Above 1200 Sq/FT Eastern Washington Workshop

[slodat]

The seller had one more ten drawer. It's a bit rougher, but I can make a nice cabinet out of it. Supposed to ship today. It's hard to believe how dense these are for storage.



I started grinding on the concrete patchwork. It is making an insane mess. Going to have to get some heavy plastic to make a containment before I continue. Patches look like they are going to work well. Just a ton of work.

 

[Finallygotit]

Been following along since you started.

Just have to say you have done some great work out there.

Keep it up!

 

[slodat]

Dan, Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. You guys all keep me going!

 

[Finallygotit]

I wish we lived closer, I would have you redo the interior of my little car. The stuff I put in there failed miserably.

 

[nonhog]

So this is what organization is like.

 

[slodat]

Dan - I'd love to do an interior in a car like yours. They look like a ton of fun to drive, too! I see a lot of DIY interior projects fail because of the adhesive they chose. The 3M Super 77 sold at Home Depot is not a HHR (high heat resistive) adhesive and fails in the heat. Interior work requires the correct adhesive, ideally sprayed.

nonhog- Thanks for checking out my shop!

I have an embarrassing amount of Schaller bins coming.. Ordered the 2" deep bins last week.. They come today.. Realized I'm almost out of the 3" and ordered them this morning. It is truly hard to believe how much you can fit in these cabinets!

Lots to do in the next couple of weeks. Working a lot at the day job and trying to get bay 1 painted and as much done on bay 5/6 floor as I can before the CNC router and laser arrive.

Soon, the shop projects will finally be done enough to support some customer work-- the real reason for all of this work!

 

[slodat]

Spent the evening moving into the cabinets. This stack is in about 4 drawers..




Lots of bins left, and plenty of space in the drawers.

 

[drivesitfar]

SD: ORGANIZING AT IT'S BEST!! when a smaller cabinet of organized stuff just won't do just find a bigger one. the quality of your cabinet finds is second to none too so keep up the great work putting your shop together.

also if you have time and would like to post up your metal cabinets on this thread of misc. vintage cabinets please do even if maybe all your cabinets are not quite vintage i think that would be ok to post them. also show how you organized the drawers cause that will help a lot of us GET ORGANIZED that are maybe also trying to be our own hardware store.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=305350

cheers

 

[slodat]

Drives- I posted in the thread. Thank you for pointing me that direction!

Gave the old stuff to a friend tonight. All of this in a few drawers and bins..

 

[nine4gmc]

Awesome organization! Is that a self healing mat in the last post, first pic?

 

[slodat]

Awesome organization! Is that a self healing mat in the last post, first pic?

Yes! That and the rotary Olfa changed the way I cut material and do layout! Worth every cent!!

 

[nine4gmc]

I've used the Olfa rotary before but I had a sacrificial masonite top on my table. I wouldn't mind picking up a nice full size healing mat. Shop looks great, when do you plan to get started with customers?

 

[slodat]

I've used the Olfa rotary before but I had a sacrificial masonite top on my table. I wouldn't mind picking up a nice full size healing mat. Shop looks great, when do you plan to get started with customers?

I got it on Amazon. Plan is May 1st! Lots to do between now and then!

 

[slodat]

Picked up the fourth Vidmar from the freight terminal yesterday. It is rougher than the other two I bought from this surplus seller.



I wiped down all of the drawers with Sprayaway glass cleaner and removed the slides last night. Tonight I cleaned the slide bearings with brake clean and lubed with Permatex assembly lube before putting it all back together. A couple drawers needed small tweaks to correct some bends from neglect or abuse. It all went together pretty well. One slide is missing a bearing and one drawer needs a spot weld on each side at the front. This is the drawer that's out of whack in the photo above. Should be an easy fix tomorrow.


I scrubbed the drawer handles with oven cleaner and reinstalled. I'm going to hold off on the cosmetic facelift for now. I'll need to sort out the slide with the missing bearing. Other than that I have a nice, functional, ugly but clean cabinet!



The row:

 

[slodat]

The most recent Vidmar had one drawer slide bearing missing. These bearings are swaged/riveted on. After some searching around I ordered bearing and bolt mentioned in this thread


Flattened a 1/4-20 T nut and trimmed it to length. And assembled onto drawer with red loctite. Then trimmed excess length off the threaded end.


Works great!!

Another drawer needed a couple of spot welds. It's all good now. Very happy with the cabinets. CNC router was supposed to hit the port today. Laser supposed to arrive Friday. I'm excited to say the least!

I've wanted a multi-channel thermometer setup for a while. I have wireless sensors in a few spots in the shop and outside with this new setup. Happy with it thus far..

 

[GarrettWeidman]

Metal fab room taking shape. I've had these Jessem Clear Cut guides waiting to be installed on the Unisaw for a while. Set them up and cut a good bit of French cleat stock.

If I missed this in the thread somewhere I am sorry. But what is the 2"x72" grinder in this picture here?

 

[slodat]

DSM Grinder made by a couple of good buddies of mine. I bought the first two they sold. Mine has a VFD.

 

[slodat]

Laser made it to the shipping terminal yesterday. I saved a ton of money picking it up there.


A coworker loaned me his forklift the day before after work.


It was about all it could do to get the 1400 lbs up the steep ramp. Once inside un-crating went well.


A couple minor shipping damage issues to sort out.

 

[Finallygotit]

Woo-hoo!

 

[Tunajoe]

Looking good!

 

[Toolfool]

Damn !!

 

[53PontiacSD]

Hi, if you'll soak those stickers on the cabinets with 3M adhesive remover, they and the glue should come right off. Nice shop.

 

[slodat]

Thanks for checking out my shop guys!

I have the 3M adhesive remover. Use it often. Just haven't got to the cosmetics on the Vidmars... currently using the 80/20 approach - 80% of the progress for "20%" of the effort. Today was a good example of this. I wanted the Lock-Tile under the laser. I got the tile down everywhere I could. The rest needs some concrete work.. later..

After that I started on the laser fume/smoke exhaust setup. The blower came with the laser.


I want it to exhaust as high on the wall as possible to get the acrylic fumes up and away from the building. I used perforated angle to mount the blower on the ceiling. There's a short run straight out the building. I have a spring closed damper on the way.


Using 6" S&D PVC for the suction down to flex hose at the laser. I'll finish up in the morning..

 

[hardly]

^^^^2:54 a.m.! Now it's confirmed; you get by with very little sleep! "Burning it at
both ends" is routine. Have to admire your energy level.....

Shop and new toy looking great!

 

[slodat]

^^^^2:54 a.m.! Now it's confirmed; you get by with very little sleep! "Burning it at
both ends" is routine. Have to admire your energy level.....

Shop and new toy looking great!

Last night was a lot later than usual, but it was three hours prior to that time stamp you are referring to. I'm guessing it is using EST. I'm not that energetic!

Thank you for checking out my shop. Lots to do this week

As I mentioned, there was some shipping damage to the laser. The manufacturer has been really great thus far. I just test fired the laser. It works!!


And, this seems mandatory..

 

[Toolfool]

Can you remove tattoos with that thing ?

 

[slodat]

Test on a piece of leather.. it was a .jpg not vector so there's some pixelation..

 

[Finallygotit]

Not bad for just playing around!

 

[slodat]

This video shows it in operation. Total game changer!!

 

[slodat]

Every time I've worked with the 6" S&D pipe I've had a mental image of a clamp I'd like to use to attach it to the wall, ceiling, etc. Last night I sketched it out using router templates.


Earlier I was considering making a clamp template using the manual router methods. I decided to give it a go drawing in Corel Draw and cutting a 1/4" thick template in the laser.


That went well so I used the template to cut the 3/4" thick clamp using a flush trim bit in the router table.


Drill two holes..








Picking up a big order of cast acrylic tomorrow so I can start playing with that. This thing is cool!

 

[slodat]

I tidied up the laser area this morning. It shouldn't have to be pulled out from the wall for quite a while.


I picked up an order of cell cast acrylic and PVC foam sheet in several thicknesses of each. The thicker sheets are too much for one person to muscle around without risking a serious back injury. So, I split each sheet into thirds. I try not to think about how much money these two small stacks represent..


Next up was finishing the outside portion of the laser exhaust. The idea is to get the fumes and smoke up and away from the building. The stink can get pretty bad with wood and plastics. First up I shortened the galvanized pipe and made a trim piece. I drew it up in CAD, laser cut a 1/4" template and used a flush trim in the router to make the part out of 1/2" PVC. Before you ask why not just cut the PVC with the laser?.. PVC will create chlorine gas and combine with moisture in the air to create hydrochloric acid. No bueno..


Next up was measuring for the stack standoff/support bracket.


Repeated same process to make the two part bracket out of 3/4" PVC.




Finished project:


The best part about the laser is the test pieces are cheap 1/4" material. I haven't wasted expensive material yet due to having to change a dimension or what not. For example I made the square flange 3 times in 1/4" before I was happy with it..

 

[Finallygotit]

Nice!!!

 

[slodat]

Lots of cleaning and laser setup/learning thus far today. Finally got things to a point where sweeping and mopping the tile made sense.. it was quite the mess but it cleaned up really nice!



Here's a before/after photo for reference:


Next up is getting primer sprayed in Bay 1..

 

[Toolfool]

The place looks great !

 

[slodat]

The place looks great !

Thank you for the kind words and following along on this journey!! I appreciate the comments!!

 

[Finallygotit]

Following along, I have seen the transformation in it's progression. It's when you see the before and after pics that really show the stark differences and the thought and work that was put into it.

Great job!

 

[slodat]

I get accustomed to the changes quickly, mostly because I'm at the shop every day. The before and after photos almost don't seem real some days. This has been a loooong project. I am excited the light is starting to glow dimly at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks for following and contributing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tunajoe]

that laser is awesome!!

 

[250]

The before and after photos almost don't seem real some days.

I remember when I first stumbled across your thread and things were much less... put together. You've really turned this place around.

 

[slodat]

Tunajoe and 250- thanks for checking in on my shop. I always get a little excited when people comment on it!

After spraying 111 gallons of paint thus far in the shop I have come up with a process that works a lot better than when I first started. Spraying is the way to go. It is just great. Save for the masking of all of the things not getting painted. A big one to overcome was how to mask a floor. This is what I've come up with that works for me..

I run a wire brush around the outer edge by hand and go back and vacuum up everything this kicks up. This leaves a clean surface to apply quality masking tape. Looks like this at this stage:


Then I use this really handy masking machine I found at Home Depot. I've run many rolls of paper and tape through it and it works great!! This sticks the edge of the 12" wide paper to the tape on the floor. I use cheap tape of whatever I have on hand for this.


Now there's a clean edge and there's a 12"border around the room. At this point I lay out the super thin "painters who plastic" and tape that to the paper.

I'm about to do this in bay one. I'll add more photos as I progress.