Above 1200 Sq/FT Ernie's Place

[StormcrowAz]

Todd, your Shot Bathroom looks nicer than most In Home...great work...keep posting, really interesting projects. Regards, Grant

Fact is, my shop bathroom looks better than all the bathrooms in the house! The wife is looking forward to the house renovations at some point, I'm sure...


Managed to squeeze in some time in the shop this weekend. It rained Friday night and as a result it was both hot and humid. :/

Cleaned up the welds at the frame joints and cut up the vertical bars.


Got half way through the second gate and ran out of full-length material. Turns out that remnants left over from the 10’ length of tube we were cutting from ended up being just shy of what we needed for another vertical section. So had to cut up a bunch of 2” pieces and weld them to the ends of the tubes. Not a big deal, just more cutting, welding, sizing, and sweating.


Even had the Mrs. helping out for a bit


Added some sign-age and more license plates. Maybe I’ll go for the 50-state thing?




And finally…did a quick wash of the Hummer.

 

[bonecrrusher]

Love the shop - somehow missed the bathroom upgrade - that looks sweet!

 

[madoc1]

pm me your address and I will send you a texas plate. might have a nm also if you want. or are shooting to drive to all of them? I have 49 now- about as far as I can go unless I ship the car. lol

jim

 

[StormcrowAz]

Mohawk Lift!

Busy weekend, no progress on projects other than to add another big one to the list. In this case it’s a good thing, I think…


Earlier in the week my buddy gave me a text which said: “You said you wanted a Mohawk?”



There’s an auction-house which does public monthly auctions on our side of town. It’s an outdoor event, so we got there when it opened and had to wait until later in the afternoon until they got around to bidding on it. It was a long and hot day in the Phoenix sun. After a brief and tense (for me) bidding session, I now own a Mohawk System 1A-10 two post lift

Getting it into my buddies truck wasn’t too bad with the help of the auction-house forklift


The rear end isn’t sitting quite so high any more


Waited until Sunday morning to unload, spent enough time in the heat for one day. With the help of my friends dad an a couple engine hoists we got it out of the bed and onto the floor. Forgot to take pics until after the first one was removed.


Shop dog supervising


Almost out


Both down and resting on two of those small Harbor Freight hardwood dollies, which surprisingly hold up to rolling that heavy column assembly around.


While the lift is certainly used it looks to be in pretty good condition. Here’s the pump:


The auction tag shows it coming from SRP, which is one of our local power utility companies. Just so happens that my friend that helped, and his dad, both work for SRP. All of their company equipment is on a regular maintenance schedule and well taken care of, so they felt pretty good about its condition. Hopefully it won’t take much to get it operational. I’m thinking of calling up Mohawk and seeing how much it costs for them to look it over and set it up. Based off the recommended floor plan dimensions for install, I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to cut into the slab and pour in two new pads. With all the other stuff I have going on, I probably won’t be getting this up and running for at least a month or two.

 

[sberry]

Do the lift yourself, its about 50/50 on the company help. You might check yor floor first, the Mowhawk doesn't require a huge underpin but I do see you probably have mostly heavier trucks. The building conversion is nice.

 

[j p smith]

Ernie you will like have a lift! If you don't find someone to install your lift I have the number of the guy I used and can get it for you when I get home this evening. Also if you decide to do it yourself you may be able to get the installation manual from Mowhawk.

In addition I think I have 2 boxes of 3/4" anchors I will give you if want to stop by & pick them up. (need to find them 1st)

 

[StormcrowAz]

Do the lift yourself, its about 50/50 on the company help. You might check yor floor first, the Mowhawk doesn't require a huge underpin but I do see you probably have mostly heavier trucks. The building conversion is nice.

Yes, I hear you on the company help. I’m still on the fence. I will need to call them for ordering the weight gage anyways, so might just see if they’ll come out for an evaluation and a quote. The GVW of the Hummer is about 10.5k lbs, and with the stuff I got bolted onto mine I’m guessing it’s in the neighborhood of 8-9k lbs.

Ernie you will like have a lift! If you don't find someone to install your lift I have the number of the guy I used and can get it for you when I get home this evening. Also if you decide to do it yourself you may be able to get the installation manual from Mowhawk.
In addition I think I have 2 boxes of 3/4" anchors I will give you if want to stop by & pick them up. (need to find them 1st)

Big thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it and may take you up on it! No hurries on finding them, on top of the other projects I want to complete first…I still need to clean out that corner!


I downloaded the manual from Mohawk and read it over a couple times. I originally misinterpreted the width requirements and now thinking I may not need to pour a new pad, depending on how the thickness check goes. I did a quick map of the shop, here’s the tentative location (red posts). The expansion joints in the concrete naturally break it up into four sections





Looks like the one post will be close to the wall, about 23”. The Chevy cube is representing a 2500 HD Silverado Double Cab with the 8’ box (dimensions according to the Chevy site). It’s centered on-center with the lift, which probably isn’t the correct CG for that vehicle, but think I’ll be OK with room up front.



Also, my friend from SRP made some calls and sent me this bit of good news:

Okey dokey. I got the scoop on that unit. It is a low usage unit, as I suspected. It was in one of our satellite garages, where they primarily inflated tires and installed back up cameras. The reason it was removed is because they demolished the building and moved that garage to a new location on the property for an expansion of another adjacent building. The lift is functional and has low use. I will see if I can track down any of the extra gadgets that went with it. 

 

[j p smith]

Hey Todd. Found the anchors, I have 10, 3/4" x 7" & 9, 3/4" x 8"
The fellow that installed my lift actually did 2 at the same time, myself and a buddy (neighbor) each bought a lift from the same business, David from Boggs equipment went and took them both down, brought them out to homes and installed them.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Finished welding up the vertical bars in the gates. 105 plus outside, think I'm sweating more water than I can drink. Not sure if it's the heat or that these are gates number 7 & 8, but it's starting to feel more like work than a fun project. Anyways, here's a few pics...nothing worthy of praise from the Welding Web forum, but it's work in progress..








Special thanks to Jim (madoc1) for the Texas and New Mexico plates!!! Your generosity lives on in Ernie's Place:

 

[StormcrowAz]

I probably should be working on finishing up those front gate, but oh well, there’s always next week…

My folks bought a new A/C unit for their Airstream and I'm not sure how much the old unit weighs, but the new one is around 100lbs. It’s probably do-able for two people to carry that up and down a ladder, but I’m lazy and thinking of an easier way to do it. I read another thread on here about someone wanting to use their trusses for similar light-weight lifting and I’m really hesitant to go that route, even with just 100lbs. So I got to thinking about all those extra 2x6’s I salvaged from the room I demo’d, they’ve been taking up space for well over a year now…might be fun to throw something together…


Looks good on paper, hopefully it will be hold up and may be useful elsewhere around the shop:


Fortunately I had four 15’ sections of 2x6’s for the uprights. Cross-beam is 10’.


I know a little about metal working and a whole lot less of carpentry. Life is a learning experience…




Should be able to unbolt the cross-beam and store the assembly flat against a wall.


Should wrap it up tonight. Really not much for woodwork, metal seems to make more sense to me. Maybe just because that’s what I’m used to. One of these days I’d like to get a decent I-beam and make a more heavy-duty gantry out of metal, but hopefully this will do for now.

 

[j p smith]

Hey Todd. Thanks for stopping by last night, good to meet you and talk shops for a while. Hope the Airstream AC job went ok. Jeff

 

[Boosted1]

Nice thread and shop.
And you get the bonus of your wife helping in the shop.

 

[Jackeke]

Like your garage dude! Thumbs up!!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Hey Todd. Thanks for stopping by last night, good to meet you and talk shops for a while. Hope the Airstream AC job went ok. Jeff

No, no…thank you for having me over! You have a fantastic shop - clean, organized, and you can tell some good work gets done there! Feel free to stop by my place when you get some free time. I’ll try to tidy up a bit!

Nice thread and shop.
And you get the bonus of your wife helping in the shop.

Thanks! And yes, she puts in some work now and then and is always happy to help out when a second set of hands is needed.

Like your garage dude! Thumbs up!!

Glad you like it, thanks for taking the time to check it out!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Airstream A/C Install

So about the Airstream project…

Before we got into the A/C I had to make some brackets to hold up the winch (sorry no pics) and also added some guide slots for the trailer stabilizers. My dad cut up the 2” long sections of ½” angle iron and cleaned off the paint to prep for me to weld them on. Not a huge deal, but thought it would be nice to have something to easily locate and guide the stabilizers in place.


Like most projects, things often don’t go quite exactly as planned and the A/C removal/replacement was certainly no exception. The new unit is essentially affixed to the trailer by four bolts that sandwiches the trailer between the unit on top and framework inside the trailer. Not only was the old unit attached in this same fashion, but it also has a flange on the unit up top that had about 80 rivets holding it to the roof. So we had to clean off all the old silicone and caulking and drill the heads off the rivets. Once done it was a pretty straight-forward removal from there.

The old unit still installed:


Chaining it up for removal




Was a little off-kilter but managed to clear with no problems


Pulled the Airstream out and lowered it



Unfortunately we ran out of time – Still need to finish cleaning up the roof, install new rivets to fill in the holes, seal them up, and then install the new A/C unit.

Overall the 2x6 gantry worked out great. Took a little bit of effort to get it assembled and we tested it out with two of us hanging from it. 400lbs or so is no problem and pretty sure it can handle quite a bit more. Much happier about putting any stresses on this thing instead of the roof trusses.

 

[j p smith]

Looks like your gantry is working out pretty well. Sure looks like there are some challenges to working on top of an Airstream trailer. Are you going to get the new one in place this coming weekend?

 

[StormcrowAz]

Finished up the Airstream A/C this past weekend. There we no convenient attachment points like there was on the old unit and needed to space the straps away from the fragile cooling fins, so made a quick “H” bar out of 1 inch square tube.




Install turned out nice and clean


Moved some junk (valuable assets) around in anticipation of the lift. Mocked up a template for placement and snapped lines where the new concrete will go.


Decided to play around with the gantry some more – lifting the mower is no problem


Worked on the front gates a little bit, figured might as well weld on the cross-straps at comfortable standing height instead of kneeling on the ground, this thing is handy!

 

[j p smith]

Nice Job Todd. I know your Mom & Dad will appreciate how well it works now.

Are you in town this weekend? We are moving the 1916 Case Steam engine to our place this weekend, but I may be able to sneak out to see your place monday morning.

 

[bonecrrusher]

Nice - got to love using tools for more then one purpose!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Concrete Fun

Another busy weekend! I decided to play it safe and just go ahead and pour a new slab for the lift. I’m going by the Mohawk recommendations, which means cutting a 48” x 161” hole in the floor, digging down 12”, and adding re-bar support. So I rented a concrete saw, re-snapped the lines and went over them with some hairspray (pro-tip from my neighbor – because it’s a wet saw, the hairspray keeps the lines from getting washed away while it’s cutting). With the help of my good friend it went pretty smooth.

Made the main outline cuts, one inch at a time per pass, and also four cross-section cuts to help remove it in pieces. Took about 3 hours total, which I really think just as much time was spent with water management (sweeping the water out the side door) as did the actual cutting.

Getting ready


All done cutting!



The gantry is turning out to be a handy tool:


Getting the first section out of the middle was a giant pain. Had to break out the corners until we were able to pry up what was left.


After that it was a little bit easier. There were a spots here and there that didn’t cut all the way through, so we chiseled a channel out of one side of the block as a relief to allow it to tilt, dug a small hole under the opposite side, and used a high-lift jack to break it free and raise it up enough to get a chain under/around.


Again the gantry for the win. Pulled the truck up underneath the block and set it down on some 2”x3” metal tubes in the bed which allowed it to slide out easier. Disposed of the blocks behind the shop where I’ll figure out what to do with them some other time. Still have one more block section to remove, which I hope to get pulled out in the next day or so.

Oh, also cut re-bar and made the mesh support that gets suspended in the hole


Muscles are a little sore this morning…

 

[j p smith]

Wow that gantry is turning out to be more than a one time tool. Looks like your floor was 4 to 5" thick, hard to tell. You are going to end up with a solid base for your hoist!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Sometimes it’s difficult to sit in front of the computer for updates. Always a project to work on and it’s nice to take a break once in a while, too. Anways, been busy and here’s some visuals:

Here’s a couple more pics showing how we removed the concrete blocks.




Here’s all the squares removed


Per the Mohawk installation manual, dug down 12 inches. It’s also undercut a few inches all the way around for good measure.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Also made some progress on the front gates

Got all the welding done, hung up on the posts. Here’s mid-primer/paint


Instead of regular wood slats went with the composite stuff.


Installing into the fence


And the finished product (mostly…I actually forgot to cut the two small slats at each end, that's what the small gap is next to the posts)

 

[StormcrowAz]

Back more concrete fun…

Again per the Manual…drilled holes 3” deep into the original concrete. Cut 15” sections of rebar to dowel into place


Set the rebar mesh into the hole and made a template of the lift base to make sure that the rebar was clear of the wedge anchor points. After some tweaking of the bars they are epoxied in place


Scheduled the concrete! Fortunately the truck was a small one and he was able to back it up right to the hole


Mud going into the hole


All smoothed out


And the finishing touch…my shop dogs paw prints. 

 

[1/2 Cup]

Great work all round, especially luv your gates, well done.

 

[BajaScout]

Where are the Scouts? I see the parts at the old house.

 

[j p smith]

Wow, good job Todd! Looks like you have been busy! Like the lights on the gate posts, did you make those?
Not much going on at our place, starting to work on the frame for the Standard Sign and still working on the punch list for the old Bolens.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Great work all round, especially luv your gates, well done.

Thank you very much! I see awesome stuff coming out of your Shed, too! Your brake drum heater is still on my “to-do” list, just waiting to run across the drums.

Where are the Scouts? I see the parts at the old house.

The ’67 is in the regular garage keeping the Hummer company and patiently waiting for some love. The ’64 is scattered throughout the shop… A lot of the mid-sized items and sheet metal (fenders, doors, glass, etc) are stored in the storage space above the bathroom. Small stuff went into those black and yellow totes.

Wow, good job Todd! Looks like you have been busy! Like the lights on the gate posts, did you make those?
Not much going on at our place, starting to work on the frame for the Standard Sign and still working on the punch list for the old Bolens.

Thanks! And yes, I made the hangers out of small square tubing I had laying around and the lanterns are $7 at WalMart. (original intent was vintage Coleman lanterns, but due to availability and price I settled for the cheap Wally-World versions) I stuffed them with clear solar-powered Christmas lights (square thing on the top is the collector) and at night it kind of looks like a jar full of fireflies.

 

[j p smith]

Nice job on the lites!

If that was a selfie, you cut yourself off at the hat, LOL

 

[bwitt]

Nice gantry crane. I was the guy asking about lifting heavy stuff (an inboard boat motor) using the existing structure in the garage. Ended up building a wooden gantry crane very similar to yours. Worked like a charm and I would not hesitate using it again. It disassembles into three pieces so it's stored now, but I can pull it out any time I need it.

 

[j p smith]

How is the Mohawk project coming?

 

[shortykorte]

Off to a great start! Congrats.

 

[andersen24]

OK this is flat out an AWESOME thread! Love the work - keep it up, can't wait to see the progress!!!

 

[wazzza]

What a great project! I love the gates you made, Nice work. I can only imagine how it is like to work (and live) in that heat. How is non-treated metal holding up when it comes to rust? Where I live I can always put more clothes on, or fire up the heatcanon.

Thanks for sharing, I will subscribe to this one!

 

[vonhef]

I like your shop. You got a good find with the Mohawk lift... looking forward to it's completion.

 

[Bears Fan]

Great thread! Awesome place to work, the gates look great and that bathroom turned out nice

 

[rodsnratfinks]

I like your garage! I'm quite jealous, actually. One of my favorite parts is the cave room. That's a sweet lift, too.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Love the progress so far on the shop. I too was greatly influenced by my grandfather, who was a self taught machinist/engineer who did a lot of great things in his life. He was taken too soon, as all good men are. That's so cool that you have that sign of his to hang up in your space. Once my shop is complete, I have the license plate with his initials he had on the front of all his vehicles he owned throughout the years that I'll be hanging up in my shop as well.

Keep the updates coming!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Progress in the shop has been a little slow – the Mrs. and I took a week off for our anniversary. She’s never been to a bed-and-breakfast before, so we decided to head east and check out a different part of the country. Flew into Portland, Maine for one day/night and then drove to North Conway in New Hampshire where we spent the rest of our trip at “The Farm by the River”. Neat place which has been in the owners family since 1771 or so. Weather was perfect and we had a great time.

It was great to come back and see a lot of posts here! Thanks to all for the words of encouragement and positive feedback!

How is the Mohawk project coming?

Well…the concrete is still curing! Still have another week or so before it can be installed. In the mean-time I still have to pull the new wiring through conduit I recently added. Might also give the lift a good cleaning before Mohawk comes out for the install. There’s quite a bit of Dexron here and there from disassembly and moving.

What a great project! I love the gates you made, Nice work. I can only imagine how it is like to work (and live) in that heat. How is non-treated metal holding up when it comes to rust? Where I live I can always put more clothes on, or fire up the heatcanon. Thanks for sharing, I will subscribe to this one!

The stripped-down-to-bare-metal hood of my Scout has been in the shop for over two years now and is just starting to exhibit surface rust. I think the only reason for that is I ran the swamp cooler almost constantly this summer (new puppies needed a cool and chew-proof place during the day) and I recently moved the hood closer to the airflow path. Like they say…it’s a dry heat! In the winter a long sleeve flannel is typically enough to be comfortable working in the shop.


Ok, now back to progress and pictures!

On our trip we hit up a couple antique shops which yielded a few extra license plates for my collection:

I particularly like the "TRQ RNCH" plate from Maine.


My mom had dropped off a project for me a while back and I finally got to completing it. She made these mini-ocotillo artwork things out of barbed wire for an overhead ledge/shelf in their house. They look pretty neat but were held in place by drilling a few holes into a piece of 2x4. She asked if I could make something a little more permanent.

Before:


Welded a few pieces of angle iron together for the base and drilled holes into a small piece of plate for the wire to sit in. Since the barbed wire was old and rusty I thought maybe brazing it would be easier/better than welding. This is my second attempt (ever) at brazing and didn’t go too badly.




Mother - if you are reading this…your ocotillo are finished.


Started another project – I’ve had this old railroad tie laying around taking up valuable floor space for a while now and never quite sure what to do with it. Inspiration finally struck and figured I would turn it into a bench for our outdoor fire pit area. Plenty of left-over tube from the gates, perfect for making the legs.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Cutting, welding, grinding…


Added another section of tubing for stability, plus some small pieces of angle iron with holes drilled for attaching to the tie.


Always amazed what a coat of paint does to clean things up


Also left-over from the gates were remnants of the composite slats. Couldn’t bring myself to throw them away for some reason and think they will be great for on top of the bench to avoid splinters and such.


Almost finished, still need to cut the last end piece to fit and round off the slat ends so there’s not a sharp edge digging into your leg.



Here’s a sneak-peak at the next “big” project for when the lift is done. 7x14 cargo trailer I plan on converting to a mini toy hauler (small quads), camper, and still retain some capacity to haul miscellaneous stuff around. Took measurements and generated a 3D model – colored the framework to easily identify left/right/front/back and the grey stuff is mostly accessories needing to be added.