Above 1200 Sq/FT LilScorpion’s Fab Space

[lilscorpion]

So, is the pride and joy the Jeep or the Tractor? Cause either would work for me!

Great place and Im looking forward to updates.

Tractor is a (maybe cool) tool I purchased, but the Jeep is something we spent hours building together. It's way more fun (and cool) than any tractor.

Looks awesome Matt. So happy for you guys being able to finally find your forever home and get the workspace that you have wanted.

Thanks Mike. We're still probably a month or two away from getting to move in and really take in that it's happening. Still very very excited.

I don't understand the question. There's too many variables to make an accurate estimate.

Well...with a 60" deck on the tractor going slow (the ground is bumpy), I assure you the area I plan to cut (I will cut land that's in the open space as well) will take about 3 hours on a good dry day. It'll take maybe 2 when there's any moisture in the soil because there are hill parts the tractor won't be safe to climb.

It'll never be green like Mike's. Not anytime soon anyway. I do have plans in the future to try to seed and grow buffalo grass to try reduce erosion thus improving the ride maybe..

I've always been amazed at the photos of the scenery and sky from GJ members that live in CO. That new neighborhood looks nice and spread out.

CO is gorgous when you can actually see the scenery. In denser, downtown or industrual areas it looks more like a city I suppose.

 

[rvieceli]

@lilscorpion Here's a link to a publication from Colorado Parks and Wildlife for reintroducing native vegetation on your property you might find helpful.

https://cpw.state.co.us/documents/cnap/revegetationguide.pdf

Ron

 

[csp]

Seeing that picture of the neighborhood I recognize where your new place is. I'll have to watch for your house driving through there as you're straight south of our (now) former home. We have through the 20th to vacate, so we have been making trips to Franktown with a 7x14 enclosed, a 6x12 enclosed and 18' flatbed. It's exhausting! I can't imagine trying to do it with any smaller scale. We have movers lined up to take us through the finish line Saturday.

I have had a 5', rear mounted snowblower for my tractor for about 15 years and it has been invaluable. I bought it used for $750. Our private road is just on the leeward side of a hill, so it always blew shut at least once a year. As someone else said, it's way more efficient than moving it with a bucket if it's so deep that you can't just push it. Not sure if I'll need it at the new place. I'm sure the old neighbors will miss it.

 

[lilscorpion]

@lilscorpion Here's a link to a publication from Colorado Parks and Wildlife for reintroducing native vegetation on your property you might find helpful.

https://cpw.state.co.us/documents/cnap/revegetationguide.pdf

Ron

That’s got a bunch of really useful information. Now I gotta figure out what kind of soul I have. The quick read does indicate that buffalo grass may actually be the direct one for the amount of water we get (without irrigation) so maybe I’m close. Thank you.

Seeing that picture of the neighborhood I recognize where your new place is. I'll have to watch for your house driving through there as you're straight south of our (now) former home. We have through the 20th to vacate, so we have been making trips to Franktown with a 7x14 enclosed, a 6x12 enclosed and 18' flatbed. It's exhausting! I can't imagine trying to do it with any smaller scale. We have movers lined up to take us through the finish line Saturday.

I have had a 5', rear mounted snowblower for my tractor for about 15 years and it has been invaluable. I bought it used for $750. Our private road is just on the leeward side of a hill, so it always blew shut at least once a year. As someone else said, it's way more efficient than moving it with a bucket if it's so deep that you can't just push it. Not sure if I'll need it at the new place. I'm sure the old neighbors will miss it.

I suspect that, just like in your case, I’ll need a blower for once or twice a year. I mean…don’t get me wrong, the idea of being snowed in when I have charged Jeeps on 37’s and 40’s is kinda exhilarating, but they can’t exactly dig out mom so we do need a plan B. I’ll watch for one used and if I can get a deal, I’ll get one (until I get stuck and learn otherwise).

Rear mount tho? Seems somewhat common but when the west doesn’t rotate do you get a crink in your neck using it?

You’re using movers? Damn, that’s cheating. LOL. I should, I’m a dumb (or cheap) a$$.

Shoot me an IM. We’re close enough to each other you should stop by for a beer at some point when you’re settled enough. The new space is a **** show at the moment but there’s still some entertainment value in it.

 

[lilscorpion]

More uninstalling if cabinets and more trips tonight.



Machines go when there’s space on the truck. In some cases, im moving machines and tools I’ve not used much at all since I’ve been in the house because they require more space than I have to use (efficiently). This bandsaw was constantly used back when I had the business but used only once in the last 13 years. I have plans to clean it up and put it to work in the new space again, can’t wait.



The shop at the old house is now officially a garage again. By the end of the weekend we should be parking in it (both of us) full time. Crazy.



What’s downright hilarious is I still have more cabinets, tools, and projects in my garage than 99.5% of the garages in my neighborhood.



What I’ve not shared much of is what’s up with the current house while I’m moving - I’m finishing off all the projects that needed nothing more than a capstone so the house can be put on the market. Primarily it’s cabinet and trim work. No biggie but work none the less.



Plenty of work to do.

 

[rattle_snake]

Yes, more than plenty of work. I pushed myself way to hard on last move impatiently wanting everything done my way as quickly as possible, on two properties at the same time.

Exciting times!

 

[zmotorsports]

Yes, more than plenty of work. I pushed myself way to hard on last move impatiently wanting everything done my way as quickly as possible, on two properties at the same time.

Exciting times!

Agreed, granted my wife and I only have moved once in our 34 years of marriage but that was after living for 26+ years in the last house. I wanted the new place in just as good of condition as what we left and it wasn't happening fast enough. We didn't take a single vacation or any real down time in eight months while moving, building the new shop and putting the yard in. I just simply couldn't allow myself to relax until everything was perfect. I don't recommend that course of action.

 

[lilscorpion]

Agreed, granted my wife and I only have moved once in our 34 years of marriage but that was after living for 26+ years in the last house. I wanted the new place in just as good of condition as what we left and it wasn't happening fast enough. We didn't take a single vacation or any real down time in eight months while moving, building the new shop and putting the yard in. I just simply couldn't allow myself to relax until everything was perfect. I don't recommend that course of action.

This will be our second home move, 3rd move total since married. It does not get any better or more fun. I do think you get better at it tho…

 

[slodat]

Just seeing this for the first time. Congratulations, Matt. I know how long you've been wanting to find this! It looks perfect!

 

[86turbodsl]

Rear mount tho? Seems somewhat common but when the west doesn’t rotate do you get a crink in your neck using it?

My uncle retired from farming in the midwest. He has back / neck problems from turning around and watching his implements all the time. If you're not on it all day every day though, you're probably fine. It's not like you're doing it 8 hrs a day.

 

[Jagmandave]

If that neighborhood is where I think it is I have a friend with a house there......is it right near the new reservoir?

 

[lilscorpion]

Just seeing this for the first time. Congratulations, Matt. I know how long you've been wanting to find this! It looks perfect!

Thanks. It’s perfect and I can’t wait to get started. Best part with this particular setup I can also build a 1600 sqr foot out building as well so I have the ability to expand down the road.

My uncle retired from farming in the midwest. He has back / neck problems from turning around and watching his implements all the time. If you're not on it all day every day though, you're probably fine. It's not like you're doing it 8 hrs a day.

It makes sense it could cause issues. Think I’d still prefer to have most of my implements in front of me if I can make it work out.

If that neighborhood is where I think it is I have a friend with a house there......is it right near the new reservoir?

I’m probably 10 miles east of the new reservoir east yet of Parker road.

 

[Jagmandave]

My friend lives in the gated community just off Crowfoot, on Lemon Gulch. south and west of Parker. My sis lives just north of Parker near Aurora reservoir.

 

[lilscorpion]

Still wrapping up the work prep work at the old house. Finished the office cabinets.



…and the built-ins in the family room next to the fireplace.



…and the builtins in the kids rooms.



What I’ve learned this week - it’s a pain in the a$$ having most of your $hit at a new house before you’re actually in the new house especially when your projects aren’t at the new house…who knew?!?

Also had an exciting delivery at the new house about a week sooner than I had expected if. 9am Thursday I received a call at 9am - “hey, I have a delivery for you and I’ll be at your house at 11”. ‘Cept since I didn’t know it was going to arrive I didn’t have a forklift lined up. I lucked into finding a local small business that had one they could deliver immediately…win



The machine required fork extensions. I was able to get under it enough to get it to the ground safely.



From there it teetered the few hundred yards back to the house only a few inches from the ground.



Until I got to the curb. The forklift didn’t have enough gusto to get up it. I ended up stacking some lumber to help out and even then I had to bump it. Eventually I made it up and the machine only shifted 6” forward on the forks after all of it.



Here’s a sneak peek…



With the machine safely at the house I now needed to move about half of the stuff I had moved into the shop out of the way so I could get the machine to the back wall. Took me about 2 hours.



Unfortunately it could only be lifted from the back so it does need to rotate 180 and then squared to the wall.

Gotta say, it’s damn handy to have the ability to lift the bigger stuff again. The Kubota is no forklift but it’s better than nothing by a a lot. The compressor is about 800 lbs. I can barely slide it across the floor myself. Forks make it a snap.

 

[lilscorpion]

My friend lives in the gated community just off Crowfoot, on Lemon Gulch. south and west of Parker. My sis lives just north of Parker near Aurora reservoir.

Both are very close! We almost bought a house just south of Lemon Gulch. Think the area was called Diamond Ridge

 

[loganb]

Oh snap....cnc router just entered the chat...nice! Congrats and now you shall be treated to the should be illegal torture of shiny new tool in shop but not allowed to touch it until all the rest of the stuff is there and the old house punch list is complete!

 

[4 FN 27]

Here’s a sneak peek…

Shop Sabre builds nice stuff. Toured their facility in 2018 when I purchased one of their Plasma Tables (with the Router attachment). The only thing I could not get use to was they ran the X axis on the head (table width) and the Y axis on the gantry (table length). After running and programming Turrets and Lasers for 35 years at that point, completely opposite, it was most difficult to get use to it.

Enjoy that machine. Can't wait to see the parts coming off of that thing!!!

 

[Augus7us]

Shop is looking amazing, so is the house and location.

Side note, I have a floor nearly identical to yours and an 800lb compressor still on the pallet. I bought some cheap furniture slides off amazon and pushed my compressor into its new room by myself. They worked surprisingly well if you have to get it into a tight spot.

 

[slodat]

AWESOME! The Shop Sabre folks are a good bunch. Their support guys are top notch. Don't hesitate to reach out if you ahve any questions. I don't love WinCNC, but I'm proficient in its use.

The tractor with forks is a huge improvement over moving things with just your body. I have a narrow pallet jack. Highly recommend one. Especially for getting things in position. I know a guy that sells ISO30 tool holders for a much better price than Shop Sabre and most others. Anyway, like I said, happy to help where I can!

Another way to move the Shop Sabre around is any sort of small 4 wheel dollies. I've moved several machines with the cheap HP car tire dollies and a floor jack to get it on/off them.

Enjoy!

 

[Boostingaz]

@lilscorpion

Nice compressor

 

[lilscorpion]

Shop Sabre builds nice stuff. Toured their facility in 2018 when I purchased one of their Plasma Tables (with the Router attachment). The only thing I could not get use to was they ran the X axis on the head (table width) and the Y axis on the gantry (table length). After running and programming Turrets and Lasers for 35 years at that point, completely opposite, it was most difficult to get use to it.

Enjoy that machine. Can't wait to see the parts coming off of that thing!!!

Ah, they are up in your neck of the woods. I’ve had a few plasma tables and they all had X on the head but all of them were configurable in that I could have swapped which was which if I wanted. I can imagine it would be tough to get used to the axis being opposite.

Shop is looking amazing, so is the house and location.

Side note, I have a floor nearly identical to yours and an 800lb compressor still on the pallet. I bought some cheap furniture slides off amazon and pushed my compressor into its new room by myself. They worked surprisingly well if you have to get it into a tight spot.

I’ll check ‘em out. With the larger garage I’m realizing I need more ways to move stuff around especially since I’ll probably have to move stuff a few times to get a layout I’ll like. Thanks for the heads up.

AWESOME! The Shop Sabre folks are a good bunch. Their support guys are top notch. Don't hesitate to reach out if you ahve any questions. I don't love WinCNC, but I'm proficient in its use.

The tractor with forks is a huge improvement over moving things with just your body. I have a narrow pallet jack. Highly recommend one. Especially for getting things in position. I know a guy that sells ISO30 tool holders for a much better price than Shop Sabre and most others. Anyway, like I said, happy to help where I can!

Another way to move the Shop Sabre around is any sort of small 4 wheel dollies. I've moved several machines with the cheap HP car tire dollies and a floor jack to get it on/off them.

Enjoy!

I’m going to get a pallet Jack. Haven’t decided which size yet tho…

I’ll take you up on help for sure. Gotta get it hooked up first. I’ll take you up on the tooling referral. Doubt I’ll need more than 6 initially but I’m certain there will come a day.

@lilscorpion

Nice compressor

Have you used yours yet? How is the noise?

 

[Boostingaz]

Have you used yours yet? How is the noise?

Definitely doable to be in the same room. Mine however will be in a different room and piping just plumbed through the wall. So in my shop all you will see is pipe and reels.

These reels are awesome If you are looking for some. They have 50ft of line and are heavy heavy duty!

 

[slodat]

As long as the axis follow the right hand rule, there’s some flexibility in how the machine axis are setup. Shop Sabre x0y0 is the left front of the machine facing the gantry. I’ve seen other gantry machines with the Y on the gantry, and the operator on the long side of the machine.

 

[Klokwerk]

Damn, that's a great looking house and garage! Looking forward to more!
Interested in if you do something else with those garage doors. Cool idea, but yeah I'd do something different too.

 

[Firebrick43]

Shop Sabre builds nice stuff. Toured their facility in 2018 when I purchased one of their Plasma Tables (with the Router attachment). The only thing I could not get use to was they ran the X axis on the head (table width) and the Y axis on the gantry (table length). After running and programming Turrets and Lasers for 35 years at that point, completely opposite, it was most difficult to get use to it.

Enjoy that machine. Can't wait to see the parts coming off of that thing!!!

That would mess me up as well. I mostly worked on big gantry portal mills and all of them ran x on the length and y on the width.

 

[lilscorpion]

Definitely doable to be in the same room. Mine however will be in a different room and piping just plumbed through the wall. So in my shop all you will see is pipe and reels.

These reels are awesome If you are looking for some. They have 50ft of line and are heavy heavy duty!

Perfect timing in the reel recommendation. In the old garage a 25’ was about all I needed. I was thinking of 50’ers. Just gotta decide where to put them. And since you painted the wall mounting plate, now I absolutely have to as well. Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[nicholam77]

Huge congrats on the new house and shop space — I can't wait to watch this thread develop! You're off to a great start already! I've been missing the Tooling/Organization threads... some of my very favorite content on GJ.

These sustainers nest perfectly in the pull out drawer and back seat. In 2 trips I moved all my tools and half my hardware.



Unloading was a snap. Just load the cart and wheel it in to the staging area in the shop.

I have way, way less systainers than you , but I like them for the same reasons. I don't know why, but something about a giant systainer cabinet wall makes me happy.

Crew worked late on the floors, got to see my first sunset, not shabby

I'm not ready to move out of the city... but I've always thought being able to see a clear view of the sunrise, sunset, and horizon, would add immense value to daily life. And most people probably don't get to experience on a regular basis (myself included). I'm jealous!

Subscribed!

 

[Boostingaz]

Perfect timing in the reel recommendation. In the old garage a 25’ was about all I needed. I was thinking of 50’ers. Just gotta decide where to put them. And since you painted the wall mounting plate, now I absolutely have to as well. Thanks for the inspiration!

Here is a link to the reels. Little pricey but I think they are worth it. Unless you want to get really crazy and go Cox reels.

MILTON Strength Air Hose Reel w/Auto- Retractable Steel Dual Arm, 3/8" MNPT x 50 ft. Hybrid Rubber Hose - 300 Max PSI, Red - 2770-50D https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XYJ13J1/?tag=atomicindus08-20

The wall mounts are just wood ( (2) 2x8s just pocketed together) cut to span the studs for a nice tight mounting base and painted with some left over wall paint.

 

[Boostingaz]

If you want/need electric reels I'll share links etc on those too.

 

[LXCam]

I'm not ready to move out of the city... but I've always thought being able to see a clear view of the sunrise, sunset, and horizon, would add immense value to daily life. And most people probably don't get to experience on a regular basis (myself included). I'm jealous!

All though our last place wasn’t full on city it still was city. We got out and brother they ain’t nothing better then enjoying sunrises and sunsets.



Everything is looking great OP. I’ve been in those same shoes doing two locations at once and it ain’t easy. Seems like just the right tool is never at just the right location. And for me it was 300 miles of “damn the bad luck”.

Oh one more thing. You watch out for that @Boostingaz character, dudes an enabler for emptying your wallet in short order

 

[Boostingaz]

All though our last place wasn’t full on city it still was city. We got out and brother they ain’t nothing better then enjoying sunrises and sunsets.



Everything is looking great OP. I’ve been in those same shoes doing two locations at once and it ain’t easy. Seems like just the right tool is never at just the right location. And for me it was 300 miles of “damn the bad luck”.

Oh one more thing. You watch out for that @Boostingaz character, dudes an enabler for emptying your wallet in short order

And here I thought we were friends .

 

[Boostingaz]

I really do enjoy spending other people's money. It's my best quality

Man those AZ sunsets, they sure are killer!!

 

[lilscorpion]

It’s been a whirlwind week getting the house ready but I finally got it in the market. our Agent is puttin’ in the work - had an open house yesterday and today. Yesterday, for the first time in well over a couple weeks, I got a minute at the new house and decided to remove the stump in front of the house. Took a bit but got ‘er.



Today did some scouting for where the electrical needs to be run in the new garage which I start tomorrow after trying to clean up the mess a bit.

 

[Sifan]

Next time, think I would take off the mower deck

 

[lilscorpion]

Next time, think I would take off the mower deck

Yep

 

[lilscorpion]

Back into the new garage working on getting it set up. Starting with electrical. Though it seemed fairly straight forward, I ran into a few things that took some noodling. Here’s an overview of what I gotta do - the utilities room is really just a sub panel room in the basement where all of the electrical is for the main house.



Both panels have lots of breakers that aren’t taking much load. For example, each of the 3 garage doors has its own 15 amp circuit. I like the isolation however the excessive use of individual circuits has resulted in fairly crowded panels. So challenge 1 is to make some space with some slim breakers. From these panels, all wires will need to run up into this raceway -



This leases across the basement here. Fortunately the PO left access holes by installing slim no-box LED lights to make pulling wire easier.



On the other end is an exit into the unfinished space in another raceway that has removable covers.




Access is sufficient for running the wires. Right now only a drain and water lines are run thru the space.



Here’s where it gets a little hairy. I need to go up thru the floor. The only location that makes sense is under the base cabinet in the laundry room which is right over the raceway in the pic above in the unfinished space.



The challenge was trying to cut thru the tile below the cabinet into the spec below without hitting radiant floor hoses, the drain, or the water lines. I was able to get relative location of the cabinet for. The wall behind it in the shop has the sink drain which goes into the space below.



I drilled a hole from the shop side into the back of the cabinet so I had perfect reference and made an educated guess on a hole into the floor below. I hugged the wall as close as I could to avoid the radiant loop just below. I had essentially 4” of wiggle room.



Used a drill Chuck from my mill chucked in my drill as an extension to drill the hole.



Got lucky (or good guess). I was almost too tight to the footer. Missed by less than 1/8” but was in no way close to anything else. Win!



Now I have the path figured out. Tomorrow I’ll pull anll the wires and get them up to the junction box that I’ll fab up tomorrow.

 

[lilscorpion]

Was a busy weekend. Running the wires took way longer than I had anticipated. As a one man show, it went something like this - climb ladder, push, go down ladder. Climb other ladder, pull, climb down other ladder…then reposition ladder, slack pull, reposition ladder, slack pull, reposition ladder, slack pull in between joist hangers…and repeat. This is where I ended up Saturday night - boxes fabricated, set, and about half of the wires run to the box.



Sunday I pulled another 30% of the wires before needing to take a break from the ladder and bend a little conduit. Not a break for physical reasons, but because I started talking to it and considered giving it a name.



Been a while since I’d done tube work (not that this counts really). What I do know is I’d rather use a hydraulic bender than a manual bender any day. I can get within a degree or so manually but it’s a lot of F’n around. Be the end of the day yesterday, I’d completed all but the following to complete wiring from the electrical room to the intermediary panel in the shop:

1) install the 3 phase panel
2) fabricate the phase converter mount/bracket
3) pull one 8-3 for the lathe
4) pull one 10-3 for the mill

Here’s a shot showing the wires coming up thru the wall into the box. I’ll grab one of how they go into the tile floor below the cabinet when I get back out to the house this AM. All in all, good progress tho slow.

 

[Grant Gunderson]

Curious to the use of DIN rails vs using standard breakers…


For wire labels I am a really big fan of using a Brady21 label maker with its printable heat shrink labels. Are you going to use wire Furels for the termination blocks?

 

[larry4406]

Curious to the use of DIN rails vs using standard breakers…

I saw that and I am confused as to what is going on and how that works. But I am not a sparky, just learning.

 

[rvieceli]

Ok I'll bite. they look like a fancy junction box. Assuming it gives you a convenient place to convert the Romex from the breaker box, where the breakers are, to conductors in conduit.

Are you going run a drop in armored cable for the machines that are direct wired? Terminate in a receptacle for those that plug in?

Thanks. Ron