So what do you do when your purpose built museum come workshop, just becomes unbearable to work in due to the heatwaves we keep getting. An hour or so after this photo it got much higher in there topping out at 33C, hotter inside than the outside temp. 😱
The answer, decamp to the redundant garage.
Jan of this year exactly 40-years after passing my test and of car ownership, I decided to get rid of the car as I just don't use it enough. This left a 16ft garage with not a lot of purpose, I was determined not to just start throwing all manner of crap in there, though my wife might feel that I have already. Over the past 6-months I set about repurposing its use, thermal insulation boards etc, this resulted in the area being lovely and cool in the summer (no windows) and warm in the winter.
We had a new kitchen fitted back in March so we decided to have the washing machine put out there along with a spare undercounter freeze, I also moved in my exercise treadmill. Then I decided my TV stock room was getting short on space, so all the TV parts were transferred. Finally a work area set up and some signals for TV testing via a Pi and the Tektronix 1411. There's still a bit of ply to put up, mainly the ceiling which I will do over the coming months, but things moved in so needs must.
So is it any cooler? Yep, 10-degrees cooler, so I can still play with my TV repairs even when the Museum workshop is unbearable.
And what became of the old TV parts store room?
I converted it to a comfy room to resurrect an old hobby I had not touched in well over 30-years. Back in my early thirties many a Friday night was spent with mates blasting round Silverstone or Monaco using Geoff Crammond's Gprix2. Boy have things come along way in those 30-years, now total immersion with VR, what a blast!
Looks ideal, Chris. I wish I could say the same here...
Since moving into a house from a flat last year I was hoping to be able to have some of my collection on display, but so far I've been to busy for that!
I had a quick sort out of the built in cupboard where I'm storing it recently because everything was put away in there in a haphazard manner!
Hi Chris, I see you have been rather busy. Wondered what you were up to? I have much tidying up to do here and a bit of down sizeing of the collection, not to much, but do need to sort out the stuff that had to come back from Sky with me. On the temperature of the existing workshop how is your roof constructed? If it is a standared wooden cabin roof I fit the origional tong and groved planks then put a waterproff sheet, plastic, over these then screw 3X2 timbers on top of this on their 2" ends. Two inches of kingspan is put on top of this. This leaves a 1" air cap to remove condesation on top. This is then covered with 5/8th inch plywood screwed to these timbers and felt tiled as normal. I fit plastic springs made from plastic drain pipe above the insulation top keep it tight against the inner roof. Keeps me cool in summer and warm in winter. My be useful for other people as it can be retro fitted, cabins being unbearable in hot sunshine.
On the temperature of the existing workshop how is your roof constructed?
Hi Adrian,
The museum/workshop is an evolution.
Originally an 18ft 1930's brick built garage with a tiled apex roof, that was converted in 2013 to form my first workshop. In Sept 2020 a 20ft timber extension was added to it which has a flat EPDM roof, UPVC cladding, plus two windows and a door into garden. Both conversion and extension had 100mm of kingspan in their roofs, 100mm in floors and 50mm in walls. So its a part brick, part timber building giving me a total 38ft area to house the collection and a work area. The workbench area is down in the far end of the new extension with the windows and doors. Personally I think my mistake was going for a flat EPDM roof and too much double glazing in the extension. Nothing I can do other than fit aircon which with the ever hotter summers a consideration.
Still with what was my other garage now acting as a TV store room plus work area, I have options.
This is the most depressing thread for me. Within our house, which is perfectly neat and tidy, mostly due to my wife, is a token 405 line TV. But my 2 workshops, one mechanical, and the other electronic and a ham shack are positively the end game of entropy. I so wish I could restore an order even close to the pictures posted.
Oh, the house is cool thanks to air-con, not so the workshops.
Within our house, which is perfectly neat and tidy, mostly due to my wife, is a token 405 line TV.
I've seriously considered doing something similar. If burglars think the only thing of value in the house is a floor-standing 405-line console they might decide to try somewhere else instead. My previous landlady refused to allow a satellite dish on the wall for the same reason.
If burglars think the only thing of value in the house is a floor-standing 405-line console they might decide to try somewhere else instead.
Most folk when they see old TVs the first question out of their mouths is not a technical or historical query but usually, "cor must be worth a bit". I've had a few trades in recently refurbing the house, when they entered the TV museum, without fail how much they are worth came up relentlessly. Based on that the burglar might decide to lift it having the opposite effect of your original intent.
How to have a TV collection when you don't have lot of room?
Collect portables!
That is a fantastic job Chris! I wish I could convert my garage. I must be one of the few where I live that haven't. My workshop/ TV collection is in a spare bedroom which admittedly this time of the year is too warm to run any tellies! So I have taken over the dining room, nice big bench, sorry table... And Aircon! I'll go back to the workshop in October!
I like your gaming area, I have a Keracolour and a Sega / Playstation. I keep thinking of replacing the coffee table with one of those tabletop games tables. 😎
Rich
It's many degrees cooler, we've had rain and now it's quite windy so I'm out of my shorts and back into long trousers, even the central heating came on this evening, albeit only briefly. I'm back in the museum workshop for now, who knows what interesting weather we will get next week.
If you tried to explain our climate to a non UK resident you'd have a hard time. Easiest to say we don't have a climate we just have weather, sometimes all the permutations in one day!
p.s.
I keep thinking of replacing the coffee table with one of those tabletop games tables
Go for it! Though the originals fetch a small fortune nowadays. The modern replica ones do look good, although there are some really naff ones too, so best to shop around. At least with those you have the bonus of not just a single game they come with hundreds installed.
Back in my Yoof, many an hour spent in pubs with a pint to the top of a table top machine playing space invaders or the one I cannot recall the name of. You had a rather large ball (yellow?) that you had to frantically rotate with your palm whilst spamming the fire button, to stop incoming nuke missiles (lines from above) destroying your city, how very 80s (threads). 😯
Edit:
Ah-ha... it was Missile Command
Nice work. Should certainly be cooler. Temps hit 34 in here last week. I gave it a swerve
Looks like you've done a nice job there relocating everything. I wish my workshop/s were that neat and organised. Trying to fix electronics in extreme heat is not fun, especially when you've got something with valves in it to generate more!
Go for it! Though the originals fetch a small fortune nowadays. The modern replica ones do look good, although there are some really naff ones too, so best to shop around. At least with those you have the bonus of not just a single game they come with hundreds installed.
It would be one of the modern ones. I would be too scared of the logic board faults on a vintage one! I used to repair the bl00dy things back in the day. There was no service info or parts available. Replacement game panels with a sticker set to modernise older games could be got, then old panels were robbed for logic chips to fix others. Many many hours were spent!
Most folk when they see old TVs the first question out of their mouths is not a technical or historical query but usually, "cor must be worth a bit". I've had a few trades in recently refurbing the house, when they entered the TV museum, without fail how much they are worth came up relentlessly. Based on that the burglar might decide to lift it having the opposite effect of your original intent.
From what I've heard of yesterday's RWB auction, where radios are concerned the answer is "nothing", with many radios struggling to make a fiver.
