Above 1200 Sq/FT Ernie's Place

[StormcrowMom]

Nice job on the outdoor kitchen, Todd. A little feedback from Mom: The open back is not only easy access for maintenance, but also easy access for little 4-legged creatures looking for a place to nest. Just sayin!

BTW, I have 2 projects on hold for you that you can share with your readers once Mrs. Todd's project has been completed.

 

[j p smith]

Great progress, may need to stop by to help out. Seems like there is a period of time that flies by every so often and you wonder what the heck. Last weekend was the Goodguys with the Steam Engine, next weekend is the Apache Junction Engine & Tractor Show and the following is the Bass Tournament at Lake Pleasant Again with the Steam Engine. Your project is looking good!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Nice job on the outdoor kitchen, Todd. A little feedback from Mom: The open back is not only easy access for maintenance, but also easy access for little 4-legged creatures looking for a place to nest. Just sayin!)

I plan on putting some stabilizer/adjustment feet on it, so will have an inch or so clearance underneath regardless. Didn’t really plan on completely sealing this thing in, but I might put up some easily removable panels on the back for the extra support. Besides…with six dogs back there any and all other critters are actively being hunted down on a regular basis. 

Great progress, may need to stop by to help out. Seems like there is a period of time that flies by every so often and you wonder what the heck. Last weekend was the Goodguys with the Steam Engine, next weekend is the Apache Junction Engine & Tractor Show and the following is the Bass Tournament at Lake Pleasant Again with the Steam Engine. Your project is looking good!

Thanks, you are welcome over any time! I checked out the Steam Engine pics and looks like it was a good time. Had I seen it in advance I might have stopped by and got a raffle ticket for that tool box!



Spent yesterday/last night measuring and cutting backer-board for the tile. Only a couple small pieces left.


Also got a new sign for The Cave:


LED back-lit and gives off a nice soft glow

 

[BassProCamaro97]

Your shop is awesome. I'm super jealous. Nice work!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Your shop is awesome. I'm super jealous. Nice work!

Thank you! Glad you could stop by and enjoy it.



Yard sales…more stuff accumulated that I’m not sure what to do with, but gotta have it…

Craftsman tool box with misc. stuff for $5


This 20 ton jack in case I need to lift a house or maybe a locomotive? No idea what I’m going to do with it, but for $10 I couldn’t pass it up.



Anyways, back to the bbq island… Picked up a bar sink and did some cardboard mock-ups


And then cut to fit


Backer-board cut to match and sink dropped in

 

[StormcrowAz]

Built a couple doors for under the bar sections





Also made this sideways “drawer” to hang the bbq utensils in. Installed a couple of drawer slides on the one side so it slides in and out





Welded a bolt to this railroad spike. Also welded a sheet metal circle to the bolt to keep it from pulling through and to also hopefully minimize and flexing from pulling on the handle. Don’t want any cracked tiles.



Getting close to tile…

 

[j p smith]

Wow, that is coming along great Todd!

Nice buy on the box and the jack.
By the way I'm sure that jack would look better at my place,lol

 

[iceman510]

My first exposure to this thread today. Great stuff going on there. I really like the rolling dolly for the welder.

I just finished my lift installation in January, and worked on it last weekend (February was too cold).

Very nice work on the gates as well.

 

[Crown]

I like your outdoor kitchen a lot! Are you gonna tile it when it's outside? must be kinda heavy to move.
It's on my to do list for this summer as well.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Wow, that is coming along great Todd!
Nice buy on the box and the jack.
By the way I'm sure that jack would look better at my place,lol

Hah, probably so! Not exactly sure what the heck it will be good for at my place? Yard art, probably!

My first exposure to this thread today. Great stuff going on there. I really like the rolling dolly for the welder.
I just finished my lift installation in January, and worked on it last weekend (February was too cold).
Very nice work on the gates as well.

Hello Iceman, thank you for visiting and the compliments! Enjoy that lift, I know I sure do appreciate mine. And cold here means I need to wear a long sleeve shirt instead of a tee-shirt out to the shop.

I like your outdoor kitchen a lot! Are you gonna tile it when it's outside? must be kinda heavy to move.
It's on my to do list for this summer as well.

Hello Crown, thanks for stopping in! I was originally going to move it to the final resting spot and then do the tile operations, but it’s starting to warm up a bit here and the thought of doing that in the sun isn’t too appealing. I think inside with the swamp cooler running is the way to go! And yes, it’s pretty heavy as-is, without all that tile. Fortunately it’s built it in three sections, so can unbolt the bar ends and move the sections individually. Good luck with yours and let us know how it turns out!

 

[j p smith]

Hah, probably so! Not exactly sure what the heck it will be good for at my place? Yard art, probably!


Hey Todd. Tool box raffle tickets will be available for some time yet.
Precision Heavy Haul brought the Case Steam Tractor back on Monday and it will be at our place till it goes to Minnesota for the new Boiler sometime in April. We will be working on it Saturday. If you are out running around stop by any time this weekend to see it in person.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Hey Todd. Tool box raffle tickets will be available for some time yet.
Precision Heavy Haul brought the Case Steam Tractor back on Monday and it will be at our place till it goes to Minnesota for the new Boiler sometime in April. We will be working on it Saturday. If you are out running around stop by any time this weekend to see it in person.

Hello Jeff. Sorry wasn’t able to make it this weekend. Was pretty busy with the bbq and other commitments. It does sounds like a cool project, though. And speaking of the bbq…here’s what we got done so far:


Even though it won’t be directly exposed to the elements, figured it wouldn’t hurt to throw some paint on the bare wood. The Mrs. helped out and did all of the painting while I measured and cut tile.




Had some exterior grade paint left over from when we had the house re-done. Grey it is.


Taped all the seams and started on the bar top



She also added some accent color to the inside of the doors, plus stenciled our dogs names in.



Hopefully I’ll have time this week to make some good progress.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Getting little bits done here and there – all the tile is down and hope to have the grout completed tomorrow.

 

[Crown]

Whow!

 

[j p smith]

Man is that coming out good! Great job Todd!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Thank you, thank you!

One of our friends got married this weekend and we offered our place up to hold the reception. So I had a deadline to meet for the bbq island to be on display for the festivities. Managed to grout everything and install the sink. A buddy of mine dropped by and helped take it apart and move each section via a couple of those Harbor Freight furniture dollies. It still took a fair amount of effort, this thing is heavy! Still need a few things to do (run the sink water line, drain, and make a couple doors for the front, etc.) but it’s at least in place for the event.


Due to lack of doors the wife put a plant in there to pretty it up…


The reception was a success. I guess you can call this shop related as my shop bathroom was the primary "go-to" place for the event.

Pre-party - my shop supervisor making sure everything is OK


The event

 

[StormcrowAz]

Been pretty lazy the last week, haven’t made a ton of progress but did manage to do a little here and there.

My mom found a roll of 26 gage galvanized sheet at a yard sale and thought it would be something I could use…yep, she was right! This should be good stuff for the two bbq doors. A bunch of measuring, scribing, and cutting later:


The Harbor Freight brake doesn’t do too on small jobs like this. Here they are just set in place, still need to figure out hinges.



A new set of bbq tools was needed and ran across these in my search. Had to get the matching bottle opener, too…


Drilled holes in the handles and ran a length of paracord through so they could hang on hooks

 

[StormcrowAz]

Hammer drilled through the cinder block wall and ran the drain and water line.


Not too far away on the other side of that wall is a hose bib, so figured I’d use that. Got one of those Y splitters and appropriate fittings…




Didn’t turn out too bad, I think. Had a little trouble sweating the last few fittings in-place. Tried doing two adjacent elbow joints at the same time and it didn’t work out too well. Think I might have burned off the flux out of the second joint or some such as the solder wouldn’t wick in at all. Ended up having to cut out a small section and re-doing it. No leaks when that was done, though. Still need to address how it drains, maybe adding a down-spout so it doesn’t run down the wall. At the time I didn’t think about it dumping on top of the copper line, either.

 

[vintageracer31]

I just found your thread. Very nice setup!

 

[StormcrowAz]

Been a while since the last update – a little bit busy and a little bit lazy. The past couple of weeks it’s just pretty hot, and once past 115 the swamp cooler can only do so much. Difficult to get motivated at times.
But I have managed to complete a project here and there, most notable is an under-hoist oil drain. The Toyota is due for an oil change, and I now have this nifty lift to help with that…but don’t really feel like holding the pan 5 feet in the air to catch the oil. The cheapy Harbor Freight drain dolly is $60 (with 20% coupon) so figured for about the same cost I could make a better version of my own. So off to the drawing board:


So four major parts to this – top drain pan, adjustable column, cage to support the column/pan, and dolly to hold the waste can. Right now I store the old oil can on the floor under a shelf and want to keep it that way, don’t want to add another “thing” taking up square footage of work space. So the top pan, column, and dolly are detachable. Dolly/cage is sized to still fit beneath the shelf and once detached, the column and top pan can hang by a hook on the wall.

Started with making the dolly, which if needed can also double as a rolling oil pan for changing oil without the lift.


Made a frame of sorts with angle iron and attached plates for the casters to bolt to. It’s big enough to fit a standard bucket with a little room to spare.


Here’s the cage in progress. Added some small pieces of rebar to ensure the caster plates don’t bend. The cage is sitting on top of the vertical sections of the angle iron pan frame, so the weight isn’t transferred to the sheet metal alone. A small bolt and wing nut at each corner make for quick removal and assembly.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Cut the nested square tubing to size, drilled some holes, and welded a nut on the outside for height adjustment.



Bent up the top pan and added some ½” angle iron for rigidity. Still need more practice and better technique for welding sheet metal. Keep blowing out holes, but turning down the juice makes it stutter and pop a lot. Take off the auto-set and fiddle with the adjustments manually? Possibly switch to .030” wire instead of .035”? Get a TIG welder? Need to read up on that some more.



Here it is finally assembled at full height, 72”


Collapsed at 42-44”


Added a drain and mesh screen to the top pan, made an attachment point on the column for hose clamps to hold the valve, cleaned everything, and gave it a little rattle-can love (close to Mohawk red/yellow)

 

[StormcrowAz]

Oh, also added small pieces of rebar to the tensioning bolts on the column. Makes it easier to adjust by hand, no tools required.


Assembled and fully extended. Went with a coiled hose, mostly because I thought it was neat and it should work well with the adjustability of the column. Of course that was a good one-third of this projects cost.


Valve


Collapsed





Hopefully sometime in the next week I’ll get to that oil change and give an update on how well it actually works. Really hoping there’s no pin-holes in the pan welds…

 

[j p smith]

Nice project Todd.
If you need to TIG weld something give me a call and come by and try my machine

Got stared on the new bench project, check it out. Work Bench Goals under Fabrication & Techniques

 

[StormcrowAz]

Wow, been a while since the last update. It’s been pretty hot in the shop, even with the swamp cooler, so haven’t done a whole lot. Just a few things here and there.

Changed the oil in the Tacoma and got to use the new oil drain. Have one leak in the top pan that needs to be fixed, but otherwise works ok. Drains a little slow due to the coiled hose, I think.





Got a new (to me) quad and tinkered with it for a bit. Replaced bent brake and clutch levers, swapped out the cracked plastic and incandescent brake light with an LED trailer light. The previous owner had removed the airbox lid, I’m guessing to improve the air intake. Made a quick bracket and put on an Outerwear filter cover.



Had some storms in our area and evidently a “microburst” which pulled back the patio roof and threw it over the house. Of course we were out of town when it happened and got the call from our neighbor. Still working with insurance on that.



Went with my buddy to pick up a 1919 Model T fire truck that he purchased from a co-worker of his. Evidently her father passed away and left her with the estate. There also happened to be this 1950 Packard, which had been sitting there for the past 20 years.

 

[StormcrowAz]

So couldn’t pass that up and ended up going back the next weekend to pick it up.











I now officially have too many projects.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Wow, now that is one nice project..

Regards

 

[sean Buick 76]

WOW I love all the smart ways you come up with building stuff!!! great projects!

 

[j p smith]

Moving up to a vehicle with more room inside? I could take over one of the Scouts for you, it would look good siting next to my 47 Olds project.

Just trying to help you out so don't have too many projects around

 

[slik560]

Love that old Packard. Treat'er right

 

[madoc1]

nice packard! what are your plans for it? leave the patina and just clear it? maybe drop an ls in it? looks like fun, especially with the lift to help out.

jim

 

[slik560]

Do the ICON Derelict thing with the Packard!

 

[pinkerton]

I'm green with envy - amazing stuff

 

[vonhef]

Wow... nice find on the Packard. Looks like it is complete. I suppose they can be hard to find parts for? Will anticipate your progress on this project.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Wow, now that is one nice project..

Thanks ½, glad you could stop by!

WOW I love all the smart ways you come up with building stuff!!! great projects!

Appreciate the compliment and checking out my thread. Compared to a lot of the stuff that goes on here at GJ, I still feel like a novice. Read a lot, borrow the occasional idea, and once in a while maybe come up with something unique!

Moving up to a vehicle with more room inside? I could take over one of the Scouts for you, it would look good siting next to my 47 Olds project.
Just trying to help you out so don't have too many projects around

Jeff – Yep, something with a little more comfort and class. The wife is completely on board. I am probably going to let the ’67 Scout go, thanks for the offer. I originally bought it from a good friend of mine and he’s interested in taking it back. We’ll see how that goes…

Love that old Packard. Treat'er right

I certainly have big plans! Just need big money now!

nice packard! what are your plans for it? leave the patina and just clear it? maybe drop an ls in it? looks like fun, especially with the lift to help out.
jim

Hello Jim – I am really hoping the original drive train can be brought back to life. I really want to keep that straight 8 in there. From everything I’ve read it’s got plenty of power to keep up with freeway speeds and is a smooth and comfy ride.


Regarding the exterior…it seems that the “patina” is all the rage now, and for signs hanging on the wall I think that’s great. But when it comes to cars all I see is “Rust”. This really what I had in mind (picture blatantly stolen from The Google):

Do the ICON Derelict thing with the Packard!

Thanks for the link! I’ll check it out when I get home (no speakers here at work). Looks like they went with the “patina” themed hot rod. I think I’m going to go for more of a comfy-ride-across-town-in-style kind of thing. It will be a nice change of pace from the beat-up-four-wheel-drive fleet I’ve got going now.

I'm green with envy - amazing stuff

Thank you for the compliment and stopping by!

Wow... nice find on the Packard. Looks like it is complete. I suppose they can be hard to find parts for? Will anticipate your progress on this project.

Yes, it’s pretty much all there. Some of the trim is a big rough, and everything needs to be cleaned up, but otherwise it’s intact. From what I’ve seen so far I’ll be able to get rebuild kits for the original brakes, suspension, etc. I’m not a purist by any means so if I need to modify something I’m not opposed, but I would like it looking as original as possible. And as far as progress goes, I plan on this being more of a long-term goal. I really would like to get my ’64 Scout up and running first.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Yes, it’s been a long time since my last update. I wish I could say I made a ton of progress in the shop, but sadly that is not the case. Not to say I have not been busy, but a lot has been outside of the shop. Absolutely zero progress on either of the Scout’s, which kind of bums me out. Really need to fix that. Always seems like something comes up though, as Life has a want to do. At this risk of turning this into a Life Blog instead of a Garage Gallery, here’s some of the things I have been up to lately that have taken time away from the shop/garage (see it’s kind of related).

The wife has been really into the fitness and running scene, so I have been trying to support her efforts and attending these fun-runs she does. She actually just completed her first real marathon a week or two ago.


Since I’m not getting any younger either, I’ve been putting more effort into my own fitness. Not much into running but I do enjoy hiking. Been hitting the gym on a regular basis, too.


Taking some defensive handgun training as well. If you’re going to carry, you should know how to use it and train with it.


On a related note, I semi-retired my daily carry piece and replaced it with a slight upgrade.


Trips down to Mexico. Was there for a concert in January and they banned wood fires on the beach. Not even allowed to have charcoal grills for cooking. Propane is the only exception. We decided to build our own portable fire pit and threw it in the back of my truck. Was a smashing (fortunately not explosive) success.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Ok, back to the actual shop environment. Got tired of the bare-metal railing that was slowly rusting and gave it a coat of paint.




Still working on my license plate collection. Have a few states left…


Made this rose for the wife out of some galvanized sheet I had laying around


Routine maintenance on the vehicles. Also not shown is replacing a strut mount on my brother-in-laws Camry, helping a friend replace the u-joints on his Avalanche along with both struts on his nephews Sentra. Oh, also replaced the turn signal switch on the Hummer.

 

[StormcrowAz]

And the recent thing that just showed up on my front door a couple days ago is a new TIG welder.






Picked up some tungsten, filler rod, a gas lense kit, and new argon bottle. Hopefully I can squeeze in some time this weekend to modify the old MIG cart to accommodate the bigger unit, put it all together, and run some practice beads.

And Jeff…yes, I’m still alive! Thanks for your post, it got me motivated to put this update together. If you’re ever (further) westward, feel free to drop by.

 

[hobie1dog]

Great thread, thanks for posting all the pictures for us.

 

[StormcrowAz]

Great thread, thanks for posting all the pictures for us.

Thanks for stopping by! Glad to contribute what I can.

Did a couple small modifications to the old mig cart in order to house the new tig welder. I’ve been able to practice a little but not nearly enough.


The wife brought this home yesterday, a Craigslist score:


I’ve been wanting an old phone to hang on the wall for a while now and this thing is pretty cool. The box is a weather-proof cast-iron tank.




I also happen to have a phone line at this spot, but have never checked to see if it actually works. I did take the phone apart but doesn’t look like it has a standard phone jack. Most likely it has to be hard-wired into some of these extra connectors?


Either way, I still think it’s a cool addition to the shop!

 

[slik560]

Someone more savvy than me could probably convert that phone from rotary to pulse dialing...but you'll have to ask for volunteers. Lots of old telco guys out there. I don't collect license plates, but if you need one from Kansas, I can help.