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Shop Full Garage Tour!

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6.5 Fan

Ultra Member
Premium Member
Where i live, farm/ranch we have no restrictions on building size, but your property tax may go up as you expand or develop a yard. My main heated shop is 30'x30', has the big lathe and welding equipment and most of the other tools. In winter we park a tractor and skid steer in their so things get a little tight. Basement work shop is being developed, small lathe and mill/drill and some tools. I have a large area to work with as it's just me and 2 hounds, no SWMBO.
 

BMW Rider

Super User
Well, the place is so clean I wonder if any work is done there ever.
Decent size shop - bigger is almost always better to a point I guess - I have around 800sq ft but I would not mind a bigger shop - say 1600 sq ft. I guess at some point you run into issues such as heating all that space - or need to divide into heated and unheated space.

In Calgary without extra permit you cannot build a garage over 800 sq ft. The max height is also 10ft. They have also other restrictions like garage cannot be bigger than your house ... (come one, why not!?)

Main problem with using your basement is that its not easy to move machines in / out if they get touch bigger and you also have to content with some pollution of house air.

If garage is decently insulated and you keep it cold just above freezing most of the time, actual heating is not that expensive.
The ceiling/door/eaves height has been amended to 14 feet. Two guys in my neighborhood have garages like that and so I had to ask...
My original garage was right to the limits of the building bylaws at 768 sq ft and 15' to the peak (actually 15' 2" but they didn't measure). Those were the rules in 99 when it was built. later I went through the difficult development permit process to add on and after being denied by city hall, took it to the appeal board with a revised plan and got approval to add on for a total of 1005 sq ft. The issue was the footprint size being larger than the house due to the house being a two story. If we had a bungalow of the same square footage overall, I would have been OK as the footprint would be larger, so the rules are not entirely logical in my opinion.
 

CWret

Ultra Member
Premium Member
你好 @a smile - FYI: Less than a year after the Tiananmen Tank Man, I was in Hong Kong for a short visit before beginning a 3 week tour of your country. It started with several days in Kunming, then through the Three Gorges followed up by a behind the scenes tour of the dam construction. Several awesome stops later, the trip ended at the Forbidden City after a walk on the Wall. I was close enough to where you live to have a feel for it - nice part of the country.

Now - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good: Since adding a mill to my 6.7m x 7.9m garage, I’ve been able to improved my DIYER abilities and shop enjoyment.
The Bad: I have no room for additional machines or equipment since half my garage is garage - so the shop part is rather cramped. On the semi-bad side, it’s not “a god awful mess” as SomeGuy describes a typical hobby shops, but it’s not as neat as his either.
The Ugly: That would be me.

PS: @a smile - one of my best memories of my China trip was how amazingly friendly everyone was, with that in mind, if you ever venture across the pond and end up near Toronto, please stop in for a first hand inspection of my shop.
 

CWret

Ultra Member
Premium Member
@SomeGuy said “I started on the new mill stand this past weekend too, lots of working with steel tube...cutting, drilling, grinding, and soon to start welding.”

Looking fwd to seeing some pics as the fab progresses. Sounds like a good video topic
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
@SomeGuy said “I started on the new mill stand this past weekend too, lots of working with steel tube...cutting, drilling, grinding, and soon to start welding.”

Looking fwd to seeing some pics as the fab progresses. Sounds like a good video topic

It's fairly basic, decided to try to do it entirely out of stock I had on hand and am integrating the existing stand that came with the mill into it for the storage bit. I have been filming the fab work as I go, hopefully finish most of it up this weekend, so video in next couple weeks if all goes well.
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
It's fairly basic, decided to try to do it entirely out of stock I had on hand and am integrating the existing stand that came with the mill into it for the storage bit. I have been filming the fab work as I go, hopefully finish most of it up this weekend, so video in next couple weeks if all goes well.
err, I also forgot, I do have to wait until enough snow melts that I can get my engine hoist out of the shed in the back lol so maybe quite a few weeks until this thing is entirely done.
 

LenVW

Process Machinery Designer
Premium Member
It's fairly basic, decided to try to do it entirely out of stock I had on hand and am integrating the existing stand that came with the mill into it for the storage bit. I have been filming the fab work as I go, hopefully finish most of it up this weekend, so video in next couple weeks if all goes well.
Keep it clean . . . I am always impressed by the neatness of your garage.
’A place for everything and everything in its place’
I smile every time that our vehicles are pulled out and see everybody brushing off their cars in their driveways . . . in front of the garage doors ??
 

Brian H

Super User
Very nice. You have made really good use of all your space. I have too much of a pack rat mentality to keep everything that tidy...maybe one day ...
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
Been there-done that-borrowed your engine hoist- but snow wasn’t an issue
Anytime you need it (assuming I can get it out lol) although your tractor setup was pretty slick too :)
Keep it clean . . . I am always impressed by the neatness of your garage.
’A place for everything and everything in its place’
I smile every time that our vehicles are pulled out and see everybody brushing off their cars in their driveways . . . in front of the garage doors ??
Absolutely!

And ya, nothing better than a clean vehicle after the snow fall.
Very nice. You have made really good use of all your space. I have too much of a pack rat mentality to keep everything that tidy...maybe one day ...
No time like the present...I hang on to a lot of stuff too, you can still keep things and be tidy, though I'm careful that anything big that I buy I need to have a spot for it first.
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
Well, the place is so clean I wonder if any work is done there ever.
Decent size shop - bigger is almost always better to a point I guess - I have around 800sq ft but I would not mind a bigger shop - say 1600 sq ft. I guess at some point you run into issues such as heating all that space - or need to divide into heated and unheated space.

In Calgary without extra permit you cannot build a garage over 800 sq ft. The max height is also 10ft. They have also other restrictions like garage cannot be bigger than your house ... (come one, why not!?)

Main problem with using your basement is that its not easy to move machines in / out if they get touch bigger and you also have to content with some pollution of house air.

If garage is decently insulated and you keep it cold just above freezing most of the time, actual heating is not that expensive.
I'm out there doing stuff right now...proof!

PXL_20230317_193324530.MP.jpg
 

Susquatch

Ultra Member
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I'm out there doing stuff right now...proof!

That photo doesn't prove anything @SomeGuy ....... I think all you did is pull a welder and welding table into the parking spot and throw out a few tools out for a photo op....... For all we know, you prolly only pulled them out so you could wash the floor under them......

JK.... Please tell me that's grinding dust on the RF corner of the table.......
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
You left a cabinet door open.....

I missed it before, but I like the lathe bench, and use of 2 mid cabinets. I may have to keep that in mind as I roll around ideas of a new lathe bench in my head.
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
That photo doesn't prove anything @SomeGuy ....... I think all you did is pull a welder and welding table into the parking spot and throw out a few tools out for a photo op....... For all we know, you prolly only pulled them out so you could wash the floor under them......

JK.... Please tell me that's grinding dust on the RF corner of the table.......
LoL still at it, looky chips and feet and setup to weld some tube
PXL_20230317_210241774.jpg PXL_20230317_210235595.jpg PXL_20230317_210226012.jpg
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
You left a cabinet door open.....

I missed it before, but I like the lathe bench, and use of 2 mid cabinets. I may have to keep that in mind as I roll around ideas of a new lathe bench in my head.

Worth a watch:

So far the stand has been great, it's rock solid and the storage is super handy and I like having the ledge all around to set tools down. Only downside maybe is that chips are hard to clean out from under the machine, but that might be true of any stand.
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Worth a watch:

So far the stand has been great, it's rock solid and the storage is super handy and I like having the ledge all around to set tools down. Only downside maybe is that chips are hard to clean out from under the machine, but that might be true of any stand.
Make some riser blocks to go between the lathe and stand. Really makes it easier to sweep/pull those chips out when you put some daylight between the stand and lathe. The DIY stand my Myford sits on currently (previous owner built) has some riser blocks between it and the chip tray and it's much easier to clean out than if there wasn't. Part of the reason I want to make a new one is how much of a pain it is to move. I want something I can easily slip my pallet jack under and cart around when needed. I have to do similar labour to you to move mine now and it drives me nuts.
 

SomeGuy

Hobbyist
Make some riser blocks to go between the lathe and stand. Really makes it easier to sweep/pull those chips out when you put some daylight between the stand and lathe. The DIY stand my Myford sits on currently (previous owner built) has some riser blocks between it and the chip tray and it's much easier to clean out than if there wasn't. Part of the reason I want to make a new one is how much of a pain it is to move. I want something I can easily slip my pallet jack under and cart around when needed. I have to do similar labour to you to move mine now and it drives me nuts.

For how often I move it, this is sufficient.

I don't want to raise the lathe up too much more, might just find some larger tray(s) so that I can cover more of the area underneath. The one tray helps but doesn't pull everything...maybe even make one that is fit to the lathe out of some thin sheet metal.
 
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