Finally getting to work on the shop!

I posted a long time ago about setting up my shop. Today I did something about it. @burntoblog gave me a bunch of crap for not working overtime this weekend, and I told him my planned projects were big enough to justify it. This has been a long time coming.

From the outside looking in... Obviously.

How do you like my patio? Melissa wanted me to move the pallets a while back. One is still where it was and this one, the nicer of the two, became my shop patio. I also dug up a row of concrete pavers that were an old pathway from the back patio to the shop. Works out pretty well.

Hi there wifey!

That bench along the wall was super cluttered. That's what I was using as a work space and a place to put all the crap I could find. Cleaned it up significantly. I need to get the big red tool box organized soon.

There's the big shop light I installed today over my welding table!

This place was seriously lacking light. I learned from work that proper lighting is really important in production, so I spent my allowance for this pay period on a good shop light. Moving that table was a real pain. It's big and heavy and super awkward to move. Melissa was no help, so I was on my own.

The little welder is on a cart so as to be more mobile. The big welder isn't practical to have on such a setup because a 6/4 extension cord would be wildly expensive. That was one factor in the placement of the table. There was only one place to put my 240v plug: right by the air compressor in the second pic. So my table had to be situated such that the leads on my stick welder could reach every corner of it. Worked out pretty good cause there's plenty of space to move around it.

The mower and other small engine tools are on this side, out of the way with my material. This way I'm not tripping over things like before when I had it all piled up just inside the overhead door.

Later projects in here will include a 30A 120v circuit for the little welder and new air hoses on the hose reel that you can see on the shelf above the mower. The space is effective like it is though, so that will just be extra goodies.

I'm really kinda spoiled here compared to my last shop. I used to only have one dinky 15A 120v circuit at our rent house. I had to upgrade it to 20A myself and install a 50A 240v circuit to be able to run everything. Only having one outlet, I had to unplug tools every time I had to do a different process. Now I have at least five outlets to choose from. Two are used for the compressor and drill press. Those are stationary machines, and it's really cool to be able to have them permanently powered. One of the ones on the bench is used for my drill battery charger. After that, I've still got plenty of access for whatever tools I need for whatever job I'm on. It's super handy.

I look forward to firing things up and making some money out there! I really should be doing that. My biggest customer made a sculpture that I'm trading labor for. It'll be 6 hours of work cause my rate for them is $50/hour and it's a $300 piece. I'll be sure and show you when I have it. So far I've worked off $25 of it. Can't wait to show it off in the apartment.

Thanks for reading. Got another post in the works of my other project for the weekend. I'll get it posted overnight or tomorrow.

Stay relevant

Nate