Yet another Michigander!

Messages
197
Location
Northern Lower Michigan/Troll
Hello

My name is Larry Edgerton, and I am a woodworker......

I was sent here to find what I was looking for from SMC, seems like a nice place. I am a professional contractor/woodworker in Northern Michigan, and yes I am a troll, but just barely. Married, divorced, married, divorced, and then finally married to a great woman whom I have been with for thirteen years.

Will soon be hanging up my belt and concentrating on shop work, hopefully within a year if all goes well. Climbing around houses is getting hard.

Thanks
Larry Edgerton
 
well what was you looking for from here? there seems to be more of us in here now in the last two weeks than ever,, glad you have dropped in and naother michigander is always welcome.. been in most of our state ,,so where does your home set? might be just around the corner one day nad could share a cup of coffee,, even have the past carreer as you some time back:)
 
Welcome Larry (northern Larry that is, southern Larry we already know:rofl::rofl::rofl:) good to have ya join us:thumb: yep another Michigander:) I think we are catching up with them Texans:p
 
Pssst! Hey guys, I think this new Larry fella is an impostor. Claiming to be a Michigander, but there's not ONE misspelled word in his post. :rolleyes: Something's fishy here.
fishing.gif


Welcome aboard, Larry. :wave: Good to have you here. :thumb: And if you do get a chance to meet up with the other Larry from Michigan, don't pass it up. He's good folk to know. :D
 
Welcome Larry

Oh boy more of you Michiganders, you lot becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Hey did they hand out a book of names and only have one in it for Michigan?????:rofl::wave:;)

Hope you enjoy your stay how about giving us closer bearings Michigan is a fair size place.
 
I'll just be "The other Larry"......

I live in Indian River at the moment. I had a 9000 Sq. Ft. shop on the South side of town, but as you guys from Michigan know, times are tough. To compound the problem for me I worked for mostly automotive execs, even did some work for Roger Smith, and they just flat shut down. So at 55 I am having to find a new nitch. I went from twelve full time employees to just me, and I could no longer support the commercial building.

I bought a ten acre repo out in the Afton/Wolverine area with a 48'x36' pole barn, a 24'x36' three car garage, and a modular on a basement, well and septic in place. I have sort of moved my shop, its jambed in there, but not set up yet. I had the modular taken away and built a replica of a one room schoolhouse on the basement that was there. Its roughed in at this stage with windows installed, and I am out of cash, so its on hold. I am not going to borrow any money on it because I am not all that confident in where our country is going.

I am dying to be living there, it is beautiful, on the edge of the Pigeon River Forest, and I have always dreamed of having my shop and home on the same property. But I must have patience, or I will drive myself crazy. Part of the problem is that I can not sell my house in town, my apprasial dropped 62 percent in the last two years so all of my equity has been lost, the money I was counting on to build my new home and set up my shop. It will come back, if nothing else from inflation, and it is not a bad place to live, its just in town.

I am having a hard time figuring how to set up a shop in such a small area, even counting the garage I am only at 2592 feet. I sold off several pieces of equipment that were just too large. I sold my 36" Oliver bandsaw, my 12" Porter jointer, an old Powermatic rough planer and a dust collector that was too big to run with a converter along with a few other things. I still don't have enough room, but it is just because I was spoiled. I will just have to become more efficient with my use of space. Three phase power is not nor will it ever be available where I am, so I am running with a 50hp rotary until I can afford a Phase Perfect.

The tools that I kept are a SCMI 520 S planer, a SCMI T110 shaper, Minimax T50 shaper, MiniMax SC10 slider, Delta DJ20, PM66, Omga 14" RAS, Safety Speed Cut Dado machine, 14" Delta metal/wood bandsaw, 20" Delta bandsaw, Garrett Brodhead lathe,Walker Turner drill press with threader, and a Powermatic mortiser. Oh ya, my new toy, a New Holland 2320 with loader, my present to myself after paying child support for 26 years!

There is a lot of construction type equipment that I can get rid of once I switch to just shop work that is taking up space inside so it is not stolen, that will free up a lot of space. You know, scaffold, ladders and picks, that kind of thing.

If any of you are in the Jackson Michigan area you can check out my last project. I spent a year there restoring an Italianate farmhouse four miles North of Parnell on Lansing Ave. It is a blue/green sided house with an off white trim, east side of the road, stone foundation and an old barn next to it. It is 130 years old. Of interest is that all of the trim that you see including the facia/soffit, window trim, and even the columns are machined out of Azek, a plastic wood substitute. It was the last job I did in my old shop.

Not having a working shop[no heat] is driving me nuts. I have not been without a shop for over twenty years, and I am having a hard time filling my days. I have shop work but it will have to wait, as I put all of my last bit of funds into Marvin windows for the house. I wanted to get over that hurdle while I had the money, but am having second thoughts now. I thought of doing something temporary for the shop, but I am not wired that way. I wait until I can get it the way I want.

So.......

Well, this filled up a few minutes of my day. When did you say spring was coming?

I did read much of the longest shop thread, but much of what he is doing will not work in my climate. I have to conserve heat a little better than he does in Georgia. I am going to see if I can get ahold of Bill Pentz today and pick his brain a bit. I like the idea, but rather than a trailor I will weld up a hopper that can slip on the forks and will use a cyclone to dump into it, all of that enclosed as his setup is. My ductwork will be under a heated floor, so schedule 40 plastic most likely, depends on what I can scrounge up. I will weld up my own cyclone, as the plastic ones that clear view makes may not survive a hit at 30 below, the outside temps it will be in in the morning before it warms up. Steel is real baby!

As for hobbies, it used to be racing, off road on bikes, buggys and trucks, but that is history now. 63 broken bones has put a stop to that sort of thing, and the economy makes sure I am not tempted. My brother and I ran The SODA, CORR, and WSORR series, took a championship in Sportsman Stock in 2000, and Jerry was runner up in Supertruck in 2009. I broke my back in a practice accident and so can't run any more anyway.

My new hobby is a 47 Dodge truck with a flathead. My we do slow down as we get older.....:rolleyes:

There, that should take care of most questions, so now I am going to go do something, just not sure what yet.
 
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Larry, I walk by a commercial cabinet shop during my lunch break each day and they have a neat arrangment with a trailer under their cyclone. I will take a picture and post it.
 
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