Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Made By Miller Studios

[MadeByMiller]

Welcome to Made By Miller Studios, my 14'x24' detached garage turned workshop (established October of 2018) as well as my home office design space. This is the home of my company, Made By Miller (@madebymiller_ on Instagram). It started off extremely basic and bare bones, and it's steadily evolved over time in my quest to maximize my space and convert it to the laboratory like shop of my dreams. There is a lot to detail in this thread, but I'll start this first post off with before/current state shots.

This shot was taken 8/30/18, less than a month before my first child was born (super pregnant wife). We were just looking at the property for the first time before we purchased it and moved in about a month later.


Here is the current state of the shop as of 6/22/23.


In this thread you'll find a broad mix of my passions and interests, from welding and fabrication to CAD design, 3D rendering, 3D printing, amateur photography, and some of the projects I get myself into around our property.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[MadeByMiller]

Here is a shot of the house and shop:


Some more before pictures:


I started moving my junk in as soon as I could.


It filled up fast!

 

[MadeByMiller]

Here we have the first iteration of the shop with all of my treasures moved in (9/30/18):

 

[MadeByMiller]

I had been keeping my eye out for a decent sized shed that I could stash some of the more infrequently used items in. I lucked out and found a great deal on a 12'x12' in a neighboring town that I had brought in on a rollback truck. I repainted it to match the other buildings and quickly filled it up.



That allowed me to get a lot of unnecessary items out of the shop and free up a bunch of space, which lead to this new arrangement (10/27/18:


I found the yellow pantry cabinet on Facebook for free

 

[MadeByMiller]

I started making some permanent alterations to the shop immediately after, starting with some windows. Natural lighting is very important to me in my workspace.

11/18/18

 

[MadeByMiller]

At the same time I was also trenching over conduit to bring more power from the house to the shop.


The original panel - certainly wasn't going to cut it for a fab shop!


The new breaker box - much more room and much more power. Also the first 220 outlet in the building, I used this temporary outlet for about a year for my welder.

 

[MadeByMiller]

In an effort to try to maximize floor space, I had the brilliant idea to stack my Harbor Freight box on top of my Snap-on Epiq. I decided to do this without emptying out the Harbor Freight box first...

 

[MadeByMiller]

It was about time to start working in my shop and making money, instead of working on the shop and spending money. To do that, I needed a welding bench. I found one on Facebook for much less than the materials cost to build one, the only catch being it had been sitting topside down in the weeds for who knows how long. It needed some work.


So I started cleaning it up using a 4.5" grinder and a stripper disc.

 

[MadeByMiller]

I thought of the idea to use a woodworking belt sander to help me more quickly and evenly sand the pits out of the top and give me a smooth uniform work surface. I picked up the cheapest one I could find at a pawn shop and got to work.



Then I put it in it's home with a tin firestop behind it. I also rigged up a temporary light above it because I hate working in the dark.


My first welds in the shop!


I maintained the top with maroon scotchbrite and the occasional DA sand when needed. I'm really particular about having a nice clean and smooth work surface, so I eventually filled in all the holes the previous owner had drilled.


This bench served me extremely well and I have fond memories of it. Eventually, a better welding surface came into my life, and it was time to sell this one. Over time I had wire wheeled the legs and cleaned up some of the shotty welds. I hope the new owner is treating it well. (9/19/19)

 

[MadeByMiller]

The main thing I was building in the shop was bumpers for my old employer. I must have built hundreds of them in my little shop, freezing my **** off in the South Dakota winter. This was the last shop layout before some big new items. (1/3/19)

 

[Chrisb62]

Do you need a small step stool to get anything out of the top of that stacked toolbox?
Very interesting smallish work space, can’t wait to see what else goes on in there.

 

[MadeByMiller]

One of the big new acquisitions was my Everlast 325ext and cooler. These machines are comparable in arc stability and functionality to the Miller Dynasty's I've used in the past, and for a fraction of the price. I've been using it regularly for the last two and a half years and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

The next big items were these Vidmar cabinets that I got a steal of a deal on, I paid $1,000 for all the cabinets you see (plus one that you don't see). I cleaned up the small doored Vidmar cabinets and flammable cabinets first and got them filled up.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Do you need a small step stool to get anything out of the top of that stacked toolbox?
Very interesting smallish work space, can’t wait to see what else goes on in there.

Yes, a step was necessary to get to some of the top drawers. I just kept more rare use items up there. Thanks for the interest!

 

[MadeByMiller]

I had to reorganize the shop to fit these amazing new-to-me cabinets in, so here's how that looked as of 3/30/19:


I had also recently purchased a small knee mill that you can see hiding in the corner.

 

[MadeByMiller]

More changes - some things added and even a few subtracted. I sold a few of the Vidmars that didn't really suit my needs and I found another great deal on a Vidmar cabinet more useful to me on Facebook. All of these cabinets came out of the local Air Force base at some point, I like to joke that I'm just reassembling the group in my little shop.


With those changes, here's how the shop looked (6/16/19):


My wonderful wife bought me the perfect shop clock after I had been searching for a while for one that plugs in. It has a glass face and steel housing. Very heavy and quality made clock.


A friend of mine gave me some really heavy wall hanging cabinets that came out of a hospital for practically nothing.


I cleaned them up and got them hung. This was the state of the shop as of 7/15/19:


I also managed to shoehorn in a small Craftsman lathe and bench that I scored at an auction.

 

[MadeByMiller]

The thrill of the hunt is so alluring, I'm always looking out for deals on equipment - it's rare to come by in my area though. An incredible auction came up in town from a defunct ammunition manufacturing company. I scored on a lot of great equipment, much not pictured. At around the same time I also got yet another Vidmar cabinet (seeing a pattern?) a cherry Rock Island vise attached to a nice bench, and one of my prized possessions, my 6" Morgan 360 swivel jaw vise.


The new welding table I mentioned several posts back:

 

[MadeByMiller]

The new welding table was awesome, consisting of a massive, heavy, cast iron machine base (likely an old stamping press base) with a 1/2" plate top. That top was pretty beat up, so I set out to refurbish it. (8/29/19)

This Restorer worked much better than the pawn shop woodworking belt sander that I had used on the last welding table.


I cleaned the top up and then proceeded to fill in all the holes and deep gouges from the previous users with my TIG welder. I decided to leave the large torch cut hole, and it proved useful many times since for a pass through and clamping outlet.


Then I carefully sanded the welds down and blended out the rest of the table to make it smooth.

 

[MadeByMiller]

One of the first projects on the new welding table was my son's first birthday present, a Murray Champion "Straight Side".

 

[MadeByMiller]

It was October 2019, I had now been working in the shop for a full year. We had saved enough money to save me from another brutal long winter of long johns and coveralls. It began by having the electrician come out and wire in many new outlets and lights. Exciting! We had to constantly shuffle everything around in the little shop.

Next came the sweetest thing, insulation!

At this time, I also embarked on the painstaking task of re-anchoring the sill plate and trimming it back to match the 2"x4" wall. To this day I do not know why they made the sill plate wider than the wall - I do know it was a pain in the **** to trim!

 

[MadeByMiller]

Next up, sheetrock! I thought long and hard about what I wanted to sheet the walls with. In the end, I knew sheetrock was the only option I would be happy with to have nice smooth white walls. Again, shuffling this much big, heavy stuff in such a small area was a challenge.

Primed


Painted!

The electrician came back and finished all the outlets and hung my amazingly bright led light fixtures.


At this point I was ecstatic for the last year of working in the shop I had been dreaming of finishing it like this.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Now that the shop was finished out, I needed to reorganize. I took this opportunity to purge a lot of things I had gathered along the way but no longer needed. I had a big sale and sold some bigger items such as my Snap-on Epiq box and small Craftsman lathe. The sale was nice to help recoup some of the savings we had spent on the remodeling of the shop. Since I sold the Snap-on box, I had to move my tools into one of the Vidmar cabinets. I cleaned it out, lined all the drawers with thin, rubber-backed carpet, and filled it up.

Shortly after I organized this box, I ordered some VIM magrails for my sockets. Although spendy, these are hands down the best socket rails on the market.
Before:


After:


I also took the time to sort and organize my hardware into the super popular Harbor Freight bins:

 

[MadeByMiller]

I got a killer deal at auction on a variable speed Powermatic drill press, so I moved it in and got the shop settled into it's fancy new digs.

The state of the shop as of 11/8/19:


I immediately got back to work on customer jobs. Check out the big new additions, the Industrial Maid air scrubber which filters all of the welding fumes out of my shop air, and my new propane heater with wifi thermostat! No more freezing in long johns and coveralls for 15 hours a day! It was so refreshing to work in this space now, BEST PLACE EVER!

1/11/20

 

[MadeByMiller]

With my fresh and clean shop, some of my equipment was looking a bit too dingy and dirty, so I took the time to scrub them up - most notably my Burr King belt sander. This is one of my favorite tools in the shop, you can't bog it down - a real joy to use.

Some of the first projects out of the newly finished shop were this garden gate for a customer and a Tonka truck I restored for my son's Christmas gift.


I was trying to emulate my '72 K10, my first vehicle:

 

[MadeByMiller]

Now I had a large new piece of equipment on the way, and it was going to require some infrastructure advancements and some reorganization to fit it in. One of the major improvements happened just outside the shop with an addition - my air compressor shed.

This was completed 1/27/20, and I've been really happy with it. The shed is very good at containing the noise from the compressor, and it works well year round, no matter the outside temps.

 

[MadeByMiller]

The reorganization necessary to fit the new piece of equipment required some fabrication, so I fired up Fusion 360 and got to work designing a new fixture for the shop - a stand for my flammable cabinet and a home for my grandfather's Kennedy machinist box.


I wanted a bit more clearance above the Kennedy box to store one of my surface plates (not pictured), so I fabbed up these legs to replace the casters. They give me just enough room to get my pallet jack under the cabinet to pull it out to access the surface plate and they make the box more stable.


Finished! (2/29/20)

 

[bimmer1980]

Nice looking shop!

Good assortment of equipment!!

Where in South Dakota are you?

I used to live in Brookings.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Nice looking shop!

Good assortment of equipment!!

Where in South Dakota are you?

I used to live in Brookings.

Thank you very much! We live just outside of Rapid City. I'm familiar with Brookings, I grew up in Huron.

 

[MadeByMiller]

The new piece of equipment arrived and I assembled it 3/4/20. My new Langmuir Crossfire Pro plasma table and Hypertherm Powermax 45xp plasma unit!


I just had to wrap up my air system and I would be ready to cut. I knew that dry, clean air is paramount in cut quality and consumable longevity, so I invested in a refrigerated air dryer and five stage filtration/desiccant dryer setup. The plumbing is 3/4" RapidAir, which I'm very pleased with and has never leaked. I achieved my goal of completely clean/dry air.

I'm so spoiled, year round climate control!


The state of the shop as of 1/14/21

 

[Walkers]

Wow! Super nice job on everything!

 

[MadeByMiller]

I had fun designing and building this firepit as an exercise in creativity and potential local sale product. Everyone with a welder builds firepits, my goal was to design a cool and unique one that I've never seen built. (8/29/20).

 

[MadeByMiller]

Wow! Super nice job on everything!

Thank you very much!

 

[MadeByMiller]

One day I decided it was finally time I give some attention to my prized 6" Morgan 360 vise. This thing is a monster, and I absolutely love seeing it every day and using it. The swivel jaw was of course frozen, but fortunately I was able to remove the pin with some heat from a propane torch and my vintage Weaver 28 ton mechanical screw press. I scrubbed it clean, removed some surface rust with scotchbrite, cleaned up the machined surfaces with files and stones, and finally cleaned and squared up the hardened jaws. Someday I will build a new stand for it, perhaps similar to the stand I've been designing for a special customer...

A reminder of what it looked like when I got it:


After the cleanup:


And the vise stand I mentioned I was working on for a customer:

 

[MadeByMiller]

It was time again for another new piece of equipment in the shop. I ordered a brand new shiny fabrication table from Stronghand tools. I always research and deliberate laboriously over any new tool, and after weighing all the different table options out there, I was confident that the modularity and flexibility of the BuildPro tables would fit right in at my shop - so I ordered a 4'x4' Max along with some tooling. It was love at first sight! This table is such a joy to use.


Here are a couple of the first projects off the new table, a dummy bomb kit my friend Joel (@overkillracingandchassis on Instagram) sent me, and an awesome 3D printed dead blow hammer kit that my friend Dave (@davemoneysign on Instagram) sent me. I added my logo to the dummy bomb, and after TIG welding the handle to the head tube of the hammer I torch blued and lacquered it.

You may have noticed the yellow doors and drawers are new in the blue cabinet in the back - good eye! I scored yet another big Vidmar cabinet, and decided that the drawer setup is more useful in my shop than the full doors. Thankfully the cabinets are fully modular, so I was able to just swap the doors and drawers out without having to move the big heavy cabinet body. The blue doors are now outside on the yellow cabinet keeping firewood dry.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Most recently (7/15/21) I got to a couple long overdue shop projects: mounting the air scrubber to the ceiling and getting the Vidmar cabinets off the 2x4's and bolted together. I also used this opportunity to reorder the cabinets in a way that makes a bit more sense as far as location in the shop. This was a lot of work and required completely pulling all 32 drawers out of the cabinets to make them light enough to lift off of the blocks and maneuver for fastening together. That being said, I'm thrilled with the results.

I used some unistrut to mount the air scrubber to the ceiling, fastened to four rafters. It worked very well and I'm pleased with how tight I was able to get it to the ceiling. At the same time, I also attached some cable channel to the ceiling to plug the cord (cut to length with 90* plug added) in to the ceiling outlet I added for this reason when I renovated the shop.

And the current state of the shop as of today 7/17/21:


You might notice that the mill is gone, I sold it to buy a new piece of equipment...

 

[MadeByMiller]

To wrap up the posting for today, I thought I would share some of my 3D CAD model renderings I made in Fusion 360 of the shop and some of the equipment. It is so useful to have this virtually when it comes to shop layout and planning for new equipment. I still need to add a few key pieces, such as the plasma table and welders and shop press. Stronghand is generous enough to provide models of their tables, so that saved me some time in modeling. Things like the drill press and belt sanders I was able to download something similar from GrabCad and modify to make more accurate to reality.


In the following renders you can see the new piece of equipment that I mentioned in the last post mocked up where I thought I might place it - a Shapeoko Pro XL cnc router.


After I received the Shapeoko, I painstakingly measured and modeled it so that I could more accurately design it's enclosure - the big yellow doored cabinet that I highlighted two posts ago is almost a perfect fit for it. That means I no longer need to have it out on the shop floor under the window like I had planned before I ordered it. Very convenient and a much better solution.


In this rendering you can see that the cabinet layout is now up to date, and the big red Rockwell belt/disc sander has been added as well as the mock up Burr King and another tool I modeled, my beast 10" Black & Decker bench grinder. I'm working on designing a new workbench to put them on which will open up the floorspace underneath, as well as give me another surface for staging things during a project. This will be the next shop project that I'm hoping to complete this month.


The aforementioned grinder model:

 

[captain14]

Very nice shop and progression in the build. I’m not a metal worker but more of woodworking but any small shop like that would be a joy to work in. And you can find anything because it’s not buried under other stuff.

Do you put everything away at the end of the workday or end of the project production run?

 

[Mr.zippy]

Nice metal work! Subscribed.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Very nice shop and progression in the build. I’m not a metal worker but more of woodworking but any small shop like that would be a joy to work in. And you can find anything because it’s not buried under other stuff.

Do you put everything away at the end of the workday or end of the project production run?

Thank you! It depends. I tend to work in stages, so often times I will clean up multiple times a day once stages are complete. Other times it makes more sense to wait until the project is complete to clean everything up. Everything has a home and I try to lay things out efficiently so that clean up is a simple task.

 

[MadeByMiller]

Nice metal work! Subscribed.

Thank you!

 

[rmack898]

Nice shop and really nice to see the progression from then to now.

Looking at your user name, I was surprised to see red machines in your shop.
The Burr King is a monster, don't ever get rid of it.

Nice to see real fab work done in a small shop.