Binstore

[Screwdriver]

So I ran out of room and rather than build yet another shed, I made a little cupboardy unit to sit outside and specifically designed to carry those big green bins. Of which I have many.

Here's the plan.



Lay down a decent base first. I gave this a good flat skim of self levelling screed and I kept it low to reduce overall height. Part of the plan involves having this double up as a useable workbench or at least work surface.



Quite a straightforward base unit made from found materials (mostly found on my neighbours fence....)



I uhmmed and ahed about doors and hinges and finally went with this.



5.5mm ply which needed some serious effort to keep both flat in plane and relatively watertight. The panel just covers 5-10mm of overlap with the cabinet so I can push it tight or maybe even fit a seal around the edge. NB the above is not the final design, merely one of several iterations.

Bit of a palaver getting all those doors to line up with a 2mm shut line, the vertical hinge spacer and of course shims to keep the door reveals.



Not unhappy with the result.



Knocked up a design in Sketchup to make up some suitable catches. They just need to hold the door shut and there's no real pressure required. Initially I designed it so that the latch lever was a template for a steel copy but after the first test I was happy it would actually work as a 3d printed part in PETG.



It works.



..and is placed deliberately to apply pressure just where needed to keep the relatively flimsy doors firmly shut. Also has security options for later if required.



I aimed the design to go vertical or horizontal commensurate with the accuracy of the Wickes cheapo hinges. They are a disaster of course...



That still irks me because inside the Matrix they are of course perfect...



One other aspect of the construction is the ability for those giant bins to be pulled out like a drawer.



Not totally complete (EPDM roof is on the cards) but they are in, it is done and the binstore is now fully populated.



All that it contains had been "stored" on my kitchen floor. I hesitate to post a picture of that...

Half a ton of letterpress metal type, decanted from various "hell boxes" (that actually is a "thing" by the way) into my hoard of Nescafe Americano tubs.



I knew they'd come in handy one day....

[Screwdriver]

Hell box



From which I started to rescue some of the interesting type.



Anyone wanna guess why it's called a hell box?

Mind your p's and q's....

Yeah, I gave up and it sat on the lower layer of the kitchen floor storage disaster. Probably been there years....

[slowsider]

Helvetica?

[Rockburner]

I don't wish to be in any way critical, but is that not going to trap damp like Docca's roof space?

[mangocrazy]

Wouldn't it be better to get the roofing/weatherproofing arrangements sorted out first, rather than trying to retrofit it to cover the storage units? Bad weather can turn otherwise careful planning on its head very quickly,,,

[Yorick]

Ikea about £100

20220912_140108.jpg (974.94 KiB) Viewed 576 times

[Screwdriver]

I don't wish to be in any way critical, but is that not going to trap damp like Docca's roof space?

I don't know. I doubt it. It isn't hermetically sealed, the slab is damp proofed and there's nothing that would rot that's going to sit out there. I just needed it out of the way quickly.

[Screwdriver]

Wouldn't it be better to get the roofing/weatherproofing arrangements sorted out first, rather than trying to retrofit it to cover the storage units? Bad weather can turn otherwise careful planning on its head very quickly,,,

Yes of course but it is already waterproof enough. If it rains, I throw a plastic sheet over it. If I leave it completely exposed, so long as the doors are shut, the only thing that happens is the top gets wet. I really needed to get everything out from under my feet so that I have space to get things done.

Good enough for now is good enough for now.

[Screwdriver]

Ikea about £100

20220912_140108.jpg

Yeah I already have one of those. Might have a couple come to think of it.

But I need storage for big green bins.

[MrLongbeard]

Ikea about £100

And would last about 13 minutes if left out in the rain

[Noggin]

Ikea about £100

And would last about 13 minutes if left out in the rain

10

[Noggin]

I do wish I had just a smidge of your skill! (And space!). I've admitted defeat and am heading to the B&Q type place on Monday with a list of measurements so they can cut the wood to size for me and all I have to do is screw it together!!

[Mussels]

I do wish I had just a smidge of your skill! (And space!). I've admitted defeat and am heading to the B&Q type place on Monday with a list of measurements so they can cut the wood to size for me and all I have to do is screw it together!!

That's not defeat, it's making the best use of your resources. If it was easy for me to pay slightly more and get everything already cut to size I would do.

[Count Steer]

I do wish I had just a smidge of your skill! (And space!). I've admitted defeat and am heading to the B&Q type place on Monday with a list of measurements so they can cut the wood to size for me and all I have to do is screw it together!!

That's not defeat, it's making the best use of your resources. If it was easy for me to pay slightly more and get everything already cut to size I would do.

When Bunnings took over Homebase one of the first things they did (before turning the place into a pile-it-high mess of garden furniture etc) was take out the facility to get things cut to size.

Re Screwd's cupboard, I'm a fan of 'fit for purpose' but in my DIY terms they're waaay beyond that.

(In a fit of desperation and a rush for a little outside storage I once bought a couple of plastic 'outdoor store cupboards' from Homebase. They weren't watertight, got 2" of water in the bottom and quickly became luxe accommodation for the local snail population. In the skip they went, another waste of hydrocarbons. )

[Screwdriver]

I do wish I had just a smidge of your skill! (And space!). I've admitted defeat and am heading to the B&Q type place on Monday with a list of measurements so they can cut the wood to size for me and all I have to do is screw it together!!

That's not defeat, it's making the best use of your resources. If it was easy for me to pay slightly more and get everything already cut to size I would do.

That is what I wold do in a heartbeat. Get the store to use their super expensive machine to make the cuts. But economies of scale, reuse of found materials and no fucking van means I gotta do what I can with whatever I have.

The superweapon is Sketchup. I use it for everything and if you'd like me to bore you to death with the many wonders of this ultra simple design program, just ask. If it works in Sketchup it will work in the real world. So you can play around with the design to your hearts content and then send it off to be cut to your precise requirements.

[Mr. Dazzle]

If it works in Sketchup it will work in the real world.

That's not what B&Q said when I asked them to cut the wood for my Darth Vader Airship Palace with built in Laser Guns and realistic sound effects.

[Yorick]

Ikea about £100

And would last about 13 minutes if left out in the rain

Why would I store my helmets outside ?

[slowsider]

Ikea about £100

And would last about 13 minutes if left out in the rain

Why would I store my helmets outside ?

Perhaps you should read the OP.

[Noggin]

I do wish I had just a smidge of your skill! (And space!). I've admitted defeat and am heading to the B&Q type place on Monday with a list of measurements so they can cut the wood to size for me and all I have to do is screw it together!!

That's not defeat, it's making the best use of your resources. If it was easy for me to pay slightly more and get everything already cut to size I would do.

That is what I wold do in a heartbeat. Get the store to use their super expensive machine to make the cuts. But economies of scale, reuse of found materials and no fucking van means I gotta do what I can with whatever I have.

The superweapon is Sketchup. I use it for everything and if you'd like me to bore you to death with the many wonders of this ultra simple design program, just ask. If it works in Sketchup it will work in the real world. So you can play around with the design to your hearts content and then send it off to be cut to your precise requirements.

I'll have a look at sketchup. The main reason for change is that I did a plan that I thought would work, but it isn't quite right. Luckily the first was made out of wood I had left over from other things, so it isn't the end of the world. And I can use all the 'tops' still. So I only have to pay for some 35x35mm pieces and they don't charge a lot to cut them

When I bought the place I had planned to do all the conversion/DIY stuff myself, but obviously haven't been able to for the last few years and am somewhat more limited than I was last year. But I do feel better now that a couple of you have said getting the wood cut isn't defeat

[DefTrap]

I have a similar bin store (housing about 10 bins, that's all the space I have, any bigger would require a bigger barn), also similarly serving as a workbench (the bins are really great heavy duty bins that my bil accidentally swiped dozens of over many years working on site at a factory plant in Devon). The bins similarly house the masses of important shite that was stopping me getting in the barn. Also similarly it was constructed mainly with the masses of odd timber you accumulate when you demolish/rebuild a house. Not throwing it away, sawn timber is expensive!

That's where the similarity ends, my design certainly wasn't done in SketchUp! It works though and the bins of shite add a degree of mass to make the bench really sturdy.

If I did it again (and I probably will do this somtime) is put a sturdier, cleaner worktop on it, I was just using what I had ...

Happy you're back to your old self Screwd.