The New Shop

Some pics of where we are right now. Note that the air compressor is just temporarily sitting behind the toolbox because it fits there, the toolbox will go back against the wall.

The white walls are plastic covered insulation. This is obviously not a robust surface, so the plan is to put a steel plate on the wall behind the steel welding/grinding/general abuse bench. Turns out you can get steel pegboard at a pretty good price from Home Depot, so I've ordered a few panels. Gives me a few more options for tool storage as a bonus, I can hang the grinder behind the bench that gets the grinding.

Behind the toolbox and the roller bench there, I'm going to put either plywood or more pegboard. I want to be able to put stuff on the walls. The current challenge is how to mount them - I'm going to build a 2x4 frame of some sort, bolted to the steel uprights. I'll post up some sketches here so the house builder types can weigh in.

Before that happens, I need to do some wiring. The current setup is a little limited - there are only two outlets on one wall and another between the two garage doors. The lighting isn't sufficient either. Luckily, I have loads of headroom - the overhead lights have a 15A circuit for two 8' fluorescent fixtures, for example. They probably pull less than 3A between them. If I switch to LEDs at the same time I triple the number of lights, I should be quite comfortable. I'm also going to run 220 over to the welding bench and of course we need to wire in the lift. I need I have an electrician friend coming over in a couple of days to help me make sure it's all legit and safe.

I see you kept a reminder of the Seven. :)

FYI I'm going to copy that shelf design for my garage. That's pretty slick and I have more 2x4's and 2x6's then I know what to do with.

:)

That's the original hood that has custom-punched backwards louvers. Not what I had requested. I remade it, so this one is just surplus and really best suited as being a donor for a bunch of louvers if I ever decide to cut it up. I love having it around as a reminder, so I stored it in a very obvious place.

Looks like Ikea still sells those shelves. They're called HEJNE, and a setup like the one in the pics runs about $159. Based on my quarter century of testing, they're a bargain. If you're building your own, they come with some cross bars for stability but I screwed a chunk of plywood on the back for moar. That's it behind the black toolbox.

Just for fun, here's 900-odd hp parked in front of the "upstairs garage". This one is going to be the clean work area, but it's still full of boxes.

Looking good

In reply to Keith Tanner :

still regret not buying a DINAN M5 similar to that about 8 years ago.  As I recall, they only wanted 10k for it.  

For what it's worth I have seen an air compressor decide to eat it's pistons after a somewhat short life next to a blast cabinet. I would be concerned with having the air compressor and the shop vac sitting side by side in an enclosed space that you can't see.

Also I finally stopped lurking and signed up to make this post.

Thanks Shawneedawg, and welcome to the world of non-lurkers! You'll have to do a thread to introduce yourself, because if there's any place on the internet that will appreciate your particular oddball car, it will be here.

That's a good point. I've been rethinking the shop vac location anyhow, so that's just one more reason to keep it in the main shop. Having it under that peg bench (like it is in the top photo on this page) is going to be a lot more convenient overall.

I'm going back and forth on the little leeched lean-to. The shipping container appears to be a given, my wife is pushing hard for it (I do love my wife). But I'm thinking that trying to connect it to the main shop is going to be a hassle, and it makes more sense to have the little lean-to for the air compressor and for a way to feed water into the building. So now I'm back to thinking of the little 4x6 lean-to and the shipping container will be a completely separate adventure.

Those horizontal metal thingies about 6' off the floor on the walls are just about exactly the right height for a sturdy triangle shelf in a corner.   Conveniently most air compressors have 2 wheels and a foot or three feet and fit perfectly on a triangle shelf.

So you're suggesting I put the air compressor 6' in the air? It's going to make draining it a bitch!

I'm not sure that elevating it on a sheet of steel in a corner will meet my goal of making the compressor quieter.

That's how mine was mounted in my old shop and in my case it made draining it super easy because the drain at the bottom of the tank was at eye level when I was on a step stool.  When I moved it to the loft in my current shop I removed the drain plug and installed an auto drain that pops a little valve every time the compressor starts and blows the water through a line to outside the shop.  

My corner shelf was a perimeter of 2x4s with one going from the center of the hypotenuse to the 90* corner wit a plywood top.  SInce I had to cut a square of plywood into two triangles to get one for the top I just glued both triangles together to double it up.  The angle 2x4 in the center let me sink a lag screw to bolt the compressor in place solidly I never gave it a second thought. 

Thinking vertically is the way to go.  Those metal shelving units you bought? Cut a couple of chunks of 3"x1/4" flat bar to the right length,  fire up the welder, and you can double your storage by stacking them. Run the bar horizontally from front to back on each upright, welded to the top of the lower upright and the bottom of the upper to make one 12' shelving unit instead of two 6' tall ones. Then anchor it to the wall solidly so it can't fall over.

Pick up some barn door parts at tsc too. Attach a track overhead down the center of the work space.  Instead of hanging a door  hang a harbor freight overhead winch. Install an outlet at one end and a couple more door supports to hold up a burly extension cord. Now your welder can reach anywhere in the shop, or store raised up out of the way.  

Instead of the flying welder, I'm going to put a 220v outlet on the lift post. I already have a good extension cord so I can reach everywhere in the shop without much difficulty. That's a pretty fun idea, though.

I'll look at elevating the compressor. It's not something I'd considered before. I still can't see it being anything but amplified, but it's an idea. Might have to see if I can borrow a forklift to get it up there, she's big.

I could extend the shelves up. There would be some custom metal work to deal with the 6' bar that's part of the wall, but it's an option. I'll spend some time looking around and stroking my chin and see what looks plausible.

Spent some time talking to an electrician friend. We have a wiring plan. Welder plug on the lift post so, with my extension, I can reach anywhere in the shop. Some high well LED lights to blast the shop with lumens. Another couple of 110v circuits for lots of outlets in the work area. We'll do the work in a couple of weeks.

He also suggested that moving the inlet for the air compressor to an outside source will cut the compressor noise considerably. Not for anyone outside the building, but for anyone inside. I'll have to see if it's possible with my particular pump and I'll look at putting a muffler on the outside, but it's an idea. That way I can elevate the compressor (somehow) and mitigate the noise somewhat. I mean, I've lived with an indoor compressor for the last decade - but if you're building your dream shop, you do something about it.

I'm going back and forth on the fan. Best choice is a Big Ass Fan E7, but they're expensive. This is mostly just my cheap ass side speaking, as I can afford it. But there's a Dayton that's about 1/4 the price. I'm just afraid that it's going to be wonky, and I'm spoiled by the BAFs I have in the house. Sigh. I think I just have to man up on this one.

Extending the metal shelves up isn't actually that good an option. Maybe a couple of feet, but I can't really go a full 6'. Besides, I have tall things on top of the shelves now so I think I'll stick with what I have for the time being.

I also did my first car work in the shop. Okay, it wasn't much, just doing an underside inspection of a freshly built car. The only V8 RF in the world! The shop has now made the conversion to functional. Not very functional really, but I know where tools are and I can clear enough room to work on something without going to extremes.

Oh my goodness I hadn't seen a pic of the house yet. Well that is pretty incredible. A house like that would make me go to a lot of lengths to work in the car hobby and yet you got both the killer house and the dream shop. Good job!

The house is pretty cool. It was designed for the lot, and we bought it from the original owners so I even have a set of blueprints. Great sight lines, great light - I'm digging it. It needs some work, but we got a pretty good deal so there's room in the budget to tweak it the way we want.

Forgot to mention this. I've been planning to put some shelves under the windows because it's wasted space. The spot is 48" x 17", using the big central beam of the shop as a depth limit. I've built a steel shelf to go under one of them but I'm not completely convinced it's the best choice. This old cupboard was left in the shop by the previous owner, and out of interest I put a tape measure to it. 48" x 17" and the perfect height. It's a press fit and a perfect match to the location. The Miata in front of it is scootched over close to the wall as I work around it, I think it will normally live a little further away so door access won't be an issue. I am happy with this.

The welder plug on the upright will be disappearing with the electrical work, it's in an awkward place right now both for being in the way and being in the wrong spot.

 No real work on the shop today, but this is related. Flyin' Miata is pulling out two lifts and I'm buying one. Part of the deal is that I have to pull it out. So today was spent felling this particular fella. 10k Bend Pak two poster with a 220v motor. It's 15 years old, but of course I know the history and I know how well it works. Excellent. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Nice! Is FM getting new lifts, or are they not getting much use?

We have six, we're dropping all the way back to four! We're concentrating on using our techs and shop for R&D instead of working on customer cars, and four lifts gives us enough capacity to do long-term customer builds and develop parts.

BAF is selling some refurbished Haiku fans for 30% off - they have a 84" version in white - not the industrial fan - but could work for your application. Give them a call for the deal 

Good tip, Kelly. Thanks.

Keith Tanner said:

 No real work on the shop today, but this is related. Flyin' Miata is pulling out two lifts and I'm buying one. Part of the deal is that I have to pull it out. So today was spent felling this particular fella. 10k Bend Pak two poster with a 220v motor. It's 15 years old, but of course I know the history and I know how well it works. Excellent. 

 

 

It's mostly had Miatas on it so how worn could it be?

So it's been a while since I did any work on the shop because the north called.

When I got back, the cacti had started blooming.

Okay, enough of that. Time to get to work on the wiring. I realized I couldn't really keep going with any more work until I had wires in place. I had a pro come in to work out what needed to be done and how best to do it. I needed two more 220 circuits (lift and air compressor along with the welder), more lights and a couple of new circuits with more outlets. Turns out the existing panel was tapped out so it ended up being a full upgrade.

The old lighting was two 8' twin tube fluorescent fixtures along the ceiling and one more by the window. That was it. We swapped out the tubes for LED replacements and added four LED high bay fixtures with 29,000 lumens each. The latter were staggered for minimal shadowing. The two closest to the wall are angled inwards slightly and can actually be reaimed easily if I want to direct light to the front of the shop, but most of it is concentrated in the rear half where the work will be done.

After the first two went in, my electrician friend asked "are you sure you want the others? That's a lot of light!". You can't have too much until you can see your own bones. This picture does not do it justice, the 8' tubes look like a dim flashlight.

The air compressor has moved into the corner because there was a hole there and I wasn't happy with how the layout was working. It's much better now, it'll stay in that corner. I can still elevate if I want but there's really no good way to use that spot so it's wasted space. I am considering building some cantilevered/suspended shelves on that back wall above the 6' line if I need them.

Lift is going up next weekend and I think I've got the location nailed down. This is coming together nicely.

So this happened yesterday.

Went up pretty easily with two guys. No cherry picker or any fancy tools, the only oddball was a rented rotary hammer to drill the dozen anchor holes. The fact that it had previously been installed let us skip a lot of steps. I still have to run a couple of cables and drop the wiring in, but  this is a big, big step.

The lift is straighter in reality than it appears in this skewed photo.

The install of the lift did illustrate why having the big workbenches/drawer cabinets on wheels works well, I was able to reconfigure the space nicely to make it work. I think they'll come in very handy as I move from project to project.

I envy you, sir.  subbed to this thread