Weekend Update:
My work actually gave the whole company a day off for mental health on Friday. I took advantage of the last day of nice weather and went for my first outdoor bicycle ride of the year. I'm committed to do the Triple Bypass (Evergreen to Vail) in August and the Mt. Evans Hill Climb in July. I haven't been on top of my training as much as I wanted so I've got some work to do to prepare.
Road up Lookout Mountain:
Afterwards, I made a run to Home Depot to get some supplies for mounting the Mini-split and painting which turned into a 3 hour expedition and I didn't have time to really do much else before dinner time. I did ogle and walk on the new floor some.
Saturday morning I had my 1/2 day MIG welding class. It was pretty good and aimed at hobbyists getting into it. We spent most of the time talking a little bit about technique and then settings on the machine. After some practice on 1/8" steel strips at 90 degrees, we started talking about overhead, vertical, and lap joints. It was nice to get to play around with it and try out different settings. I didn't walk away totally comfortable what needs to change and why in all these common positions, but I think I have an understanding on what to look up when I'm going to do some out of position welding. Generally, I'm now comfortable picking up a MIG welder and attempting to weld, as long as I have some practice on similar materials before it really matters.
In the afternoon, I got to installing the Mini Split. It took a little longer than I was anticipating to get the indoor unit squared away. Nothing was difficult, just took time to setup the piping and bracket. I was debating exact location and I didn't really like that the indoor bracket wasn't really designed for 16" stud spacing. I lined up the left vertical row of the bracket with a stud, got a mid bracket hole in the 2nd stud, and then used some drywall anchors on the right 2nd vertical row. It's not more than 40 pounds so I should be fine.
I drilled my first hole in the wall for the 2.5" passage to the outside. No major issues there. I had the long tubes connected so I had to wrestle the indoor unit into place while pushing the tubing through the wall. I used a ladder to rest the unit on while doing this and ended up scratching up the nice gloss white panel a little bit. I'm sure it won't be noticeable when the is more stuff in the workshop but this is literally an empty room with only the indoor unit mounted on the wall.
On the outside, I had a plan to deal with the stud spacing. I picked up some superstrut and spanned 3 studs with lab bolts to attach the strut. This made it super easy to mount the bracket to the strut and adjust it to the exact spacing before lifting the exterior unit onto the wall. I saw some pictures of on an Amazon review that led me down this road. My educated guess on electrical box location was dead on too.
It started getting dark and pretty cold so I couldn't get it all done on Saturday. To get it functional, I just have to hook up electrical and refrigerant lines on the exterior unit and vacuum out the lines. I also have a decorative cover for the exterior lines and a little bit of clean up work to do on the exterior hole in the wall.
On Sunday, it was pretty much snowing all day and below freezing. I got my indoor bike workout done and I didn't really feel like working out in that weather so I did a few other tasks and clean up the stuff I had scattered about in the workshop and my attached garage.
I hung my sign over the door using some aluminum spacers and lag bolts to set it off the siding a little bit.
I also added a door stop so the door wouldn't hit the garage door beam sensor anymore. This one had a giant 3/8" stud in the center for mounting, but I was also going to use the 3 outer holes to make it look nice. Well, only 1 of the drilled holes lined up enough to put in a screw in but it's still rock solid. I used the included plastic expanding inserts for all the holes. This one has a hook to hold the door open instead of fussing around with a wedge door stop that my dog would probably grab and run away with.
Even with outside temps in the mid/low 20s for at least 24 hours, the inside of the workshop was 50 degrees. It was pretty comfortable in there relatively speaking. I tackled the mini-split first so I could do the final painting independent of weather, but the insulation might be enough to keep it around that 50 degree temp on the paint can. It's going to be pretty cold and snowy for the next week so I'll see what it feels like in a few days. I'm hoping to find a clear evening to get the mini-split working and not worry about it.
My work actually gave the whole company a day off for mental health on Friday. I took advantage of the last day of nice weather and went for my first outdoor bicycle ride of the year. I'm committed to do the Triple Bypass (Evergreen to Vail) in August and the Mt. Evans Hill Climb in July. I haven't been on top of my training as much as I wanted so I've got some work to do to prepare.
Road up Lookout Mountain:
Afterwards, I made a run to Home Depot to get some supplies for mounting the Mini-split and painting which turned into a 3 hour expedition and I didn't have time to really do much else before dinner time. I did ogle and walk on the new floor some.
Saturday morning I had my 1/2 day MIG welding class. It was pretty good and aimed at hobbyists getting into it. We spent most of the time talking a little bit about technique and then settings on the machine. After some practice on 1/8" steel strips at 90 degrees, we started talking about overhead, vertical, and lap joints. It was nice to get to play around with it and try out different settings. I didn't walk away totally comfortable what needs to change and why in all these common positions, but I think I have an understanding on what to look up when I'm going to do some out of position welding. Generally, I'm now comfortable picking up a MIG welder and attempting to weld, as long as I have some practice on similar materials before it really matters.
In the afternoon, I got to installing the Mini Split. It took a little longer than I was anticipating to get the indoor unit squared away. Nothing was difficult, just took time to setup the piping and bracket. I was debating exact location and I didn't really like that the indoor bracket wasn't really designed for 16" stud spacing. I lined up the left vertical row of the bracket with a stud, got a mid bracket hole in the 2nd stud, and then used some drywall anchors on the right 2nd vertical row. It's not more than 40 pounds so I should be fine.
I drilled my first hole in the wall for the 2.5" passage to the outside. No major issues there. I had the long tubes connected so I had to wrestle the indoor unit into place while pushing the tubing through the wall. I used a ladder to rest the unit on while doing this and ended up scratching up the nice gloss white panel a little bit. I'm sure it won't be noticeable when the is more stuff in the workshop but this is literally an empty room with only the indoor unit mounted on the wall.
On the outside, I had a plan to deal with the stud spacing. I picked up some superstrut and spanned 3 studs with lab bolts to attach the strut. This made it super easy to mount the bracket to the strut and adjust it to the exact spacing before lifting the exterior unit onto the wall. I saw some pictures of on an Amazon review that led me down this road. My educated guess on electrical box location was dead on too.
It started getting dark and pretty cold so I couldn't get it all done on Saturday. To get it functional, I just have to hook up electrical and refrigerant lines on the exterior unit and vacuum out the lines. I also have a decorative cover for the exterior lines and a little bit of clean up work to do on the exterior hole in the wall.
On Sunday, it was pretty much snowing all day and below freezing. I got my indoor bike workout done and I didn't really feel like working out in that weather so I did a few other tasks and clean up the stuff I had scattered about in the workshop and my attached garage.
I hung my sign over the door using some aluminum spacers and lag bolts to set it off the siding a little bit.
I also added a door stop so the door wouldn't hit the garage door beam sensor anymore. This one had a giant 3/8" stud in the center for mounting, but I was also going to use the 3 outer holes to make it look nice. Well, only 1 of the drilled holes lined up enough to put in a screw in but it's still rock solid. I used the included plastic expanding inserts for all the holes. This one has a hook to hold the door open instead of fussing around with a wedge door stop that my dog would probably grab and run away with.
Even with outside temps in the mid/low 20s for at least 24 hours, the inside of the workshop was 50 degrees. It was pretty comfortable in there relatively speaking. I tackled the mini-split first so I could do the final painting independent of weather, but the insulation might be enough to keep it around that 50 degree temp on the paint can. It's going to be pretty cold and snowy for the next week so I'll see what it feels like in a few days. I'm hoping to find a clear evening to get the mini-split working and not worry about it.
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