Hi all, joined the Makerspace relatively recently and have really enjoyed my time as a member so far. Got my first proper project that I want to do in the space and so thought I would post it on here a) as a record of the journey / planning for myself and b) to try and make the most of the vast amount of knowledge / expertise that this community has.
Essentially, we built a shed (not me, got some builders in to do it) at the end of the garden over the summer. The idea for the space was to function as a bike store, outdoor kit / gear storage space and also a small workshop / tool storage space. Here is a photo:
The shed is insulated and wired up with 4 sockets, and the rough plan is to make / buy some storage units, pegboard for tools, a workbench + any other helpful suggestions that members on this forum might come up with.
My current thinking is something along the lines of:
Storage - use 18mm MDF board and make a series of boxes in the space and then assemble at home
Tool pegboard - looks like you can buy pre drilled MDF pegboard sheets so will cut something down to size and build a frame to mount it on
Workbench - thinking of building out of some sort of wood but also could be a good excuse to learn some basic metalwork. Main thought here is that it could be difficult to build something that is really functional and so also not opposed to buying something and trying to build storage around it etc. - if anyone has any views on this, would be much appreciated!
In terms of my experience, I would say I’m a reasonable DIYer but definitely haven’t ever taken on a project of this scale before. Currently in idea-generating / planning / material gathering stage and hoping to spend a week in the new year preparing it and putting it all together.
Immediate next step is to learn how to use Sketchup to make plans for the space. Will post some plans once I’ve worked out how to use it!
Thanks in advance for any tips or ideas you might have / following along on this slightly self-indulgent thread!
(Don’t just go with kitchen bench working height - think about what working height is best for what you are doing there. See how high he has his workbench).
I was finding it pretty hard to start by designing something very detailed in SketchUp so decided to just get started with part of the shelving unit and drawer unit (thanks again for the drawers @naxxfish!) that we knew we wanted and trying to work it out from there.
Shelving unit
The plan was to build shelves out of 18mm MDF that could fit one of these plastic IKEA storage boxes (large: 560 x 390 x 420mm; small: 560 x 390 x 280mm):
Rough plan was to build 2 stacks of MDF boxes. We couldn’t work out whether we wanted / could fit into the space either [2x large + 3x small] or [1x large + 4x small] so plan was to build 2 large ones and 4 small ones and then we could arrange / work out which configuration worked best. My (slightly laughable) drawings and calculations for the wood cuts I would need are below.
The “design” for the drawers was relatively simple. Just measure up the existing drawers and add a bit of clearance to build a box that was the right size around them. Part of the issue here was that I hadn’t bought the drawer slides yet so didn’t know the overall width the box would need to be; however… after drawing out the wood cuts (see below), I realised that it made sense to leave the panels with one side cut to the correct size and I could then cut the other side down to the right size at Makerspace.
Wood cuts
Bizarrely found it easier to plan my woodcuts by drawing out with pencil and paper so again, some laughably amateur drawings…
I took these drawings to B&Q in Peckham and asked the guy on the panel saw to cut the sheets. The result was … okay. The first cut that was made (supposed to be 400 x 2440mm, the top part of the first board) was 405mm. Fully aware this is partly my fault as well for not including some buffer for the kerf.
After my B&Q trip, I swung by Screwfix to pickup a pocket hole jig and then went to the space to start testing it out / learning how to use it without ruining every piece of MDF I tried to work with. Happily, I ran into @Riggerz who very kindly educated me on the magic of dowel jigs and before we knew it, we had a session booked in the next day.
The dowel technique was frankly a gamechanger. Possibly (quite likely) mostly user error but I was struggling to use the pocket hole jig to make consistent joints and probably would still be practicing if it weren’t for D’s Wnew dowel jig. See below for some photos:
With the boxes that we had, we were able to start arranging in our shed and get an idea of where to go from there. This was super helpful and we’ll plan the rest of the units from here. Next step will be to build the remaining 4x small boxes once my dowel jig arrives.
Would really welcome suggestions for how to best utilise the corner space (marked in the photo).
In terms of a pegboard, I was planning on using some 6mm MDF board that I had left over. Will that be too thin? If so, could I glue 2 boards together and use that?
Also just wanted to say a huge thanks to @Riggerz for being extremely generous with his time and teaching me how to make the 2 boxes that I’ve made so far. I’ve never made anything that square before and now looking forward to applying what I learnt to building out the rest of the space!
It was great meeting you, Robbie, and it was much fun walking you through “box making” steps. You are a gentleman, thanks for the dowels and the gift! I look forward to bumping into you again buddy.
Glad we got it done in one day! Ish… haha let me know if you would like some more hints and tips.
