Bike shed/workshop + woodcarving projects

Ok, not a bike build. But fairly crucial to bike building and maintenance. I imagine most people who love tinkering with bicycles in that there London long for a proper dedicated space to do their spannering. As I'll be turning 40 in about 18 months time & have no pension on the horizon, I require a comfortable relaxing area in which to get some work done for the next 40 years.

Although this build is technically for my woodworking, it will be a multi purpose workshop. So will be used for bike stuff too & also to home my turbo trainer bike this Winter, once it's up & running.

I can taste the sawdust at the back of my lungs already.

For reasons I wont go into here, this has been an incredibly slow build. One which has on several occasions come to a complete standstill for months at a time. So as a means of understanding what's been done, I'll be posting up a selection of photos of the progress so far & listening to your opinion on how I should have done things properly.

I can't promise ( or provide ) the mad genius of a smallfurry build, but hope it might interest some of you out there.

Photos to come soon.

OOOOooooh I'll be watching, love a bit of DIY.

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one day I will build myself a nice workshop too

Good thread. I should probably do photos of mine, I'm currently mid way though the roof, but I have got the cycle storage finished

the pictured cross pieces are 6'6" and have since been removed/replaced for the new 8' ones.

Looking forward to this. I started off looking at bike storage, then shed of the internet.. Having seen the prices, might be more cost effective to get something built to fit the space in order to make the most of an awkward space - as above.

That storage was very cheap to make, two piece of 20x20mm angle iron attached to the existing uprights, a scaffolding beam cross attached to the angle iron with 2 U bolts and the some s hooks with silicon tubing on them too protect the wheels. I reckon you could get 10 bikes on there.
The bikes side across very easily so you can shunt them all over one side and treat it rather like a giant tie rack

Just sorting out some of the earlier pictures onto photobucket. I'll get them up with some details later this afternoon/evening.

^^^ spotter, I like the vertical bike hanging option. It's one of many that I've considered*. Each one appears to require some compromise elsewhere.

• King of the procrastinators.
  

The reason i went for it was because it takes up the least floor space, and you can easily move the bikes about to get to what ever it behind. It also keeps them clear of the walls if damp becomes an issue

Good thread. I should probably do photos of mine, I'm currently mid way though the roof, but I have got the cycle storage finished

the pictured cross pieces are 6'6" and have since been removed/replaced for the new 8' ones.

This is brilliant. One of the main issues with any cycle storage is the awkward shapes that bikes can be so actually needing to get them in and out of said storage is one of the biggest sacrifices of space. ^^This method is fantastic and I don't know why I haven't seen more of it.

Next step, motorise the fucker.

Ooooh, and then program it so you can press a button on a key fob on your way to the shed so that the bike you want is ready by the time you get there!

^^ I'm still not totally decided. Having such big bikes doesn't make it any easier.

Definitely need the option of moving stuff as the workspace develops over time.

big as in scale? or big as in heavy mtb's or something? if its any help i'm 6'4" so all of my bikes are 60cm+

^ No massive freeride bikes ( anymore ). The tourers pretty hefty though.

I'm 6'7", so mostly gates on wheels.

that yellow bike on the end is a very heavy womens dutch bike (think mega mudguards/dynmo/hub gears etc) the best way i found of dealing with weighty bikes is to hang them from their front wheel. That way you can roll them on to their back wheel then its only a short lift up to the hook.

I know its not like that in the photo btw, that was a test run

s hooks with silicon tubing

Impressive.
Where did you get the s hooks and silicon tubing?

S-hooks were from somewhere online, not much at all and I pinched the tubing from work. Someone had ordered 6m of the wrong size so it was perfect for my needs, its got about a 3mm wall thickness, really good medical grade stuff.

oh and i forgot to say that the s-hooks are hanging from metal rings thats on the scaffolding, to make them hang the right way. its just some alu tubing that i had chopped into 10mm strips in the workshop

Ok, got some pics from the beginning of the project. Just to give you an idea of what I had to start from. Just so you know, I have some basic carpentry skills ( though mostly in much smaller things ) & I am in no way shape or form a builder. Just look at my lovely soft hands!

However, I do like coming up with half baked ideas that have about a 50/50 chance of working out ok. I like those odds.

• They have a 90% chance of wasting a lot of my money though.
  
  
  

^ due to a rather complicated life. I don't currently live in the house I own, but rather split my time between my Parents place & my Uncle's. I decided to build my workshop at my Parents, as there was a corner of the garden that had become a dumping ground for all the old crap that wasn't wanted anywhere else. This eyesore used to be my mum's potting shed. The window above is my dad's garage/workshop.

It's a reasonably quiet area, most of the time, so I thought it would be a good place to work.

I see nothing but potential at the time & so... I begin tidying.

^ Well, this side's not so bad!

^ Oh shit!

^ Oh bloody hell.

^ FFS!, I'm getting out of here! I'm sure I'm going to find Bill & Ben buried under all that junk.

^ The pile just never ends.

^ All those barrels are full of the most stagnant, rank spelling water that you'll ever smell outside of a sewer. As I soon discovered after I'd poured a few pints of it down my legs :-O

^ Hmmm ? A good place to work?

^ Is it too late to escape? I like the idea of having double doors though!

Well that's it for today. I'll sort out the next batch of pictures as soon as I can.

Pete

Thought I'd add the next batch of pictures. This is after pulling down the old shed, so not much longer till the building work begins.

After I'd filled up a massive skip & offloaded most of the empty flowerpots to a local nursery, I set to work levelling off the ground. The plan was to have a 4" thick concrete base.

As you can see, there were still a few trips to the local dump in my future.

I decided to keep the lower brick wall. In hindsight I should have knocked it down, then either learned to lay bricks, or built up the whole shed in timber from the bottom up. However, it was only supposed to be a quick rebuild & I wanted to keep to a budget.

Little did I know....

^ I've no idea why that batch of pictures came up larger than the first?

looking good, really nice photos too

Cheers spotter, I'm now trying to remember where I left the elevation plans*

*rough crappy sketches.

This is going to be a serious man cave, well jealous, looks like its been a slog so far but not many people get that kind of space to play with

looks like its been a slog so far

I had many a moment when I could have happily walked away from the whole bloody thing!

Sorting out the project on here feels like a good way of convincing myself to keep going with it. You're right though & I am grateful to be in the position to do it at all.

I can only think of one problem with the whole exercise, you'll be buying any frame that takes your fancy as you won't have the excuse that you can't store it. Well that's what I would do............................

I'm trying to operate a one in, one out policy at the moment where frames are concerned. What I look forward to most is working on things in comfort. Knowing where all my tools are & really having a solid base from which to sort my life out a bit.