New shop is taking root

Rob Keeble

Member
Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Well i am making progress on being able to work outside in my new shop this winter, in fact from now on. Its already too cold to be out there without heat.

The key issue has been power and i settled on a generator then waited a week or two and got it on sale on Saturday

http://www.championpowerequipment.com/generators/41154/ Its a heavy sucker took two to get it into the Jeep and two to get it out. Made me realise i gotta get myself over to a gym soon :)

This afternoon i did a trip to Lee Valley and Home depot and picked up a heater and Subpanel and a bunch of receptacles. Also stopped by an electrical wholesaler and picked up few meters of 10/4 flexible SOOW 600v cable. That should be good for the kind of current i am gonna draw off the generator. Gonna have 240V available so if i need i CAN run my jointer which is 240v 3hp. :).

Decided all the parts would be moving with us so it will be a flexible temp installation kind of like a hanging panel with receptacles. Had a bunch of stuff left over from the old shop wiring job so i should be good to go now.

Over the weekend i picked up a bunch of 2x4's and some osb and exterior clad board and gonna build an enclosure for the generator such that when we move the whole bunch can move with us and we got a standby for the new place and i already have the panel now for the new shop. :D

Will post picks in this thread of my enclosure build and will get some picks of the new shop all closed up to show ya.

I gotta take some time out of work to get this done because i got birds nests to make and Xmas is marching closer and my customer is getting antsy.

Hope the weather holds.


Now i need some opinions. I got a line (cheap sale) on a brand new attic fan Broan with thermostat built in that i plan on mounting in the enclosure with the generator in it to pull air out and keep it cool. I am getting this fan real cheap $50 and looking around exhaust fans of any decent ability with grill are up in the hundreds. This one with thermostat in my view should do the job on an enclosure thats set to be around 3.5x4x3.5 very rough dimensions. Have not acquired the fan yet thought i might let some of you comment on your own thoughts as to whether your gut feels it would be adequate. My feeling is if its designed to cool an attic heck it should do pretty well on this enclosure when the generator is running and it will only be active when the heat gets going. Thermostat allows me to set the ambient temp at which it activates.


Will also be picking up an old Suzuki Motorcycle exhaust and doing a mod to the generator exhaust and silencing it some more. Saw how another guy did this pretty easily and it had the effect of really quietening down the noise emitted.

I dont plan on running this generator past say 7pm at anytime so i dont see issues once its enclosed with some roxul in the walls.

Also picked up some rubber shock mounts from a surplus store next to Lee Valley to mount it on hope that helps keep vibration transmitted to the enclosure to a minimum. Wont be using the wheels at this stage.

Any additional thoughts ideas will be most welcome i am flying blind on this one and hoping it all works out. Not been a cheap solution but after seeing what i paid for cable today the house upgrade option would have been double and i would be leaving that behind with a liability if i did it myself:) .

Plan for the enclosure is to mount it around 3 feet off the ground to try prevent grass damage at rear of Garage/workshop.

Will then drill hole through wall and feed through cable to hook up to panel.

Gonna mean starting the generator each time i go to the shop if i plan on being in there and doing anything. The existing single receptacle is so wired with every other thing all the way back to the panel that the only thing its good for is lights.

The addition of the bike exhaust should allow me to get the exhaust to blow exterior to the enclosure.

Had to pause a moment today and thank my army training all those years ago. Got loads of real big generator experience then and sparky training to boot. :D
 
rob as i see it leave the bottom open on the dog house and that should give it plenty of air movement and the noise doesnt go down it goes out and up so would still be qiuet enough. also if you need to start it each time just hinge the house to flop out of the way for the starting.
 
If you can, point the exhaust outlet up and put a hinged flap on it to keep any rain out, when running the flap opens, when not it closes.

Pointing your exhaust up will make it a LOT quieter.

Cheers!
 
Thanks Larry and Stu thats my plan. Aint actually drawn this one up just winging it as i go but the whole idea of the exhaust is to do exactly that like the do on earth moving kit. Will take pics of the build this should be interesting.

If it dont work out quiet enough then i am on hand tools for the winter. :) and no birds nests for Linda will have to be fret sawn reindeer .:doh::eek:
 
Bill pics are coming...
Darren you absolutely correct its a two person job :) Thing is in generator department if you want to draw a heavy load you gotta have power capability and that comes at the expense of size in windings etc and motor and consequential weight.. One thing for sure this aint going camping with us in the trailer its way too heavy unless i get a truck:)


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One thing to be careful of Rob is exhuast buildup.

This past Monday we had a cold front come thru with high winds and it blew a tree down across the power lines. The power company turned the power off to a section of the neighborhood so I went out and fired up the generator. About an hour and a half Later I went to shut it down and you could smell the exhaust fumes built up in the back yard.

The back yard is 90' wide by about 150' long and is fenced in with a 6' wooden fence. There was no wind movement whatsoever that evening. The generator was about 70' from the house.

Make sure it doesn't have any trouble starting your tools. I have a 8000 running watt by 13,500 starting watt generator and it will NOT run my compressor.
 
Thanks for the heads up Allen.

Got all the material had to sort out garage first to be able to work in there. Was only 3 degrees celcius today and cold wind. Had hoped to actually get it all done but as usual i was overoptimistic.

Have to wait for weekend now. Tomorrow i have 6 hours of driving to do. Picking up daddys boy from University in Kingston. 3 hrs each way. Normally i would tell him to catch the bus but he is coming home for about a month so lots of stuff coming with him.

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@Ken...there is little to no power in my shop which is at the end of a long garage. I am renting this place for a while so dont want to invest coin in owners property but do wanna woodwork through our winter.


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