Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
Did that one pic have snow on the ground? Surely it wasn't a recent pic was it. I never even knew that N.M. got snow. 
The Abiding Garage; it really ties the house together
- Thread starter Dude Lebowski
- Start date
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Did that one pic have snow on the ground? Surely it wasn't a recent pic was it. I never even knew that N.M. got snow.
Google Taos - But yes, that's snow. Finished Floor Elevation of the main house slab is 5647ft Above Sea Level. We get several snow days every year here, though generally the sun is intense enough to melt it all quickly the next day.
I also don't have air conditioning, 2 evaporative coolers keep the house plenty cool enough even on the hottest summer days.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Starting to look a lot more like a house with a roof on and the elevation details coming together.
First coats of stucco go on directly to the foam blocks with lath and screws.
Third coat (synthetic top coat with integral color)
Frames for metal art, with lighting above in the soffit.
Meanwhile...inside the house stuff is going on also. Like flooring in the kitchen.
And master bathroom.
And guest bathroom. Cabinets started arriving around this time also. All vanities are extra tall with the exception of this bathroom.
The whole house has 7.25" baseboard and I decided to put all the outlets in the baseboard instead of on the wall, except for the garage.
So my wife is not afraid of color, and around this time some of the 14 different paint colors in the house started appearing on the walls. You should see my collection of touch up paint cans! This is the master bedroom color.
Kitchen cabinets going in. There are lazy Susan's in each corner, and I mixed lower drawers with standard cabinet doors. If I could do it all over again I would have gone completely with drawers on the lowers as it's way easier to get stuff in and out of them.
Wider view.
Went with LG HiMacs solid surface counter tops. The seams are so hard to find I have to look underneath to be able to locate them. Built in sinks of same material. The sink in the island (and power) was a great idea, that way I have a prep sink while cooking and my wife can use the main sink at the same time. The one thing I would have done differently was the direction of the hot water re-circulation loop. Currently it goes to bedrooms first then kitchen, then half bath, then garage. It's fine when I've got the aquastat set to keep the hot water loop active, but if you ask for hot water in the kitchen in off-peak hours it takes a while for the warm water to reach the sink. Also notice the 6" duct for range hood exhaust. Finally I might be able to sear steaks inside the house without the smoke detectors going bongo.
Double ovens and microwave are on the other side of the hallway to the game room and walk in pantry.
Laundry room has upper and lower cabs, sink, and is plumbed for double washers and dryers. Haven't bought those yet cause they're too damn expensive and our old washer dryer haven't died on us yet.
The master shower has a large frosted window in it to let in natural light, and a bench for some unknown reason. My wife wanted it, so I put it in there, but I'm pretty sure it's more of a footrest than a bench. Built in corian shelves in the corners and two shower heads and enough room for two grown people to comfortably shower at the same time.
Going to stop this post here before it gets too long and pickup on the next one.
First coats of stucco go on directly to the foam blocks with lath and screws.
Third coat (synthetic top coat with integral color)
Frames for metal art, with lighting above in the soffit.
Meanwhile...inside the house stuff is going on also. Like flooring in the kitchen.
And master bathroom.
And guest bathroom. Cabinets started arriving around this time also. All vanities are extra tall with the exception of this bathroom.
The whole house has 7.25" baseboard and I decided to put all the outlets in the baseboard instead of on the wall, except for the garage.
So my wife is not afraid of color, and around this time some of the 14 different paint colors in the house started appearing on the walls. You should see my collection of touch up paint cans! This is the master bedroom color.
Kitchen cabinets going in. There are lazy Susan's in each corner, and I mixed lower drawers with standard cabinet doors. If I could do it all over again I would have gone completely with drawers on the lowers as it's way easier to get stuff in and out of them.
Wider view.
Went with LG HiMacs solid surface counter tops. The seams are so hard to find I have to look underneath to be able to locate them. Built in sinks of same material. The sink in the island (and power) was a great idea, that way I have a prep sink while cooking and my wife can use the main sink at the same time. The one thing I would have done differently was the direction of the hot water re-circulation loop. Currently it goes to bedrooms first then kitchen, then half bath, then garage. It's fine when I've got the aquastat set to keep the hot water loop active, but if you ask for hot water in the kitchen in off-peak hours it takes a while for the warm water to reach the sink. Also notice the 6" duct for range hood exhaust. Finally I might be able to sear steaks inside the house without the smoke detectors going bongo.
Double ovens and microwave are on the other side of the hallway to the game room and walk in pantry.
Laundry room has upper and lower cabs, sink, and is plumbed for double washers and dryers. Haven't bought those yet cause they're too damn expensive and our old washer dryer haven't died on us yet.
The master shower has a large frosted window in it to let in natural light, and a bench for some unknown reason. My wife wanted it, so I put it in there, but I'm pretty sure it's more of a footrest than a bench. Built in corian shelves in the corners and two shower heads and enough room for two grown people to comfortably shower at the same time.
Going to stop this post here before it gets too long and pickup on the next one.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
And after a brief hiatus, we're back.
Column details out back
Stone work around the fireplace
Tile work finishing up
Carpet. My cattle dogs approve.
Kitchen pendants
Drywall in the garage gets textured and painted. The yellow 240V in the ceiling is for the lift (which I just ordered today incidentally).
24 T5 High Output bulbs in one garage is awesome.
Went with R19 insulated doors with clear glass panels to let plenty of light in the garage during the day. I hate garages that don't let any light in. Astute viewers will notice the lack of center opener and know I went with the liftmaster 3800 thanks to recommendations read here on the forums.
Starting to look like a house now! The car in the foreground is one of the residents of the garage. It's the wife's daily driver named "Bruiser"...get it? Anyways 2008 Trail Teams, Icon 3" lift with coilovers, CNC A-Arms, TRD intake, supercharger, exhaust, pulley, Big Brake Kit, rear bags, bigger tires, etc etc. And yes, we go 4 wheeling up in Silverton/Ouray/Telluride all the time.
Column details out back
Stone work around the fireplace
Tile work finishing up
Carpet. My cattle dogs approve.
Kitchen pendants
Drywall in the garage gets textured and painted. The yellow 240V in the ceiling is for the lift (which I just ordered today incidentally).
24 T5 High Output bulbs in one garage is awesome.
Went with R19 insulated doors with clear glass panels to let plenty of light in the garage during the day. I hate garages that don't let any light in. Astute viewers will notice the lack of center opener and know I went with the liftmaster 3800 thanks to recommendations read here on the forums.
Starting to look like a house now! The car in the foreground is one of the residents of the garage. It's the wife's daily driver named "Bruiser"...get it? Anyways 2008 Trail Teams, Icon 3" lift with coilovers, CNC A-Arms, TRD intake, supercharger, exhaust, pulley, Big Brake Kit, rear bags, bigger tires, etc etc. And yes, we go 4 wheeling up in Silverton/Ouray/Telluride all the time.
stafford
Well-known member
Nice place ya got there. I lived in Bloomfield for a while and saw angel peak every day. I don't remember being able to see it from farmington that well. It was a long time ago tho, I was there working on the irrigation stuff south of bloomfield. Again dang nice place you got there.
Stafford
Stafford
stafford
Well-known member
I reckon I'm a thread killer
prowler777
Well-known member
ok....red car time...... 
dubber
Well-known member
Your place is looking great, both inside and out!
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
I pulled the permit in my name and general contracted everything myself. Took me a hair over 6 months start to finish. Lemme find some more pictures.
When I first got out of the Army I went to work for KB Home as a construction project manager. Screwed up a lot of houses but learned that scheduling, inspection and contracts are really how a house is built.
Time to dig up some more pictures.
When I first got out of the Army I went to work for KB Home as a construction project manager. Screwed up a lot of houses but learned that scheduling, inspection and contracts are really how a house is built.
Time to dig up some more pictures.
Bib Overalls
Well-known member
Awesome project. I lived in Albuquerque for several years and really like the regional architecture. I may have missed it but can you tell me what you did for ceiling insulation?
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
So here's some really expensive mirrors my wife picked out for the master bathroom.
And then back to the garage. This is another of the residents. Named Rico, I traded in my WRX in 2003 and bought this as soon as it came out. 2003 Evo 8 with too many mods to list here. All work done by me, this is my SM autocross car.
And the third resident is my daily beater. It's a 2005 X-Runner. TRD supercharged, intake, exhaust, headers, underdrive pulley, water meth inj, clutch etc. Note you can't see the front of the garage, I'm glad I made it 28' deep so there's room in front of a car when it's in the garage.
And then back to the garage. This is another of the residents. Named Rico, I traded in my WRX in 2003 and bought this as soon as it came out. 2003 Evo 8 with too many mods to list here. All work done by me, this is my SM autocross car.
And the third resident is my daily beater. It's a 2005 X-Runner. TRD supercharged, intake, exhaust, headers, underdrive pulley, water meth inj, clutch etc. Note you can't see the front of the garage, I'm glad I made it 28' deep so there's room in front of a car when it's in the garage.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
So the first piece of furniture I bought for the house was a pool table. I figured if I built a gameroom I might as well have a game to put in it.
Like many of the people on this forum I spend a lot of time researching the "best". My wife makes fun of me because I always want the best of everything and I'm pretty detailed when it comes to reading reviews and forums before I make a decision. The problem with wanting the best is I'm also a cheap ***. Guess it comes from growing up dirt poor and working with a bunch of Scotsmen (famously tight). Enter craigslist. I decided I wanted a diamond professional 9 foot table. I stumbled across a guy in need of some cash with a solid cocobolo table that fit the bill. Came with a matching cocobolo light and a ball polisher. Table was located in Des Moines IA, and I just happened to have some guys on a job in Missouri that needed training, so off I went, with a minor detour. This thing is ridiculously heavy. 1 piece slate to top it all off, and Simonis 860HR tournament cloth. The door to the right is the garage entry door.
This is the view slightly right of the previous picture. Laundry room is pretty obvious, door straight ahead is the half bath right next to the garage.
Off to dinner.
Like many of the people on this forum I spend a lot of time researching the "best". My wife makes fun of me because I always want the best of everything and I'm pretty detailed when it comes to reading reviews and forums before I make a decision. The problem with wanting the best is I'm also a cheap ***. Guess it comes from growing up dirt poor and working with a bunch of Scotsmen (famously tight). Enter craigslist. I decided I wanted a diamond professional 9 foot table. I stumbled across a guy in need of some cash with a solid cocobolo table that fit the bill. Came with a matching cocobolo light and a ball polisher. Table was located in Des Moines IA, and I just happened to have some guys on a job in Missouri that needed training, so off I went, with a minor detour. This thing is ridiculously heavy. 1 piece slate to top it all off, and Simonis 860HR tournament cloth. The door to the right is the garage entry door.
This is the view slightly right of the previous picture. Laundry room is pretty obvious, door straight ahead is the half bath right next to the garage.
Off to dinner.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Ceiling is 16" of blown fiberglass insulation. Garage ceiling is insulated as well.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
So after starting to get settled in I decided I needed a bigger compressor. I started out with a crappy Kobalt compressor which never really worked worth a ****, was incessantly loud and promptly stopped working after about a year. I then upgraded to a higher capacity Dewalt compressor (Emglo) which had a higher flow rate but was still pretty loud. I believe it was around 5.4cfm @ 90psi. At this point I decided I'd had enough and it was time to go big or go home and buy hopefully the last damn compressor I'd ever need.
After much research (no surprise) I decided that I had to have a Quincy. I'm also in the oil and gas industry and I see a lot of them pulling some pretty extreme duty cycles in refineries and process plants. I figured air tools, tire tools, blast cabinet, plasma cutter and some other stuff so probably 19cfm would do it. The craigslist devils once again shined down on me and I found this for $1100. It's ridiculous. Made in the USA and it cycles on like once a week maybe. Rated for 100% duty cycle it should last a couple centuries at the rate I use it. It's not even gotten warm yet. Pardon the temporary pallet storage, this is just until I get the floors done and then I'll bolt it down. Came with a filter/dryer and regulator as well.
As they say in the edited for TV version of the Big Lebowski (which is hilarious given the amount of swear words in the original) "Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the alps?"
After much research (no surprise) I decided that I had to have a Quincy. I'm also in the oil and gas industry and I see a lot of them pulling some pretty extreme duty cycles in refineries and process plants. I figured air tools, tire tools, blast cabinet, plasma cutter and some other stuff so probably 19cfm would do it. The craigslist devils once again shined down on me and I found this for $1100. It's ridiculous. Made in the USA and it cycles on like once a week maybe. Rated for 100% duty cycle it should last a couple centuries at the rate I use it. It's not even gotten warm yet. Pardon the temporary pallet storage, this is just until I get the floors done and then I'll bolt it down. Came with a filter/dryer and regulator as well.
As they say in the edited for TV version of the Big Lebowski (which is hilarious given the amount of swear words in the original) "Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the alps?"
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
So the first order of mechanicking was a VF supercharger install in my buddies e90 M3.
Lift would have been nice, but didn't have one yet so we had to settle for jack stands. The fluorescent lights made all the difference in the world.
I'm starting to get quite a bit of fluids spilled on the concrete which is reminding me that I need to get my floor done. I'm torn between porcelain tile and a product called Key Mortar SLT. When I worked at Carmax it's what the drive bays and mechanics areas had on the floor. Very durable stuff, great grip, if not a little too much as taking a knee on that stuff could be a little rough. I called the rep, he was supposed to give me a quote, but never followed up. It kinda looks like this:
I've not found any PEI 5 rectified tile close by that fit the bill yet, but I'll keep searching. If anyone has any inputs or has used Key Resins before I'd sure like to hear any feedback.
Lift would have been nice, but didn't have one yet so we had to settle for jack stands. The fluorescent lights made all the difference in the world.
I'm starting to get quite a bit of fluids spilled on the concrete which is reminding me that I need to get my floor done. I'm torn between porcelain tile and a product called Key Mortar SLT. When I worked at Carmax it's what the drive bays and mechanics areas had on the floor. Very durable stuff, great grip, if not a little too much as taking a knee on that stuff could be a little rough. I called the rep, he was supposed to give me a quote, but never followed up. It kinda looks like this:
I've not found any PEI 5 rectified tile close by that fit the bill yet, but I'll keep searching. If anyone has any inputs or has used Key Resins before I'd sure like to hear any feedback.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Right, so a while back I eluded to a red piece of Italian machinery which was too good to be true, allow me to elaborate.
My other car not pictured so far is a BMW 135i with HRE wheels on it. Driving back from Vegas my wife hit a pothole the size of an open manhole cover, blew out a tire and bent 2 of the HRE's. So I sent them off to be rebuilt and refinished. I had freshly refinished, not cheap wheels and brand new Michelin Pilot Super Sports to be mounted and balanced. I went to several tire places and said charge me whatever you want, but don't scratch the rims (they're gloss finish). Several places turned me down and said no way, not touching those rims. Finally, Discount Tire of all places said we got a good guy, he's the best at low profile rims/tires, standard price, not even a markup. 4 Hours later I call because I haven't gotten an update and the truth comes out. They scratched not one, not two, but three of the rims and put a nice sized gouge in one where the tire iron slipped. $300 cash given to me for the damage.
Keep in mind this is not my first scratch up derby at a Tire place, but I'd had enough. If I can rebuild engines, I'm pretty sure I can mount a tire, I just need the equipment. Determined, I was off to research the best tire mounting and balancing equipment, then find it at bargain basement prices on Craigslist. Research quickly told me to get a Hunter Auto34, Corghi Artiglio Master or Coats APX90 for a changer and a GSP9700 for the balancer. Off to Craigslist I went and *Mother of God* those things are expensive, even used. No fear, I said, one will turn up for pennies, I just have to wait. Yeah, not so much. So, coming to the realization that no matter how many tires I change for the SCCA guys in my region I would never break even on a $10k used machine, I set my bar lower. Hunter TC3500 with bead rollers here I come. $2500 was my budget, and I just couldn't find one anywhere near me with the bead roller option for that price. Sure I could buy one out of state for $3k and $600-700 in shipping, but that was out of my budget still. Oh well, screw it, I figure I'll just focus on the lift, floor, shelving and all the other **** that still needs to be done in the garage. But before I gave up I setup a RSS feed for the search term artiglio and a bunch of others. Fast forward a couple weeks and I get a hit on a Corghi Artiglio Master for $2900 because the parts are too expensive to repair. It's at a Lincoln dealership. I didn't realize Lincolns had low profile tires as an option. Anyways, I call and the machine is sitting in a corner, replaced by a newer Hunter TC3700. I hop in my truck and go check it out - looks like it's never been cleaned once in its lifetime. Every panel was loose, every fitting, switch and accessory on it was scattered everywhere. It looks like a tire tech (not a Corghi tech) tried to take it apart to repair it, said screw it after dis-assembly and put it back together with about 1 in every 5th fastener. For $2900 even in the current state, it was just too good to pass up on, so I bought it. Loaded in the back of the truck it looked like this.
Offloading really heavy stuff is much easier with a forklift, just in case anyone was wondering.
Once I got it in the garage, I set it temporarily on a pallet for ease of movement with a pallet jack down the road. Then the proper dis-assembly began. I should say, dis-assembly and thorough cleaning. A brief survey of the damage showed many deficiencies to include: upper bead roller INOP, tire assist cam broken, pneumatic air actuator leaking (multiple locations), 2 speed turntable only rotating on high speed, a metric crapload of missing socket headed cap screws, loose mount/demount head, inflation gauge dislodged in its housing, rear cover held on by 1 screw out of about 6 and generally dirty as hell.
After about a gallon of simple green, hot water, loads of elbow grease and some time I had the machine pretty much fully apart. I went down to my local fastener store and purchased $9 worth of socket head cap screws, lock washer, jam nuts, allen head bolts and zip ties. The upper bead roller was stripped down and I found that the retaining nut had backed off holding the shaft to the piston. A new o-ring from my o-ring kit, a dab of loctite red and some light oil on the piston and that problem was fixed. Here you can see the fixed and cleaned pneumatic cylinder re-installed in the dirty tower.
The micro switch in the foot controls just needed adjustment and it was good to go again. The air lines are all shark type fittings and some of the ends had flared and were leaking so I trimmed them slightly and push fit them back in place, tightened the loose switches and aligned them all vertical or horizontal again. I re-greased the bearings in the bead rollers and generally put everything back together properly. Whomever took it apart was so inpatient that they ripped and broke the plastic panel cover off instead of removing 2 screws. I called to order the replacement cam and snap ring for the tire lift assist and surprisingly the local distributor never called me back, but I'm sure I can piece it together from off the shelf fasteners for a buck or two. When it was all said and done I tried dismounting an old, dry rotted 9 year old spare tire and putting a 235/40/18 tire back on. After watching 2 minutes of videos on youtube, I had the tire off and the new one mounted in less time than it took me to watch the video. All in all, not bad for $2909 if I do say so myself.
Now, the search for a used Road Force Balancer can start.
My other car not pictured so far is a BMW 135i with HRE wheels on it. Driving back from Vegas my wife hit a pothole the size of an open manhole cover, blew out a tire and bent 2 of the HRE's. So I sent them off to be rebuilt and refinished. I had freshly refinished, not cheap wheels and brand new Michelin Pilot Super Sports to be mounted and balanced. I went to several tire places and said charge me whatever you want, but don't scratch the rims (they're gloss finish). Several places turned me down and said no way, not touching those rims. Finally, Discount Tire of all places said we got a good guy, he's the best at low profile rims/tires, standard price, not even a markup. 4 Hours later I call because I haven't gotten an update and the truth comes out. They scratched not one, not two, but three of the rims and put a nice sized gouge in one where the tire iron slipped. $300 cash given to me for the damage.
Keep in mind this is not my first scratch up derby at a Tire place, but I'd had enough. If I can rebuild engines, I'm pretty sure I can mount a tire, I just need the equipment. Determined, I was off to research the best tire mounting and balancing equipment, then find it at bargain basement prices on Craigslist. Research quickly told me to get a Hunter Auto34, Corghi Artiglio Master or Coats APX90 for a changer and a GSP9700 for the balancer. Off to Craigslist I went and *Mother of God* those things are expensive, even used. No fear, I said, one will turn up for pennies, I just have to wait. Yeah, not so much. So, coming to the realization that no matter how many tires I change for the SCCA guys in my region I would never break even on a $10k used machine, I set my bar lower. Hunter TC3500 with bead rollers here I come. $2500 was my budget, and I just couldn't find one anywhere near me with the bead roller option for that price. Sure I could buy one out of state for $3k and $600-700 in shipping, but that was out of my budget still. Oh well, screw it, I figure I'll just focus on the lift, floor, shelving and all the other **** that still needs to be done in the garage. But before I gave up I setup a RSS feed for the search term artiglio and a bunch of others. Fast forward a couple weeks and I get a hit on a Corghi Artiglio Master for $2900 because the parts are too expensive to repair. It's at a Lincoln dealership. I didn't realize Lincolns had low profile tires as an option. Anyways, I call and the machine is sitting in a corner, replaced by a newer Hunter TC3700. I hop in my truck and go check it out - looks like it's never been cleaned once in its lifetime. Every panel was loose, every fitting, switch and accessory on it was scattered everywhere. It looks like a tire tech (not a Corghi tech) tried to take it apart to repair it, said screw it after dis-assembly and put it back together with about 1 in every 5th fastener. For $2900 even in the current state, it was just too good to pass up on, so I bought it. Loaded in the back of the truck it looked like this.
Offloading really heavy stuff is much easier with a forklift, just in case anyone was wondering.
Once I got it in the garage, I set it temporarily on a pallet for ease of movement with a pallet jack down the road. Then the proper dis-assembly began. I should say, dis-assembly and thorough cleaning. A brief survey of the damage showed many deficiencies to include: upper bead roller INOP, tire assist cam broken, pneumatic air actuator leaking (multiple locations), 2 speed turntable only rotating on high speed, a metric crapload of missing socket headed cap screws, loose mount/demount head, inflation gauge dislodged in its housing, rear cover held on by 1 screw out of about 6 and generally dirty as hell.
After about a gallon of simple green, hot water, loads of elbow grease and some time I had the machine pretty much fully apart. I went down to my local fastener store and purchased $9 worth of socket head cap screws, lock washer, jam nuts, allen head bolts and zip ties. The upper bead roller was stripped down and I found that the retaining nut had backed off holding the shaft to the piston. A new o-ring from my o-ring kit, a dab of loctite red and some light oil on the piston and that problem was fixed. Here you can see the fixed and cleaned pneumatic cylinder re-installed in the dirty tower.
The micro switch in the foot controls just needed adjustment and it was good to go again. The air lines are all shark type fittings and some of the ends had flared and were leaking so I trimmed them slightly and push fit them back in place, tightened the loose switches and aligned them all vertical or horizontal again. I re-greased the bearings in the bead rollers and generally put everything back together properly. Whomever took it apart was so inpatient that they ripped and broke the plastic panel cover off instead of removing 2 screws. I called to order the replacement cam and snap ring for the tire lift assist and surprisingly the local distributor never called me back, but I'm sure I can piece it together from off the shelf fasteners for a buck or two. When it was all said and done I tried dismounting an old, dry rotted 9 year old spare tire and putting a 235/40/18 tire back on. After watching 2 minutes of videos on youtube, I had the tire off and the new one mounted in less time than it took me to watch the video. All in all, not bad for $2909 if I do say so myself.
Now, the search for a used Road Force Balancer can start.
Bib Overalls
Well-known member
Me thinks you will discover that you have lots of new friends with bad tires.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Guess I had better start figuring out what to charge folks for a mount and balance.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
So this arrived today. Now to figure out how to find radiant tubing in the concrete. And don't tell me drill a hole, as I guarantee you I'll find one if I do that.
Jehannum
Well-known member
Wow, you must be a craigslist fiend. I can never find stuff like that on the Albuquerque craigslist, and it's not for lack of looking!
Your house looks pretty amazing.
Your house looks pretty amazing.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Thanks. It was actually in Phoenix, I had to open up the search radius.
dubber
Well-known member
Loving this....Now a lift too! Awesome choice of wheels as well, even more specifically the HRE's with PSS'!
Flatland Dave
Well-known member
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
I tried that with a handheld IR gun and it's not very helpful. The slab is insulated underneath with Styrofoam and 6" thick so it ends up a pretty uniform temperature. Maybe if I tried it when the system is first turned on before the concrete reaches equilibrium.
I'm thinking of using a damp mop once its up to temp to see if the area directly above the tubes dries out fastest.
On another note, I now have a Hunter Road Force Tire Balancer
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
New **** has come to light. And I found a Hunter GSP9700 (Ignore the VAS6230, that's the VW/Audi Part number) for the princely sum of $1200. This one also has a wheel lift and a printer. Had to haul *** to get it before anyone else could snap it up. Dios Mios man...
Pictured you can see the lift in the background and the tire changer. Looks like I have my work cut out for me this weekend.
Pictured you can see the lift in the background and the tire changer. Looks like I have my work cut out for me this weekend.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Well, good job Bendpak, your lift passes the "If it's heavy it must be good test". On the down side, who advertises a 12 ft lift and makes it 145"??? Am I the only one who gives a damn about the rules? Had to make some holes in my ceiling to stand the posts upright, but at least I didn't get into any trusses.
I think I found the radiant tubing by using the highly scientific barefoot method, which is in keeping with the Dude's ethos. Tomorrow I will hopefully square and level everything, miss the tubing with the hammer drill and finish bolting it all together. The drywall patch is meh, I got really good at that when I was a builder for KB Home.
I think I found the radiant tubing by using the highly scientific barefoot method, which is in keeping with the Dude's ethos. Tomorrow I will hopefully square and level everything, miss the tubing with the hammer drill and finish bolting it all together. The drywall patch is meh, I got really good at that when I was a builder for KB Home.
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
You'll be happy to know I managed to drill a dozen or so holes in the concrete and not hit a single piece of rebar or radiant tubing. I should have bought a lottery ticket that day.
So I temporarily connected power to check the operation. And it works! It's going to be so awesome to be able to walk under a car to work on it. There's literally zero slack in the equalizer cables, so the lift isn't dropping all the way down the last half inch or so which is supposed to unlock the lift arms. I'm hoping the cables stretch a little as it says in the manual but I've only lifted my truck once on it so far. I ordered the Bendpak WSA-100 for air and power and will wire that up and then permanently wire the power in conduit to the hydraulic motor. The manual says fill the reservoir with 4 gals of fluid. I put a 5 gal bucket of hydraulic fluid in there and it's still not full to the dipstick level.
Next the wife and I started to move the tire changer and tire balancer closer to their final resting place. With both having wheel lifts, I elected to place both wheel lifts side by side for ease of switching back and forth between the changer and balancer. Should help for road force match balances that require breaking the bead and indexing to the rim. I'm not happy with the proximity of the compressor with the window and am pretty sure I'm going to weld a platform for it and elevate it 6ft off the ground to free up more work space on the floor. Can't wait to lift that beast and secure it to the wall, will take a wee bit of engineering and welding but the gains in floor space should pay dividends.
The dilemma I now have is there are going to be 4 ea 240V loads in the garage. The lift has one drop which runs down from the ceiling and the compressor, tire balancer and welder will have to share the other 240v drop on the east wall. I'm going to standardize all the plugs to nema 14-50 from the assortment of plugs I currently have, but don't see much of an alternative to unplugging the compressor and plugging in the balancer when it comes time to use it. The 80 Gal tank has more than enough capacity to mount and balance several tires before cycling, but if anyone has any cheap ideas to avoid an expensive switch, let me know. I think I'm going to drop the changer and balancer off the pallets and just reload them when it comes to flooring time and either epoxying or tiling underneath them.
So I temporarily connected power to check the operation. And it works! It's going to be so awesome to be able to walk under a car to work on it. There's literally zero slack in the equalizer cables, so the lift isn't dropping all the way down the last half inch or so which is supposed to unlock the lift arms. I'm hoping the cables stretch a little as it says in the manual but I've only lifted my truck once on it so far. I ordered the Bendpak WSA-100 for air and power and will wire that up and then permanently wire the power in conduit to the hydraulic motor. The manual says fill the reservoir with 4 gals of fluid. I put a 5 gal bucket of hydraulic fluid in there and it's still not full to the dipstick level.
Next the wife and I started to move the tire changer and tire balancer closer to their final resting place. With both having wheel lifts, I elected to place both wheel lifts side by side for ease of switching back and forth between the changer and balancer. Should help for road force match balances that require breaking the bead and indexing to the rim. I'm not happy with the proximity of the compressor with the window and am pretty sure I'm going to weld a platform for it and elevate it 6ft off the ground to free up more work space on the floor. Can't wait to lift that beast and secure it to the wall, will take a wee bit of engineering and welding but the gains in floor space should pay dividends.
The dilemma I now have is there are going to be 4 ea 240V loads in the garage. The lift has one drop which runs down from the ceiling and the compressor, tire balancer and welder will have to share the other 240v drop on the east wall. I'm going to standardize all the plugs to nema 14-50 from the assortment of plugs I currently have, but don't see much of an alternative to unplugging the compressor and plugging in the balancer when it comes time to use it. The 80 Gal tank has more than enough capacity to mount and balance several tires before cycling, but if anyone has any cheap ideas to avoid an expensive switch, let me know. I think I'm going to drop the changer and balancer off the pallets and just reload them when it comes to flooring time and either epoxying or tiling underneath them.
MackMan
Well-known member
Really nice looking setup, the tire mount&balance seems like it would be handy to have, especially if you've had these problems with scratching expensive wheels.
Great house. Great materials and building techniques. Excellent garage. And a great pool table too. Did you mean to say the Diamond Pro table top is a single piece of slate 4.5X9ft? How would you ever move that? Mine is 3 pieces of slate 4.5X3ft butted together and bolted to secure. And it was difficult moving those pieces.
4*4
Member
Awesome garage! Don't see many tire changers and balancers in garages on here! I'd kill for a set! Make some money back for once!
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Yes, it's a single piece of slate 9ft x 4.5ft and heavy as fawk. I have French doors that I brought it thru on Dolly's but it still took 6 guys to lift and maneuver it into place.
I used to install pool tables in college during the summers as a side job, so I'm pretty proficient in taking them down and setting them up. This one just happens to be way heavier due to the one piece slate and the fact that the rest of the table is solid Cocobola, which is a very heavy and dense hardwood.
I used to install pool tables in college during the summers as a side job, so I'm pretty proficient in taking them down and setting them up. This one just happens to be way heavier due to the one piece slate and the fact that the rest of the table is solid Cocobola, which is a very heavy and dense hardwood.
Boosted1
Well-known member
Very nice garage / work.
Nice tire equip too.
How do yo like the supercharged X runner?
I drove one of those on a high speed test course once. Nice truck.
Nice tire equip too.
How do yo like the supercharged X runner?
I drove one of those on a high speed test course once. Nice truck.
EMAGDNIM
Active member
I love everything about this thread so far! What an amazing space (and house)...
OP
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
I play ok. You would think with a table in my house I'd be able to practice every day, but life gets in the way a lot and I find myself shooting about 3 times a week or so. I consider myself a pretty decent player but one of the problems I have is none of my friends are any good so I don't have a whole lot in the way of challenging opponents. I need to put up a drink rail in the game room and get some nice billiard chairs, but the nice ones tend to run pretty expensive and that's one thing I've yet to see much of on craigslist.
So my X-runner and the wife's FJ are both supercharged and we like them a lot. Makes maintenance easy when you have two of the same engine so filters/belts etc are easy to stock. The X-runner is of course a 6 speed, but the FJ's an automatic. I think for the 4.0 motor and Supercharging that the automatic is actually the better way to go. The gearing on the X-runner is rather close spaced so it requires constant shifting. Plus a composite bed with no weight on it makes for some axle hop, even with an aftermarket wheel hop brace installed. To top it all off, we're at almost 6000 ft ASL here, so both vehicles with underdrive pulleys on them only see about 4-5lbs of boost max. When at sea level they get much more boost and feel much stronger.
I used the lift for the first official wrenching yesterday, which was changing the high pressure power steering hose on my sisters 93 Camry V6. I'm wondering why I waited so long to get a lift! It makes everything so much easier. All I need to do now is find a solution for lifting lowered cars since the lift arms won't fit under an aggressively lowered vehicle and I have 2 (Evo and BMW). Does anyone have any experience with the race ramp Trak Jax or the like and a lift? I'm just wondering if the ramp interferes with swinging the front lift arms under the front lift point?