Rather than extend the Rate my Brickie thread, here is a mini-project thread.

Been thinking about how to store our bike collection in the workshop. I don’t want them hanging up as I’d prefer them not to get covered in saw dust (whole place has a thin layer of saw dust on every surface). Also, mountain bikes take up a fair bit of floor space with wide bars etc, so they are quite wasteful of space. Settled on a large box, with a load bearing roof I can stick a bike, turbo, rower etc on top of and get back the space as a mini-gym area.

Plan is use SW wall plate for the verticals (9 in total) and 2×4″ for horizontals with 18mm ply roof. 1.2m tall, leaving 1.1m internal roof height, which works for 26″ bike with 160mm forks and riser bars.

Box will be roughly 2m square (exact dims to fit the workshop).

1st job, cut all the Verticals and Horizontals using the chop saw:

Cutting the horizontals by brf, on Flickr

Then experiment with the depth setting on the new Circular saw to do the 1st cut for the lap joints on the verticals:

1st cut for the lap joints in the verticals by brf, on Flickr

Seemed to work allright, 46mm depth:

First cut complete by brf, on Flickr

Had to finish the joints one by one though, which was a bit tedious:

Lap joint cut by brf, on Flickr

This got me the basic frame:

Checking the levels by brf, on Flickr

Put three together with cross members:

Basic Frame by brf, on Flickr

Add some Ply to stiffen it all up:

Sides added to stiffen up the frame by brf, on Flickr

A quick inspection by Jeff confirmed we were good to add the roof:

Jeff inspects the joinery by brf, on Flickr

Jeff and Liz on the new bike park… by brf, on Flickr

Worked out mm perfect width (at the base of the back door), but turned out plaster on door frame wasn’t exactly vertical, so there is about 1cm offset at the top of the box. I blame the shoddy site management.

Just need to do the doors and some steps.

Thinking of two concertina folding up and over half doors.

Nice job there, footflaps!

From the last pic – do you live next to a rail junction?

Cambridge Station sidings are at the back of the garden, so the store all the trains there at night.

Cool.

You look pretty handle with a chop saw… which is awesome, except these threads leave me feeling incompetent!

Looks like a good place for a futon and a snooze.

Jeff should be wearing some kind of H+S kit 😉

Bikes are indeed a rubbish thing to store. All those sticky-out bits!

As a plywood fanatic, I’m very jealous of your track saw.

I pay over the odds for my ply, but then the yard have a wall saw and cut up a sheet accurately for a fiver. I once sent them an order for 6 15mm birch ply sheets cut into 150 pieces. They didn’t bat an eyelid!

more pictures of Jeff he is ace

more pictures of Jeff he is ace

he’d be acer in a hard hat. 😉

at least he has white gloves and socks on

Damn you lucky people with all your space, air and light. 🙁

(looks excellent, by the way!)

As a plywood fanatic, I’m very jealous of your track saw.

Up till now I’d been using a jigsaw and 2.5m straight metal edge, but was really struggling to get a dead straight line and even when I did, it was rough as the jigsaw makes a bit of a mess of the surface.

So, now that Festool’s patent on tracking circular saws has expired, everyone is bringing their own versions out. I’m a bit of a Bosch fan, so I bought their set. It works very nicely too.

http://www.powertoolbiz.co.uk/bosch-gks-55-gce-160mm-hand-held-circular-saw-guide-rails-240v-only.html?source=googleps&gen=gbase

EDIT: It has one weakness, the depth guage adjuster doesn’t hold that tightly, so you have to be careful not to push down too hard otherwise the blade just slowly plunges lower as you’re cutting along. Luckily I ran some test cuts and discovered this before doing the lap joints.

more pictures of Jeff he is ace

Easy to please:

Jeff & his brother, George:

Jeff and George by brf, on Flickr

Jeff and George test the new workbench by brf, on Flickr

Jeff supervising by brf, on Flickr

Jeff and George by brf, on Flickr

WIN for two unimpressed cats in a box. 😉

How many bikes is your installation for, footflaps? I’m guessing quite a few…

I’m guessing quite a few…

Strangely enough I now have less than when I started the workshop, having sold a few including one to my local Building Control inspector!

I’ve made the box wider than it needs to be (for just bikes) to make the roof usable for having a rower and a bike on a turbo side by side. If I made the box just big enough to fit our bikes, the platform would be a bit small to use for much. The other advantage is we can stuff boxes of clothes / camelbaks etc in there as well as everything outside will get covered in saw dust from other activities….

Great job, you have more patience than me with those cuts, I generally just draw a straight line and cut it freehand.

I was thinking of almost the same storage solution as this, but with a hole cut in the wall of the garage with the box on the outside and bricked up to match the garage, but you are re using the space anyway with the turbo trainer on top, I would probably fall off.

I would probably fall off

We’ll have to see how well it works. Stand up too quickly after a blast on the rower, feel a bit light headed, step back and ooops – broken leg…..

I was thinking the same thing about falling off – hope you’re going to bolt down the equipment up there!

EDIT: It has one weakness, the depth guage adjuster doesn’t hold that tightly, so you have to be careful not to push down too hard otherwise the blade just slowly plunges lower as you’re cutting along. Luckily I ran some test cuts and discovered this before doing the lap joints.

Good to know – there’s a couple of really cheap systems out there now (<£200), but I need a project suited to it to justify it – that’s how it works!

It might be possible to tighten the Bosch one, but you have to take the guard and blade off to get to the nut on the end of the lever’s bolt, so I haven’t tried it yet.

nice build i have something similar except my box houses three m/c with 5 bycycles above.. and doesnt look anywhere as solid a job as yours.. lots of pluses etc but a couple of downsides..

bikes are rubbish at being rolled in and out and the sticky out bits are fantastic at knitting themselves together causing much angst.. dont know if i’d repeat prefering the bikes hanging from the ceiling cocooned in plastic bags to keep the dust etc out..

Why worry about dust on bikes when you are going to drag them through the mud for hours anyway?

bikes are rubbish at being rolled in and out and the sticky out bits are fantastic at knitting themselves together causing much angst.. dont know if i’d repeat prefering the bikes hanging from the ceiling cocooned in plastic bags to keep the dust etc out..

Previously I’ve had them all hanging in a spare bedroom off hooks on the wall and it was a right pain getting one down as the bars would all interlock. Current plan is to loosen off the stems, switch the bars round to make the narrow and then slide them into the box. The box, being so wide, makes this pretty easy, plus there are four sides to lean them against (edges, plus either side of the middle pillar), so it’s pretty easy to get them in and out. I’ve done some tests with a space model to test the design before I built it, so quite happy it will work.

Why worry about dust on bikes when you are going to drag them through the mud for hours anyway?

a) You’re assuming they’re all mountain bikes.
b) I keep my bike kit pretty much spotless.
c) I’ve become very much a fair weather rider with the exception of the odd race. Last year, nearly all my off road riding was abroad and in very sunny, dry conditions!

Your two cats remind me of the bob cats

linky

Cheers

Danny B

The Bobcats are superb! Sadly I’m not allowed to take them into work…

In a way, I quite like bikes being a bugger to get in and out (certainly bikes I’m not riding every day).

If it’s a pain for me, it’ll be a pain for anyone who’s not me.

If it’s a pain for me, it’ll be a pain for anyone who’s not me.

I chain them all together with multiple locks and to ground anchors. Then set an alarm. Once the workshop gets a burglar alarm fitted with GSM auto dial, I can move the bikes in properly. For now they’re still chained to ground anchors inside the house.

I reckon you live near where I grew up. between hills rd and mill rd somewhere?

You’re assuming they’re all mountain bikes

No, roads can be muddy too 🙂

All that switching bars around would be far too much of a faff for me!

I chain them all together with multiple locks and to ground anchors. Then set an alarm. Once the workshop gets a burglar alarm fitted with GSM auto dial, I can move the bikes in properly. For now they’re still chained to ground anchors inside the house.

I think that probably counts as being sufficiently painful 🙂

All that switching bars around would be far too much of a faff for me!

Well it’s a ‘new’ strategy. The road bikes get most use and their bars stay as is. The mountain bikes only get used after car journeys / flights, so there is always some dismantling / re-assembling involved.

I reckon you live near where I grew up. between hills rd and mill rd somewhere?

Yep, close enough! I was born in Cambridge, parents still live on Milton Road.

Like the new power toy tool 🙂

Re tangle of bars etc when moving the bikes in and out, how about some kind of slot built into the box ?

Had a day back in the workshop…

Rip the doors from a sheet of Ply:

Ripping Ply with Bosch Tracking Circular Saw by brf, on Flickr

The cut each door in two, to make a folding doors. The first one was a couple of mm out when I assembled it, so I was taking no chances with the second:

Keeping the two halves aligned by brf, on Flickr

With hinges attached:

Hinges fitted by brf, on Flickr

With both doors hung (literally):

Finished doors by brf, on Flickr

The doors open up and over and just rest at the end stop of the hinge in the open position. I did the length in two halves so can have road bikes one side and mountain bikes the other:

One doors open by brf, on Flickr

With hindsight I should have taken more care which side of the doors was front etc as I seen to have swapped sides with the Ply so they don’t match perfectly. Still all good practice.

Need a few steps to get up to the top of the bike cupboard, so starting building a dual purpose Step / Plyometrix box (for training on). Lower half is done.

Dual purpose step / Plyometrix box by brf, on Flickr

It can used on it’s side for a lower height jump.

Dual purpose step / Plyometrix box by brf, on Flickr

The next phase is to build the top two steps as a stand alone box, which clips to the lower half, so I can either have four steps or a Plyometrix box, depending on what I’m doing. I’ve run out of Ply, so will have to get some more to complete it.