Well finally after a long wait and family issues (Explained here) http://www.vwcaddy.com/showthread.php?t=27005 i have my own workshop.

Thought i'd start this thread just so that if anyones interested they can follow the progress on how things go over the next couple of months.

Pictures below are from a few hours of fannying about this afternoon.

The unit was without a tennant for almost a year so it was fairly overgrown!


Inside it was full of c*ap, But luckily the landlord had it cleared. Bit gutted about the leather sofa though! Would have made a great tea break seat




All cleared out now.


Im going to take down all the studd work as i want it back to one open space. Plus the work is really shoddy and would probably fall down given time anyway!


Water point which works fine.


Phone line which i probably won't use. Just an extra expense that aint that neccesary. Can get an excellent signal on mobile anyways.


Bodged side door will be coming down too. Again really shabby and not that secure.


Hope you enjoy the thread.

Buster

Most of the weeds hacked down now. The unit is 35 foot long and 17 foot wide which is massive for what i will be doing.


On this end of the unit i will be putting on a set of steel barn type doors for obvious reasons and eventually it will be the only access in and out. I wont be forgetting the unit number... Got your number


A neighbouring unit has similar doors to what i will be doing.


Just some of the 100+ tyres that were scattered around the place! Im not joking you name it, their here. Bus, tractor, cars and bikes... Going to stack them to make a bit of a fence/boundry at the other side of the unit. Would cost me a small fortune to get rid of them properly!


Forgot to take a before. The weeds were fairly high, so i hacked them down with a sythe (Spelling? One of the hook shaped old fashoned garden tools) which uncovered more tyres and some trellice fencing. Will eventually put some hardcore down here or old tarmac road waste which a friend can get:thumbs_up




More weeds that will come down tomorrow if the weather is ok.


A straggler photo from inside of the fuse box and meter. Any one know how to slow them down :thumbs_up


Well thats it for now. I'm so excited. Cant wait to get the bigger jobs done, e.g. barn doors, repair/remove side door. Build work benches and tables etc and more importantly start work on the caddy.

Bit of an update, Progress has been slow...

Things i've done so far are:

1) Got ride of over 60 old car tyre's.
2) Removed all the inside stud work.
3) Had it completely rewired, single phase, with an additional 30 amp socket for my mig welder.
4) Made two benches, one as a sink unit, the other as a main work bench.
5) Made a better steel door for the end wall.
6) Removed the old bitumen floor.
7) Plumbed in the cold water supply.
8) Hacked all the weeds down outside and had a general bloo*y good tidy up.

Heres the sink unit, Made from 50x50mm box, a bit over kill i know but the steel was free! All tig welded, grey primed, and a satin black top coat. Siliconed the sink to the table as the fit was really good, so it isn't going anywhere.


This is the hot water hand washer i have yet to wire up, a little dirty!

Some of the plumbing work. Did it all myself and its my first attempt at plumbing, so far so good... well there's no leaks anyway!
Some pictures from inside

This is where the double steel doors will go, As you can see the brick work is very poor so will end up rebuilding the wall with concrete blocks. Also a new steel lintel.


New fuse board, and 30 amp socket, needs tidying up, wooden cabinet enclosure maybe.

Main work bench. Again 50x50mm box, 5mm thick plate 2x1m, tig welded, grey primer, satin black top coat.


New steel door.

General pictures from outside.










Thats about it for now. Another update to follow when i have the double doors in. Please excuse the quality of the pictures, as my camera is not that great.

Got some more stuff done since last time.

Got the double doors on now, sprayed them with grey primer, will give them a top coat of black or green, haven't made my mind up yet!



Still have to fill the gaps between the frame and the brickwork/lintel with some expanding foam. Will also put a cover strip made out of hard wood and scribe and cut it to make a nice fit against the jagged edge.


The caddy's now inside!


I decide to have a tidy up outside the new doors as the years of over growth had made the ground unlevel and just generally tatty looking. I was pleasantly surprised, as there is a fair bit of hard standing immediately outside the doors. Had about 20 wheel barrows full of dirt that i dug out by myself! Needless to say, i slept well that night.

The other big thing that has happened is that i have bought a second hand milling machine. It was delivered last thursday, and i am so pleased with it. Its a KRV 2000. To top it off, the store man at work said did i want and old cabinet that was going to get thrown in the skip. I snapped his arm off, when he said it was one of the old Bridgeport milling machine cupboards.

It could do with a clean, but apart from that it is in excellent condition!


As you can see there are 2 draws at the top and three shelves that swing out. They are really heavy duty and can take alot of weight. We still have about 5 at work, Might see if i can blag another one!



Had fun on the way home on the supermoto. Laid a few blackies down at the notorious Fish Hill! Did several runs up and down.

Here a few pictures of the milling machine taken by the seller.
It has a power draw bar, X axis power feed, vari-speed, X and Y Axis dro. Also came with the vice, drill chuck and also the full user manual which even has the original quality control and installation check sheets, dro and one-shot lube manual and spare parts catalogue.
Can't wait to put it to good use! Hopefully make some parts for Al :thumbs_up

This is where the mill is at the minute. I've got to make a lifting bracket to bolt to the base so that i can lift it off the pallet with a jack. We used to have some machine jacks at work, if i can find them / if we still have them i'll borrow them.

As you can see it only just fits, tough its sitting 6" higher at the minute on the pallet.

coming along nicely, keep it up.

Please tell us more about the building and the site itself.
As near as I can tell, the building is not actually a wartime Quonset Hut, although it might be one that was heavily modified.
The site seems like industrial rental units in a rural area.
Do you have sanitary facilities? (I think you'd call this a "W.C." in British parlance)
My only advice is to be SURE you have two ways out in case a fire prevents you from going out the main doors.
You were smart to get rid of the tires/tyres - they collect rainwater and breed mosquitoes/

Thanks, getting there slowly.


Situated in the Cotswolds (The Midlands), The camp was built in 1943 as an American field hospital. In 1944 the International Red Cross took over the running of the camp and they had absolute jurisdiction, as Protecting Power, over all POW's in England and as a result many German POW`s were treated at the camp. After the war it was abandoned until 1947-8 when it was handed over by the War Department to the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Health for occupation by the Polish Resettlement Corps.

There are around 30 of these nissen huts as well as much larger units on the site, now a business park.
The two end walls are stone, with both the roof and inner skin asbestos. So i need to be careful about disturbing it.
I Currently don't have a toilet, however a friend has a unit just down the road from mine who does, so i occasionally nip down there and stink his bog out! lol.
Regarding fire exits, i will definitely bear that in mind. I have three at the minute, however the side one will eventually go. I have two fire extinguishers and a fire blanket also.

That looks really nice and thanks for taking the time to post on your progress.


Charles

Thanks for your reply, I quite enjoy posting too. It's nice to get feedback weather good or bad.

I skipped much of the werds, but did skimm the pics.

Looks like at least teice the sqr footage (meterage?) that I started with. Shouldn't outgrow that too soon. Also looks cheaper to heat than my old garage too!


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

It's roughly 35ft long by 17ft wide. Most of the other units have log burners. Mine has a hole cut in the roof where one used to be. When it gets nearer winter, i'll look into getting one too i think.

A lot of hard work completed there, well done.

The surrounding scenery is rather pleasant indeed, much nicer than our modern clinical & featureless industrial estates.
I would suggest that you will need to replace the internal lining of the corrugated asbestos, many years ago a friend started his business from a similar nissen hut in Cheshire which was unlined, it was like an oven in summer & akin to a very cold tropical rain forest in winter with condensation forming at the slightest provocation.

I wonder if a couple of cables may find their way into the yellow & red outlets as I would assume the KRV is 3 phase

regards

Brian

Hi Brian

Its a really peaceful place to work. With my dad having cancer, i find when i go and work there i get in a zone and just forget about everything for a while. On weekends there is only a handful of people that work there, so its really quiet. When i have a break, i usually sit outside, have something to eat and a cup of tea (a very British thing), listen to the birds sing and just watch the world go by. The site is also on a private estate, where they have lots of deer too, which is a nice site to see.

Regarding the insulation, I have thought about it, however the inner skin is asbestos as well as the outer corrugated roof. There is some old foam filling the cavity, bits like i say its very old. Being asbestos i don't want to go near it. However a long term idea is to have the inner skin removed professionally, and spay insulated at the same time, then clad the inside with sheet metal, something similar to what modern barns/ factories are clad with. The reason i want to clad the inside is to aid fire prevention.

I wish i new more about electrics. I have a 3 phase frequency converter to power the mill, though I'm looking into having 3 phase installed. The supply is coming into the unit, Just need a new meter. Still awaiting a price from british gas though.

Nice KTM. Best thing about a shop like that, lets you manufacture bike bits!

Looks like a grand workshop in the making - and we're all sorry to hear about your
dad.

Jim

Yeah, I noticed that, shouldn't take much to get the 3 ph hooked in?
Is that near Oxford?
Minder.