What did you do to your shop today?

[motorheadmike]

I'm probably going to borrow some of those ideas.... Nicely done!

Thanks.

I must have watched 10-15 videos to get ideas. Lots of: Yep. Nope. Yep. Nope. The worst versions are anything bolted/screwed to a wooden work bench. Some are just overkill - basically anything in the 60"+ range and actually have functionality issues.

And then I just made a napkin sketch and got to work. I have about 4 days into both pieces. Unfortunately my YouTurd feed is now polluted with brake videos... that and Junk Wax Era baseball card unboxings (I was feeling nostalgic).

I am going to make a press brake next to deal with the 1/8"+ stuff that would be used for tabs and brackets or heavy gauge sheet.

 

[5spdCab]

Got the insulation and plywood hung on the ceiling of my storage. I had to hire help for holding it up over our heads. So far, only enough screws in each sheet to hold it up, and to ensure that we would get it all hung in a single day. I will do a full screw into the rafters later.

 

[Hurricane77]

So haven't really done a ton of work on the garage itself lately. Still waiting on overhead doors which is getting really frustrating. Order early October and was supposed to be 4-8 weeks delivery (early December). Then it was Dec 30th. then mid Jan. Now they just keep telling me "soon". First the issue was availability of the torsion spring, then waiting on the panels. Then weather related issues, now it's weather stripping. Just holding up so much stuff about moving into the new garage.

What I have been able to do is get some outlets installed and been working on getting the heating system installed and running. I have to say, routing wires and mounting stuff in a metal building is a huge pain in the *ss. Anyway, put up a couple metal studs and a piece of plywood to mount all the radiant heat stuff to it. So there's an 11 kW boiler, pressure relief valve, auto air release valve, expansion tank, circulating pump and then hot and cold manifolds. The manifolds have air release valves and drain/fill ports on them. Everything is on a single zone with 4 loops of about 250' each. Not shown in the picture below is the wiring (6/3 AC90 or BX for you southern folks), wiring from the pump to the boiler, the thermostat (which has a slab sensor), and the piping for the bottom of the auto air release valve to the expansion tank plus an additional drain/fill port with valve.

The heating system has been filled with ~35% glycol mix which should provide burst protect down to ~-40C/F. It'll get slushy before that, but it's more for just piece of mind if we ever get an extended power outage and really cold weather. Been able to get the pressure up to about 12 psi and did some quick tests. Seem to have good flow through 3 of 4 loops. I think I may have had pure water in that 4th loop that has frozen and is causing a blockage. I'd like to get the slab up to temp first before I get too worried about it. I did test each loop before hooking up the manifold just by blowing through them, which was pretty easy. I heard some gurgling through one of them and I'm pretty sure it's on the loop that's not flowing. Then we got a wicked cold spell so pretty sure I just have an ice plug in there. Right now the slab, according to the embedded temp sensor ,is ~-13C (8.5F) and night time temps have been around -25C (-13F) for several nights. I've run the system for a few hours and have seen the slab temp start to increase by a couple degrees over a few hours. Not much point leaving it running since, you know, NO DOORS. I'd just be throwing money away. But it did give me confidence that the system is working, and was able to purge a bunch of air out of the loops that ARE circulating.

But I am REALLY looking forward to getting the doors so I can really start using this damn garage and get back to working on my Cutlass (which I've now had over a year and really haven't done much to it other than rip it apart)

 

[motorheadmike]

So haven't really done a ton of work on the garage itself lately. Still waiting on overhead doors which is getting really frustrating. Order early October and was supposed to be 4-8 weeks delivery (early December). Then it was Dec 30th. then mid Jan. Now they just keep telling me "soon". First the issue was availability of the torsion spring, then waiting on the panels. Then weather related issues, now it's weather stripping. Just holding up so much stuff about moving into the new garage.

What I have been able to do is get some outlets installed and been working on getting the heating system installed and running. I have to say, routing wires and mounting stuff in a metal building is a huge pain in the *ss. Anyway, put up a couple metal studs and a piece of plywood to mount all the radiant heat stuff to it. So there's an 11 kW boiler, pressure relief valve, auto air release valve, expansion tank, circulating pump and then hot and cold manifolds. The manifolds have air release valves and drain/fill ports on them. Everything is on a single zone with 4 loops of about 250' each. Not shown in the picture below is the wiring (6/3 AC90 or BX for you southern folks), wiring from the pump to the boiler, the thermostat (which has a slab sensor), and the piping for the bottom of the auto air release valve to the expansion tank plus an additional drain/fill port with valve.

The heating system has been filled with ~35% glycol mix which should provide burst protect down to ~-40C/F. It'll get slushy before that, but it's more for just piece of mind if we ever get an extended power outage and really cold weather. Been able to get the pressure up to about 12 psi and did some quick tests. Seem to have good flow through 3 of 4 loops. I think I may have had pure water in that 4th loop that has frozen and is causing a blockage. I'd like to get the slab up to temp first before I get too worried about it. I did test each loop before hooking up the manifold just by blowing through them, which was pretty easy. I heard some gurgling through one of them and I'm pretty sure it's on the loop that's not flowing. Then we got a wicked cold spell so pretty sure I just have an ice plug in there. Right now the slab, according to the embedded temp sensor ,is ~-13C (8.5F) and night time temps have been around -25C (-13F) for several nights. I've run the system for a few hours and have seen the slab temp start to increase by a couple degrees over a few hours. Not much point leaving it running since, you know, NO DOORS. I'd just be throwing money away. But it did give me confidence that the system is working, and was able to purge a bunch of air out of the loops that ARE circulating.

But I am REALLY looking forward to getting the doors so I can really start using this damn garage and get back to working on my Cutlass (which I've now had over a year and really haven't done much to it other than rip it apart)

View attachment 191092

Weird. I am pretty sure there are lots of transport trucks in your neck of the woods today...

 

[Hurricane77]

Weird. I am pretty sure there are lots of transport trucks in your neck of the woods today...

One of them HAS to have some garage door in it right?

Anyway, I had been thinking of throwing some 6 mil poly over the doors but was always thinking, "the doors are coming this week, so what's the point?" And since I'm lazy I never bothered. Decided to take the 10 minutes and do that this weekend. So that guarantees that the doors will show up this week

I did go ahead and turn the heating on. Supposed to be warming up too this week a bit. Once that slab is up to temp it should be a lot easier to maintain. Slab was ~-16.5C yesterday at 2 pm when I turned it on. This morning at 7:30 it was -3C. And it had warmed up enough that my suspected 'ice plug' freed up and I had good flow through all 4 loops.

Had also splurged on a little LFIR thermal camera that attached to your phone. Was about $300CAD (so that's what? ~50 cents USD?). within a fairly short period I was able to see where some of the pipes were. Wasn't able to see everything since I had once section with no flow and as the fluid got back towards the end of the loop it had lost most of its heat.


Couple of the loops near where the lift is going the gap is part of the same loop, but the fluid has lost all it's heat by that point.

Little bit wider shot of the same area. dark spot on the right is the loop that had no flow. I had a little propane salamander type heater running in there too, the big bright spot is the heater. The dark spot beside it is the propane tank. There's some alignment issues with the cameras thermal and optical lens. Need to play with the software a bit to correct that as you can clearly see the propane tank doesn't align with the cold spot.

 

[Screwz]

I got a new air compressor and tool cart . And apparently I cant leave anything alone so I painted all the hardware for the tool cart before I put it together.
i haven’t decided if I’m going to leave the chrome logos or not .

 

[mclellan83]

I got a new air compressor and tool cart . And apparently I cant leave anything alone so I painted all the hardware for the tool cart before I put it together. View attachment 191376 View attachment 191377
i haven’t decided if I’m going to leave the chrome logos or not .

Well done, I don't like anything chrome so my vote would be to go another route

 

[Hurricane77]

Heat's on. Have it set to just keep the slab a bit above freezing (-7C) and it's surprising how comfortable it is to work in there even when it's significantly colder outside, even with the the plastic sheeting over the doors. It's not warm but at least one can work for an extended period of time with their fingers or feet going numb. Though I'm still wearing gloves and warm boots.

Also got the lift stood up, installed and operating.

Stood up the columns to check out the positioning and check for alignment against the pex in the slab. Unfortunately for anyone who might be OCD, it's not dead center in the garage. Had to be shifted a few inches to the right to avoid hitting the pipe.

If I would have been able to put it in the dead center, the columns would have been just inside the purlins and would have had a few inches to spare on top of the columns. Shifting to the side meant that one of the columns is directly under the one purlin and boy...Is it close! There might be 1/16" clearance there . but it doesn't touch or rub or anything.

And got it all bolted down wired, hydraulics bled etc. Had to rent a proper hammer drill to do the holes for the 3/4" anchors. But renting the drill with the masonry bit was cheaper than just having to buy the bit, so it all worked out. But man, torquing down 10 anchors to 150 ft-lbs seemed like a hell of an effort. Had to take a beer break at one point.

Lift all hooked up and ready to work. Now if I could only get my damn doors!

 

[CopperNick]

I feel your pain. Had the same issue when I built my garage/shop/shed/? Ordered the door in late summer and it was two days before Christmas before it was installed and the company owner was who went up the ladder to put it in.

As for creating poly-plastic sheeting to act as door stuffing, what I did myself was to bite the biscuit and go down to my local Tool Town store and buy a large pair of the heavy orange insulated industrial tarps like you see on commercial job sites when the trades need to hoard in an area so they can work inside without imitating a polar mummy. They were long enough that I could fold them in half, use the grommets to hang them using fender washers and #12 wood screws and they would still drag the floor. So I loaded the fold with heavy wall pipe and sections of 4 x 4 to act as weight to keep the "door" closed. Bit of snow did get in but for the most part it all stayed dry. Cold, but still warm enough to do some work. Still have them, folded up and stowed away up on the mezzanine, ready for the next time.



Nick

 

[Hurricane77]

I feel your pain. Had the same issue when I built my garage/shop/shed/? Ordered the door in late summer and it was two days before Christmas before it was installed and the company owner was who went up the ladder to put it in.

As for creating poly-plastic sheeting to act as door stuffing, what I did myself was to bite the biscuit and go down to my local Tool Town store and buy a large pair of the heavy orange insulated industrial tarps like you see on commercial job sites when the trades need to hoard in an area so they can work inside without imitating a polar mummy. They were long enough that I could fold them in half, use the grommets to hang them using fender washers and #12 wood screws and they would still drag the floor. So I loaded the fold with heavy wall pipe and sections of 4 x 4 to act as weight to keep the "door" closed. Bit of snow did get in but for the most part it all stayed dry. Cold, but still warm enough to do some work. Still have them, folded up and stowed away up on the mezzanine, ready for the next time.



Nick

Yeah, well I keep being told that the doors should be here any day now, which is why I avoided putting up the plastic in the first place. I ordered in mid October with a 4-8 week lead time. Then it slipped to Dec 30. Then it was, oh we don't work between Christmas and New Years (not unexpected) and slipped to mid January. Then it was, "we had a snowstorm", then "we can't get weather stripping". And now I don't know what the hell the problem is. But talking to a few other suppliers, if I wanted to cancel my order and buy elsewhere I'd just be resetting the clock to another 4-6 months and would end up paying more too. So I just gotta suck it up and wait.

It's pretty livable for now. Temps are getting back to more normal this week and with the slab set at 7C it's not bad in there. Boiler's not running that often, maybe a few minutes per hour. But when I turned it on, it probably ran for nearly 18 hours straight trying to get the temp up from -16C