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

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.

Also a good RCD.

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

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!

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

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

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

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

Make sure it is easy to see and access the changewheels quadrant when siting the lathe.My newish workshop is self-built and I arranged it so that the doorway is next to that end of my lathe and that the door protects anyone unexpectedly walking into a possibly rotating barstock if I forget to bolt the door! It also makes good use of the wasted space by the door Colin

When I moved my workshop into a brand new shed I built the normal bench, with a braced leg under the vice, which was 2' deep. So to match thre depth of the bench top I built new drawers also 2' deep. Most were partitioned so there was a front half for tools often used, the rear for tools too good to throw away. All were built by cutting, 3" X 19mm into the require lengths, straight screwing through the fronts and backs into the end grain of the side members (naughty!!). These then had plywood bottoms glued and nailed on. To fit them to the bench, I chose the crude way of putting in 1" X1" bits of wood to carry the drawers. Metal angle is much better (more slippery?), but the gap between the top and bottom of the drawers is a gap of 1", so the odd screwdriver handle poaking up does not jam the drawers.

For my hammer/mallet storage, I choose to make a series of pigeon holes to carry one item each, with steel plates, so the hammers can be slid in or out easily. Putting them on the walls seems a waste of wall space.

Given that I have 16' X 10' = 160 sqft of floor area, I would have preferred 20' X 8' = 160 sq ft., The extra 2' in the centre would only be useful, if I was working on some thing really big 3" scale traction engine? In my previous shed, I had partitioned off the last 2" across the end and just used it as a store for materials, so i had to siddle into it, bexause it had shelving across the end further reducing access. with the longer length there is more wall length for more machines (or longer ones?)

I have seen one natty idea for sweeping the shed out, it was a trap in the floor which had a long drawere fitted in it , accessed from out side. so open the trap, sweep every thing into it and close the trap, go outside pull the drawer out and empty it into the dustbin.. I did not use this idea as i thought stuffing thr under floor cavity with glass fibre would be a better idea.

The roof construction looked a little skimpy to me so I put in ties between the wall unrights, each of these were then loaded with 50 Kg of sandbags then tightly fitting props fitted to the roof purins, then the sandbags removed. One of the ties also served as a support for my mini travelling crane for handling the various heads for the milling machine.

Frank