ConstructionBoss's NvrMade Chop Shop

[ConstructionBoss]

***FIXED 12/29/11*** Changed the resolution to 800x600 so pics are easier to load***

I had started a thread back in 2006 that was to detail the buildup on my 4 car garage in my new home in Texas.....fast forward five years and I never added anything other than the pictures of the garage while it was under construction. The garage on the other hand has undergone alot of changes. About three re-configurations later, I am starting down the path to take it to completion over the next year. I hope to document much of the new work here.

Unfortunately most of the pictures of the work up to this point were lost a few years back in a hard drive crash, but I was able to recover the pics of the garage before i closed on the house.

The builder textured and painted all the walls white, and painted the garage floor gray. I closed on the house in June of 2006 and started work on almost 1,000 SF of garage space. I had the garage pre-wired for outlets in the ceiling for drop accessories and florescent lighting, and the walls have about 8 20 amp dedicated circuits for power tools. There is also 20 Amp, 30 Amp, and 50 amp 220 Volt circuits for a heater, plasma cutter, and mig welder.

The main purpose of the garage has always been to work on my project truck that I started over 10 years ago. It is called Project NvrMade, a 1976 Ford "Excursion", essentially a four door bronco dually that Ford "never made." Others have done the same concept of combining a crew cab and a Bronco, but I believe the plans for mine are unique to the one I am building.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

A couple months ago I started the process of finishing up some items and starting the planning stage for taking the garage to the level of completion I have hoped for prior to getting back to work on the project truck.

Here are some photos I took then:

 

[ConstructionBoss]

My first project was to turn the false front sink base drawers into real drawers to get more storage under the future workbench.

I removed the false fronts and constructed drawers out of some basic drawer slides I had laying around. I have since come across some ball bearing slides from the replacement of the tool chest in the same section of cabinets, so I plan to replace the basic slides with ball bearing slides.

The drawers aren't constructed as well as I would normally like, but the cabinets in general weren't high dollar cabinets so I built the drawers to work with the quality of the cabinets. I'll probably sell the house within the next decade and I didn't want to waste a bunch of money in cabinet building when the next buyer will just look at the "Home Depot RTA" cabinetry and not give the value of what hand-made quality cabinetry should bring. The drawers work pretty well, and won't hold more that 10-15 pounds each as I plan to use them for things like drill accessory boxes and other misc items.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Fast forward to last week, and I started getting more serious about the remodel. With the holiday season in full swing, and the addition of my first child a year ago next week, my garage has seen an influx of "stuff."

Currently, my tandem bay (where I plan to do the bodywork for my project) is home to most of the stuff I moved out of our office in the house so we could build a playroom for our son. This has left me with a bunch of things I need to get rid of, store, or find a new working home for. My third car bay that is home to the still uncompleted work bench area as well as the large power tools and lawn equipment has been filled with Christmas storage boxes that I bring out every year from our storage unit. They live there for about a month then go back, so come next week, I should be able to gain some room there again. The rest of the bay is filled with more stuff from the office evacuation.

My plan is to work on redoing the workbench area, which will involve construction soffit storage similar to the style XcYZ has made so popular. This will allow me to put up some of the stuff in the tandem bay that needs to be moved so I can get rid of the wire shelving so I have more room to do body work. I would like the tandem bay to be wide open from wall to wall (12'). Eventually I will add soffit storage above the existing wall of cabinets next to the two car bay, and above the small row of cabinets at the back of the tandem bay. I will be moving the wall cabinets from this small row over by the workbench area, removing the kegerator and small fridge, and installing wall to wall new Black & Decker cabinets from Lowes in this area with a new utility sink.

Last week, I picked up some bankers boxes and went through my large magazine collection. I sent a bunch of the magazines to the recycle bin, but I kept all of my automotive and construction magazines. I organized them in the bankers boxes, and will be moving them to my offsite storage unit. I want my son to be able to flip through them some day and see what things were like in the heyday of print magazines. It's amazing to see how much thinner some of the titles have gotten over the past few years as the economy has gotten worse. The price went up though, and because of that, these are the last of my subscriptions to most of these magazines. This should keep my influx of new magazines to a minimum and make my wife very happy!

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I took one of my vacation days last Friday and got to work on the workbench area.

I started off the day with a visit to Home Depot. I loaded up the wife's 4Runner and headed to the house:

I miss my dually!!!

I also picked up a couple goodies in the tool dept.

I plan to replace the existing tool cabinet with a better, but not best version from Home Depot. Again...I don't plan to stay here my whole life so I'm not going to drop the money on Lista cabinets!

I modified an old Craftsman roll around chest years back for this setup, and replaced the friction slides with some ball bearing ones I got from the hardware store. These slides will soon replace the basic ones on the drawers I built earlier.

I set the cabinet a little high so I could cut a grove in the plywood countertop underlayment I am putting down to hold the cabinet in place.

With the magazines out of the way, it was time to take down the shelves I built a few years ago to get the magazines out of the house. They were built out of 2x2 shelf brackets I picked up for about $2 a piece on clearance from Home Depot about 8 years ago and dragged around with me until a couple years ago when I finally found a use for them. It was a quick fix, and it was time to plan something more permanent.

Next it was time to remove the pegboard. It will get placed back lower filling the gap between the future countertop backsplash and the bottom of the soffit storage. The wall cabinet also had to come down. It stores all of the gear for my Milwaukee cordless tools. It will get relocated to the wall where the bookshelves were along with the rest of the wall cabinets being moved from the back of the tandem bay.

Next I built a base for the second tool cabinet. This will be part of the support for the leg of the countertop that will run along the side wall. I still have to work some more supports running up to the countertop, but I ran out of time to work on it Friday.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Yesterday I got some more time in out there to start working on the soffit storage.

I started by mounting 2x4's to the ceiling.

I then added a temporary stop to the wall and set some 16d sinkers to hold the bottom of the soffit that I had prebuilt on the ground. I set one of the vertical supports in place so I could use my nail gun to hold the bottom up.

I then set the rest of the verticals in place and screwed everything together:

I got started on the side wall soffit, but ran out of time before I had to put my son to bed:

 

[4StarCstms]

wow! impressive!

Im diggin the 70's Four Door Bronco too - course I have a soft spot for the 70's Fseries and 78-79 bronco's...well the lil bronco's too but...

 

[impala_631]

Looking good, lots of good space! Post some pics of the truck,I have a few slammed rides myself

 

[Domel]

a lot of good work ! nice ! subscribing !

 

[ishiboo]

Looking great!

I would throw a foam gasket or something between the Husky cabinets and the pressure-treated bases though... they'll last a lot longer.

 

[meissen]

Looks great so far!

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Looking great!

I would throw a foam gasket or something between the Husky cabinets and the pressure-treated bases though... they'll last a lot longer.

Thanks for the idea ishiboo. I'll have to do that before I install the final countertop next week.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Looking good, lots of good space! Post some pics of the truck,I have a few slammed rides myself

Impala- I don't have any right now. Everything I had was lost in the hard drive crash. Hopefully it will be back in the garage next month. There isn't a whole lot done right now. It still rides on a stock 1976 single cab longbed frame, so it sits at normal height. That frame will eventually go away to make room for a late model 1-ton chassis, probably from a GM. The body has the section from the crew cab and the section from the bronco cut apart and tacked together, but still needs to be adjusted and finish welded. That will be the main thing I work on for the next year or two. I have ALOT of body modifications to do, so I will concentrate on that for a while. The search for the chassis/engine is going to take a while. I've been looking for a few years and only come across one or two candidates, and they have been over 1,500 miles away so it's not feasible right now.

As soon as I start working on it, I will post somethign here and start a new thread in Free Parking.

Nice trucks you've got BTW. I had a 2002 crew cab dually (seen in the first pics) that I had always planned to drop, but when I got married and had our son on the way, I decided to downsize the fleet. Sold my dually, Escalade, and parted out my '89 s-10 single cab and picked up a new Fusion as a daily driver. I kept the four door bronco because that has been something I've been pursuing for over ten years, and I would like to see it through some day, hopefully in time for my son to enjoy it growing up.

 

[BPJOOP93]

looks good so far.
just so you know, the Milwaukee battery with the silver stripe on it is a recalled battery. you can call 1800sawdust and they will replace it for free. but do it quick the cut off pointis commin real soon.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

4Star, Impala, Domel, ishiboo, meissen, BPJOOP- Thanks for the praise!

Like others, I hope by keeping a thread here it will help me stay involved with finishing the garage.

I've been on here a long time, had a thread for my old shop in Arizona here started back in February of 2005. If the numbering sequence is right, it was the 616th post to the board. I think I was the 1717th member to the board, now I think the board is close to hitting 100K members!!!

I stopped hanging around here when I got into dirt car racing, started a sign shop, met my wife, then had a kid. I no longer race, closed my sign shop (it was a side gig, mainly tied to the race cars) and now I try to spend most of my time with my family/around the house. It's freed me up to get back on the board every now and then, and now hopefully it's freed me up enough to get back to posting more frequently!!!

I love what Ryan has done with the Garage Journal (I don't even remember what it used to be called!!!) It's amazing how much it has grown! If I wasn't afraid that I would never get anything done, I would be on HAMB as well!!! This, along with Street Source (Which I haven't been on in a while) are my two boards I have stuck with since close to both of their inceptions.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

looks good so far.
just so you know, the Milwaukee battery with the silver stripe on it is a recalled battery. you can call 1800sawdust and they will replace it for free. but do it quick the cut off pointis commin real soon.

BPJOOP93- Thanks for the heads up!!! I haven't used those batteries in over 5 years!!!( I have two, on is on the old NiCD charger that wasn't plugged in on the shelf) Once I got my second drill with the Li-ion packs, I started using those exclusively. I just kept the Ni-Cd's around in case I got in a bind. Do you know if they replace them with Ni-Cd's or Li-ion's?? I found the recall notice PDF on their site and will head home at lunch to get the numbers off the batteries.

 

[MattDoves]

Stuff's looking reallly good mate ... I'm getting jealous, lol !

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I was able to track down pictures of the trucks on other boards. Here are a few of the project trucks (don't chastise me about the one of the body in the air, looking back, that was STUPID and very unsafe!!!! I was trying to roll the chassis out from under it....I'm lucky no one was hurt!!!)

Taking the frame to clean it up.

Hacking off the back section. In hindsight, I did this totally wrong. I should have braced the inside of the cab, and made offset the cuts some for strength. I will have alot of work to correct this when i start again, but it will be done in a way that the new body is stronger that factory.

Tha two sections together. The body is just tacked together with some square tube supports on the inside to hold the body together. As mentioned before, I have to go in and totally redo the connection. This was a temp fix to get the truck halfway across the county when I moved. The roof looks like it doesn't match because it wasn't aligned right when I tacked it together. I plan to spend a lot of time getting the body lined back up right and reinforced like and Abrams tank!!! I want this truck to last when it is done!!!

Again...not the safest setup in the world!!! I was alot younger and dumber. I was working with what I had, which is not an excuse, but I am VERY lucky it didn't go over on me!!!

A shot of the truck in the old shop at night. I miss that house...but I had to get out of Arizona. I am in construction....have been since I was 11 (family business) and I saw the bust in the market coming. That is why I left and moved to Texas.

This was my 2002 Chevy Dually.

Picking it up at the dealer in '04.

Hard at work hauling stuff.

Everyone used to comment about how long the truck was, so I cam up with this for the plates. That was going to be the project name for the truck when I had plans to lower it and rebuild it after I retired it from daily service.

I loved that truck, but it was not a commuter car, which is what I need these days. I racked up an average of 40,000 miles a year for two years on that dually, then it sat for another two years only getting 1500 miles a year put on it while i drove my 2003 Escalade. When I started my "new" job (two years ago), the 15 minute commute to and from work, I didn't need the long range comfort of the Escalade (I use to drive 120 miles round trip to work each day). That's why I went with a new Fusion. I get great gas mileage, it has all the bells and whistles, and when I sell it, it will still be worth something. I'll probably pick up an older square body Chevy or another dentside Ford pickup some day to do Home Depot runs or to tow stuff....but in two years I have only had to borrow a pickup one time. My wife's 4Runner does the trick most of the time!

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I got a little bit of work in last night. Put up some more of the soffit framing.

Should get some more work in today. Off until after new years so I hope to put a dent in the garage along with my son's play room over the next week. I brought the magazine collection to storage this morning. Should allow me to open up a little bit of breathing room in the third bay!

 

[4StarCstms]

Its hard to get things done having to work around everything isn't it?? When I was working on the inner walls of my shop, had the same issue...a hour of moving everything to get to where i needed to work.. got old...fast!

Look forward to seeing your progress from this week

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Haven't gotten a whole lot done on the garage so far during the christmas break. I worked on finishing up my son's new play room. His 1st birthday is tomorrow and we are trying to get it done in time for his party next weekend.

The room used to be my office (the garage will now double as my office)

Since it's going to be a playroom, I wanted to rewire the TV so my son couldn't get to the electronics. I moved the sat. receiver to the closet that also houses the all-in-one printer for the house as well as some of the networking equipment. We will also put a dvd player in here too for the TV.

I relocated the electrical connections and low voltage connections to the top of the closet so my son couldn't get to them if he gets in the closet. I had to pick up a blank cover today to cover the hole left by the vacated low voltage connections.

My son got his first set of wheels for christmas.

It's the same model Jack Olsen made famous in his pleas to help get his son upgraded to a go-kart. We put my son in it once at Toys-R-Us a few months ago and he loved it. I took it home that day so he could have it for Christmas.

Since my son's birthday is two days after Christmas, we have a new tradition we started last year (he was a scheduled C-section for the first day AFTER Christmas the doctor could get us in) that involved packing up Christmas the night of the 25th. My wife hopes it will help my son feel like he isn't getting cheated by having a birthday so close to Christmas. For me, it means I get my garage back from the totes that come out from the storage unit the day after Christmas. I had everything back to the unit by 8 this morning.

During Christmas:

After Christmas:

I worked on straightening up a little in the third and tandem bays:

Third Bay Before:

Third Bay After:

Tandem Before:

Tandem After:

Tomorrow I hope to get the soffit finished and painted sans doors. Those will come later. I want to get the stuff up and in there ASAP, then I will work on the doors and trim later on.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I got some time in yesterday on the garage.

I finished up the framing on the soffit storage. I moved the vertical supports out to the corners which opened up the area quite a bit. I did double 2x4 horizontal supports across the bottom which made the shelf pretty beefy, so I was able to spread those verticals out to the 8' range.

I then added BC Sanded plywood to the bottom of the soffit and some CDX to the top.

Then ran some electrical for some florescent strip fixtures.

Then I cleaned off the countertop and for the first time got a good look at what the new layout will be like. I still have to mount the countertops to the plywood sub base, but it looks pretty good so far! I did decide last night that I need to move the last base cabinet out of the corner and place it against the side wall. Originally the countertop was going to go along the back wall, but I decided to do an L shape, and now that corner cabinet is inaccessable.

I then promptly covered it up so I could do some painting:

First the bottom of the soffit:

Then the rest of the storage area:

Hopefully I can get the strip lights in today and move some stuff up to the storage area. Then I can get started on putting the pegboard back up and hang the cabinets along the far wall.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Didn't get much done today. The mount for the TV in my son's playroom came in so I put that up after we got home from his one year checkup and shots. The room is now done.

I ran out to the garage and threw up the new fluorescent lights above the workbench. Nice amount of light now for working on stuff at the bench.

Hopefully I'll get to hang the wall cabinets tomorrow.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

***I Fixed all of the resolutions on the previous pictures to 800x600 so they are easier to load/view. You might want to clear your cache if you are still getting the big pictures.***

 

[4StarCstms]

Its coming along Nicely! Be a great place to work in

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I worked on getting the wall cabinets hung along the far wall today.

I added some 1x2 around the upper perimeter of where the cabinets are going to keep the doors down a little. This will allow them to swing freely without hitting and future trim on the front edge of the soffit.

I took the cabinets down from above the sink area and got them up on the countertop ready to go.

One thing I have always done when mounting cabinets is to put a 1x2 on the wall temporarily along the bottom edge of the cabinet. This helps to get them into position easier. I usually leave it a little low, then slide it up a little to the final installation point. I usually take the doors off to make it lighter, but since I had the soffit to **** up against, I left them on for this install.

The wall cabinets went up pretty quick. I stripped the decals off the old drill cabinet before I headed in for dinner. I still have to get some of the old adhesive off, but I might have some of my adhesive stripper left over from my sign shop days.

Here's a shot of how the area looked before I started the remodel:

And a shot after getting the cabinets up today:

Now I need to figure out what needs to get moved into the cabinets. That's my task for tonight!

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I haven't posted in a few months so I thought I would throw up some updates. I picked up a new 5x10 climate controlled storage unit in January and managed to consolidate my 12x25 unit and alot of the non-garage stuff that has been stored in the garage into the new unit.

Tandem bay before reorganizing into new storage unit:

Old 12x25 Storage:

New Storage Unit:

Tandem bay after moving non-garage stuff to storage unit:

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I then added some more upper storage to the back of the tandem bay. Eventually all of the upper storage will get sliding doors to cover it up. Right now I am concentrating on increasing the storage space. Eventually I will work on the finishing touches around the garage.

The new storage allowed me to turn this:

Into this:

Not a huge difference, but one step closer to making it look more organized towards the front of the garage.


I have a miter box that has been set up on a rolling cart that breaks down for easy storage for the past 6 years. Very convenient, but I wanted something that was more permanent so I didn't have to move out the cars just to set up the miter box. I put together an addition to the counter top work area that would accommodate material cutting. It allows for storage of my shop vac, smaller toolbox, and air compressor as well. I will be adding some doors to the front to hide that stuff and muffle some of the sound as well.

Miter box stand before:

New cutting station:

I also managed to get the TV put back up and one of the computer monitors mounted. I still have to organize the pegboard. Most of this was thrown up to clear off my grinding cart that was used as a storage cart when I removed all of this stuff off the old pegboard. I plan to move most of it into drawers in the lower tool chests. That can't happen until a new HF $159 with coupon rolling cart for my sockets, wrenches, and screwdrivers makes it's way into the shop and opens up some room in those tool chests.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Project NvrMade made it's way back to the shop in January as well. I agreed to put a cover over it for my wife's benefit since we park both our daily drivers in the garage and are in and out of the garage alot. She has yet to believe that it will ever get done. I can'tblame her, in the four years we have been together, it has moved to three different garages, and has not had one bit of work done to it. She made me a bet that nothing get's done to it before 2013. I now have motivation to get going on it. For about 8 years al I have done is move it from Arizona to Texas and worked on procuring some needed body parts to start the major body work. I have a few of those pieces now so I think I can finally get going on it, but I want the garage to be functional and easy to work in. Now that I am married and have a son, getting everything put back in it's place and getting the truck slid back in the tandem bay is a priority. That allows for the vehicles to be back in their spots on a regular basis.

 

[UN4GTBL]

Looking good!!

 

[VOODOO DIABLO]

Very nice! Question,where can I get one of those display cases like I see on your wall with the model cars?

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Very nice! Question,where can I get one of those display cases like I see on your wall with the model cars?

I got it at IKEA about 8 years ago. They have since discontinued them. I was disappointed when I found out. I wanted to get a couple more to keep my diecast construction equipment on display in my office at work. They do a great job at keeping the dust out. I have never had to clean them in the 6 years it's been in the shop!

 

[ConstructionBoss]

I did the rearranging tonight on the pegboard. I move all of the saws and misc stuff into the tool chests. I had a collection going of shop signs and the rendering for Project NvrMade that needed a home for them i decided to put them up on the pegboard and add a few tools for aesthetics. All the regularly used tools will be kept out of sight in the tool chests. I like the look. May not be everyone's cup 'o tea, but it will probably make my wife smile when I show her tomorrow!

 

[engear2005]

Very nice! I love the organization. Great lighting over the work bench.

 

[Thedoc14]

Now you just need to work on joining your frankenskeeter truck together.

Ohh yeah , you need time and a leave pass from swmbo before you steal anytime away in the mancave.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Looking good!!

Thanks!

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Very nice! I love the organization. Great lighting over the work bench.

Thanks. Lighting was something I tried to do alot of from the beginning in this house. My dad had a couple banks of flourescents in our garage when I was growing up and it always made working in their easier. When I bought my first house, that single incandescent left alot to be desired. Ever since, I have tried to space out enough daylight flourecents to work at any time of the day and feel like it is high noon. I still need to add a few in this garage. I am replacing the overhead garage door openers with Liftmaster 3800's so I can add a couple light banks where the openers are now. I may also add a row or two to fill in between the current banks. I also need to add some over the cutting station and over the welding area the will be right next to the cutting station.

 

[ConstructionBoss]

Now you just need to work on joining your frankenskeeter truck together.

Ohh yeah , you need time and a leave pass from swmbo before you steal anytime away in the mancave.

Yeah, I'm hoping to make some progress soon! I keep thinking that some day she will get tired of me and tell me to go out there and stay out there but it still hasn't happened. With our 18 month old it's non stop until 9 every night, then we try to get some time together a few nights a week just to relax, so it usually leaves me a night or two to get in an hour or two in the shop. She's got some travel coming up in July so maybe I'll make some progress then!

 

[ConstructionBoss]

After getting the pegboard over the workbench reorganized, I liked the theme and decided to carry it over to the pegboard along the side of the garage.

Here is the before:

After clearing off the pegboard:

The Finished Product:

 

[ConstructionBoss]

My wife and son headed to Lubbock this week to spend time with her extended relatives so I had a couple late nights of cutting, grinding, banging, and welding.

I have a surplus of steel left over from when I owned a sign shop about four years ago. After some planning, I came up with a design for a new welding table to put along the third bay of the garage. It will give me somewhere to work on metal projects.

My first step was to clear out the area for the new bench. Over the past year this space has been home to the lawn mowers, then the engine hoist, then spare lumber, and now it will have a more permanent tenant, a welding table.

After two nights of cutting, grinding, and throwing on some tack welds, the frame was together and flipped over to see how it looked.

After the third night, I had the expanded metal for the shelves cut and have move the frame in place for now. You can see how I designed it to store my three shelf Harbor Freight cart that I have had for about 13 years. It will get reoranized a little and be my welding and grinding shop cart to hold all my metal working hand tools and hand held grinders and accessories. I hope to add to my collection Jack Olsen style with a grinder for every type of wheel I use. After this project, I got sick of changing wheels every time I wanted to do a different task.

You can also see I picked up a receiver hitch tube from Harbor Freight the other day and welded it under the top rail over the shelving area. This will be for a bench grinder. When I'm not using it, i will be able to store it on one of the shelves out of the way. Another Jack Olsen idea.

I still need to have the top cut and pick it up, and I need to finish weld everything, but I am pleased how it turned out. I also like that I have finished out this wall of the garage as far as work benches go. My plan is coming together nicely. I have a large amount of workbench for working on various projects, I have an area to cut with the miter box and to use the drill press, and now I will have an are for doing metal work, or to bang things into submission without damaging the other countertop areas.

I also picked up a new toy from Harbor Freight this week. $159 with the coupon from the Harbor Freight Coupon thread here on the GJ board.

I plan to use it for working on the cars or anything else in the garage. I have a problem losing tools and for that reason have about three or four wrench and socket sets that are all missing 1/2" and 10 mm sizes. I know that at least one or two are buried in a toolbox somewhere, but have yet to be found. My plan is to keep this a single set toolbox so I know when somethign is missing at the end of the project, and I can try to find it before moving on. I plan to make 1/2 polyethylene foam draw liners with a red or blue background in the cutouts to easily identify missing tools.


I started off by filling it with these wrench and socket sets I picked up from Lowe's. They were marked half off because they were tweeking the product line a little bit and these were the prior model sets. Works for me. Guaranteed for life, if they break, I'll get the newer style. See,s like a win-win to me. I have a bunch of CMan wrenches and sockets, but the nearest sears is 25 minute away, and the Lowe's is about 5 minutes away. I'd rather be dealing with Lowes to replace them than Sears in this case. I'm usually at Lowe's for other things a couple times a month anyways. I haven't been in a Sears in probably two or three years.

Got a couple other goodies too while I was at Harbor Freight picking up the tool box. One was the receiver hitch tube mentioned earlier, the others were some magnetic tools and accessories for the new tool box.

After not welding for about 4 years, I realized my Miller Elite helmet auto-dimming sheid was not working. I replaced the coin cell batteries but no luck. I found out a replacement is $250. I ill get it replaced soon, but in the meantime I found a coupon for a Harbor Freight auto dimming one for $50. Added the $10 2 year replacement so now I have a replacement for the short term, a secondary one for garage help in the long term, and a backup should my Miller ever go out again in the future after I fix it. Of course, while I was at HF I also picked up some flapper grinder wheels, a magnetic Mig welder gun holder that I can stick to the top of the workbench and hold my welding gun while working on projects, and a fiberglass sectional wire running tool to help when I add a couple plugs for the new workbench configurations. (Sorry, forgot to take pictures of those goodies!)