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I Forge Iron

Shed into a Shop


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I've been trying for the last year to make my shed into something usable. Currently the shed is 16' x 11' and has a 6 foot wall height. I plan to raise the peak to 13' on one side and raise the other to 8'. In the picture below the basic shed is the lower portion minus the sliding door. Right now it just has the man door on the front which doesn't allow me to use it for storage of my mower and other large items. I hope to have this finished and usable before the end of summer.

 

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I also plan to add a wall around the outside with a set of double doors so I can get my mowers and stuff in out of the weather. I figure 5' walls would be nice to the mess/items out of plain view. I also thought about making some canvas roll down walls that hang from the ceiling so I can close the outside space off to block the rain/wind if I want to work out there in the winter or just keep that ouside area for storage while I use the inside space for a smithy. Here's a sketch with the wall mind you it's only 4' in this picture, but it will kind of give you an idea on what it will look like. 

 

Front_Ext.jpg

And another one of me playing with the components in Sketch Up.

 

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Greetings Jeff,

 

Just some thoughts for your building.....  Forget the overhang enclosure,  You will find it just gets in the way...   Do away with the small entry door.. It takes up to much wall space for storage   A window would be super..   Put another set of rolling doors in the rear for access , ventalation,  and light...

 

Keep designing,

 

Jim

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I like the design a lot. It is a great looking building. I would use it opposite of you however. Following the beam around and closing up the half gables to block blowing rain. Then set up forge outside and put mowers and equipment inside. Keep in mind I am in south Mississippi where we only get a light frost a few days a year. Up north I would do just as you are doing.

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All very good advice, so far.

 

I would definitely make the upper windows so that they could crank out.  In the summer, that high ceiling is going to be wonderful, and those windows will let in some good light.

 

Getting rid of the people door is critical.  My dad built his shop with three garage doors (two opposing for drive-thru capability), a people door and a motorcyle/golfcart door.  Next thing you know, there's no room on the walls for tools, and no room on the floor for anything that might block the various doors.  You can just as easily open the sliding door to enter as you can a traditional door.

 

A half-wall around the lean-to?  It's only going to hamper you in the long run, and it won't do much to keep the weather off of anything under the roof.  That's not to say that I wouldn't recommend a full wall along one side as a wind deflector, though.  I don't know if you need that in your locale, but it's something to think about.

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  • 3 months later...

Hey Jeff
I really like your sketches.  I'm in the south so the half indoor/half outdoor setup works for me.  Double swing or rolling doors works well i think.  I'd minimize the posts out front to enable access for lawn equipment, larger stuff.  i like the top vent windows, but for simplicity i might just have a peak with ridge vent.   and add windows, delete doors as others have said. 
 
I hope you get to build it.  Post up some pix!

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I can see the open air and walled area being a great thing if you have nosy or troublesome people around you. I do not have room to store everything inside my shop and things that are "Nice" seem to disappear from time to time. Looks like it could be a wonderful little shop.

If you do build your shop take some time to install shelves and storage first thing! If you move all the tools in first they will spread out quickly, and installing storage later on will be hard becouse of all the things in the way.

 

Good Luck

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Jeff: thinking on paper or Cadd is a good way to go. Are we thinking in Sketchup? I'm relearning Sketchup right now so this is a good exercise for me.

 

My thinking is to lose the roll doors in the high side and make it a single one on the end, with a angle awning roof cover. and do it again on the far end. This gives you through doors and leaves you the option of doubling your shop space by simply adding another low wall and connecting them with a roof and another pair of sliding doors.

 

I'll be building a similar shed roof wood shed, either 10' x 24' or 12' x 20' with a swinging door at the end closes to the house. the low, upwind eve will be 8' and the high side will be 10'. this lets me use standard sheet siding and leave a screened 2' gap on the high side under the eave for ventilation.

 

Not that that has anything to do with your shop but it's similar in a number of ways. Mostly though I've been thinking about a shed roof building for a while and getting back in sync with Sketchup I. . .  Nevermine. <grin>

 

Looks like you'll have a nice shop, a little tweeking and it'll shine.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Frosty,

 

Yes, I had some free time and looked up the tutorials online for Sketchup. It's a wonderful tool and I find myself using it for all my building plans/ideas.

 

The reason I was going to use the rolling door on the tall side was due to putting my forge on the back wall on the inside and I didn't think a rolling door would work there. 

 

I could revamp the front to a rolling door and add an awning. I was trying to keep the funds down to revamp the shed to a usable shop.

 

Currently, my plans are on hold until I can get a weekend available that'll work with my free help :)

 

Thomas,

 

I planned on either using canvas to roll down and latch to the fencing around the outside. This will allow me to keep prying eyes out and be able to roll up when I need the open space to provide a breeze. I do plan to use a gravel mix on the floor.

 

This was one of my final renditions of the new possible shed makup.

 

Smithy_3.jpg

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It looks like your forge is in the far back corner. I would try and make sure you have at least 3 feet on both sides of you forge. Think about trying to heat the very middle of a 5 foot bar. You would not want to jamb the end of the bar into the wall trying to heat the middle.

 

I like to have my forge against a wall with three sides fully open to walk around. 

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MLMartin,

 

Currently I had planned to put the forge in the corner to maximize the space, but like you suggest it would be hard to really work with large pieces of stock. I've thought of moving the forge to the center of the back wall because in the exisiting shed there's already a window cut in, so I would just have to box in the side draft hood and run the stack up. This would give me about 4 foot on each side of the forge if I placed it there. I was concerned about the dead spaces on each side of the forge and I guess I could use one side for stock storage.

 

I liked the idea of having the open area outside and who knows I might end up using the open area for my forging and leave the inside for storage and finishing work.

 

Jeff

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David, I don't know of anyplace east of the Mississippi without statewide zoning or other building ordinances for the last 25 years. You have not been able to put in an outhouse in NC for at least that long.

 

Laugh while you still can. They may regulate that next.

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Jeff: The above drawing is close. If you move the main door to the wall with the forge and another where you have the gate through the outside wall, all you need do is raise the fence walls to that section of roof hang a couple windows and you're there.

 

Use horizontal casement windows in the high wall and you can use crank extensions, (cool hand forged crank extensions mind you) and you'll have good summer ventilation. If you move the forge to the upwind wall where the two areas meet the prevailing wind will help clear smoke by enhancing the draft. As the wind flows up the outside wall it'll create a low pressure zone as it crests the roof line. If you put the stack at the down wind side, horizontal vortices (rotors) can cause back draws and blow smoke down the stack. The stack must extend a few feet above the high point of the roof. Check local codes for specific details.

 

Of course that's just what I'd do, I could be wrong. <grin>

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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STOP RIGHT NOW!

 

Move to the country...no ordinances!

 

Make it 100x60   two story lofted  solar powered furnaces   wind turbine blower for blowers

 

hand crank drills

 

 

Carry on       and laugh about it

 

That's what I did. I moved to the far southern end of a very rural county. At the far southern end of my county is where the other county is that has the closest big city. So I get the lax zoning laws and the closeness 15 mins to the city.You can't beat it. Yes sure there are some statewide zoning issues and I do have a very easy going HOA, but in all living on these 1-5 acre parcels in oregon you can get away with things that you couldn't even dream of if you lived in the suburbs. Plus you can build a perimeter property privacy fence, then no one really knows what you're doing behind that and only way you could get in trouble is if a neighbor narc'd on you and my neighbors are all doing their own thing. lol

So for example I'm rebuilding the inside of my own shop without a permit. I probably don't even need a permit in my county (not changing structure and I know what I'm doing), but in another county I'm sure I would, in fact on day 2 a neighbor would have called the county to report my building noise. That's just one thing about being out in the country that is awesome. Neighbors tend to be friendlier and more easy going, everyone has enough space to do whatever they want, noise issues aren't as big of a deal, etc.

I had an excavator out on my property and I was digging all over the place, ripping trees out and going crazy. No one batted an eye. In fact they wanted to know if i could help them on their property with the excavator. If I did that in the burbs I'd probably be in the back of squad car. Or at the very least have people demanding to see permit/construction papers.

When I bought my place I realized that traditionally blacksmiths have been where the horses have been as farriers and blacksmiths have gone hand in hand throughout the age. Well, all the horses are way out in the country with the wide open space. Ergo, find a place out where the horses are you'll have the wide open space and lot of lee way and tolerance for your trade. And it turned out I was right about that presumption. People out here are excited to know I'm a blacksmith. In the suburbs they looked at me like I said I was building a nuclear testing facility in the backyard. All they could envision was noise, fire danger, smoke, disturbance etc.

IMO It's when people are packed in like sardines in the burbs that trying to do anything other than standard fair can get you into hot water.

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I once new a wise older man who, when building any buildings, built a scale model. Could see porportion real well as well as any possible issues.

 

That's very smart. I did that with my property a few months ago so I could see just how the buildings layed out. It really did help me visualize the size and scale of everything.

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An easy way to have things to scale is to use graph paper, cut out objects to the scale you want, and you can play around with the layout easily and get a good idea.+1 on David Gaddis' idea of moving out to the country to get away from all the red tape.

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An easy way to have things to scale is to use graph paper, cut out objects to the scale you want, and you can play around with the layout easily and get a good idea.+1 on David Gaddis' idea of moving out to the country to get away from all the red tape.

 
You can also scan them in, and use photoshop to edit out the blue/green graph lines. That's especially important if you need to submit them for professional review.

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