40' x 32' Country Barn Conversion (Powder Coating, motorcycles, random projects)

[Maverickv46]

Hello all, creating this to document the process of building up my first true shop space. Purchased a new home 3 months ago with my wife and 1 year old son, and we have been making it our own ever since. Previously, this space was used as general tractor and small country barn storage as well as housing horses in the enclosed lean too.

A bit of background on myself, I am a 25 year old who graduated with a BS in mechanical engineering in 2015. Have been with my current company all through school for 5 years of internships and have worked full time as a Supplier Quality Engineer ever since graduation. What you will see in the shop are my various motorcycles including my daily commuter street bike (2007 Fz6), my MX Race bike (2009 KTM 250 SX-F), and various project bikes (2004 YZ 85 for the wife, and 1980 GS550 Cafe/Tracker build currently).

Another large focus of the thread (perhaps a separate one like CudaChick) will be on my home based powder coating. I started coating in 2013 when I was building a stunt motorcycle and didnt want to pay the outrageous costs that the only local coater would accept. This is something that I could see myself eventually branching off into full time, however the security of a salaried position is nice right now with the young child.

Enough talking, here are some pictures from the day that we took possession of the home.

Wife and her father.

Looking right @ main doors

Looking left @ main doors

Looking towards main doors from back right corner

As you can see, I started with a decent space. Typical country pole barn, no insulation, not a "tight" building. There are many plans for the space, but time is definitely the limiting factor while getting the house where we want it, and spending time with the wife and kid.

Here are some pictures after move in. (The shop was used as a temporary dumping ground through the process)

I will go into more detail about anything that you guys have questions about, as well as provide updates when I am able to accomplish things. Be forewarned, I wish the updates came quicker as well

 

[Maverickv46]

Apologies for the double post, but here are some of the pictures of my powder coat jobs from before and during the move. First order of business with the newly available space will be a better place to take photos.

Candy Red Honda Trail frame

Bit of sprucing up of my personal Fz6 at the beginning of spring

Terrible background, but loved the Candy Blue on these GSXR wheels

Brothers wheels for his newly lifted 08 1500. Dont mind the bubbles near the bottom, they were beat up wheels and he just wanted a durable coating. The areas where the base metal was solid came out fantastic.

Candy Red '15 CRF450R hubs before final clean up.

Pretty cool color shift powder for a custom headphone builder.

Auto Charcoal Metallic with clear, love shooting this powder.

Refurbishing a beat up freebie table with Signal Blue

Merc wheels with Wheel Silver and clear

I will keep posting shop updates and powder updates in this thread for now. If the consensus is to separate them, then we can do that in the future!

 

[bdbecker]

Nice space.

I've got a friend that got into powder coating for the exact same reason. Its gotten to the point now that his "side job" is nearly a second full time job.

 

[jbmatth]

Maverick,
First of all welcome to the board and congrats on getting a shop. I too am a ME, and just as you I am very tired of the price of powder coating, and have started to acquire and build equipment to coat my own stuff. Feel free to keep them together as far as I'm concerned it just helps to keep everything in one place, and makes things more interesting.

As I'm sure you've read on here before get plenty of light and insulation, you will never regret having a comfortable and well lit place to work. Looking forward to more,
JB

 

[oldironfarmer]

Welcome to GJ!

Nice place and the powder coating looks great!

I too am a ME, and a PE, but I'm on the other end of life, just retired with 45 years experience.

It was time to retire, nobody wanted me to design wood stave pipe or leather belt transmission systems.

 

[bdbecker]

Funny... a thread full of engi-nerds... I'm an IE.

 

[jbmatth]

I prefer the term ninjaneer, but that is great every post on here thus far is from one.
JB

 

[rpenterics]

ME here as well, greetings from the other side of the mitten, nice looking barn

 

[duc916]

How does the powder coating hold up on the Fz6 exhaust?

 

[CudaChick1968]

Nice shop and sweet work!! Welcome aboard, and thanks too for the mention up there. (I don't have a separate Powder **** thread on here -- just an album -- but I like the way you think. ) Got a couple old GSX-Rs here too, and some leftovers so hit me up.

Keep us posted on your progress!

 

[Maverickv46]

First of a few new powder projects to come out the door. Stay tuned over the next few days for a few more items.

Neon yellow with everclear. Old anchor, so its the surface finish of the base metal that is a bit pitted.

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[madoc1]

nice work on the anchor. i have the same one, but it sure doesn't look like that! how large is your oven?

jim

 

[Bronson]

Very nice work!
Nice space too!
Subscribed!

 

[shortykorte]

Great barn turn shop.

Nice work on the coating. I too was wonder what you are using for an oven.

Looks like you could use a couple of powder coated mx bike stands.

 

[Maverickv46]

Haha, I actually did coat my MX stands, they just werent unloaded yet that day.

My oven is visible in a couple of the pictures, the silver box with the "ST Moto" decal on it. I built the oven myself about 3.5 years ago, and internally it is approx 50" x 36" x 30" and is heated with 2 3500W oven elements. It isnt as pretty as some of the oven builds that you can read about, but that is due to me using Al flashing as the wall skin rather than sheet steel. What it lacks in looks, it makes up in performance, heating to operating temp in a fraction of the time due to the lower thermal load.

Started outgrowing this oven about a year ago though, and am designing the next one which will should land somewhere in the 6' x 4' x 4' range. Will definitely be documenting that build.

Will be coating a few items tonight for a vendor show tomorrow. Also have to get the vinyl decal inventory ready as that is the main part of our booth.

 

[Maverickv46]

Powder coated a battery cage for a co-workers electric Ford Ranger last night. Coating is thick and will hold up, but looking at a coating over pitted steel always throws me off.


Also finished assembly of the barn door baby gate for the 14mo old, or more so for Mommy Will get sanded and a coat of stain tonight.

 

[Maverickv46]

Well this followed me home today...another truck load is still in a friends truck. 132 sheets of 1 3/16 foam between the purlins and tacked to the bottom of the trusses should keep the chill off over the winter.

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[Maverickv46]

Getting some progress made on insulation with temps starting to drop here in MI. Not as fast as I would prefer, but its happening.

Cleaning all the cobwebs up high, much easier than trying to lift the shop vac.

Where I stopped last night. Plan is to get a corner done, move stuff into the corner and call over reinforcements to knock out most if not all of it in a day or two. Biggest item of concern right now is nailing the foam to the bottom of the trusses, combined with the eventual tin or drywall covering. Have to figure out the lighting details as it will be between 1 3/16" and 2" stack that boxes need to be offset for.


Also have a few boat parts and motorcycle gas tank that will be coated, so stay tuned for those pictures most likely next weekend.

 

[Maverickv46]

Lots of progress was made this weekend thanks to an Uncle and Grandparents providing and driving scaffolding down when they came to visit. MIL and FIL came to stay for a couple of days and FIL and I were able to get a good start on this project.

Wife helping out with some of the clean up.

These next three are the steps to sealing up the bottom edge of the wall steel. The correct flashing was used under the corregations to prevent critters, however nails were used to fasten the sheets and the spacing of the nails was pretty weak to keeping a tight building. Daylight was seen in most of the ribs. Installed screws on every flat around the perimeter of the building and used spray foam with insecticide to fill in the gaps before putting the EPS panel on the bottom section.

Decided to get rid of the birds and bats that make their way into the building for good by installing these chicken wire sections between the trusses for the soffit openings. On the side of the building that is not bordering the lean to there was a standard soffit setup, however the lean to side was just open to the interior of the lean to giving easy access to these animals. Of course, none of these openings were the same so in between each truss was a chicken wire barrier that had to be custom fit to that opening. Also, since I am not studding all of the walls at this time, we cut a piece of EPS to go between the header boards as well as stuffed some R-19 craft face to help insulate what we anticipate to be the greatest heat loss area for this winter.

And finally, the most visual indicator of progress was the panels and spray foam on the walls. Scaffolding made this job so much more pleasant and the following are some in progress pictures, the last of which being where it sits now.

 

[Deezler]

Nice, thanks for sharing. This is basically how I plan to insulate my barn also, so I'm watching closely.

 

[Maverickv46]

These are the progress pics from last weekend, been pretty busy this week so that is the delay.

Finished off the walls this weekend, so all that is left for this insulation phase is the ceiling insulation and lighting. This first picture is the old sliding barn door location that was relocated to the side of the lean to when it was added by previous owners. They nailed 2x6 studs and OSB instead of installing sheet metal. Also, one continuous 15A circuit was ran around the perimeter of the shop with a receptacle on each post. In order to route the wiring in this section, they went up the post to the right of the door, weaved in and out of the truss and header board to the corner of the building, and then sloppily down the post. We re-routed this wiring to go through the studs, poles, and added an additional receptacle.

Insulating this section was also interesting as the 2x6s were twisted, making the opening a smaller dimension than the final resting place of the foam. This made for a lot of squeezing and punching to finish the job.

Next decision point is how to insulate the ceiling and route the wiring for lighting.

Sorry if any photos appear blurry, I had to use a flashlight as a "flash" since my phone was at 5% and I also cracked the camera lens glass, so thats another project for another day. Never broken any glass on any phone until this shop!

Also got a chance to coat some ski boat parts, and a motorcycle gas tank. Here are pictures of the tank, with the ski boat pictures to come later.

Again, broken camera glass. Plan is to set up a section when I can actually move stuff into the shop that is a designated photo area. Both for the powder coating, as well as the wifes side of the op with vinyl decals and wood signs.

 

[Maverickv46]

Had another solid day of work yesterday in the shop. Visually, I would have liked to accomplish more of the ceiling work, but between a trip to Menards and having to move all of the big items within the shop twice, I think we did a decent job.

Went ahead and bought the soffit baffles to keep the eventual blown in or batt insulation from blocking the soffit. Easy to install now, not very fun after ceiling foam. Also took some of the leftover R19 batt and insulated the rest of the soffit area while it was exposed. Between the chicken wire screen, the R19 and the EPS boards, this header should do the best possible job of eliminating the cold spot above the wall.

Hanging the first sheet! After much back and forth, the decision was finally made to nail the EPS to the bottom of the trusses. This allows the cleanest edges, tightest install, provides a thermal block to the trusses, and allows for the use of mostly whole sheets.

The only tedious piece of nailing the foam to the bottom was the unusual stack that results for electrical boxes with the foam thickness, and the eventual OSB or drywall. Went ahead and mounted these boxes a bit un-conventionally, but I am only doing one box for each of the three lighting rows so it wasnt too much work.

And finally, where we stopped. The first row of lighting is all wired and functional on a new circuit. Apologies for the angle, the wife used my phone for hotspot and I had her snap a quick picture on hers when she walked out once to check progress.

Using the Costco Feit LED lights and wow, having just four of them wired is more light than all of those incandescent that were there before. Only had funding to get the first 4 of 12 lights for now, hoping I can swing the rest of them before our next build day so I dont have to put up the old, mismatched fluorescent.

 

[jbmatth]

Good progress on the shop, hopefully all of this insulation work will pay huge dividends this winter for you.
JB

 

[Robey5]

Nice place. Greetings from an auto-engineer on the other side of the state.

Powder Coating: I love the rationale for why you decided to set up your own rig. I had a real issue paying one of the locals here to PC parts for the air-cooled 911 a couple years back and nearly took the same steps. Just didn't have the room at the time, but that may change in the near future.

Doing PC on wheels. May I suggest that when you PC aluminum wheels that you make sure that you mask the lug-nut-seat area so that there is not any material that may compromise the clamping force of the lug-nuts...

I am jelly about your space!

 

[Maverickv46]

Thanks guys, hoping to finish up the insulation this weekend so I can move on to the more fun stuff like setting up workstations and getting projects moving.

Nice place. Greetings from an auto-engineer on the other side of the state.

Powder Coating: I love the rationale for why you decided to set up your own rig. I had a real issue paying one of the locals here to PC parts for the air-cooled 911 a couple years back and nearly took the same steps. Just didn't have the room at the time, but that may change in the near future.

Doing PC on wheels. May I suggest that when you PC aluminum wheels that you make sure that you mask the lug-nut-seat area so that there is not any material that may compromise the clamping force of the lug-nuts...

I am jelly about your space!

You know, that is one of the most debated pieces about coating, along with the mating surface on the backside and the "damage" from the heating cycle. I inform all of my customers about their options for masking and how they would prefer it done and let them make the decision. I will say that it is very difficult to mask the lug nut surface and many factory wheels are coated in that area so most people do not want it.

Many times I hang the wheel on a 6" duct work endcap which sits on the mounting face so that one is automatically masked.

Thanks for the kind words and hit me up if you want to talk about getting your operation setup!

 

[Maverickv46]

Apologies for the lack of updates lately. I **** at documenting projects with pictures, and am working to get better with that!

Here is the new spray booth for applying the powder coat nearly operational.

This baby is mounted to the ceiling of the rear of the booth. I am taking the picture while sticking my arm into the filter holes that you can see in the other pictures. While this fan is not the perfect one for the application, it is pulling plenty of air and performing well.

First quick burst of powder sprayed and it all got sucked right to the filters, nothing even hit the ground. Now to apply the prefilter...

This was a shot from one night of coating parts. Using felt right now as a prefilter temporarily and it is working well. Might use felt for a while until I find an affordable source for prefilter rolls. Best part about powder coating is that all of the color shown there is easily vacuumed up to clean the booth.

And finally, a couple of the latest results:

Restored vintage espresso machine base in Sea Foam green. Got a great finish on this part.

Some 3 piece wheel hardware in Lollypop Red

And a bicycle frame, forks and chain guard in Skyline Blue with a Casper Clear. Absolutely love the look of the clear coat and it removed any trace of the typical powder coat orange peel left from the base coat.



Will be ordering some LED strip lights to give the booth its lighting as well as finishing the workbenches and motorcycle corner over the next 2 weeks!

 

[jbmatth]

Great results on the powder coating, you do amazing work. One day I will get a powder coat setup and will ask lots and lots of questions.
JB

 

[Maverickv46]

No pictures of the shop progress today, but I did push out a few more orders!

F150 Aluminum wheels - Blackjack

Frame from a 70s CL175? Scrambler. Did a lot of the other brackets and smaller pieces for the bike as well but didnt have a picture of those. Ink Black was the color for this one.

More Ink Black for these 90s Ducati parts.

1970 Monte Carlo Headlight bezels in Soft Silver.


Lighting for the spray booth has been ordered so I am excited to get that in and installed. Will be getting some more progress and pictures of the shop this week, as well as potentially being ready to move some of the two wheeled projects into the shop!

CAD models of the new oven and loft build coming soon as well!

 

[Maverickv46]

Small Update today.

Picture from a few weeks ago as benches were being constructed, painted, and poly applied. Friends asked me if I was planning to open a sweatshop.

Working on the motorcycle corner set up, as well as finishing the area in front of the powder spray booth.

Utilized the old wall sections from the old powder spray booth to construct the small wall in front of the booth, so that is why the studs are horizontal. The wall does not need to hold any weight, just putting up a wall covering to help separate the spaces and contain any powder which may leave the booth (not a bit so far). Putting them horizontal gives me the option to just grab a few sheets of steel and be done with it.


Also picked up a HF 5 drawer tool cart, so I will be posting up the modifications to that in this thread and the long running one on this board. Not 100%, but we might be doing a color change with some powder coat.

 

[dirt_dobber]

looks great. Love your planning and execution / attention to detail.

 

[larcie]

WOW, nice job with the workshop.
Love the colours achievable on some of those jobs...

 

[bdodson89]

Did you use any plans for your workbenches or just freehand it? Looks good.

 

[Maverickv46]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

For the benches, I wanted them to be 8' x 2' so that I could just rip a sheet of plywood in half for the tops. Decided on a height I wanted and cut the legs. For the rest of the pieces, I found that I could make stacks of 5 different sized pieces and assemble the benches like legos from there. I relied on making accurate cuts and every piece within the stack to be the same dimensions in order to assemble every bench without a tape measure or double checking anything. Worked very well and was even able to add some 2 x 12s / deck boards under the top sheet of plywood for some extra mass to the top of the bench. In the lean too, the 2 horse stalls were walled with 2 x 12s anywhere from 4' to 15' long and about 7 rows high. Have to come up for a use for it all now.

 

[billspit]

Maverickv46

I thought alloy wheels couldn't be powder coated because the heat to cure the powder could damage the wheels. Apparently not??

 

[Maverickv46]

Yea, that is one of the biggest myths about powder coating that there is out there. The total time that the wheels are at temperature of powder coating (~400F) is about 40min (outgass which is a bit hotter than 400F, and cure cycle). Seems like everyone has a story about why coating could be bad, but there is never any evidence provided.

Final Aluminum T6 Temper is achieved with a 350F treatment for 5-8hrs, and T7 is 435F for 6-9hrs. (REAALLLY rough numbers here, dont quote me). The strength difference between T6 and T7 is 185MPa and 165 MPa respectively for yield, and 262MPa and 220MPa respectively for Ultimate.

Long story short, the heat cycle for powder coat doesnt make a large difference when compared to the length of time for T6 strength, but for arguments sake, even if it did shift strength the cycle is nowhere close to the T7 cycle which is plenty strong for 95% of drivers out there. I try to let people know what discussion they can find out there on the internet and let them make their own decision if they want to move forward with coating or not.

 

[peterhall]

What powdercoat gun are you using?

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[Maverickv46]

Using a Nitro Faze cup gun currently. Pretty happy with it, aside from the fact that I am constantly plugging leaks around the mounting area of the cup to the gun. Also have designed a few nozzles that I want to get 3D printed and trial their effects during coating.

 

[peterhall]

I'll check that gun out. I've been using the eastwood gun but it seems to struggle with multi coats so I'm looking to upgrade.

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[Maverickv46]

By far the biggest improvement that you can make to your set up is to drive a dedicated ground rod to ground your parts. I started with an EW gun, and with a real ground and potentially a bit of pre-heat to the parts you can turn out some nice coatings.