Hello!

As I'm getting into blacksmithing more and more(and I love it) I felt It's time to build an actual workshop for it. Right now I'm inside the garage with poor ventilation and not enough space so I needed something bigger.

Long story short: The Swedish Transport Administration(TSTA) are moving/remaking the highway E20, going from Gothenburg up to Örebro to make the traffic easier. Since they need more space for E20 some lands are getting bought up, mostly old abandoned houses and such. So I got in contact with the owner of this old garage, or whatever they used, about taking it down and move it to my house instead. The owner didn't bother, however we both made some calls to TSTA first to just get a Thumbs up from them as well.

Instead of spamming a lot of photos from this weekends work I've uploaded them on Imgur. I just think the forum thread will be heavy to load cause of all the pictures, so in this first post there's a link: https://imgur.com/gallery/X0uQBvm

Next updates will have photos in here instead  

Very nice. See if you can score some of that scrap metal while you're at it.

It's free to take. I just sorted it out for easier handling. A lot of car wheels but some metal as well so I will pick it up when I've got the frame down My plan during this work week is to tear down all exterior panels and then the whole frame on saturday/sunday

Out to make a nice smithing shop, jimmyw.

Thank you, Chris! It's exciting for sure.

Got about 2h work done after my dayjob, managed to get all the panel off so I think I'm good now to get down the frame. 

I'm saving those two windows showing in the photos to get some natural lighting inside the workshop. 

That's going to make a fine shop Jimmy. It's a good size and the roof trusses will make good storage, even room to make  a place to sleep. Are there other places needing torn down on this road project? You could use more roofing tin and windows, not to mention other potential goodies. 

Keep us in the loop please. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Not that I'm aware of unfortunately. 

I have a lot of materials on my job that's just sitting, like doors, windows with frames etc so my boss said I could take some for the project. Good guy definitely!

So the project moves on. The garage is torn down but the sill plate must be replaced. At least I think it's called that. The bottom that carries the stud up to the wale.
But that's a smaller problem. I have all the materials at home already for that.

 

Digging the foundation is just a real pain in the butt. 

Ahhh the joys of digging ditches! Makes me want to run out and dig a hole but oh DARN the ground is frozen solid. I'll have to swallow my disappointment. <sigh>

Yes, I believe the bottom lumber is called the "sill plate" or bottom plate If you're building with logs or timbers it'd be a sill log or timber or whatever. I could be wrong, I'm not a carpenter though I played at it when we built this house and I've helped on a number of log houses. 

If you have to replace the sills I highly recommend you use "Ground Contact" treated lumber, it won't rot nearly as fast as plain wood. It's a building code requirement here. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Agreeing with Frosty, the sill plate is normally placed on a foundation of some sort (logs, concrete, timber beams, etc.) to provide a relatively (?) flat horizontal base for your studs or vertical timbers.  You might consider some sort of flat-lying foundation beams, etc. for your sill plates on which to lay your sill plates.  Have fun with your shop build.

My lumber is treated, however I will be using something called "syllpapp" in Swedish. It's basically a strip of some moisture protecting thing.We can call it Sill strip then haha.

I also will be using Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate (LECA) in between the concrete blocks I have in the 4 corners. I actually called a guy and rented a mini-excavator for the digging. The result was not perfect, but manageable. 

Those excavators beat shoveling by a long shot!!!!!  Good call.

I'll swap the perfection of hand digging for an excavator any day! Smart move. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Comes down to what you are trying to accomplish: moving cold dirt or moving hot metal.  If you are wanting to get to forging before the next winter sets in; then moving dirt the easy way is definitely called for.

Hehe fair enough. I have my forge inside the garage currently though but it's low ceiling and basically no ventilation as it's made to be.. well, a garage, not anything else.

Got some work done today as well. I had to re-do the concrete blocks position and depths as one side was under grass level while the other side was above, so now I moved them both above grass level.

Plan for tomorrow is positioning out the other two concrete blocks and dig the holes for them.

(Photo is from before fixing the level issue)

 

 

It's getting there. 

I've dug for the last two concrete blocks and leveled them and squared everything. It's off with about 5cm on one lenght but at this point I really don't care about that haha.

Tommorow I'll get help to move the gravel you can see on the first photo.. the truck driver delivering the gravel put it pretty much as far away he could get even though I pointed him where to put the gravel closer to the foundation. I'll probably need about 20 more tons before it's all done.

Hello!

Alright so the foundation is done and I began to puzzle the old frame but it just wouldn't work as the old sill was layed out right on the ground and then the studs were lenghtend after that. Sooo I had to frame it with some 145x45 studs.

It's getting there alright!

 

Well, it's getting there!

I've been working slowly but steady by myself until this weekend and I got some help from my uncle putting up the vapor barrier.

Kinda hard doing that by myself haha.

Hello!

Got quite bit further now. 

Too bad there isn't much feedback in this thread. Though I hope you like my workshop build

We're just watchin'n'waitin'!   There'll be a lot of comments when you start putting blacksmithin' stuff inside.

Well most of us don't know the rules and regulations for such structures in Sweden and so don't want to say stuff that may contravene your local building codes.

The first part of my shop has a concrete floor, 2 fiberglass skylights and metal structural framing, walls and roof; it is now the "clean shop". 

The second part of my shop has a dirt/sand/gravel floor 2 fiberglass skylights, 4 creosote treated utility poles as the uprights and metal framing and trusses and walls and roof. This is my "dirty shop" with the forge.  The dirt floor is easy on the feet and joints and will make it easy to cast a pad for the power hammer(s). 

Here where I live there is not a problem with snow loads or cold weather and not much with rain, 9" a year.  Heat, wind and blinding light is what we engineer for. So my shop(s) have 10' side walls and 10'x10' roll up doors aligned on opposite sides to allow maximum ventilation. If you will be using a gas forge will your shop vent the CO effectively?

Looks like you are getting there. One mistake I made, when building the smithy, was to not have a large door. Finally since we have added the addition it now has an 8 foot overhead garage door.

Yeah, that makes sense, Chris. I mean, IFI is a blackshithing forum to be fair haha.

Thomas, well, that makes two of us. But my idea is simple. As the building is not as high as normal workshops(about 4-4.5m from bottom to top) I can use a shovel during the winters on a ladder IF we actually get some snow here. This winter we had about 100mm snow as most during a *whole* week. I live quite far south in Sweden and It's just milder weather here overall than up north where I'm from.

The building itself will not be isolated, but I prepared with weave(?) for two reasons, 1: condensation and 2: in case I would like to isolate in the future. I mean, the forge get quite hot so I think that'll be enough though. Perhaps I'll get a 250w fan heater or something until the forge get hot, we'll see I guess. 

About the CO, well.. I don't know currently to be honest. I haven't made the construction wind sealed, so there will be air moving through by default but I do plan on putting in some kind of ventilation still though. 

I also wanted gravel / dirt just as you for the reason It's easier for your feet and back. But It's also good preperation in case I'd like to do some concrete in the future, for let's say some kind of power machine

 

Irondragon

I've had the thought. I also have an old garage door with electric motor if I want it, from my work but it feels like it will take up too much space currently so I passed on it for now. I may install it later even though I know I probably should've done it when doing the framing haha. But we'll see I guess.

 

Cheers for the comments!

GET A CO DETECTOR!  Anytime folks say that they are expecting natural air leakage to ventilate for a gas forge I scream inside. Especially when they live in a colder climate. (It's supposed to hit 33 deg C next week; so Colder!)  I bought my first house from a Widow with two small kids whose husband had not followed basic safety rules when working on it.  That made me very careful to not have my wife and two daughters in the same situation. (My daughters are now grown and I have 8 grandkids including my step ones.)

Coal is nice as you can see the smoke and KNOW that you shouldn't be breathing that stuff!  CO will sneak up and kill you silently.

I get your concern. Fortunately I do not own a gas forge(yet), but I have in my planning adding ventilation in the shop later on. As it is right now, both long sides are open towards the upper part so it should ventilate just fine for coal anyway!

  

Hello!

Alright, so I've got a lot of things done since last time! I had my best friend over for a weekend and he helped me put up all the panel and some of the roof as well.

 

 

As this last photo was taken he was just about to get down and drive home (about 20 miles). So we got a lot of work done. I've finished off the roof by myself now and will start moving in things into the shop tomorrow. I have no clue how I want to put everything though. Maybe you guys have an idea of where I should put my things?

I'm running a coal forge right now and don't really have a plan of switching it out anytime soon.

Here's how the inside looks right now

 

Here's my current idea

 

Now, the proportions may not be all 100% but you get the point. I'm mostly intrested of tool making. Suggestions are very welcome!