Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Woody's Works Garage

[Pressingonward]

Hi Dennis,

I'm following along and enjoy all your posts. I enjoy seeing your automation projects and the home efficiencies that result from the data. Very cool stuff!

 

[Denwood]

Pressing, thanks so much for the kind words. I've been trying to enjoy our rather spectacular summer and doing a lot of mountain biking...so the posting frequency is down for sure. That said, I've got some welding and trailer LED light upgrades imminent so I suppose the next post will be more "garage" oriented

 

[Denwood]

On Saturday (a few days back) I did some social media work with Fat Guys Auto Parts in Thunder Bay, posting all day from the Fat Guys Car Show. This included a request to capture the event from two roof tops over 14 hours using a few GoPro cams in time lapse mode. This required running power to both rooftops (to keep the cams powered continuously), climbing ladders, dodging angry nesting sea gulls...all at 5am in the morning.

There were over 300 cars displayed on several streets (all closed for the day to traffic) with thousands attending. It was a blast! I got to hang a bit with Dave Kindig (Bitchin' Rides - Discovery Velocity) who turned out to be a very down to earth, gracious special guest at the show.




Click to view the time lapse:

 

[Matias]

Must have been quite a day. Good timelapse video! I like the fact that you had multiple cameras, especially when the cars start rolling in, switching the camera there has a nice effect!

 

[bj383ss]

Very cool. Looking foward to your upcoming updates Dennis.

Bret

 

[Denwood]

Matias, thanks. The challenge running GoPro cams for 14 hours is that they need to be powered by AC...the batteries won't do it. We had power but one cam quit about 4 hours in due to an SD card error. Fortunately there were two units running

Bret, my guess is that your thread shows a whole lot more work going on vs this one. I need to spend some time there...

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: great to see you are keeping busy and those little girls are growing up fast so just making sure you have the shotguns handy so the boys stopping by can see your little girls dad is (and especially them) are not to be messed with.

I think we had a piece of paper we gave the boys and if I recall correctly if the boys knew the price of a local hotel room or they owned a van that that was an immediate NO from us.

kidding aside best of luck with that and i'm sure you (and the family will survive nicely).

I know I've asked you this before, but you put something on the deck board framing to prevent weathering and rot that maybe was like siding wrap or was it metal? i've heard from builders around here that anything with glue on it won't last around here and our weather isn't anywhere close to the weather you get in the winters.

so do you recall what the product name and type is and is it working ok?

take care and as always I hope you enjoyed your weekend!!

 

[jgromada]

Fabulous thread! Commenting for no other reason that I want to be able to find my way back here

 

[Denwood]

Drives, boys..ah, that's a whole new forum! My eldest just got her G1 license so we can add that to the stress of having teen girls..ha. Seriously though, it's got me thinking about doing up another autocross car as I figure that would be awesome for driving skills to add to safe road manners. The local club has seen a resurgence and has 35 plus cars at most events. An older Miata may be in my future...

The deck joist flashing I used and linked to is no longer available...but is pretty much the same as this stuff: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VTVUSM4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

The deck by the way (has it been four years already!!??) has held up great, however I would not use the Mantis clip system again. They lift the edges of each composite board slightly (1/16" or so), so after four years, there is the slightest cup in each. You see it after rain falls on the deck. If you look at the pic below, you can see how the clip lifts the board slightly at the edge. If I did not have the flashing, my guess is the cupping would be even worse.

What has been awesome is zero splinters, and zero staining/painting etc. on the deck. We just sweep it off regularly.

 

[JohnnieMo]

Autocross is a great idea. When I did some road-coursing, my understanding of driving changed a ton.

I know this might be a bit out of the price range, but an older Porsche Boxster would be ideal. I routinely watched those crush people on the road course. In tight spaces, they were always the fastest car on the track.... well except for me.

 

[Denwood]

Jgromada, thanks...and glad you found the thread interesting

I managed to rewire a trailer for LED lights on the hoist, and do a full on brake job on our CRV with zero pics to show for it :-( If you're on the fence with regard to LED lighting and trailers..do it. The tail lamps are super bright and a lot more visible in any conditions. Same with the running lights.

Johnnie, a Boxter would be amazing. The older ones are not crazy $$..and if they require fewer mods maybe not a bad deal either. I figure $10=14K minimum to buy and prep an older Miata to be a competitive autocross car. I've been eyeing up the Golf Rs for years, however they are a bit heavy for autocross.

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: best of luck with the teenage girls and just know that if you get her driving fast cars there are more than a few boys that like to do that too. Just saying she might grow up TOO QUICK.

that said with you and your wife's coaching i bet the girls are doing great.

I can't wait to see the little race car project with all the detail you put into other stuff I might actually want to work on cars again. i'm getting close to planing some milled cedar and staining and putting up my fence so if you make it to my little thread and want to comment on how I can do things better, safer or just watch please do.

cheers

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: still enjoying some good weather and family time? or are you scouring Canada and the USA for project car either ready for your expertise and craftsmanship or one ready to win races now?

hope all is well in your world!!

 

[Denwood]

Drives, sorry...been an absent parent from GJ. Working on closing a building deal right now so hopefully my time/stress factor is about to change in the favourable direction.

It's been quiet in the shop aside from resolving some ABS issues (new wheel sensors), a full brake job on the CRV, and resolution of an Air Bag warning light. Getting ready to hand the old CRV over to my daughter when she has her full licence.

I've been a bit lazy posting..will have to fix that. Thanks as always for resurrecting the thread!! I've been dropping in on your thread/posts from time to time..

 

[bj383ss]

Good to hear from you Dennis!

Bret

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: it's been pretty quiet here without you and Andy. if you hadn't heard Andy (oldironfarmer) lost his wife a month or maybe two months ago and he has only made a few posts since.

good to hear your building has an offer if you want it gone so good luck finishing up that deal.

your girls are already driving? I gave my daughter my 98 CRV that I bought new when she turned 16 in 2004 and it had 130,000 on it. she drove it 15,000 miles with a few tiny (expensive) fender benders and then she flipped it on a busy road and crawled out without any injuries and only scratched her leg a bit from crawling across broken glass. she bumped a curb going around a corner and over adjusted too quick and it flipped. her friend was in the car too and no injury there either.

i'll cross my fingers and toes and wish your daughters (and DAD) the best in their first few driving years, but i'm sure they will do fine.

some mention of a race car last time I recall so was that you or your daughter at the wheel if that happens.

cheers and again welcome back!!

 

[Denwood]

Bret..likewise. I've checked in on your thread to see your impressive progress with the truck!

Drives, the commercial building closed yesterday so the hyper-efficient project that took so much energy to bring to life is now in the hands of new owners It's an interesting feeling to walk away from a revenue property as one does future value calculations and realises that selling is not always the best path if " monetary wealth" is your number one goal. That said, it's a weight lifted that comes with a cheque My wife and I are very much in the camp that there is more to life than future value calculations, defining "wealth" differently than most.

One of the definers of wealth for us is having healthy, happy kids. To that end, yes the 2003 CRV will end up with my daughter as there's no point in selling it. I've gone through (with zero posts of course) the entire front end, new brakes, ABS and Air Bag issues in the interest of handing her the car as a safe drive

Autocross and building a car is very, very much on my mind now so we'll see how that goes. I know that building a fun/cheap autocross car would be an amazing way to teach the girls how to drive a car on the edge (or at times out of!) control.

Right now we'll let the events of this week sink in a bit as we chart the path forward. As always guys, this thread provides a thread for some continuity over the events of the last few years running/selling a business, and now the property that housed it.

My wife's Highlander is on the hoist next for a full brake job..and I will post some pics and comments as the parts I'm using are "premium" and deserve a discussion. She's having her pals over for a movie night so the theatre once again will justify the creative labours of last year!

It's rather ironic now that I spend a few hours every day being the sole IT practitioner for four business that sell tires, auto parts, and fix cars. I spend my days surrounded by car people, and get a chance to make their lives as efficient as possible from the tech side of things. I really should post a few bits on the last project where I converted a store from manually turning overhead radiant heaters on/off to fully automating with three Ecobee 3 stats.

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: I wish you the best with raising girls especially during their teenage years, but since you and your bride have been so involved in their lives i bet it will be even more fun than it's already been.

also I see you've stopped being a landlord and you are now getting paid to reduce the carbon footprint of the businesses you like in your area. sounds like a win win to me.

when we had the twins we decided to ditch the rentals even though we knew they would be great future investments and we spent more times with our kids. I could run from work to catch every soccer game, swim meet, basketball game or whatever the kids were doing instead of going to fix plumbing or spend time time finding good tenants. we may not have gold fixtures or some of the luxuries of others, but we still eat pretty darn good and we've got great adult kids now that like coming to visit even though they have full lives of their own.

I like the idea of your race car if that's what you love cause with all the skills you show just keeping your daily drivers running and your extensive remodeling i'm sure it will be a winner.

take care and don't make yourself a stranger even if you only stop in here to post up some projects OR stop in my thread to give me a kick in my **** so maybe i'll get organized.

STAY WARM cause i'm guessing the cold is coming if it's not already in your part of the world.

cheers!!

 

[patlun]

....
My wife and I are very much in the camp that there is more to life than future value calculations, defining "wealth" differently than most.

One of the definers of wealth for us is having healthy, happy kids.
....

I have no children, but this sounds like the best kind of wealth in my eyes. To have time for the family, seeing them grow, helping them grow to independent persons. That is worth much.

It's rather ironic now that I spend a few hours every day being the sole IT practitioner for four business that sell tires, auto parts, and fix cars. I spend my days surrounded by car people, and get a chance to make their lives as efficient as possible from the tech side of things. I really should post a few bits on the last project where I converts reed a store from manually turning overhead radiant heaters on/off to fully automating with three Ecobee 3 stats.

Please tell us more, that sounds really interesting.

 

[G20-Budo]

Hey Dennis,

How goes it? I see your thread is still getting some love. It sounds like your garage has been getting plenty of use with your car projects. I'm sure that lift has been a serious time saver.

Keep the cool posts coming..

 

[sublime68charger]

Merry have a great season!

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: I took a few weeks off from reading or posting on GJ to try and use the extra time to maybe spend in the garage and maybe December wasn't the best month to do that cause the kitchen with my wife's goodies she makes for the holidays took up most of my time.

I seem to get more done if I read a post on GJ a bit first thing in the AM and then get to whatever is on my agenda instead of thinking more about eating.

I hope you had a good holiday season and here's to an even better 2020 now that you are taking on a new career or direction in your life.

take care and cheers (tipping my mug of ice tea towards you now).

 

[Matias]

Hopefully 2020 has started favorably for you Woody!

You sure have been using that garage for the car stuff, and that's the best. If we are lucky, you can surprise us with some autocross car news I hope your IT work keep you busy in interesting projects, maybe you can share some of them? This thread has a lot of followers interested in the stuff you do in the garage or outside.

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: you don't need to have a huge project to post up a few words if you have time to. I hope all is well in your world and looking forward to seeing you post a few words of wisdom when you can.

cheers (still drinking a gallon of ice tea daily in a cold mug)

 

[Denwood]

Hey guys...I've been posting a bit on other threads, but have left this one pretty quiet First of all, our thoughts go to all of you affected by Covid, and recently the protests in the US. It's tough to try and explain to our kids that there are bright spots, and plenty of positive news out there to balance the angst they see in the world right now. Thankfully my wife and I continue to work safely, and our kids have managed to maintain some semblance of schooling and their sanity.

Sub, apparently Merry Christmas is in order

Drives, as usual..thanks for directing me back to this thread! I took on a new job as the sole IT guy for a local non-profit which focuses on assisting individuals with developmental challenges. It's a full time gig just a few blocks from the previous assignment (which I'm still helping with as needed)..and about 4 minutes from our home. I take care of about 65 staff over 6 regional sites covering 1000km between them. You might say I have a new purpose now after selling the business/building ... doing meaningful work. There is a pile of hardware updates, router, VPN, problems to sort etc. The big plus to a job like this (unlike a past job working for the federal gov't) is that I have full control and access to all systems and can make changes/updates/upgrades quickly with minimal wasted time.

Matias, no autocross news, but I have been busy indeed. The shop has seen a fair bit of work on the hoist, and of course with zero pictures.

• Complete new brake job on our Highlander.
• Trailer hitch installation for my father in law.
• Front end rebuild for my wife's uncle (stranded visiting for a day!)
• New driveshaft on the CRV.

The shop is a bit of mess, but it has been used a lot!

Drives, We finalized design for our basement kitchen (next to the theater) and decided to do the IKEA thing. In about 3 weeks all the kitchen bits should arrive. I'll post the 3D design rendering.

We're getting setup at a "resort" on Lac De Mille Lac, which is a very large lake about an hour away, with a trailer site. We're joining three other related families. A very nice wooded site with lake views is selected (as of yesterday), but we need to do some shopping to find a good used RV in the 30-33 foot range. I guess our Hobie 18 and windsurfing gear will finally have a home!

Finally the bag of water (18' above ground) pool is getting expanded solar heating this year, so my next project will be on the roof. I'm not a fan of working at heights, but have the harness etc. to keep things as safe as possible...

Be well, all.

 

[Bob Heine]

Welcome back Dennis!

 

[drivesitfar]

Woody: i hear you that life is busy, but we missed you. WELCOME BACK and hope to see more of your good words as often as you can.

nice to hear you seem to be working at a job that appreciates your skills and that maybe they have some common goals to improve our world.

cheers

 

[swimrr]

Great to hear from you Woody. I look forward to some updates on the kitchen and the RV/lakeside, both projects I'd like to undertake sometime soon. It always helps to learn from those with big skills and knowledge!

 

[Denwood]

Bob, I like your thinking on outsourced lawn care Like you, I keep my car repairs in-house though.

Drives, I'm in the midst of commissioning a set of reconditioned (we're a non-profit!) Dell R730 servers and new routers with VPN etc. Lots of tech fun there The folks I support do some great work in our community so I feel appreciated in my current role.

Swimrr, I'll do my best to grab a few pics as we go along. We sourced a gently used 30ft trailer today so this will be our first weekend at "camp" in our own beds

 

[Bob Heine]

Bob, I like your thinking on outsourced lawn care Like you, I keep my car repairs in-house though.

We sourced a gently used 30ft trailer today so this will be our first weekend at "camp" in our own beds

Dennis, I like your thinking on a 30ft trailer. I spent three long summers living with my parents and brother in a 15ft trailer. The last summer (1957) took us across Canada to Alaska. Dad wasn't real good at finding places to take a break (view from the bathroom).

 

[Denwood]

Pretty awesome pic Bob Traveling for a few years across the continent was a pretty amazing thing for your Dad to do with your family! Previously to selling my 1990 VW Westfalia, that was our camping rig. A bit tight though for four.

My thinking on the 30ft was this:

1. This trailer will be towed to the lake site and left there until we sell it. I would hate to tow a 9000lb trailer around. The fellow we purchased the trailer from has an F250 so is delivering it as part of the deal.

2. 30 ft is about the minimum length that has a rear bunk house with a door. This is good for the daughters who like to have friends out to camp.

3. Everyone I see with a tent trailer eventually ends up with a 30 footer..ha.

4. It has washroom facilities with a door and shower. Very high priority for the ladies!

Sadly I'll be roped into a deck, shed, gazebo etc. before this game is done. On the plus side, my pile of windsurfing gear and 18 ft Hobie cat just found a permanent home!

 

[PhantomEB]

My buddies all got 26’+ toy haulers, I am bucking their trend with a 24’ max travel trailer and just putting the toy in the back of the truck. I like to travel too much to stick to a RV lot.

 

[G20-Budo]

Woody,

Great to see your posts.. as usual you have interesting projects happening. The trailer and family trip sounds fun!

The new job sounds awesome! At times I do miss having a job where I can just fix things right now, instead of by committee.

Lastly, I look forward to seeing your plans for the basement kitchen project.

 

[Matias]

Congrats on the new job, and it does seem very rewarding! That control over the whole environment must be nice, when you know what you're doing. At the end of the day, everyone using IT will be benefiting from your knowledge.

Good to hear that you have kept busy in the garage. I did some brake work on my project car, and broke off the airing valve... That's the most annoying thing that can happen. As your working on some more recent stuff, hope you don't end up with these kind of things!

Summer plans sure sounds nice! Hoping we get some pictures of the trailer when it arrives...

 

[nicholam77]

Good to see you posting again, Dennis. Will be following the basement kitchen project. I fully expect it to be decked out with smart home features.

 

[Denwood]

Phantom, we're keeping it simple by just parking the 30 footer on the lake

I had the joy of digging the 6 ft hole for the blackwater holding tank last weekend.

G20, still waiting for the Ikea kitchen bits to arrive but I figure once here we'll be jumping into that project.

Matias, I'll grab a few pics this weekend The warm weather has taken my activity level way up. See below...

Nich, aside from some lighting automation and a tech "nook" the kitchen area will be pretty simple

One of the first tasks as the warm weather approaches was to resurrect the salt water pool and add some BTUs to the solar heating system. I spent a few evenings harnessed off on our 2nd story roof to add the two extra solar collectors I found used for $100 last fall.

Here's the 2020 update on the system:

1. I've added 2 more 2'x20' solar collectors (last night) for a total of 320 sq/ft. That's about 80 square feet more than the pool surface area. Why? We're close to Lake Superior so our yard can be 10 degrees C cooler than 10 miles inland. Also the pool is shaded so does not get a lot of direct sun.

2. All equipment is now hidden and plumbed into a small Keeter composite shed. This way I can just drain and leave the equipment in place for winter.

3. I now use the Intex pump (SF80110-1) in series with an inexpensive 2 speed pump (on low speed) which pumps 2 stories up and gets us about 1500 GPH at the pool outlet on solar heat. The combination uses about 5.4 amps.

4. My little solar/rechargeable battery hack worked 100% all the way through winter so I did not replace any expensive lithium cells on the wireless temperature sensors. This "hack" uses three AA rechargeable cells connected to a cheap amazon solar panel (5.0V). The three fibaro door sensors have the lithium cells removed and are directly wired to the AA battery back. These sensors change temps often, so will churn through the expensive lithium cells in 1-2 months. The sensors have not required any power, even idling through the winter at -35C low temps!. The sensors reported low battery at 1% all winter, but stayed running, and continue to run off their solar/cell system.

I'll post results of our first day with 8 collectors! It's going to be a sunny warm day so we should break some solar pool heating records today.

Yesterday saw an 8.6 F degree rise in the pool water (7000 gallons) to about 74 F. This means the system generated 501 466 BTU over the day...not bad considering the max air temp at the pool was 77 F at around 3:30pm.

This is a snapshot of the data around 3:30pm:

Today, it's another cool, partly cloudy day with air temps under 70 F, but it's looking like the pool water will reach 80 to 82 F.

 

[PhantomEB]

Not gonna be good when all those batteries are dead.....

 

[rbkool]

The sensors reported low battery at 1% all winter, but stayed running, and continue to run off their solar/cell system.

Not gonna be good when all those batteries are dead.....

The answer is in the text

 

[Denwood]

They’ve been reporting 1% for the last year or so. They take a 3.7 volt lithium normally..which is a disposable battery. However, I have all three sensors powered by a single pack of 3xAA rechargeable (in series for 4.5 volts) charged by a 5volt solar cell. The experiment to see if I could design a solar rechargeable cell pack to replace lithium was a success as they survived right through winter outside in temps as low as -35C.

They have reported 1% battery life from day one likely due the manner in which these Zwave sensors report battery levels.

It would be nice to see a series of Zigbee and Zwave sensors that used light harvesting to keep them perpetually charged. I have to keep about 7 different lithium cells on hand to power all the various sensors (motion, temp, water and door sensors)in the automation system. Kudos to Hue and a few others using AAA or AA batteries so at least you can use rechargeables

 

[Matias]

It would be nice to see a series of Zigbee and Zwave sensors that used light harvesting to keep them perpetually charged. I have to keep about 7 different lithium cells on hand to power all the various sensors (motion, temp, water and door sensors)in the automation system. Kudos to Hue and a few others using AAA or AA batteries so at least you can use rechargeables

Yep, I feel you. Even though it's just batteries, it's kind of annoying that all of the home automation stuff I use seem to use different batteries. SmartThings button, kid's presence sensor, Figaro Eye, etc. I've just ordered again a batch a batteries, CR123A (it's about 6,5€, ~8$ US in the store), CR2450, CR2032 etc..

I'm looking into buying a new motion sensor in the garage, the fibaro eye seems to lose connection once in a while. It powers on the workbench light and monitor (and chromecast), so it's annoying when it doesn't work 100%. Also, as it's colder in the garage, the battery seems to go more quickly. Do you use motion sensors? The hue ones work perfectly, and I bought a ST one for the bathroom for night light, which also works well. But in the garage would prefer one with continuous power instead of batteries.

How's the trailer been, did you get it, and did you get to pass some time in it with the family? Any pics?