Mopar / Wood Shop Cave

[DonPowers]

Your shop looks great and functional, nice job.

I have been contemplating a metal ceiling but am concerned about reflected noise from tools. How is the reflected sound from your ceiling?

Thanks

Don

 

[moparfreak]

Your shop looks great and functional, nice job.

I have been contemplating a metal ceiling but am concerned about reflected noise from tools. How is the reflected sound from your ceiling?

Thanks

Don

Honestly noise is really a non-factor. It doesn't sound tinny / echo-y at all. The metal ceiling is one of the best decisions I made, based on effort, cost, look and performance (based on my situation of course...)

 

[moparfreak]

The organizing continues...

Found a few little wire baskets in the dollar section at Target, kinda blend in with the shop look so picked those up, and was able to set up an area to store my punches & deburr tools.

 

[moparfreak]

A few more things these past few days...

Got the hose / cord storage all squared away, so now I don't have all the coils sitting on the floor.

Got my HF 12 ton shop press set up and ready. I know it's not the most stout of units that could be had (by a long shot!), but it's the right size for where I needed to put it, and it'll give me some leverage I need on certain projects for the price I paid. Getting ready for a big suspension overhaul of the Mazda so this should get some use on that.

Also got in my Grizzly track saw that I ordered, for cutting down sheet goods in the middle of the shop. I'll eventually build a cutting table to complement this saw. Right now I just use a sheet of styrofoam. Tracking the progress of this saw and how it performs in the circ saw thread I started (http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=306832)

More updates to come....

 

[moparfreak]

BTW, are the pictures I'm posting showing up?...they show on my computer browser but not Tapatalk...

 

[rsanter]

Very nice, but if you really want to impress you will make a full sized running model of you mopar out of wood. You can use Purple Heart to mimic the plum crazy purple that they painted the cars

Or at least you can add some real wood paneling to your car

Bob

 

[Mickm]

Moparfreak,
No, the pictures on this page are not showing up on my computer.

 

[moparfreak]

As dreadful as that sounds, it's been done....

**shudders**

 

[moparfreak]

not sure why the pics don't work consistently hosted from Google Photo. Now I'll test out w/ one from Photobucket...

 

[BBSkylark]

Photobucket picture works for me but the Google photo ones are still not showing... I'm even using Chrome!

 

[moparfreak]

Yeah I'm gonna go back and edit all the image links to the photobucket ones. They have 10GB free storage which should be more than enough for shop pictures.

What a hassle!

 

[moparfreak]

Finally fixed all the pics, hopefully some more progress over the weekend!

 

[bj383ss]

That Grizzly tracksaw look bada$$..

 

[moparfreak]

Doing a serious overhaul of the Mazda suspension, bearings thermostat, brakes, and the shop is in serious mess-mode, but nonetheless I love it, since this is why I built it...



And of course a cool night shot...

 

[moparfreak]

Been making more slow progress on the shop in and amongst the rest of the house projects going on.

Had to get a handle on my hardware storage area, cause it feeds into pretty much all other projects I do. Using the blue electrician boxes is just fantastic, very adaptable. Have all the drawers sorted and labeled. I inherited a bunch of the large small drawer organizers from my grandpa's shop, and I use those for smaller miscellaneous things. I still have a lot of his hardware to go through and sort, but that will come in time.






Then my next step is to organize the many plano boxes worth of stuff. I used to keep all my hardware in these, and in re-organizing some of emptied out, but I got ideas from GJ with a vertical rack for storing these plano boxes, so that's what I'm gonna do. I have a nice little column of space between the workbench and the drawers so time to start clearing it out:



This is all the boxes piled up that need to be stored. 28 in all of various sizes.



Put some side support panels to screw into, anchored to the drawers and workbench. My idea to make the install quick and simple, is to use stair support brackets from the construction aisle, the brackets are rather stiff, and only about $1.30 when purchased in a case load.





Put one in, so far so good, now only 27 to go...

 

[shortykorte]

Looking good. I'll have to check out the electric boxes for storage cups?

 

[sublime68charger]

As dreadful as that sounds, it's been done....

**shudders**

Like the color but the wood paneling I could due with out!

 

[don long]

Adam
I have totally enjoyed going through this thread.
You have shared sooo many great ideas. I am in the process of putting together a vintage craftsman woodshop and you have helped me out more than you know. I will be back for more encouragement for sure.
I like the work bench with the clamping ability and the wood storage box very much. the idea of using electrical boxes and drain pipe for controlling those loose items and hardware is brilliant.
your shop is a place to be proud of.

Thanks for sharing!!

Don

 

[moparfreak]

Thanks Don for your encouragement. I can't think of a workshop on this forum that has more personality than yours, so I'm sure I'll be implementing some of your ideas in the future as well. I have such a long list of ideas and shop projects that I think it will take me to retirement to consider myself "done" (I'm 32....so a long ways off). Many of those ideas have come from GJ and the list only keeps getting longer...

This evening after I put some stain on several trim panels for the kitchen cabs, I started re-assembling my router table. I used to have a Rockler setup, but I never really liked how the fence was set up (loosen it up, bump it on two sides till it's in position). When the Kreg system came out, with a nice T-style metal rail based fence adjustment, I was sold. With the recent holiday 20% off Rockler coupons, I decided to upgrade, and got the Kreg router table top and fence, and then sold the original Rockler table top, fence, and the router lift I had for the same price. Although I got rid of the lift, I've had a 3.25 hp Triton router ready for the table for quite a while, and with that router design and the "through the table" crank adjustment a lift was unnecessary, so for me it was a nice upgrade for what amounted to a wash!

Pics of install coming soon, the table top is on, and unboxing the router....

Also an update on the Grizzly track saw, man what a tool. I'm a track saw convert, and the value of this saw just fantastic. Really nice cut, so flexible and easy to set up. I find it really nice to be able to cut long tapers on pieces, where I need an "off-square" cut, cause I'm butting up to a wall that of course isn't perfectly plumb or square. On the TS, it always gives me a square cut, and setting up for very slight tapers is cumbersome. With this saw it's really simple and quick. Here I'm cutting 1/4" Maple Ply for several cabinet side trim panels. With the Freud 48T blade, and good stock support on the bottom, it's a splinter / tear-out free cut even with the thin veneer.





Here's the kitchen w/ maple cabinets, getting closer to done. I bought about 2/3 of them off a guy from CL for near nothing, and have built the other 1/3 or so custom to fit and match our unique space. 3 upper cabinets to go...

 

[moparfreak]

Back at it again with some more updates....

One of the things I learned is that I work more effectively if I try to work on only one shop improvement at a time. This way, I focus totally on that one thing, and I usually am able to get it done quicker, better and more complete, than if I am trying to balance several things at once, and I usually end up not quite completing the project in all its details and have to revisit later.

Well, my primary focus thus far has been all of the hardware storage area, and while I've made strides and can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I've had these new Kreg parts that I've just been itching to get installed onto my renewed router table, and I finally gave in. Basically I've got a 3-1/4 HP Triton TRA001 router, the Kreg Precision Router Table (PRS0025) and Kreg Precision Router Table Fence (PRS0015), so it's time to get that installed onto my older Rockler table frame.

Here's the router unboxed, along with the router table insert plate. Really nice router, and has above table depth control, so no need for expensive router lifts!


As far as getting the router insert plate drilled, you could send it to Kreg for $30 and they'd drill it for you, but Kreg also had a great idea to print a bullseye grid on the back, where you could tape your router sub-plate, and mark off and drill your hole pattern. I have to say it worked great!




Using the DP to put in some good clean straight holes, the phenolic plate drilled nicely.




Plate installed into the router table and leveled off. Really nice table, smooth sliding.




Then I got the fence installed, and for the most part it went smoothly. I do have to mention that there were some issues that came up, both with Rockler where I bought them and Kreg. It turns out Rockler sold me a previous model table and current model fence. They were incompatible. The combination I was sold was PRS0020 table and PRS0015 fence. It should have been a PRS0025 table and PRS0015 fence. It took me a day or two to figure out and a few phone calls to Kreg and Rockler. In the end, the guys at the store at Rockler were super helpful and friendly about it, and I brought in the original table and swapped it out for the newer one, even though I had already installed the first one and put some holes in it, etc. Really great service. In the end it was all rectified and resulted in a happy customer.

Final result. Excellent fence movement & squareness. Can't wait to try it out.




Next up is to start detailing out the storage and DC elements of the table, close it off a bit or add some shelves to hold the various router accessories. In due time....

 

[mygarageone]

As I'm putting some final touches on the mudroom / bathroom, I've got the go ahead to take a break from the kitchen and get some things in order with the shop, so decided to start bringing some stuff upstairs from storage in the basement. Rearranged a couple tool carts and a workbench to make a bit of an "L" and better use floor space:

Next I started with my fasteners. From my old shop, after searching long for the cheapest easy to find "bin" to put fastener types in, I settled on a somewhat unorthodox method of using the plastic electrical boxes, the blue ones. They come in many sizes (1-gang thru 4, maybe more), and are relatively sturdy. Also very cheap. If you buy the bulk box of 50 for contractors I believe they come in at $0.27/pc or so. That's cheaper than anything I could find "meant" for hardware. These also can be taken to a workbench easily for the job, and just about fill a typical 1 lb or single pack of fasteners that you would buy.

My old shop I built custom racks and trays for them and put them in a big metal shelving unit. Over time my design proved cumbersome and I was looking for a new way to store these. THen I had a thought. I have these two card carrier units with excellent slides. In my old basement shop I used them for tools and they are pretty much bulletproof.

I figured out that if I cut the ears off the blue boxes, they fit perfect two side by side. Almost like it was meant to be. And the good thing is these slides can really handle the weight. So I got to filling them up...

As an example, wood screws towards the top:

Bolts, nuts & machine screws towards the middle:

Nails toward the bottom:

You get the idea, and that's only a fraction of one of them. I've got a lot more fasteners in all sorts of places to sort out so they'll get filled but also have room to grow. Also plan to build a plano-box tower just between the cabinet and workbench as I've got about 15 of those around with different assortments as well. I think I saw a build of something like that on the forum here and will probably use that idea.

GOing to sketch out a workbench hopefully later today as I'd like to get going on that as well.

Thanks,
Adam

Awsome use of those old card files , I did something similar .
I made may dividers from sheet metal , seeing as I had a shop , I was able to cut and bend for differant size nuts / bolts .
One thing , they are made to last a life time

 

[moparfreak]

Plano box storage rack starting to come together. Using those framer brackets makes it go together very easily. Not quite as polished as some of the other solutions I've seen on here, or the Sortimo box storage rack from the guy on Mythbusters, but really nice and effective and it's starting to really clear up my bench space!

Used pocket hole joinery to build & fasten this together quick. I love the Porter Cable jig that I got awhile ago, setup is so much quicker than the manual Kreg jig I had earlier, and all the stock thickness / hole position / screw depth / clamping is done automatically with the mechanism. Highly recommended if you do a lot of pocket holes...

Unfortunately the rack lined up with one of my outlets. Not much I could do about that, so I made a notch in the back and I'll be hard mounting an outlet strip on the bench nearby, so I'll still maintain easy access to plugs for power tools at that bench, which is what I really care about.

The pile on the bench is getting smaller, finally. I need to pick up more brackets from HD to finish it off, hope to have a finished product w/in a few days.

 

[sublime68charger]

nice updates!

how much snow/sleet did you get with the big storm that came through yesterday?

 

[moparfreak]

believe it or not, we got nothing! It was too warm, just a bunch of rain throughout the day. I was surprised coming into the parking lot in the morning at work, it's 45 degrees and everyone had their wipers flipped upwards. A whole bunch of school closings the night before for no reason too!

 

[shortykorte]

Looking good. I like the router table. I just installed a Vega fence on my table saw and it looks like I could integrate a router also. I have the manual Kreg jig, I like the pocket screws but the setup for each hole takes forever. Thanks for comment on Porter Cable.

 

[moparfreak]

Shorty,

The manual Kreg jig is still necessary IMO because sometimes you need to be able to move the tool to the stock, rather than the stock to the tool. That being said, adding the PC pocket hole jig really sped up my work. I looked long and hard at the Kreg benchtop jig as well and that would have been nice as well, but the way I looked at it, the PC jig just had more features built in, and I haven't been disappointed yet.

Just finished up on the Plano box holders so I'll snap some more pics tonight.

 

[moparfreak]

Pretty much finished off the Plano box storage rack, and what a space saver! Not as elegant as some of the other solutions around here that I was inspired by, but very functional and useful. Helps round out the "hardware store" section of the shop. I wanted to make sure this area was well organized as finding the right fasteners / hardware easily feeds into the other projects I do.

Using the simpson stair brackets really made this go quickly once the wood frame was put together. What's nice is that I also get my big 6' maple butcher block bench back and can use that for other tasks and tools now that it's not storing 25 plano boxes stacked to the ceiling...

 

[moparfreak]

I think I'm at the point where I can call the hardware storage portion of the shop complete. Mounted a shelf up top to store all of my really large Akro bins, which are real handy for medium / large size brackets and things. Overall I'm real happy, a lot of storage to grow into.

A few minor small things to do over time, get a few more plano boxes to fill the last open slots, and more sorting / labeling in the drawers / bins, but I've reclaimed my bench space and can move onto the next shop project. I think I'll return to the router table and finish detailing that out (dust collection, bit & accessory storage, etc.).

 

[bj383ss]

Looks great Adam. Now you just have to remember what you have in stock!

Bret

 

[shortykorte]

Looks great Adam. Now you just have to remember what you have in stock!

Bret

Looks good and takes up minimal space. Knowing what you have is definitely an issue but with the label maker and grouped items

 

[moparfreak]

Yes, I have become one with my label-maker, that is for sure, this system depends on very good / clear labeling, but so far i've been able to pretty much find anything I was looking for w/in a few seconds, which is the goal of this whole thing.

Anyways, proceeding along on the Kreg-enhanced Rockler router table. All the Kreg hardware is installed w/ the Triton router, and my next step is dust collection. Router tables make a lot of mess and dust, and I wanted to have some sort of box on the underside to contain and rout (no pun intended...) the dust to the vac. I considered building my own, but being the tool junkie that I am, I ended up going with the Rockler Dust Bucket to accomplish the same. It's built super sturdy, should last forever, has good reviews, and has a nice easy access door, and airflow control.

One thing I knew about going in, however, is that it wouldn't just fit up to my Kreg router table w/o modifications. Primarily, being that the Kreg tabletop has big steel channel stiffeners on the underside, and also some bulky (but effective) router plate levels. So, not a nice flat mounting surface.

Here's the Dust Bucket assembled on the bench. Took about 10 minutes to put together w/ an awl for alignment and an impact gun, pretty easy.

Here's the router table flipped upside down onto a lift cart for assembly, as you can see, I have to figure out a way to get around the levelers and stiffeners.

So, I ripped a few strips out of 3/4" ply scraps, drilled some counterbores for existing screw heads and got to work.

Drilled the stiffeners, fastened the plywood risers down tight, then placed the Dust Bucket for assembly & started fastening to the risers. Btw, this flex driver adapter has come in handy for me numerous times. I believe it was a $10 Ryobi from HD and I highly recommend it. It is stiff / strong enough to be able to handle the impacts from an impact driver and has plenty of flexing to it, can get into those tight spots that the drill itself couldn't like this.

Here it is installed.

All that's left to address is the gap created by lifting the bucket up 3/4". I have some of the thick window / AC foam tape that I'll put into the gaps tonight to get it sealed up.

Starting tonight the shop projects are going to slow down a good bit, as I'll be starting up on my last 3 cabinets for the kitchen. But, hope to still poke away at the router table project. Once the Dust Bucket is installed, I've got plans for an accessory storage drawer on the bottom, and then bit storage racks along the side.

 

[moparfreak]

Got some window A/C foam strips and plugged up the router dust bucket gap and it's all sealed up. Not as perfect as if it was flat against the router table, but it'll work.



Flipped the table around and it's ready to use. Looks good!



Next up, I had these Board Buddies laying around for a little while, and wanted to install them to my tablesaw. They are anti-kickback devices and also serve as good hold downs, applying firm pressure downward and into the fence, which is useful to me when I am running large plywood boards through by myself. The primary downside to them is that they aren't real good for running skinny pieces in through against the fence, when you want to use a push block, as they get in teh way. But, with the track, they are easy to relocated in just a couple seconds.



I installed the track to the top of the fence on the tablesaw, and the rest is easy.



As someone who would love to get a sawstop but just can't quite afford it yet, I'm always a big fan of ways to make the process safer. My saw doesn't have a riving knife or splitter and I've had a couple boards kick back at or past me, so this should help out a lot.

 

[moparfreak]

Started up on the 3 remaining cabinets in the kitchen, so I'm processing a lot of sheet goods again. I must say the Board Buddies are fantastic for handling large sheets by myself. Really grips the sheets and holds them tight to the fence:

And of course, the Grizzly track saw is just beyond awesome. Takes care of the crosscuts with ease. The setup I use as far as the table and support of the full sheet could use some work, but I wish I had this back when I started the kitchen project a couple years ago, would have made things go much faster and more accurately...

 

[moparfreak]

Did a little something to finally call my sheet goods storage rack complete. I had seen a tip in a woodworking magazine where they took a roller and installed it on the floor to use for sliding in and pulling out the big 4' x 8' sheets.

A while ago I picked up one of those roller supports from HF for $12 or so.

Unboxed it and cut the bracket off so it was flush, drilled and fastened it to a spacer to get the height I wanted (just slightly proud of the surface the sheets rest on).



Then used some Tapcons to sink it into the concrete floor, and those sheets slide really smooth now, even the heavy 3/4" sheets.

 

[moparfreak]

Well it's been quiet so far cause I've been working on the last 3 kitchen cabinets. But, some shop improvement activities are starting to creep in as well. Finished with all the cuts for the cabinets, that finishing rack is handy. I end up using it as a staging rack throughout the project, really keeps the mess off the workbenches.



Then my step-FIL came over with a steel base for the Delta DP that I'm converting from bench-top to floor standing. I got a longer column for it, and its 3-ph AC motor gets replaced with a DC motor salvaged from a floor scrubber along w/ transformer & variac and foot pedal so it'll have a really nice range of speed control for all sorts of operations including tapping if I really want. The base is 1" steel so it'll have no issue with the weight being added to the top.



After transferring the holes, used my SFIL's old B&D 350 rpm drill that has a nice portable drill press mount. Super beefy, and very handy for drilling large holes in thick big stuff and very portable. One of those older tools that just really comes in handy. Took about 20 sec to drill through 1" steel plate, geez.





Then once the tap drill holes were completed, using my homemade tap guide for squaring, finished off the holes by tapping for 3/8-16 and fastened the drill press base to the new base.





Now it's ready for the new column.

 

[moparfreak]

As a side project, finally finished up my router table accessory case that I designed to install below the Rockler Dust Bucket. Over the years I've collected assorted small to medium sized accessories for the router table such as featherboards, jigs, bushings, etc and wanted a neat way to organize them. This system uses 1/4" grooves and hardboard dividers that I can move around and add or delete as I add or remove accessories. I also like that I was able to make it purely with scraps I had around.

Large jigs will still go in a cabinet, and I also plan to make some storage / organizing pieces for the hand-held routing tools (such as straight edge jigs, assorted baseplates, different bases, etc.) later on.











Next up, I have something in the works for bit storage along the side that I think will turn out pretty nice...

 

[Scottishross]

stunning garage mate

 

[moparfreak]

Alright, well it's been quite a while since I've last posted. Lots of projects, both in the shop and in the house, but could never seem to find the time to peruse the forum and get my posts in, so here we go...

Router Table Stuff....I have two router bit sets, both 1/4" and 1/2" along with a bunch of misc sizes so I wanted to have a nice quick and easy way to see what I need to grab. Decided to go the easy route, and use 1/4" pegboard for the 1/4" shank bits and and flourescent light diffuser grid for the 1/2" shank bits, and it worked out quite well. Made 4 racks and mounted to the side of the router table, with plenty of room for future expansion of my bit collection of the years.

Overall, pretty happy with how it turned out, and cost next to nothing.

 

[moparfreak]

Next, using some scraps of the flourescent light diffuser, I used the bandsaw to cut it to size, mounted to a few pieces of ply and voila....

 

[moparfreak]

Next up is a project I've been working on and off w/ my SFIL for about 6 months now, a reclaimed Delta (1940s vintage I believe) benchtop drill press. All along it's been kind of a wacky plan but the long and short of it is:

- Convert from benchtop to floorstanding
- Had 3-ph AC motor, convert to DC w/ transformer + variac for infinitely adjustable speeds + reversible
- New base to stabilize it better, mobile also

Well, with a lot of custom work, it's turned out great. The speed control and foot pedal are really nice. Here's some pics:

Installing the drill head on the column:

The DC motor reclaimed from a floor scrubber:

The control box / unit, has all the electronics, relays, variac, breakers. On a rolling pedestal right now but eventually once I'm 100% on the final home for the DP in the shop I'll mount it on the wall.

My SFIL turned a new pulley stack to get the spacing and coupling to the shaft correct:

It looks like kind of a frankenstein contraption but works really well, and I love old tools, so this is a nice addition to the shop. Having a second DP (I have a smaller craftsman benchtop) also is really handing when doing a lot of WW setups.

Making chips fly....