Top businesses
What products can you create or repair with your own hands, working at home or in the garage? In this collection we will continue the topic of business in the format of mini-workshops.
The events of recent years, taking into account self-isolation due to coronavirus and the trend towards remote work, have made many people think about looking for ideas for making money from home or in the country. In your comfort zone, you can work alone not only with a laptop in your hands, but also, in fact, with your own hands, for example, by organizing a mini-workshop for repairing something or a small production area in the garage or in a spare room. Previously, the portal already published a selection of mini-productions at home, but now we will continue the topic.
Workshop of gingerbread boards and figured rolling pins
In recent years, such a household item as a rolling pin has changed significantly. On Instagram you can find hundreds of examples of so-called shaped rolling pins - with floral patterns, cat patterns or even images from Star Wars. You can create such rolling pins using a CNC machine, by gluing sawn plywood onto a wooden cylinder, or by modeling and printing the pattern on a mold using a 3D printer. You don’t have to limit yourself to rolling pins—the assortment can include gingerbread boards with unusual gingerbread molds.
photos of works from Instagram page @lubimova_com
Bright attic in an unusual house
Lorrie Kempf (Lorrie Kempf) and her husband turned a modest attic with a footage of 48 square meters. m. into space for painting and work. This corner has a beautiful view of green plants and tall trees, while a small terrace allows the owners to enjoy dining in the fresh air.
Skylights on the ceiling allow you to fill the decoration with sunlight, creating wonderful conditions for drawing.
Handmade watch
Many popular and quite budget ideas can be found using hashtags on social networks related to the manufacture of handmade watches. Some works are real works of art, but there are simpler examples that you can create yourself without much effort. To get your imagination going, you can simply search for watch blanks on the Internet or do-it-yourself watch kits from China. Another option is to take a closer look at the surrounding natural materials and household items. Perhaps you will see unusual hands in a grapevine, or the basis for a future dial in an old children's plate. Social networks like Instagram are perfect for presenting finished products; in the future, you can also launch an online watch store.
photo of work from Instagram @kodzu_art
Basic requirements for a carpenter's workshop
It is not enough to understand how to build a carpentry workshop or how to choose a suitable premises. When setting up a carpentry workshop, you need to remember five important factors, the presence of which guarantees convenience and safety while working inside the future premises:
- fire safety;
- effective sound insulation;
- high-quality lighting;
- proper ventilation;
- efficient and safe heating.
Let's talk about all this in more detail.
Smartphone repair shop
Today, almost every person has a smartphone in their pocket. The breakdown of a gadget has become akin to a disaster, and the demand for such services is very high. Therefore, you can do repairs at home, accepting orders without having a workshop on the first line of houses. As a rule, 10-15 square meters are enough for work, and about 50 thousand rubles will be enough for tools and equipment for repairs. The spare parts and components themselves are usually purchased in China. Even if you open such a business as expected, that is, with registration of an individual entrepreneur and renting premises, the investment will amount to about 150 thousand rubles and, with proper advertising, will pay off quite quickly. You can read more about opening your own phone repair shop in this article.
Organizing a workshop and storage areas for home tools
A well-equipped workshop, with conveniently located tools and the necessary consumables, is the key to fruitful, high-quality work.
In a private house, usually even during its construction, the owner allocates a place for the workshop in advance. Or he organizes it in an outbuilding or garage. It is more difficult to allocate personal space in an apartment. But if it has a spacious storage room, balcony or loggia, then those who like to make things will immediately “occupy” this territory.
On sale you can find container organizers for tools and components. They are available in various designs and capacities.
Some craftsmen limit themselves to a reliable table and purchased plastic organizing containers for storing tools. Others, showing ingenuity, come up with various cabinets, shelves or stands. They take up minimal space and do not clutter up even small rooms.
You can choose a stationary or mobile container option. The latter is equipped with wheels and a comfortable handle. This organizer is convenient for working in the garage or in the yard. It makes it possible not to carry heavy tools by hand, but to easily move them to any place in the local area.
So, below we will consider several options for ideas that allow you to compactly place a large number of different tools in a small space.
Setting up a workshop on the balcony
If the workshop is set up on a small balcony or loggia, and it is planned to be used year-round, then a number of measures must be taken. First of all, to create a comfortable environment in a room during the cold season, it must be insulated.
Insulating the balcony significantly expands the functionality of this room!
Cold balconies or loggias are not used in winter, and often gradually turn into a warehouse of unnecessary rubbish. Why not turn it into an all-season space? How to properly insulate a balcony or loggia from the inside - read in a special publication on our portal.
The second task, without which the workshop will be incomplete, is supplying electricity to the room and installing lighting fixtures.
When the room is completely ready, you can move on to planning your workspace. The plan, of course, will depend on the configuration of the balcony. As a rule, this is a very small area, often having a width of only 1200 mm. However, even within such limits, the craftsmen manage to arrange everything necessary for comfortable work.
Properly placed tools and a reliable workbench are guarantees of quality work.
The main thing in the workshop is a reliable and durable workbench. It is equipped with a thick tabletop that can support the weight of tools. Loads when applying forces during work must also be taken into account. The table must be well lit, so when laying the wiring, this must be taken into account.
Prices for tool boxes Plastic Cenntre
Tool box Plastic center Blocker
To store tools, shelves are attached above the table. And under them on the wall you can install metal hooks or other devices for convenient placement of small hand tools. There are quite a lot of such ideas, and they will be discussed in a separate section.
On a small balcony, when planning it, you have to take into account every centimeter of usable space.
The main tool that is used most often is installed on the table. If it is large enough, then it should be placed so that there is room for other work.
The transforming cabinet is suitable for storing tools both on the balcony and in the garage.
An excellent option that will help save space and allow you to keep all your tools in order is a transforming cabinet. Such a cabinet involves the use of not only its main space, but also doors. Horizontal jumpers are fixed to the sashes, which are not only stiffening ribs, but also functional shelves.
The set with the cabinet also includes a work table, which is mandatory for the workshop. In the example shown above, it has a foldable design. However, the tabletop and its support must be reliable.
The cabinet opens and the table unfolds only when any work is planned to be done. The rest of the time it is compactly located near the wall.
The design of the cabinet is simple. It is assembled from timber and plywood of different thicknesses. Therefore, it is quite possible to make it yourself to the specific dimensions of the available space. If this is not possible, then the cabinet can be ordered from an experienced carpenter, providing dimensions taken from the site of its intended installation.
The space under the desktop also needs to be used as rationally as possible.
Don't forget about the space created under the table. There is quite a lot of space for arranging closed and open shelves. To maintain a neat appearance of the workshop, you can install the above-mentioned plastic containers with tools on the shelves under the table.
Mobile cabinets and racks on wheels for storing tools.
Another option for expanding your workspace. We are talking about installing mobile cabinets and racks with tools under the table. Naturally, such pieces of furniture will have to be adjusted in terms of parameters to the height and width of the table. An extended cabinet immediately increases the area of the workbench, since its surface can also be used for work.
A very compact looking wall cabinet. But it contains many useful devices and tools for doing household work.
If the space on the balcony is completely limited, or there is none at all, then a wall cabinet is suitable, which can be placed even in the hallway. The photo shows two cabinet options. One of them has a door made of solid plywood, and the second one has a door made of perforated plywood. Thanks to the holes in the door leaf, you can attach some tools to it using hooks. However, this model can hardly be hung in the hallway. A solid door will completely hide the contents of the cabinet, and its surface can be disguised, for example, with a mirror. Notice the many drawers in the closet. An excellent place to store various sorted “trifles” and fasteners.
Setting up a workshop in the garage
Another place where a workshop is most often organized is a garage. This is understandable, since the machine requires periodic maintenance, and a large number of tools are placed here. Therefore, it is easier to combine everything you need in one room.
The garage space provides much more opportunities for arranging a workshop.
If the garage is wide and long, then shelving can be placed along the far and side walls. This layout results in a spacious work surface and a large space underneath. Everything you need can easily fit here.
For the purpose of safe operation of both the workshop and the garage itself, it is recommended to make floor racks, as well as hanging stands, from non-flammable material. If wood is chosen for the manufacture of wall shelves, it must be treated with fire-retardant impregnation.
A workshop located along the far wall of the garage.
If the garage is not wide enough, there is still enough space along the back wall to organize a workshop with a work desk and numerous cabinets. The only thing that needs to be considered for any garage workshop is the intensity of lighting. Such a building, as a rule, lacks windows that let in natural light. And we have to compensate for this with electric ones.
Pull-out racks for storing tools will help to significantly save space.
If there is no desire or opportunity to stretch tool racks over the entire length of the garage, you can use the idea of a retractable shelving design. Moreover, if you correctly place the retractable panels, then in combination with them it is quite possible to organize a work surface. When the panels are moved to one side, a fairly spacious and reliable table top is revealed, allowing the necessary work to be done.
To create such a structure, you will need panels, for example, from MDF. You can perform perforation - this will significantly reduce the weight of the panels, and the holes will be useful for fixing tools. Small wheels are attached to the top and bottom sides. In addition, guides will be needed to ensure free and smooth movement of the panels. They are fixed on the desktop and on the ceiling. Or on the shelf provided above the workbench, which will also not become superfluous.
For a workshop in a small garage, the optimal solution would be to install a workbench with a folding table top.
If the garage is not only narrow, but also short, and you need to organize a workshop in it, then a folding table option is suitable. When not needed, the tabletop of such a workbench slides down along the wall. Well, above the table you can place a stand or hanging shelves with tools. The garage space will be significantly saved, and the countertop will not interfere with placing the car in the garage or performing certain maintenance work on the car.
The richness of such a tool set and its ergonomic placement in the workshop can only be envied.
The option of placing tools on stands mounted above the desktop is convenient because everything you need will always be in sight. Thanks to this arrangement, you don’t have to look for the necessary consumables or, for example, a wrench or a screwdriver of the required size. The stands have boxes with compartments for bolts, screws, nuts and other small elements. Moreover, for convenience, the boxes are located at a slight angle - their contents are immediately visible.
The upper shelves, which have greater depth, can be used both for storing electric tools and for various compositions, also necessary for performing certain types of work.
This arrangement of the work area can be organized both in the garage workshop and on the balcony.
A tool cabinet for the garage that won't take up much space.
This compact but spacious cabinet option is ideal for a small garage space. Moreover, all the necessary tools and consumables are distributed very ergonomically. The upper part of the cabinet is reserved for storing medium-sized tools. Its lower part is a kind of chest of drawers with numerous narrow drawers. Thanks to the correctly selected height of the drawers, order will always reign in their cells, since each item stored in them has its own place. When drawing up a design for such a cabinet, you must immediately plan in which drawer what will be stored. Depending on this, choose the height of the sections. Well, even a novice home carpenter can make such a cabinet.
Mobile tool cabinets are very convenient for working in the garage.
The mobile version of cabinets or carts for tools solves many problems. This allows you to use them in different places in the garage, as well as in the yard. Such convenient devices do not take up a large area, and thanks to fairly large wheels and specially designed handles, they are easy to transport. At the same time, they contain many of the necessary heavy tools.
The mobile cart can be purchased ready-made, as they are presented in a fairly wide range. But it won't be cheap. Therefore, it is best to draw up a drawing and make it yourself from timber and plywood. And powerful wheels are easy to find in a furniture hardware store.
Production of furniture for pets
One of the trends of recent years is unusual furniture for pets. These are all kinds of booths, beds, running wheels, slides, scratching posts, cat hammocks and much more. The production cost of such products is small (usually within 1-5 thousand rubles), and large premises for a workshop and warehouse are not required. The abundance of new products in this industry is amazing, but in an effort to surprise the buyer, we must not forget about the animals themselves. So, for example, cats usually like closed spaces, tunnels, hills, and the ability to watch from a shelter from additional windows. The main thing in this area is to choose your niche and your style. For example, you can specialize in creating wooden houses and castles for rodents, where the competition is not so great.
Snow-white work space
Specialist Emilia Dubicki transformed an enclosed patio into a space for creativity. She decorated the area with faux flooring and foam drop ceilings in a light color scheme.
Minimalist window openings brought an abundance of sunlight and warmth into the decoration, creating wonderful conditions for painting.
Microwave oven repair
Repair of small equipment, such as microwave ovens, can be done both on-site and at home, buying broken equipment and then reselling it. 20 thousand rubles will be enough for all the necessary tools and consumables (soldering irons, brackets, screwdrivers, multimeter, soldering station, etc.). Another 10-15 thousand rubles can be set aside for paid advertisements on sites like Yuly and Avito. If you do not take into account the costs of acquiring repair knowledge and transportation costs in investments, it is quite possible to start working in this area with 30-35 thousand rubles.
TOP 20 best photos of workshop renovation from our portal
When choosing a place for a workshop, it is worth considering the minimum without which you cannot work fully.
Ideally, the workshop space should be divided into several functional areas:
- shelves or rack for small tools and accessories;
- place for machines next to the outlet;
- a corner where cleaning tools and a container (bucket or box) for production waste will be stored;
- shelf and hanger for workwear;
- various attachments for the workshop;
- wall cabinets for small fixtures and parts;
- free area for finished products;
- a place to store materials and raw materials for work.
In the center near the work surface and workshop you need to have a lot of space for free movement (at least two people). The area occupied by a workbench or machine is multiplied by two, calculating the coefficient of the minimum working area. In addition, you will need space for free movement, small tools and changing working equipment - this is another plus of 2-3 m 2.
As for the lighting, it should not be scattered bright, but in no case should it hurt the eyes so that they do not get tired when working. It is good if there are many windows in this room, since natural light is considered the best.
If you want your workshop room to look beautiful after renovation, pay attention to our photos.
Backgammon workshop
One of the options for your own mini-business is a specialized carpentry workshop for the production of unique backgammon. All the basic “recipes” are on YouTube. If you want to develop such a production, you need to think about ways to give wood an antique look (for example, firing) and find those types that will look expensive after processing. You also need to try to choose decent fittings and hinges, and most importantly, find your “trick”. Or chips. For example, some craftsmen build NFC chips into them and integrate them with mobile applications so that players do not forget the turn order. You can post your work on social networks and on bulletin boards such as “Avito” and “Yula”.
photo from Instagram page @nardishki
Lighting and heating
When organizing a home workshop on the territory of a private house, the best solution to the heating issue would be to connect the room being used to a common heating system. In this case, the walls of the basement, attic or extension must be insulated.
The situation is much more complicated with the heating of detached buildings. In such workshops, oil or electric heaters are most often used. However, they are not able to fully provide the required level of heating and microclimate and consume a lot of energy. In order to minimize heat loss, enhanced insulation and moisture insulation will be required.
This will be required even if the workshop will not be used very often during the cold season. High humidity and low temperatures can affect the quality of instruments, and it is not always possible to store them in another place more suitable for these purposes.
Regardless of whether there is a natural light source in the room, the workshop cannot do without additional artificial lighting. Light affects not only the quality, but also the safety of work.
It is recommended to have both a stationary and an additional portable lighting source. It is best to use lamps that provide diffused light, do not cast shadows and avoid distortion of size and proportions.
Production of wooden flowerpots
Wooden flower pots are a fairly easy item to make and can sell for a high price. Simple outdoor flowerpots are created without professional tools and from the remains of timber and clapboard lying around after renovation. On the Internet you can find examples of how to make flowerpots using firing, treating them with an antiseptic and water-based varnish with dyes. Naturally, to speed up the work you will need at least a circular saw and grinders, but there is nothing super complicated in the technology.
How to choose a room for carpentry
The ideal location for setting up a carpentry workshop would be a separate barn, garage or specially built room. You can consider an option in which the carpentry workshop will be located in a building block container (a used product is quite suitable for the workshop, since new block containers are quite expensive). The area of the block container is a little more than 14 m². Therefore, its usable space can easily accommodate not only a workbench and a shelf with tools, but even several small carpentry machines. There will be enough space for storing wood and organizing a small painting area.
Basket weaving workshop
The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “basket” is an ordinary basket in which “mushrooms and berries” are carried, or simply food and things. But the scope of application of baskets is much wider. You can weave unusual laundry baskets, make urns, or start a small business weaving basket houses for pets. The vine can be either purchased or collected in places where willow grows (and not necessarily with your own hands - you can negotiate a low fee with local residents). And if you have a plot of land, you can try to plant cuttings yourself. Preparations are usually cut either in May before flowering, or already in August, when the shoots have grown. There are not many tools in this matter. Usually this is a carpenter's knife, a metal spatula and rope. The workspaces are also small, although it is better to spot a storage area in advance. You can learn this business both for free through video lessons and from live teachers. Here, as they say, there would be a desire. For example, the desire to type two words into a search engine - “wicker weaving courses.”
Last stage of design and recommendations
The workshop should have two rooms: one for equipment and equipment, and the second for a utility room, which will separate the work area from the street.
In the utility room there are:
- clothes hanger;
- wash basin;
- one of the heating devices.
Recommendations:
- The door to the utility room should not be located opposite the entrance to the building.
- Shelving and storage spaces are located opposite the front door.
- The workshop must be equipped with ventilation.
- Finally, lighting fixtures and electrical and grounding connections are placed on the project.
Making kites
You don't need expensive materials to make kites. Usually these are wooden slats or metal tubes for the frame, paper or fabric for the “body,” as well as fishing line, fasteners and a winder for “connection with the ground.” Finding tutorials on how to make your own kites is not difficult. As your experience grows, you can find your style and gradually raise the price tag. Kites do not need to be sold, but can also be rented out, for example, for wedding photo shoots.
Painting studio in the basement
The painting room was equipped in the cottage of a young married couple located in the suburbs of Boston. Light insulated walls and ceilings, waterproofed cork floors, as well as an amazing interior and lighting give this place incredible charm and comfort.
We have presented to you a unique selection of design options for an art workshop, developed by talented designers and engineers from different parts of the world. Did you like these decor ideas and solutions?
Share with us your ideas for transforming this room?
Workshop of wood products
If you live near a body of water, on the banks of which you can find a lot of driftwood - that is, bog wood turned in water, you can use this material to create handmade products. The shape of the finds will best tell you what exactly to create. Sometimes the end result may be an unusual, but necessary stool in everyday life. And sometimes flexible and intricate branches can give you an idea for a sculpture of some sea creature or some wall figure in the form of a fish or bird, which would be an excellent gift for fishermen or hunters. By the way, if you have an echo sounder, you can not only produce, but also search for stained wood for sale, because it is quite expensive.
Photo from drevologia.ru
Comfort and safety
Another immutable rule of the home workshop is that before you start arranging the space, you need to make sure that the electrical wiring installed in the house can withstand the voltage level when operating a powerful tool, the sockets are in working order, and the surfaces of the walls or floors do not have flammable finishes. This is especially true for workshops that do not have centralized heating, in which electric heaters are used as a heat source in the winter season.
The room used for work should not be cluttered. All waste must be removed promptly. Flammable liquids are stored in special containers.
It would be a good idea to take care of purchasing a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket.
High-quality ventilation and sound insulation are something that should not be forgotten either. This is especially true if the work is not carried out in a separate room, but in the basement, attic or room of a residential multi-storey or private house. For certain types of work, it may be necessary to install forced exhaust or ventilation.
Creating people from fittings and pipes
One of the popular gifts for men recently has become the so-called pouring men (or dispenser men) made from fittings and plumbing pipes. Sometimes you can see something similar, for example, lamp men in the steampunk style, in all sorts of loft establishments and bars. What is especially surprising about this idea is the process of transformation: when several rather inexpensive materials suddenly turn into a unique gift that can cost 5-7 thousand rubles, or even more than 10. If you google the topic, you will see that similar gifts are given to representatives of completely different professions. There are already football player dispensers with balls and waiter dispensers with trays, border guard dispensers with border posts and traffic police dispensers with traffic police batons on the market. If your city or town doesn’t have such an idea yet, then perhaps it’s your turn to implement it.
Ventilation
Even the simplest forced ventilation installed in a carpentry workshop will make your work much more comfortable and safer. Thanks to ventilation, you will not have to inhale wood dust, which can cause irritation of the respiratory tract and even diseases.
If you plan to install woodworking machines in the workshop, then installing a suitable chip ejector is an issue that requires a mandatory solution. Otherwise, the room will always be a mess, and all efforts aimed at ensuring fire safety will not have the desired effect. After all, wood dust, scattered in large quantities in the air, can ignite like gunpowder from the slightest spark.
If you plan to work in your future workshop all year round, then heating the room is an issue that should be taken very seriously. The warm air in the workshop will have a beneficial effect on your well-being, performance and the condition of the power tool. And only in such conditions is wood able to retain its best qualities.
It makes no sense to connect such a room to centralized heating (with rare exceptions). Therefore, installing an oil heater will be considered a completely worthy way out. Alternatively, you can use fan heaters or more modern infrared heaters. These devices will quickly heat a small room and, if the room is well insulated, will create a cozy microclimate inside the workshop.
Handmade boxes
A popular business idea among both men and women is the creation of handmade boxes. The box is a small-sized product, so you can make it at home, working, for example, as a business in a garage. Boxes are made from wood, plywood, jute, cardboard, stone - and they all have their own subtleties and wisdom. To begin with, you can buy ready-made blanks from Aliexpress or the Crafts Fair and practice decorating, and then you can fully master the entire production technology. As in any field, it is advisable to create a unique selling proposition. For example, a business in unusual wooden boxes is suitable for those who live near unusual types of wood.
Workshop in a city apartment: reality and possibilities
Opening your own business often begins with setting up a workshop.
If you have your own garage or private home, this is not a problem. A significantly larger number of pitfalls await those who want to use either an apartment or part of it for these purposes. What limits your plans? The main difficulties are considered:
– The floor on which the housing is located: it’s good if it’s the first floor, sometimes it’s possible to set up a workshop on the second floor (most often this is an option with a blank wall of a multi-story building), and it’s almost impossible to set up a workshop on the upper floors of the house.
– The condition of the electrical wiring in the apartment: in old-type houses, with a limited cross-section of power cables, a mechanical workshop will most likely remain only in dreams. Since the power simultaneously consumed by the machines can cause not only a fire in your own apartment, but also cause problems with power supply for neighbors, at least in the staircase.
– Noise and vibrations accompanying the operation of equipment: existing safety standards prohibit the installation and use in multi-storey buildings of machines and mechanisms with a noise level of more than 55 dB, and a vibration velocity of more than 3.2 m/s.
– Condition of the supply and exhaust ventilation system: during the operation of most types of equipment, an increased level of dust occurs, and sometimes gases, which, if removed unsatisfactorily, can cause discomfort and contribute to the occurrence and development of allergic diseases.
Thus, setting up even a small mechanical workshop - for example, a turning or milling shop - in the conditions of an ordinary city apartment is impossible. But there is no reason to be despondent, because there are still quite a few acceptable solutions, which we will consider.
Urban Workshop Options
What they have in common is the low material consumption of all components and the absence of all of the above side effects during operation.
Engraving workshop. The areas of practical use of surface engraving processes are very extensive. First of all, this is the design of gratitude and memorial inscriptions on various household items - from banal rings to tableware.
You will need a miniature drill, as well as a set of tools that will allow you to grind, strip and polish products.
When choosing a drive for an engraving machine, preference should be given to an electric one: it does not make much noise and will also allow you to more quickly regulate the operating mode. For our purposes, a tabletop machine like Multicut 500-0609-1.5 is quite suitable.
The engraving machine can be installed in the cabinet of a regular two-pedestal desk, which will be placed directly under the window in the room. It is necessary to install an exhaust hood above the work area, which is then connected to the supply and exhaust ventilation system.
A little about lighting. A home engraver needs a powerful and highly directional light flux, which is best provided by LED lamps with a power of at least 8 W. One of them is mounted directly above the engraving machine, and the second - along the axis of the master’s workplace, for adjusting and marking the product before work.
A safe or cabinet for storing current orders and finished products will complement the decor of a mini-engraving workshop.
Watch workshop. Despite the significant number of offers of this kind, in some urban areas it is difficult to find a watchmaker. To organize a business of this kind, you will need very little space, and in this case there is no noise or vibration at all. True, you will have to spend money on effective lighting, specialized tools and high-quality optics. Note that even complex diagnostic equipment for checking watch mechanisms is compact and silent. To fulfill quick requests, it’s a good idea to have a small area for at least one client who urgently needs to fix a minor watch breakdown; You can always find such a place even in a two-room apartment.
The small-sized watch workshop includes the following set of tools and furniture:
– Hard table with a thick top. A special Swiss-made table will be expensive, but you can also choose a similar domestic one, in which you can equip elbow rests with adjustable travel from 0 to 30...40 0;
– Devices and components (the Minitool company operates on the Russian market, the range and prices of which will satisfy any novice watchmaker);
– The same as in the previous example, LED lamps located above the workplace.
Electrical repair shop. The constantly growing number of household electrical appliances leads to a corresponding increase in the demand for minor repair services. Who has ever had to, for example, replace cartridges in multi-arm Chinese chandeliers, or replace worn brushes on electric motors of vacuum cleaners? A compact workshop of this type will be able to quickly eliminate these and similar faults in devices for which the warranty period is missing or has already expired. To perform such work, energy-intensive machines and tools will not be required, and the production area is comparable to the size of an ordinary two-pedestal desk. Noise and vibration during repair work will not exceed the standards for the practical use of the equipment being repaired for its intended purpose.
A wooden floor, reliable grounding - and such a workshop can be opened in an ordinary city apartment. The main condition is the desire and minimal specialized experience of the future master.
Making plastic trees
The abundance of plastic waste always makes us look for ways to reuse it. One way to use empty plastic bottles is to create plastic trees and plants. That is, palm trees, pine trees, tall cacti, and so on. All you need for the job are the bottles themselves, brown and green, stakes, wire, scissors, screws and a little imagination. There are plenty of master classes on creating such trees on the Internet, and some craftsmen go further, creating colored monkeys, parrots and other fauna from plastic. You can offer your products through online bulletin boards and working to order. In rural areas, rumors about new craftsmen spread quite quickly.
Drying
Tree
needs to be dried
, and dry it
according to a certain method
. Wood is usually sold at “natural moisture content,” meaning it contains about 25–40% moisture. If you make something from such wood, then as it dries the product will warp and crack. Regardless of how many layers of varnish you apply to it. Generally speaking, wood is a living material and is subject to seasonal changes in air humidity, which is why its linear dimensions fluctuate throughout the year: in length (along the fibers) the fluctuations are extremely insignificant, and in width a piece of wood can swell and shrink by tens of millimeters, depending on the overall size of the product.
Therefore, the main rule is that the wood must first be dried to 8 - 12% humidity, only after which it can be used.
How to dry wood in an apartment? Carefully fold the boards as far away from the radiators as possible, arrange the layers with bars of the same width and press something on top. It is advisable to coat the ends with paint, since this is where moisture evaporates most intensively and cracks may appear along the boards. It’s great if you can buy chamber-dried wood that has already been dried; this will help you avoid numerous defects if you start drying it yourself.
Open workshop
When choosing a workshop idea, you can go from the inside out and offer people an open workshop where they can work themselves. Essentially, this can be called renting out a workshop, but if you approach the matter more creatively and offer clients more space, a variety of tools and machines, then your startup can be called a craft coworking. In this case, you can also act as an intermediary between artisans and people who want to receive training from them or attend a master class. Of course, an open workshop should look neater and more visually appealing than a regular open workshop.
Mikhail Semynin
(c) www.openbusiness.ru - portal of business plans and guides for starting a small business
09/22/2021
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DIY home workshop – where to start?
Location, location and location again. Choosing a room for a home workshop is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Of course, much will depend on the intended type of activity and the availability of free space. It is quite possible to find a small corner in a 2-storey building to equip a watch repair workplace, but building a full-fledged carpentry workshop on the balcony of a standard 1-2-room apartment is not realistic.
The most acceptable options for premises for creating a home workshop are:
- in the private sector:
- garage;
- veranda;
- extension to the house;
- summer cuisine;
- basement of the house.
- basement room;
- a garage or outbuilding located in the courtyard of a house.
A balcony, loggia or storage room can only serve as a storage place for tools. Firstly, they are often not large in size, and it will be very difficult to work there fully. Secondly, not only household members, but also neighbors will not be delighted with the constant noise. Third, using powerful tools can overload your home's wiring.
When carrying out quiet work or there is no alternative, the interior of an apartment (separate room, balcony, loggia) in a high-rise building can be used for a mini-workshop. This option is suitable only if you do not plan to turn your hobby into a business and you will rarely disturb the peace of your neighbors by knocking with a hammer.
When choosing a location for a home workshop, you need to decide:
- what types of work will be carried out there;
- what equipment, surfaces, machines, materials will be used;
- where materials, workpieces, cleaning equipment, and finished products will be stored;
- where the place of communication with clients will be located (for craftsmen planning to make money from business).
Based on this, the area is calculated. The resulting figure must be multiplied by a factor of 1.5-2. Thus, a “reserve” of work space is created so that after installing the equipment and inventory, you can move freely around the room.
Fancy clamp
A tool used to calibrate a guide bush drill when drilling into wood. It has become indispensable for me when installing handles on furniture.
Advantages of the tool:
- high-quality assembly, made of stainless steel and aluminum; you can set it once as needed, and then use it without additional settings;
- provides high-quality and fast adjustment;
- markings on a metal ruler in cm and inches;
- For all adjusting screws, metal threaded bushings are cast in plastic.
I recommend it for small-scale drilling of holes without preliminary marking - just the thing!
✨ Discount on tools - 39%
