New shop! (was: Multiple buildings, ...)

[rabler]

One other thing worth mentioning, I noticed this RPC doesn't include bleeder resistors on the run capacitors. The internal capacitors inherent resistance (ESR in geek-speak) may be enough to bleed them off before too long, but that makes me nervous. Ironically the start capacitors do have bleeder resistors. While they are of higher capacitance, they are also disconnected from the output line by the associated contactor. The run capacitors remain connected to the output lines even when the RPC is "off". Enough juice remained in them to click the motor contactor in my K&T 3K when I pushed the on button as an easy way to discharge them. I did marr a screwdriver by crowbarring them at one point too.

 

[rabler]

Having finished the last stretch of walls after installing the mini-splits, I went ahead and blew insulation. You can see the wet mud where I patched the holes. The main 24000 BTU mini-split is on the wall on the right. The office, barely visible on the left, has a separate mini split. Both compressors are outside just behind the main wall unit. This area is going to be my main machining area. Looking at the layout image I'm standing near the gray square "granite table", taking a looking in the direction that shows up as straight down on the layout. It's about 23' wide corner to corner. My plan as I've discussed before is to build work benches around three sides of this area and have my smaller machining tools (2 lathes and a mill) in the center of that area.

You can see the white PEX pipe I ran along the top of the wall for shop air. I haven't tried PEX before for compressed air, so we'll see how this works long term. Ideally the taps off the top horizontal pipe would go up slightly before coming down the wall to reduce condensation running down to the point of use taps. I put a slight rise in the copper tap, with a drain valve at the bottom. Hopefully that's sufficient. I don't do any air gun spray painting, so the plasma cutter is the only air at this point that is moisture critical. That'll get a couple of moisture traps in the typical trap/filter/regulator setup.


The office area is filling up. Still needs to be really organized, much of the stuff has been move in without final setup. But all the main pieces are in there. I originally did not envision moving my electronics stuff into here, that was added somewhere along the way in the planning process. The office is 13'4" x 10', in hindsight I should have made it 13'4 x 12''. I suppose having moved most of the stuff into there before the rest of the shop does puts unbalanced pressure on the office space. The odd 13'4" is based on aisle width and symmetry with the opposing dust barrier wall. If I'd widen those both another 16" it would have left the center aisle narrower than I wanted. The granite surface plate is set up. Metrology equipment hasn't been moved in yet. I also plan on putting a unistrut track and trolley on the ceiling over the surface plate so that heavier pieces (say 50-100 lbs) can easily be hoisted onto the surface plate.

 

[extropic]

Having finished the last stretch of walls after installing the mini-splits, I went ahead and blew insulation. You can see the wet mud where I patched the holes. The main 24000 BTU mini-split is on the wall on the right. The office, barely visible on the right left, has a separate mini split. Both compressors are outside just behind the main wall unit. This area is going to be my main machining area. Looking at the layout image I'm standing near the gray square "granite table", taking a looking in the direction that shows up as straight down on the layout. It's about 23' wide corner to corner. My plan as I've discussed before is to build work benches around three sides of this area and have my smaller machining tools (2 lathes and a mill) in the center of that area.

Edit?

Love the progress updates.

What other "building construction" tasks are left to do? I'm anxious to see all the construction stuff moved to the fab side, the machine area floor swept clean and benches under construction. LOL, I bet you're anxious for that too.

I see only a couple of light strips on the ceiling. I assume you'll end up with quite a few more. Are enough electrical boxes already in the ceiling or??

 

[rabler]

Love the progress updates.

Yep, fixed that right/left. Dated a gal in college that couldn't keep right from left straight. Left was "thorn hand" when giving her directions. She had a scar from a thorn. Guess this is payback somehow?

Other steps are really to get the crane legs bolted to the floor, then build the workbenches. I'll also need to wire the in-floor outlets, conduit is there back to the main breaker box but no wiring yet. Then move the smaller machines in and re-organize all of the fixturing, tools, and such. I think the organization will take the longest of all of that. Getting the crane legs bolted in will take some care in placement to keep them lined up. Will wait on the overhead steel for another month, just a budgetary issue. Steel is pricey.

That corner is the one with the poorest lighting right now. If you notice the light strip isn't even fully assembled. I'm using 8' LED strips. I'll add two more strips over that area. If I recall correctly I have 10 currently installed. They can daisy chain up to 3 per plug, I have 6 receptacles (12 outlets total) in the ceiling, all on one 15 amp circuit which is the limiting factor. It's quite a bit of light, don't know the total lumens offhand (it's probably in one of the previous posts in the thread). Also I eventually plan on building a shelf along the wall just above the window in the first picture. 3 or 4 LVL joists at 23' long, to make a 4' deep shelf, with 7' clearance underneath (the top of the window is at 7'.) If you look at that wall there are two outlets just below window top height on either side of the window, and a switch next to the window. That's to hang more work lights under that shelf over the bench if needed.

Yep, I'm ready to start using the shop rather than working on it as a project. I've been doing a bit of work on my belt sander just to get my hobby fix, but it is a little annoying as things are split right now between the two buildings, ready to get all the machinng stuff in one place. I also have a long list of machine rehabs that I want to get back to working on. Obviously the 10EE is in need of some TLC. My Monarch CK really needs turcite on the carriage. The 612 needs the cross-slide scraped and the oiler mechanism in there fixed. And two surface grinders that I haven't powered up yet, much less determined what sort of care and feeding they will need.

 

[extropic]

Dohhhh! I forgot about the bridge crane when I asked 'what's left'.

How deep do you plan the shelf over the benches to be. I like you using the volume (not just the floor space) for dead storage but please take special care to have a safe shelf access method. So many people get hurt falling from ladders. Please don't become one of them.

 

[rabler]

Dohhhh! I forgot about the bridge crane when I asked 'what's left'.

How deep do you plan the shelf over the benches to be. I like you using the volume (not just the floor space) for dead storage but please take special care to have a safe shelf access method. So many people get hurt falling from ladders. Please don't become one of them.

3 or 4 LVL joists at 23' long, to make a 4' deep shelf, with 7' clearance underneath (the top of the window is at 7'.)

My current shop had no wall space for shelves with all of the equipment. Too much stuff ended up on the floor, hard to sweep, trip hazard, etc. This will be storage for things rarely accessed.

 

[rabler]

Also, come this fall, I will be putting in a natural gas fired heater as well as a wood burning stove.

What other "building construction" tasks are left to do?

 

[rabler]

Small diversion, cutting out dead sassafras trees.

 

[BGHansen]

Small diversion, cutting out dead sassafras trees.

Ah, fuel for the wood burner! Think it'll make your shop smell like root beer?

 

[rabler]

Ah, fuel for the wood burner! Think it'll make your shop smell like root beer?

As you can see I have quite a few more dead trees to take out. Then I need to drag out the hydraulic splitter. Temps are suppose to be back up in the 90's this coming week so none of that will happen soon.