Moving the shop, *sigh*

Space looks awesome.

Out of interest, what kind of rent do you pay for that space?

Douglas Jones said:

New space looks good, too small, but good! have fun.

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You ain't kidding. I'll be back to needing more space probably a year.


$1200 per month is what I'm paying.

New Pics

Trailer load of powertools





Hmmm, this is before I moved the jointer in. Must have also been before it tipped over in the trailer....









Just moved a mess of misc stuff today, and did some basic cleaning at the old shop.

I've got so much crap to do at the new one its disturbing.

Hey Karl I never seen so many routers in one place. You sure you got enough. How big a crew do you have? How do you keep track of all the gear.

That bandsaw looks real lonely on its own and out of scale with the rest of you setup there.

You should add to it with this one, real deal.

Rob Keeble said:

Hey Karl I never seen so many routers in one place. You sure you got enough.

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I was actually just thinking today I should go pick up a few more. Changing router bits for any other reason than they are dull, is a complete waste of time. I have 12, if you're curious.

How big a crew do you have? How do you keep track of all the gear.

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Just me and another guy part time. Keeping track of stuff isn't to bad, I haven't lost too many things over the years. I did bury a Stabila level in a fireplace surround once, and I'm pretty sure there is an Estwing hammer under a cabinet in a buddies house.....

That bandsaw looks real lonely on its own and out of scale with the rest of you setup there.

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The main bench with the Derda chop saw is going between the bandsaw, and the clamps. So it won't get lonely....

You should add to it with this one, real deal.

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I really don't use a bandsaw for much. I'm on my phone right now, so I'll have to check out the link later.

Just checked the link. If I were in the market for more bandsaw I'm afraid Northfield is the only way to roll if you can afford it.

You question the number of routers, but not that there's three mitre box's lined up

were at $.50 sq.ft. here so the price is about the same as it would be here. Now if it were California you could easily tripple that...

big happenin's today, well sorta....

Started off the morning getting glass for the window in the office.


Then went to the fabricators to have ten steel sawhorses whipped up, and some steel carts. Wood ones never last, in either scenario.

Last night I got the door hung. Hanging a steel door by yourself is a pain in the rear. I'm a bit low on the hinge side, but I wasn't going to bother with a tiny difference in the gap. It opens and closes nicely, so that's good enough for me. I put the window in earlier today. Also got one of the rack sections put up for sheet stock. I need to take down the other half in the old shop yet, but its still loaded up with material.



Dovetailing the jambs together worked really well. Super solid, and not a heck of a lot more involved than just rabbeting it together.


Got a good start on the bench. I screwed up and made it a foot too long. That's the downside of not writing anything down prior to building something. I just started hacking stuff up on the fly. The bandsaw doesn't look so lonely now eh? Oh, and the bench is fifteen feet long, I had planned for fourteen feet. I didn't notice until I was cutting a sheet up with a circular saw and was only knocking a foot off of the end of it.... DOH!









Here's the bit I'm actually the most proud of. After working out of my Brother's building for the last six years, and just not in a position to move out, I finally have a space all my own, with my name on the door.

Door from the foyer area into the office.


Little truck parked by the north overhead door, which is the long skinny part of the shop. The office is opposite these doors.


West side of the building with the larger overhead door. Sheet stock will be coming in, and stored on this side of the shop. Most cut out and machining will also take place on this side.

Starting to look like a real place of business, Karl. Thanks for the pics.

Progress!

This little gem popped up on Craigslist Sunday morning and went and retrieved it Monday morning. I'm not sure on the age, but its older Powermatic as its got the more gold, less yellow paint job. Same unit as the one I already have, just an older vintage. (Back when Powermatic actually made decent equipment) I'll need to buy some proper lower bags for it as well. The ones the previous owner included, and was using are definetly not the correct size. I'm not sure if I'll go cloth, or plastic. Also didn't realize that there is no switch on it, I'm going to poke around on Amazon and see what I can find for that.



I bought this little 2hp Delta/Rockwell shaper at an auction a couple of years ago for $200. I didn't even know if it worked until today. Plugged it in and its nice and quiet. Also plugged in and started the Powermatic tablesaw I bought a few weeks ago, it also is very smooth sounding.



Built two new outfeed tables for the two saws in the cut out area. Also decided that the dust collector would be better located on the opposite side of the shop. Main reasons being that I'll have to run a bit less pipe, and its would be taking up space that will be needed for a vertical panel saw if I ever get enough money saved up for one. Downside is the jointer is now homeless. I'm not sure what I'm going to do there.



I can finally finish up the bench since the electical is all done now.



Today we pulled all the wire, and everything is ready to roll in that respect. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get all of the compressed air lines in, which I'm doing out of Pex, hopefully that'll go pretty quick. I think it will..... After that I need to run lines for dust collection. I still need to come up with a final layout for the long skinny room. There just isn't a great way to do it......

Lookin real good. Nice stealth gloat on the dust collector.

Steve Southwood said:

Lookin real good. Nice stealth gloat on the dust collector.

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Thanks to that other site, "gloat" has become a word that makes my skin crawl.... No bragging to be had, I paid $400 for it. There was one on CL a while back that the guy wanted $550 for, and I found a couple in Iowa through an equipment dealer but they wanted $600 for those. I think I paid a fair price. Its a little rough, but nothing too serious.

Well Ok then, 400 still seems like a good price. Yep gloat can be used to death.

No problem Steve, wasn't trying to be a jerk or anything.







On another note, been looking at the McMaster-Carr catalog and they have a pretty extensive amount of stuff for dust collection. Pipe, fittings, elbows, gates, and it seems to be pretty fair pricing.

My new landlord is a plumber and has access to most of this stuff through a wholesaler, but I will be comparing prices just out of curiosity.

Very cool Karl. Looking better and better.

You may have posted something about it before, but what's the large tool with the flat panel on the left side of this photo?

Vaughn McMillan said:

Very cool Karl. Looking better and better.

You may have posted something about it before, but what's the large tool with the flat panel on the left side of this photo?

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Its a face frame assembly table. The arm hanging over the table has pneumatic cylinders that push down on to the table. It holds the face of a pocket screw joint flat by pushing against the backside of both pieces with the cylinder while you screw it together. Its got a 5' by 12' working area, rarely does a frame have to be assembled anywhere but there.

That was an auction find worth bragging about. I got it for $1200 in very nice condition, the only price I could find for a new one was $7500.

Karl Brogger said:

No problem Steve, wasn't trying to be a jerk or anything.

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Didn't take it that way at all either. Shop is looking good, keep the pics coming.

Steve Southwood said:

keep the pics coming.

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and how!


Polished up the top on the new to me saw. Its going to need some more work. I'm going to go to town on it with some rubbing compound, a wool bonnet, and a 9" Milwaukee grinder. I'll be able to shave in top by the time I get done. stains and spots drive me bonkers. I'm a bit, hmmmm, particular about my things and I don't like it when they don't look their best.




Bench is essentially done and loaded up.



Spent some time making a decent hood. I'm hoping the angles will help keep the amount of dust in the box to a minimum



This took a couple of hours. Turned out really well, now I'll just have to butcher it when I cut a hole for the pipe.



Have I ever mentioned I hate compound mitres on bits like this?



Hope it works well! I think I'll add a bit of chicken wire in there to block any massive chunks from getting sucked up the pipe, but not all the way to the collector. When I took all the old stuff apart at the old shop I was amazed at how much stuff was caught in elbows. Which is the reason I will NEVER run dust collection pipe where I can't get at it, like in a concrete floor.




Didn't get any lines plumbed for the compressor today. Had to run Satan,....I mean my ol' lady to the airport in the middle of the afternoon. That killed almost three hours of my life.

Wow, Now that's the way to make a dust hood! I really like the way that whole wall is coming together...

So.............. Something you should know about me, I've got some OCD issues..... I wash my hands almost excessively. I like the shop to be clean, and I like my equipment to be very nice looking. I can step on cracks, and I do not have to turn the lights on three times prior to entering a room. I'm more on the "very particular" side of things. I think its actually a good trait to have in this business, many people I've worked with have been the same way, generally to a slightly lesser degree though.

As some may know I bought a used tablesaw in pretty nice shape a few weeks ago. For the most part it is immaculate, but the top had some of the more usual hobbyist wounds on it. Stains, some dings, a few spots where an orbital sander had taken a trip on its side across it....


This picture doesn't give a real good idea of what the top looked like, but its the best I've got and its on the day I picked it up. About half way into cleaning it up, I realized I should have taken some before pictures. oh well.



Here's the final product. I started off with 400g, then 600g, then went to town on it with a fast cut wool bonnet on a Milwaukee 9" angle grinder. Started off with a red rouge for polishing, then moved to the Mcguire's fine cut stuff. I'm content with it. Doing it again I think I would've started with 320, then worked my way up to get all of the scratches out and made an absolute mirror out of the top. But who's got the time for that non-sense!



I promised a finish I could shave in, unfortunately laziness took over and this is as close as I'm going to get.




In other shop news I plumbed in most of the airlines. I used Pex pipe, (like Uponor, or Wirsbo), and I gotta say that was stupid how easy it was to install. I put up 240' of the main run in about 4hrs. I still need to make up the drops, but that won't take long to make or install. I ended up doing a continuous loop around the outside walls all the way around in 3/4" pipe, then the drops will be 1/2"

I also made some cool blocks for my widebelt to rest on. Being that its made in Taiwan, and not the greatest engineering feat accomplished by man I need to get under it now and again so I can move it and access one of the panels on the side.