How comfortable is your 'shop' ?

GoldenMotor.com

KenX

New Member
Apr 20, 2013
252
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Lake Fork, Texas
I'll put on a nice BBQ, the grill is right outside my shop door ;-}
I have a post divorce shop. Everything is in my house at this time. But one thing about it is there's no one to gripe (for lack of a better term) at me about the situation. I won't be too hard on my ex. She put up with me for about 22 years. My parents wouldn't have done that.
 

mapbike

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2010
5,502
109
63
Central Area of Texas
Yeah. I play video games too, but I also work outside in the yard a LOT. lol Work on my daily driver occasionally, work on my project truck when funds allow, and work on my other bikes as well. Too many hobbies! lol

And I dunno where you live, but in East Texas it can get pretty cold during the winter! lol
I live in central Texas close to a town called Brownwood about an hour east of Abilene, yeah it gets very cold here at times but as you know it may be in the 20's at night and then be in the 60's the next day sometime, like most of us say around here " if you dont like Texas weather, just wait a fw minutes cause it will likely change"
 

dodge dude94

New Member
Jun 8, 2012
1,017
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East Texas
I live in central Texas close to a town called Brownwood about an hour east of Abilene, yeah it gets very cold here at times but as you know it may be in the 20's at night and then be in the 60's the next day sometime, like most of us say around here " if you dont like Texas weather, just wait a fw minutes cause it will likely change"
That's true more in the early spring. lol
Granted, we had a cold snap in early May/late April, that was annoying. And wet....truck tried to donut while turning right at a stop light. Oops, at least the LSD works. :D
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
175
63
Littleton, Colorado
Trey,
I'm envious. That's a great work shop. I like your bench. Now that's one you can beat on and not have to worry about it falling down. Good job. Needs one thing; a bench vice.

Tom
 

Trey

$50 Cruiser
Jan 17, 2013
1,432
5
0
Where cattle outnumber people 3 to 1.
Bench vice, compressor, welder, beer fridge etc etc etc... LOL I actually have a short list of things to fill it in, and vice is near the top.
I have only had the one workspace at my last place, and now all this room. I can have soo many bikes in there. Going to be a bear keeping it warm in the 20 degrees of winter.
But overall, I'm pleased as punch about the whole thing.
 

KCvale

Well-Known Member
Feb 28, 2010
3,966
57
48
Phoenix,AZ
Bench vice, compressor, welder, beer fridge etc etc etc... LOL I actually have a short list of things to fill it in, and vice is near the top.
I have only had the one workspace at my last place, and now all this room. I can have soo many bikes in there. Going to be a bear keeping it warm in the 20 degrees of winter.
But overall, I'm pleased as punch about the whole thing.
How fun is that getting all that space!?

I highly recommend you find a bar stool type chair with a back you can easily get on and off on that swivels and then set your bench height above the height your knees need to get under it.

Sure you want to be able stand up and work easily but for me at least for jobs I want to sit down close to the work a chair is the ticket.

One other tip is keep the tools you use all the time like multiple types of 10mm tools close at hand on the bench.
'Wrench Walls' are dandy for keeping track of all main tools but a set of common stuff in a 'bench tools box' on it is darn handy.

Bummer about regulating temp to be comfortable in the new space but hey, a little ingenuity can always solve that right?
 

tooljunkie

Member
Apr 4, 2012
663
5
16
Manitoba,Canada
KC has the right idea for bench work.i have made various tool racks,for clamps and vise grips for the welding bench.
a solid base for vise is important,probably the most important.
my welding bench holds my vise on a square tube from the underside,i can pull it out and turn it 90 degrees,so jaws are vertical,or even upside down.and it stows away
underneath.

as far as warm in winter,i suggest you at least close in the ceiling,vapour barrier and
sheeting with drywall.
i insulated my garage (24x32) years ago,one payday at a time.if you are a renter,then its a problem.
my dad covered the inside of a shed with sheet cardboard,stapled it up and it was much warmer on cold days.
 

tooljunkie

Member
Apr 4, 2012
663
5
16
Manitoba,Canada
been unable to go play in the shop,even turned on A/C for these ugly hot days.
brother showed up with a fridge,and cranked my back unloading it.

did discover my WIFI works,250 feet away.with the help of an old satellite dish as my antenna booster.i was fiddling around to see how far my signal reached,as my iphone
was going in and out of wifi in the shop.
full bars with the dish pointed just right.

satellite tv is next.
 

Trey

$50 Cruiser
Jan 17, 2013
1,432
5
0
Where cattle outnumber people 3 to 1.
Loving all the room; work/ play/ sit and stare off into space...
Yeah, the barstool is a great idea, and I just happen to know a guy who has an entire basement full of them ;)
As far as heating, the ceiling is insulated and sheet-rocked, but I am a renter, so I was considering doing the ol cardboard stapled to the wall deal. Maybe a high efficiency electric heater that rotates, with a fan. It's the room I spend most of my time in so I'll have to figure out something.
It's not all together yet, but the metal shelf with fluids and such will be to the left of the wrenches. The bike hangs right there, so I am within arms distance of most tools, wd40 etc, and one or two steps away from working on a bench. I plan to use the bench on the right for current projects, and the wider one can have an ongoing deal laid out for a few days. They are about 40" high because I'm 6'.

WiFi?! I still play cassettes:)

Kreality- That sounds awsome! Alot like my spot.

This is a cool thread, I get alot of good ideas here.
 

Dan

Staff
May 25, 2008
12,765
115
48
58
Moosylvania
Bench vice, compressor, welder, beer fridge etc etc etc... LOL I actually have a short list of things to fill it in, and vice is near the top.
I have only had the one workspace at my last place, and now all this room. I can have soo many bikes in there. Going to be a bear keeping it warm in the 20 degrees of winter.
But overall, I'm pleased as punch about the whole thing.
Trey, not finished with my shop yet but working on a cheap heater/cooler idea.

"Run piping 18 inches below ground level with a solar powered fan. So when it is 90F, blowing in air at 58F. When it is 0'F out side, the fan is blowing in 58F. (easier to warm to comfortable)

08-31-2012, 12:19 PM
OH! I don't know why this didn't occur to me before. The power lines from the house (2 or 300 feet away. I ran out of yard to get away from the people I hold dear and at a great distance) have to be buried. What I am thinking is use flex drain pipe as the conduit and as the air conditioner. Suck air threw it via the solar fan (I smoke and don't have the lungs for it) to heat/cool the shop. Is already there and more then long enough to adequately transfer, exchange the ambient air temperature.

Another double duty thing about it, Momma wants a water line ran to the back yard for her garden. (Water and power lines, what could go wrong?) So renting a ditchwich is in order. Hmm, gonna go with a separate line, thinking about it now.

As Confucius said 5,000 yrs ago, "Woman shall have her garden and Man shall have his work shop. All will be right with the world" Or some thing like that.... lol"

http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=40014&page=43

But could be cool. or warm as it were.
 
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mapbike

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2010
5,502
109
63
Central Area of Texas
if weather permits I will get an entire week to work on my shop building, gonna get a week off for labor day, really hoping that I will be able to get a lot done, maybe get the thing dried in, will be a lot of work and I'm doing most of it alone but one of my brothers has offered to help me out at least maybe one or two days.

Gonna have a Box wood stove in it, a couple of window a/c units, small fridge for the beverages that are required while working on the projects, stereo system for the tunes and my wife already suggested I have Directv bring another receiver so I can watch my Football games and other stuff like Duck Dynasty etc.... while I'm out there piddling on my junk, cant wait to get it done.... been a long time in the works now, started the project two years ago but do to circumstances beyond my control the project got iced for a while, now its gonna get done......finally!

Map
.wee.
 

KCvale

Well-Known Member
Feb 28, 2010
3,966
57
48
Phoenix,AZ
Loving all the room; work/ play/ sit and stare off into space...
Yeah, the barstool is a great idea, and I just happen to know a guy who has an entire basement full of them ;)
Cool, and I would be happy with just a basic basic stool myself but I am kind of lucky when it comes to commercial office furniture, my sister in law gave me her like $700 awesome drafters stool for my bench work and my wife works for General Mills, when they update furnishings she is offered what is going for free so I have a couple of really nice desk chairs and a big round heavy duty cafeteria type table in the shop.

Basically the stuff designed to last many decades not a few years.

It's not all together yet, but the metal shelf with fluids and such will be to the left of the wrenches. The bike hangs right there, so I am within arms distance of most tools, wd40 etc, and one or two steps away from working on a bench.
We think alike as for placing stuff, I put my special levers like locking clutch and dual pull brake levers and cable stuff on a lower shelf right there as well.

Since you are just starting your shop here is an idea I plan to do for a new 'bike bay' for working on them above ground level without hanging them.

You have seen my current wood swiveling 'bike bay' right?
I need the swivel because the area is narrow but you won't with all your room but the size of front 'bike rack' part is important.

I think if you just put that front rack style at the end of a 8" x 10' plank at at about 36" or so height on a wall with a hinge so the other end can drop to the ground the rack will keep in the bike in place and you need to is raise or lower the other end to load or work on the bike and you won't get that pesky swing motion trying to torque on something or the hassle of trying to put hooks to your top bar. to hoist it up.
WiFi?! I still play cassettes:)
Not WiFi here, hard wired internet cable here bud, and a pretty impressive system to get every once of entertainment I can out of it ;-}

I am really looking forward to see what you do with that space as you have the potential to make a really killer shop you can really be comfortable and productive in which is pretty hard for most home based guys.
 

tooljunkie

Member
Apr 4, 2012
663
5
16
Manitoba,Canada
lol,my security door is on my gun cabinet.
cant be secure enough,especially in the city.
in the country,dont matter how secure it is,if someone wants in,they get in.
hence the wi fi connection a program called camwiz and another called logmein.
i can remotely monitor my yard/garage.i really didnt think an iphone would be so handy.

i am working towards running a pellet stove in the shop,bought a pellet mill to make my own biomass heating fuel.
just prepaing to test a few different things like wood chips ,grass,wild rice hulls and wheat straw.
 
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Krealitygroup

New Member
Mar 16, 2013
78
0
0
Earth
lol,my security door is on my gun cabinet.
cant be secure enough,especially in the city.
in the country,dont matter how secure it is,if someone wants in,they get in.
hence the wi fi connection a program called camwiz and another called logmein.
i can remotely monitor my yard/garage.i really didnt think an iphone would be so handy.

i am working towards running a pellet stove in the shop,bought a pellet mill to make my own biomass heating fuel.
just prepaing to test a few different things like wood chips ,grass,wild rice hulls and wheat straw.
There are many ways to skin a cat.. Literally
 

Pluto

New Member
Sep 3, 2013
89
0
0
Chicago
You guys are lucky, lots of space. I live in the City, my entire lot measures 24 feet by 100 feet. No driveway no yard no nothing but house and garage. I did manage to sneak a small Koi pond between house and garage.

All I have is the garage space. Had to move my car next door to their garage and pay rent to play with these silly motorized bicycles.

It is tight in here but my little heaven. Since semi retiring I was bored as ****. Golf boring, bar scene hard on a guy, big toys pain in the ass. motorized bicycles just right.



I suppose if things keep going the way they are the Harley will have to find a new home as well.