Above 1200 Sq/FT LilScorpion’s Fab Space

[lilscorpion]

This evening I added 2 more things - a wand holder for the longer one I have and a bottle holder for the soap. Only things left is to figure out is where to mount the foam cannons and to add the water temperature switch.

 

[Jgaz]

That’s some serious use of space between the two roll up doors.
Love it!

 

[Bessy]

Very good idea.

don’t like hose nozzles and sprayers and hose bib-valves for filling buckets, radiators, etc. saw this automatic fuel shutoff nozzle on Amazon for $28 and thought I’d give it a try. Got blue…for water.

It’s pretty cool for filling buckets and buckets. As soon as water gets up to the nozzle it shits off just like it’s supposed to (like at the gas station). The trigger isn’t as smooth and controllable as I’d hoped, probably because of the water pressure. I might put a pressure regulator on it and see if that helps. If the trigger were a little easier to feather, it would be freakin awesome.

Thank you! Yet another fantastic idea I'll be stealing if we ever end up purchasing a home!

 

[XJSuperman]

Is that a fuel nozzle on the end of a garden hose? For filling buckets and such, I'm assuming?

 

[lilscorpion]

Is that a fuel nozzle on the end of a garden hose? For filling buckets and such, I'm assuming?

Yep!

 

[fartymarty]

So there is no (little) chance of these lines in the garage freezing because you have a heated floor in the garage...correct?
I was pretty sure the shop was heated but I might have skimmed over the part about the garage being heated as well. Again thank you for all the sharing. It's a great thread.

 

[lilscorpion]

So there is no (little) chance of these lines in the garage freezing because you have a heated floor in the garage...correct?
I was pretty sure the shop was heated but I might have skimmed over the part about the garage being heated as well. Again thank you for all the sharing. It's a great thread.

Glad you’re enjoying the thread. The garage does have radiant heat as well! In fact, I think that this morning was the first day it’s triggered since the spring. Crazy how qhuzily time passes. Soon I’ll be plawing snow again, can’t wait.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Wow, that is a super cool setup for the pressure washer and using the home automation for it. Nice work. I love all the little unique products Zooz makes for home automation.

 

[lilscorpion]

Wow, that is a super cool setup for the pressure washer and using the home automation for it. Nice work. I love all the little unique products Zooz makes for home automation.

Thanks. These are my first setups with Zooz and they appear to be working well thus far. I’m absolutely goi g to use them more in the future. Super easy to setup

 

[lilscorpion]

Meanwhile, on the honey-do list…

 

[lilscorpion]

After finishing up the pressure washer Saturday, I started in on the big kitchen remodel Sunday, the first kitchen I’ve tackled from scratch. Here’s the model. Colors are still being decided but it will most certainly be a two color layout. We have 20’ ceilings in the room so we’re planning on having a secondary set of upper cabinets, 12” tall, on top of the uppers for longer term storage and to add character, they’ll have opaque glass doors. The pantry and refrigerator cabinets will be re-used, everything else I’ll build.



This weekend I tackled the four base cabinets in the back wall.



Took me a try or two on the CNC but ended up figuring out the correct settings. Was too focused on not screwing up to take pics, I’ll do so on the next set. Here’s the two cabinets on the left in the above pic in similar order. Left is the pots and pans dual drawer cabinet (36” wide) and the right is the utilities 4 drawer base (34” wide) for stuff like spatulas, mixers, etc.



Here’s the two from the right in the above layout pic but backwards (sorry) - right is the cooking sheets and baking pans cabinet (28” wide) and the left is the microwave cabinet (sans support shelf).



These things are sturdy. Maybe even overkill but totally up to supporting even the heaviest counter top (probably even a Jeep). 3/4” UV/clear coated Baltic Birch assemblies with full 3/4” backs. All components are dadoed and screwed (no, no glue!).

 

[larry4406]

After finishing up the pressure washer Saturday, I started in on the big kitchen remodel Sunday, the first kitchen I’ve tackled from scratch. Here’s the model. Colors are still being decided but it will most certainly be a two color layout. We have 20’ ceilings in the room so we’re planning on having a secondary set of upper cabinets, 12” tall, on top of the uppers for longer term storage and to add character, they’ll have opaque glass doors. The pantry and refrigerator cabinets will be re-used, everything else I’ll build.



This weekend I tackled the four base cabinets in the back wall.



Took me a try or two on the CNC but ended up figuring out the correct settings. Was too focused on not screwing up to take pics, I’ll do so on the next set. Here’s the two cabinets on the left in the above pic in similar order. Left is the pots and pans dual drawer cabinet (36” wide) and the right is the utilities 4 drawer base (34” wide) for stuff like spatulas, mixers, etc.



Here’s the two from the right in the above layout pic but backwards (sorry) - right is the cooking sheets and baking pans cabinet (28” wide) and the left is the microwave cabinet (sans support shelf).



These things are sturdy. Maybe even overkill but totally up to supporting even the heaviest counter top (probably even a Jeep). 3/4” UV/clear coated Baltic Birch assemblies with full 3/4” backs. All components are dadoed and screwed (no, no glue!).

I can hear it now....

...but honey, I have to finish the garage and acquire the CNC tools and build garage cabinets first, so I can prove to you that I can make the kitchen cabinets for the remodel in due time....

 

[Clemson13]

I can hear it now....

...but honey, I have to finish the garage and acquire the CNC tools and build garage cabinets first, so I can prove to you that I can make the kitchen cabinets for the remodel in due time....

The CNC doesn't cost anything because of the savings on the kitchen remodel......

 

[loganb]

I can hear it now....

...but honey, I have to finish the garage and acquire the CNC tools and build garage cabinets first, so I can prove to you that I can make the kitchen cabinets for the remodel in due time....

It might be the most successful usage of the age old "I can build that with this tool right here" line we've seen in some time. I mean when he's not doing the various garage or jeep or now kitchen projects he could probably teach a MasterClass on it.

With the new Langmuir brake coming....what are the odds that exhaust hood is custom fabricated too?

 

[Clemson13]

It might be the most successful usage of the age old "I can build that with this tool right here" line we've seen in some time. I mean when he's not doing the various garage or jeep or now kitchen projects he could probably teach a MasterClass on it.

With the new Langmuir brake coming....what are the odds that exhaust hood is custom fabricated too?

I did a custom fabricated exhaust hood for my place. Ill do one at every house from here on out. It cost less than 3K and is truly an every day life improving experience if you love to cook. Even the nice residential hoods still leave a little food smell in the house if you pan fry fish or Wok cook. Mine does not. I can Wok cook with zero smell in the house.

All commercially made residential hoods are compromises for cost, packaging, installation ease, and aesthetics. As such they operate inefficiently / ineffectively. If I ever skip building a custom hood, it will be to have a commercial kitchen ventilation contractor put in a legitimate commercial kitchen hood (which requires all the design work that no residential hoods get)

Custom fabricated is the only way to go. Mine had:
-remote mounted (attic) variable speed blower (800 cfm for my 30" range, for a 40+ id go with 1200 cfm of variable speed fan)
-8" ducting for the 12 ft run to minimize pressure drop
-inline duct silencers to eliminate almost all noise
-lights and fan controls down on wall not in a dumb place up on hood
-large capture volume (allowing lower fan speed to be used)
-used commercial kitchen baffles

There were a couple good white papers on the subject that helped me with

 

[lilscorpion]

I can hear it now....

...but honey, I have to finish the garage and acquire the CNC tools and build garage cabinets first, so I can prove to you that I can make the kitchen cabinets for the remodel in due time....

You have some kinda listening device planted in my house somewhere listening in on my private conversations between me an my wife?!?

The CNC doesn't cost anything because of the savings on the kitchen remodel......

1000%. I’m not sure everyone understands just how expensive it is to pay to have someone else build something similar of equal quality with the benefit of getting enjoyment out of the deal (and not having to deal with contractors is a gift).

It might be the most successful usage of the age old "I can build that with this tool right here" line we've seen in some time. I mean when he's not doing the various garage or jeep or now kitchen projects he could probably teach a MasterClass on it.

With the new Langmuir brake coming....what are the odds that exhaust hood is custom fabricated too?

It has certainly been a journey. When my wife and I first got married, I had some tools, mostly harbor freight stuff I used to fix my old Blazer as needed. When we bought our first house, I purchased a 18v Dewalt drill from Lowes to do some little thing around the house. A few weeks later, we went back to Lowes for some stuff and I wanted to buy a miter saw for whatever that project was. She said “can’t you just use then drill?!” that’s how I remember it anyway.

If I were to teach a master class two of the most important lessons in it would be how to have the conversation and establishing your partner’s addiction to your product gradually (saw it on Miami Vice in the 90’s)…

 

[lilscorpion]

With the new Langmuir brake coming....what are the odds that exhaust hood is custom fabricated too?

It’s being considered…there was the TIG a few years back where I justified needing the ability to weld a larger variety of metals.

I’ve not done a lot of stainless welding and metal finishing…

 

[quadrcr87]

If I were to teach a master class two of the most important lessons in it would be how to have the conversation and establishing your partner’s addiction to your product gradually (saw it on Miami Vice in the 90’s)…

Establishing the addiction is key. I have her begging to start on the next project for her. But I had to build a cabinet for the garage first to prepare for our laundry room remodel. Her only complaint is the projects take time away from spending it with her, the tools she is ok with.

 

[Clemson13]

It’s being considered…there was the TIG a few years back where I justified needing the ability to weld a larger variety of metals.

I’ve not done a lot of stainless welding and metal finishing…

A good starting point if you go down the rabbit hole of designing your own range hood:

https://www.pdhonline.com/courses/m228/m228content.pdf

 

[lilscorpion]

I did a custom fabricated exhaust hood for my place. Ill do one at every house from here on out. It cost less than 3K and is truly an every day life improving experience if you love to cook. Even the nice residential hoods still leave a little food smell in the house if you pan fry fish or Wok cook. Mine does not. I can Wok cook with zero smell in the house.

All commercially made residential hoods are compromises for cost, packaging, installation ease, and aesthetics. As such they operate inefficiently / ineffectively. If I ever skip building a custom hood, it will be to have a commercial kitchen ventilation contractor put in a legitimate commercial kitchen hood (which requires all the design work that no residential hoods get)

Custom fabricated is the only way to go. Mine had:
-remote mounted (attic) variable speed blower (800 cfm for my 30" range, for a 40+ id go with 1200 cfm of variable speed fan)
-8" ducting for the 12 ft run to minimize pressure drop
-inline duct silencers to eliminate almost all noise
-lights and fan controls down on wall not in a dumb place up on hood
-large capture volume (allowing lower fan speed to be used)
-used commercial kitchen baffles

There were a couple good white papers on the subject that helped me with

Awesome!! Couple of questions:

Silencers: did you put one before and after the fan? After installing them in the shop I learned some things. First, I was surprised to see that the material inside is like a heavy duty batting. Since they’re designed specifically for reducing the noise of hoods over a cook top, it seemed strange that a material would be used that would attract grease and oils. What were the ones you used like?

Fan: what kind? Squirrel cage? Fresh air?

Pics you’d be willing to share?

 

[Cruzan80]

When we do the kitchen, my wife has said we are only doing custom cabinets if I have them built BEFORE we demo...

Also, I would suggest re-thinking the panels on the uppers. Everyone I know who has see-thru panels has ended up hating them. Since you don't use it often, you have to do more work to "decorate" as you organize, rather than just keep it out of sight for the random turkey pans and such

 

[lilscorpion]

Demo before - yeah I get it. We’re going to see if I can change the tire on the car while it’s moving. I’m going to demo parts of the kitchen as replace, in place. Primarily because of how I’m tackling the face frames and paint. Cabinets can be installed and used without face frames. I’ll add them later and, since they’re fully removable, I’ll be able to remove them and paint them progressively as well.

Panels on the uppers - you mean glass inserts vs panels? The glass won’t be glass it’ll be lexan/plastic. The plan was for them to be opaque so you can’t see thru them. White actually which will contrast with whatever the color of the cabinets will end up being. Add a color dimension. I agree with you if I was planning to make them transparent, semi-transparent, or mosaic. Being able to see the junk in the cabinets would look horrible.

 

[Cruzan80]

More the fact my wife doesn't trust me to make sure everything is done quickly enough afterwards. When we redo our kitchen, some appliaces are moving around, so it would be harder to swap in place. We are also doing the floor at the same time as well.

 

[lilscorpion]

More the fact my wife doesn't trust me to make sure everything is done quickly enough afterwards. When we redo our kitchen, some appliaces are moving around, so it would be harder to swap in place. We are also doing the floor at the same time as well.

Yeah, I get it. Suppose it’s a compromise. That said, we purchased the cabinets for the last kitchen and even tho they all arrived done, we found that a few of them were damaged (in shipping) to the point we couldn’t install them and had to wait…but here’s the paradox - she was so tired of waiting we installed what we had and ended up with an incomplete kitchen for a few months anyway.

my wife felt the same a while back but every time we’ve tried taking the assumptive path, the outcomes are actually no better. Hiring someone costs more and the quality is usually less than we’d expect with no ability for cost relief/compensation. Ordering cabinets usually results in lesser quality (corner cutting). Upgrades are usually price gouging. The best bet is patience and accepting that is hard but important.

So advice - Key is you gotta hustle. Figure out how to give her what she wants. Overcome the objection. Key to happiness (and sales).

 

[Cruzan80]

Agreed. The kitchen is on the table for (tentatively) next summer. Teacher means June/July is prime "Home Improvement" time.

 

[larry4406]

A good starting point if you go down the rabbit hole of designing your own range hood:

https://www.pdhonline.com/courses/m228/m228content.pdf

Thank you for this! Saved for later reading.

 

[Clemson13]

Awesome!! Couple of questions:

Silencers: did you put one before and after the fan? After installing them in the shop I learned some things. First, I was surprised to see that the material inside is like a heavy duty batting. Since they’re designed specifically for reducing the noise of hoods over a cook top, it seemed strange that a material would be used that would attract grease and oils. What were the ones you used like?

Fan: what kind? Squirrel cage? Fresh air?

Pics you’d be willing to share?

The system goes hood > Ducting> Inline duct silencer > Blower > Short bit of ducting > External vent on roof

For a fan, I used a Fantech mixed flow. A great part about fantech is that they actually provide you with flow curves for their blowers (like any quality product has)

Fantech

www.fantech.net

I used their inline duct silencer. I too was surprised that the silencers have some kind of pacing in them instead of just baffles. I figure that I will check on how mine looks in another year or so. If I see negative buildup in the packing I will pull the silencer and put a new one in. Even if I find myself replacing them every 5 years it would be worth every penny to have the quiet exhaust hood.

Fantech

www.fantech.net

I researched a ton on what products to use for the blower & silencer. I ran across a smashed up blower on amazon warehouse for 1/3rd the price and it got me to pull the trigger on the project. I will happily pay Fantech full price in the future. I have been very happy with their products. I used their remote mount inline fans when I redid my bathrooms in the house as well. Silent ventilation, moves WAY more air than any normal bathroom fan, its so great I had to put the fans on timers so I wouldn't forget they were on

Here are some pictures.

First I bought some tools to bend it up.


Then I bent it up, riveted & tiged it together. Clecos were my best friends to hold the thing together for welding. If you are going to try sheet metal work they sure are helpful.



I put the wiring, ducting, and roof vent in




And then the final product:


I wished I had cleaned the stainless before I took the pictures.

Next in line is going to be painting cabinets & redoing all of the ****** drawer hardware with nice soft close parts. At that point the kitchen will be complete....maybe

 

[kaymccampbell]

The system goes hood > Ducting> Inline duct silencer > Blower > Short bit of ducting > External vent on roof

For a fan, I used a Fantech mixed flow. A great part about fantech is that they actually provide you with flow curves for their blowers (like any quality product has)

Fantech

www.fantech.net

I used their inline duct silencer. I too was surprised that the silencers have some kind of pacing in them instead of just baffles. I figure that I will check on how mine looks in another year or so. If I see negative buildup in the packing I will pull the silencer and put a new one in. Even if I find myself replacing them every 5 years it would be worth every penny to have the quiet exhaust hood.

Fantech

www.fantech.net

I researched a ton on what products to use for the blower & silencer. I ran across a smashed up blower on amazon warehouse for 1/3rd the price and it got me to pull the trigger on the project. I will happily pay Fantech full price in the future. I have been very happy with their products. I used their remote mount inline fans when I redid my bathrooms in the house as well. Silent ventilation, moves WAY more air than any normal bathroom fan, its so great I had to put the fans on timers so I wouldn't forget they were on

Here are some pictures.

First I bought some tools to bend it up.


Then I bent it up, riveted & tiged it together. Clecos were my best friends to hold the thing together for welding. If you are going to try sheet metal work they sure are helpful.



I put the wiring, ducting, and roof vent in




And then the final product:


I wished I had cleaned the stainless before I took the pictures.

Next in line is going to be painting cabinets & redoing all of the ****** drawer hardware with nice soft close parts. At that point the kitchen will be complete....maybe

Do you have make-up air for it? When I installed my 650cfm range hood, I needed to add fresh air intakes or the fireplace would get sucked into the room and the boiler would shut down on rollout.

 

[Clemson13]

Do you have make-up air for it? When I installed my 650cfm range hood, I needed to add fresh air intakes or the fireplace would get sucked into the room and the boiler would shut down on rollout.

Yup. I just added 2 dampers that pop open to let in outside air through floor/under cabinet registers on the opposite side of the kitchen, effectively the same as opening a window 6" or so. With the makeup air installed, my measurement show the whole house doesn't drop pressure perceptibly. The kitchen drops pressure ever so slightly.

I could have gone fancier, but I used the window in the kitchen for a year before putting in the makeup air and it worked well. It's not often I need to run the hood much more than at 30% speed. It helps that my house has the hot water heater in the crawlspace, and heat pump only. Not much to be impacted by a pressure drop.

I won't claim I did the makeup air side of the system as well as the hood design

 

[rattle_snake]

Updates?

 

[lilscorpion]

Updates?

Been busy as hell jumping back and forth between work, the kitchen, and the shop. Wrapped up the garage side and finally have a usable garage. Worked on this area.



Pulled out the fridges and gave them, and under them, a good cleaning. Decided I really don’t need the mini-fridge here. Probably put it over on the shop side…maybe. Could just keep stuff in the full size fridge.

Hung the cabinets up. All you see in the pic used to be in the last garage. For now I’ll keep the two tool carts here but the plan for the future is to add a single 6’ bench and 24” deep cabinets so I have a place to work on house projects and a place for a set of basic tools for the wife so she’s able to find them more easily.



I like having the space (mostly) organized now. Tool carts are a mess tho. One had become the staging place for stuff I come across that need a home but don’t yet have one so the pile builds. It’s the first corner that’s plenty good for phase 1.

 

[lilscorpion]

Work on getting the rest up here soon…

 

[lilscorpion]

And the kitchen…this is what I started with.





As any good project starts, it does so with demo.



Found some nice Easter eggs left by the PO/builder - behind the tile was an open junction box. Super nice.



Moving the microwave to over below the espresso
machine so I had to run a new run from the panel in the basement. Had easy access without the lower cabinets in the way.



Also ran a water line over to the stove so we could have one of them fancy pot filler faucets (like I have in the car wash setup in the shop).



And the filler itself. Super handy.



I only have 3 uppers left to make, the rest of the drawers and cabinets are done and cluttering up the shop and garage.



And the two large drawers for pots and pans

 

[lilscorpion]

Tonight I got the first set of uppers installed. Needed some recessed outlet boxes and of course didn’t have them…so I’ll have to get them and remove the cabinets tomorrow to finalize electrical. If nothing else we can still make coffee in the morning.



Here’s are some design specifics for the build. There’s 2 traditional sizes to upper cabinets if you order them - 36” and 42”. Mine are 48”. I could have made them one piece but instead are making them 2 piece because it’s more effective we use of material.



Second, the previous owner had installed the uppers a traditional 18”. The espresso machine was installed into a 24” deep cabinet which made the counter top under the cabinet un-usable.



So I did 2 things: (1) I measured the espresso machine and reduced the cabinet to be only exactly what was needed to fit the machine with. I dead space behind it. I was able to be the cabinet down to 18 1/2” deep to the face frame. (2) we raised the upper cabinets 3” to 21”. Difficult to see the difference in the pics but it’s substantial.



Tomorrow I’ll tackle installing the second stack.

 

[madison069]

If you have dogs, I’ve seen people have those water spout at the bottom of the kitchen island for the dog bowls. Basically built in dog buffet area in the island.

Overall, kitchen project is looking good!

 

[Clemson13]

If you have dogs, I’ve seen people have those water spout at the bottom of the kitchen island for the dog bowls. Basically built in dog buffet area in the island.

Overall, kitchen project is looking good!

My dog would turn one of those on as soon as I want paying attention and roll all over the ensuing puddle

While a great idea, that's a hard no in my house

 

[86turbodsl]

I did a custom fabricated exhaust hood for my place. Ill do one at every house from here on out. It cost less than 3K and is truly an every day life improving experience if you love to cook. Even the nice residential hoods still leave a little food smell in the house if you pan fry fish or Wok cook. Mine does not. I can Wok cook with zero smell in the house.

All commercially made residential hoods are compromises for cost, packaging, installation ease, and aesthetics. As such they operate inefficiently / ineffectively. If I ever skip building a custom hood, it will be to have a commercial kitchen ventilation contractor put in a legitimate commercial kitchen hood (which requires all the design work that no residential hoods get)

Custom fabricated is the only way to go. Mine had:
-remote mounted (attic) variable speed blower (800 cfm for my 30" range, for a 40+ id go with 1200 cfm of variable speed fan)
-8" ducting for the 12 ft run to minimize pressure drop
-inline duct silencers to eliminate almost all noise
-lights and fan controls down on wall not in a dumb place up on hood
-large capture volume (allowing lower fan speed to be used)
-used commercial kitchen baffles

There were a couple good white papers on the subject that helped me with

I did this for my house, stainless insert, 1500cfm, wood structure. One thing that you don't see anywhere, if you do make one with that sort of volume flow, you need to compensate with your HVAC. Most stove venting, you don't.

 

[86turbodsl]

Holy **** dude you move fast. You get more done in one night than i do in 6 months.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

If you have dogs, I’ve seen people have those water spout at the bottom of the kitchen island for the dog bowls. Basically built in dog buffet area in the island.

Overall, kitchen project is looking good!

I am actually planning one of these in our laundry room where the dog water bowl resides

My dog would turn one of those on as soon as I want paying attention and roll all over the ensuing puddle

While a great idea, that's a hard no in my house

And now I have to second guess the above idea for fear of this exact reason. Going to need a pot filler with a lock on it.

 

[lilscorpion]

If you have dogs, I’ve seen people have those water spout at the bottom of the kitchen island for the dog bowls. Basically built in dog buffet area in the island.

Overall, kitchen project is looking good!

Thanks, slowly but surely.

I like the idea of a dog water feeder gizmo. Had planned on maybe adding these to the hitch I pan to build in the dining room someday. It’s not as risky (to @Clemson13 and @cccoltsicehockey points) but would accomplish the same thing. This kind prevents spilling (or so they say)

My dog would turn one of those on as soon as I want paying attention and roll all over the ensuing puddle

While a great idea, that's a hard no in my house

I’m kinda worried about it getting turned on inadvertently on the stove. It has double valves to prevent it but I’m sure that over time one valve will be left on because it’s easier…it would make a huge mess instantly.

Holy **** dude you move fast. You get more done in one night than i do in 6 months.

Nah, the magic of TV. The cabinets and drawers were finished up last weekend and the install started Sunday and I did a little last night. I am trying to be done with cabinets by the end of this up coming weekend. Tile backsplash, paint, and doors after that.