Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Made By Miller Studios
- Thread starter MadeByMiller
- Start date
Workspaces sized between 265 and 485 squarefeet.
ODIS
Well-known member
Nice! Stacking Dimes!!!
SilverJimmy
Well-known member
“FOR SALE MILLER TIG WELDER
LIKE NEW ONLY BEEN USED TO MAKE SPARKS
NEVER BEEN USED AS A WELDER”
This is the sign I need to hang on my “welder” after seeing your welds!
LIKE NEW ONLY BEEN USED TO MAKE SPARKS
NEVER BEEN USED AS A WELDER”
This is the sign I need to hang on my “welder” after seeing your welds!
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
“FOR SALE MILLER TIG WELDER
LIKE NEW ONLY BEEN USED TO MAKE SPARKS
NEVER BEEN USED AS A WELDER”
This is the sign I need to hang on my “welder” after seeing your welds!
Thanks a bunch for all the nice and funny comments! It's been a while since I've gotten to sit down with the MIG gun, but hopefully I'll be doing it a bit more often. I'll continue sharing here when I do!
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
Just wow on those welds. Looks like art not a part.
As others mentioned those look awesome!
Curious: with that long "tail" on those parts, you able to chuck that ID into a rotary positioner and let it rotate it around so you can be stationary-ish and not get smacked with the part at the end?
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
Thank you very much!
Thanks man! That is exactly what I would try if I had a functioning positioner. I would set it up with the part vertical and the tube facing me so it wouldn't matter that the part is so long. I do have a positioner, but it's not functional...I need to prioritize that project. I've only been putting it off for like 10 years now...
LOL....yeah we've all been there....or for most of us are still there
And hadn't thought about changing that orientation...my limited experience welding on positioners always had parts horizontal so that's what I was thinking!
Okay, now you've really impressed me! I mean, the welds are impressive, but I assumed you used a positioner. The fact that you did those so consistently by hand... just wow! You've got some real skill Austin!
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
Thank you! I break the diameter up into 3 welds and try to make the tie-ins as clean as possible. I've got a ton of practice welding around tubes like this, but it's definitely not the easiest or most fun weld joint for me.
madison069
Well-known member
I'd be happy if my weld looks half as good.
scottyfromtherigs
Member
Organisation to aspire to! Good idea ditching the snap on box.... These Vidmar? boxes are great, custom organisation.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:
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
Thank you very much! I'm a huge fan of my Vidmar cabinets and other industrial style cabinets and the quality/value they have is unmatched by anything from the Snap On truck.
madison069
Well-known member
Yea, what he said! What big project you’ve been working on?
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
Thank you gentlemen for checking in! I wish I had some sort of grand update for everyone to explain my lack of posting here, but really there isn't much to report. It's been a sort of "same old, same old" season of life. I'm okay with that too, it's nice to have some simplicity.
Since my last posting here, I did pass 7 years of self employment, which is a blessing. My business is very much an ever evolving entity that has made twists and turns that I could've never expected when I decided to give it a go. Every day that I'm able to continue is truly a dream come true. I've established some amazing relationships that have resulted in a level of stability that I have been trying to achieve for a while. My spare time outside of those projects would be best spent working on developing my own products again. I haven't sold a mini vise in many months, and Fixture Table Plugs sales have been nearly as nonexistent. Blame my complete lack of marketing.
Something that I have done that @loganb spurred me to finally get on, is bringing my welding positioner to life so I can finally use it on those VW spring plate parts that I posted months ago. I did it and it is absolutely a gamechanger in terms of part quality as well as production speed. Here are a couple of photos of that to break up the wall of text:
On the CAD design front, the most interesting thing I have to share is this model I made of my pressure washer and a HF dolly. They are necessary models for a product idea that is on the back burner. The detail wasn't necessary, but it was fun!
I'll leave you with a photo of a current glimpse of the shop. It is The Garage Journal, after all.
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Good to hear an update!
madison069
Well-known member
Your pressure washer and dolly combo makes me think of my idea of combining those with a spot less filtering system for car washing. My new garage isn’t really big enough to keep a dedicated washing station at the front, but I have room to store washing stuff at the rear of the garage. Along with I can wheel it everywhere around the house as long as the water hose and extension cord can reach.
madison069
Well-known member
Like this one, but for less then $1,600 as this one cost!
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
Many thanks! Hit me up on Instagram next time you've got the MIG welder out and we can talk if you'd like.
Thank you for stopping by!
Like this one, but for less then $1,600 as this one cost!
The product idea is a sort of modular pressure washer cart that is space saving. Options for hose reel mounting as well. This is driven from my own needs that I thought others (like yourself) would benefit from as well. This project is sort of on the short list, but likely won't get my attention for a while again. Thank you for your comments!
Much appreciated! I may take you up on that!
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
After longer than I'm willing to admit here, I finally got my truck washed and took some beauty shots with the DSLR/ nifty fifty. We had a nasty hail storm (2.5" diameter!) come through about a month ago that unfortunately did some minor damage to the old girl, despite doing my best to hide it under a tree. You can see some dings on the hood and some clearcoat that was broken and peeled.
I snapped these ones specifically to leave in the Google review for the gentleman that did my powder coating:
I snapped these ones specifically to leave in the Google review for the gentleman that did my powder coating:
slim_grim
Well-known member
Whew. I'm away from GJ for awhile and this is the first shop photo that I see. Time to go get mine cleaned up after a wave of small projects.I'll leave you with a photo of a current glimpse of the shop. It is The Garage Journal, after all.
nicholam77
Well-known member
I'll leave you with a photo of a current glimpse of the shop. It is The Garage Journal, after all.
Looking awesome as always! Your cabinet collection is so nice.
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
Thanks Nick!
Still having a hard time getting myself to update things on social media, but here goes a quick recap of some sort of recent events, in order of occurrence:
The fuel pump suddenly died on my truck. My brother in law saved the day with his pickup and car trailer. The next day I laid in the rain on my gravel driveway and dropped the tank and replaced the pump. The silver lining is that the previous owner gave me an upgraded 22 gallon tank over the previous 15 gallon tank, so I now have more fuel capacity.
I finally designed a drill jig for aluminum meatballs for my No. 24 Mini Vises and got a couple drilled out. Very happy with them.
I scored this adorable Craftsman 109 lathe from a nice gentleman on Marketplace in Sturgis. I sourced some new headstock bushings from ebay that really transformed it into a tool (the original front bushing was extremely worn). The boys and I had some fun making chips with it.
There have been plenty more of these air cooled VW parts ran through my shop. Very grateful to my local customer for supplying me with so much work.
I also make a ton of 3D printed spindle liners (the blue tubular parts in the photo) for another customer. One of my printers has been having an x axis gantry problem for months. It finally got bad enough that I ordered a new carbon rod assembly from Bambu and got it replaced. A pretty big job, totaling about 4-5 hours worth of work, but in the end the machine is like new again.
The last thing of interest for this post, my spindle liner customer provides me with all of the filament to make these. He took advantage of the current Black Friday sale through Bambu and had 400 spools of TPU for AMS shipped to my house. The best place to store this was underneath my basement stairs.
Life is good! I have gotten pretty deep into running as a hobby, so I spend quite a lot of my free time out on the trails near my house or on the road putting miles in. Here is my Strava in case you the reader are also into that sort of thing. I've been super busy the last couple of weeks. Hoping to get a bit more free time very soon to finish up the design and prototyping of my next mini vise so that I can get them out in time for Christmas.
Thanks for following along.
gearhead1960
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Following on Strava!
Boostingaz
Well-known member
I never get tired of seeing your welds. They are a thing of beauty sir. Goals....one day!
Boostingaz
Well-known member
LeonardY
Well-known member
Good to see you living life.
I struggle with social media at times too.
I struggle with social media at times too.
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
Welcome aboard! I hope you enjoy seeing mediocre runs in your feed haha.
Many thanks! Congrats on the new welder, I'm sure that will be nice. I have almost zero experience with inverter MIG welders, but they are intriguing to me. I wouldn't mind having one in the shop due to the much smaller footprint, but I've got sentimental attachment to my old Lincoln being the first machine I ever welded with.
Thank you Leonard. I still enjoy seeing what others are up to here (yourself included), I just don't feel compelled to share.
gearhead1960
ALLIANCE MEMBER
you can always follow me back and see my mediocre walks
(I'm not a runner) and rides
....been on for a long time...nothing new here....
OP
MadeByMiller
Well-known member
With the holiday season upon us, I wanted to bump this back up to advertise my No. 24 Mini Vise and accompanying M0317 Swiveling Mini Vise Stands. The No. 24 comes with a snowflake adapter to make it the coolest ornament on your tree! As always, these are available on my website:
www.madebymillerllc.com
Thank you for looking! Here are some customer supplied photos from last Christmas:
www.madebymillerllc.com
Thank you for looking! Here are some customer supplied photos from last Christmas: