The Workshop Rebirth

[Julie Moriarty]

We finally cleared all the hurdles and today the movers arrived. I was reunited with old friends.
Some of the bigger tools will stay in the garage and the rest will occupy one of the bedrooms. The house was built in 1964. Every floor has probably been covered many times. There was carpeting on the floor and it had to go. When I pulled it up I found this:
http://www.julimorcreations.com/2220/Workshop/wkshp_01.jpg
A terrazzo floor... Sure beats concrete. The down side was the carpet tack strip was nailed down with concrete nails and there's no getting them out without leaving behind craters. There was no time to do any of that because the movers were here. I don't know how many times I told them "workshop" but I was happy it all fit, kinda...

http://www.julimorcreations.com/2220/Workshop/wkshp_02.jpg
Don't know how long it will take to get it functional, but it sure beats twiddling your thumbs.

[Bruce Page]

Nice view! Congrats on finally setting up shop.
How much square footage do you have to the right?

[Dale Probst]

Use an angle grinder on the carpet tacks, you should be able to get them flush with little damage.

[Charles Lent]

Congratulations on getting a shop again!

+1 on the angle grinder. If used carefully you can grind the nails down to floor level without damaging the floor, but be careful of where the sparks go. You don't want to start a fire in your new shop.

Terrazzo is a very common floor in Florida. It's hard and wears well, but feels cold, so many people cover them with carpet.

That room looks almost as big as your old shop, at least in the pictures, but it has windows and that's a big plus over your old shop.
You will have everything unpacked and set up in no time. I bet you will be making something before New Years Day. Enjoy it Julie.

Charley

[Larry Frank]

Congratulations on getting a house and starting to set up shop. It has been a long road for you.

[Jim Dwight]

Congratulations! I was without for over a year and it was tough. I am still setting up. I got my workbench/track saw cutting station finished yesterday and should finish the cross cut attachment (Paulk design) today. Then a flip top stand for the mortise and planner. Should get done before I have to go back to work in January.

[Julie Moriarty]

Thank you guys. :)

The shop is about 2/3 what I had in the basement before, half the length but about 1.5 the width where the closet is. I'm mentally designing how best to lay it out so the work flows easily without covering the windows. I'm excited about windows with a view. Sure beats looking out at a window well!

Right now the bandsaw, table saw, lathe and planer are in the garage. I was happy to see no signs of rust on any of the cast iron tops, yet. The brand new casters I installed on the drum sander a couple of months before the move were bent to the point they lost the ability to pivot. I am going to make a mobile base I can also use for storage and planned to use those casters. :( But so far, I haven't seen any other damage.

From everything I have read so far, those concrete nails have to be cut or ground down. I have a Dremel and a 4" grinder as possible choices for doing the work but I doubt I have enough cut wheels for the Dremel to get them all. I've also seen it suggested using a diamond jeweler's saw blade or a diamond impregnated piece of wire. Loop it around the nail and cut it right at the base. I can find the jeweler's blades but not any flexible wire.

Today we hope to get everything moved over from the rental. Then comes making the house flow better. It's a hodgepodge collection of rooms and layouts. Feng shui aficionados would go nuts.

[Rick Potter]

I remember visiting a new tract of Florida homes during the 60's. They all had terrazzo floors, and we asked why. The answer given was "To avoid mildew". With A/C not that common, and many carpets being cotton or wool back then, with jute pads, it made sense.

[Julie Moriarty]

How much square footage do you have to the right?
The area to the right was a closet. I removed the three doors and figured I'd install some cabinets and a worktop in there.

Rick, I can understand terrazzo being used to combat mold and mildew. It seems impervious. I once saw terrazzo installed on the job. I was working on the Sara Lee corporate office in 2006-7 and they installed a fancy 8-story staircase in the middle of the building. They made all the floors and stairs terrazzo. There were lots of comments about how costly that was. I remember seeing the terrazzo pros sitting on the stairs, grinding them down with a hand grinder and thinking how fortunate I was not to be in their shoes.

[Tom M King]

Looks great! A flap disc will grind those tacks down and not risk damage to the floor as much as a regular grinding wheel. I'd try one of the finer grits first. If you've never used one, they cut faster than you might think.

http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW8310-Zirconia-Angle-Grinder/dp/B000BPS98O/ref=sr_1_2?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1450553324&sr=1-2

[Julie Moriarty]

I'm finding myself in a vicious circle. I had planned on making cabinets designed to create a neatly organized workshop but first I have to get the shop set up. To do that, I have to unpack and organize the shop but I can't because I have no place to put things. I left behind about 16' of cabinets and about 10' of shelving.

In the hopes of getting where I need to be in order to function in the workshop, I ordered some steel tool cabinets. I hope they work out.

[glenn bradley]

I'm finding myself in a vicious circle. I had planned on making cabinets designed to create a neatly organized workshop but first I have to get the shop set up. To do that, I have to unpack and organize the shop but I can't because I have no place to put things. I left behind about 16' of cabinets and about 10' of shelving.

In the hopes of getting where I need to be in order to function in the workshop, I ordered some steel tool cabinets. I hope they work out.

You are experiencing analysis-to-paralysis. You know the few things you need to make a few cabinets. Shove everything else in the closet ;-) Ooops, it just sank in that you ordered commercial. No sin in that. I will definitely buy something that I could easily make if it gets me to my goal. Glad you got landed and enjoy the ride while setting up shop.

[Jim Dwight]

I'm still working my way out of a cluttered space. I used a lattice of 1x4s I made to cut up sheet goods a long time ago over sawhorses as my only work surface for about a year. I finally got a workbench made. Before that, I made a 8 foot bench with drawers to hold up the RAS and CMS. At one end, it needs another Paulk style top with flip stops. That isn't made yet because I want to add another 4 foot cabinet, possibly with a couple doors for things that don't fit easily in drawers. The drawers in the existing bench are pocket screwed and made of 3/4 plywood. Very crude but work fine. I just didn't have the patience to drag out the dovetail jig. I'm enjoying slow progress. Latest project, I was putting finish on today, is a flip top cart for my little lunchbox planner and mortiser.

My hobby shop is not like your setup but my struggle to get back to where I was seems a little similar.

I don't know if they have it everywhere but I was pleasantly surprised to find 23/32 pine plywood at Home Depot for $30/sheet when I started my workbench that is actually pretty good. Very few voids on the edge and both surfaces are decent on most sheets - out of 4 I've used so far, one had some intact knots on one side. Pretty good shop plywood for me. The sticker on it says it was made in Chile. If you still have things to make, you might check it out.

[Julie Moriarty]

You are experiencing analysis-to-paralysis. You know the few things you need to make a few cabinets. Shove everything else in the closet ;-) Ooops, it just sank in that you ordered commercial. No sin in that. I will definitely buy something that I could easily make if it gets me to my goal. Glad you got landed and enjoy the ride while setting up shop.
I feel guilty for caving so quickly in buying the metal cabinets. Like I committed a crime. It was certainly never in my vision. The only solace I can walk away with is I will be able to start projects for the house sooner. Before we moved, I had come to a point in my life where I saw the workshop as a place to escape and relax. For most of my life it was a love-hate relationship. I'm anxious to get started again.

I may later build something I can be proud of, as long as I can find a decent hardwood store in the area. So far I have found two, each about 45 minutes drive but in opposite directions from here, but I have no idea what kind of stock they keep. Looks like a couple of road trips are in order.

[Julie Moriarty]

Progress continues at a snail's pace
http://www.julimorcreations.com/2220/Workshop/wkshp_03.jpg

Pretty much all the boxes are unpacked. Now I need places to put all this stuff.

As for finding signs of mover's rough handling, one of the clamp on the Festool DC is broken off. The cyclone part of the DC is dented. The brand new casters I installed on the drum sander were destroyed. bent so badly they lost the ability to swivel. Many of the drawers on the workbench are misaligned. The more I unpack, the more I can't figure out how they managed to damage the things they did in the way they were damaged.

[Jim Dwight]

Sorry to hear you had so much damage. I used movers on 5 moves and didn't have anything that bad. It seems they got heavy handed or careless.

[Julie Moriarty]

Jim, the damage could be because everything was loaded and unloaded at least twice. I don't know if the dent in the cone of the cyclone will affect performance but I'm adding it to the claim.

I've been tackling the tack strip nails today using a diamond wheel on a Dremel. It cuts pretty cleanly with little mess. Then I start hearing funny noises, like the bearings were shot. Then the speed slowed down. It wasn't the variable speed control either. That no longer worked.

I took the Dremel apart and the bearings all seem fine. The brushes looked good too. I couldn't find anything obvious as to what was causing the noise.

Anyway, I switched to the grinder with a diamond blade. Bigger mess and harder to see what I was doing (nicked the floor about half the time) but it works. All the nails cuts will probably be hidden, except by the doors and I already got that with the Dremel.

[Gene Takae]

Are you planning any type of window covering to keep thieving eyes out?

[Terry Hatfield]

Would venture a guess that a dent in the cyclone body is not a good thing. I'm thinking you would definitely need to do something with that.

[Julie Moriarty]

Are you planning any type of window covering to keep thieving eyes out?
There are blinds on all the windows but I haven't yet drawn them. You either have to come into the back yard and snoop or be on your boat in the canal to see inside. It's Mayberry here. :rolleyes:

[Marion Smith]

Julie, find a piece of flashing or other thin metal. Bend one side if it at 90 degrees so the vertical leg is about a inch or more. Then, drill a hole just larger than the concrete nails in the middle of the flat part. Drop the thing over the nails and grind away. The 1" bend will protect the baseboard, the rest will protect the floor.

[Julie Moriarty]

Thank you, Marion. That's great advice. I'm only about 1/4 done with the tack nail removal so I will put your tip to use when I get back to it. I played landscaper the last few days.

[Jim Dwight]

Julie,

I agree, moving into and out of storage is a big risk of damage. There is no owner watching and the guys are probably tired. We were fortunate and able to go house to house.

Jim