Driven Daily garage

[drummingpariah]

After a successful 2015 hillclimb race season, it's time to start building my 2016 car. That means re-organizing my workshop a bit, and planning out what I'm going to do over the next few months.

Let's start with a little background. This is a small single-bay rental garage. My landlord is pretty fantastic, and doesn't have any issues with me working on various projects in it.

When I moved in, it was just a garage bay. Nothing special in the scheme of things, but having a workshop was one of the biggest reasons I moved in.

I spent some time building out some work surfaces, and gradually built up a general-use toolset (rather than the portable-only toolset I had previously maintained).

I added some extra storage, and my landlord asked if I'd like some more shop space.

In a weekend, it went from a storage space of forgotten things to my engine building room.

I spent the weekend cleaning up the main work bay:

I also dug in to the engine room. The 'workbench' was really just a piece of dusty particle board with a bunch of screws in it, so I destroyed it and started moving my old steel workbenches in. That was a lot more work than I had expected, so the space is an absolute disaster right now.

The second steel workbench will also go in there, freeing up even more space in the garage bay. Ideally, I want the garage bay to be for welding and car assembly/disassembly. To support that effort, the workbenches are coming out, and I'm planning out some metal stock storage:

I'd love some feedback on the mockup, and I'd love to see others' solutions for metal stock storage.

Once I finish that up, I'll build a cart for the welders, and add some shelves in the closet and on the walls, so I can actually WORK in this space. I'll also need to finally get a bottle for the MIG welder, since TIG isn't always appropriate and flux-core is just too messy.

Preparing to start work is a lot of work.

 

[drummingpariah]

I suppose an update is in order here. I spent most of my day cleaning the shop after using it as a drop-junk-here space throughout the winter. The goal is to move the CRX out and drive the new project in next week to prep for next weekend's race.

A few things have changed since the last update.

The small side room is pretty much packed to the gills right now, and I need to spend some time reorganizing out there. The South Bend 9a lathe and little Grizzly milling machine are recent additions, and haven't seen a lot of use yet.

Another little project I worked on today was a vertical-compatible plate for my little MSW horizontal bandsaw (as far as I can tell, it's the same as the HF 4x6). For having just used the bandsaw, then drilling some holes with the milling machine, I think it came out reasonably well.

That took a bit of brain-ing to build that so it didn't interfere with the horizontal bandsaw operation as well. No clearance issues with it so far.

Finally, I'm working on fixing my Harbor Freight tubing notcher. The first one I ordered lost the threads on the driveshaft guide block. The second has around 20 degrees of play, as the brass bushings don't perform as well as bearings. I think I can just make a new shaft guide with bearings instead of bushings, and should be OK.

I fired up Fusion 360 (this is my first project in it, using the 30-day trial) and am pretty happy with the results I got out of it. It took a long time for me to get it all right, and get it to output a usable to-scale drawing, but this should make machining a lot easier for me.

Right now, I only have a block of 6061 aluminum that'll work as a replacement block. These needle bearings will tear it up pretty quickly ... but it'll work as a proof-of-concept for now. After that, I'll make something similar out of 1045 steel. Maybe I'll get fancy and try cutting a dovetail so the block can move without ruining alignment on it.

I'd love to get some recommendations on making the little shop a bit more useful. Next month, I'm planning to pick up the little Eastwood 200 AC/DC TIG welder. I sold off all my welders this year, knowing that I'd want to get into aluminum sometime in the near future. It seems like a great deal, even if it doesn't have the same quality control as my old blue box. For a home user, I think it sounds ideal.

 

[Richard Cranium]

thanks for sharing

 

[drummingpariah]

This weekend, a friend was clearing out their garage while moving, and had to give away the last few things that they hadn't sold off. I wrapped up a few final projects on my box truck and made a trip down there. I came back with a bunch of tools, and (at least as exciting) storage!

I finally have a toolbox that can live in the race support box truck out of the deal too (this was the main selling point for me to head down).

After unloading it, everything was a disaster. I unloaded the truck and pretty much dumped everything wherever it could fit. I went out for dinner, then came back to tackle the first stage of cleanup.

After cleanup, it's still an unusable shop ... but all the filing cabinets are empty. Once I label them and organize stuff into them, I should end up with most of the bay back in floor space!

 

[drummingpariah]

After realizing that my old layout was near-useless, I decided to shuffle things around a bit. That turned out to be a ton of work, and now I want to level the lathe, and add some rubber feet in the machining/engine room.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Love your shop! Sounds a lot like mine.

 

[drummingpariah]

I just took a look at your thread, and it looks like you have ACRES more floorspace than I do. I'd have to take some measurements, but I have a slightly undersized single bay, then this 10'x8' machine room. I haven't decided how I'm going to handle heat this winter, but I imagine it's going to be a bit of a pain.

 

[drummingpariah]

Over the winter, my shop was mostly a motorbike storage facility, but I'm getting ready to re-organize it now. I definitely don't use the filing cabinets or pegboard effectively, and the more racing I do the more I value organized&labeled totes over any other storage method. To replace my current take-what-I-can-get storage solution, I've ordered a pair of 72x65x18 shelving units

They're a bit of a compromise because I don't really have space for 24" depth, but I can assemble two on either side of my main wall with one of the shelves between the two, to form a work surface. Something like this:

I cleared off the workbench closest to the door, moved it to the 'cut down for scrap' pile, and took some measurements. It looks like my little HF compressor and 44" HF toolbox will fit under the right-most shelves (but they may end up being moved to the left-most side for ease of access). The shelves themselves should arrive tomorrow, and hopefully I'll have time to start assembling them after work. For now, here's where things stand:

 

[drummingpariah]

Today was a good day. The left-most upright was pretty banged up in shipping, and I spent a little time on the phone with Home Depot support. It was surprisingly pleasant; I got to a human reasonably quickly, it was the right human the first time, and she had sufficient privileges to just solve the problem. They refunded half of one of the units, and that justified me spending a little time with a mallet straightening it back out.

I still have plenty of organization to do, but this looks like it's going to work out great!

 

[48RON54]

whats the black stuff all over the inside of the box truck?

 

[drummingpariah]

whats the black stuff all over the inside of the box truck?

Roofing tar. We're just getting into that build on the YouTube channel next week, and we'll break it down in a bit more detail there.

 

[drummingpariah]

Update: The video introducing the box truck is live here:

If you'd like to see more, post some questions in the comments on YouTube, and maybe even subscribe to the channel. We love seeing new comments on there!

 

[1/2 Cup]

drummingpariah top stuff thank you for sharing.

 

[drummingpariah]

I'm so pleased with how this weekend went. This is the cleanest and most well-outfitted my home shop has ever been. Nothing is awkwardly stored on the floor, all my machining stock is in a sensible place, and I don't need to move anything to get to important tools. There's always room for improvement, but I'm very content with the current configuration.

I have completely fallen in love with these shelves. For the money, they're unbeatable, and they're the perfect size for my little single-bay shop. I also love that they can be broken down relatively easily and moves to a larger shop when I finally find a suitable one.

Another nice bonus was that I finally went through an old toolbox of miscellaneous metal things (mostly bolts, some rusty razor blades, and a surprising number of fish hooks) and came out of that with the motherload of center drills.

In case you don't know what center drills are, they're like a centerpunch for machinists. The taper is ideal for work-holding on the lathe, or for starting a precision hole. I've been using the same Shars 4pack for almost two years now, and can't believe I hadn't bought a few more in that time. Either by breaking them or just for the sake of having more size variety, these are incredibly useful tools for anyone who ever does precision or sorta-precision machining. This lot is worth a fair amount of money, but it's worth quite a bit more to me in particular. I'll give them a very light cleanup with some scotchbrite and bathe them in some corrosion protection oil for the rest of their lives.

A question for you
I'm considering talking to my landlord, removing the back closet structure, and adding a couple more of these shelving units to the back wall. It'll free up a little more room while making MUCH better use of the vertical space, but that closet area seems like it could be useful. Do you have any ideas that might make keeping the closet a better idea?

 

[metalhead140]

Neat space! You mentioned hillclimb racing... Any details?

 

[drummingpariah]

Neat space! You mentioned hillclimb racing... Any details?

You'll really have to twist my arm to hear more about hillclimb racing from me

Hillclimbs are a little different in every Country, and sometimes vastly different in two regions in the same Country. Based on what my Aussie/Kiwi friends have told me, our area is very similar to the South Island of New Zealand, and the hillclimb events are nearly identical. Essentially, it's a tarmac rally race with fewer class regulations. We can build and race practically anything, as long as it passes safety tech. As such, we end up with a lot of different types of cars, from Modified Circle Track cars (v8 powered tube frame beasts) to rally-spec Subarus to motorbike-powered dirt-track cars converted into asphalt eaters.

All of our New England Hillclimb Association events are in State Parks in Vermont, and it's always breathtaking. You get to race up those (paved, but very rough) access roads, hanging out in the campground or at the summit of the mountain between runs. The season starts in May, and we'll be documenting the entire season on our YouTube series (which also has a bunch of past season footage, and prep work leading up to this season).

 

[burger]

A question for you
I'm considering talking to my landlord, removing the back closet structure, and adding a couple more of these shelving units to the back wall. It'll free up a little more room while making MUCH better use of the vertical space, but that closet area seems like it could be useful. Do you have any ideas that might make keeping the closet a better idea?

Neat space! Have you thought about moving your compressor into the closet? Would cut down on noise.

 

[drummingpariah]

Good question, and I did consider that. I've already moved the compressor into my engine machining room (attached to the garage), but still need to finish plumbing it. My thinking was that I won't really be running the compressor while I'm machining, and won't really hear the compressor when I'm working in the bay. It seems like a win-win, I just need to pick up the plumbing supplies. We used the Rapidair kit at the Makerspace, and I'm really happy with that kit overall, so I think I'll use that (https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/945429-rapidair-1-2-master-airline-kit.html)

 

[metalhead140]

You'll really have to twist my arm to hear more about hillclimb racing from me

Hillclimbs are a little different in every Country, and sometimes vastly different in two regions in the same Country. Based on what my Aussie/Kiwi friends have told me, our area is very similar to the South Island of New Zealand, and the hillclimb events are nearly identical. Essentially, it's a tarmac rally race with fewer class regulations. We can build and race practically anything, as long as it passes safety tech. As such, we end up with a lot of different types of cars, from Modified Circle Track cars (v8 powered tube frame beasts) to rally-spec Subarus to motorbike-powered dirt-track cars converted into asphalt eaters.

All of our New England Hillclimb Association events are in State Parks in Vermont, and it's always breathtaking. You get to race up those (paved, but very rough) access roads, hanging out in the campground or at the summit of the mountain between runs. The season starts in May, and we'll be documenting the entire season on our YouTube series (which also has a bunch of past season footage, and prep work leading up to this season).

Neat! Our hillclimb racing is similar but with some more restrictions on classes. Having said that, I run my Corvette in a class in the NSW state hillclimb championship called "Road registered non log booked 2wd over 2500cc" - and that is pretty much the sum total of the rules! So it's a fun and diverse class to run in. Other classes run a wide range of vehicles right up to open wheelers with huge aero, power, and slicks. Any pictures/details of your race car/s? I have some YouTube videos in my thread too.

 

[drummingpariah]

We definitely have classes as well, but as long as you bring a safe-to-race vehicle (go karts don't have any crumple zones, so they're not considered sufficiently safe, for example) you're good to race in your class. Our most important rule is that if you drive faster than the 'breakout time' for that hill twice in a weekend, you need to bump up to our "PREPARED" level of safety (cage, fire suit, hans device, killswitch, etc). We've had Corvettes race, but they're ill suited to our road conditions out here. Even after a coilover conversion, they don't have enough time to 'settle' after going over any of our bumpy sections. Here's an example at Mt Ascutney last year, just after I crossed the bridge into the rougher section of the hill:

As for cars, I definitely lean toward simple, easy-to-maintain cars. My first two seasons were in a 1.6liter Miata. 2017 was a 1.8liter Miata. Both received the same treatment: Safety equipment (cage) and suspension.

In late 2018 or 2019 I should wrap up my "Datsun 280z" build, which is a whole other animal. It's a tube framed, turbo rotary-powered, 350z/240sx-suspensioned thing that should be the only street-legal car in its class. I think I'm finally ready for a bit more power, and that should fit the bill pretty nicely. It's safe to say that it's a far cry from a stock-powered Miata.

 

[Boosted1]

That's got to be the widest fender I've seen on a 280Z.
What is your timeline to finish it?

 

[drummingpariah]

Our goal is mid/late 2018 race season (July-Oct) for a shakedown. There are enough variables that we can't quite calculate that my confidence in being hillclimb-safe right out of the gate is low. I definitely expect some teething issues, and (at best) hope to race at a hillclimb for real in 2019.

For now though, I couldn't ask for a better learning platform than the Modest Miata.

 

[drummingpariah]

You folks will appreciate this. I have too many projects going on for a single-bay to work. I really needed more space to 'clean up' my non-running projects, wrap them up, and get back to business.

Having a dedicated 3500sq/ft with 3phase and 208v 2phase readily available is fantastic. I've added some extra lights, two overhead 110v reels, and a separating wall between the 'metal dust' half and the 'clean' half, but haven't plumbed shop air or any 'fun stuff' yet.

I've been considering doing a shop tour video (there are some cool things going on in there) but I'm only going to have time for that if I skip making videos on other stuff. Everything's a compromise. If you'd really like to see a tour video, I have an open poll on Facebook that'll decide what series I make next. If you want to cast a vote, here's the link:
https://www.facebook.com/drivendaily.official/posts/1062937407241997

 

[Boosted1]

Any 280Z update?

 

[drummingpariah]

Soon™.

Haha, seriously though, I need to make sure the failsafe car is ready to race and there are a few other projects that need to stop taking up brain space. The Datsun is a big enough project that I need to focus 100% of my energy on it to do it justice, but I'm as excited to get back to it as anyone is.

So ... Soon.