My shop thread

[ATL ZJ]

Well, I have been waiting to have a shop of my own for more than a little while. I found a house I liked that has a two story shop in the backyard that the previous owner started and never completed. Four months and a lot of patience later, the short sale process is over and I'm moving in. Figured I might as well post up about it since a lot of my time and effort over the next few months will be focused into this.

I don't think this is cool enough for garage journal, nor do I have the budget that is expected there, so you guys will have to endure some of my pics and updates. So here we go. Pardon the pics, I'm working with a 3 year old iphone...



It's 24' x 23' and an awesome beginning but it needs quite a bit to be finished out and operational. House wrap, siding, soffit, some trim, garage door, gutters, railing on the stairs to the second floor, electrical work, etc.



The P.O. left a bunch of stuff that he didn't want. Fine by me. Some of it I will use like the nice trim and beam sections. I haven't even been through all of it, but tonight I found a tile saw and a HVLP gun. The plan is to organize and store this upstairs, which will remain unfinished for a while, so I can start using the garage to finish the garage



There are two openings in the north-facing wall that the P.O. had intended to be windows. For security and noise reduction (I do have neighbors), my plan is to close these up. I might add a door in one, but that's about as crazy as it'll get.



I haven't found an outlet yet, but it looks like I do have a 220 circuit. There's an excellent chance it's hidden behind some of the clutter. I may want to add a few different outlets eventually. Fortunately for me I have a few friends locally who all like beer and can probably show me the ropes on that sub-project.

[autowizard]

Nice man cave, now get er done!

[chadjans]

I haven't found an outlet yet, but it looks like I do have a 220 circuit. There's an excellent chance it's hidden behind some of the clutter. I may want to add a few different outlets eventually. Fortunately for me I have a few friends locally who all like beer and can probably show me the ropes on that sub-project.

40 amp, 220? A big TIG requires a 50 amp.

[Jeeptech01]

Man that is awesome!! So how is the house that they threw in with the garage??

[Pearce]

Fortunately for me I have a few friends locally who all like beer and can probably show me the ropes on that sub-project.

Oh I'm looking forward to this!

[paulkeith]

dude, that thing is plenty cool enough for garage journal. the fact that its there and largely intact in the first place covers a majority of the budget those garage journal bastards have anyway. might not wind up with lista cabinets and racedeck though

my only words of advice would be: good lighting, lots of outlets, easy air access, and functional/efficient/multifunction storage.

You could consider double-drywalling the interior walls to help cut down on noise. drywall itself isn't too terribly expensive.

Definitely gonna come check this thing out sometime. happy to lend a hand with any of the construction too, if i can find some damn spare time in the next 3 months.

[CrawlerReady]

Very kick ass garage! What size lot you pick up?

[rstrucks]

There are two openings in the north-facing wall that the P.O. had intended to be windows. For security and noise reduction (I do have neighbors), my plan is to close these up. I might add a door in one, but that's about as crazy as it'll get.

You should consider leaving one of those openings (or at least part of it) to install a window A/C unit or two, maybe even just for an exhaust fan. I put the biggest 110V window unit in my basement garage and it does an ok job at keeping it reasonably cool inside even when it's 100 degrees outside.

[ATL ZJ]

Thanks for the comments and ideas guys.

40 amp, 220? A big TIG requires a 50 amp.

I will be sure to have a screaming fit at the previous homeowner for failing to accommodate my ridiculous TIG welder! Ha, I don't see any TIG in my future for a while. Unless it's the borrowed kind. But still worth planning ahead for when I get to the wiring.

Very kick ass garage! What size lot you pick up?

It's pretty small. 75' wide and I'm not sure how deep. Already fenced for my dog. It's just barely outside of the Atlanta city limit but still in a semi-urban area close to a lot of friends and conveniences. And I didn't want to move out into the burbs and pay HOA fees and have people tell me what color I could paint my shutters.

dude, that thing is plenty cool enough for garage journal. the fact that its there and largely intact in the first place covers a majority of the budget those garage journal bastards have anyway. might not wind up with lista cabinets and racedeck though

my only words of advice would be: good lighting, lots of outlets, easy air access, and functional/efficient/multifunction storage.

You could consider double-drywalling the interior walls to help cut down on noise. drywall itself isn't too terribly expensive.

Definitely gonna come check this thing out sometime. happy to lend a hand with any of the construction too, if i can find some damn spare time in the next 3 months.

I can tell you've put some thought into this. It has 4-outlet clusters every several feet, so I think I'm good there. Good idea on the drywall. That may come later but the building was designed for it so I think I want to eventually do that. I may eventually toss a thread up on GJ for more critical insight, but for now this is it. I'll post updates periodically so you can pick when you want to swing by.

Oh I'm looking forward to this!

Spread the sarcasm on a little thicker, please. I'll understand if you're busy out driving the 5.3.

Man that is awesome!! So how is the house that they threw in with the garage??

The house itself isn't bad. It's very small (2/1), but a lot of upgrades and remodeling have been done. The exterior is extremely dated by an ancient awning and some other retro features, and it needs new siding pretty bad. If I can find a hookup on siding I may just go ahead and do the entire house too. At very least the shop and back of the house will be resided. There is a foundation in the back yard where the P.O. started an addition but never got any farther. I'll be building a large deck over that.

[dp96zj]

Looks like a sick project in the making! If you haven't seen this thread already, check it out. It's kind of a 1/2 shop build, 1/2 large-scale woodworking project, so hopefully you get some use out of it. All of his pics before page 5 are dead, but it's still a very detailed log of what he's done.

http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthrea...=630318&page=5

[95lumberwagon]

Originally Posted by chadjans
40 amp, 220? A big TIG requires a 50 amp

Rule of thumb is 40amp circuit uses 8ga wire and a 50 uses 6ga check the wire size to be sure, sometimes people size up.
Otherwise:
The National Electric Code (NEC) requires that the gauge wire used for a circuit must be able to handle 125 percent of the load's continuous current plus the load's noncontinuous current. A 40-amp circuit means that the maximum continuous current plus the noncontinuous current cannot be more than 40 amps. the label on your welder should help you get this info

[AgitatedPancake]

shit man that shop is bad ASS. Looks like you've got a great start on it man, should turn out wicked! How much floor space do you have up in the loft? It actually looks pretty decent...looks like the ULTIMATE man cave haha

[ELLLLLIOTTTTT]

That's it... I'm moving in to the upper floor.

[Ken L]

Nice score!

A couple of suggestions--I know you said that you're going to close up the spots where the PO put holes for windows. You may want to re-think that so that you can open up stuff to get a cross breeze. When you're not making noise that will be a good thing. Also, when you do drywall or put OSB up, paint the walls white, and if you do the ceiling paint that white too.

I am really looking forward to this "build"!

[AgitatedPancake]

Yeah I was going to note, that having a few friends with non drywall garages, I love every square foot of it for how much extra light it reflects. My garage looks bright as hell with half the lights, white walls are good!

[Brad S]

Be sure and post up pics as it progresses! When you get your buddies to come over and help with electrical, be sure and add enough outlets around the garage. I probably went a little overboard on mine, but for my 2 car garage, I have about 4 outlets per wall (spaced out). It's already been nice to plug something in nearby instead of running extension cords all over the place.

Oh, and I ran a 50amp - 6ga run for my welder. Haven't regretted it since. If you are looking for that gauge wire, check Lowes/HD every now and again for "end-of-roll" deals. I got my wire at 50% off because it was 1.5 ft shorter than what I requested.

Btw, in case you are interested:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=930803

[paulkeith]

Agree with all the other sentiments about the kickassedness of white walls. I'd drywall and paint it as a part of the initial build. The brightness you'll get and a generally "clean" feeling will be pretty tough to beat i think. If you double drywall it, in addition to the sound abatement, you'll get a slightly more robust wall too. less chance of some shit flying through it.

We also had a builder tell us that for fraternity houses they'll sheet walls in plywood or OSB and then drywall to stop stuff/drunk dudes from going through walls and cut down the noise. Could consider that instead of double drywall as well, this would also make it pretty easy to mount stuff on the walls.

[Jeeptech01]

Sweet man.

I like the plywood under the drywall idea. I absolutely hate trying to find a stud (in the wall assholes ) to mount something to.

[dp96zj]

I like the wood. I absolutely hate trying to find a stud to mount

Nice save, but I had to

[autowizard]

I would put plywood under the sheet rock all the garages i built i have always done this, it is a little more cost and time but well worth it!

[ATL ZJ]

Elliott you're welcome to sleep upstairs but you may have to street park your buick til this project is done between pizza inn trips.

The ideas are awesome guys, keep them coming. Ultimately the entire interior will be painted a light color, but my budget is going to force this to happen in stages. So as much as I would like to have the ultimate shop from the get-go, sometimes you just have to wait. I may at least insulate and install OSB to get me going, and then drywall later. There are too many other priorities.

Brad, I've checked out your garage thread on pirate more than a few times. Really cool to see you doing what you are with a regular size garage. But I'm sure the vertical space helps.

And yeah, I had seen that other guy's megashop thread years ago, including all the old pics. He's about 45 minutes outside of Atlanta and used to belong to one of the more-politics-than-wheeling Jeep clubs that I tried really hard to avoid. I realize he has built his shop to what it is over the course of 5+ years but don't expect to start seeing stainless fridges in my shop anytime soon

[Jeeptech01]

Nice save, but I had to

Dammit now KuchiZJ is using it in his sig.

[paulkeith]

i think OSB painted white will get you 99.9% of the way there as far as brightness is concerned.

[autowizard]

I would also recamend sealing the floor with a white concrete sealer, it makes cleanup easier and helps to brighten the room further and the sealer is cheap.

[AgitatedPancake]

I've thought about epoxy/sealer for the garage floor too. I wondered how those things would hold up to welding slag and hot metal pieces. If it wouldn't hold up to that, I'd be a little bit wary but otherwise like the idea!