Above 1200 Sq/FT The Action Sports Garage

[Cruzan80]

Wire jewelry is neat, or possibly even something like sand-casting? Easy enough to set up, and an adult can help during the "pour" stage.

She can make her own designs out of clay or other "harden-able" material, or even possibly 3D print some stuff to cast. Lost wax (or lost PLA) casting gets a bit more complicated to do, but the level of detail is amazing

 

[legenddc]

A BeaverCraft wood carving kit might be a nice new skill. There are loads of different jewelry kits for kids, I will have to look for a wire making one for my 10 year old daughter now. My kids seem to love rocks too. The love "mining" for gems at some kid-oriented stuff around here.

Of course, all kids love slime these days. I'm sure you could find a stem-oriented kit for that.

 

[bepjrfan]

For a compressor, rotary screw would the way to go. They are significantly quieter than a standard piston compressor. They also have 100% duty cycle so you don’t need a large tank for them either. Sold a few sullair units back when I worked for Acme, which dont take a ton of space and work great. There are numerous brands out there that make a quality rotary screw compressor. They are a bit more expensive then a piston compressor but they fit what you are looking for.

 

[Xti04]

For a compressor, rotary screw would the way to go. They are significantly quieter than a standard piston compressor. They also have 100% duty cycle so you don’t need a large tank for them either. Sold a few sullair units back when I worked for Acme, which dont take a ton of space and work great. There are numerous brands out there that make a quality rotary screw compressor. They are a bit more expensive then a piston compressor but they fit what you are looking for.

They create a ton of heat too though so it needs to be mounted somewhere that is separate from your shop area or you will burn up. I worked in a shop that had one in a corner where the tire equipment was and any time I did tires I came back soaked in sweat. Was an easy 15 - 20 degrees hotter in that corner.

 

[bepjrfan]

They create a ton of heat too though so it needs to be mounted somewhere that is separate from your shop area or you will burn up. I worked in a shop that had one in a corner where the tire equipment was and any time I did tires I came back soaked in sweat. Was an easy 15 - 20 degrees hotter in that corner.

You have to size them right for what you’re doing. I’ve never seen an issue with heat in the units I’ve been around.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Well it pays to be diligent on your market place searches….or maybe even the blind cat finds the rat once in awhile

Saw an ad for heavy duty cabinets for $200 a piece. Got ahold of the guy and he said he had 10. Told him I’d take all 10 sight unseen. I have no were to store them but at that price I’ll figure that out as I go!

Turns out he only had 8 of the counter height ones… not sure what brand those are, but I’m guessing Lyon they are 10 drawer units. The two tall cabinets are Vidmar so those alone were worth what I paid. According to the labels on them they all came from the Bangor sub base.

Once I get into the new shop space I’ll sort out what I want to keep and paint those then flip the rest.

These are tall for counter height. Maybe too tall for some work bench duties but will be great for a service counter and a dyno bench etc….

 

[zanyad]

$200 each??? Congrats, you ****!

 

[fouckhest]

$200 each??? Congrats, you ****!

Exactly, but fantastic find, you should go buy a lottery ticket after that stroke of luck!

 

[Grant Gunderson]

$200 each??? Congrats, you ****!

Yep. Couldn’t believe it as they don’t come up that often around here!

Exactly, but fantastic find, you should go buy a lottery ticket after that stroke of luck!

Haha. Don’t know if I was that lucky…


Picked up a new bearing splitter. This is a KUKKo 17-1 made in Germany. It’s very high quality and the nice thing it just uses one center bolt to tighten it. That cuts my time to do the e-bike bearings in half! Pretty happy with it and I’ll be buying more of the range in the future. Only complaint is I wish the center bolt was captive in the dynamic jaw.

The bigger news tho is I have an agreement with the landlord for my new shop space. Turns out I actually know a few of the buildings owners so it will be a great fit. Also a possibility of buying into the buildings partnership down the road too.

Talked through the machine weights and the architectural plans with my structural engineer and we can make the floor work! Meeting with him on site tomorrow to discuss adding some temporary bracing under the floor just for when I am moving the machines in.

I’m very excited to be moving forward with the new shop space. However I’m really not looking forward to moving all of my **** in. I have way too many heavy things!

Debating if I should start a new thread for the buildout, but leaning towards keeping that in this one.

 

[fouckhest]

Congrats on the building and even more the potential to buy in down the road, that is awesome.

I vote keep it all in this thread.

 

[Horror Business]

Keep it all here.

My rear shock is heading your way, as soon as I switch to my fat bike for the winter.

 

[zanyad]

Congrats! Another vote for keeping it in this thread. Looking forward to the build-out!

 

[bepjrfan]

Pretty stoked to watch this build out! I agree, keep it in this thread. Been awesome to see your progression and adaptation to changing economic climates. Ya give a ton of inspiration!

 

[Cdubu52]

My vote is to keep it here as well! Also, any progress on the photo book project?

 

[LXCam]

Congrats on the building and even more the potential to buy in down the road, that is awesome.

I vote keep it all in this thread.

Keep it all here.

My rear shock is heading your way, as soon as I switch to my fat bike for the winter.

Congrats! Another vote for keeping it in this thread. Looking forward to the build-out!

Pretty stoked to watch this build out! I agree, keep it in this thread. Been awesome to see your progression and adaptation to changing economic climates. Ya give a ton of inspiration!

My vote is to keep it here as well! Also, any progress on the photo book project?

Here-here!

 

[slodat]

Grant - keep me in mind when you have some cabinets to sell. I'm happy to pay a fair price and come pick them up. I don't have the time to watch the classifieds like I once did.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Congrats on the building and even more the potential to buy in down the road, that is awesome.

I vote keep it all in this thread.

Thanks!

Keep it all here.

My rear shock is heading your way, as soon as I switch to my fat bike for the winter.

Thanks! Happy to work on your shock!

Congrats! Another vote for keeping it in this thread. Looking forward to the build-out!

Thanks!

Pretty stoked to watch this build out! I agree, keep it in this thread. Been awesome to see your progression and adaptation to changing economic climates. Ya give a ton of inspiration!

Thanks!

My vote is to keep it here as well! Also, any progress on the photo book project?

Thanks! Working on the outline right now, that part is almost done.

Here-here!

Sounds like it is a consensus!

Grant - keep me in mind when you have some cabinets to sell. I'm happy to pay a fair price and come pick them up. I don't have the time to watch the classifieds like I once did.

Will do. wont really know what ones will keep / part with until I get in their and start setting it up.

Met on site with one of the landlords and my Structural Engineer. Good news is the joists are on top of a poured foundation and not into the brick walls, so most likely I'll just need to add some temp supports when I move the equipment in and possibly a few posts under the lathe, but that should all work.

That is from Circa 1930 they originally did Granite Tombstones / Monuments in the building. Want to guess how much weight they had on the floor back then? My section is between these two buildings and originally was a Hudson Essex car dealership, before the monument company expanded into it. The guy that built that section of the building was a guy named Donovan, who built a lot of the infrastructure around Bellingham, and was co-owner of the largest sawmill, as well as involved with the local coal mines etc.

The floor construction is the same in both buildings. Its all 12x12 post and beams made from the original old growth trees in the area with very tight grain! Pretty crazy how much weight is in that photo, VS what modern building codes allow for... seems the modern codes go off of table values for structural timber being way less stout these days!

More to come.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Picked up the new Silca shock pump. I like how it has an actual handle on the end so you don’t have to hold it by the gauge…. Speaking of which it’s almost criminal they put such a cheap ****** judge in this pump. The zero loss valve seems nice tho. We will if it has any clearance issues.

Best shock pump I have found previously is this SKS German one. Infact it’s the only pump that’s lasted more than 6 months. I upgraded it to a digital guage.

The two issues with it is having to hold it by the guage and the bleed valve is a screw so easy to forget it’s open when reading initial pressures.

To change the valve on the Silca you need a 3mm pin spanner. The tricky part is those guys at Silca used a schrader thread for the guage mount and not a NPT thread. Luckily I had an adapter to ⅛ NPT on hand and a coupling.

Seriously it’s mind blowing a shock pump this expensive isn’t digital to start with.

The actual piston was bone dry so I greased it. At least they used a double o-ring configuration so that’s way better than all of the other shock pumps.

Time to see if this thing will actually last.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Been crazy busy with suspension rebuilds, EP8s and ski mounts. It’s been balls to the wall busy and my service times have grown a bit longer than I’d like on the motors, as everyone seems to be shipping them in end of season. At least the suspension and ski stuff is still same day, so not much time for other activities.

But when my buddy called and asked if I wanted to go flying over Baker i quickly said hell yes! He’s one of the owners of the ski area too.

He’s got this very cool print back in his hanger of the original expansion plans for Mt Baker. Pretty crazy what they were looking at doing. All of the pink areas is what was described as Avalanche hazard areas. Damn near the entire ski area!

Yesterday I was able to sit down with Duncan Howat for a really good multi hour interview for my book project. He literally built the ski area with his own hands and is the last of the generation that built Americas ski areas. He also had the longest run as GM of any ski area. Was a very enlightening conversation. Pretty cool too he just picked up Mountian biking in his 80s when most people his age are concerned about breaking their hip falling while walking. The guy is a bad *** and quite frankly the last of the era where men were men.

That conversation also further reinforced my goal of bringing in a big ski tuning machine. It’s crazy to think I’m going to spend more on that than what he spent building some of the chairlifts!

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Congrats on finalizing the shop space. Look forward to following along the build out in here. That old building with those large timbers is really cool.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Got the keys to the new shop today! Stian is stoked on it too. He's a bit bummed I'm going to tear out these sketchy storage rack and he wants a place to climb... haven't told him their is climbing gym two doors down. BTW that floor is made up of 2x4 tung and groove car decking, but its not your typical 2x4 dimensions, its from back when a 2x4 was literally 2x4"
I'm right downtown Bellingham. There is a backcountry shop 3 doors down that also sells skis, so that will be interesting, but I'm more focused on service than retail. Nextdoor to that is a climbing gym, then a yoga studio, then my place. Other side of my place is a PT clinic.

When we first walked in the backdoor, Stian thought it was small, told him it goes past the plastic curtain, and then he's like there is ample space for the 3D printer he wants.... New shop is 1667 sqf... that seems massive compared to the twin tandem garage I've been working out of, but I know damn well, its going to fill up fast with the equipment I plan to bring in.

Speaking of which the Structural Engineering report came back very favorably. The floor is built stronger than a brick **** house. It can even hold the Monarch 10EE lathe without additional support, as long as I keep it a reasonable distance from the walls.

I got a **** ton of work ahead of me and its going to be a bit like a sprint to the finish, contractor needs to demo the changing room, then build an ADA bathroom a compressor room as well as swap the single front door for a double. All while I need to start moving cabinets, etc in. Not to mention all of the electrical, air-lines etc.

 

[Horror Business]

Congratulations! Big step in your journey.

 

[fouckhest]

Congrats, sounds like you are in a great location!

 

[Cdubu52]

Congrats Grant! I think we are all excited to see your progress over the next few weeks/months.

 

[zanyad]

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Congratulations! Big step in your journey.

Congrats, sounds like you are in a great location!

Congrats Grant! I think we are all excited to see your progress over the next few weeks/months.

Thanks guys!

Got the first load of cabinets moved over this am!

12 more to go! It’s tricky as I gotta do it early am before anyone is parked out front.

It’s amazing how tired I am after moving those. Felt like wrestling a 500# gorilla all morning!

 

[bugnut]

After watching your work on the lathe and other projects is there a pool for how long the color variation of the cabinets will last. I am loving the huge windows and all the natural light! Good luck on the new venture!

 

[LXCam]

After watching your work on the lathe and other projects is there a pool for how long the color variation of the cabinets will last. I am loving the huge windows and all the natural light! Good luck on the new venture!

I’ve got a 20 spot says they all look new and identical before the landlord finishes the ADA bathroom

Congrats on finally nailing the location Grant.

 

[trytochaseme]

Congrats on the new spot! Excited to see it come to life

 

[Grant Gunderson]

After watching your work on the lathe and other projects is there a pool for how long the color variation of the cabinets will last. I am loving the huge windows and all the natural light! Good luck on the new venture!

Haha thanks! I think you are on the right track in regards to painting.

I’ve got a 20 spot says they all look new and identical before the landlord finishes the ADA bathroom

Congrats on finally nailing the location Grant.

Haha! Hopefully!

Congrats on the new spot! Excited to see it come to life

Thanks!


I haven’t even made a dent on moving the shop yet! And people keep brining skis by. Got a ton of people asking about e-bike motor rebuilds and suspension work, but I gotta turn some of that away until I get mostly moved over.

I’m in full sprint mode. Gotta be out of my house by end of year and it’s gotta be ready to list by the 1st of December. So been busy getting it prepped as well. On top of that my ex filed a contempt motion over me taking my kid to a different Doc when he clearly had strep throat when I picked him up from her house. I’m sure that will get tossed out but it’s a time **** dealing with it. Ridiculous as I have 50/50 decision making with medical. It is amazing how good chat GPT is at writing legal docs. I can’t wait for it to eliminate most lawyers jobs. I’m headed over to take care of my dad this weekend so won’t get much done again till Monday. Sure wish he was healthy enough to come see the new shop as I know he’s excited about it and I would love his feedback on the setup etc. it also goes without saying during all of this it’s important that I reserve enough time to have quality time with my son, Evelina and Jamie.

Two of the ski area owners came by and chatted about the new shop and we talked about plans for the mountain going forward. It’s really cool to see how the younger ownership is going to drive some pretty positive changes like starting a Freeride team and bring back those contests. Those guys love to ski as much as I do and that alone will keep Baker Baker. They are also 100% going to back my marketing efforts for the shop too. I see it as a pretty good win win situation for all of us. One of them dropped of a new to us Traxxas car for Stian too. He’s pretty excited to say the least!

I gotta swing by the paint store to see about options for the cabinets. I’d like to use same color as the lathe but, want to see if they have a single stage to save some time / $$$ also since I’m going to paint these inside I need to do it on a weekend when the rest of the building is not occupied due to the potential fumes. I gotta spray separate hvac so should be ok, but want to be cautious as the new tenant.

LL says hoping to have permits for their work next week then another 7-8 to get that done. No word on wrapping out front door so tough to schedule equipment move still.

 

[old-air-performance]

Went through the whole thread and see a lots of similarities with my day to day shop work and needs.

I wish you all the best with your new shop!
Thanks for sharing the pictures and stories, even in the busy times, it isn't always easy to make time for it.

Keep up the good work.
Kind regards,
Toon

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Went through the whole thread and see a lots of similarities with my day to day shop work and needs.

I wish you all the best with your new shop!
Thanks for sharing the pictures and stories, even in the busy times, it isn't always easy to make time for it.

Keep up the good work.
Kind regards,
Toon

I’m curious to see your new place take shape!

Tore out the old storage shelves. Once o started to take them apart it became even more evident how short they were. To be honest im surprised they hadn’t collapsed.

My favorite is they use these ****** drywall anchors to attach them to the wall.

Pulled the entire strip off with my fingers. I won’t be using those crappy anchors!

All broken down

Posted the pile for free on marketplace got 30 + requests most of them asking if it would fit in their vans or short bed trucks. When a guy called saying he wanted them and would bring his flat bead over after work I knew he was legit. He took the entire pile. Saved me a fortune taking them to the dump!

Picked up a pallet jack for $200 to move the tooling cabinets and the lathe / mill. Figure I can resale it for that.

Didn’t take a photo cause I was way too posed, but Mother F#cker those forks are too wide for the tool cabinet bases. You would think they would all be standard sized



My buddy Jessie swung by and gave me a hand. Figured he could stand on one fork to balance the cabinets while I moved the pallet jack. Actually worked really well. This is going to be like playing Tetris. Especially since I want the service counter up by where that blue wall is so gotta wait for the contractor to demo that to really lay it out and move the machines in, but I got plenty to keep me busy!
Been busy as hell with motors. Hard to believe this one only has 1k miles on it. It was clearly pressure washed and you can see the water damage.

Bearing were fried, lots of water damage to the PCB’s too and rust on the gears. But it got it going!

 

[loganb]

The space is coming together, excited to continue to follow along!

Spent some time in Florida this week, the number of ebikes on the boardwalk out there was insane...pretty sure they outnumbered pedal only by 2 to 1 if not 3 to 1. Should keep you as busy as you want to be with rebuild and repair!

 

[slodat]

Grant- I picked up a narrow pallet jack a few years ago. It makes moving Vidmar’s by yourself super easy. Shop is looking great!!

 

[Grant Gunderson]

The space is coming together, excited to continue to follow along!

Spent some time in Florida this week, the number of ebikes on the boardwalk out there was insane...pretty sure they outnumbered pedal only by 2 to 1 if not 3 to 1. Should keep you as busy as you want to be with rebuild and repair!

Thanks. It’s crazy how e-bikes are pretty much taking over yet their is very limited support for them. I can already tell the motor rebuilds are going to be the main focus of the shop and I will be adding Fazua, Brose and SRAM soon as I open the new location. Already setup as a factory authorized service center for those. Will be adding Bosch as well but they have been way more difficult to get ahold of. Maybe I need to work on my German.

Grant- I picked up a narrow pallet jack a few years ago. It makes moving Vidmar’s by yourself super easy. Shop is looking great!!

I saw an adjustable width one for sale locally but they guy wanted quite a bit more for it. In hindsight that would have been the way to go.

Stian is getting the hang of it tho! Funny how he loves to be a part of whatever I’m doing, even if it’s work.

Still stuck waiting on F’ing permits from the city so contractor can demo changing room / build out bathroom and compressor room. So not a hell of a lot I can do as I can’t move much more over without shutting down and to move the rest I need the changing room gone.

Going to try and get the cabinets over there at least prepped for paint this week. Or at least that’s my goal.

House got listed last we’d had a showing on Thursday and it went pending a contingent offer on Friday so I’ve been balls to the wall getting it packed up. Have the inspection today.

Not sure where I’m going to move too. Instead of moving in with Jamie, I might rent my own place as much as I hate the idea of paying rent until I can find an option to buy as I think her place will be too crowded with the 4 of us.

But be blessing of the permit delays is that I haven’t ordered a tuning machine yet. With the total lack of snow on the west coast I’m really glad I’m not making machine payments! Everytime there is a bad season it forces a bunch of shops to closeup so I’m thinking there’s going be a lot of deals on machines to be had at the end of the season. Time will tell.

 

[trojandj]

Think of rent as buying patience. A year or two of rent is cheap compared to making a bad house purchase. Especially as you figure things out with Jamie and what that all means for the future.

Unsolicited advise from a rando on the internet.

 

[manbike26]

Super excited for you!

New space, lots of changes. It seems like a lot, but (from the outside) you appear to be doing a good job eating the elephant one bite at a time. In short order, you'll be able to look back and feel a huge sense of relief and accomplishment.

We're cheering for you!

 

[Horror Business]

Getting approved as factory authorized service company is a smart move!

 

[Vette60]

First time posting in your thread here and love all the stuff that you are doing. New shop looks like it will be an awesome space. Can't wait to see it develop. Good Luck and please keep sharing!

BTW - love the QT that you spend with your son. As my Dad has grown older, I look back on those times with fond memories and also have been trying to do the same with my son who is now 19. I can tell you, it's not easy, but so worth it.

 

[Clemson13]

Unless you have the proper step drills and the jigs for your bindings I'd take them to a shop. I mount a ton of skis every year for the catalog shoots I do, so I have full setup of all of the factory jigs.

That being said, you can order the proper drills here. Most adult skis use a 3.6 x 9.5 drill unless they have metal in the top sheets, then you need a 4.1 x 9.5 drill plus the proper tap.

If you google your binding, you can probably find a paper template online for the hole pattern. The main things to keep in mind is making sure the hole pattern is centered on the ski, and that its in the correct spot for the Boot Center and your Boot sole Length.

Hope you dont mind a little distraction from the Shop discussion to talk about ski binding mounting again. Last year I inquired if it was worth doing my own bindings or having a shop do it. I went ahead and had a shop mount them up and skied them all last season.

Enter my dilema....

Since then I got a pair of race skis and new boots. I have tinkered with my setup quite a bit on the race skis with plates where binding mounting/adjusting is easy. Long story short I prefer 0 binding delta. Too bad that 2 pairs of my all mountain ski bindings have 6mm delta (that i dislike). I remember that you introduced us to the quiver killer/binding freedom inserts a while back & it looks like I can put those right back into the existing screw pattern for my binding so I can mount/dismount it at my leisure . Unfortunately for me, I dont live nearby you & haven't found a shop or tuner in the western MA or southern Vermont area who will pull my toe pieces and put those in for me so I can add my own shims to 0 out the binding delta.

So i am about to give this a shot myself. Any tips, tricks or key tools you have to successfully put in binding inserts?
I am planning on buying the following from Binding freedom: Tap, drill bit, inserts, expoxy, thread locker, guide block (since i want to expand the existing holes for the inserts not drill a whole new pattern where i would need the binding mount template)