Above 1200 Sq/FT The Action Sports Garage

[Dig Doug]

As for the parking
rent some sandwich boards & delineators and buy a roll of caution tape mark off the spaces

or

park some cars in the spots Then run some caution tape around em

Ive never had good luck !
There would be one car parked in the middle of the area I would need

lol

 

[Cdubu52]

Maybe some police tape and a chalk outline?

 

[Grant Gunderson]

As for the parking
rent some sandwich boards & delineators and buy a roll of caution tape mark off the spaces

or

park some cars in the spots Then run some caution tape around em

Ive never had good luck !
There would be one car parked in the middle of the area I would need

lol

Maybe some police tape and a chalk outline?

Thanks for the suggestion guys. Maybe next bum I kick out from the entry I offer $20 too if he keeps people pout of the parking spots.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

took the mill head etc to the shop this am. Saw a bunch of vines out front and was like well damn maybe the city just did it…., but nope it’s the door guys. Looks like they are installing the front door today so no more plywood wall and having to carry eavy load up a flight of stairs!

 

[Grant Gunderson]

They got the double door mostly in. Looks like they need to come back and install the top window, etc but we are getting closer to moving the big stuff in! Spent most of the day boxing up the contents of the two 16 drawer listas that had all of my hardware in them.


Here’s to hoping those hardware boxes stay upright! Will be a disaster if they get all jumbled up!

Jamie listed and sold a bunch of the household stuff for me today. That was a huge help and I got to spend some quality time with the kids. Stian really wants to do a soccer camp this weekend and then we will do a family ride after. I’m really looking forward to that and hopefully a ski day with the kids this weekend too. We will see how the next few days go with the big move.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

City approved the permits today to block the parking spots on Friday. I can pick up signs and meter covers in the am. Only cost $120…. Seems steep.

Rented a narrow pallet jack to move the tooling cabinets. My go to place was $120 a week. But they were out. Went to the other place down the street and it was $120 for 2 days. Ugh. That being said it made moving them a hell of a lot easier.

Only one left to move tomorrow to make room for next batch.

I gotta check the floor plans but lathe will go on this wall far right next to the door. I may put a cabinet between it and door. Not sure yet. To the left of the lathe will be 3 Equipto cabinets for mill / lathe tooling so a 7.5’ work bench then the mill to left of that unless someone has a better suggestion. Machines have to go along wall due to weight. That back corner has extra posts too.

Tentatively suspension work bench and tooling along this back wall depending on bathroom orientation etc. to be decided.
Moved the Wilton3c. Damn that thing is heavy! Got all but 1 workbench unbolted from wall for the move. Next two days will be big days of moving heavy stuff.

 

[Dig Doug]

Make sure you get some cameras and alarm system going !

ASAP

you have incredible equipment and don’t want it growing legs

 

[SilverJimmy]

Renting a drop deck trailer next week, going to move a forklift I found for a friend and then a safe and my Ex-Cell-O vertical mill. Rental place says to pick it up Friday afternoon and return it Monday morning will just be a one day charge. Drop deck trailer should make all this easier than trying to get these up onto my car trailer, hoping for a win!

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Renting a drop deck trailer next week, going to move a forklift I found for a friend and then a safe and my Ex-Cell-O vertical mill. Rental place says to pick it up Friday afternoon and return it Monday morning will just be a one day charge. Drop deck trailer should make all this easier than trying to get these up onto my car trailer, hoping for a win!

Last time I moved the mill I used a drop deck and it was amazing. However using a flat bed car trailer this some. Same as I used with the lathe last time and a fork lift in each end. So ideally we move both machines in one trip.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Luckily I have acquired two Toyota forklifts so I can load/unload at both ends like you. I’m using the drop deck trailer cuz the friend I found a forklift for is renting it for the weekend, so, why not?!

 

[rattle_snake]

That vice looks amazing.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

No parking signs are up



I may have accidentally wrote today’s date, so “corrected it” for tomorrow too.


Both Jessie’s and my truck are full of lista and Vidmar drawers.

Got all but two cabinets on the car trailer and moved in this am.

It was *** puckering even with the forklift and Jessie and Jon helping but the heavy machinery is loaded.

Other fork lift gets delivered in the am so this will be the first load tomorrow. Thankfully weather is holding. Will just need one more car trailer load tomorrow and 90% of the garage is moved. I’m tired. Time to let Stian drive the fork lift.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

That vice looks amazing.

Thanks. The restoration is earlier on the thread.

 

[Cruzan80]

Time to let Stian drive the fork lift.

Waiting for the pic of either the Monarch or Bridgeport loaded, and Stian driving...

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Waiting for the pic of either the Monarch or Bridgeport loaded, and Stian driving...

Stian running the controls.

Stian driving. Would have let him drive it more but the forklift brakes were barely working and didn’t want him to get out of control on the hill.

He’s grown a bit since last time he drove it with the neighbor kid!

 

[Cruzan80]

In seriousness, sending good vibes for the move!

 

[Grant Gunderson]

In seriousness, sending good vibes for the move!

Thanks! Jamie was pretty amazed at what we got done yesterday. I don’t think she realized what was involved with moving the mill / lathe until she saw us load it. She could tell all week I’ve been stressed about moving the machines. I’ll be way less puckered after we get the lathe and mill into the shop. Here to hoping the Structural engineer was correct about the it holding the weight!

Talking with the building owner the local timber baron built that section to be a car dealership around 1920 then they did granite tomb stones in it after that. So it’s legit 2x4 toung and grove car decking on top of 3x16 12” on center on top of 12x12 of fir beams with 12x12 posts.
One of the building owners stopped by last Friday and said he felt confident in it as well ( he’s also my corporate lawyer) so it will literally be on them if it doesn’t! I do feel it’s built quite solid. More concerned about rolling that much weight in the wood. 2 pallet jacks should help.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Got everything loaded and no issues with the drive over. Used the forklift to get the Lathe in the door, I shouldn't have done ,it but I ended up driving onto the floor a bit with the forklift and not even a creak. Probally could haven driven it all the way in, but the S.E. said not to.

Pallet jack made it easy even on the wooden floor. Jessies is rolling it back.

We then did the same with the mill, Picking it from the eyebolt on top of the ram, worked exceptionally well. I need to order some leveling feet from it, and when I do I will pull the homemade pallet from under it.

I met Jessie at a party my first night in bellingham when I moved into the dorms at Western. We have been best friends ever since. Between him and Jon I always have two guys that I can count on anytime I need an extra set of hands. We are both super relieved the heavy equipment moved went smoother than expected... and the floor held! No sagging whatsoever.

Mill, lathe and 3 Equipto cabinets dedicated to tooling for each. Will put a stainless counter top on. I'll portally put a tall Lista / Vidmar to the right of the lathe.

I need to start playing Tetris with all of the other Lista, Vidmar and Equipto cabinets... Other than these 3 items I have no idea where everything else will go yet... part of that depends on the final bathroom plan.

That white mark on the floor is where the previous running shoe place had a changing room. Hopefully a rag and some water will clean up the gypsum residue.

I'm beat. However I'm relieved the most stressful part of the move is done. All thats left is smaller stuff in the garage, plus the house ****, but most of that will go to a storage unit for now...and I may hire movers fro that. Time for an afternoon with the kids.

 

[Dig Doug]

That’s Awesome!

Congratulations!

another step in the right direction


the floor looks really cool and rustic - Great vibes and Character

shop / store is going to be Really Cool …

 

[Grant Gunderson]

That’s Awesome!

Congratulations!

another step in the right direction


the floor looks really cool and rustic - Great vibes and Character

shop / store is going to be Really Cool …

Thanks. Lots of history on that floor for sure! Hopefully it comes together with a mix of old school quality and some high tech automation where appropriate.

A few questions for the forum:

Airlines do I go black pipe or galvanized? Copper is ridiculously expensive at 2x the cost. I will be installing an air dryer with the new compressor, but lots of humidity to deal with and I’ll be feeding some very expensive machines with the air. Planning on 1” main line around the ceiling. Then ¾ drops for the areas with less demand.

Bridgeport leveling feet. I like the height of it on my home made pallet, but hated that it wasn’t level in the old shop.
So I’m going to pull the pallet and tap the 4 holes in the base and install some anti vibration leveling feet unless anyone has a better idea. I’ll loose the height tho. I know they make column spacers for these but they are pretty hard to come by.

Lightening. Shop has cheap led lights in back ⅓ and they are bright enough. Front lights are way too dim, but it’s got track lighting. Thinking I need better overhead / bench top lights and will keep / add to the track lighting for illuminating all the prints I hang on the walls / from the ceiling. So would love some lighting ideas. I’m also really hoping Jamie will come around and let me hang her jerseys from practicing / winning nationals for both road / MTB as she’s a big part of this project… she’s not the type to show that stuff off, but I sure think it would be a nice tribute to her contributions over the last 3+ years in making this a reality.

Workbench tops. I’m thinking ¾ or 1” ply on top of all of the tooling cabinets and then having stainless tops made. Anyone have any suggestions for that and an idea of what gauge to go with? The main steel supplier in town gave me a rough quote of $600 per 8’ section. Need to call some sheet metal outfits and get a few more quotes once I get they layout dialed in initially.

WiFi / security. Do I go with a Ubiquity system? Or do I just have ADT or some other commercial outfit install their propriety system? Insurance will require it be monitored. Asked the door guy about a smart lock for the front and that’s like $1500 ouch. Might make sense that I don’t have to
Change the lock tumblers when employees leave

.
Stian ended up helping me unload another trip last night. I love his desire to help.


It’s amazing how much **** I had in that garage. Stian asked if I’m going to miss it. I told him I’m not sure. I put a hell of a lot of work into optimizing a pretty small space so really looking forward to more space, but I’ll miss the commute. On the other hand it will be nice to physically separate work from home so I can mentally leave work at work. He’s going to miss the house but I’m not with all of the issues I’ve had with it, the close proximity of neighbors and everyone parking in the street. Jamie’s house will be a bit snug for 4 of us, but that’s only a temporary situation until we find or build a long term spot for all of us….. or at least that’s the plan

 

[LXCam]

Air lines - black pipe. You don’t use galv here at all, bad mojo with contamination. Now I haven’t used any of the new modular systems but there sure are a lot of legit guys here who have and have been very happy with it. @zmotorsports would be my insider here for a recommendation, you know how thorough Mike is. Plus it’d be way quicker than cutting/threading/installing. And for you, time is of the essence for a while.

Lighting, this is sad to say but with over 40yrs of my main trade being a sparky, I’m not anywhere close to make a recommendation for the newest led ****. But once again I have no doubt the brain trust here will make a solid suggestion.

Bench tops, a min of 14ga.

Good luck Grant, you got some work to do bud. But I can’t wait to see the final result.

 

[gearhead1960]

+1 on @LXCam recommendation on checking out what @zmotorsports (Mike) did for his air lines.

 

[zmotorsports]

Sorry, just saw my name mentioned.

Congrats on the new space.

As for air lines, I used copper in my last shop of 25+ years and although they worked out well, especially as I added to the overall system over a couple of decades, when I built my new shop and pricing copper, I opted to use the Aircom system. There are several commercially available "kits" out there and I just chose the one that best suited what my end goal was. I looked at the Rapidair system, but in the end I went with the Aircom 1" rigid aluminum pipe system. I used Aircom because my local air compressor parts house stocked the Aircom components, but I purchased the kits online knowing I would more than likely need an odd fitting or elbow that I could source locally very quickly rather than having to order online.

I used 3 full kits to outfit my 3k square foot home shop which equates to 9 lines dropped into the shop, each with a dual fitting manifold as well as 2 drops for air reels and one for my Bridgeport style milling machine so I don't have air lines running around the floor.

I have had mine installed for 9 years now and have had zero issues and would use the Aircom system again in a heartbeat.

Not sure if that helps or not, but it is so much easier and cleaner looking than black pipe or copper.

 

[Dig Doug]

Air line loop I would be looking into a pex system and make your drops w/ pipe - rapid air or black /gal pipe

As an example

 

[Dig Doug]

As for lighting I would use an A/B switching

2 zones
one switch for say general lighting
one switch for welding helmet light blocker !

set up the shop and see the shadows with the existing lights

add some UFO lights high up ( at the structure above ) work stations and equipment locations, don’t place directly above equipment off set it so the cone of light shines down to the work area and the equipment doesn’t cast a shadow

 

[Dig Doug]

Countertops
butcher block tops go on sale look around a friend just got a few 8 footers for $99 bucks each! It was at a flooring store

Ive used 1 1/8 sub floor plywood for CT’s in the past they are heavy duty

 

[Dig Doug]

If you like the current height of the mill

maybe after things settle down down you could weld up a base

pics taken from a google search

the red base is from one of our GJ inmates !

 

[Johanfpa]

I got a Ubiquity system both WiFi mesh and security stuff for our house (big granite walls as it is a converted stone barn & farmhouse) and recommend it, not too difficult to set up and loads of online information explaining how to if you need help. We originally had an ADT security system but the monitoring costs were getting more expensive each year (in the end we were paying $65/month, bet it is even more expensive these days). The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was when I found out they had my property filled under the address where we lived when we did the conversion so if the alarm ever went off they would send the police /fire (depending on which alarm was triggered) to the wrong address. Ubiquity setup was a bit of an investment but has paid itself back multiple times since then.
Your shop setup is coming along nicely and I like what you are doing. I’m sure you will make it a success.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Wow. Lots of great info! @zmotorsports thanks for the info. No aircom or actual compressor shop close by so may go with Rapid Air fast pipe.
Only had an hour at the shop while the kid was at soccer. Got the tail stock back in the lathe.

Both machines are far from level. Will address that down the line.

Started putting mill / lathe tooling in the machinustveork bench. Beginning to think I might want 4 cabinets here.

Endmill sharpener next to mill

Drill bit sharpener next to lathe.

Made a bunch of room at front of the shop for cabinet Tetris to start Monday.

The exposed ceiling will help with running electrical, airlines, security etc.

And I forgot to mention my state of the art Laba7 suspension bleed system arrived on Thursday too. Lots of information above. Need to take some time to factor it in while I’m moving cabinets around. A bit undecided on the layout. I’m sure once I set it up and we run for a few months I’ll decide on changing it once I see how the workflow evolves.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Sorry, just saw my name mentioned.

Congrats on the new space.


I have had mine installed for 9 years now and have had zero issues and would use the Aircom system again in a heartbeat.

Not sure if that helps or not, but it is so much easier and cleaner looking than black pipe or copper.

Thanks I used copper years ago in first shop when it was relatively cheap and it worked great.

I used Black Iron in the current shop and it was quite a bit more work as I had to cut thread and ream a ton of sections. Worked great for about 8 years then the last two I’ve been getting a ton of rust in it. It’s very humid here and I’ll be very close to the bay with the new shop.

I don’t see a ton of AirCom dealers on line and no local so might go with rapid air fast pipe. The question is do their compression of press fittings? Either are stupid expensive.

That brings me back to copper. Has anyone used copper with pro press fittings for air instead of soldering them? It makes copper look pretty attractive both in price and ease to install. Need to do a forum search or maybe a post in the main forum.

As for lighting I would use an A/B switching

2 zones
one switch for say general lighting
one switch for welding helmet light blocker !

set up the shop and see the shadows with the existing lights

add some UFO lights high up ( at the structure above ) work stations and equipment locations, don’t place directly above equipment off set it so the cone of light shines down to the work area and the equipment doesn’t cast a shadow

Thanks. I’ve also seen some long LED strips that might look good attached to the exposed beams. No idea on cost / light output.

Countertops
butcher block tops go on sale look around a friend just got a few 8 footers for $99 bucks each! It was at a flooring store

Ive used 1 1/8 sub floor plywood for CT’s in the past they are heavy duty

That’s a solid option. I’m going for at least 30” tops so most butcher block is too narrow. Need to make a trip. To the plywood shop and see what the options are.

If you like the current height of the mill

maybe after things settle down down you could weld up a base

pics taken from a google search

the red base is from one of our GJ inmates !

that is a slick idea. I need to do some thinking about a metal stand for under it as I really don’t want to deal with parts rolling under and disappearing forever.

I got a Ubiquity system both WiFi mesh and security stuff for our house (big granite walls as it is a converted stone barn & farmhouse) and recommend it, not too difficult to set up and loads of online information explaining how to if you need help. We originally had an ADT security system but the monitoring costs were getting more expensive each year (in the end we were paying $65/month, bet it is even more expensive these days). The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was when I found out they had my property filled under the address where we lived when we did the conversion so if the alarm ever went off they would send the police /fire (depending on which alarm was triggered) to the wrong address. Ubiquity setup was a bit of an investment but has paid itself back multiple times since then.
Your shop setup is coming along nicely and I like what you are doing. I’m sure you will make it a success.

Thanks. They look to have a very complete system but I gotta see if there are options for having it monitored as per my insurance requirements.

 

[knucklehead 61]

i use pex for my air lines in my last 2 shops. cheap & easy.
as for counter tops, i use 3/4 cdx over the benches & glue 1/4 tempered masonite on top. it holds up very well & can be replaced cheaply if ever needed. we used it in our commercial sheet metal shop for decades & i can't remember ever replacing a top sheet in the 32 years i worked there.

 

[garfieldzzz]

I can only comment for stainless steel water lines for air with press fittings. They work well so far for me since 5 yrs

Keep it up, im really courious how it will turn out.

 

[zmotorsports]

I just looked and actually don't see the Aircom system that uses the 1" rigid aluminum piping any longer. I see the Rapidair system that uses that option. I know a lot of people use and even recommended the coiled aluminum line when I was searching, but the ones I saw just never were able to completely eliminate the waves in the line once installed, so I went with the rigid lines and unions.

If you don't mind spending some time with the coiled piping, I see quite a few of the 3/4" x 100' kits for around the $200 range, not sure how much you need. I ended up using almost all of the three (3) 100' kits when I plumbed mine, but I may have gone a little overkill on drops compared to most.


As for work bench tops, I made my workbenches out of 2"x .187" square tubing and then stacked two layers of 3/4" MDF topped off with a sheet of 10-gauge sheet metal rolled 6" up at the rear and down 2" at the front edge. Love my workbenches as they are solid and clean up easily.

 

[Xti04]

I made a jig out of a couple of 2x4s to help straighten out my coiled air line tubing. It's not perfect, but is much improved.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

I just looked and actually don't see the Aircom system that uses the 1" rigid aluminum piping any longer. I see the Rapidair system that uses that option. I know a lot of people use and even recommended the coiled aluminum line when I was searching, but the ones I saw just never were able to completely eliminate the waves in the line once installed, so I went with the rigid lines and unions.

If you don't mind spending some time with the coiled piping, I see quite a few of the 3/4" x 100' kits for around the $200 range, not sure how much you need. I ended up using almost all of the three (3) 100' kits when I plumbed mine, but I may have gone a little overkill on drops compared to most.


As for work bench tops, I made my workbenches out of 2"x .187" square tubing and then stacked two layers of 3/4" MDF topped off with a sheet of 10-gauge sheet metal rolled 6" up at the rear and down 2" at the front edge. Love my workbenches as they are solid and clean up easily.

I made a jig out of a couple of 2x4s to help straighten out my coiled air line tubing. It's not perfect, but is much improved.

Thanks guys. I don’t want to deal with the coiled tubing. With my OCD I doubt I’ll get it straightened enough to be happy.
I’m strongly considering copper with the pro press fittings as it may be even cheaper than rapid air and just as fast plus available locally…. I need to draw out the system and do some calculations first.

For workbench’s I may actually have more Lista/ Vidmars / equipto cabinets than I need… so plan is ¾ ply on top followed by ¾ MDF then stainless tops. It’s been 6 months the the local metal shop gave me a roughy quote of $600 a bench top. I’ll then move the extras to Jamie’s place or sell a few. To be determined.

I got a ton of customer emails to deal with this am and it’s tough telling them im down for at least a few weeks but most seem patient enough. Then I got a big few days ahead of me playing Tetris with the cabinets once I have a rough layout I can plan the electrical and airlines. One snag is I’ve been waiting on the final plans for the bathroom / compressor room. Got an email from the architect’s wife last night evidently he’s in a rehab facility recovering from a stroke while vacationing in Mexico…. Hate to say it but I’m not surprised. he was awefully slow talking with him a few weeks ago and he’s now the 2nd person I know who has had a major health issue after drinking at one of those all inclusive vacation spots down there.

Makes me glad Jamie got me to damn near quit all alcohol as I feel way better and am way better fit. In fact I’m in better shape at 46 then I was at 26. Probably won’t have a drink again until my dad’s funeral and that may be the last other than an occasional near beer with the guys after a big ride. There is a bunch of guys only 10 years older than me that I’ve ridden bikes / skied with for years and Jamie’s there doc. Two of them have had major heart issues and one a stroke all in their mid 50’s and it’s all alcohol related. None of us would drink excessively, we’d just have a beer or two with the boys after a ride then another at home, but we were doing that 7 days a week. It adds up. We were all falsely under the impression it was ok, because we were spending so much time exercising. So was plenty clear to me if I didn’t want to be in that boat time to stop.

Got a good ride in with Stian on Saturday. Was on the fence about skiing or biking Sunday. He chose biking, but it never stopped raining. Everytime I go over to Jamie’s I add to my mental to do list. Her ex husband (nice guy and we are friends) and the previous owner never did a damn thing maintenance wise so there is a lot to do to get it back into shape. So Stian and I tackled one of the garden beds in the front. These rhododendrons were way over grown and a bunch of blackberries were propagating in there too. Got them pruned back and the blackberries etc removed. Put some landscape fabric down and then mulched. I normally buy mulch in bulk by the yard, but Lowe’s has it on sell by the bag at works out to be 1.5 yards vs 1 yard at the bulk place and it’s way easier and cleaner by the bag.
20 bags and we damn bear had enough. I need to go get a bunch more while it’s on sell. There is a ton of flower beds at that house that haven’t been touched in 15+ years. The grass is all but a lost cause with all of the moss in this climate as it rains like hell all winter when it’s dormant and then totally dried out all summer. It should have an irrigation system installed at some point, but most likely we will turn her place into a rental somewhere down the line. So for the time being I’m focusing more on getting it easier and less overwhelming to maintain. A little by little it will come around. The gardens at my house were fully dialed when I sold it and it had over 100K in hard scapping prior to me starting on it so it’s a bit hard to go from minimal maintenance to starting fresh with the yard / garden at her place.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

I got my work cut out for me. First step is do a rough organization of all of the boxes etc.
that gave me some room to start to play Tetris with the 600# pieces.

Looking to the front. That narrow pallet jack was worth every cent to rent.

Looking toward the back.

Got most of the contractor paper pulled in the back. Those boxes are all suspension tools / oil. I put both of the tall Vidmars next to the lathe.


Idea is to have two general bike work stations. Thinking back to back to share a work bench. I’m probably going to push these past the next post back as there is more space. Where they are at now will be customer bike storage

Not sure what to do about the gap. It’s about 7”. Would be nice to put a garbage can in there if I can find a narrow one.

I need to move that tall wide lista and put a standard tall lista in its place. That back wall will be the suspension bench with the red Snapon transmission table top draining into a catch container in the listas bellow it is the tentative plan. Then a wide lista next to it for tooling. Bathroom / compressor room in right corner.

The tall wide lista will go to the front of the shop on the wall next to the other one. I’ll place both of the 16 drawer units there too as all 4 are the same depth.
The opposite wall will mostly be ski tuning / mounting equipment. I’m undecided as to where to put a dedicated cabinet with the arbor press / bearing presss tooling as well as were to setup a dedicated electrical and motor work bench.

More Tetris to come. I worked from 8-3 did a dump run got back to town at 4 and then went for an e-bike rip with Jon tonight but my arms were cooked. Dirts great so planning on getting a good analog ride in with jamie tomorrow after a nice hot tub soak for sore muscles tonight. I’m tired.

 

[McRae]

If you go the copper press fitting way with your airlines, make sure the o-rings are happy with it. Not sure about murican standards, but in Europe they come standard with EPDM o-rings which can't take the oiled air long term. So here there's replacement Viton o-rings to purchase if one uses it for HP air. Swapped out pre pressing obviously...

 

[Grant Gunderson]

I’ve been playing around with ideas for the work island layouts. I need a space for storing customer bikes and ideally 2 general bike workstations, a dedicated motor section with electrical bench. ( I have the option to lease a large storage room downstairs if I find I need the overflow)

Part of the issue is my mix match of cabinet heights. Jon and Jessie say I have a cabinet addition and want to know if I’m ready to admit it yet. I believe I’m up to 21 lista / Vidmar / Equipto / Lyon. I know I’m going to sell at least the Lyon and maybe 1 or 2 of the Equipto.

Jamie suggested putting them in line into two groups of 4. I need to try that.

I put a standard full depth lista in the back corner. This should give me plenty of storage for suspension parts between it, the two Vidmars and the 2 Equiptos plus the under bench Listas for storing the oils.

I now have all 4 of the shallower listas to the left of the mill. I’ll have no shortage of hardware storage now. I left it there and took off for an am ride with Jamie. Dirt was amazing and we had a very nice ride.

I brought a bunch of the mill / lathe tooling boxes over to place into their new drawers in the machining center cabinets.

I had packed everything in labeled ziplocs. That sure helped speed up the unpacking.

The new drawers are a lot deeper than the ones I had the tooling in before. So I need to get more of these lista dividers…. Or just break down and by a 3D printer. I didn’t take pics (will do so tomorrow) but got the taps all sorted the reamers, counter sinks and most of the mill / lathe tooling sorted back into drawers. I’ll need to come back and clean them up and organize them but the goal for now is to just get back up and running asap. That took hours!

I finally unboxed the new LABA7 suspension bleeder. I sure hope it works as good as it’s advertised too. It was ungodly expensive for being a vacuum pump. I will say the suspension adapters are very well machined and a nice upgrade from my previous set…. I should sell those. Andreani is the other major supplier of Suspension bleeders. I went with the LABA7 system so I can have a dedicated tank for each type of oil to prevent contamination and wasting time switching out the fluids. That was the biggest time **** with my home made bleeder. I got the last two tanks in NA. I need to get at least 4 more when they get more instock, but they’re like $700 a pop…. Ouch.

That vise is a 5” Dawn offset (the Wilton version is made by Dawn). It will be ideal for working on suspension components.

Other than a mid morning ride with Jamie I was at the shop 8 am to 8pm. I’ve got a **** ton of work ahead of me!

I’m going to test a few other island layouts tomorrow, and then i need to get a borne round of cabinets ready to paint. I might regret this latter due to $$ but I’m thinking of having some stainless sheets cut to the exposed sides vs painting all of them.

It’s amazing how much **** I had in that twin tandem garage. With 2500 sqf of shop space I’m still going to wish I had more room! Especially when the ski tuning machines arrive!

 

[Horror Business]

Great progress, keep going. You’ve got to get back to cash flow!

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

I just looked and actually don't see the Aircom system that uses the 1" rigid aluminum piping any longer. I see the Rapidair system that uses that option. I know a lot of people use and even recommended the coiled aluminum line when I was searching, but the ones I saw just never were able to completely eliminate the waves in the line once installed, so I went with the rigid lines and unions.

If you don't mind spending some time with the coiled piping, I see quite a few of the 3/4" x 100' kits for around the $200 range, not sure how much you need. I ended up using almost all of the three (3) 100' kits when I plumbed mine, but I may have gone a little overkill on drops compared to most.


As for work bench tops, I made my workbenches out of 2"x .187" square tubing and then stacked two layers of 3/4" MDF topped off with a sheet of 10-gauge sheet metal rolled 6" up at the rear and down 2" at the front edge. Love my workbenches as they are solid and clean up easily.

Prevost also makes a rigid air system. It is what I am using in my shop. I have it all but its a bit down the list to get installed still. I also used it as the piping for my pressure washer water system although it technically is not rated for water it does work very well.