and my first thought was to cut it in half and build a frame around it, so as to be able to use two of the drawers still... |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 17, 2018 23:40:40 GMT
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Hmmm... Doing this on my phone seems to make uploading more than one picture at a time problematic... Anyway. Here’s the aforementioned filing cabinet.  It’s every bit as knackered as it looks. The best part of thirty years of living in a workshop environment have not been kind. But it would have been a good starting point except for the fact that, due to a family upheaval (another reason why I have got very little done this year) I find myself unexpectedly in possession of this:  |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 17, 2018 23:51:10 GMT
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A fridge. I’m reliably informed that every workshop needs a fridge. 😉 So, the idea of building a stand around half a filing cabinet has been replaced by the idea of building one over a fridge. 😃 One of my main intentions, whilst building the lean-to last year, and when doing this year’s works inside, has been to use up as many bits of the stuff I’ve got lying around, or have kept for years “just incase”, because it was too good to chuck away. In keeping with that ethos, I raided my scrap pile and dug out some angle iron I salvaged when a friend moved workshop a few years ago. A wire brushing with the grinder, and a bit of judicial straightening, saw what I estimated would be just about enough to do the job.  |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 17, 2018 23:59:51 GMT
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A fair amount of standing, staring at the fridge, measuring, head scratching, comparing the construction of my dad’s bench and tea drinking ensued. Then, I set to and made the three long lengths into eight short lengths and a minimal amount of offcuts.  Tomorrow, I shall find some more steel to tie the bottoms of the legs together, and make some stiffening gussets for the corners, then begin the job of sticking it all together. |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Sept 18, 2018 3:58:37 GMT
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That's what's been slowing you down all along,lack of fridge..Saves a span of time. You don't have to walk all the way to the kitchen to open the fridge door to check if there are any Penguins sleeping in it..😂😂
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Sept 18, 2018 8:02:09 GMT
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Ah yes.
Spend a weekend fabricating a custom frame to go around a donated fridge worth about tuppence three-farthing.
Spend another weekend adding custom shelving to aforesaid frame.
Clean and paint.
Stand back and admire.
Load shelving with vast quantities of the treasure it was custom designed to fit.
Two weeks after installation aforesaid bargain fridge dies.
Spend an entire weekend emptying shelves, liberating fridge.
On inspection declare it beyond economical repair.
Assume it will be a simple matter to acquire a replacement and scour Freecycle accordingly.
Travel 20 mile round trip to collect replacement free fridge of nominally same size.
Doesn't fit custom frame.
Spend a weekend modifying the custom frame to go around the donated fridge worth slightly less than tuppence three-farthing.
You know the rest.
How do I know these things?
You need to ask?
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 18, 2018 8:21:34 GMT
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Your concerns are shared! 😂 Part of the time taken (wasted) pondering was due to trying to avoid just such a scenario!
I’m hoping to pre-empt the potential for future frustrations by making the frame’s internal dimensions big enough to allow replacement with any standard under-counter fridge. The inner width is 600mm, and the minimum height under the worktop will be 850mm.
If the fridge proves as useful as I suspect it will, and it dies in due course, it’s the same size as the one in our kitchen. I’ll just buy a new one for indoors and cascade the old one down. Hopefully that’s a long way off as my mum only bought this one last year and it’s still under warranty.
If it doesn’t prove useful, I’ll turn the space into a cupboard. 😃
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Sept 18, 2018 9:08:23 GMT
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turn the space into a cupboard. 😃 it will already be a cupboard when the compressor dies  |
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 18, 2018 9:14:01 GMT
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turn the space into a cupboard. 😃 it will already be a cupboard when the compressor dies Very true. Helpful stuff like this is why we put up with you Darren - it would never have occurred to me otherwise  On a completely unrelated note, I found an unused, very tidy, but too beaten up from indifferent storage to be described as "NOS" Ever-Ready front bike light whilst trawling through my junk treasures the other day, and thought of you, Raleigh Bombers and shared experience of non existent lights and shockingly short battery life! |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Sept 18, 2018 9:14:26 GMT
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Very true. Helpful stuff like this is why we put up with you Darren - it would never have occurred to me otherwise ; oi, i nearly bookmarked this thread not sure what i would use a fridge for in the garage though, maybe to chill the self amalgamating loom tape and blue roll. basically a medicine cabinet. |
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Last Edit: Sept 18, 2018 9:29:57 GMT by darrenh
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Sept 18, 2018 9:23:20 GMT
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Many, many years ago in one of the bodyshops that I was employed were two non working under counter fridges - both placed side by side at the back of the workshop - on the top was a off cut of post formed kitchen worktop and placed to the worktop was the bodyshop telephone, a few note books, a pile of invoices & the workshop diary - nothing wrong with that I hear you say
In the left hand fridge which was clean and still with it's racks - even the light still worked when you opened the door - neatly stacked were all the colour reference books, charts, paint chips & swatches for colour matching vehicle paintwork (no fancy spectrometer colour matching & tinting in those days - it was all done by hand & eye) - perfectly good use of a non working fridge duelling up has part workshop desk support and the dust free storage for the paint matching library
In the right hand fridge which was clean and still with all its racks - which were stacked to the point that they were bowing under the weight were magazines containing - Ahem - 'ladies of certain undressed imposition' - the bodyshop foreman had it stacked out in date order and would regularly restock it - needless to say the light on this particular recycled fridge was non functioning !
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 18, 2018 10:29:00 GMT
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😂
One of the best uses I’ve seen for a non functioning fridge was as a store for welding electrodes. A 40w bulb in a bulkhead fitting, mounted on the back wall near the bottom, wired through a standard mechanical domestic thermostat mounted inside, kept it warm and damp free at minimal cost. Sadly, my days of arc welding are long past, and I’d never have had the need to store a whole fridge full anyway. I used to keep mine in the bottom of the airing cupboard.
As for collections of “special” literature, the one I’ve still never seen beaten was at the Vehicle Strip and Test workshops at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich when I was an apprentice. A vast mess table, about 12’x6’, completely covered to a depth of at least 12” everywhere. I can’t imagine how today’s PC brigade would react to it! 😂
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Sept 18, 2018 10:52:05 GMT
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I can’t imagine how today’s PC brigade would react to it! 😂 i know how they would react, one of the feminazis found 4 shoved behind a secure shredding bin here last month, covers dated 2006 |
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 18, 2018 11:23:00 GMT
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I can’t imagine how today’s PC brigade would react to it! 😂 i know how they would react, one of the feminazis found 4 shoved behind a secure shredding bin here last month, covers dated 2006 I expect that would have been quite spectacular. Hopefully there’s been plenty of people leave/retire between 2006 and now. Blame it on someone nobody liked; preferably someone dead. |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Sept 18, 2018 13:49:31 GMT
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Not trying to derail your thread but my fridge tale concerns a space of 560mm wide, order a new known brand fridge which is 550mm wide according to the manufacturers specs....
New fridge arrives and inserted into said gap but when you open the door the hinges are so poorly designed you actually need 575mm of width for it to open!!!!
Carry on, I enjoy reading others tidy up tales, hoping its going too give me the enthusiasm to get on with my own mess!
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 18, 2018 21:32:12 GMT
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Bit more done today. Found another bit of angle. A bit of time with the big angry grinder saw me with two bits of flat strip.  A bit of measuring, some deburring and filing later I have ties for the three sides that will be closed off.  Next step, drag out the welder. Be pleased you have a new, big, bottle of gas, because it’s really windy. Make a makeshift windbreak. Get cross when it blows over and hits you on the head. Spend ages playing with the welder’s settings because it’s ages since you used it for anything major. Run out of wire. Stomp off to buy more. Stomp back. Finish gluing it together. Be pleased that by the time it’s finished you’ve remembered how to weld. |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 18, 2018 21:40:23 GMT
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Assembled base frame looks like this.  The design is deliberately done to make the space it occupies around the fridge to be as little as possible, whilst still allowing air to circulate. Opening is 600mm x 850mm. Sides and back will be panelled in with 3mm alloy sheet to match my bench (with suitable vent holes, strategically placed). These will stiffen things up and meant I decided not to bother with triangular gussets inthe corners. Trial fit over the fridge appears a success.  s |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 18, 2018 21:48:03 GMT
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I put little square pads in the bottom corners of the legs, drilled so I can bolt it down to the floor if I have to. It should be heavy enough to sit still under its own weight, but I don’t want to have to add them later once it’s painted.
Early shifts for the rest of the week, so I’ll not get much more done, but hopefully I’ll get a couple of coats of paint on it, and make a start on the worktop. I’ve got some spare timber, some lighter angle, and a sheet of 3mm steel which should do the job nicely and match my main bench.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 25, 2018 7:59:42 GMT
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Got a bit more done, in between those dual aggravations of work and domesticity... Slung some paint on it, which always surprises me how much difference it makes. It’s only a first coat, and it’s going to get another couple once I’m certain there’s no more welding/grinding to do on it.  Next, a rumble through the “will come in handy one day” pile yielded up some bits of 18mm ply.  I have moved these particular bits several times over the years, and more than once have been a hair’s breadth from throwing them on the fire... There was just enough to trim them down and make a double-thickness top for the frame. A bit of PVA...  And then some screws, sees me at this point:  Starting to take shape. Total spend so far £0. I may have to fork out though, because I want to panel the sides and back in with aluminium sheet like I did my main workbench. However, I have a friend who earns a living cutting and folding such stuff, and he wants a particular piece of Land-Rover that I happen to have a spare of, so I’m hoping a mutually agreeable trade can be agreed at... I need to send him some drawings. Next step will be to finish the top though, which might take a week or so for me to find the time to do. |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,368
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 25, 2018 15:27:17 GMT
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Surprised myself this morning by waking up early enough after a late shift to make it worthwhile venturing into the workshop. So. First off, rumble through the scrap and dig out this; a piece of 3mm steel plate.  Helpfully, it’s not quite big enough, where previous chunks have been bitten out of it. But, it’s free (or long paid for; same thing), so again a bit of head-scratching sees me embark on marking it out...  Then chopping off a bit:  Now, I suspect that any normal person would square the main bit up with another cut at 90° to the first, and make a simple patch from the largest offcut and one long straight seam. Unfortunately, because I’m a Womble, and that would result in too much waste, there’s only one course of action I could follow...  Cut off the minimum amount from the main bit (remember your PPE kids, eyes, ears, fingers!). Then square up the offcut:  Stitch it in place, and dress it back:  Then cut a bit for the last corner, stitch that on, and dress back.  It’s a bit wobbly, but it’ll flatten easily enough, and will be fine once bolted down. Finally, the offcuts get put back in the Womble pile. Just incase.  |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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