New shop update

[country gent]

I will do odd gobs and things for friends and family, no doubt about that. I enjoy helping people out. While there are a lot of shops in this area most dont want to do the walk in work. Getting a part turned up or modified can be hard and expensive. It also waits till there is an opening in the "contract" work.

I also believe a hand made gift is a little more special to the recipient. I made Mom a vase and some other things she wouldnt part with them. Made Dad a cane and Aunt a set of candle holders from the chestnut moulding taken from the original family home built in 1863. Mainly as a reminder of the house for them. When the Aunt opened the box she looked at me and smiled and said these are way better than the brick from the house I asked for. The moulding in the house was chestnut 1 X 4 s I salvaged all I could before it was torn down. 150 year cured wood was harder to work with but the items came out very nice and are reminders.

Most shops rates here are running $100.00- $150.00 an hour for walk in one offs. Adds up pretty quick for a simple modification or repair.

[country gent]

Last Wednesday we hung the insulation in the long wall leaving the bottoms free. Hopefully Sunday we can install anchors and studs then some sheeting. Working on converting small grinder to sharpen tungsten electrodes, got the wheels need to make 2 new wheel washers for wheels , new guards, and the guide. Talked to harbor fright today the I was assure the order would be here end of week at the latest early next week. Its been 5 weeks since I placed the order. I need this to finish the air manifold.

[lightman]

Talking about air manifolds.........! They tore down an old cotton gin near me several years ago. When I went out to remove the electric service I walked around inside, just looking around. There was an air manifold hanging on the wall and it was a thing of beauty. You could tell that the guy that built it was a real craftsman! It had the required line coming in and about a half dozen coming out. Each one of those had a shut off valve and a regulator with a gauge. I wish I could have got it, but I couldn't contact the owner before the building was torn down. I didn't have a need for it, but it would been a cool addition to my shop!

[country gent]

My air manifold is so I can have the compressor outside the shop, so I dont need to listen to it run LOL. with te quick couples now Im only planning on one valve for the water drop. There will be 2 pressure gauges one on each wall. The important thing is the air drops come off the top of the mains so condensation dosnt enter the drops and enough fall to the main so condensate runs to the water drop. I will have 8 air couplers on each long wall for a total of 16 in the shop. thee will be 6 on the outside wall of the shop for in the garage. Basically there will be an air coupler on each side of the electrical outlets. Benefits of the manifold are 1) increase in stored air volume, some are enough that an actual air tank isnt needed. One can plant had a main air line down the center. 30' of 8" then to 30' of 6" to 30' of 4" and last 30' of 2". off of this were the individual lines. This provide enough volume that a tank wasnt really needed. My manifold from 1" and 3/4" will and around 6 gallons to the tank on the compressor. Maybe a little more. If I need to regulate air pressure Ill make a plug in regulator up to plug in where needed. Maybe 2. 2) the compressor is outside the shop where noise isnt an issue. It can run as needed. Listening to a compressor run for hours is tiring LOL. 3) saves floor space in the shop but the manifold does take up some wall space. 4) a couple shorter air hoses are all thats needed not as much running on floor to trip over. Im figuring 2 15' air hoses for general use and a 6-8 foot at each machine dedicated to that spot.

Mine will be black iron but have seen copper use also. ( where air purity was critical). Even the black Iron is pricey for a big manifold mine will have over 100' of 1" in it when done. I considered copper for awhile, soldered joints would be easier than threaded better seal and no rust problems but vibration in it can cause cracks. Im planning on 2 runs of 1" 30' long 8 stand pipes 1" by 6" tall 8 drops 1/2" by 6' and 2 couplers 12" apart on each side of the electrical boxes. The water drop line will be 3/8" X 7' to a valve and a short piece of 3/8.

[country gent]

Put the anchors in the long inside wall this weekend. concrete was a bear to drill, Harder gravel maybe. Ftnally drilled a 3/8" hole then opened up to 5/8". Even in the cooler use (was roughly 50*) the chemical anchors didn't give a lot of working time. We drilled the hole chamfered the stud and a and hand ground a couple notches in the end. Put a nut on the top end drop anchor in hole stud and tapped in with hammer to depth. Spun with a drill motor for 40-60 seconds to mix and distribute. at 10 mins they wouldnt move at all.

Studs are in insulation is hung get sheeting up soon.

[country gent]

Electrician will be here tomorrow to finish the wiring. Have corner molding finish nails and wood for ceiling and floor molding on the way. Had a break with the pandemic and help.

[NyFirefighter357]

My air manifold is so I can have the compressor outside the shop, so I dont need to listen to it run LOL. with te quick couples now Im only planning on one valve for the water drop. There will be 2 pressure gauges one on each wall. The important thing is the air drops come off the top of the mains so condensation dosnt enter the drops and enough fall to the main so condensate runs to the water drop. I will have 8 air couplers on each long wall for a total of 16 in the shop. thee will be 6 on the outside wall of the shop for in the garage. Basically there will be an air coupler on each side of the electrical outlets. Benefits of the manifold are 1) increase in stored air volume, some are enough that an actual air tank isnt needed. One can plant had a main air line down the center. 30' of 8" then to 30' of 6" to 30' of 4" and last 30' of 2". off of this were the individual lines. This provide enough volume that a tank wasnt really needed. My manifold from 1" and 3/4" will and around 6 gallons to the tank on the compressor. Maybe a little more. If I need to regulate air pressure Ill make a plug in regulator up to plug in where needed. Maybe 2. 2) the compressor is outside the shop where noise isnt an issue. It can run as needed. Listening to a compressor run for hours is tiring LOL. 3) saves floor space in the shop but the manifold does take up some wall space. 4) a couple shorter air hoses are all thats needed not as much running on floor to trip over. Im figuring 2 15' air hoses for general use and a 6-8 foot at each machine dedicated to that spot.

Mine will be black iron but have seen copper use also. ( where air purity was critical). Even the black Iron is pricey for a big manifold mine will have over 100' of 1" in it when done. I considered copper for awhile, soldered joints would be easier than threaded better seal and no rust problems but vibration in it can cause cracks. Im planning on 2 runs of 1" 30' long 8 stand pipes 1" by 6" tall 8 drops 1/2" by 6' and 2 couplers 12" apart on each side of the electrical boxes. The water drop line will be 3/8" X 7' to a valve and a short piece of 3/8.

My air manifold is PEX with crimped fittings it's been 5 yrs no issues.

[Mal Paso]

My air manifold is PEX with crimped fittings it's been 5 yrs no issues.

PEX can't take sunlight but when it fails it splits lengthwise, no flying shrapnel like PVC. I used to run black iron pipe for gas but the county inspectors have been accepting galvanized for so long black iron is getting hard to find. Is there a problem running air through galvanized pipe? I would think water in the compressed air would be a rust problem for black pipe. Even with a dryer it's hard to get all the water out.

[country gent]

The only issue with galvanized pipe is if it flakes off it can damage air tools.

Electrician was here today, all the 110 outlets are in the 220 outlets are in machine drops in and wired. rotary converter is wired and the bad capacitor replaced. All the breakers are in.

Next week ( barring more rain) He will trench in the 100 amp feed to the garage and finish it up. 2 switches and covers covers on the breaker boxes. Electric is almost done.

[NyFirefighter357]

PEX can't take sunlight but when it fails it splits lengthwise, no flying shrapnel like PVC. I used to run black iron pipe for gas but the county inspectors have been accepting galvanized for so long black iron is getting hard to find. Is there a problem running air through galvanized pipe? I would think water in the compressed air would be a rust problem for black pipe. Even with a dryer it's hard to get all the water out.

It's hard to find galvanized pipe here except for electrical conduit & everyone uses PVC conduit. Natural Gas lines here are mostly schedule 40 black pipe except new gas mains in the road are plastic. LP lines use the yellow PVC coated copper tubing. We use the orange PVC coated copper tubing for heating oil lines.

There isn't much sunlight in my garage & the PEX is run along the ceiling & behind the shelving.

I did my buddies in 3/4" copper with 95/5 solder & connected the compressor to the line with a rubber flex hose with a swivel, It's been about 20 years & never had a problem, it's about 100ft in total piping.

[Wayne Smith]

Sounds like you will be using it by summer? Good going.

[country gent]

Wayne, Im hoping for next month or so. Need some dry weather here to trench in the power line. I really dont want to see the electrician knee deep in water in the trench. It was early June last year when we started the new building. So not to bad in reality.

When all the construction building and set up is done the real job starts organizing and storing all the things from the old building an then the machine tooling near the machines and where it can be gotten to easily.

Its been a really interesting project and Ive learned a lot. from framing, concrete, electric, finishing.

[Three44s]

CG,

Well now that you are all practiced up, you can start a second one!

Just kidding ......

Good to hear you will SOON be in your long awaited and anticipated “work nest”.

Three44s

[country gent]

Three44s, Whats really amazing is how fast the shop area filled up. 17x30x10. The old garage was 24 x 30 x 7 the new building is 40 x 50 x 10. and still filling fast

[Three44s]

Filling up fast? Oh tell me about it! LOL!

We had an all steel building put up in ‘09, 40x60’ with lean two’s on each side 12’ deep so the overall foot print is 64 wide by 60’ long. This not a shop mind you. It’s the wife’s barn. It surely will be a very nice shop someday however as we are in our early sixties now. My wife is into horses but they just get part of the non enclosed lean two sections for shelter.

My load room is 12x13 in part of the enclosed lean two section.

So our building stores a tractor, two trucks, a Jeep, Horse trailer and lawn mower. Lots of stuff ....

The stuff lay about on the floor until we had a loft or mezzanine built. We have a lot of overhead room so we went UP!

What a God send!

My wife’s tractor has a loader so we either pack it up the stairs or fire up Mr. Kubota! And up it goes!

In the case of lathes and mills, not so practical! .... or your tooling for that matter!

You mentioned drilling concrete and it was difficult. Did you have a roto hammer drill of some capacity? We did some drilling on some of our concrete and it was like butter but I was gifted a nice old school drill that just eats concrete for breakfast!

I hope you can swing some pictures soon again, we would all love to see your shop at this point!

Best regards

Three44s

[country gent]

We had a dewalt hammer drill and Milwaukee 1/2 drill motor with the carbide concrete drills. The actual concrete drilled fine but the gravel was a pain. Drill would cut around 1/2" fine and quick then sit and spin for 1/2" or so then drop thru again quick. The chemical anchors needed to be in 3 1/2" so it was a task. I believe the gracel used was harder than the limestone we normally use.

Im planning on some over head storage in the garage portion and above the shop room. Trusses are on 10' centers so will take 12' 2x4 maybe 2x6s to span in the building. The rooms ceiling joists are 2x6 on 16" centers. a second set 90* would give plenty of strength and also room for a second layer of insulation. Being on 16" centers 1/2 " plywood or 3/4" should be fine

[Scrounge]

My Sam's Club has the 4' Honeywell LED shop lights for $19.99. I bought four of them for my workshop a couple of weeks ago for $24.99. Will probably pick up 2 or 3 more. I've got a 16x21 former back porch, and a 12x18 former garage to light up. My "office" and reloading bench are in the garage, and one of those lamps lights the computer/desk area nicely! Going to be at least 4 in each room by the time I'm done. Maybe 8. I find my old eyes need more light than they used to. 5000 lumen per lamp, at 5000K, a very nice white light.

[country gent]

I have 6 of them for in the shop They will be installed at an angle one wall angled to floor opposite wall. this has them crossing each other and the light gets into shelving better. Angled like that eliminates a lot of shadows

[Mal Paso]

If you can see what you are doing, that's one less excuse. Just sayin ...

Half inch rotohammers are fine for 1/4 and 5/16 holes but really slow down 1/2 and above. I make a lot of holes. I have a nice old 1/2" Makita and didn't want to burn it up so I got the Milwaukee 2 inch SDS Max for 1/2 inch up.

[country gent]

Well my luck is holding. Rained last 2 days so put everything on hold here The contractor replacing the house roof and the electricians trenching in the feeder line from house to garage. Last year we got the old garage tore down and the building delivered then it rained for 5 weeks. LOL. I can still remember hearing the splashing when contractor packed the bored holes flat and the water shooting out when he dropped the concrete "cookies" in.

Looks like Monday before it starts again