Converting a Backyard Shed into a Model Workshop

[Hank]

59 minutes ago, Maury S said:

Hank, remind me again the scale of the model workshop.  1:24?  

Maury

Maury...….You're killin' me!!!!! LOL!!!

Duh, I think it's 1:1 otherwise I'm in big trouble!!!!

[Hank]

After a morning of flower gardening with The Admiral, I got into the shop after lunch and built a 4' wide partition and located it on the right side of the bldg. The Liq. Nails should be set by tomorrow so I can finish nailing the upper paneling to the studs. This was about a 4.5 hr job from start to finish. Not much else accomplished except a bit of further cleanup. So, here is today's work:

I'll see if I have some corner trim but I don't think I've got enough so tomorrow may be a Lowe's one & done!

[Nirvana]

Hank, that looks so good!

 

[Hank]

Thanks, Dr. Per!! Slowly, but surely it's getting put together. Hope to be out there later today to continue....!

 

Hank

[uss frolick]

When’s the wine cellar gonna be finished?

[Hank]

I might have known that sooner or later The Frolicky One would chime in with one of his scurrilous comments meant to distract and instill doubt amongst the crew! This behavior will not be tolerated and punishment will be dealt out at the highest level:

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

[mtaylor]

Wow, that's harsh.  I guess the rest of us should just stand quiet.

[uss frolick]

Peace love and grooviness 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by uss frolick

[Hank]

Mark,

The Frollicky One and I are ole buddies - he can take it!!! All comments welcomed - we can handle it!!!!

 

Mr. Frollick - I liked your original reply better (it was in my email....) And you are correct, Sir!!! But, we'll just share that joke ourselves!!!

 

Today, I actually got a bit more paneling work done:

 

After supper I may get back out for an hour or two. I would like to get started on the painting again and get the back of the shop all primed/painted and ready for flooring.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Hank

[Jaager]

Hank,

 

Before you get too far along, You could consider adding a caboose to your "shack".   With a 2 1/4" to 4" pipe and 110V communication thru the wall and a couple or three layers of sound batting on the common wall.  The weather proof add-on would house a vac.  You could keep a Dust Devil type cyclone trap in the main room and move it from machine to machine.  The 110V is easily controlled using an RIF remote clicker.  Go for quality with the radio control box - saves buying one twice.   This way your ears will not be  assaulted by the vac,  the discharge is to the outside world and you can listen to music while generating saw dust.  It would also maybe work with a paint spray booth.   With the cyclone trap in the main room, you will not need to attend to catch basin or filter on the main vac all that often. 

[Hank]

1 hour ago, Jaager said:

Hank,

 

Before you get too far along, You could consider adding a caboose to your "shack".   With a 2 1/4" to 4" pipe and 110V communication thru the wall and a couple or three layers of sound batting on the common wall.  The weather proof add-on would house a vac.  You could keep a Dust Devil type cyclone trap in the main room and move it from machine to machine.  The 110V is easily controlled using an RIF remote clicker.  Go for quality with the radio control box - saves buying one twice.   This way your ears will not be  assaulted by the vac,  the discharge is to the outside world and you can listen to music while generating saw dust.  It would also maybe work with a paint spray booth.   With the cyclone trap in the main room, you will not need to attend to catch basin or filter on the main vac all that often. 

Actually, I have given thought about a vacuum system to suck up sawdust and deposit it out back behind the shop. Depending on how I lay out (that part oaf the design is rather fluid at this point and nothing is nailed down) the shop equipment along the workbench on the right side of the bldg. may also determine whether or not a single PVC suction pipe along (or under) with smaller branches from each tool might work and where to station the vacuum itself. Your idea has a lot of merit; I'll give it some thought. A fellow modeler over in Greensboro, NC has various old Electrolux bag vacuums for each of his tools - effective, but quite noisy I would imagine. Now that I've cleared out the back area behind the shop of anything manmade, I could very well add a small lean-to type "caboose" that could be built very simply for that one purpose. I guess just running a 100 VAC med. wt. extension out to it would suffice for power. This might also prompt me to give more thought to how the tools are arranged so that those needing vacuum take-off would be arranged adjacent rather than spread out, etc.

Very cool thinking - I appreciate it! Now, explain the electronics, as I'm totally unfamiliar with that end of it!!!!

Hank

Edited May 13, 2020 by Hank

[Jaager]

It would be difficult to over praise the improvement an in-line cyclone type trap makes in dealing with collected saw dust,  A cloth bag or straight to a vac chamber/filter just ain't in it once you see the difference. 

My old Sears 16gal shop vac was like being near a jet engine - had to use ear muff sound protection.  I bought a Festool Midi because it was supposed to be quiet.  It is, but it is expensive as 'ell and turns itself off after 15 min.   I bought a 16 gal Rigid from Home Depot that is about as quiet, pulls a hurricane, stays on, and costs less than 20% what the Festool did.  I do not need hearing protection, but I still can't listen to Beethoven when its on.

Now on to your question.

This is what I have now:

https://www.rockler.com/dust-collector-remote-switch

The remote uses a common low cost battery.   I unplug it when I am done - because I live in a condo and it may use the same frequency as some garage door remotes.  You can guess how I discovered that.   I ain't low cost, but a low cost model that clued me in on this tech, burned out.

 

 

[Hank]

I'll be looking into this! I'm in the midst of redrawing my shop layout (needed to revise the orig. plan anyway!) and will include an under benchtop vacuum removal pipe and drops to exit thru the back wall. Maybe even add a blanked-off drop for a flex hose connection to use in the open area of the floor space. The remote controller seems to be the trick - it could be on the back wall with the vacuum loc'd in the caboose.

Much appreciate the information!!!

Hank

[Hank]

Question: So when is a CaddyWagon fully loaded??????????????

Answer: When it has 1 Admiral & 4 Base Cabinets aboard (plus the pilot )

So, they are now stowed in the workshop area of my garage awaiting a light sanding and painting. No refurb work on these. We drove to Statesville, NC to the Lowe's and bought what I'll need for the construction of the workbench along the back & side walls. About the same distance/time to drive to Winston-Salem but with less issues to deal with re. Corona Corona. I hope to get out to the shop later today/evening to get the painting underway. Always something, right?

 

9:25 pm - (edit) - got all the edges, corners, dings, dents, etc. all primed and cut in tonight. Tomorrow it should be a simple job to roll out the white primer on the walls and then a bit later to do a coat of ultra flat white. I'm saving the trim for last as it's going to be semi-gloss or satin and is more for cosmetic than need.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Hank
further commentary, etc.

[thibaultron]

I would use at least semi-gloss for the walls, flat will be very difficult to clean, if anything gets splashed on it.

[Hank]

9 hours ago, thibaultron said:

I would use at least semi-gloss for the walls, flat will be very difficult to clean, if anything gets splashed on it.

I agree, however....the flat paint has already been purchased. It's actually left-over from our interior house renovations a year ago. But thanks for the comment/interest!!

Hank

[Nirvana]

When it comes to paint, I use satin finish.

That's both on walls and ceiling. 

And I would have done just like Hank, use what I have. Paint ain't cheap.

In my workshop, one gallon of primer/paint cost 24 dollars. That was the cheapest they had. 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Nirvana

[West2Mark]

On 5/1/2020 at 10:30 AM, Hank said:

and possibly a resurrection of my research & development of drawings to build a 1:48 hull w/lower masts model of U.S. Frigate BOSTON (1798). This would be a hybrid construction of both POB & POF in order to show internal framing in a central area of the model. At least, that's my theoretical plan.

Hello Hank,

I am working on the Boston a bit this summer too, and wonder if your drawings include any attempt to reconstruct a deck plan?

[Hank]

4 hours ago, West2Mark said:

Hello Hank,

I am working on the Boston a bit this summer too, and wonder if your drawings include any attempt to reconstruct a deck plan?

Aha!!! I see what's going on here...., trying to get me to open the vault....... A  short answer would be - as there are no deck plans of BOSTON that I've found, this would have to be done; the question being - how and what sources are researched in order to feel that your efforts are fairly accurate. So, elaborate on where you stand on this, if you please.....

[West2Mark]

Honestly, the comparative dimensions with the Adams and John Adams listed in post 15 of the the "first look at the John Adams" thread" (from the Fox papers that Frolick suggested as a source) are indeed about as good a starting point as I can find for an accurate reconstruction . But if the vault is open and/or you know of anything else...  

Overdale made this model on the forum a few years back, I'd be curious as to your opinion of his Essex-based guesses for the deck vs your own research?
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/12369-frigate-boston-by-overdale-finished

I'm an admitted newbie, so that's where I stand for the moment.

[Hank]

W2M,

Thanks for the link to Overdale's BOSTON. I had no idea there was another out there. Well, his thinking was almost exactly along the same lines as mine as to how the ship may have appeared. His stern is a bit different and I actually like what he did to his - I may have to revise my CAD representation to reflect his thinking. I'll have to consult with The Frollicky One as to his input on all of this. I knew there had to be a "Link"!!!!

His method of hull construction he could have been reading my mind - although I'd be interested in seeing how his pre-planked hull actually looked; my ideas may be close but not exact. One thing I can share is that my belief is that the early American warship builders/designers/etc. all interacted with each other when a ship was authorized or subscribed to by a city for construction. Our country was not as prolific and wealthy as either England or France and didn't have the history or naval construction expertise to simply do things individually - therefore collaboration was the word of the day and I think the proximity of Salem & Boston as shipyards indicates there was quite a bit of shared "info" regarding the designs of both frigates.

I think any further discussion should be on a BOSTON dedicated forum topic so I'll leave this where it's at!

Hank

[Hank]

OK, today's work & tonight's painting is moving things one step closer. I've got the back of the interior painted as far as I'm going to at this point. Tonight I started painting the 4 base cabinets but not before adding build outs to the end cabinets where they will meet the wall. This offsets them an inch or so and looks a bit nicer. I also today purchased a 24"x6' long edge glued pine countertop which will be the center work area along the back wall. I've got all the needed framing materials, etc. and so once the cabinets are finished in being painted, the first two units will be located and put into place and the framework for the center work surface added. Then the two end cabinets and corner posts on the right side where the "L" worksurface bends. Once these are in place, I can begin to layout the laminate flooring and then baseboards. Step by step it's taking shape. Here is the back area as of this evening:

With a nice weekend ahead, I expect (of course, this is done without prior consultation with Admiralty staff and we all know who loses when this type of behavior is afoot!) to get a good start on the back wall worksurface & cabinets. May also get the shelf hangers located on the back wall, as well - we'll see!

[Hank]

Sat. - lots going on today - yard work, shop work, smoking a brisket (and...much tastier than smoking dope!!!). So, I got the end base cabinets finished, leveled and secured in place. Am about to go out to locate & secure the two back wall cabinets and in the meantime began polyurethaning the center work surface. It's an edge glued pine board 24"Wx6'Lg. and will be centered under the back window. Light sanding all around, a coat of wood conditioner, Minwax Golden Oak Stain, and various spray coats of Minwax clear gloss poly and this should look fairly nice. Here's it about 2pm today - I have a couple more doses of spray poly to apply:

I hope to get this in place with backsplash today and will post results later.

[Hank]

4pm or so....you know, just before they pipe down chow! -

Cabinets in place and some framework for the work surface. Will probably continue after chow, but right now a smoked brisket has Uncle Hank written all over it!!!

Once we've secured from Mess Call, I'll probably be back out for an hour or so and will make an evening post. FYI - the level of the cabinets required almost no shims and I couldn't be happier about that aspect of this work!

[mtaylor]

56 minutes ago, Hank said:

4pm or so....you know, just before they pipe down chow! -

Cabinets in place and some framework for the work surface. Will probably continue after chow, but right now a smoked brisket has Uncle Hank written all over it!!!

 

I admire your priorities.  Brisket definitely first.

[Hank]

5 hours ago, mtaylor said:

I admire your priorities.  Brisket definitely first.

Well, it came out "ok" - a bit overdone, but....was the 1st one I've smoked so beginner's luck, right??? Taste was good, however. Next time, I'll do the rub overnight, and try to keep the grill temp at a steady rate, not up/down, etc.

 

The Admiral wasn't all that impressed, so I self-keel-hauled after supper to her mirth and delight

[Hank]

Back in the shop after Brisket-a-go-go and got a bit more completed on the worksurface framing. The local Lowe's is out of the 24" edge glued boards, so I may have to make a Viking Raid on the other local stores and see what I can come up with. The center workbench top is drying in the garage - tomorrow I'll sand and then re-apply poly for a nice smooth surface. Probably point the Caddy-wagon east while things dry out.

Tonight's photos:

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!

[Nirvana]

Okay Hank, now you are making me miserable, you mentioning smoked brisket and then posting picture of what is to be a wonderful workshop!
I am going to bed......lol

[Hank]

Dr. Per,

So sorry, but just to ease the pain - it was my 1st smoked brisket attempt and I give myself a "C" on the effort. Feel better now???? No apologies on the shop, however!!!

[thibaultron]

If those are particle/waferboard side pieces on the cabinets, you might want to run a 1X4 along the inside where the bolts are holding the center framework. This will help insure that the bolt heads don't pull through. Don't ask me how I know. 😞