Above 1200 Sq/FT LilScorpion’s Fab Space

[kaymccampbell]

I love watching this, it's lovely work, but in my shop, I'd just be glad to get the thing stuck together and nailed up on the wall. If I coated it with some protective film, it'd probably be purple n orange, because that's what I've got laying around.

 

[legenddc]

The ones I found that were white are dirty and/or off white like yellowish….and I’m a little far down the path now having already purchased an additional 5 pairs in black. I could coat the screens but ifs a lot of work and may look stupid with the black housings…

I saw that they were off white too. You won’t be looking around at your speakers anyway when you’re working.

 

[zanyad]

The ones I found that were white are dirty and/or off white like yellowish….and I’m a little far down the path now having already purchased an additional 5 pairs in black. I could coat the screens but ifs a lot of work and may look stupid with the black housings…

 

[fartymarty]

I hate you.

Yeah buddy, get in line.

OK, joking aside, we all appreciate how well you are documenting this for us. You could do the whole thing just as well without sharing it with us. We appreciate it and the extra work it entails.

Just remember that the suggestions that Max & I made were going to happen in your own mind down the road even if you were not on this forum. I know that from watching your past work.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Now that you’re excepting suggestions, and you also have a powder coating setup, shouldn’t that vertical uni-strut be white also. I’m sure once the oven is up to temperature, why not?!
Please post more pictures from all angles, I’m sure we can offer more assistance if we have more material….

 

[rvieceli]

I was wondering about that upright as well. Pretty soon he’ll be thinking about pulling the conduit and powder coating that stuff.

Ron

 

[slodat]

I hate you.






fhis is such a slippery slope…I found them in steel so I can powder coat to match…

UMMMM.... you MUST make these with your shiny new machines! I understand one isn't there yet, but still!

 

[rattle_snake]

So, from a spatial audio perspective, how are you going to locate and wire them for most-bestest performance? Having seen your jeep's audio system it can't just be random or not evaluated.

As a young and arrogant audiophile, I wasn't a fan of Bose speakers, but damn did they sound good. Instead of the typical 2 or 3 way flat-response configurations, Bose used multiple full range drivers and dispersion techniques to their advantage. Most of the time the listener is off-axis and not equidistant from the drivers, where they shine.

 

[lilscorpion]

Worked on getting the layout more finalized last weekend. Started by shifting the plasma table into position, or close.



Now to move the lathe with my skates for the first time ever. It was interesting and one skate almost always wants to walk away because the lathe only really touches at 3 points at any one time.



My skates are tapped for 1/2-13 bolts but removing the feet on my lathe was a non-starter so I had to check it every 6” or so and maybe half the time reposition. It weighs about 4500#. Interestingly enough, the combination of the epoxy floors and my lack of weight I was barely able to move it at all. I had to get my son to help…we turned it only 90-degrees, and pushed it about 4’ into position.



Final (for now) resting case now parallel to the length of the shop.



There’s a little more than 4’ between it and the benches. Plenty of room.



Leveling the lathe wasn’t tough but tedious because I was on my elbows and knees turning one foot at a time 1/8 turn until level. Got there tho



Next was to move the mill into place next to the lathe.



Mill feels like a feather compared to the lathe. Can almost move it with just a few fingers.



The process is still the same tho. Toe jack, place feet, move. For the mill, the feet have grippy stuff in them so the trolleys tend to stay put better as the weight shifts subtlety.



Need to spend a little more time on final placement tonight and I’ll see if I can get an overhead view while I’m at it

 

[lilscorpion]

UMMMM.... you MUST make these with your shiny new machines! I understand one isn't there yet, but still!

You’re right, I must. Was actually thinking about how best to. Bending metal in this case would be a nice capability but that’s probably not until August at soonest. Could make something on the mill but that’s so last year Matt…thinking about maybe plastic on the router.

 

[lilscorpion]

So, from a spatial audio perspective, how are you going to locate and wire them for most-bestest performance? Having seen your jeep's audio system it can't just be random or not evaluated.

As a young and arrogant audiophile, I wasn't a fan of Bose speakers, but damn did they sound good. Instead of the typical 2 or 3 way flat-response configurations, Bose used multiple full range drivers and dispersion techniques to their advantage. Most of the time the listener is off-axis and not equidistant from the drivers, where they shine.

Uh…you place speakers where they sound good(er). Garage, for example, each bay gets a left and right. Shop I played with them and it sounds best with all the left speakers on one wall and all the right on the other. Now I can only stand facing the length of the shop which I can live with.

Sheesh, how.



I’m a caveman. Music is the opposite of silence and the opposite of machine noise. Probably why Bose sound SO good. Clearly I don’t know squat.

 

[lilscorpion]

I love watching this, it's lovely work, but in my shop, I'd just be glad to get the thing stuck together and nailed up on the wall. If I coated it with some protective film, it'd probably be purple n orange, because that's what I've got laying around.

Hey, purple and orange could be sweet…well probably not but it would be entertaining as hell to watch it unfold. I say DO IT

I saw that they were off white too. You won’t be looking around at your speakers anyway when you’re working.

Nah, I don’t really notice until I pause to take a breath and look up…or when I’m putting together a post for GJ. Ha!

Yeah buddy, get in line.

OK, joking aside, we all appreciate how well you are documenting this for us. You could do the whole thing just as well without sharing it with us. We appreciate it and the extra work it entails.

Just remember that the suggestions that Max & I made were going to happen in your own mind down the road even if you were not on this forum. I know that from watching your past work.

You have me figured out, no hidin here. You guys don’t realize it but you shape the outcome more than me sometimes. I can’t get some of the ideas out of my head. Can’t sleep and $hit

Now that you’re excepting suggestions, and you also have a powder coating setup, shouldn’t that vertical uni-strut be white also. I’m sure once the oven is up to temperature, why not?!
Please post more pictures from all angles, I’m sure we can offer more assistance if we have more material….

So…this one hits me deep. I actually had that urge once my PC was up and running. I ACTUALLY started down the path and a few hours in I realized just how much work it would be. I also realized that on some of the conduit work it might be nearly impossible to swap out the unistrut easily, or without significant dis-assembly. I powder coated 10 and stopped because I’d be going the wrong way. My shop needs to be up and organized, not white. I did get a chuckle out of how easily my ADD breaks me sometimes tho.

I was wondering about that upright as well. Pretty soon he’ll be thinking about pulling the conduit and powder coating that stuff.

Ron

Already considered it. Conduit is 10’ in lengths naturally. To do it I’d need to build an oven bigger than I’ll ever need. While considering it, I realized just how dumb even considering it was. The thought lasted about 31 seconds. Enjoyed what I could envision tho for that short moment. Looked BAD ***

 

[stockerwithalocker]

It’s not cheap, but McMaster sells white powder coated unistrut…

I admire your attention to detail while trying to quickly organizing/layout your shop. That’s a fine line and you are doing a good job toeing it.

 

[lilscorpion]

It’s not cheap, but McMaster sells white powder coated unistrut…

I admire your attention to detail while trying to quickly organizing/layout your shop. That’s a fine line and you are doing a good job toeing it.

No way…[looking]…

No way: yes, they do make ‘em in white but it’s not my white. Dodge White. That was CLOSE

My wife says I can’t hang out with you any more.








Pst…we’re good.

 

[lilscorpion]

Parts came so I put in a little time on the dust collection system. Got the blast gates installed.



I’ll be using Grit Automation (https://gritautomation.com/) to control the whole system which relies on powered servos to open the blast gates when a tool starts up.



One power supply can power half a dozen gates so I want to do the best I can to keep the gates tight where possible so I don’t end up with a mess after all the work I’ve done to avoid it thus far. I’m thinking I’ll be able to mount it somewhere in here.



Moving on to the ducting. Since I’m figuring out what I need as I go, I got a 90 so I could figure out what I need to do to get to the ceiling (which ultimately goes over to the table saw). I need a 4 1/2” piece. That’s not a normal builder part they provide so hopefully they can make custom lengths. I’ll have to call.



Moving down the wall now - with more duct I can now figure out how tall the uni-strut needs to be to capture the duct. The answer is i need it to be 10” taller, so 26” instead of the 16” I originally used. Of course the first one I need to replace has the dual speaker bracket I JUST installed. LOL



From there it’s mostly rinse and repeat moving down the wall. Replace strut support, balance tube in left hand while trying to clamp it on to the other with the right…tightrope $hit.



Final measure is now possible. I need a partial long piece to get to the step in and then a pair of 30* tubes. I pulled some measurements and I now need to get the final order coming. Getting close now.

 

[Firstram]

I set up the dust collection in a local cabinet shop, Nordfab products are amazing to work with!

 

[lilscorpion]

I set up the dust collection in a local cabinet shop, Nordfab products are amazing to work with!

Yeah, it’s great stuff. Big time $$$. Just now finding these guys who are a much more reasonable option for very similar product. Gave them a call today. Their stuff is 100% compatible with Norfab with the exception of the slip-fit product (how you make custom lengths). I guess the tolerances are too tight so you can’t cross-pollinate. It’s half the price which is huge savings.

Clamp Together Pipe System

Fast and easy duct installation using no screws or sealers.

blastgateco.com

 

[rattle_snake]

Been said already but I'm super impressed with what and how you have set up your shop so far. I can tell a lot of planning, thinking and $$$ has gone into the space not to mention you doing all the work, and absolutely fantastic job at it all. Making it all look easy, but each system or aspect is far from simple. Keep up the great work and thanks for taking the time to share.

 

[zanyad]

to all the kudos above. Thanks for sharing!

 

[lilscorpion]

My little project for the night is a project I’ve been putting off out of sheer laziness for about 27ish years. This torch caddy I made out of a hand truck shortly after I purchased the torch as one of my first half dozen metal working tools. The stupid hand cart I picked has inflatable tires which constantly go flat (since I got it). I’d bet 99.99% of the time the tires have been flat and I’ve pushed it around like that. Maybe .01% if the time I break down and fill the tires. not sure why I haven’t addressed it until now.



The bearings are shot as well. One just fell apart as I was removing it. Bone dry too.



New wheels are not really and upgrade otherwise and fit perfectly.



Swap took no more than 5 minutes and that includes grabbing a pair of needle nose pliers, removing the cotter pins, swapping wheels, and standing back up.



And throwing the old ones away. 1,000,000 times better tho.

 

[XJSuperman]

Sometimes its the little things. Very nice.

 

[csp]

Mastering the art of putting ten pounds of stuff into the five pound bag.

Now, which box are my white Bose 101s packed in? I still don't know where half of my stuff is.

 

[lilscorpion]

Mastering the art of putting ten pounds of stuff into the five pound bag.

Now, which box are my white Bose 101s packed in? I still don't know where half of my stuff is.

It’s an art. Those who really impress me can design it all out and intentionally optimize space and others, like me, pass it off as a plan but really are just problem solving thru it as I go.

Don’t you start on the white Bose 101’s too…unless you have 6 pairs of them.

 

[HogDude]

Nice work. You're going to hate me for saying this, but I think it would look better if the speaker mounts were also white so you saw the black speaker kind of hanging in space.

Nailed it! I'm not familiar with the 101 from Bose. Some of the Bose speakers relied on placement near a wall and used that to reflect the sound from rear facing ports. I know, nit picky.

 

[lilscorpion]

Nailed it! I'm not familiar with the 101 from Bose. Some of the Bose speakers relied on placement near a wall and used that to reflect the sound from rear facing ports. I know, nit picky.

101’s are old-cool primitive. There are no real firing ports or cones,



only a simple front firing one and ports to create the sound dimension they’re capable of. Dang this one is dirty. Whoever had it before musta used it outside (101’s are water proof…er…resistant)



Late 1980’s tech. The latter versions introduce cooler designs like you’re referring to.

 

[LXCam]

101’s are old-cool primitive. There are no real firing ports or cones,



only a simple front firing one and ports to create the sound dimension they’re capable of. Dang this one is dirty. Whoever had it before musta used it outside (101’s are water proof…er…resistant)



Late 1980’s tech. The latter versions introduce cooler designs like you’re referring to.

101's are almost bullet proof. I had a set under the eaves outside my patio for a couple decades and they always performed. When we moved I took them down and my boy wanted them for the bed of his truck.......that killed them.

 

[lilscorpion]

101's are almost bullet proof. I had a set under the eaves outside my patio for a couple decades and they always performed. When we moved I took them down and my boy wanted them for the bed of his truck.......that killed them.

Unless you put them in a steel box, they’re gonna give up the ghost the first time they take a whack.

 

[lilscorpion]

No updates this week…spent the last week working on home security and home network. Wanna make sure I can see fools coming from a long ways! (If this pic gains you insight, keep that $hit to yourself)



Look forward to continued shop $hit this week!

 

[lilscorpion]

Got started early on the list of things in the shop this weekend by hanging the first of two 8’ ceiling fans. Started by putting up the unistrut on the ceiling. This is primarily for the electrical runs I’ll need to make to the machines but will also be how I mount the fans to the ceiling.



Took too long to get just 2 of them in place. But they were square and lobbed up just like I wanted.



The I realized that I could like on the laser across
The two and then run down the ceiling by just lining up the unistrut on the 16th slot. Duh. Way faster and lighted up perfectly.



Here’s why I need it on the ceiling now too. I need to run electrical to the machines that are now islands away from the walls. Something like this to the Mill and the Lathe.



With the unistrut in place on the ceiling, I started mounting the first fan. I’m going to use unistrut nuts but run an captive bolt from the rear so I can lock the ceiling mount in place with nylocks and make absolutely sure they don’t work themselves loose.



I toyed with the idea of getting Big *** Fans but at nearly $4k per fan, I just couldn’t do it so I found the highest flowing large fan I could find on Amazon. Settled on this 8’ one that flies just over 10000 cfm - https://a.co/d/0gLPvNg0



Install was like any other fan and went quick.



The shop is about 21’ wide to give you perspective. It’s a big fan.



And it moves a lot of air. Combined with the exhaust fans the room cooled 10* almost
Instantly. 2 fans will be plenty.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Got started early on the list of things in the shop this weekend by hanging the first of two 8’ ceiling fans. Started by putting up the unistrut on the ceiling. This is primarily for the electrical runs I’ll need to make to the machines but will also be how I mount the fans to the ceiling.



Took too long to get just 2 of them in place. But they were square and lobbed up just like I wanted.



The I realized that I could like on the laser across
The two and then run down the ceiling by just lining up the unistrut on the 16th slot. Duh. Way faster and lighted up perfectly.



Here’s why I need it on the ceiling now too. I need to run electrical to the machines that are now islands away from the walls. Something like this to the Mill and the Lathe.



With the unistrut in place on the ceiling, I started mounting the first fan. I’m going to use unistrut nuts but run an captive bolt from the rear so I can lock the ceiling mount in place with nylocks and make absolutely sure they don’t work themselves loose.



I toyed with the idea of getting Big *** Fans but at nearly $4k per fan, I just couldn’t do it so I found the highest flowing large fan I could find on Amazon. Settled on this 8’ one that flies just over 10000 cfm - https://a.co/d/0gLPvNg0



Install was like any other fan and went quick.



The shop is about 21’ wide to give you perspective. It’s a big fan.



And it moves a lot of air. Combined with the exhaust fans the room cooled 10* almost
Instantly. 2 fans will be plenty.

Fan looks great. I also have toyed with the idea of the new i6 series Big *** fans which at least are a little bit cheaper but still once you add the right down rod are around $2700 each. I settled on a Minka air units that moves around 11000CFM vs the 15000 CFM the Big *** fan moves. One are I think taking a risk on something less is worth it with most be about only 10-20% the cost admission.

 

[SilverJimmy]

I’ve been looking at these…

Amazon.com

Look pretty good, Westinghouse, so hopefully a good made and warranty backup. I’m considering 3 for my new shop build.

 

[lilscorpion]

I did get the second fan installed this weekend. I can’t say that $900 for a pair of 8’ fans, each capable of moving 10k cfm each, isn’t way more cost effective than a big *** fan. Now I can’t speak to longevity but even if I have to replace both I still would be in cheaper than a BAF by slightly less than half.

 

[lilscorpion]

As I chip away at the final steps of getting the shop up and running, I now am far enough that I need to get stuff in drawers...and I need drawers to do that. This last weekend I finally completed the final steps to get the CNC router up and running. Part of that was to get a spoil board machined and immediately I was faced with an interesting challenge - ShopSabre offset the machining of the vacuum table which will make it difficult to hold onto parts in a 5x5 sheet (which I told them explicitly I was planning to do).



I was thinking that there’d be plenty of vacuum to hold onto the MDF sheet I needed to face however learned quickly that, while it can hang onto it, it want able to hold it flat across the width of the table. I’ve decided to make my first effort machining to fix this but while I wait for the cutter to arrive, I decided to use some fasteners to hold it down while I face it.



And with that, I was machining for the first time..



Didn’t take long to do both sides, good to have it out of the way and the newly acquired confidence that the first program doesn’t absolutely need to crash. LOL

 

[lilscorpion]

To build drawers/cabinets I also need to learn how to use the software. Typically, it's quite the leap to learn software quickly but since I was determined, I just went heads down. My long-term intent is to use Fusion 360. After a crash course of pointers thrown at me by a fellow GJ member I was able to learn enough to make a cabinet. Enough that I know I'm going to use it going forward for all of my machines. But for now, I also have some compelling software that I got a discount on with the machine - Mozaik. For those of you who've never heard of it before, it's more or less the same software that I saw when we designed/bought our cabinets from Home Depot years ago. It's a cad-like designer more similar to sketchup but specifically for cabinets and was really easy to learn.

I decided to first model out what I have for the shop to help me figure out how to use it. It took a little measuring but I was able to get a ver accurate depiction of the shop side fairly quickly. In the picture below, the left is the entrance to the house (via mud room), the right is the 19' barn door like opening wall, top is the side that borders the garage (with the thru-door all the way to the left), and the bottom is the exterior wall.



This may be the first time I've been able to help you guys get a good look at the layout and what I was able to accomplish with the recycled wood out of the last garage. First wall, is the entrance way to the house (again, to the left in the overhead picture). Just about all of the cabinets follow the same format but are different sizes in height. This consistent format has made it easy to move things around when I needed to.



This is the wall bordering the garage (top in the arial view). You'll notice that none of the cabinets touch the floor. I decided that I wanted to be able to wash/rinse as much of the floor as possible so all cabinets are 10" off the ground. All will have some fabricated supports down the road but I need the plasma table up in order to make them so I'll come back to them. All of the drawer bases to the right (it looks like there's 5 but there's actually 2 with dividers and 1 in the middle) have no drawers and are open.



This is the inset part of the wall to the bottom in the arial. This wall has 2 really large nice windows that enable me to work in the shop on most days with the lights completely off without feeling like I'm in the dark (really I just forget to turn the lights on). Interestingly enough, I was able to nearly re-create the triple powder coating oven the same way in the software by putting together a double and a single. I was even able to put it on casters. Got a kick out of that.



this is the right side/far end of the wall to the bottom on the arial view. It actually sits immediately to the left of the picture above and has the powder coating booth and the single oven in a cabinet.



I think this will help gain some perspective as to how it all comes together. Quite a bit of storage but with this 3d view it's clear just how mis-matched everything is. It's worked to get up and running but kills my OCD in a bad way.



And the opposing wall with the windows. I actually wish this was sketchup so I could add in the various machines. I'll have to figure out how to do that next.

 

[Bessy]

Mismatched is far from any word I would ever come up with to describe your work. In fact I've tried very hard to emulate your drawer/cabinet philosophy of standardization, which admittedly has been my downfall as I try to design out my own cabinets!

Love all of the updates, please keep em coming! Happy 4th of July also, from us Cannucks to the North!

 

[lilscorpion]

Been working on getting the electrical to the machines that are now placed on an “island” (not attached to the wall). Based on a recommendation from @slodat , I’m gonna drop some SOOW cord from a box on the ceiling and retain them using these (for lack of a better name) Chinese finger trap like box glands.



This electrical run needs to feed the lathe and the mill which is two 10-4 and one 10-3.



So there’s some weight gonna be suspended from the box so I chose to reinforce it a bit by adding additional attachment points.



Used the screw holes and drilled two so I could add rivnuts



Modified the cover for the glands



I somehow managed to not get a pic of the tabs welded to the cover, I’ll circle back on that. Forward tho, of course powder coated it.



Then up the ladder to get all the wires attached.



Was kinda a pain getting it up in there but woth a little fussin, I got it. You might notice blue electrical tape on one of the wires. Thats so I can keep them straight after stuffing the box. Don’t want to have to go back into it later if I need to sort it out.



All tucked in, good to go. Way more secure than I thought it might be. Here’s a zoom in on how I braced the cover.



I like it. A hell of a lot better than running wires across the floor.

 

[LXCam]

I’ve got over 4 decades in this trade and I have never once seen a 4S raised blank plate. Where the heck did you find that at.

Btw, I’ve done hundreds of drops with those strain reliefs, it’s the only way to go.

Nice job

 

[lilscorpion]

I’ve got over 4 decades in this trade and I have never once seen a 4S raised blank plate. Where the heck did you find that at.

Btw, I’ve done hundreds of drops with those strain reliefs, it’s the only way to go.

Nice job

I’d never seen one before either. When I found out Amazon was cheaper on many of the Raco stuff than all local box stores, I started searching and stumbled across them. Expensive but perfect for unique situations.

https://a.co/d/03j7ssuG

Yeah this strain relief setups are cool. I was planning on running a piece of unistrut to the ground from the ceiling to support conduit until I learned they exist. Unistrut woulda looked stupid. I really like the way these look. Have one more to do so I’ll get even more experience with them this weekend!

 

[LXCam]

I’d never seen one before either. When I found out Amazon was cheaper on many of the Raco stuff than all local box stores, I started searching and stumbled across them. Expensive but perfect for unique situations.

https://a.co/d/03j7ssuG

Yeah this strain relief setups are cool. I was planning on running a piece of unistrut to the ground from the ceiling to support conduit until I learned they exist. Unistrut woulda looked stupid. I really like the way these look. Have one more to do so I’ll get even more experience with them this weekend!

Another method is to use rigid pipe with a 90 or lb into your ceiling box. Then threaded into a malleable junction box and use a (whatever height) threaded ****** into a plumbers floor flange. Done that many times as well but prefer SO cord drop over it.

 

[lilscorpion]

Another method is to use rigid pipe with a 90 or lb into your ceiling box. Then threaded into a malleable junction box and use a (whatever height) threaded ****** into a plumbers floor flange. Done that many times as well but prefer SO cord drop over it.

Don’t really want to have to attach anything into the epoxied floors especially since I’m not 100% certain on layout yet. Maybe that’s sissy…<shrug>