As you may have seen in previous workshop posts I’ve been busy learning to weld, making frames, creating a workspace and now I have some hefty industrial storage too!

Thanks to a kind donation I was gifted two large architect drawer units. They were located in a cellar and not being used and the owner thought I could put them to good use, they were right! With a little elbow grease and an extra pair of hands I now have a superb matching set of units creating both a fantastic work surface and ample storage that I can wheel anywhere around the workshop or place under my workbench!

Each unit holds 4 drawers the same as the above image. They measure a staggering 33″ by 47″, the width is literally half the width of my workshop so it’s complete fluke that both units now fit side on to one another with approx 20mm either side to the wall. Yes I like to mix up my measurements!

Speaking of the drawers, these were looking a little sorry for themselves. Thankfully rust was minimal, partially down to the fact they’d last been used as storage for gun spares and repairs so they had oil all over them! The cellar they came out of was actually a shelter during the war for a local village! I feel its important to keep note of these sorts of things, sometimes they may or may not be of interest to others but I find the heritage of things interesting myself. Anyway, with a good weather day I cleaned off the oil, gently sanded back any rust and then waxed each drawer followed by the units themselves.

The frame was something I drew up. These units were stacked on one another originally and one actually had a similar metal base but it was the most rusted part of the lot (luckily!) so I decided not to keep it as it was beyond saving. I say ‘not to keep it’ I of course still have it but haven’t decided what else to use it for yet! I took the height of my breakfast bar unit as that’s where I made most small projects to date and it was a good working height. I then took the height of these units, measured the extra distance needed and began cutting some steel box section, doing sanity checks with a friend who helped. I’ve really enjoyed working with box section and as it happens I have some of it spare too so watch out for more metalwork projects!

The below image doesn’t show the castors I put on these which added extra height of course, so I also took this into account when making the legs. The swivel castors were fairly heavy duty with the front facing ones having brakes and the back free wheeling.

Its a simple design but effective, allowing me to slide the units in and be held in place under gravity. There’s no welding them to the frame or drilling holes in the units to bolt to the framework. Although it could be a little difficult, if I ever wish to remove them, this way I can too. I cleaned the runners to a bare metal finish, waxed them and them to top it off greased them too so each drawers glides out nicely even when full of tools.

The worktop was an 18mm moisture resistant melamine. I was going to go with 22 but I figured this would sit better in the frame, giving a small lip on the front and back of each unit but allows me to brush off any debris either side. Forward thinking! Both units had enough top support so that the middle of the worktop would not bow under heavy load. Before dropping the worktop into place I again had used a wood glue to seal the surfaces and sides. This made it a little darker but gave it some extra protection. At some point I will likely add a thin steel plate to one as a proper tough work top area for the bigger tools to be used on.

The final touch was adding in some foam sheets to a) prevent tools from scratching the drawers and prolong their use and b) it looked good and b) I’d hoped it would hold the tools tidy and in place. It didn’t ….but it finishes the interior of them well. With that, there’s not much more to say except thank you to their donors and my friend Dave who helped with the lifting, some welding (even though he welded one bar back to front!) and all generally assisting with the build!

A birthday was coming up and I decided on making a gift. I know this person enjoys a glass of wine on occasion to take out into their garden with a good book, a puzzle or just to soak up the sun and relax so I thought what better gift than this.

I’d actually seen it somewhere else before and taken note of the basic shape so I drew up a a template in a notepad, took some standard measurements of your average wine bottle (x2) and two types of glasses so the recipient could enjoy wine or even a bottle of bubbly. The engraving was just a little something extra to mark the occasion!

The main body is just pine, it was previously a set of shelves that I no longer needed so waste not want not! I took my templates and began with cutting the basic shapes, sanding rough edges and was able to position most of it in situ, just to get an idea of what it would look like.

I used a jigsaw for the majority of the cuts, a selection of files to form rounder edges such as for stems of the glasses and for the carrier handle. After this it was mostly sanding everything until it seemed enough, squaring it up as best I could and then a little glue and some long screws to ensure it would hold under the weight of two full bottles. I predrilled all the holes just to ensure it went together well and didnt cause any splits.

The finishing touches were to burn it slightly for which I was able to fire up the blow torch, then sanded it back a little and finally gave it a good wax and buff up.

What you can’t see in the images is a later addition of a keyhole cut and brass plate either side. This allowed it to be mounted to a wall so glasses could be removed effortlessly without having to remove them prior to placing it down.

All in all it worked quite well, it’s perfectly functional at least if could do with a little more aging/distressing. It was a fun build, took a few days over a couple of weeks adn I’d probably make another but look for some better qaulity wood to make it from however the pine despite the thickness worked better than a hard wood due to the weight. Perhaps some ash would be better next time. If you would like one of these making for you drop me a line and we can discuss options or alternatively keep an eye on my shop!

Alongside a few other projects I really wanted to try my hand at resin casting. I experimented with numerous different types and in the end one of the cheapest I found turned out to be one of the easiest to work with. As with most it was a two part mix with a ratio of 2:1.

Predominantly I was making clear epoxy resin coasters for friends and family and I would use coloured pencil shavings, resin dyes and even mechanical watch components to create some very unique pieces. A few examples of my work below.

I found that whilst working in warm conditions, issues with air bubbles in the resin were minimal, generally by using a toothpick to pop bubbles or gently heating the resin to bring the air bubbles to the surface worked a treat. Some tips there for anyone wanting to try!

Another option of course which I’m sure would remove most chance of failures and therefore waste, is to use a pressure pot or vacuum chamber but these come with a price tag I’m not yet comfortable with. I do however already have a compressor so one or the other is on the cards as I have another resin casting project in the pipeline.

When the workshop is a little tidier and other projects are further along I’ll be revisiting creating these resin coasters so if you are interested keep an eye out in the shop for them. They fit most mug/cup sizes and will come with stick pads to ensure they grip surfaces well.

Ever since I moved into my own home I’ve wanted a proper workshop. Somewhere to hide away and play with projects, tinker around on cars, mess around with electronics and generally just build shi*……that most importantly wasn’t somewhere that was a) my kitchen or b) living room. It turns out that car projects can be a lot of fun but it isn’t great for space or room to work on multiple projects.

Again those that know me will know I used to love Mini’s. We’re talking proper mini’s! Old skool mini’s, none of this BMW stuff. I’ve had 3 over the years amongst other cars. My first car in fact was a Mini City E, fondly referred to as ‘Felix’ (due to his reg) but after 22 years of working on him and just 4 years spent actually driving him around I decided to call things a day and let a new owner have some fun. It was a hard decision but one that I’ve come to think was probably for the best? Big projects are great dont get me wrong, car projects especially but when you have to work for a living and are busy keeping other cars on the road sometimes you need a break away and put efforts into other things for your own sanity!

So where’s all this leading? Well, to a proper workshop space! Once Felix left the driveway for the last time there was a massive gap where he’d been but onwards and upwards! I soon set about planning removal of an old work surface and creating some much needed storage and a better workspace. First of all was sketching up a plan of sorts so on a bit of notepad paper I drew up a frame work to support a new table top surface.

After various designs and taking some measurements it was out with the old. Turns out there was some hefty angle iron propping up this work top so that’s been put to one side for now until I decide to turn it into something else!

For a short time the workspace was just a dumping ground but after the old surface was removed I purchased some 25mm x 25mm x 2.5mm mild steel box section to weld up a new frame.

Not forgetting an old heirloom I checked the framework was level as I went. I pre-drilled and countersunk the rails I’d cut on a bandsaw and given the potential load, I ensured it was mounted to the wall in plenty of places. The beauty of bolting it all to the wall first was it allowed me to weld the rails in situ. It wasn’t like I had a big enough flat surface already to do it! The back and front rails rest on the top of the two outer rails and then I cut a few additional rails to support underneath. Each of these in turn had an additional mount to weld to the back rail and the front rail just allowed me to weld the two together.

Welding and risk of fire set firmly aside I was able to then drop the new work surface in. 22mm moisture treated melamine to be precise. Despite being treated I still decided on using some gorilla wood glue to act as a sealer. This was done on all edges as well as both sides of the surface.

All in the new worktop probably cost me more than just a wooden framed one would have but I prefer working with these materials and wanted to improve my welding skills.

Overall I’m happy with the new work surface and its continued to be incredibly since installation. The build was actually inspired by the storage solution you’ve no doubt spotted with the rather industrial looking architect units. And they are UNITS! More on these in a future post!

Want to know more about the work surface, materials or construction? Drop me a line!

So as you may have guessed my name is Chris and this is where I plan to jot down some of the things I get up to in my spare time. Some of you may know me as @Dmspockets on insta and will know I enjoy making things, tinkering around with mechanics, electronics …..usually associated with science fiction! However, going forward I’ll be posting most of my makes with@chrismakes.uk.

So what have I been doing with my time of late? Well, mostly its been time spent working on my C-3PO suit to wear around the various events I attend with fellow Droid Builders and just for funzies I’ll likely take it or my droid to other events outside of the UK given half the chance. There will be lots of updates on this coming soon as I’ll also be putting together a YouTube channel where I’ll review some of the methods of creating the C-3PO suit, techniques, materials etc as well as discussing some of my other projects. There’s some super interesting stuff coming so I hope you do find it interesting and who knows, perhaps it’ll encourage some to even embark on their own projects!

Enough about that for now however, you’ll find a tsunami of updates on other droid projects, resin projects, a little metal work, wood work and over time maybe some workshop updates. Its going to be quite a mixed bag so if any of that sounds of interest please keep reading! For now, thanks for checking out the page and enjoy!