Shop in a small Texas town

[DEEDDUDE]

Looking good and looks like you have some power in there by Thanksgiving. Keep us updated. Not sure if you have bought lights yet, I have a 30x50x10 I have 8 3 bulb T-8 lights it up fine.

Thanks CJ. I've had power in the building for a couple weeks, just no time to complete the work. I finished two walls already with GFCI protection. Also got the 220 volt to the air compressor with a 30/50 amp plug and socket.

I purchased 5 of the 12 lights I "think" I'll need, bought all that HD had on hand (I was running out of money quick too). I went with 8' four lamp T5's. Should be 20000 lumens per set. I penciled everything out and this was the cheapest and least amount of labor for the most light. Each set-up with lights will end up costing about $85/ fixture.

 

[KULIWOBBY]

If those last photos are current, you really need to get fill under that concrete before it cracks and breaks. If you have then good.

 

[ARbuilder223]

looking good Deeddude! Im on the other side of tri city beach rd...

 

[DEEDDUDE]

looking good Deeddude! Im on the other side of tri city beach rd...

Thanks AR. I remember seeing your build a while back, nice work. You'll have to PM your location, maybe one day we'll have a few cold beers and talk shops and guns.

My little brother would love to see some of those AR's. He's working on his class 3 now, whatever that means; should have it soon.

Thanks again. I have a ton of work to do, but no time. Hopefully this winter I can finish up enough to do the work I wanted the shop for.

 

[DEEDDUDE]

Update. I spent parts of the last two days installing the lights in the shop. I am using 8' T5's with 4 lights per strip. The light are 54 watts each with an output of 5000 lumens per light. 12 fixtures total for a total of 240,000 lumen.

Only the center section on.

All three sections on.

Shot of the 12 lights.

I was shooting for 75 foot candles 36" from the floor. To me it seems close, but all of the online calcs show it to be closer to 60. I have a light meter at work and I'll test it within the next week or two and let you guys know what it really is.

 

[HOTFR8]

WOW...............now wait WOW. How many candle power it is well lit.

 

[DEEDDUDE]

Light update: Well I'm a little disappointed in the measured light, not even close to my goal or the calculated value. The light placement has a lot to do with that, but the approach I took was the quickest, easiest and cheapest route. The results: all measured in foot candles.

One set of four fixtures measured in the very center of the shop on the floor.

Light set one plus the center sections directly above light meter. 18' from meter.

All lights on.

Approximately 36" above ground.

So it seems, 20+ foot candles is enough light to work in; but not ideal. 40+ foot candles looks to be more than enough usable light in the shop. In reality any more light would require sunglasses to work in the shop.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Your 54 looks lonely in there! The shop looks great! Thanks for sharing.

Jim

 

[DEEDDUDE]

Thanks Jim. The 54 will have a couple roommates shortly, the two stock cars shown earlier in the thread and a square body I've had for over 20 years.
I'll have more updates by the end of the week.

 

[ARbuilder223]

Deedude...its looking really good!

 

[Jamey189]

Did you have to pull permits? How did you get your power turned on without having any electrical ran inside? Where I am we have to have a final inspection before the parish (county) will let the entergy company hook up your power.

 

[DEEDDUDE]

Deedude...its looking really good!

Thanks AR.

Did you have to pull permits? How did you get your power turned on without having any electrical ran inside? Where I am we have to have a final inspection before the parish (county) will let the entergy company hook up your power.

Jamey, I did have to get a permit for the electrical. The city went up on it by over 300% in less than 12 months. Greed.
Also, no problem with the power company; could be where we are there are no codes (from what I'm told anyway when the house was being built ) But everything must meet code. Again . No inspection needed.

If you can't get the power turned on until it's complete I would install just the lights, get the power turned on and do the rest. If you're asked why you have a breaker box with unused breakers just tell them you ran out of money and when you get enough saved up you'll contact them and an electrician to finish. Hope this help and you can make it work.

 

[Jamey189]

You know that's what my electrician said was just to drop in a 60amp breaker and turn on the lights. I just wentt ahead and ran everything to be done with it. I hope to have my inspection this week and be done with mine. And didn't say earlier i like the way your shop came out.

 

[DEEDDUDE]

You know that's what my electrician said was just to drop in a 60amp breaker and turn on the lights. I just wentt ahead and ran everything to be done with it. I hope to have my inspection this week and be done with mine. And didn't say earlier i like the way your shop came out.

Thanks Jamey. I've wanted a shop like this for well over 20 years. Every few years my want got bigger and this year I pulled the trigger. If I waited any longer my wants would out grow my funds.

I wanted to do the car port like yours, but I had to cut that out because of the budget. Your shop turned out nice also. Love the trees. Good luck with the inspection.

Thanks again, Laissez les bons temps rouler. My dad grew up all over south west Louisiana. Jennings, Roanoke, Eunice. This year we'll boil crawfish in the shop rain or shine.

 

[Jamey189]

Heck yea! I was supposed to start 7 1/2 years ago but you may remember a lil thing called Hurricane Rita. Took quite a bit of damage and bought a camper to live in while repairs were done on the house, then had to pay off camper and start saving again. I'm on the east sideof lake chales closer to Iowa gre up closer to roanoke area.

 

[R'Addiction]

Nice build.

 

[HOTFR8]

Perhaps you need to look for specific lighting to use in specific areas.

 

[CNGsaves]

Like the outcome of steel-frame shop - - it's got great bones! Looked like one good thing concrete guys did was install anchor bolts into concrete in the right spots . . . surely they got those right?

Curious why no windows in entire shop?

I can see the potential in the ole '54 Chevy as good friend in high school rebuilt one with his dad. His mom worked at plating company so he got all his chroming at very low cost . . . turned out nice!

Keep the updates and pics coming . . . love the size and open space.

 

[DEEDDUDE]

Nice build.

Thanks RA

Perhaps you need to look for specific lighting to use in specific areas.

HOTFR8 I've been looking at different under cabinet lights for a couple weeks now, just haven't decided on what I want. It's plenty bright I was just wanting it to be brighter, I could always do more light; but it'll be good for now.

Like the outcome of steel-frame shop - - it's got great bones! Looked like one good thing concrete guys did was install anchor bolts into concrete in the right spots . . . surely they got those right?

Curious why no windows in entire shop?

I can see the potential in the ole '54 Chevy as good friend in high school rebuilt one with his dad. His mom worked at plating company so he got all his chroming at very low cost . . . turned out nice!

Keep the updates and pics coming . . . love the size and open space.

Thanks CNG, the anchor bolts were correctlly placed; they did however loose a couple nuts. I later found them after a rain in the sand. Windows, after talking to several Mueller building owners and the Mueller themselves I decided against them. I was told the quailty is poor. It will **** in the winter, but come spring I'll just open those big ole' doors up.

The '54 will start to get a make over if I can ever get any free time from work.

Thanks for the comments guys.

I'll have some updates with pictures soon.

 

[HOTFR8]

I have a couple of reading lights I use when I need light over a particular job. Perhpas that would be a good idea for you. That way I do not have to rurn all my lights on.

 

[DEEDDUDE]

Another small update. I bought some saber cabinets and installed them late last month. The first Sunday I was away from work I assembled and installed the cabinets. I built a make shift table from sawhorses and one of the pallets the cabinets were shipped on. I systematically built all 6 of the upper cabinets in just a few hours, building them one at a time, but doing the same steps along the way. Hanging them was a small challenge, having no help I was able to get them hung plumb, level and square fairly easy. Next I built the two tall cabinets in place. They went together like the smaller cabinets just with more bolts and screws. I had everything in place that Sunday. The overall quality of the cabinets, in my opinion, are B+ grade. I expected better quality units for the amount of money I spent, but I would have spent as much as 3 times as much to get better quality.


The work bench tops are sears craftsman butcher blocks. One was slightly damaged, but I needed to cut them both down to fit in the area so it wasn’t that big of a concern; I just cut the bad end off. I have yet to secure them. Also pictured is the old audio system I mentioned in another post about shop stereos. It’s only placed on the counter top temporally, more than likely it will be there 6 months from now.

A couple of pics.

 

[SALIV8]

Great shop deeddude!

Thanks for taking the light meter readings. Has helped me a lot.

 

[DEEDDUDE]

Great shop deeddude!

Thanks for taking the light meter readings. Has helped me a lot.

Thanks for the complement. Glad I could help.

Small update. I finally had more dirt brought in 40+ dump truck loads and 30+ pallets of grass. Hopefully next spring I’ll snap some new pics.