Show us your Workshop

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Well my shoestring retirement workshop is evolving.


After I got the used HF welder and saw it works I made a makeshift table out of some sheet steel I had from the swimming pool I tore down for free to get the wood for the deck. I was setting it up and taking it down on saw horses and rolling the welder around and it was taking me an hour to set up to do 30 seconds of welding. I didn’t like the idea of welding in my workshop room and wanted a weld booth. With keeping in mind I didn’t want to spend money on anything I cleared out a 7x8 area in the main garage and covered the walls with the steel from the ring of the used pool. I then mounted the steel top I made to the base of an old charm glow grill. The place where the propane tank is storage for my grinders and supplies. The cart sits beside protected from splatter by a scrap of plywood. Using it for storing clamps etc. I added 2 LED spots lights and a little bench vice. Shelf for helmet, gloves and weld jacket. I have a 24’ power cord I added to the welder and it stores on the cart if mobile but added a place to wind it up when being used as a fixed welder. Never toss an old 10 speed bike without taking off the handle bars they make a great hose or cable storage.


Here are a few photos of Bud’s budget weld shop. LOL, as of right now I have about 200 bucks invested and that includes gas and weld wire.


The last photo is of my first project I welded in the shop. Holly has been doing what is called Cross Fit for the last 3 years. It is a gym they call a box old factory buildings work best. The training is absurd as far as anything I want to do. It came about from Navy Seals. She has been wanting to do some of this at home as her plan is 3 days a week. So she has been asking for barbells and stuff. So I go to a competition to get a feel for what she needs and they pick up these massive weights that are rubberized and they have a rubber floor and when they lift they almost drop them down. Not the gym class I remember from high school at all. So we go to some sports stores and all the good weights are steel and the junky ones are plastic filled with concrete. And these rubber things are big bucks. If she drops the steel ones in the garage she will bust the floor more than it is and the cheap ones will smash the weights. So I get the idea to make my own weights for her out of rims and tires. Something I have for free. I had a matching set of donut spares never used I got for free. They weigh right around 30 pounds each. I had a 10’ pipe I cut to 6’ and made a curling bar and a barbell out of it. I made some collars to fit inside the wheel and taped a .5-13 hole for a set screw and welded them to the rim. So the whole thing sitting on the floor weighs about 70 pounds and she can add 10’s or 5’s on the outside to get what she wants. I have collars I made for the outside to hold them on. When you drop these they bounce just right.


She loves them and asked how she changes the weight and I told her right now they have 30 pounds of air in them and if she wants them heavy we can add more pounds of air. She said ok cool. I asked her if she believed that and she said no that was a stupid joke but she was being nice because I made her weights.



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Lots of new members in the last year giving the show me your workshop thread a bump. :pickup:
 
There are a lot of new members floating around It is time to bring out some old threads and see what they have to contribute.
 
With you guys showing impressive workshops, it's no wonder the rest of us would like to keep ours under wraps.
Mine is far from impressive. My buddy built his he painted the walls a dark blue the lower 4’ and then white on the top and has a racing stripe around the middle. It looks really sharp. He did the checker board floor and the whole bit. When I put the plywood up (notice each piece is stamped REJECT) I was going to paint it and then I said what’s the point.


I’m a chronic messy tools in piles person and used to spend more time looking than working. With this house I vowed to change my ways and so far its been working. I have a few totes and tool boxes I keep empty and when I need to do a remote job I try and take what I think I will need only. I have one box I keep a second set of common tools in I call my handy box. Lots of times I just grab that and go. You always forget something though.


It is just really nice to have an open area to work and know where your stuff is finally. Just thru the man door is a little deck I built and a fire pit. The work shop does double duty as the outside kitchen if we are sitting around the fire. People for some reason enjoy sitting in the shop and having a beer and talking.


Now post your shop no matter how humble there is no place like the workshop.
l would rather see the smaller sized workshops, than the 100 X 100 footers... see how others have handled the limited space issue...
 
These are photos while it's still a mess. I need to get the leaky roof fixed. Exterior wall to the north is falling apart on the outside. I need to patch it and paint it. The door frames and random doors in the middle are things I'm working on. Need to get them painted. My dad was very organized and loved to label things. He also loved to put together models. Old brown fridge was a gift from a late friend. Not plugged in anymore. Used to be for cold beverages (non-alcoholic). The metal food tray is from World War II. We found it near a crashed WWII plane in Guam. It had been lost but they had recently discovered it after a storm cleared some trees.
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Well, we moved here 3 years ago this August, and just now getting into the shop, Sunday/Monday just looked like a storage room... But got her all cleaned up, with the wife's help... Behind all the wood, not sure if YOU can see it in the picture or not... But there's a BIG sliding door behind it which is a huge PAIN in the a55... It's about 10X15... hoping to rip it out, and make a doorway 8X4 times 2... so I will have a good size opening to get the tractor in... or even the truck if I need to work on it...

So the garage is attached to the house, and the workshop is attached to the garage with its own doorway, which I just mentioned I want to change... and then going to change the panelling to wood, put electrical plugs in every 3' and eventually put a gas furnace in... Anways here is two pictures from opposite corners... One from the garage, and the other from the opposite door...

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Zannej, being a bugler and shofar sounder I spied what appears to be a civil war bugle near the fridge in one of those pics you posted.
 
Just here for inspiration at the moment. I have a lovely outbuilding which used to be a forge that is partially going to be my workshop.

I've built a workbench and put in a few tools. Just need to get rid of all the 'stuff' my wife is storing in there and I can very convert it into a useful space.
 
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