What are you working on? (16 Viewers)

[fireball]

Momma got a new set of wheels!

Now the Hundy can go back to its proper job of holding the driveway down waiting for our big family adventures instead of being a 12mpg 8000lb daily driver!

 

[shmukster]

Good luck V8 4Runners are awesome!

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

The FJ40 has taken a back seat while I prepare the new garage for the next phase of the project. Spent the weekend running SER through my basement and up through the walls in preparation for 100A service in the garage. This, in turn, will be used to power my future compressor, welder, etc.

Long way to go yet:

Looking forward to spring when I will FINALLY have the fund available and (hopefully) some time to spend pulling the engine and getting rid of the last of the major mechanical plagues.

 

[brian]

overhauled some oem buckets. and gather stuff to remove a sag power steering swap, i want to go back to manual steering.

 

[Dirty Koala]

The FJ40 has taken a back seat while I prepare the new garage for the next phase of the project. Spent the weekend running SER through my basement and up through the walls in preparation for 100A service in the garage. This, in turn, will be used to power my future compressor, welder, etc.

Long way to go yet:
View attachment 1166692

Looking forward to spring when I will FINALLY have the fund available and (hopefully) some time to spend pulling the engine and getting rid of the last of the major mechanical plagues.

I too have put the cruisers on the back burner. I decided to get my shop setup so that I can work in comfort.

• Installed 100 amp sub panel
• Ran a 50amp circuit to my compressor
• Ran a 30 amp circuit to my welder
• Ran 2 x 20amp GFCI outlet circuits down two of the shop walls
• Ran a 20amp circuit to the ceiling where my natural gas heater will get installed soon.
• Designed a lighting plan that nets me 100+ foot candles of light on top of my work benches and parts washer, 75 FC at the floor. Dialux is the application I used, very powerful tool and free.
• Installed 5 of the 20 LED fixtures...15 more to go
• Painted the ceiling
• Patched holes and painted 3 of the 4 walls

Still need to finish the painting, lighting, install my gas heater and then blow insulation into the walls and attic, and finally get new insulated garage doors.

 

[fireball]

Hey Morgan, good to hear from you. Hope you and the family are well!

Post some pictures of this shop you're setting up, sounds pretty awesome.

I'm going to check out that lighting fixture website you mentioned above. Please let us know if you know of any apps that can help us find more time to actually work on our trucks!

 

[Dirty Koala]

Hey Morgan, good to hear from you. Hope you and the family are well!

Post some pictures of this shop you're setting up, sounds pretty awesome.

I'm going to check out that lighting fixture website you mentioned above. Please let us know if you know of any apps that can help us find more time to actually work on our trucks!

He Ben, how is the bub doing? Kellan just turned 9 months and has started walking and can climb the wall of his play pen...heaven help me.

I will snap some garage progress shots today. In the meantime, here is the lighting model I made of my garage using dialux. The yellow surfaces are my two work benches and parts washer. I set them as calculation surfaces as I wanted 100FC at 37" work height.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

I too have put the cruisers on the back burner. I decided to get my shop setup so that I can work in comfort.

• Installed 100 amp sub panel
• Ran a 50amp circuit to my compressor
• Ran a 30 amp circuit to my welder
• Ran 2 x 20amp GFCI outlet circuits down two of the shop walls
• Ran a 20amp circuit to the ceiling where my natural gas heater will get installed soon.
• Designed a lighting plan that nets me 100+ foot candles of light on top of my work benches and parts washer, 75 FC at the floor. Dialux is the application I used, very powerful tool and free.
• Installed 5 of the 20 LED fixtures...15 more to go
• Painted the ceiling
• Patched holes and painted 3 of the 4 walls

Still need to finish the painting, lighting, install my gas heater and then blow insulation into the walls and attic, and finally get new insulated garage doors.

Wow - Very nice. My garage is a fairly small 21x21 2-car garage that is going to need to serve as both a shop and storage. I'm hoping to put in a shed somewhere down the line to get the yard tools and ZTR mower out of the way (nice mower, but so damn huge). For the time being, I can't go whole hog. It's also tough to design and layout a circuit on hopes and dreams - since I have no idea what Welder(s)/Compressor etc. I'll end up with down the road! Sort of makes me proud to look back and realize that I've done all my 40 projects so far with basic hand tools...

Based on what I can envision so far, I'm hoping for:

• 100 amp panel in the garage (finished install today)
• 2x20A, 110V circuits around garage walls - MAYBE a 20A run from the ceiling with a cord reel.
  
• Dedicated 30A, 240V circuit for welder
• Possibly a spare 30A, 240V circuit for an eventual plasma cutter (though unlikely, and may just unplug welder when plasma cutting)
  
• Dedicated 20A or 30A 240V for compressor (depending on how big I go - I have yet to consider a compressor that will need 50A)
  • On that note:My wallet limits me to single-stage ~3-5 HP, 40-60 gal units

On top of that, I'd like to upgrade the lighting, but I may stick to the power output I have an just move to some higher wattage fixtures, if I can get away with it. It seems to me like 3 dedicated 240V circuits: 20A, 2x30A, might be the way to go. I can't see a situation in which I'd NEED 50A...but I'm tossing around the idea of running the wire while the walls are open, just in case...

 

[Dirty Koala]

I took a few snaps of the garage in progress. I wish I had taken some before I started to give perspective on how far it has come.

You can tell in this pic that lighting is good on one side of the garage now, still need to install another 15 fixtures. All up I will have 20 4' LED fixtures = 40 bulbs. At 18w per bulb I will be pulling 720 watts, which at 120v equates to 6amps. Using the 80% rule, you can run 12 amps on a 15 amp circuit...so only using half the capacity...pretty efficient for the amount of lumens.

NV4500 transmission on the bench that I have nearly finished rebuilding, will be going into the Green 80 this winter.

This is my solvent parts washer and my Quincy QR 325 compressor. I just put a new 5hp single phase motor on it and wired up the massive magnetic starter. I am going to rebuild the compressor soon as it has a knock. That big lump of motor is my Cummins 12V that will also be going into the green 80.

I ran conduit on this wall and wired up 2 weatherproof quad receptacles above the benches, and as you can see extended the conduit beyond the 2nd outlet. I ran out of elbows, but the plan is to continue to the end of the garage and then punch through to the outside and put a switched double weatherproof outlet so that I have somewhere to plug the block heaters on my diesels in during the winter.

This corner needs the most work still. The gas heater will mount to the ceiling in the corner. I am considering covering that white wall and the cinder block chimney with old pallet wood to give the garage a bit of a rustic appearance. I plan to mount all my chainsaws and axes on the chimney.

 

[joabmc]

Very nice work! Gives me some inspiration to get to work on my garage.

 

[Yellow Jacket]

Dayum Son! That is awesome! I'm so jealous.

 

[fireball]

Do either of your vehicles actually fit inside that garage? I think I've only ever seen pics of you working on them in the driveway!

 

[Dirty Koala]

That's because the garage was like working in a dungeon with two piddley lights and no benches.

The white 80 fits no problem, the green 80 fits if I take the roof rack off. The Ram doesn't even come close to fitting. I am considering opening the garage door height another foot so that I can fit 8' x 9' doors. Right now I have 7' x 9' doors.

 

[Crusha]

Does @mryanangel ever sleep?

 

[Dirty Koala]

Does @mryanangel ever sleep?

Not as much as he should.

 

[Dirty Koala]

Wow - Very nice. My garage is a fairly small 21x21 2-car garage that is going to need to serve as both a shop and storage. I'm hoping to put in a shed somewhere down the line to get the yard tools and ZTR mower out of the way (nice mower, but so damn huge). For the time being, I can't go whole hog. It's also tough to design and layout a circuit on hopes and dreams - since I have no idea what Welder(s)/Compressor etc. I'll end up with down the road! Sort of makes me proud to look back and realize that I've done all my 40 projects so far with basic hand tools...

Based on what I can envision so far, I'm hoping for:

• 100 amp panel in the garage (finished install today)
• 2x20A, 110V circuits around garage walls - MAYBE a 20A run from the ceiling with a cord reel.
  
• Dedicated 30A, 240V circuit for welder
• Possibly a spare 30A, 240V circuit for an eventual plasma cutter (though unlikely, and may just unplug welder when plasma cutting)
  
• Dedicated 20A or 30A 240V for compressor (depending on how big I go - I have yet to consider a compressor that will need 50A)
  • On that note:My wallet limits me to single-stage ~3-5 HP, 40-60 gal units

On top of that, I'd like to upgrade the lighting, but I may stick to the power output I have an just move to some higher wattage fixtures, if I can get away with it. It seems to me like 3 dedicated 240V circuits: 20A, 2x30A, might be the way to go. I can't see a situation in which I'd NEED 50A...but I'm tossing around the idea of running the wire while the walls are open, just in case...

Something to keep in mind, the electric motor on a compressor has a huge amperage draw upon startup, usually 7-10 times the normal operating FLA (Full Load Amps). It is because of this startup draw that I needed a 50 amp circuit, the FLA on my motor is 24 amps, but I clocked it pulling 22 amps max...right before the pressure switch shuts of the motor.

50 amp will require 6 guage copper, 40 or 30 you can use 8 guage. The cost difference is pretty deminimus, I would pull the 6 guage wire while the walls are open.

 

[RWBeringer4x4]

Something to keep in mind, the electric motor on a compressor has a huge amperage draw upon startup, usually 7-10 times the normal operating FLA (Full Load Amps). It is because of this startup draw that I needed a 50 amp circuit, the FLA on my motor is 24 amps, but I clocked it pulling 22 amps max...right before the pressure switch shuts of the motor.

50 amp will require 6 guage copper, 40 or 30 you can use 8 guage. The cost difference is pretty deminimus, I would pull the 6 guage wire while the walls are open.

Yeah - determining wire size and circuit amperage is maddening when you don't know what tools you'll end up with. I'm strongly considering over-sizing the wire so I can make changes to the breakers and outlets as necessary. However, I've also been told that oversizing the wires significantly; ie: 6ga on a 30A breaker, will result in the wire not fitting the circuit breaker...

Most of the compressors I'm looking at are single stage units at about 3.5HP. In general, the user manuals I've checked all recommend 30A breakers...Even the 5HP models seem to have a max draw of only about 25A. If 6ga wire will fit into a 30A breaker, I'm all for up-sizing anyway.

The Welder circuit is even more confusing, as the welders in my price point are pretty much a 50/50 split between 30A and 40A breakers.

 

[Dirty Koala]

I have a millermatic 211 mig welder. It is more welder than I will ever need (famous last words) and it has never flipped the 30 amp circuit.

 

[Yellow Jacket]

So I'm the proud new owner of another 2F, going to pick it up on Sunday. Has anyone built a stand or wooden stand before to support the engine during transport? I don't want to crush the oil pan on the drive home and it still has accessories attached, so I can't lay it down on it's side. The tranny and xfer are still attached as well. This is going into the bed of my Tundra for the trip home. Ideas welcomed.

Also anyone have an engine stand for sale?

 

[Dirty Koala]

You can make a cradle using 4x4's for the rectangular frame and then 3/4" ply to bolt the th3 belhousing and support the front of the engine just behind the crank pulley.
If you need to be able to move it with a fork lift of hand truck, you can the strap or bolt that on top of a pallet.

Worked well for transporting my Cummins