Add on Garage Bay (pic heavy)

saabman · Nov 21, 2015

Earlier this year I broke ground on a 20x36 addition to my free standing automotive shop/garage (the existing structure was 32x28). The new bay is to house an AWD dyno and to provide additional storage. As such the construction is a bit out of the ordinary.

I want a seamless blend between old and new.

The job started with excavation for footers, and the pouring of footers. In colder climes construction code calls for frost walls to extend deep in to the ground.

Viggen337 · Nov 21, 2015

You had me at AWD dyno. [emoji106]

Looking forward to seeing the end result!

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

saabman · Nov 21, 2015

The next phase was to erect stub wall forms and pour the stub walls. The new bay necessitated moving the electrical service entrance.

saabman · Nov 21, 2015

The Dyno will go in ground. It requires a pit that has a depth of 28.5 inches. The contractor determined the best approach was to pour an oversize floor, and then stand the pit walls up on the pit floor.

This picture sequence shows backfilling the stub wall, excavation of the pit floor, and pouring the pit floor.

CodeRedZ · Nov 21, 2015

what kind of Saab?

Kind of hoping for a 97-X Aero ;-)

Sunbimmer · Nov 21, 2015

CodeRedZ said:
what kind of Saab?

Kind of hoping for a 97-X Aero ;-)

If I look at the avatar I was thinking Sonett III...... :dunno:

T_R · Nov 21, 2015

AWD dyno? This pertains to my interests. :thumbup:

saabman · Nov 21, 2015

In terms of Saabs, I have a number of Sonetts, a 99 Viggen, and a 2003 9-5 Aero. T_R where in Maine are you?

saabman · Nov 21, 2015

The next stage of construction was the pit walls. The garage floor was designed to overlap the top of the pit walls so there was no seam on the top side of the garage floor. To power the Eddy brakes on the dyno rolls requires 2 30 AMP 220 Volt circuits, and the air ram and emergency brakes require compressed air. The 4 inch PVC pipe in the last picture delivers electric and air in to the pit. Visible in the first picture are two 2.5 inch PVC pipes that are used to route control cables to the dyno.

saabman · Nov 21, 2015

This AWD dyno is an upgrade to my existing 2 WD dyno,

Here is a Saleen Mustang on my existing Dynocom 15000 w/ PAU750 Eddy Brake

saabman · Nov 22, 2015

At this point the concrete work was nearing completion (or so I thought). First order of business was to relocate the electric service entrance. Then it was time to pour the garage floor.

mike93lx · Nov 22, 2015

looks awesome.

saabman · Nov 22, 2015

So the concrete work should have been done, but final inspection revealed the pit was over 3 inches to deep. This resulted from the original excavation measurement which was measured against the original garage, which is pitched front to rear. So the floor of the pit had another 3.5 inches of concrete added (making for a total of 11.5 inches). The floor of the garage is 8 inches of 4000 psi concrete with fiber mesh. Visible in the first picture is a sump drain. My property sits on glacial push, and under the topsoil is beach run sand. So it drains very well.

don long · Nov 22, 2015

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing the shop filled with equipment.

saabman · Nov 22, 2015

To give you some idea of what dyno will look like installed, here is a picture of a Dynocom 7500 AWD in a similar sized bay. (NOT MY GARAGE) My unit is roughly the same size but it has twice the torque capacity and a higher top speed.

saabman · Nov 22, 2015

I started planning this project in the winter of 2014/2015. I had a general contractor lined up to do the framing, siding, and roof. But we had a very late thaw and big and small projects got backed up in the spring of 2015. I found myself with a completed foundation in late spring, but with no firm commitment from my contractor. With his blessing, I found another contractor. Of course the deal was not nearly as good. But isn't that the way construction projects go.

Here is the start of the framing.

Git · Nov 22, 2015

Very Cool

I have to say - I have never seen a cement truck that unloads from the front - but it certainly makes sense since the driver can see better to position the chute. It looks like those guys really know what they are doing!

GRN96WS6 · Nov 22, 2015

Are you a tuner or something? An AWD dyno isn't cheap to just have in the garage :lol:

saabman · Nov 22, 2015

My day job is as a software engineer. But I do tuning on the side (and I have wholesale deals with other tuners). I am adding a second roll to my existing dyno so it is incremental cost not full cost at this time. It will be the only AWD dyno in Maine.

Denwood · Nov 22, 2015

That is so cool I think I might cry

I'm guessing you'll be able to generate a good deal of revenue just by doing dyno runs for other customers as well? I would guess your neighbours are either not too close, or cool with shrieking engines on dynos?

There can't be too many garages on the journal here with dynos built in

saabman · Nov 22, 2015

Neighbors are not very close and I am not a jerk when I do runs. I have had my 2 WD dyno (one roll of the new AWD setup) for 3 years.

T_R · Nov 22, 2015

saabman said:
T_R where in Maine are you?

Midcoast. I have a Subaru Impreza. I have a feeling you are about to become very popular with Subaru people.

saabman · Nov 22, 2015

I have a feeling you are about to become very popular with Subaru people.

That's the plan

saabman · Nov 23, 2015

Once the framing started it moved along at a brisk pace. At any one time there were 2 or 3 carpenters working. The Zip system for walls and roofs is popular around here. You can start to see the 8x20 closet that sits at the back of the bay. There will be an interior man door to allow access. I left the ceiling sloped to proved maximum storage space.

CodeRedZ · Nov 23, 2015

Ah looking good, I need to find a shop with a AWD dyno, so I can finally dyno my TBSS.

saabman · Nov 23, 2015

As stated in my first post, I wanted the new bay to seamlessly blend in to the existing structure. A key to this was a common roof line. The old construction used trusses, so matching trusses were manufactured for the new section. An added wrinkle was the 3 inch slope in the original floor/stub wall. The original roof sat 3 inches higher in back than in the front (in fact that back wall was 3 inches higher than front, although the stick construction was uninform). Anyway, the contractor recognized this and set the trusses accordingly

saabman · Nov 23, 2015

In parallel with the construction of my new garage bay was/is the building of the AWD upgrade to my dyno. This shots show my unit during construction. You get some sense of scale of the rolls and frames. A finished frame with rolls and Eddy Brake weighs 6000 lbs. Before the rolls are set in the frame they are dynamically balanced.

AWD dynos come in different shapes and sizes. Beyond the obvious size difference is whether each frame has an Eddy Brake and are the two rolls mechanically linked. My initial install will feature unlinked rolls each synced via the Eddy Brake (think big electromagnet). Real time imbedded control keeps the two rolls spinning a nearly the same rate under varying torque loads. But I am having the new frame built to support mechanical linkage. In the picture below you can see the frame extension that will support linkage.

saabman · Nov 23, 2015

Framing pretty much done at this point.

saabman · Nov 24, 2015

The old structures shingles were in sorry shape so when it came time to shingle the new section, the entire roof was done. This helped to insure the seamless look between old and new sections. You can see the pitch of the old and new sections match very well.

simpler=better · Nov 24, 2015

Came here from the electrical thread-This is so cool! You're living the dream!

saabman · Nov 24, 2015

Here is a link back to the thread on the original install of my 2WD dyno (which gets repurposed as one of the rolls of the AWD setup). 2WD was above ground in conjunction with a Bendpak 4 post lift. AWD is going in ground (obviously)

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155575

Denwood · Nov 24, 2015

It's interesting that this thread came up at the same time we're experimenting with a device making use of eddy currents

. During extended runs, I would guess the dyno must generate significant heat?

saabman · Nov 24, 2015

Yes, in this application the eddy brake is large (the particular one on my dyno is used for braking on railroad cars) and makes a lot of heat. The amount of force is significantly reduced by heat. The construction of the eddy brakes has a large disc rotor attached to the drum shaft (spins at roll speed). The electro magnets are arranged radially on both sides of the disc and free to rotate independent of the roll. the magnet frame is constrained however by its attachment to a load cell. It is the load cell the read out lbs of force at any point in time. The eddy force is controlled by varying frequency to the magnets.

The dyno is rated at 240 MPH. Although I rarely exceed 150 MPH

bry@n · Nov 24, 2015

Very cool. Congrats.

shade · Nov 24, 2015

Pretty badass. Why that model of Dyno?
Is that the standard for AWD?

saabman · Nov 24, 2015

What I currently have is a Dynocom 15000 2WD (above ground in my old garage). The new bay will hold a Dynocom 15000 AWD (mine will have PAU-750 Eddy brake on both rolls). I say will because the second roll and AWD platform are shipping next week.

http://www.dynocom.net/catalog/detail.asp?iPro=93

sleepy127 · Nov 24, 2015

Is the distance between rollers adjustable for different wheelbases?

matt_i · Nov 24, 2015

Very neat. How do you manage the heat rejection from the car (more or less is it just a large fan in front of the radiator?) Also curious about electrical requirements...single phase, 3 phase, and amperage/kw?

saabman · Nov 24, 2015

Yes, the platform features interlocking fingers. A pneumatic ram moves the "secondary" roller in and out. The secondary roller rides on linear bearings. Part of my thinking has to go in to what wheelbase range I want to support. Porsches are about the smallest AWD at 92/93 inches. Diesel quad cabs are the other extreme.

HemiRamOn22s · Nov 24, 2015

That's awesome! Wish I had enough reason to put a dyno in my shop!

Add on Garage Bay (pic heavy)

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