Daily Shop Improvement

[CalgaryPT]

Have 21 feet of wall to do, but think I will do the welding area around the table with that. Might just pull the OSB down. I use to mig in my old place but that was much larger and had s steel clad walls, no mig in this one at it is attached to the house and has other stuff stored on the opposite side. So plan to learn TIG.

Good for you. TIG is my favourite process but I don’t claim to be great at it—just adequate. For what it is worth my shop is attached too. Drywall only. I do MIG, TIG, plasma and used to do O/A. No issues for me as long as I stick to my rules: 1) Nothing flammable. 2) Don’t leave the house for 1 hour after any hot work (including grinding).
If I had it to do over again I’d do the cement backer board trick, including ceiling.
You’ll love TIG. Most people do. It’s super relaxing I find.

 

[CalgaryPT]

Did you know you can copy and paste pictures into the forum ? - you don't actually have to save it to a file and upload that. If it's an image on the web just copy the image and paste it into the text editor reply. This makes screenshots easier to post.
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I learned this a few weeks by accident and was wondering if it was only recently enabled as a feature? No matter—it's great especially if you capture first to SnagIt to annotate. The paste feature saves multiple steps. So thanks to whomever flipped the switch on this.

 

[JohnnyTK]

Is there a start thread for this? What are you finishing?

I have a 21' x 18' garage at the my new residence that had wall insulated and covered with OSB that I'm starting to finish up to move my shop into for the interim. Ceiling is just insulated and covered with vapor barrier. Lucky I have a very high garage roof do to it being a pitched roof.

 

[Dusty]

Never thought to make a tool for this, I was taught just to use two piece of scrap and some nuts/bolts/mill-clamp pieces/ machinist jack. It’s a good trick and a nice mod

@Bofoba, you have a pm.

 

[Chicken lights]

I sold that old 6” bench grinder this morning for $20.

 

[CalgaryPT]

I sold that old 6” bench grinder this morning for $20.

We all need beer money these days

 

[Janger]

Today's stupid little fix. I designed this plug to be printed in plastic to keep swarf out of a hole. It's 1/4-20.


Here’s how it printed.

And this is what it’s for. Keep the swarf out.

 

[CalgaryPT]

That's pretty cool I think. I didn't know you could do threads, but it makes sense. Can you please get one of those multi-million dollar 3D metal printers with an oven next?

 

[Janger]

Dan Gelbert is making a metal printer and sintering oven. Looks really interesting. 200k ish I think.

 

[CalgaryPT]

Dan Gelvert is making a metal printer and sintering oven. Looks really interesting. 200k ish I think.

Ahh..to dream right?

 

[CalgaryPT]

I have a 12' half gable shed on the side of my garage for my snowblowers. I also use it to hang longer metal stock from its rafters, and store sheet goods (bottom left in shed pic) when I get them cut on the long side of the sheet so they fit into my stomp shear. Once they are cut up smaller they come into the shop onto the materials rack I recently cleaned up.

But I still need to trickle charge my two snow blowers in the shed as well as keep a 12V Optima Deep Cycle battery charged. It powers the alarm system, and is a backup if I need to boost things.

Battery Tender now makes solar panels complete with the charge controller built in. This was a 15W panel I got off Amazon for the metal shed before the covid apocalypse hit. Glad to finally mount it. This means I no longer need to park my snowblowers in the shop at night to recharge the batteries after using them. There ain't a lot of room in the shop left, so even the blowers crash the metal working party when they are inside charging. With this panel, there's no extension cord trailing to the shed, and no loss of shop space during snow days.

It's supposed to be weatherproof, and looks well sealed. I've had great luck with their chargers, including a 24VDC model I bought for my RC Lawnmower. The solar panel is bigger than you technically need for the little 5 Ah batteries on my blowers, but the shed is in between houses, shaded most of the time, and mostly needed in the winter months. When designing battery packs for the LED lights I use on my blowers, I calculated the Ah such that they provide juice for two runs—one day after another. That way if I only get a few hours of cloudy sunlight, I'll still be OK on day two. I've found if you double or (preferably) triple the size of a solar panel calculated for non-ideal conditions, you get close to what you need. Time will tell I guess.

 

[Bofobo]

I have a 12' half gable shed on the side of my garage for my snowblowers. I also use it to hang longer metal stock from its rafters, and store sheet goods (bottom left in shed pic) when I get them cut on the long side of the sheet so they fit into my stomp shear. Once they are cut up smaller they come into the shop onto the materials rack I recently cleaned up.

But I still need to trickle charge my two snow blowers in the shed as well as keep a 12V Optima Deep Cycle battery charged. It powers the alarm system, and is a backup if I need to boost things.

Battery Tender now makes solar panels complete with the charge controller built in. This was a 15W panel I got off Amazon for the metal shed before the covid apocalypse hit. Glad to finally mount it. This means I no longer need to park my snowblowers in the shop at night to recharge the batteries after using them. There ain't a lot of room in the shop left, so even the blowers crash the metal working party when they are inside charging. With this panel, there's no extension cord trailing to the shed, and no loss of shop space during snow days.

It's supposed to be weatherproof, and looks well sealed. I've had great luck with their chargers, including a 24VDC model I bought for my RC Lawnmower. The solar panel is bigger than you technically need for the little 5 Ah batteries on my blowers, but the shed is in between houses, shaded most of the time, and mostly needed in the winter months. When designing battery packs for the LED lights I use on my blowers, I calculated the Ah such that they provide juice for two runs—one day after another. That way if I only get a few hours of cloudy sunlight, I'll still be OK on day two. I've found if you double or (preferably) triple the size of a solar panel calculated for non-ideal conditions, you get close to what you need. Time will tell I guess.



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Let us know how this works out please, I have a need

 

[CalgaryPT]

Let us know how this works out please, I have a need

Correction to earlier post: the battieres are 1.4 Ah, not 5 Ah. Not sure what I was thinking.

I certainly will Bofobo. The two glitches I can see are if we have three days in a row where I need the blowers, they may not be fully charged. Each run of 26 properties needs about 1.5 hrs. of power from the batteries to power the LEDs. Where the shed is I don't get full sun either, so I had to account for that too. But we rarely get three days in a row where I need the machines, so we will see.

The other thing I forgot to mention was that I placed the panel the way I did for a reason. Guys who have done similar projects like this pointed out to me that for winter use, you must ensure your panels are accessible. That's because you need to brush the snow off them for maximum efficiency. I installed mine the way I did so that whenever I open the door to the shed I can just sweep the snow off with my hand. If I had put them elsewhere, I'd need a ladder or brush to sweep it off, and I know I'd forget or get lazy.

 

[JohnnyTK]

I have a 21' x 18' garage at the my new residence that had wall insulated and covered with OSB that I'm starting to finish up to move my shop into for the interim. Ceiling is just insulated and covered with vapor barrier. Lucky I have a very high garage roof do to it being a pitched roof.

I have a 21' x 18' garage at the my new residence that had wall insulated and covered with OSB that I'm starting to finish up to move my shop into for the interim. Ceiling is just insulated and covered with vapor barrier. Lucky I have a very high garage roof do to it being a pitched roof.

View attachment 8732

After further examination of the rear wall I discovered black mold and water damage. Called a recommended roofer told them about the damage, first thing they said is did you insulate the ceiling of garage. Which we have done and they told me that min code does not require ice barrier and that this happens to houses made to min code. So upon inspection it was confirmed and just like that I'm having to get it re-shingled on the back half. Oh well part of life.

 

[CalgaryPT]

Bummer. But you’re taking it well.

 

[Bofobo]

After further examination of the rear wall I discovered black mold and water damage. Called a recommended roofer told them about the damage, first thing they said is did you insulate the ceiling of garage. Which we have done and they told me that min code does not require ice barrier and that this happens to houses made to min code. So upon inspection it was confirmed and just like that I'm having to get it re-shingled on the back half. Oh well part of life.

My two cents as a roofer of many years who also has some building experience, the roof insulation needs to be blue board type or styro with air layer between the roof deck and insulation, full ice&water (ice barrier) and still requires adequate ventilation, I would do ridge venting in this instance, also requires vented soffit full length. Then vapour barrier and internal board (gypsum or ply). Wether or not an inspector would agree or not is regardless. that is an experienced professional opinion on vaulted roof insulating. The roof is very different than the wall in function and requires space for air to circulate to stop condensation. Alternatively spray foam was coming into heavy use when I started leaving the building trades.

 

[DavidR8]

I finally finished the mobile base to my Unisaw. Got the extension table legs mounted up and tapped the cabinet so I could bolt on the uber-rare cast iron motor cover.
Sheesh that only took about eight months...

 

[CalgaryPT]

I finally finished the mobile base to my Unisaw. Got the extension table legs mounted up and tapped the cabinet so I could bolt on the uber-rare cast iron motor cover.
Sheesh that only took about eight months...

So David...I'm thinking 8 mns., eh? There must be LOTS of pics to show your friends on the forum....

 

[DavidR8]

So David...I'm thinking 8 mns., eh? There must be LOTS of pics to show your friends on the forum....

I'll have to shoot some... I never remember to do that as my head is usually too focused on not screwing something up.

 

[CalgaryPT]

I'll have to shoot some... I never remember to do that as my head is usually too focused on not screwing something up.

I know...just teasing you. Half the time the only reason I half pics is because I take photos of everything to remember how I did it or took it apart. If Border Security ever looked on my phone they'd be bored out of their minds. No people—just my dog and shop pics.