What a weekend it has been. I have finally finished the outside of the shed at long last! I finished off treating the shed on Saturday and managed to make two new window frames for the front windows to fit the glass. It took me most of Sunday to achieve this not having all the workshop up and running yet but they turned out fine in the end. I have now fitted the locks to the doors and two front windows and for the time being I have screwed the other windows shut. they are all glazed now including the rear ‘plastic’ one. I say the outside is complete but I still have to make up some trims to fit around the windows, not a big job. Next I shall fit the trims around the inside of the windows and sort out the electrics before installing the insulation and inside cladding. I am going to take a short break now though to give the bank time to recover not to mention myself. To say I am dedicated is an understatement as I worked all day Sunday from 6am to 9.30pm! I was finishing off the timber treatment in the morning so as not to disturb the neighbours. wink.gif I have a nice piece of Mahogany that I have been saving for that special job to come along and I think I will use some of that for the sign for my new workshop. Ever since I first went to the timber merchants the guy behind the desk has been asking me how I am getting along with ‘Tenko’ and it gave me the idea to rename my shed ‘Tenko’ so the sign will read ‘Tenko Woodwork’ quite fitting I thought as my wife is East Asian too. biggrin.gif I am going to take some more photos of the shed tomorrow in the light and will upload them tomorrow. I will of course keep you all posted as to what happens as usual. I will also work out the costings and post those here too, A king’s ransome I think.

Not a great deal happened over the weekend but I did manage to move in some of my heavy tools at last. I still need to build benches but that can wait until after the wiring has been done. I had a friend arrive today to remove the pile of bricks next to it too so this took up quite a bit of time. They are all what I dug out of the garden in the first place. I did manage to fabricate some Heath Robinson window stays today as well as you will see in the latest pictures I have posted. They are not pretty but practical. I made them out of some hardwood I had spare. The next stage is the electrics and I shall start this next weekend. As for now, I am going to get some R&R for a change and a nice cool beer. Will keep you posted as usual as and when anything more happens

I didn’t know about the timber treatment having to be from the same batch either, guess I was lucky with mine. We all live and learn don’t we? Now as for the felt shingles, yes you can lay them directly on the timber roof but I would give it a coat of treatment just in case. Now Joss about those doors, I think you misunderstood me. When you make the frame side make sure you have the door shapes framed with the 2×4 and then make another 2×4 frame inside of this or two if it is double doors. Add the door casing between these two frames leaving a gap for the jigsaw blade. When you clad the outside of the shed mark the position of this gap on the shiplap so you have a line to follow when you jigsaw it out. It does not have to be cut at 45degrees just cut through between the two frames and hey presto out pops your door or doors. I wouldn’t use a router to do this as the blade is wider than the jigsaw and will leave a bigger gap around the door and then show there is a door there. Take your time cutting it out and follow the line carefully and the job should be a good un. Oh and make sure you prop the door up inside so it doesn’t fall on yer head of course. wink.gif there will still be a gap around the finished door but it will not be as noticeable as a fitted door will. So have you got that? CLS of the shed frame around the door opening then fit a casing inside of this and then more CLS for the door frame leaving a gap between this and the casing. Mark on the shiplap as you fit it and cut around the line. hope this is clear enough for you. I just wish I could post a drawing of what I mean. Hope this helps.

I have been busy today after work so only managed to complete one side of the roof cladding. I did manage to move all of the equipment in there to the other side ready to start the other half of the roof tomorrow afternoon. I have bought another 15 packs costing £52 of the cladding which should be enough to see the roof finished. I think it will be another couple of days before it is complete yet. Then I can start on the sides and ends but it may have to wait as I am on holiday from next month for a month. I will see what I can accomplish before I go though. Will keep you all posted as usual. Oh I did post a couple of pictures of the side that is finished on the site

the uprights on mine were set on 600mm centres as it works out better when buying wood so there is little waste. i am not to keen on working in metric as I am of the old school of imperial but I am learning. huh.gif Most timber now is sold in metric so it makes sense to work this way too. Once the osb is on I don’t think you will have any problems mate so I wouldn’t worry about it.
Do you get much time to yourself for wood turning being in the forces or is it as and when you have time? My lathe I am afraid is a cheapo one that I have had for a few years made by draper. It is the round bed one and is a pig to use. I will be replacing it as soon as I can but until the shed is finished it must take a back seat. The tailstock often jams on the round bed and needs lots of lubrication to get it moving, I even smashed it once trying to ‘tap’it along it’s way! I would like one of the Record lathes myself and think they are a very good quality. A friend of mine had one of the 24″ ones and replaced the rails with 36″ ones so they are very adaptable. I also need a pillar drill and I think this will be the first purchase as the lathe is useable at the moment. Not that I am knocking Draper at all as I have a really good 12″ bandsaw made by them but the lathe is one of the mass produced Taiwanese things with the Draper badge on. Yep grandaddy was right Richard, there is no substitute for good quality tools. I use routers a lot in my woodworking and will only buy DeWalt,Makita,Elu, Freud ones after once buying a power pro one which was cr*p. You pays your money you takes your choice I suppose.
Well sounds like you are getting along well with the new shed best of luck with it mate and if there are any questions please feel free.

My own preference for the floorboards for the floor in my shed was purely from the point of logevity, I wanted to make sure i wasn’t going to be replacing it in the near future. Plus I have quite a lot of heavy machinery that would need substantial support. As for the roof I think a pitched roof is much better for strength than a flat or single pitched roof. When you build the trusses you can make them as strong as you like and of course there is more strength in a triangle configuration. My own roof trusses were built in place and before any of the cladding was added there were two of us walking across them, (Carefully I may add) I used the method of putting the ridge timber in place and then screwing the pitch beams to it then adding the cross braces. I have all sorts of things stored on these now and we too have had snow over down here and there has been no movement of the roof. Of course we don’t get as much as you up there in the highlands but enough as I am not too far south. smile.gif I hope this is of some help to you. Oh and by the way I did also use AutoCad in the past and did plan my shed on it but I have now found Sketchup which is a far superior program for building and project in 3D. It is now a free download from Google. Best of luck and please feel free to ask, there is a lot of knowledge on this site. wink.gif

Well as for a router I would recommend the most most expensive you can afford although it depends on how much use it will get of course. If you reallyare serious about your woodwork and want to do it right a good quality one like: De Walt, Makita, Trend, Metabo, or even an Elu if you can find one second hand. These are worth their weight in gold to a woodworker. I would recommend a 1/4″ or 8mm model shank as these would be more useful to you than a large 1/2″ one at first. Now on to the actual use of it. It is not easy for me to teach you over the internet how to use one but if you do a search you will find plenty of advice and good books on the subject of using them. I would recommend any of the Patrick Speilman books, preferably for the novice router user. I have five routers I use in my workshop and use four of them almost constantly. You will find once you start using one you will wonder how did without one before. I think the router is the heart of any woodwork shop myself and use it for almost everything using jigs to support this useful tool. I have a jig I made for cutting the tennons on the ends of the wood and I do have a mortice machine for cutting the mortices. You can of course cut the mortices and the tennons on the router but I use this method to speed the job up. To cut mortices you would mark the centre of the wood and using the side fence set the cutter to the centre line with the other pieces of your frame supporting the router below. Always clamp the work firmly so it won’t move. Once the mortices are cut you can clamp a try square on to the ends where the tennons want to be and but the sole plate of the router up to it and cut the depth of tennon on one side. Then reverse the piece and repeat the process for the other side but you muust measure accurately with this method. It is difficult to describe some of these processes in words but much eassier to show. Have a browse onthe internet I am sure you will find some information with pictures on how to do these. You will find the axilliary side fence a must for making the rebates for the window glass. To do this you must support the router well, I use all four of the pieces to support it while I set the side fence to the desired width and then take progressively deeper cuts to each one. Never try to take too much wood out in one go with them as you will burn out the expensive cutters. That is why they make the bigger routers to cut deeper in each plunge, not to mention to use in a table ETC. Once all the rebates have been cut you can round over the outside edges and glue everything together clamping it square. Once you have your router and start to use it you will find ways of making jigs to do all sorts of jobs in your woodwork. I have a workshop full of them for various jobs I need to do sometimes even just once. I will add though when you first start using a router you will no doubt burn one or two cutters out so buy cheap ones at first. Once you have the hang of it then buy the expensive ones as they last a long time. I have just paid £50! for a spiral bit that just cuts a straight line but it is invaluble for cutting quickly and clearing out the waste from slots and will last a very long time, perfect for my needs. As I say if you do intend to start woodworking again and are serious about making some nice things it is worth the investment in the long run. I almost forgot to mention make sure it is a variable speed router too as high speed will burn cutters out the quickest and you can cut many different types of wood, Man made boards, metal and plastic with it. Well sorry it is such a long one but I do hope it has helped you and given you some iniste into the router in the modern workshop. I hope this has wet your appetite for your new hobby. Thanks for the concern about my wellbeing, UI am fine now and have returned to work, a mountain of it! blink.gif