Just got into our new house, which came with a 40x80 metal building. Really excited to transform this into a workshop and going to track some progress here.

First things first, got the A&M flag up and starting to move all the stuff into the house.

That's one large man-cave.

First project is fixing a set of rolling stairs I got for free. At some point, they had been hit by something (assuming a forklift) and were whopper-jawed. Took some investigating, but eventually figured out how to square them with a pipe-clamp and got it to sit level.



I thought about welding something in place, but am a little afraid it'll continue to shift over time, so settled on a cable with turnbuckle to bring opposite corners back into square.



Because of the how the wheel mechanism works, I had to figure out a mounting point where the steel cable didn't interfere with the moving parts. Probably would have welded a mount in place, but not really set up for it yet. Either way, this worked pretty well.



This will open up a lot of the storage we've got and plans I have to store lumber up higher. Much better than a ladder. Eventually will do some more work on these stairs to clean them up, but works great for what I need now.

My biggest push is to get a work area set up and get my tools back in order. I had a great set-up for workbenches & toolboxes in my garage and would like to recreate a lot of it. Basically everything modeled below with some slight tweaks to the small parts/bulky tool cubbies.



The biggest change to what I had in my garage is now I have a huge amount of vertical space, so I'll take advantage with some lumber storage. This is where the rolling stairs are a game-changer for storing stuff up high. I'll probably have some other lumber storage elsewhere in the building for really heavy items.

Yes... 8 toolboxes sounds about right.

Getting this area cleaned out. Maybe I'll get framing installed over the holiday weekend. We'll see.

You need to go full bourbon moth for a miter starion set up.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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I'd do that if I had the time, the money, and the space.

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We're all watching your jointer project, bro...

Awesome job so far, btw.

BenTheGoodAg said:

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Just got into our new house, which came with a 40x80 metal building. Really excited to transform this into a workshop and going to track some progress here.

First things first, got the A&M flag up and starting to move all the stuff into the house.

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I hate you so much ... but only because I'm jealous.

You need a bigger A&M flag.

In a similar boat. We may move to be closer to the in-laws and different office for me, and it would involve a new home. I'd love something a little more rural and with a larger shed or metal building, but the schools anywhere where we could afford that are not great. I don't really want to wait another 10 years or so though. Almost feel like if we don't do it now it'll be 20 years from now when I'm looking at retiring.

Congrats on the awesome space!

Progress. It's a good to finally get out of the office and spend some time working in the shop.

Yep. I was gonna go up to the 13' purlin, but I ran it by one of my structural buddies and he recommended thinking about going 16' to tie it into the C-channel at the top. I probably could have gone either way, but it wasn't much more to do.

I'm a sucker for overdoing it.

BenTheGoodAg said:

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Yep. I was gonna go up to the 13' purlin, but I ran it by one of my structural buddies and he recommended thinking about going 16' to tie it into the C-channel at the top. I probably could have gone either way, but it wasn't much more to do.

I'm a sucker for overdoing it.

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I'm surprised you found that many straight ones.

Well.... *****



Some of you will immediately know what this means. At least you think you will. For others, this is the brake cartridge for a SawStop table saw and it means I've written off the blade and need a new cartridge.

Thankfully, I didn't pop it due to touching skin (or dropping a hot dog on it), but the countertop material I was cutting had a layer of metal foil embedded under the laminate.

Guess I have a new clock face for the shop...

Happy Labor Day, y'all!

That sucks. And nuisance tripping in the circuit breaker world is the bain of my existence. But damned if I'd rather it fail safe than not when it needs to.

SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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That'll be a nice $200 clock you got on your wall.

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