What's new
What's new

The new shop, machines, and a few construction pictures included

SND

Diamond
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Location
Canada
So about 3yrs ago I had another thread on here showing the little basement shop set up I had. After a neighbor complained I got fed up and 2days later bought a bit over 3acres outside the city and started clearing the trees as soon as the $ cleared and it was mine for sure, that was in the fall of 2008. Got very lucky finding this land as in my area there are few, very few, places with nice mostly healthy trees. Started building early spring, had to hire a few specific people for the few things I wasn't allowed to do myself because of codes or whatever other bs, but overall did the large majority of it ourselves, including all the finishing exterior and interior.

Business was slow so timing worked out great I was here usually 7 days a week building and squeezed in a few hours of machining at night when needed. I must say drywall and plastering the joints was the worse part of all, thanks to a slight case of carpel tunnel. Overall it took a few more months than I expected, in large part because of how far overboard I went on everything, some of it is things I wanted to try that haven't been done before. Unfortunately because of the unusual design and materials used mostly for the siding, I likely won't post pictures that give much outside details as I don't know who lurks here and its too easy for anyone to point it out, not that many see it from the road, 400' driveway.


So here is a few pictures.

First is once I was done cutting the trees for the driveway which took a while as being in the fall of 2008, I was still very busy making chips and only had a bit of time on weekends to come work on this.
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Once the machines came in to prep the driveway and spot for the house. One major thing I would do different when I build another one, DON'T let them dig down to put the driveway in whenever possible, bring in soil/rock and build it up a bit so as not to damage the roots of the trees on either side of it. I've got a big birch, 1 maple and a few spruce trees that will likely die soon and one that has started to tip over last storm because its missing roots on one side. I'd have gladly paid a few thousand more to bring soil in to save those few trees had I known then. Now that the power lines are in and they are close to it, It'll likely cost me more to have them removed professionally to be sure they don't fall on the lines and cause more damage, I'll figure that one out next year. :(

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Raising the 1st level, its a 2level house with vaulted ceiling in front. about 1600sq/ft living area, shop inside is 18x34, 9x9 garage door and 10' ceilings. I have room for a 25x30 garage already cleared on the front left of the house but still needs to get leveled with the excavator, we're right on bedrock. House is much smaller than the initial 4000sq/ft design we had, it didn't quite fit the spot where I wanted the house to be so I could see the lake on the back side, and the cost was also nuts because I wanted it built way above code, time was also a bit of an issue. I only wish I'd kept another 4' wider on the shop side.
Btw, it took 111yrds of concrete to fill the walls and do the slabs, and maybe 5-6000lbs of rebar.
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The little lake, kinda nice to look at when taking a break. not very wide but about 1000ft long, there's only 5 or 6 of us on it.
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Meat delivery ;)
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More on next post.
 
Now some shop pictures. Some came out a little dark but its really nice and bright in here.
Pretty much same machines I had in the basement before. I took them all apart last december and winched them back out of the basement, it took about 2 weeks to do that and some extra time to get them back together here. One addition from just 3weeks ago is the new Kingston HJ-1700. Tig welding area is a bit further to the right, and material rack. I have enough room left to fit 1 cnc of maybe 6'x10' but once I get the garage built and move the shelving out and the garden and such stuff out there I'll have a fair bit more room. I thought about getting rid of the Birmingham but I'll be keeping it, fits ok where it is, 1phase, and I still use it quite a lot.

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Another few of the construction, infloor heating, 40psi high load foam under the shop slab of course. Aimed for 6" of concrete but ended up with over 7" and over 12" where the door is. Essentially when I calculated for 6", I ended up short 4yrds pouring the shop side, which I was happy about, zero cracks in it, no saw cuts.
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And just to finish it off, here's one from inside the house walking in, a bit more finishing workwas done since but this is the main look, close to 2000sq/ft of cedar to do the ceilings and a few walls, and also a few weeks of work and shoulder aches but well worth it. Cabinets and trims are maple, birch stairs(stairs done by a local company)
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I did the acid stained concrete idea for the main floor, quite a messy job that is. Looks very dark in the picture but in person when the light shines on it, it has a lot of really nice deep effects, but its not nearly as resistant as I had hoped. I think there's some tougher products I likely could put on it but haven't figured that all out yet.
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And, as I had asked about wood flooring installation in another thread here. Here is the tropical walnuts(acacia) Wasn't too bad to install in the end and I'm pleased with the results.
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If/when I get more machines, depending on how next year goes. I'll add more pictures then.
I'm still dreaming about drilling/tapping centers, partly just for the cool factor and they're compact enough to fit easily in the shop and still be easy to move around if needed.
 
Radiant floor

I kick myself for not going ahead and spending the extra for radiant floor heat.
I went with overhead radiant and it's OK but there's no comparison between the two systems.

What sealer did you use for your acid etched/stained floor?


I know you're proud of your operation!

Tom
 
I used the H&C products for the concrete stain. They offer water based sealer and finish(it makes it look polished without any polishing work, mop it on, real nice), or they have the solvent based type. I went with waterbased because of the low smell as I was scared the solvent based might smell like the stuff I put in the shop which was just deadly, and sadly not very effective either, it smelled for weeks. Anyhow, it didn't make as tough as surface as hoped for, dropping/dragging something on it will chip the thin layer and the thin stained thickness that it is, comes up with the sealer/polish and then its just grey concrete spots. Whole thing is only a few thousands thick, I imagined the acid would dig in further but it doesn't seem to. Someday if it gets worn enough I'll just scarpe it up and do it again but with a tougher type of bonding sealer, for now the few chips here and there I fix up as they come. When cleaning up the acid after the reaction is done, you can't leave buckets or anything sit on it, it leaves spots. I got 2 where I see a bight circle. It also reacts with any little dirt in the concrete, I spent a few days scrubbing and sanding the worse spots but they still showed right through, it does give some character though. Ideally for a more uniform finish an industrial concrete grinder should be used I think, but can't do that with cabinets and etc in the way, so there's always a compromise...

I did the infloor myself because they was no codes regarding that, but main house plumbing had to be done by a certified guy, I only did some of the finishing of the plumbing as I did a tiled shower, weird bath tub, and so on. Anyhow, infloor heating is only in the concrete slabs for the main floor, I didn't run it for upstairs. I had the upstairs wired for electric baseboards, but I've hidden the box behind the base trim and there was no heating installed upstairs. Main reason being I'm heating the water with an Argo electric boiler anyway so there was no efficiency gained, and I have a wood stove on the side of the house as you can see in the pictures. Last winter I never turned on the infloor heating at all, I burnt 1 cord of wood(old half rotten wood and left over scrap from the construction) that was it, kept the house and shop nice and toasty with just that. My office connects between the kitchen and the shop, so I leave the office door open and it heats the shop, machines by themselves raise the temp 3-4F in a day with no other heating anyhow, hard to beat ICF construction.

There's a few things I'd do different, or will do different when I build again, at 26 I figure I have time to do a few more, planning to anyway. One thing is I would run the tubing in the slab but I wouldn't hook it up, just leave the tubes in the utility room in case its ever needed. What I would also do is put a heat pump, I know it kinda sucks to have a whole air system but the convenience to be able to use it for cooling in summer would be fantastic. Wood stove is always a must have for me. I just did some upgrades to the boiler set up for the infloor 2-3 weeks ago, I'll take a picture of what I did on it, pretty simple and effective.

I'll be writing a bit more regarding some stuff I learned during this project when I have a bit more time. Some is bits I already mentioned in other threads here before but might as well condense it all in one thread.
 
That's an awfull lot to invest in a non-kid freindly unit don't'cha think?

I mean - come-on - with the glass on the stairs? :eek:


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Face prints on the stair railing

I bet it would take Dick Butkus to get through the tempered glass on that railing Ox, but I am sure that dogs and grandkids could create some interesting effects with drool :D

Very fine job on your new house and shop, its tough to do that and keep working to pay for it while you're doing it.

P.S. liked the "meat delivery" picture, LMAO :)
 
The glass is 3/8 thick, pretty solid. I wouldn't be worried about kids breaking that, but its very true that this isn't a very kids friendly house and wasn't really designed with that in mind at all. I wanted simple, low maintenance and a house that will last a very long time. If I was to sell it in a few years I'd have to market it to people who's kids are grown and gone, there's only 2 bedrooms. I wanted to keep a lot of a cabin feel to it, which I think I accomplished but its definitely nothing usual. Like the picture walking in, the top portion that shows half a wall(where you see the ceiling fan), that's a 360sq/ft bedroom that looks down on the entrance, and looks on the lake behind the house. It was an awful lot to invest no matter how you look at it, that's something I learned... there's a reason why contractors for the most part build to minimum code with crappy materials... :( but, their houses drop in value after 5yrs due to problems coming out, I won't have that issue.

I'll try to find a decent pic of the siding that doesn't give too much away.
 
Wow! Nice job SND. For a man of only 26, you certainly have your $#% together.:D

Now, when are we going to see pics of the new cnc being brought in??

Keep up the good work!

Greg
 
If customers could be a little more clear about what they want and a let on a little as to their future plans I'd get one now, but so far its been hard to justify the investment when I remove the "personal desire to have one" out of the equation. I now see it more as what investment will be better, and what keeps me happy going forward. I really enjoyed building and wouldn't be too surprised if I ended up going that direction in a few more years, I've been lining things up for that possibility for the past year or so, getting friends work so they get certified in trades I'd need, etc, trying to find a good way to build higher quality but at better prices.
I do always keep my eyes open for a robodrill or brother S2D, but used ones are rare now, and new I just don't like to pay that much more than US price just cause I'm in Canada... robodrill was more reasonable than others, but still 4-5K more than I'd like.
 
What was the deal as to why more $ in Canada?

If it is double dutys - you should be able to git your dutys back from the Yanks eh?

Or is it something to doo with a dealership your way not making as good'a deals as a Yank outfit?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Seems to depend with the brand/dealer. Majority of them quote in USD. I can understand shipping adding a few thousand, broker is not very much and duty is likely almost nothing either, there's usually a bit of GST tax but that is recuperated by the dealer in the quarterly return(or me if I could bring it in direct, but that's impossible with new cnc's due to dealer territory stuff). So, in most cases other than trying to get a fair bit more $ for the same thing cause there's no other dealer option for it, I can't figure it out. I think 4-5K above USD price is acceptable to deal with getting it through the border and shipping costs, but not 10-50K more.
 
So, in most cases other than trying to get a fair bit more $ for the same thing cause there's no other dealer option for it,

That's what I was wondering... Essentially a brand/label monopoly...




On the shop:

What doo you have as a fire wall between the two parts? Or didn't you hafta doo anything there? I know to doo what you did here, it would require something along the lines of a cinder block wall to divide it up.

And what you have there would not be allowed in most industrial parks.

But if you bought a big enough place (used*) and always parked inside and didn't have kids and plastic toys outside to see - I doubt anyone would be the wiser - or not enough to push the issue anyway. ???


*If you could afford that big of a place new - you could easilly pay for a house as well..


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Officially there's no shop here ;) Chances of it burning, pretty small. There's a 10' icf wall that separates the house from the "garage" just cause I wanted it there to support the upstairs floors instead of a wood stud wall. Oddly enough there's also no firecodes regarding garages for single family dwellings.
Only welding I do is Tig, SS or AL, no torch cutting or sparks, not gonna be starting any fires with that. Now if a neighbor starts a fire and the whole place burns down, machines are not insured, a risk I'm willing to take. I did get a firepump and I'll do what I can for external fires if any happen. Siding is fire resistant so that would help some. I looked at the option insurance wise and what a nightmare that was gonna be, they tried to ask a few too many questions when doing the regular home insurance but they didn't get all their answers ;).
Although I can tell you next one I build will have the garage/shop detached. There's other disadvantages to having it attached like this, like smell from cutting oil, I don't run coolant in the machines because of the mess but kinda wish I could on the kingston. I'll have no choice to do it if I get a cnc, but again I have exhaust holes and things in place if needed, you can see one exhaust fan in the shop pic. I might also put one of those fairly big air purifiers units at the ceiling that scrub everything, I just haven't picked the exact one yet. So far its been ok, no smell in the house, with some care I really didn't have any issue when I was set up in my basement either.

I looked at farm land, most is too far and too pricey, there's commercial land near by but neighbors too close for my liking and again too much $. I didn't want to buy something already standing, most times its in ruins. There wasn't many ways I could work the finances to get this done, mostly with very little help from the bank, it was interesting.
Industrial park is out of the question for sure, would cost about 5X to rent a small space in there than it costs for the house here. It does limit me in some things, but I don't want to grow it much or to have employees so there's no point to have more space, I specialize in fairly small work anyhow.
 
Industrial park is out of the question for sure, would cost about 5X to rent a small space in there than it costs for the house here. It does limit me in some things, but I don't want to grow it much or to have employees so there's no point to have more space, I specialize in fairly small work anyhow.

Oh yeah - I understand that. I was just ramblin... It was either ramble on a bit longer, or go werk.... ;)

Kind'a like right now - I think I have one faulted out... and I need to go out there now...

There's a 10' icf wall that separates the house from the "garage" just cause I wanted it there to support the upstairs floors instead of a wood stud wall. Oddly enough there's also no firecodes regarding garages for single family dwellings.


ICF? :confused:

Not being up front with Ins companys scares me. Local authorities - not so much.

However - true. I think the days of commercial (industrial) fires are comming to a close for the most part. With todays buildings all being concrete and steel, the only thing to burn would be the contents... And machine toys are semi fire resistant at the least. ;) (Unless you run an oil slinger unnatended - which I just don't reccommend for any length of time!)


I was very surprised when I saw a pr of new buildings going up next to 27 up near St. Johns, Michigan somewhere back about 10 yrs ago. (55 mph zone) They were all stick built! They were retail sales of something. Farmers type market stuff maybe? I couldn't believe that they built it out of wood. Steel was a lot cheaper then than it is now too. ???


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
Around here they build 6+ level apartment buildings(60-100apartments in there), all lumber, and not the best stuff either. 3/8 osb sheeting and a layer of tyvek and nail the vinyl right on top of that no air gap, I don't think they figure very long lifetime for those buildings. quick cash return and run away.

ICF is the insulated concrete forms. about 2.5" of foam on both sides, and 6" of concrete in the middle with lots of rebar. You can make it thicker if needed up to 12" of concrete if you want, its a X shaped bracing that slides in and holds the panels together. There's probably a 100 different versions and manufacturers of this type of system. It's probably the best way to build anything these days, of course its more $ than stick framing, but the plus sides are many. Of course if it gets hot enough it will melt and burn, but any house would be ruined in a forest fire anyway.

One thing I fully recommend to anyone doing their roof, cover the whole thing in Ice/water shield, it only costs a few hundred more than tar paper and nothing beats this stuff and it holds the shingles even better once it heats up in the sun for a day or 2 its impossible to remove. Peace of mind = priceless.
 
I'm guessing that's the same stuff that my chumm in Da' U P calls "Snow and Ice Guard"?


I was wandering about your roof? You mentioned tin siding (or fireproof siding anyway?) but didn't mention the roof. In a forest fire, it is usually debris landing on the asphalt roofs that catch the homes on fire I believe. Usually the treeline is not close enough to catch on fire by it'self I don't think. ???

Hows come didn't you tin it? Are you in a low snow area? High snow + back in woods = snow load. With tin you can at least easilly pull it down. (be carefull not to actually bury yourself!) I actually watched first hand the snow off my chumms roof slide off and chase him for a good 10' or more before he succumed to it. His nail pouch and everything was all ice! It was in everything! I was standing next to him when it slid - but I was just standing out of harms way. :D
He knows to stand aside rather than run from a cut tree, but the snow took him by surprise. It would have been the very first snow to ever slide off of that house so he was a new-comer. ;)

Around here - we don't hardly ever git snow w/o wind, so a simple roofline doesn't seem to hardly ever get much snow on it. But if your in the trees - that's a horse of a nother color!


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 








 
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