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lilscorpion
Well-known member
I hasn’t moved in a while. Think the falling rock scared the **** out of ‘em…yeah. Probably scared.
Above 1200 Sq/FT LilScorpion’s Fab Space
- Thread starter lilscorpion
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Closing up the garage and out of the corner of my eye…another one. Let this one be. After all, I’m not really finding many bugs or spiders in the shop. Maybe this is why. I named him Lucifer.
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
Don't kill the wolf spiders. Need those guys around. They are definitely why you don't see a log of bugs around your garage.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Yeah, was reading about them last night…and I find a lot of dead bugs and spiders, now I know why
Yeah well…nothings bringing that first one back. Startled me and the way he moved and ultimately looked at me I had no choice but to defend myself.
After reading tho, I’m gonna keep the rest of em around. Do wish they regulated Black Widows tho. I get huge ones of them too.
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csp
Well-known member
When I was digging the basement for my old house just north of you I could see one of those wolf spiders from the cab in the loader. Never did tell my wife about that one. Saw quite a few after the house was built, but nothing came close to that first one.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Spent a little time on the counter tops. Lamination is fast once you get into the rhythm. Laminated all 5 of them.
Ends get dominos to help align them.
And drop them in place. I’ll need to scribe and cut around the wall on the far end at some point. Fortunately the wall is straight enough I won’t need to all the way down the back.
Just 2 of them in a row is a lot of counter space.
each if the runs will need a ~4’ piece to finish. I’ll get the other side set today.
Ends get dominos to help align them.
And drop them in place. I’ll need to scribe and cut around the wall on the far end at some point. Fortunately the wall is straight enough I won’t need to all the way down the back.
Just 2 of them in a row is a lot of counter space.
each if the runs will need a ~4’ piece to finish. I’ll get the other side set today.
rattle_snake
Well-known member
Looks nice. Are you planning to put doors and on all the cabinets?
86turbodsl
Well-known member
Man i'd kill to have that much counter space.
fartymarty
Well-known member
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
No, they’ll all be filled with drawers. Cabinets with doors will be only above the bench. That was a lesson learned half a dozen years back. Drawers are king for organization. Doors hide messes and chaos.
It’s sooo nice. Impromptu desk for work today…
What in the hell is this all about?!? Ain’t movin the house to Vermont. For 1 - not even sure if my new wolf spider pets could survive there.!!!!!!!!!!!!
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kaymccampbell
Well-known member
Oh yeah. They grow plenty big in the Northeast.
SilverJimmy
Well-known member
My wife just noticed one on the ceiling of our bedroom, just after we laid down for the night. She wanted me to catch it in a upside down glass, slide some paper under the glass, and then rehouse it outside. As soon as I got within 6” of it, it jumped onto the floor and ran under our bed…
Sweet dreams to all of you, I know this is somehow your fault!
Sweet dreams to all of you, I know this is somehow your fault!
fartymarty
Well-known member
He said he could kill for your workbench space, I was trying to get you into the forum's poster protection program for your own safety.
I thought if he went to Vermont looking for a fuzzy house that you'd be safe, but now that ruse is shot so...
I guess if he shows up now you'll just have to sic your spiders on him. Good luck.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
oooooooh.He said he could kill for your workbench space, I was trying to get you into the forum's poster protection program for your own safety.
I thought if he went to Vermont looking for a fuzzy house that you'd be safe, but now that ruse is shot so...
I guess if he shows up now you'll just have to sic your spiders on him. Good luck.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Continuing on with the drawers. Today tackled the mill tooling which has always been a challenge to keep organized and I’ve not yet found a solution I like. These will be big beefy drawers with double 150lb slides.
This is the first time I’ve let the mill bore holes. It took forever. I’m gonna need to switch over to real cad software so I can improve the strategy.
Each of the holes needed to be chamfered and since I couldn’t figure out how to get the cabinet software to do it, I just did it by hand. There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing CNC holes in a grid.
Each drawer has a pair of theses. Upper one supports the weight, bottom one just locates.
Well, the bottom one supports the upper too. I decided to add some bracing so the two serve as one. This will prevent the upper from bowing with weight. Guess it’s a torsion box of sorts.
Side shot.
And a drawer loaded. This is probably a little less than half. There will be 3 of these drawers and I’ll come back later and organize by type (which is actually in order by tool library # in the mill).
This is the first time I’ve let the mill bore holes. It took forever. I’m gonna need to switch over to real cad software so I can improve the strategy.
Each of the holes needed to be chamfered and since I couldn’t figure out how to get the cabinet software to do it, I just did it by hand. There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing CNC holes in a grid.
Each drawer has a pair of theses. Upper one supports the weight, bottom one just locates.
Well, the bottom one supports the upper too. I decided to add some bracing so the two serve as one. This will prevent the upper from bowing with weight. Guess it’s a torsion box of sorts.
Side shot.
And a drawer loaded. This is probably a little less than half. There will be 3 of these drawers and I’ll come back later and organize by type (which is actually in order by tool library # in the mill).
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Facebook memories crack me up…this was exactly 7 years ago today. My caption was “slightly past medium rare”. What you’re looking at is me burning scrap plywood after a cabinet build in the shop…we’d just purchased a new grill and the old one wasn’t doin nothin at the moment. 
SilverJimmy
Well-known member
Blackened, just like I like it!
slodat
ALLIANCE MEMBER
(which is actually in order by tool library # in the mill).
Prime opportunity to engrave tool numbers in the plywood. I did similar for my knee mill. I engraved the tool numbers on the CNC router in the Formica after I glued it up. Worked well.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
That’s a good idea…dang it. I’ll have to figure out how to make ID tags that I can add after the fact (there all glued up and assembled)
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Love all of the tooling storage Matt. I'm green with envy over your drawer and cabinet building abilities. I don't work well with wood. 
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Thanks Mike. Same principles apply with wood as metal. Primary difference is if you mess up with wood, you throw away.Love all of the tooling storage Matt. I'm green with envy over your drawer and cabinet building abilities. I don't work well with wood.
86turbodsl
Well-known member
Your abilities with storage never cease to amaze me. Well done sir.Continuing on with the drawers. Today tackled the mill tooling which has always been a challenge to keep organized and I’ve not yet found a solution I like. These will be big beefy drawers with double 150lb slides.
This is the first time I’ve let the mill bore holes. It took forever. I’m gonna need to switch over to real cad software so I can improve the strategy.
Each of the holes needed to be chamfered and since I couldn’t figure out how to get the cabinet software to do it, I just did it by hand. There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing CNC holes in a grid.
Each drawer has a pair of theses. Upper one supports the weight, bottom one just locates.
Well, the bottom one supports the upper too. I decided to add some bracing so the two serve as one. This will prevent the upper from bowing with weight. Guess it’s a torsion box of sorts.
Side shot.
And a drawer loaded. This is probably a little less than half. There will be 3 of these drawers and I’ll come back later and organize by type (which is actually in order by tool library # in the mill).
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Got the Lathe tool drawers assembled and installed. Double 150lb drawer slides.
Holdin quite a both of weight, no problem.
Not gonna keep all of them in one drawer tho. Ultimately I’ll add the aluminum wedge mounts that I had on my old tooling organizers so they’ll be more spread out. Top drawer is lathe essential tools. Using another one of the old little drawers as an inter organizer for now.
Drawer 2 will be all of the OD turning tooling. Should have enough room to expand 2-4 more in the future. Good because I’d like to get some more for stainless.
3rd drawer will be ID boring, parting, and knurling with plenty of room for expansion. Swear in have a few more than this tho. Probably in some random box.
4th drawer will be all the tooling for the tail stock. Also missing a few I see.
Holdin quite a both of weight, no problem.
Not gonna keep all of them in one drawer tho. Ultimately I’ll add the aluminum wedge mounts that I had on my old tooling organizers so they’ll be more spread out. Top drawer is lathe essential tools. Using another one of the old little drawers as an inter organizer for now.
Drawer 2 will be all of the OD turning tooling. Should have enough room to expand 2-4 more in the future. Good because I’d like to get some more for stainless.
3rd drawer will be ID boring, parting, and knurling with plenty of room for expansion. Swear in have a few more than this tho. Probably in some random box.
4th drawer will be all the tooling for the tail stock. Also missing a few I see.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Also knocked out the Milling drawers. All three have double 150lb slides as well.
Top one is most of the bare collets, chucks, and super stubby cutters.
The second drawer has all mid-length tooling grouped by type. I’m probably going to move the shell mills and slotting saw to the bottom drawer since they’re not used very much.
And the bottom drawer is the taller and bigger stuff.
Installing and loading these 7 drawers emptied 8 very heavy totes. Smokin’.
Top one is most of the bare collets, chucks, and super stubby cutters.
The second drawer has all mid-length tooling grouped by type. I’m probably going to move the shell mills and slotting saw to the bottom drawer since they’re not used very much.
And the bottom drawer is the taller and bigger stuff.
Installing and loading these 7 drawers emptied 8 very heavy totes. Smokin’.
Coolabah
Well-known member
Yeh , I totally understand the respect for spiders/snakes etc . I guess us Aussies for some reason are generally more accepting of these creatures in our personal space for some reason ? Do we have more of them maybe ?? Dunno. Big spiders are good because you can see them to avoid annoying them.
Never liked rats though.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Could be. In our case, we were living in the suburbs and moved out to a more rural area in the plains where there are more animals and bugs. I see very little snakes quite frequently but never larger ones. The area near the large doors of the shop and the garage both always look like kill zones for bugs of all kinds and I almost never see them back into the shop or garage. I’ve assumed that something was getting fat. Now to your point - big spiders, especially ones that move very quickly like the wild spiders, remind me if Aliens (creatures in the movie named “Aliens”). And black Widows the size of the ones plum finding…what do Aussies do? See eggs and get excited that there will be more soon??
Coolabah
Well-known member
LOL, good point ! Yes we have our version of the black widow here too ( ="Redbacks") and whenever I see their eggs in a space I inhabit especially where the grandkids might play around, I do my own candy-floss stick with them and throw it on the back lawn for whatever likes to eat them to take care of.
A good friend of mine lives in Arizona and apparently is in a zone that scorpions love -unless he was pulling my leg with embellishments- this did not sound like fun to me to have them all over the house ???
BTW , Love seeing how your drawers are progressing !
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Scorpions in Arizona are no joke. Can be risky waking around the house in bare feet!
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Slow to update for last weekend. Now that I’ve sorted out how to cut smaller pieces on router, I was able to cut the remainder of the drawers for the two main walls in the shop entirely out of scrap.
Most of the drawers were the longer ones.
After getting them installed, I quickly moved in. The organizers that I made for the old cabinets didn’t nest perfectly so I’ll have some work to do. Keep in mind that there’s a bunch of stuff missing…probably scattered between boxes yet to come up from the basement/storage.
Top drawer is ratchets, extensions, and…maybe some 1/4” stuff if I can’t fit it in the socket drawers.
Standard socket drawer
Metric
This time I have an accessory socket drawer for all of the miscellaneous stuff but now I’ll use it for all of the duplicates that will eventually get sorted into different parts of the shop and garage. For example, I want bare minimum a full set of wrenches, sockets, etc in the machining area, in the main bay of the shop, and in my bay in the garage.
Then on the other side of the shop, this is the run over by the machines.
I got some power coating hooks, masking supplies, and fixtures.
Welding stuff, sheet metal fab tools, and the chemical gloves. This is temporary until I build the welding cabinet. Ultimately it’ll be powder coating guns, tips, consumables, etc.
Semi-junk drawer - exhaust welding fixtures, a powder coating gun switch box project that I’m stashing here until I can get back to it, and the remaining parts for the plasma cutting table.
Most of the drawers were the longer ones.
After getting them installed, I quickly moved in. The organizers that I made for the old cabinets didn’t nest perfectly so I’ll have some work to do. Keep in mind that there’s a bunch of stuff missing…probably scattered between boxes yet to come up from the basement/storage.
Top drawer is ratchets, extensions, and…maybe some 1/4” stuff if I can’t fit it in the socket drawers.
Standard socket drawer
Metric
This time I have an accessory socket drawer for all of the miscellaneous stuff but now I’ll use it for all of the duplicates that will eventually get sorted into different parts of the shop and garage. For example, I want bare minimum a full set of wrenches, sockets, etc in the machining area, in the main bay of the shop, and in my bay in the garage.
Then on the other side of the shop, this is the run over by the machines.
I got some power coating hooks, masking supplies, and fixtures.
Welding stuff, sheet metal fab tools, and the chemical gloves. This is temporary until I build the welding cabinet. Ultimately it’ll be powder coating guns, tips, consumables, etc.
Semi-junk drawer - exhaust welding fixtures, a powder coating gun switch box project that I’m stashing here until I can get back to it, and the remaining parts for the plasma cutting table.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Bottom drawer is temporary as well. Welding gear and some powder coating bottles now, it’ll end up just being powder once I have the welding cabinet.
I spent almost an entire day going thru a variety of containers sorting the contents into their respective drawers. Next up is to shift focus to the garage side where I’ll need to build out the “automotive shop” which will mostly be tools for car projects (whereas the shop was primarily fabrication and create).
I spent almost an entire day going thru a variety of containers sorting the contents into their respective drawers. Next up is to shift focus to the garage side where I’ll need to build out the “automotive shop” which will mostly be tools for car projects (whereas the shop was primarily fabrication and create).
larry4406
Well-known member
Simply WOW on the cabinets, drawers, and dedication to organization!
I would need to label the drawer cases and the drawers themselves, then have an index telling me where stuff is.
Something like this
Sockets SAE - Drawer Box C, Drawer 1 (C1)
Sockets Metric - Drawer Box C, Drawer 2 (C2)
I would need to label the drawer cases and the drawers themselves, then have an index telling me where stuff is.
Something like this
Sockets SAE - Drawer Box C, Drawer 1 (C1)
Sockets Metric - Drawer Box C, Drawer 2 (C2)
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Coming along nicely Matt. You'll be working IN the shop on projects in no time now. And what a difference it makes having a place for everything and everything in its place. 
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
Your cabinet work is amazing. I love all the organizers in the socket and ratchet drawers. It appears you have fabbed most of those holders yourself? With everything else that you make, I would expect nothing less.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Thank you, thank you! I sometimes feel like putting a barcode on each tool that helps me find its place would be incredibly helpful. It’s occurred to me anyway, and use something like the dewey decimal system for addresses. Having mentioned it, my kinds probably have never heard of the dewey decimal system….
IN, yes, can’t wait! I have a backlog of sorts and it kills me every time I stumble across something that I’ve let go or not gotten around too. Soon enough. Think the final step is this weekend when I get the pressure washer working again. So excited!!! (I’m a lame old man)Coming along nicely Matt. You'll be working IN the shop on projects in no time now. And what a difference it makes having a place for everything and everything in its place.
Maybe a little. Oddly enough, I kinda already know where most things are so I’m not sure how important labels are right now. I am, however, maybe only a few moments away from memory but serving me well…as in I have my moments. If I have more, I will.
Thank you. Yes, all of the organizers are home made and probably documented in one of my older threads. I do intend to revisit drawer organization on this thread hopefully sooner than later where I’ll make more like these and some newer designs that I’ve been thinking thru over the last year.
The ones you see in the socket drawers are 6061 aluminum purchased from online metals in 5’ lengths and cut to rough dimensions on a cold saw
Machined on my milling machine to get the spacing right
In most cases custom to the dimension of the sockets in each socket set
Powder coated to red for SAE and Blue for metric.
And, sizes to work like Tetris in the destination drawer. This was the drawer in my old shop/garage before I moved. Will take some work to get the new drawer to be this tightly nested.
Wrenches are the same. Custom to my sets and nested in their respective drawers. Again, the old drawer at the old shop/garage.
I’m kinda into shelving organization as well. Here’s a setup I had at the old house for automotive stuff.
This kind of organization to me is much more enjoyable and requires more creativity than building the drawers and cabinets themselves so I’m looking forward to it.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
Thanks. Angling them was intended to work like the automotive parts stores (like the racks that the oil quarts are in). That said, even on refinished plywood, things kinda slide so it’s primarily for looks. The gallons of stuff (like window washing fluid) does slide a little which makes it easier to get at the next thing.
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lilscorpion
Well-known member
In full transparency, I have been considering the Tool Grid system or pieces of it. It may cost about the same money but be way less labor intensive as what I build…