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One more update about the never ending wood shop

Chuck — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 08:00:38 +0000

I know everyone is tried of me talking about the wood shop and its extension. The good news is that it is coming to an end. This weekend most of the work has been completed and the tooling was moved in.

Last weekend the tool boxes were moved in the extension and the last of the general wiring was completed.

With all the work completed I was able to move my second metal lathe in.

I also moved my Grandfather’s work bench in as well.

Work was started up again on the cnc router and the air compressor was put in its temporary place.

The tool boxes were then set up in there long term spot.

All this and a view to boot just out side my door.

Also finished the sheet rock and the tape and mud of the joints upstairs in the guest house area.

Most people take the weekend off to wind down and relax. Me I go to work on Monday to do that.

Another wood shop update

Chuck — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 08:00:14 +0000

I know everyone is tried of reading about the wood shop. It has, however, taken over all my free time. It is a project that needs to be completed to allow me to continue with the other and much more interesting projects.

The wood shop extension Was taped and textured last Saturday.With a few moments I started cleaning the cabinets that needed to go in that room.

Then on Sunday the room was primed and painted. While waiting for everything to dry the upstairs deck sheet rock was started.

By Sunday after noon the cabinets in the extension were hung up. In addition the majority of the electric was finished.

By Sunday night the tool boxes and cnc router had been moved over a set in there position.

This weekend the rain started on Saturday and just did not stop.

The electric was worked on again. All the lights were converted from florescent to led and put up.

The upstairs was sheet rocked some more and taped.

The rest of the electric in the upstairs was run and insulation put in place.

Then we started moving the equipment in the wood shop to its final destination.

A number of the adjustable level feet were broken or bent and now need to be replaced. Something to do next week end. The store room was also cleaned and reorganized.

Getting there just not fast enough for me.

More updates with the termite battle

Chuck — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 08:00:28 +0000

A couple of weekends have passed and more work has been accomplished in getting the wood shop back together.

To start with I ended up with termites now in the machine shop and wood storage room.

This tube was in the clean room.

And the second door to the machine shop.

These are in the wood storage room.

What this means is that more holes had to be drilled.

To do this of course everything had to be moved once more.

First the tool boxes and semi portable equipment.

Then all the bigger wood working equipment.

But my all time favorite was the surface plate.

Then after termite treatment everything had to go back.

The wood shop extension has now been sheet rocked and taped and mud on all the joints.

The pocket door for the well and pressure pump room has been installed.

Then the storm came in today and brought the 8th largest rain fall in a single day.

By the time the rain stopped after I went to bed it was the 7th largest rain fall for Phoenix, we had 3″ on our rain gauge.

Being a “hoarder” part 2

Chuck — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 08:00:48 +0000

In the post I talked about the trip to the storage shed. This pile of stuff came about because I just asked. I was doing a job for a home owner and in the back yard was this pile.

The home owner said she wanted it gone. So at my house sets to kilns and two motorized potter wheels.

A large potters wheel

small potters wheel

A small kiln

A large kiln

I also did another job at a house that was being sold. The owner called to ask a few questions and I asked about the bench.

It is now in the wood shop for the cost of just picking it up.

I enclosed the back to keep unwanted guests out of the drawers.

I did clean and lubricate all the drawer bearings as well.

Weekend update on the wood shop, 9-16-18

Chuck — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 08:00:36 +0000

With another nice Arizona weekend where the temperature in the shade was 110 degrees I was back in the wood shop trying to get things finish so I can work on some rifle projects. I did most of the sheet rock in the wood shop extension.

Still some screws to install, but that is what next weekend is for.

The Wood shop, Part 4

Chuck — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 08:00:37 +0000

With the wood shop checked and fixed it was time to look at the hardware and well room. It was just as bad if not worse.

The bearing support wall and beam was just destroyed by the termites.

All the sheet rock was removed from the walls and ceiling.

Temporary walls were built to support the second floor guest house.

And the center wall was removed.

It is at this point that I have to give out a special thank you to a friend of Gun Lab, John U. It was with his help and knowledge that we were able to come up with the material and design for the new support for the second story guest house.

I had gotten a call late in the day with John saying he was stranded on I-10 and could I get a truck to help him move a trailer of stuff coming to my house. I borrowed a friends F-250 truck, which is a very nice truck, and headed out on a rescue journey.

In the truck and trailer was a steel I beam and all the jacks and rigging equipment to get the beam up and supported.

Now we were back in the game. First hole had to be dug and the beam moved in and prepped.

The beam was painted and then the wood 2×8’s attached.

Holes were drilled and supports welded into place. Again thanks to John for his help and expertise.

The columns were made up and ready for installation.

The beam was now rigged into place.

With the beam up it was now time to use the screw jacks to place the beam into place and set the columns in.

Six columns were used to put pressure on the I beam. The columns were attached and then concreted into the floor.

Now on the part 5.

Never argue with a saws all

Chuck — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 08:00:13 +0000

Not everything always goes as planed. While taking the cabinets down at the school I needed to use a saws all to cut the particle board from the top and bottom of the cabinets. The way the cabinets were installed was to hang then on a rail then screw them to the wall and each other. Once they were hung they then glued and screwed the top and bottom boards on. The only way to remove the cabinets was to saw them apart at every cabinet. I managed to get through 3 of the class rooms with out a problem, but 1/2 way through the 4 class room there was a hard backing that did not exist in the other rooms. When I hit it the saws all jumped back in my hand and got me.

Eleven stitches later on my finger and cut the bone. The school nurse about had a heart attack when I asked for a band aid. Drove to the emergency room, about 1/2 hour or so, and got stitches. Then went back and took the rest of the cabinets down then went to work and did 12 hours.

The moral of the story.

Don’t use a saws all when you are real tired.

Demo at the school, Part 3 on the wood shop

Chuck — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 08:00:11 +0000

With my normal job I do a great deal of work with construction companies and home owners who are doing remodels. In this post I was doing some work for a construction company that was getting ready to demo an elementary school. My first question is always is there anything I can use and how long do I have to take it down.

In the case of this school they were going to save nothing and I could have anything I want but it had to be out of there by Friday at 2pm. They told me this on Tuesday at noon. So the race was on to remove all the cabinets that I could and still work my normal job.

To accomplish this I would leave the house at 4AM to arrive at the school by 5AM to start the demo work and be done by 8AM to start my work day.

There were 4 rooms of cabinets. Here are a couple of pictures showing all the cabinets and the crap that was in them. This was the start of the project.

After I cleaned out the cabinets.

This is me working on removing the upper cabinets.

As the cabinets were taken down my wife and I would load they into the truck and she would take them home and I would unload them and start cleaning them off to get heady to hang them in the wood shop and the fab shop.

The top of the cabinets had 3/4 particle boards glued and screwed on. To remove the cabinets they had to cut apart on the top and bottom. This is what they look like when they were taken apart.

I started with a pry bar to remove the majority of the particle board then went in with a chisel to removed the remaining material.

With all the prep work completed the cabinets are ready to hang up.

The wood shop and Library, Part 2

Chuck — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 08:00:30 +0000

The wood shop flooring had serious termite issues and it had to be dealt with.

I tried just cutting around the inside of the shop and treat it that way. No luck on that, the termite issue was to extensive.

At this point in the game it was determined to remove the flooring, starting with the maple tongue and grove flooring.

And there was a pile of it.

Then the sub flooring came up next.

To do this task was a large task as all the sub flooring had been installed with special hardened nails.

To accomplish this all the equipment had to be moved a number of times.

With the flooring removed it was time to check the walls. More termites. All the sheet rock was removed from the wood shop and about 1/2 of the studs replaced.

It was at this point I decided to correct some of the electrical problems and original wood shop issues.

After the sheet rock was put up the walls were painted.

This took several weekends as the equipment had to be moved every time we started a new section of the wood shop.

Part 3 next

More on the new Library/ wood shop part 1

Chuck — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 08:00:31 +0000

The story behind the Library and wood shop changes started with the termite issues and has grown into some serious changes. My initial idea was to do a series of videos showing the scope of the work but that would take weeks to edit and it would take away from all the other projects going on here at gun lab. Instead I will show a photo expo and the steps taken to accomplish all the work.

Initially my wood shop looked like this.

Not any more.

Now for the rest of the story.

This area is the covered walk way around the wood shop. The walls had damage as did the upstairs deck. the deck was replace with 2×10’s and 1″ decking.

The walk way was framed in and sealed. The windows were removed and framed in.

The original outside covering was removed and recovered with OSB and then sheet rock.

Once it was painted it was time to move the hardware store over. Again this was no small task.

We had everything from plumbing fittings to nails and screws in there. It would have made an ACE Hardware store jealous.

We are still working on organizing it but currently it is about 70% completed.

The continuing story coming, Part 2 soon.