Something just clicked…..

[macgyver37]

What is the plan on the suburbans? Can you put one outside while you work on the other? I prefer to keep all my cars/trucks/bikes inside, but something has to give once in awhile and some go outside so I can get work done.

 

[Grumblebum]

Good to see you back posting here Strouty.

I though French cleat also for the cabinets. At least might be easier to man handle and hang that way if you are on your own also.

Cheers GB.

 

[Strouty]

I am afraid if I put one outside, any forward progress will stop, even a crawl is better than nothing. I plan on making two out of three and then the leftover may still be salvageable as a full time plow truck. One is going to take a lot longer than the other, not that anything I do is quick. I am under no pressure to complete the projects and I am going to take my time, even if it means completing other projects that make finishing the suburbans easier. I know that will probably irk a few viewers, but I enjoy the process almost as much as the project. The frustration does set in from time to time, but realistically it is mostly due to issues outside of the shop and I get worked up about something that shouldn't bother me at all. Still working through things on a personal level, this year is the time to rebuild in more ways than one.

 

[Strouty]

Good to see you back posting here Strouty.

I though French cleat also for the cabinets. At least might be easier to man handle and hang that way if you are on your own also.

Cheers GB.

Once I figure where they are going, I can definitely make something like that, but I will warn you, my woodworking tools are currently stranded in the office trailer, that will be a half day project on its own, maybe even more. I really need to concentrate on the seemingly unimportant things that keep tripping me up.

 

[Kev442]

One of the reasons I have never ever been jealous of people who pick up lateral files for cheap/free is the sheer volume of wall space they command. I prefer to have shop space available for machinery/equipment.
Do you have a specific idea of what exactly is going to go in those cabinets that will:

A) get things off the tables/floor that need to be in the shop?

B) still be assessable quickly and easily?

If either answer is no, then the cabinets should go.

 

[250]

Weatherman says that all your activity has warmed that part of Maine up by at least 5 degrees!

If that's the source of the warmer days we've had here and there, tell me what ever fuel your body prefers, (bacon, twinkies, etc) and I'll get you enough that spring comes in February.

 

[bimmer1980]

Ok, so the iron workers aren't all that complicated.......

http://media.wix.com/ugd/568829_9a19e31a40df470495db419e28c260e0.pdf

There are a few relays and such for the controls, but beyond that, there isn't a whole lot to them other then a lot of heavy steel and some hydraulics......

the bigger question is, do you have the right type of power available?

I had to get my rotary phase converter all hooked up to run mine. The biggest thing I had to do was swap the over-current protection "heaters" to switch from 460 VAC three phase to 240 VAC 3-phase... I did have to wire in a new cable whip and swap a few wires on the motor and the transformer. But it really wasn't that big of a deal..... there was a little wait time while I got the heaters on ebay for a decent price.....

Or is there more to the story?

Anyhow, it at least looks decent from the pics.... Some of them have been beat and are grimey from the shop.....

 

[rmalkow2]

Those are really nice cabinets but agree that 18" deep is borderline for hanging but if you have a big wall with the space they would look good hung up and the french cleat system can hold a lot of weight when done securely.
If you don't have a plan where to hang them and what should go in them maybe they get sold off to fund one of the other projects that you have going.

 

[Strouty]

Originally the cabinets were going to be bolted together and I was making a base so I could move them with the pallet jack. The cabinets have lots of things in them, mostly fluids for autos. I do have one that has been storing the grinding wheels. They are nice cabinets and very rugged. The drawers are pocket style, so you can slide them out of the way and have open shelves. Even if I was to take them out of the shop, I would use them in one of the outside storage units. I need to do a scale layout so I can play around with my layout without killing my back.

The ironworker is 3 phase, but it is 7.5 HP and I don't have enough umph to run it. It was in some trailers that I was paid to remove, but some thief stole all the cords for scrap. I need to find a compatible foot pedal and get things wired up, then I can haul it to a friends shop and try it on his true 3 phase power. If it works, I will buy the correct size frequency drive and use it. I originally thought of changing the motor to single phase, but it appears to be a pump motor combo that is custom. As for being useful, I grew up with one and I have punched and sheared tons of steel, it would be pretty damn nice, but I think I need to fix the air compressor first.

 

[nine4gmc]

Shop looks great, glad you got the trucks in. That's an awesome fleet of presidential looking burbs, I think I would hire a driver for them and take them all everywhere I went.

Sketchup is really awesome when you get the hang of it. Lots of existing items in the warehouse and things are easily scalable to your dimensions. It made rebuilding the house after the flood much easier, seeing cabinet layouts and adding/removing walls etc. I used it to layout my shop before I moved here and the shop I had prior to this one as well. Never save just one copy of your work. I start with one, save it twice and modify one from there. Each time I get to a significant point, I'll save another and keep modifying the original that way if I change my mind it's easy to go back to a previous point and you get to see two or more designs and decide what you like best. Give it a shot, you'll love it but it is time consuming if you have ocd like me.

 

[Strouty]

I will be trying it for sure. I played around with it before, but had problems once I hit the third dimension.

 

[TwoBytes]

Hey Strouty, great to see you back posting mate.

Before you spend too much more time on SketchUp, can I suggest you give Fusion 360 a go.
http://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview

I spent quite a bit of time with SketchUp, and it was OK, but it never felt very intuitive.

The way Fusion 360 works made more sense to me, and I was doing stuff that looked impressive (to me anyway) in a lot less time than than what I'd spent trying to figure SketchUp out.

It's free for Enthusiasts, Hobbyists and Students (I think basically, free unless you're using it to do something that makes money).

I won't clog your thread up with my pics, but you can see my first effort with Fusion 360 in post #1 in my thread here

Apologies if this sounds like an ad! I'm not associated with Autodesk at all, I just really like it.

 

[bczygan]

Hey Strouty,

Been thinking about it and my best suggestion for you concerning your shop has nothing to do with what to do with cabinets or where to put vehicles or organizing etc.

It's this.....

Enjoy it!

Enjoy the process, whatever it is.

It's not about the destination, because you will never reach it.

Have fun.

Work in it.....Mess it up.......Clean it up......Organize......Reorganize.....Etc.

Bill

 

[Strouty]

I will try out that software TwoBytes, it looks like it may be a good fit, thanks!

Bill, we have definitely discussed this at some point and you are correct, for me (and others), sometimes the hobby is the shop. It keeps me occupied, keeps me centered, it is enjoyable 75% of the time (maybe even more). I don't think there is anything wrong with that, some people are all about the projects, well my shop IS the project.

 

[Strouty]

So not much has happened in the last couple of days, I did try and hook up the a NEST thermostat, no joy, but I think I have a way to make it work. I was having troubles with the power, my house has one that is just two wire (that reminds me I need to check the voltage on it), but the one at my shop won't charge the internal battery. Apparently some two wire setups allow the NEST to rob voltage from the contacts, but obviously mine doesn't do that. I am either going to cheat it from another part of the furnace or I will have to install a small 24 volt transformer to get the required voltage. Also at the same time I was thinking about cleaning up the furnace wiring, changing the air and fuel oil filters, maybe even adding the hour meter. The thermostat appears to have a record of the on time, but I still want a cute little meter if I can figure out where and how to install it.

 

[Strouty]

After lunch I am going to try and hook up the NEST again, not a permanent hookup, but a test run. I figure why run all new wire until I know if it works, right? If it does work, I will run new 5 strand wire, if it doesn't I will have to decide if I want to add an auxiliary power supply or not.

I am also supposed to be switching to a new iphone today, I am a bit nervous and excited about this. I run all mac computers and my android phones have never played nice with them, there is always some weird issue I encounter and hopefully going all apple will fix that.

 

[rmalkow2]

I hope the Nest works for you because I think you will come to like it. I was given one a few years ago as a gift and have never looked back. I'm sure I'm not even using all its features but having it connect to the internet via wireless is useful. I can check and modify settings from anywhere in the house. It can know when I'm home or away because of where my phone is and when gone all day with the temp turned down I can tell it via smart phone to start up a few minutes before I get home and have the place warmed up for me.
Good luck with it and with your new iPhone too. I'm an apple guy since they first came out with a home computer and love their products.

 

[Strouty]

I had an iphone way back, maybe a 4, it was like 2011??? My 7 is a bit different than that, just a little bit. I have a feeling tonight will be a late night messing with computers and phones.

As for the nest, it seems to work fine, but for some reason the setting that I swear I saw and read about is not available now. Anyways, what I did was made it super sketchy and wired up both thermostats, so now I have the nest for warmer temps and the battery operated one for my lower temps. Basically I turn the nest off and the older thermostat picks up the slack. One thing I noticed was the nest seemed to be reading higher temps than what I thought it should, it may have been because it had been in my office for a while and I had to leave so it didn't have enough time to acclimate?? For giggles I just went and looked at the app on my old phone (over WiFi) and it is pretty cool, even though the nest is turned off, I can see the inside temperature is 42 degrees. I had to also turn off the emergency heating option so it would not kick in and run before the other thermostat has a chance to take over. Also my hot wire trick seemed to work fine, the website said that the nest can take from 20 to 30 volts, so my 20.8 and 28.4 are within specs.

I also swapped the battery out on the portable lift cart, funny thing is when I bought it the previous owner told me the on board charger did not work, so I never messed with it, well today I decided to try it out. Of course it seems to work fine, puts out 14 volts and even has a charge indicator light. Tomorrow I have help again, so I am going to try and get a bunch of two person things done. Not even sure what that means, but I will figure it out tomorrow.






I also bought this heating mat for the floor, I was hoping that it was going to keep my feet warm, but I could not tell today, my boots are pretty thick, but it stays at 89 degrees whereas the floor was 43, so I think it will probably help ward the cold off. I need to put it on a timer, as I am pretty sure I left it on, it only draws 150 watts, so it shouldn't burn the place down. Also made me realize I need to work on cable management under my desk.......

 

[Richard Cranium]

Well Strouty, I just checked in to see how your world was treating you.

 

[Strouty]

It is warmer and raining right now.

 

[rmalkow2]

Good info on the small heating mat. I had not seen those or thought to look for them before. I can see that being a big help in the garage in winter just to provide a warm barrier between your feet or knees and a cold cement floor. I think I'm going shopping now.

 

[Strouty]

Amazon had them for around $25 and they also have a larger one that I will most likely get as a anti fatigue/warmer mat for the future "electronics" area.

Smaller warming mat


Larger mat

Slow start today, but I turned my heat up on my NEST and it should be warm when I get there, rather than a couple hours after I arrive. That will be very nice for sure.

 

[Strouty]

It was so warm today, I figured I better do my midwinter start up of all the parked equipment. Still have one truck to start, but the batteries are pretty low and the booster just wouldn't cut it. I am hoping to get a charger on it, but it may just be time to get new batteries. The 5 ton had a low tire, so I drove it out and added some air, there is so much ice, the thing is useless, thought I might use it to pull out another truck, but spin, spin, spin, is all she does.

 

[NitroGarage]

Subcribed

 

[Orionrising]

Yep very nice out. I gotta go home and Bondo my pickup cab corner for inspection before it freezes again

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

 

[Richard Cranium]

sounds like you got a little bit done there strouty

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Subscribed

 

[Strouty]

Thanks guys, will be updating with some pictures, but the new phone has me slowed down with the learning curve. We ended up taking the cabinets and putting them on top of the lista storage wall, it actually doesn't look that bad and I can still get to them fairly well. It is a great trial run, as I want to eventually do a floor to ceiling storage wall with a library style ladder. I hope tomorrow is not too rainy, I want to get a few things moved around outside, will make a lot more room in the shop too.

 

[Strouty]

I guess this could be a good thing, even though it is frustrating as hell. I am finding that photobucket is junk on the iphone, actually it is junk no matter what. I have been trying to use dropbox to host the pictures and it seems much better. The unbelievable thing, at least to someone used to photobucket, is that I not only can change the name of the image file, but also move it to a new folder and it did not break the display link.

 

[topcok88]

Appears your links are intact and you are getting the sizing down. I agree that the best thing I did was get rid of photobucket and move to another photo sharing service. Keep the iPhone - you will love it.

 

[Kev442]

Even if temporary, putting those cabinets on top of the listas is a damn good way of getting them out of the way. I didn't reply in the other thread as I have already spouted off in this one, but I prefer shelving to be above 6' in most cases. Space below that is for machinery or engine blocks. It's always shifting around with whatever my current projects are.

I was shocked to find that the wife's new iPhone cannot get voice mail or any notification whatsoever of a text with a picture without cellular data turned on. My android will show the text with a blank square where the pic would be. No iPhone for me, that's bs.

 

[Strouty]

Torn on the iphone, love the idea of it, not sure I can live with some of the small features that are driving me batty. Complaints so far:

Keyboard has a button to push for the numbers, the phone is big enough to have the numbers on the main keyboard screen!

No back button (this is making me really crazy)

Swipe to unlock

Drop down quick menu, I miss that severely.

The home button feels like I am trying to break the phone when I push it.

I still can't find the headphone jack!!! (LOL)

 

[Strouty]

The last week has been a bit of technology overload, I tried a smart watch, ordered an iphone, bought a new kindle, fixed an old kindle, upgraded an ipod, fixed a computer, received an iphone, ordered a different smart watch (apple), played with old tech, moved a bunch of vintage video games, tried a music streaming service, got mad a t tech support, and I am sure I am missing something.

 

[rmalkow2]

Amazon had them for around $25 and they also have a larger one that I will most likely get as a anti fatigue/warmer mat for the future "electronics" area.

Smaller warming mat


Larger mat

Slow start today, but I turned my heat up on my NEST and it should be warm when I get there, rather than a couple hours after I arrive. That will be very nice for sure.

Thanks a bunch for these links. I'm ordering one of the smaller mats this week. It should make winter garage work more livable. Now I'm glad I read your thread. I learned something new and get to buy a new tool for the garage.

Also, the bad news is there is no headphone jack on iPhone 7. They did away with it and sell bluetooth earbuds. But you can get a small adapter cable that fits the power jack which also has sound connections. Then plug in your old headphones to the adapter.

 

[Strouty]

Thanks a bunch for these links. I'm ordering one of the smaller mats this week. It should make winter garage work more livable. Now I'm glad I read your thread. I learned something new and get to buy a new tool for the garage.

Also, the bad news is there is no headphone jack on iPhone 7. They did away with it and sell bluetooth earbuds. But you can get a small adapter cable that fits the power jack which also has sound connections. Then plug in your old headphones to the adapter.

The mat is nice, it warmed up the concrete around it, there is definitely an odor, but nothing extreme. My office is really a small area and with the mat running overnight, I could smell it a bit. I think it will be fine as I am usually overly sensitive, just want you to be aware. It is not like harbor freight rubber, but more like a floor mat that has been in the sun???

Also the headphone jack thing was a jab at apple. I do miss it, but they are smart to use the one jack for everything, it will make it wear out faster so people have to get new phones.

 

[Strouty]

25% of the original photo size:

This is also a pretty good picture considering it was completely black and my eyes could not see any of this detail. My sony point and shoot could probably do better, but it ***** for making phone calls.

 

[Strouty]

I will say that using dropbox seems awesome so far. As I said earlier, I have changed the names of the pictures and the locations more than once and the links are still working. You could not do that in photobucket for sure. Now I may just have to convert all my pictures over! That was one of my biggest gripes with photo bucket, never being able to search by name. Sometimes I would spend tons of time searching through pages of pictures so I could find one older photo. If I spend a bit of time, I can remake my entire library and have it searchable too.

Of course this part is awful, it looks like I have a bit over 5000 pictures in all the folders in photobucket. I think it may take a while.....

 

[HCNDM]

Torn on the iphone, love the idea of it, not sure I can live with some of the small features that are driving me batty. Complaints so far:

Keyboard has a button to push for the numbers, the phone is big enough to have the numbers on the main keyboard screen!

No back button (this is making me really crazy)

Swipe to unlock

Drop down quick menu, I miss that severely.

The home button feels like I am trying to break the phone when I push it.

I still can't find the headphone jack!!! (LOL)

Hey Strouty,

I need to go back and read the whole thread though at 225 pages it may take a while. I like what I see so far.

With regards to the iPhone.... it's love hate for me. I hated android and windows phone more.

The back button is a gesture in safari and most apps. Simply swipe from the left or right side of the screen to go forwards or back. Mileage varies per app.

There's no drop down but there is a drop up for the most used settings. Swipe from the bottom of the screen. As of a recent iOS update you can swipe the drop up (pop up) from the right to access the music and volume screen.





On that note print screens are made by pressing the home and power button simultaneously.

Swipe to unlock was super annoying. It disappeared for me two generations ago with the introduction of the finger print scanner. Haven't looked back since.

Keyboard: like android you can choose to install your own keyboard app. Swift key is popular and does numbers on the main screen. Keyboards can be installed through settings general keyboards.

From the lack of headphone comment I assume you have a seven series iPhone. These don't have physical buttons but instead use force feedback to imitate one. I hated this when I first got mine. I liked the old style clunky clicky home button. You can change the level of haptic (force) feedback though. Setting it to max made it slightly better for me.

I hope these tips help you to live a little more comfortably with your phone?

Niels




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Strouty]

Thanks Niels, some good info. I am slowly figuring things out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rmalkow2]

I'd vote for the 25% sizing. It seems to fit well and just big enough to prevent scrolling around the page to see the whole thing. The picture quality was great with the new phone. All detail of that under carriage was illuminated and well defined.

The Cozy Mat home page does warn about rubber smell when it gets hot but they claim it goes away after some use. That does not bother me as long as it does not smell like typical HF China rubber funk.