Above 1200 Sq/FT The ASYLUM - Happy 40th Birthday to Me! (Est. 2005)

[shopnut]

I was thinking more of a Batman thing. Take one of those motors and a battery pack, add a cable and grappling hook.



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I remember watching the original Batman series all the time when I was a kid. To watch it now, it is pretty corny, but it sure does being back the memories. I think they filmed those wall scaling scenes with the camera at 90 degrees, didn't they? There's probably a blooper scene out there with one of them standing up straight to stretch or something. LOL

Yes, this. And because I just saw this on ebay -

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1965-Yamaha-YDS-3/154209797356?hash=item23e79ec4ec:g:xbkAAOSwD7NfvBUe

The Bat Cycle is pricy at $38K, but really cool just the same. The powered sidecar is a nice touch when Robin needs to divert and follow a different villain. LOL And the icing on the cake is it's built on a Yamaha smoker!!

 

[shortykorte]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

Merry Christmas


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[racer-john]

Merry Xmas all, and a prosperous New Year.

 

[cbacres]

Merry Christmas Mark!

Hope to cross paths again soon.

 

[harley jim]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

Merry Christmas Shopnut

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[JCQuick]

Damm i've been Tree'd Merry Christmas to all

 

[shopnut]

Thanks everyone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all that wander into The ASYLUM today!!!!

 

[shopnut]

A CLOSET FORT FOR OUR GRANDSON…

We spent the week before Christmas visiting the kids in Virginia. Myself and Grandma spent 3 days (in between visiting, opening presents, eating, nap time, more eating, and everything else) building a closet fort as one of my grandson’s presents.

Here is how it started out. My step-daughter removed the closet rack and did the orange paint job prior to us arriving, so that was a huge help.

And here are the results. Actually, it’s just sort of a loft bed with rock wall ladder to get into it. But as the years go by, he can make it what he wants.

I first drew up this sketch for the kids to approve before we drove up, so I could bring along all the tools I thought I would need.

We didn’t quite get every detail finished on it by the time we had to head home to FL, but we had to save SOMETHING for the next trip, right?

 

[shortykorte]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

That’s great y’all were able to do that. Did he sleep in it before you all left?

Soldier we need better lettering than that and I didn’t see a scale annotated. lol

Have you been to the science museum at the Union Station? Great place to spend hours.


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[shopnut]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

That’s great y’all were able to do that. Did he sleep in it before you all left?

Soldier we need better lettering than that and I didn’t see a scale annotated. lol

Have you been to the science museum at the Union Station? Great place to spend hours.

We finished up the fort just as we were about to head for home and I wouldn't say he exactly warmed up to it yet. At 2 years old, 54" off the ground is pretty high up there. His mother requested the whole thing and I think its something he will "grow into". Knowing him though, he will be climbing up and down that thing like a monkey in no time at all. And its a great place to hide when he's done something wrong. LOL

Oh yeah, I forgot to add "NTS" (Not To Scale) on the sketch... please forgive me! LOL

You know, I've seen that building several times from Broad St. and thought about checking it out sometime. But now with a recommendation, its definitely on the sightseeing list when we visit next. That's assuming, of course, that we are not spending all our time playing contractor while there. The kids just bought a resale house several months ago due to their family growing, so there are many projects on the list.

 

[JCQuick]

wait i must have missed a chapter in this last I saw was you married got 2 step daughters and now your a grand pa but i can't say much i have 6 grand kids and I'm only well not quiet over the hill

Btw I will not mention that i have about 40 nieces and nephews along with 11 brother in in laws

 

[shortykorte]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

Take the kids, there’s something for everyone.

If you didn’t see yet, FC meet up Jan. 9th at Musclecar City museum.


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[shopnut]

wait i must have missed a chapter in this last I saw was you married got 2 step daughters and now your a grand pa but i can't say much i have 6 grand kids and I'm only well not quiet over the hill

Btw I will not mention that i have about 40 nieces and nephews along with 11 brother in in laws

Actually, the marriage brought me 3 step daughters and a step son-in-law. Recently, the oldest daughter and husband started working on a family and we now have a grandson and granddaughter. I can't take credit for any of this, of course, but I'll join in on the fun.

Wow, that's some big relation you have. Family reunions must be huge!!

 

[shopnut]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

Take the kids, there’s something for everyone.

If you didn’t see yet, FC meet up Jan. 9th at Musclecar City museum.


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Thanks for the heads up... I might be able to swing the 9th

 

[JCQuick]

Actually, the marriage brought me 3 step daughters and a step son-in-law. Recently, the oldest daughter and husband started working on a family and we now have a grandson and granddaughter. I can't take credit for any of this, of course, but I'll join in on the fun.

Wow, that's some big relation you have. Family reunions must be huge!!

Got it. No more like Thanks giving they come from every where. just glad i don't have to host it cause it reach's 50-60+ people. we did it once and the count was 52

 

[Vette60]

2nd or third the recommendation on the science museum at the old train station. Your grandson @ 2 is also the right age for the children's museum next door. My kiddos have outgrown the childrens museum but always enjoyed it when we went.

Thanks for sharing - the loft bed came out great!

 

[shopnut]

2nd or third the recommendation on the science museum at the old train station. Your grandson @ 2 is also the right age for the children's museum next door. My kiddos have outgrown the childrens museum but always enjoyed it when we went.

Thanks for sharing - the loft bed came out great!

Thanks for chiming in. Its nice to know the 2yo will be have interesting things to do too.

 

[shopnut]

THE LAST FRONTIER, THE ASYLUM SOUTH WALL… (Part 8 of 50)

SOME RAW MATERIALS FOR THE PROJECT.

I went through the math several years ago, and it makes good money sense for us to rent a car when taking long trips as opposed to taking one of our own vehicles. For the trip up to VA. we were given a Camry and it worked out beautifully for us. Not only did it offer much better highway mpg than our cars, the folding rear seat allowed us to haul all the materials for the closet fort project mentioned earlier.

Because of the rental car branch being closed when we got back from the trip, we had the car an extra day. I figured I might as well use it some more and went to the home improvement store and hauled the first batch of materials to the Asylum for the south wall project.

Here, you can see 2 sheets of ripped paneling, 12 metal studs, and a couple bundles of 1x2’s in the car. I actually think something 10 ft long would fit in there if needed.

Here is the stack of material. I intend to use the build some strong, but lightweight, shelving planks out of the paneling and studs. The 1x2’s will be used to frame out the sliding doors when I get to them.

 

[jbmatth]

Shopnut,
As always you seem to make some good progress and your continuous improvement to the space is admirable.

I am curious to the math behind the statement above about being cheaper to rent a vehicle for long trips. Is this mostly due to the fuel mileage of the rental compared to your Avalanche? I ask because I've had other friends that do the same thing but they drive much older, more unreliable, vehicles that are worse on gas than your Avalanche.

JB

 

[shopnut]

Thanks JB. End of year vacation to burn is helping progress lately.

Regarding the decision to rent a car for long trips... I mentioned gas mileage, but that is actually a very small piece of it. Its really comes down to wear and tear and depreciation on our own cars. This is a very rudimentary way to look at it because its not linear, but I took the purchase price of either of our cars (around $40k each) and considered their useful lives (200k miles). This works out to about $.20/mile. For a 2,000 mile trip that we just did, that works out to $400. Rental cost was $250, so we were already $150 ahead.

Gas money savings for a vehicle getting 36mpg vs 18mpg, and savings on maintenance items like tires and oil are just gravy on top. We also avoid having to decide which vehicle to take (we both hate putting 2,000 miles on our cars in one week). I'm normally one of those back row angle parker type of people, so having a rental car with the whole family in it, I don't get yelled at for parking in the back forty because I now can park in the closest spot I can find. Another cool thing is just driving a different and late model car for a week, and playing with its gadgets. My truck is 7 years old now, and tech has advanced quite a bit.

Your insurance coverage should be checked before renting a car because if you have to take the rental car insurance, the math goes out the window. Luckily mine covers me in a rental the same as in my own vehicle so I can decline the expensive insurance offered. Lastly, make sure you choose a rental company with unlimited mileage!!

I hope this helps. Your conditions will vary, of course.

 

[shortykorte]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

Mark, I’ve done the same for the exact same reasons. Plus you get a brand new vehicle, get to try out different vehicles and the slim chance of breakdown, call the rental company, get another car. Win-win.


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[Bob Heine]

Mark, we do the same thing. Even with a relatively new car, a blowout from road debris or a surprise failure can mean sitting in a shop for most of a day (or longer if it's a weekend). If it happens to the rental, they'll bring a replacement vehicle and you're on your way with a little less hassle and a lot less lost time.
EDIT: Shorty, you're a faster reader and typer than me!

 

[shopnut]

Shorty and Bob... all good points and definitely more reasons to do a rental in these situations.

As if all this wasn't enough to convince someone, there is another way to look at it... extending the longevity of your own vehicles. Take this 2,000 mile trip, for instance. This represents about 3 months of typical driving in the pre-COVID days for me. If someone offered me 3 extra months of use of the Avy before it went to the crusher for a mere $250, I would jump on it.

 

[jbmatth]

All very good points, thank you for the explanations and something to consider in the future for our long trips.

JB

 

[shopnut]

All very good points, thank you for the explanations and something to consider in the future for our long trips.

JB

Everyone's situation is different, so everything needs to be considered.

FYI... the rental car companies couldn't make a go of it if people did the high miles thing all the time. For me, it seems like its every fourth time or so. Typically, we fly somewhere and rent a car for 3 or 4 days while only putting only a couple hundred miles on the car. That's where they make their money.

 

[shopnut]

GETTING THE SHOP ORGANIZED (Part 59 of ?)…

ORGANIZING MATERIAL SCRAPS FROM 15 YEARS OF PROJECTS.

This link takes you back to the last entry on organizing: Part #58

What can I say, I’m a packrat. But typically an organized packrat. With getting things shuffled around for the south wall project, I decided it was time to gather up all my material scrap lying around the shop. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE!!! I made a first pass and collected tons of it. I kept making passes through the shop and finding more each time. Even after starting to sort it all, I found two more bins of scraps I had missed. Just look how much floor space it takes.

I decided to put those two steel cabinets to use while I figure out ultimately what to do with them. All the wood went in them and on the push cart. Emptied out boxes and bins are in the foreground.

Dimensional lumber was sorted and tossed on the different shelves of the lateral cabinet. Plywood was sorted and went in the drawers of the shorter cabinet. Oddball stuff went on the cart. At this point, I hadn’t touched the vinyl trim, piping or metallic stuff yet on the right.

That stuff was reduced down nicely as well.

I moved this cart full of misc junk (but useful junk!) to the back corner of the shop where it wouldn’t be seen so easily.

The rest of the non-metallic stock went into the bins at the bottom of the drill/bandsaw cart.

All the metallic and aluminum stock was moved to the bottom of the lathe cart lathe.

I still have a few extra pockets left to fill, so that is good.

 

[shopnut]

LAST PACK OF T8 BULBS FOR THE NORTH SIDE BAY…

First of all, let me wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR! For those you suffered through 2020 with all of its challenges, may 2021 bring new hope, happiness, and prosperity to you and yours.

On to the lights. Although they are a different brand then what is used in the rest of the shop, these “Daylight” bulbs are a pretty good match. It could possibly be the last pack of T8 fluorescent bulbs I ever buy because at some point, LED will take over.

 

[shopnut]

GETTING THE SHOP ORGANIZED (Part 60 of ?)…

LATERAL CABINETS ARE GREAT FOR STORING AEROSOL CANS.

I bought a couple of these spray paint carts a few years ago and have been using them since. They have done pretty good at keeping everything organized, even quart size oil bottles.

But, with the new lateral cabinets temporarily in place and the can carts not really fitting into the master plan, I decided to move the cans over to their new spot. Each individual can was easy to spot in the open wire racking of the old cart, but I can also easily see every one with the drawer pulled out. Plus (and this is the big part) I can grab one in back if need it without pulling the others in front out first. Those 6 shelves of cans reduced down to 2 drawers in the cabinet (granted, the old rack wasn’t full). Less space and easier access… it’s a win-win!

KEYS TO THE ASYLUM…

The kids got me a custom made wooden key chain for the ASYLUM as a Christmas gift. It’s made out of wood and was laser cut, but honestly, I don’t know the process the manufacturer used to produce the raised lettering on it. Pretty cool, nevertheless.

 

[sublime68charger]

Happy New Year!

 

[Grizz1963]

Always love to check in.

I probably will be shocked if I climbed in and sorted out my scraps.

 

[shopnut]

Happy New Year!

Same to you and yours! So far, 2021 seems to be going alright. Well, I got through my first two days of work anyway. LOL

 

[shopnut]

Always love to check in.

I probably will be shocked if I climbed in and sorted out my scraps.

I was AMAZED at the amount I have... and I'm still finding bits scattered about. Its really a good feeling, however, having it all cleaned up and gaining some space back. I'm already reaping the benefits of having one defined spot to go when I need a small piece of something. Definitely worth the effort from several points of view.

 

[shopnut]

THE LAST FRONTIER, THE ASYLUM SOUTH WALL… (Part 9 of 50)

BUILDING SOME SHELVES FOR TOTE BINS.

By themselves, the materials I bought are extremely flimsy. Here you can see they barely can hold up their own weight, much less storage bins filled with supplies. But remember that my goal is light-weight components here so I can take it all down quickly if I need to clear a path for the manlift to rise up to the lights or windows.

Fastened together in the correct way, however, they can become a lightweight, yet strong shelf plank. I took two steel studs stood up on their sides and skinned them with the 3/16” masonite paneling. Self-tapping screws every 12” along the length was sufficient and made the job relatively easy. Here I have the wall brackets resting on some 2x6’s to space them off the floor so I could observe the deflection as I loaded it up.

This view better shows the shelf construction.

The olive drab brackets originally were used to support fuel tanks on the side of a truck frame.

Here is the shelf with 3 filled tote bins resting on it. Deflection across the 8 foot span was under a 1/4” and I deem this acceptable. The weight of the shelf is very low too, so this test was a success and I will move forward with this design.

The only deficiency I noted was a little fore/aft flex, so some short 2x4’s took care of that..

 

[shortykorte]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

And here I thought you were building an Evil Knieval ramp for us during our next visit.

Clever design. I might be stealing that idea.


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[shopnut]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

And here I thought you were building an Evil Knieval ramp for us during our next visit.

Clever design. I might be stealing that idea.


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If you're planning to jump that big Honda, I might have to reinforce it a bit!!

With the cooler temps lately, I noticed another slight deficiency with the ramp design... the masonite skin is puckering up a bit between screws. Maybe 1/16-1/8", so not a lot, but certainly enough to be noticeable and perhaps look bad. It seems I didn't account for the thermal expansion differences in the materials. LOL

 

[TwoBytes]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

If you're planning to jump that big Honda, I might have to reinforce it a bit!!

With the cooler temps lately, I noticed another slight deficiency with the ramp design... the masonite skin is puckering up a bit between screws. Maybe 1/16-1/8", so not a lot, but certainly enough to be noticeable and perhaps look bad. It seems I didn't account for the thermal expansion differences in the materials. LOL

Can you use slots for the screws in the masonite to allow for a bit of movement?

 

[E12-535iTurbo]

I think it's time to completely isolate the asylum from the outside world. True ambient conditioning should be in place: temperature, humidity, pressure. Then you'd finaly have created your own biosphere. It's the last piece of the puzzle.

 

[shopnut]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

Can you use slots for the screws in the masonite to allow for a bit of movement?

That would certainly take care of the puckering (or buckling) masonite and its likely it would be sufficient. Even adding more screws between the others would help out.

But the engineer in me wants to go a step further and make up for my oversite. The purpose of the masonite sheets is to provide a tension member on the bottom and compression member on the top to resist the bending of the entire shelf. If the bottom skin starts out puckered from temperature effects, it will allow fairly easy drooping of the shelf until it gets pulled taunt. At that point, it will finally start doing its job. The skin on top will just pucker up more as the shelf is loaded, so its really not doing much in this case. The weight of the tote bins might actually help resist some of the puckering under load.

I'm probably overthinking this (that's what engineers like to do after all), but my plan is to redo the shelves when they are puckered the greatest. I will remove all the screws except those in the center (lengthwise) and let the skin lay flat again. I will then install new screws at the 6" interval between the other missing screws. Finally, I will re-install the original screws at 12" spacing if the holes are not misaligned too severely. If they are way off, I will move the screws slightly into a new location, maintaining the approximate 12" spacing. I'm sure it took me longer to type this than it will actually take to do it. LOL

In the end, I hope to have the bottom sheet pre-tensioned (at least when it is warmer out) before any tote bins are even set on the shelf. This hopefully will offer the least deflection. The extra screws in the top sheet should help resist the compression loads seen there to some degree.

Now if I really wanted to go all out, I would arch the whole assembly slightly before fastening it together, like they do on some large flatbed trailers. LOL

 

[shopnut]

I think it's time to completely isolate the asylum from the outside world. True ambient conditioning should be in place: temperature, humidity, pressure. Then you'd finaly have created your own biosphere. It's the last piece of the puzzle.

I like the way you think. I have a new target! LOL

 

[TwoBytes]

Re: The ASYLUM - Turning a Crazy Vision into a Lakefront Gearhead Getaway: Year 6

But the engineer in me wants to go a step further

I love it!

Have you got a freezer big enough to fit the steel beams in? And leave the masonite in the sun before bringing them together? Maximum tension!