Building dream shop, need clever ideas

[John K Jordan]

And some from the "farm and shop" area:

donkeys_IMG_20151127_133448.jpg horse_Cole.jpg horse-n-babies.jpg
llama_feed.jpg shearing_before_after.jpg farm_people_IMG_20150505_18.jpg




and the shop itself (almost done), back side facing field:

shop_llama_IMG_20150421_170.jpg shop_floorplan.jpg

Come visit! Take a llama for a walk!

JKJ

[Deb Malloy]

What a beautiful piece of property. Love, love the animals. What an awesome place to live.

[Stew Hagerty]

So this is before & after. You mean before and after you stopped feeding it? LOL

tmp_2397-shearing_before_after-170087140.jpg

[Rick Fisher]

What a great property John. I love the farm part. Love the pics too

Yeah.. the blast gates are pneumatic. I've run 1/2" Nylon tube throughout the basement. I simply cut the line .. insert a tee, and run an air line to a gate.

Its really simple..

I built the blast gates by adapting Lee Valley self cleaning gates to pneumatic. I bought the pistons on Ali - Express for about $10.00 each .. I was worried they where too small, at 35 lbs. they slam the gates shut and open. I'm reducing the speed soon with flow control valves ..

[Rick Fisher]

This is the sharpening station. it will have a sink, bar fridge, and a 2" thick wooden counter top .. There will be shelves between the upper cabinets that will completely hide the seams in the checker plate. The seams are in specific spots.

I have a Tormek and a bunch of Japanese Water Stones .. all that type of thing will be in this area.




To the left is the Dust Collector. Up against that wall will be its permanent home. I also did the kick plates in Scraps of checker plate. I attached the Checker plate with PL-Premium .. it was dead simple, the adhesive acted like a suction cup ... Cutting the checker plate on the table saw was nasty.. I wore a turning mask and it sounded like rain on a tin roof. Aluminum may cut nice but the chips suck.. lol

[mark mcfarlane]

...

I have a Tormek and a bunch of Japanese Water Stones .. all that type of thing will be in this area.

Isn't it illegal to use pre-built cabinets in a shop ?

[John K Jordan]

Isn't it illegal to use pre-built cabinets in a shop ?

Yikes, I hope not or I'm in trouble too.

I found old used cabinets at a salvage place and bought some used steel cabinets. Time is limited - I had to decide between working more on the shop or in the shop. Don't tell anybody!

JKJ

[mark mcfarlane]

Yikes, I hope not or I'm in trouble too.

I found old used cabinets at a salvage place and bought some used steel cabinets. Time is limited - I had to decide between working more on the shop or in the shop. Don't tell anybody!

JKJ

, Sorry I couldn't help myself.

I am building a new shop from scratch over the Winter, after I retire in October, and I keep struggling with 'do I just go buy a really nice workbench and some of the cabinets and get on with other projects', or 'do I build everything from scratch'. I have a hunch, in 5 years I will wish I had built everything myself as I start to run out of other interesting projects, and money,... so I'll probably bootstrap the shop from a pair of sawhorses: build a cutting/assembly table, build a cabinet for the sink and finishing goods, and go from there.

I'll start building shop furniture on the back porch with my tracksaw and jigsaw whilst shop construction proceeds (est. 6 months). By the time I have a completed building ready for the big slider I may not need a big slider any more... (Don't worry Erik, worse case is a shorter one).

[Rick Fisher]

Haha.. it should be ..

My entire shop is coming out of storage.. I used prebuilt cabinets because I couldn't stand to have everything on the floor or shelves or whatever .. Kinda a chicken / egg thing ..

[Rick Fisher]

Above is the cutting bench .. I had a Kreg flip stop system in a box which I never used so I installed it .. Seems okay .. This part is far from done, I see I need to screw the cabinets together at the top (uppers) .. There is a hand tool rack going on the wall at the left and a clamp rack on the right .. after some cube shelves ..



This is the sharpening station.. it will have a sink and tap soon .. the counter top is LVL beam turned on edge and laminated.. IF there is ever a nuke, Im gonna hide under that counter top.. Its crazy strong. I am using that LVL beam look in many places in the shop ..

Still needs handles .. ugh ..

[John K Jordan]

That's an interesting idea using LVL beam for a work surface! I may steal it.

For fastening cabinets together I use long drywall type screws sideways through the face frame while clamped tight. I don't know how others do it but it worked for me.

JKJ

[Rick Fisher]

John..

I am in the lumberyard business.. LVL Beams are bought in 60' lengths.. we add about 7% to our cost in the computer, because when you cut an 18, 2/10 and a 16 ... you end up with this useless 6' length left over..

So its not uncommon for lumberyards and truss plants to wind up with lots of 3', 4' thru maybe 8' or LVL beam laying around..

In construction they are worthless.. They become pads for crane trucks, and get sold for half or less of cost, to farmers etc.

So I got a whole raft of 14" and 16" beam for $2.00 - $3.00 per foot. The stuff is 1-3/4" wide.. I rip it down to 3" wide and run it through the planer on each side.. then glue it together. Its cheap, fast and ridiculously strong..

It is however really hard on your blades.. The adhesive in that stuff is unbelievable ..

I'm doing a second bench .. smaller.. about 25" x 60" .. it will be 3" LVL .. with LVL legs and LVL cross supports..

At 3" thick for a bench top, you could park a car on it .. That bench top will cost me about $ 60.00 .. and it will probably last forever ..

You gotta go into the plant and ask for shorts. Offer 1/3 to 1/2 of retail .. if they have a big pile, they will be glad to see ya .

[Rick Fisher]

Oh .. the shelves above the bench top are 1-1/8" thick .. with a big round over. the round over gives them a thinner look, but they are beefy.. I attached them with 3" wood screws and pocket screws from the other direction.

They are super strong.