Above 1200 Sq/FT HQ - Eastern Washington Work Shop v3

[slodat]

As I mentioned in both the main shop thread and the Bldg 2 thread, I have been working on a third building for quite some time. I got the keys this week. The basics: 60 x 160 building with adjacent parking lot, (2) 400a 480v 3 phase services, generally in nice condition with some obvious upkeep needed, and what I need to continue growing.



I won't have access to the left 40x57 for a while. I have inherited a tenant, again. For now it's the center and right hand part of the building - nominally 60 x 120'. A few photos of the current state of things. The middle section:


Looking the other direction:


Restroom:


What will be my office for now. Will ultimately become the break room:


What will be the main shop area:


Looking the other direction. All the contents are now gone.

 

[slodat]

I've been working on a CAD model of the building for quite a while now. There's still plenty of detail missing, but this is the general lay of things.


That large door on the back wall is not there yet. It's not worth the effort to change it in the model right now.. This is something of a general idea of how the shop space will be used:



A very common question is will I be moving everything to this building aka consolidating in one space. Answer is.. kind of, I think.. it will depend. I can't shut everything down for a move. It will take a while to get the new building ready for machines. There's quite a bit of remodeling needed - roll up doors added, floors addressed, and lighting. I'm going to start the lighting with some direct wire LED bulbs to see how they go. First order of business is for this to not negatively impact getting things out the door and keeping the lights on.

Once the main remodel is complete, then I will start moving machines. Until then, this is my third full time job getting this building sorted out. Thankfully I'm only working 60 or so hours a week with the business these days and I can spend my weekends on the new building. I was able to chase down a hundred dollar used fridge yesterday. It was nice. I haven't been able to do something like that in a long while.



It's perfect for the shop. I've started the automation system as well. Really looking forward to that being tightly integrated into the build out of the shop.

 

[slodat]

Placeholder

 

[Xti04]

Impressive! Good luck building it out! Will you keep the other 2 buildings or be able to consolidate it all into one place now?

 

[macgyver37]

That should be enough juice to power your forseeable needs. I am so thankful that my shop had 3 phase when I got it. Just made life easier and got things going quicker. Mine is 240v, so I have a step up transformer to 480 for a few machines. You'll probably have to go the other way.

What is the height under those beams? I assume that carpet is glued down? That will likely be less fun than most jobs getting that up and clean.

 

[slodat]

I picked up some 8’ T12 LED ballast bypass bulbs from HD. I got them installed in two (of 28) fixtures. Really happy with how they turned out.




(Roof was fixed years ago.)

There are places where I'll need to add additional fixtures. These retrofit bulbs will make v1 lighting a LOT less involved.

I found a 277v 10a Z-Wave relay on Amazon. Hubitat connected to it without incident. This allowed me to control to a fixture that didn’t seem to have a switch that I could find. Really liking Hubitat.

 

[slodat]

That should be enough juice to power your forseeable needs. I am so thankful that my shop had 3 phase when I got it. Just made life easier and got things going quicker. Mine is 240v, so I have a step up transformer to 480 for a few machines. You'll probably have to go the other way.

What is the height under those beams? I assume that carpet is glued down? That will likely be less fun than most jobs getting that up and clean.

The 480 will be really nice. I'm going to have quite a bit of electrical work to do - 480 and 240 3 phase distribution, and more single phase 240. I started wrapping my head around it today..

Height under beam is 9.5'. Ceiling is ~12'. While I would love 16ft or so, this will work. The carpet is glued down. It's quite old (90's), and so far it seems to come up without excessive effort in the two places I pulled a little up. The real question is what is the floor like under that old carpet?

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Congratulations on the new building, looking forward to seeing how your going to use it.

 

[rvieceli]

Congratulations on the new building. Condolences on the inherited tenant. Hopefully not a lot left on their lease

Ron

 

[PugetDude]

Congratulations on your 3rd...

 

[Finallygotit]

Congrats!!

 

[slodat]

I’ve been working on this one on my days ”off”. I’m not sure I know what a day off is. To me, a day off means my phone doesn’t ring much and it’s okay if I don’t ship invoicable work.. or something like that. One of the things that accelerated my shop(s) over the years was looking for deals on the true industrial stuff, the closeouts, CL, etc. I ******* loathe FB marketplace. It’s the worst. I miss Craigslist. It just isn’t what it once was.

With that said, I found a very nice pair of what appeared to be new condition Vidmar cabinets. The guy wouldn’t hold them.. he ended up lowering the price and they were still there when I was in Seattle yesterday for other stuff. It was a 350,000 sq ft drug store distribution center liquidation. I gave the guy an additional $100 for the contents. Mostly so I didn’t have to unload the drawers before putting them in my truck.

Eternally grateful for all the folks that help me out along the way. In this case, the guys across the street got the two cabinets out of the truck and on the ground for me.



I pulled all but the bottom drawer in both. The contents:









Then used the appliance dolly to wheel them inside. Once in the general area it was clear I needed to get these “shelves” out of the room.



I also removed another janky shelf in the process. This is the rear step:


I set up the chop saw outside and chopped a new deck as I demoed the shelves.



End result:


This is a 10x 25 or so room. At this point I like the idea of using the wall the cabinets are on for similar storage for maintenance type items and things I don’t want to look at. I want to keep the through aisle clear. Currently it’s the only concrete ramp between the two elevations.

As I’ve started to wrap my head around the building the excitement is starting to build a little. I think this is going to be an incredible place to work when I get it all setup.

Also… was able to take a look at the electrical in the tenant side. 1000A of 480v 3 phase. I couldn’t be happier about that surprise.

 

[rvieceli]

Nice score on the cabinets and contents. My son loves buying janky looking cabinets with contents at online auctions. There is almost always stuff he can clean up and sell to get more than his money back on the whole auction purchase.

@slodat do you have vehicle access at that door with the steps? If so that door looks to be about the right height for unloading stuff from a pickup bed.

Ron

 

[slodat]

Nice score on the cabinets and contents. My son loves buying janky looking cabinets with contents at online auctions. There is almost always stuff he can clean up and sell to get more than his money back on the whole auction purchase.

@slodat do you have vehicle access at that door with the steps? If so that door looks to be about the right height for unloading stuff from a pickup bed.

Ron

I have always enjoyed buying in lots. I REALLY need to get into auctions. I went to them with my dad when I was a kid. Find memories.. and so much ****!!

The door in question opens up the the street. Plenty of access. Longer term my hope is to have a concrete pad and stairs poured for the planned 16x10 roll up door that would extend over to the man door. One thing at a time. Up until now the old wood wouldn’t have supported any real load. I’ve definitely had it in mind.

I got two more of the old T12 fixtures retrofitted for the direct wire LED bulbs. I’m liking how this is working out. It’s a lot of ladder climbing and my middle age *** doesn’t love that part. I’m sure it’s good for me though. The building is around 50 years old. So are the lights. I’m finding lots of potential gremlins in these old lights. For example:





The retrofit bulbs I’m using eliminate the ballast.

This first fixture for the day must have had 15 wire nuts and head scratching electrical diarrhea, including what’s pictured above. Once it’s all buttoned up:


The second was quite a bit quicker after sorting out where everything went in the previous fixture.



This is a hallway along the backside of the building.

This is going to go like Bldg 2 did for a long while.. working on it when I can.. whether that’s time or funds. Keep chipping away at it.

 

[Finallygotit]

Holy ****!!

 

[slodat]

Holy ****!!

Yep! That's why I'm happy to be going through it all. Better to find these issues before they find me!

 

[Jayman17]

I like my wiring well done!

 

[Grant Gunderson]

With that said, I found a very nice pair of what appeared to be new condition Vidmar cabinets. The guy wouldn’t hold them.. he ended up lowering the price and they were still there when I was in Seattle yesterday for other stuff. It was a 350,000 sq ft drug store distribution center liquidation. I gave the guy an additional $100 for the contents. Mostly so I didn’t have to unload the drawers before putting them in my truck.

I also saw those on FB. I would have jumped on them had I not just bought 4 listas full of hardware I’m still unloading…. That and I’m out of space until I can move into a commercial space. Property here in Bellingham has gotten stupid expensive.

 

[Klokwerk]

Congrats on the new building! Love checking in on how things are going and wow, they're going good!

 

[macgyver37]

My shop was remodeled for a grocery store in '62, so I have been redoing the lighting as well. It's similar to what you are finding. Whoever was replacing ballasts had more wire nuts than sense. I've also been insulating as I go. Same family owned it for almost 60 yrs, didn't put a lick of insulation in it that whole time..

I decided to buy a scissor lift app 5 yrs ago, if you can swing it, I highly suggest one. I have too much stuff to do to both inside and out of my building, I wasn't going to get much of it at all done on a ladder.

 

[slodat]

New machine day! First is a forklift for this building. Rebuilt engine, very nice condition with lots of refurbishing done prior to sale. First time having side shift.



This one was just dropped off:


This will be great for the lighting LED retrofits, running airline, etc. Still kind of in shock that it made sense to buy a scissor lift!

Contractor is set to start the roll up door openings this coming week. Going with 16w x 10 front and rear of the building. Also having them do the concrete ramp between the two elevations, removing all the carpet, and patching the drywall in the ceiling.

 

[slodat]

Contractor started the remodel yesterday. Biggest thing is cutting in two large roll up doors. Other stuff is removing the carpet, opening up two interior walls, patching some ceiling drywall, and pouring a concrete ramp between the two elevations.

They used the scissor lift to peel the carpet back.. pinching the carpet in the scissorayers.



I’m still a little blown away at how well this worked. In two days the carpet is all out and hauled off, ceiling drywall ready for patching, both walls opened up, and more.

End of day yesterday:


And today:




I’m excited to see how far we can stretch the current budget. Lots of work, and it’s going well.

 

[slodat]

The contractor made a lot of progress in the first week. Sounds like they are going to grind the carpet adhesive off the floor with a finer grit. The floor is in pretty good shape overall with some spalling here and there. They got one of the roll up door openings cut in with a temporary buck while the doors are being made.



There was rebar in the wall. Very happy seeing that.



The opening will get steel similar to what they did on the Bldg 2 door project.



Security cameras cover each opening from multiple angles on both sides.



Then they spent the last two days getting things ready for the forklift ramp between the two elevations. They cut out about half of the area so the lower part of the ramp will have some thickness.


The ramp ends up 13.5” of rise over 12’. 15’ wide.



There’s a lot of rebar, tied into the existing concrete. Should be a great forklift ramp. Sounds like 6” thick minimum with thickened edges all around.

 

[Finallygotit]

Boy they have been busy!

 

[slodat]

Second week with the contractor went well. Things felt kind of slow, which is to be expected with stuff like patching drywall. They got things cleaned up and started painting. It was already mostly painted white, so not quite as dramatic of a change as the other two shops that had no paint. Looks great nonetheless!

Some before shots:






And after:




The ramp pour went well.


I don’t think the truck was here a whole hour. Four guys with wheel barrows made quick work of the 5.5 yards of mud.



This is the first time I e had concrete work done. I’m really happy with how it turned out.



Now to wait for it to cure. Next week should see some major transformation with grinding the adhesive off the floor.

 

[slodat]

Been a while.. some updates. Ran into a permit issue, so the door openings aspect of the remodel were on pause while that was sorted out. This was the scene for what ended up being about two months:


After the ramp the contractor brought in his floor machine and crew.




These guys did a great job. Especially when my limited budget was taken into account. This is what was coming up:


The first pass was a rough abrasive scarifying pass. It took off the adhesive easily. A second pass with a finer grit smoothed things out.


The did some patch and repair work to even out the surface and fill the larger cracks and spalling areas. It worked well for what we are working with.


This area had the biggest overall transformation.


This is also a dramatic change:


At this point things were on hold for the rest of August until early last week..

 

[slodat]

The contractor was back on-site last week. The made quick work of getting the steel in place on the front door opening. The door went in and it was down to details at the end of the first day.



The concrete sawing company did a great job on cutting in the rear wall. They used a track saw to make the cut flush with the floor. It turned out great.






I was running my *** off with so many contractor workers here. It went really well. The next morning the steel and door went in on the rear opening.






While all that was going on the start of the kitchen area stuff arrived. We set them in place.



Conference table and chairs showed up and things are starting to look like something in here.


This was the end of the day Monday.

 

[slodat]

We have started doing some work here. Starting with an empty space is great in almost every way, except cost. It takes a LOT of money to get things up and running. So far, so good. I got a good deal on a new CO2 laser. We use it in the main shop enough that it makes sense to have one here as well. I bought the same Boss LS3655. I did get their fume extractor (vs. exhausting outside). That will be here around the end of the month. The plumber is scheduled around the same time to take care of plumbing in a kitchen sink, washing machine, a sink in the shop, and a second toilet stall in the bathroom.

I got lucky and scored a used and completely gone through Swiss Stierli-Bieger horizontal CNC press brake. This has been on my radar all year. I got it for 40% of a new machine, and they included all the tooling it came to them with in that price. It has two angle correction dies. They are about $30k. So, this was a screaming deal. It is on the way and is set to arrive next week. The angle correction feature will hopefully mean a lot less setup parts/coupons for the various bus parts we make.







We will give it a thorough detailing upon arrival. I'm excited to get this one in service. We've been forming bus parts on a vertical brake. This will be a nice addition to the shop.

 

[Finallygotit]

I'm anxious to see this one in operation.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Wow, some great updates on the shop and new equipment - congratulations!

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Thank you for the update and showing us the great progress your making.

 

[slodat]

I’ve had the 4x8 rolling work table in the main shop for coming up on 20 years. It has proven to be incredibly useful. So, we made one for this shop the other day. I have casters from several HF cabinets that sit on the floor. Was able to get it together entirely with stuff on hand.



I’ll get some shelves for the ends and the bottom level sorted out soon. I’ve been looking at all sorts of shelves and racks for the materials and stuff we have in the shop. Started with these to get things off the floor.



I was able to get 3/4 of the LED lighting retrofits installed. The last row will happen once I have a place to put the crates that are currently on the floor. I may stack them for now.



This is so much better!

Thanks for following along and contributing to the conversation!

 

[jbmatth]

Looks like you are making a ton of progress on the new building, congrats.

JB

 

[xtremek]

Looking good.

 

[Finallygotit]

Looks like you are making a ton of progress on the new building, congrats.

JB

 

[nadogail]

Unfortunately it takes money to make money, your investments in the building and equipment should serve you well.

I am impressed by your using the Scissor Lift to remove the old carpet; that is Creative Thinking.

Everything you have posted in this thread is very impressive.

 

[Mr.zippy]

It's been a real joy watching your business grow! Im glad we got to come along for the ride. Congratulations!

 

[slodat]

Looks like you are making a ton of progress on the new building, congrats.

JB

Looking good.

Unfortunately it takes money to make money, your investments in the building and equipment should serve you well.

I am impressed by your using the Scissor Lift to remove the old carpet; that is Creative Thinking.

Everything you have posted in this thread is very impressive.

It's been a real joy watching your business grow! Im glad we got to come along for the ride. Congratulations!

Thanks guys! This is so much bigger than me. I’m humbled seeing it begin to take shape. It has been a hell of a ride. Just shy of three years full time self employed.

 

[slodat]

Those of you that have followed my journey are no strangers to new machine day. Today it was a Steirli Bieger CNC Horizontal Press Brake. This machine was used. It came with two angle measuring dies - 50 and 90mm. We gave it a good wipe down once it was in place.



The appropriate 480v 5 wire twist lock plugs and receptacles should be here tomorrow. McMaster Carr continuously coming in clutch on anything I’ve needed from them.

A look into the bus fabrication area:


The new shop computer also came today. It’s got a nice NVidia GPU and will run Fusion and Lightburn (for the co2 laser) quite well. The desk and chair were given to me by the seller of the building. Perfect for the shop computer.



The guys and I are liking the idea of a sliding barn door for the ramp. Should help separate the shop sounds from the admin area.

 

[MacTexas]

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