Full Circle Garage

[Carl S]

Hi everyone this is my first post. I stumbled across this site a couple weeks ago looking for tool storage ideas. Wow, do I love this place! I found a ton of great ideas, not the least of which is making a place in the floor for a flush scissor lift. Fortunately I hadn’t started building my new garage so I added that to the plans right away.

Starting next week, my wife and I will be having a new garage built. We expect it will take 60-70 days to complete. The new shop will be 26x36 with a 400square foot studio space on the second level. We will be operating a small custom bicycle frame building business from the first level and I'm also planning to build a race car. We’ve been operating out of commercial location but have been steadily downsizing for the last eight years and are now moving home where it was started, so we call it the Full Circle garage. The reason for downsizing is just basic simplicity and quality of life. This will be our 10th and hopefully last location. You can see a history of our shops here if you’re interested:

http://www.strongframes.com/my_story/my_story/

I’ve attached a rendering of the garage and will start posting the construction process as it occurs. Thanks to everyone for all the inspiration. There are a lot of truly marvelous garage’s and very smart people on this board and it has been a fantastic resource.

 

[ODIS]

Looks like a great project. Is the rendering Sketch Up? Will be interesting to follow your progress. Hope you have a ton of fun.

Ody.

PS: Your story is great. Congratulation on the journey!

 

[930dreamer]

Welcome, please add pics as the build progresses.

 

[Baada]

Count me in on this. I'm excited for you. It's great to see successful small businesses doing what it takes to continue to be successful. Plus you are going to love that commute!

I also checked out your website. Those are some terrific bikes you guys are churning out. I could really feel your commitment and passion for doing things right. And as a material engineer I really enjoyed the materials section. Some terrific information, especially the titanium and carbon fiber sections. Did you know that when the airline industry first started using composite materials the FAA required them to manufacture components largely in the same manner as traditional metal components. They required post cure assembly of composite materials by drilling holes and using rivets, which is about the worst thing you can do! Not to mention the reduced weight reduction benefit by having to use all the rivets. It's only in the more recent decade that they are able to use composites properly to take full advantage of their material properties. I digress...


Keep us posted with build pics and some manufacturing photos when you get up and rolling.

 

[Carl S]

Looks like a great project. Is the rendering Sketch Up? Will be interesting to follow your progress. Hope you have a ton of fun.

Ody.

PS: Your story is great. Congratulation on the journey!

Thanks a ton ODIS.

Yep, the rendering was done in Sketch Up by the architect. Pretty cool app. He gave me the file so I could spin it around and change the lighting and stuff.

 

[Carl S]

Welcome, please add pics as the build progresses.

Thanks 930dreamer I'll be posting the entire project as it unfolds.

 

[Carl S]

Count me in on this. I'm excited for you. It's great to see successful small businesses doing what it takes to continue to be successful. Plus you are going to love that commute!

I also checked out your website. Those are some terrific bikes you guys are churning out. I could really feel your commitment and passion for doing things right. And as a material engineer I really enjoyed the materials section. Some terrific information, especially the titanium and carbon fiber sections. Did you know that when the airline industry first started using composite materials the FAA required them to manufacture components largely in the same manner as traditional metal components. They required post cure assembly of composite materials by drilling holes and using rivets, which is about the worst thing you can do! Not to mention the reduced weight reduction benefit by having to use all the rivets. It's only in the more recent decade that they are able to use composites properly to take full advantage of their material properties. I digress...


Keep us posted with build pics and some manufacturing photos when you get up and rolling.

Thanks Baada, pretty crazy they approached composites in that way. The one thing I learned when starting out with composites was that it is nothing like metal. Whole different set of rules and all the feedback we look for as fabricators is entirely different.

 

[Carl S]

Update

So I thought I'd show a little of our progress so far. We hope to be done in about 3 weeks. I'll post more when we're done with the building and then a bunch once we load it up.

The ground level is my shop and where we have our business. The second floor will be used as my wife's studio. We also have a ton of killer landscaping that we're trying to get in before the snow flies but we'll probably be forced to finish that up in the Spring.

Thanks for looking and thanks to those that have posted their garages for all the inspiration.

 

[ODIS]

I'll bet you are excited to be this far along on the project with only a few weeks until it is finished! Great job and looking forward to your next post.

Ody.

 

[Carl S]

I'll bet you are excited to be this far along on the project with only a few weeks until it is finished! Great job and looking forward to your next post.

Ody.

Thanks Ody, I sure am. I have all my stuff staged and ready to move in.

 

[Baada]

Whats the flat spot above the garage? A deck area? Looking forward to seeing this thing done and some photos of bikes in production.

 

[Baada]

Nevermind. I just realized that your first post has a graphic of the plan. That is going to be awesome.

 

[Carl S]

Whats the flat spot above the garage? A deck area? Looking forward to seeing this thing done and some photos of bikes in production.

Yep, it's an L shaped deck. The front also serves as an overhang above my garage doors.

 

[fortyfour]

Great to see you sharing your build here Carl. Looking forward to seeing things come together for you. And I agree with another poster: You will really like your commute. I know I do! My best - Kris @ 44 Bikes

 

[Carl S]

Great to see you sharing your build here Carl. Looking forward to seeing things come together for you. And I agree with another poster: You will really like your commute. I know I do! My best - Kris @ 44 Bikes

Thanks Kris, I've enjoyed checking out your threads as well. Nice to have another framebuilder on the board.

 

[PeteMoore]

Carl, that's an awesome wee site you have, really enjoyed the honest account of your history with the business.

Good luck with the latest incarnation!!!

 

[Carl S]

Carl, that's an awesome wee site you have, really enjoyed the honest account of your history with the business.

Good luck with the latest incarnation!!!

Thanks Pete!