1/2 Cup
Member Emeritus
Culture stunning.
Above 1200 Sq/FT Engineer's Multi-Purpose Shop
- Thread starter Culture
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
LX-Markham
Well-known member
I love it when structural engineers build stuff 
Shop looks amazing. Well done sir.
Shop looks amazing. Well done sir.
rixtrix1
Well-known member
Very nice, job well done!
but that looks suspiciously like a video game in the office.
NOTHING gets past you!
Very nice, job well done! but that looks suspiciously like a video game in the office.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Culture stunning.
Thanks!
I love it when structural engineers build stuff
Thanks! It is nice to get to show it off to those who appreciate it!
but that looks suspiciously like a video game in the office.
If you are a child of the 80's and grew up playing in arcades, you need to know about this amazing thing called a MAME machine. Using some software developed by some wonderful people way smarter that me, it runs pretty much any of the software from the golden age of arcade games, say before 1990. It is not an emulation, it runs the actual software taken directly from the ROM chips on the original machines.
This is a project from about 10 years ago. The cabinet and control panels are my original design. I am 6'8" and a normal cabinet was too small for me. I play space invaders, robotron, defender, missile command, centipede, galaga, etc. It is great and everything plays exactly like the originals, except no quarters! The software runs on a Windows XP PC, located in the base of the cabinet.
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Ya know, for someone who wore a pocket protector you sure do some fine work 
I'm not saying nothing.......well except I've gotta hang some rock on my ceiling right now. You busy??
I'm not saying nothing.......well except I've gotta hang some rock on my ceiling right now. You busy??
Ya know, for someone who wore a pocket protector you sure do some fine work
Thanks!
I'm not saying nothing.......well except I've gotta hang some rock on my ceiling right now. You busy??
I am the only person I know who has hung drywall on an 8' ceiling while standing on the floor. Unfortunately, I think the days of being able to lift a sheet of drywall over my head and hold it in place on the ceiling are behind me.
One of my objectives in the new shop was to make everything mobile that was practical to make mobile. This also gave me a chance to make everything taller, as most (all?) equipment is to low for me to use comfortably. To give you an idea, my work tables and work benches have 46" counter heights, 10" higher than normal. Here are a few of my creations. They were also built using a KREG HD jig. I love that thing.
Mobile MIG cart:
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Mobile MIG cart:
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Mobile MIG cart:
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Mobile MIG cart:
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Dentaltec
Well-known member
NOW YOU ARE JUST SHOWING OFF!
So damn awesome, never would I have thought I would see a custom vid game using the ROM's on GJ
Augus7us
Well-known member
haha I second the MAME on GJ, thought I may be the only one. That and I still have to source my demolition man and star trek tng pinball machines. I'm presently in the build phase of my shop so it will be a while. Damn pinball games keep going up in price too.
Awesome looking shop, I was thinking grey for my walls and I think you sold me on the color. You're doing some killer work and inspiring me to start my build thread here in the gallery. Keep it up!
-Clint
Awesome looking shop, I was thinking grey for my walls and I think you sold me on the color. You're doing some killer work and inspiring me to start my build thread here in the gallery. Keep it up!
-Clint
Wonderful space you've created - thank you for sharing!
I'd say you nailed the bench height just about perfectly. I'm 5" shorter than you, and my bench height is right around 40". There have been a number of times where I've caught myself in the middle of a project thinking about how happy I am to finally have a workbench that is made for me, I'd imagine this is even more true for you.
I'd say you nailed the bench height just about perfectly. I'm 5" shorter than you, and my bench height is right around 40". There have been a number of times where I've caught myself in the middle of a project thinking about how happy I am to finally have a workbench that is made for me, I'd imagine this is even more true for you.
LX-Markham
Well-known member
Yes please!
Is that really a downside? I like to think of it as passive encouragement to stay away.
Air compressor cart with hose. Once again built with Kreg HD jig. Maybe some day I will plumb air throughout the building but not yet.
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el monte slim
Well-known member
I share your interest in having a multi-function shop, and I'm very impressed by what you've accomplished in creating yours. Thank-you for documenting the process so well, and for including details regarding how you've chosen to personalize use of the space. I can especially relate to the need for practical mobility, and the customized working height of your benchtop and machine tool mounting surfaces.
Motoman1100
Well-known member
Wow! What a great use of space. I love the mezzanine.
rixtrix1
Well-known member
Did you say you put the same floor tiles on your workbench tops? Are they self-adhesive? From the photos, the worktops look great.
mfg0772
Well-known member
Great build. I'm 6'6" and fully relate to the extra tall benches. Everyone else seems to complain but it is a nice deterrent to keep people from moving my stuff.
Typical shop storage. I think that plastic storage containers are the bees knees for organization! I probably have 150-200 of them. Way cheaper than drawers, and I can easily reconfigure them. I get the small show box sized ones for 0.79 on sale.
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Home-built mobile base for hydraulic press. I do not use this very often, and the mobile base allows me to store it out of the way. When it is needed, it is irreplaceable. I do need to bolt/screw the base of the press to the mobile base, but it is very stable just sitting.
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So how does one control dust in an AC'd shop? I have a dust collection system for my woodworking machines, but the filter is not fine enough for a closed room, and this does not help with other dust sources. I have a friend who runs a mold remediation company, and he gave me a 2000 CFM HEPA filter. I turn it on any time I am doing anything that creates dust or smoke. The HEPA filter will actually remove smoke from the air. It has a three layer filter system (pre-filter, filter and HEPA filter) to keep all but the finest dust out the very expensive HEPA filter. It is awesome, and it on wheels so I can stow it out of the way when not in use.
I am still trying to determine if the HEPA filter will remove zinc fumes from the air so that it is safe to weld zinc coated/galvanized materials indoors. Until then, I still weld these materials in the great (hot and humid) outdoors.
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I am still trying to determine if the HEPA filter will remove zinc fumes from the air so that it is safe to weld zinc coated/galvanized materials indoors. Until then, I still weld these materials in the great (hot and humid) outdoors.
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Mobile base for drill press. Serves double purpose of raising table to comfortable height. Before you ask, yes the base is bolted to the drill press .
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A miter saw is about the worst tool to have in a garage because it is almost impossible to collect the dust. I built a mobile table for the saw, with a mobile base behind to catch the dust. Since is all on casters, I can move it around to clean up the floor. It works pretty well and provides some storage also.
The sliding doors on the dust collect box can be moved to adjust to the angle of the saw.
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The sliding doors on the dust collect box can be moved to adjust to the angle of the saw.
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Just a suggestion, but how about a splitter so the filter is bypassed when welding indoors. No sense putting it through the filter. Just make up the air through the door/window.
Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
I have though about this. However, in Houston AC is critical 6 months out of the year and I do not want to blow cold air out of the building. I am thinking of building a fume hood for this purpose, with a outside air makeup below the fume hood to minimize cold air loss.
That machine should be able to handle galvanized weld fumes without issue. All of the purpose-built weld fume extractors I've ever seen only use MERV 15 or 16 filters, which only capture 85-95% of particles down to 0.3 microns. A HEPA filter is rated to catch 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns.
One thing to keep in mind, be careful of ducting too close your work area because that unit pulls a lot of air and might cause issues with your shielding gas. Wearing a (at minimum) 3M N95 respirator filter is always a good idea when welding galvanized no matter what other provisions you have in place.
It makes sense that the HEPA filter would work given that zinc fume is actually zinc dust.
I have a smaller (600 CFM) HEPA filter that I am planning on building into a fume hood that recirculates into the shop. I do a lot of small welding jobs that would fit nicely into a 4x3x3 hood, the rest can be done outside.
Does anyone else have a semi-regular "sort the **** from the misc hardware bucket into their proper location" day?
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Deezler
Well-known member
Oh yeah. That's typically what I do when the work bench clutter has gotten to gnarly to think straight, or if I can't decide what project to work on.
Yep... last one was a few weeks ago. I usually start by picking out anything that is expensive or items I know for sure I'll use again. Then when I get bored about halfway through, I don't feel so bad about dumping the rest into the trash.