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Small Scale Engineering offers you the following services:

Engineering, fitting & turning on once-off and short run pieces
All types of welding including bespoke, metal furniture manufacture
Prototype manufacture
Home maintenance, restoration, repairs and renovations
General handyman

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Small Scale Engineering is also building a house out of shipping containers. Follow the project on our blog:

The Latest From the Container House Project

- Cladding Gaps Between The Shipping Containers
  16th Sep 2020Main Structure and RoofMost of our weekends lately have been wet. Therefore, cladding on the North side of the container house project has been a bit slow. It’s not safe to be standing on “slippery when wet” scaffolding while moving weighty and fragile boards into place. The wet weather did give us some time to consider another problem; cladding gaps between the shipping containers. The Problem The north side of the container house is the side we have a double storey. This top section will eventually be our guest rooms, but chances are that Kevin and I will move into one of the rooms while we await our east wing to be completed. When we started cladding this side we encountered a problem. The containers sit atop each other on the corner castings, leaving quite a bit gap between them. There is nothing for us to attach the fibre-cement cladding boards to! Our problem area The Solution For Cladding Gaps In the end, our solution was quite simple. The cladding boards above and below this strip are securely attached to the container. Therefore, we could attach the problem boards to those above and below, instead of to the shipping container. To begin, we skipped a board This is how we did it. After sticking the foil insulation into place, we carefully measured the gap so we could skip a board and attach the next one up (PS: Our new favourite foil insulation brand is this one by the BMI Group, previously known as Monier Coverland)For extra security we used paintable silicon on the overlap before holding it in placeThen with short screws, we secured this board to the other two boards, both top and bottom Paintable silicon just in case We used more hardware than we did on the other boards, because we want to be doubly sure that it is not going to fall out. We can currently see some of the hardware, whereas you normally wouldn’t as it would be hidden under the overlap. However, this is not a problem because it is quite high up and people don’t usually look up, and also because it’ll all be hidden under paint. With the cladding gaps problem solved, we could finish a full section of cladding on this side of our house. And Another Window is Installed Which also leads me to announce that we have our first window installed in our top container. We are one step closer to being able to invite guests to stay over (in comfort). Progress!...
- Cleaning a Second Hand Bath
  9th Sep 2020Interior / Prep WorkI wanted to call this article “a restoration of an old bath”, but decided that was false advertising. In the end, we just gave it a really good scrub. It’s amazing what just cleaning a second hand bath can do for it! As mentioned in our post on our plans for our retro guest bathroom, we have a few old second hand baths in our yard. We got them from a DIY Aquaponics kit that Small Scale Engineering dismantled on behalf of a customer. We are planning on setting up the set for our own vegetable garden, but cannot do so yet as it requires moving a shed and building a fish pond. So, for the last year, we stored the baths, stacked up out in the sun, while they gathered dust and rain water. They take up too much space for us to store them anywhere indoors. Lots of dirt to be found in the various baths! Actually, storing them outside was to our advantage because we could use some of that not-intentionally stored rain water to cast concrete at our social distancing concrete party. Win! These baths had previously been used to hold stones and plants, so they were quite damaged. Were any of them in a good enough condition to be used in a bathroom once again? Checking for Damage The first thing we did was look for the bath in the best condition. We had a few to choose from. Many had quite severe cracks in the fibreglass due to the fact that they were 1) second hand to begin with before 2) stones were thrown in for the growing of plants. The bath we really wanted to use, was sadly cracked. It had the nicest backrest and had a corrugated section on the bottom of the bath making it a bit safer to use. But we did find one that had a few scratches but no cracks! We took out the drain fittings to make sure it wasn’t cracked around there and are very happy to report that it was in surprisingly good condition. Could we get it clean? Cleaning Out A Second Hand Bath We were not sure if we would be able to get all the marks out of the bath. Obviously, as it had been used in an outdoor environment for quite some time, the marks were quite severe and orange in colour around the edges, where the water level had been sitting. A bit of time spent scrubbing out with Handy Andy, and it is looking much better! Much more acceptable! Kevin has also spent some time polishing the bath with a buffing machine and some good quality car polish. However, there are still a few scratches that cannot be removed. We could not get out all the stains and there are a few light ones left. I am sure we would eventually get the stains out if the bath is used. The last step; buffing Should We Use The Bath – What Do You Think? We would be very happy to be able to use this bath in our retro bathroom. We would have once again reached our goal of using something second-hand. However, some deeper scratches remain, so we are in two minds. What do you think? Do you think we should use this bath as a bath? Or should we put it back with the Aquaponics kit and find something else? Only problem; it’s impossible to take photos of the scratches so we can’t show you the extent of the damage. They are easier to feel than to see....

Small Scale Engineering offers you the following services:

Cladding Gaps Between The Shipping Containers

Cleaning a Second Hand Bath

Our 90’s Retro Bathroom Challenge