Above 1200 Sq/FT The Action Sports Garage

southalabama · Apr 2, 2026

LXCam said:
Air lines - black pipe. You don’t use galv here at all, bad mojo with contamination. Now I haven’t used any of the new modular systems but there sure are a lot of legit guys here who have and have been very happy with it. @zmotorsports would be my insider here for a recommendation, you know how thorough Mike is. Plus it’d be way quicker than cutting/threading/installing. And for you, time is of the essence for a while.

Lighting, this is sad to say but with over 40yrs of my main trade being a sparky, I’m not anywhere close to make a recommendation for the newest led ****. But once again I have no doubt the brain trust here will make a solid suggestion.

Bench tops, a min of 14ga.

Good luck Grant, you got some work to do bud. But I can’t wait to see the final result.

Concur with black iron. Dad had a professional paint shop (compound bows-metal flake) his shop had copper which I was able to salvage but he and I had the discussion and he said galvanized was prone to fisheye paints.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 2, 2026

southalabama said:
Concur with black iron. Dad had a professional paint shop (compound bows-metal flake) his shop had copper which I was able to salvage but he and I had the discussion and he said galvanized was prone to fisheye paints.

I think I'm going to either go with copper with progress fittings or the Rapid Air Fastpipe.. .will all come down to cost once I get the system drawn up.

A few pics of the machine center bench drawers... these are deeper than the Lista's they were in before, so I need to get more of the divider trays. Will be nice to have more space as I have a **** ton of taps! The SAE drawer was over flowing prior.

Top drawer row is SAE taps on Left, Metric on right and then all of my tap handles, thread gauges (need to find what box they are in) and thread files in the middle.

Next down is SAE reamers on the left, dial indicators in middle Metric reamers on right.

then mill setup stuff on the left (parallels, center finders, Vee-blocks etc, more indicator tools and micrometers in the middle, this is a **** show, I'll probably separate into two drawers at least. then Lathe tooling on the right.

next row is Mill collets on the left, gauge pins In the center, and lathe centers, etc on the right.

next layer so far is End mills and posecialty cutters under ⅝" then layout tools. I still got to find / unbox the rest of the lathe and mill tooling. Once thats done, ill probably change the drawers around a bit, but general idea is mill on left, lathe tooling on right, and then measurement stuff in center...might move taps and remaers to center too, but gotta see how my drawers end up filling up. I'll only have 30, 28x28 drawers in this bench... so hopefully thats enough.

zmotorsports · Apr 2, 2026

AWESOME organization of your machining tools and accessories. :bowdown:

Grant Gunderson · Apr 2, 2026

Didnt get much done at the shop yesterday, spent most of the day getting the rest of the stuff pulled down in the garage from my upper storage. Its overwhelming how much **** I had in that space! I did get the business fully switched over to a new corporation for the brick and motor space and got my city and state licenses applied for, plus started the insurance conversation with a few brokers... its tough to find a company that will insure you with you do ski and bike... lots will do just ski or just bike, but very few will do both as they consider both high-risk for liability....ugh are sue happy society.

I did swing by the local plywood shop, Windsor plywood. They typical have a good selection on hand and will give me a nice sheet discount with the amount that I have bought before, they can typically order a lot of specialty sheets in too. Was thinking Bamboo ply for the front customer desk / storage shelves, but they cant get it anymore... I need to see if another shop in town can order it. The advantage of it, is you can leave the edges unfinished and they still look nice.

Backup plan for the customer counter is probably Walnut ply. Not cheap.

While there I took a look at what they had to use for all of the workbench counters. Most of these will be 30 or 32" deep and my plan is two layers of ¾ material stacked on top of each other then Stainless on top. I deal with a lot of oily stuff, so stainless is the best for what I do.

I could do two layers of Baltic birch... as much as I like it for cabinets and especially drawers I dont think its the best for this application and its $189 a sheet of 4x8

¾ Marine could work for the base layer... I think I need a good ply for the base, to help flatten some of the Equipto cabinets that were a bit banged up. $139 a sheet

And then ¾ MDO G1s on top at $100 a sheet

or 1" MDF on top.

Thoughts? I'm normally not a big fan of MDF and have never used MDO (not totally sure what it is), but my previous stainless counter tops were 1.5" MDF with stainless on top and they held up great. I do like the higher density of the MDF stuff for under the stainless as its nice and damp when working on it. I dont want a "springy bench"

They had a few other options that looked interesting... might make sense onto of the full height cabinets, where I dont necessary need a stainless working surface. This is phenolic faced at $188 a sheet

This hex grip stuff I believe is used a lot in camper vans... might be great for the boot fitting area down the line. $180 a sheet.

I'm open to other ideas as well. The issue I have is the 30" or 32" depth of these benches (I like having a 2" over hang to keep the drawer fronts clean). Most standard cabinet top depths are way too shallow.

So I'm looking like it will be around $240 in ply (minus whatever discount I get these days) per 8' bench, then the cost of the stainless on top roughly another $600... all of the sudden the premade Lista work surfaces are looking more and more reasonable, but still a lot cheaper to do it myself If I want to stick with stainless.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 2, 2026

zmotorsports said:
AWESOME organization of your machining tools and accessories.

Thanks, I had most of the stuff in foam in the old shop... I have 30 some odd sheets of it, to do for the new shop, but leaning strongly towards a 3D printer and gridfinity especially for the oil prone suspension tooling.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 3, 2026

Damn bear got the old garage corner out minus what goes to Jamie’s and what I’m planning to sell.

I do have a ton of highly figured maple boards I gotta foot some storage for.

These monarch lathe tool cabinets are pretty rare. This one’s beat and I have zero interest in redoing it.

However it’s got a really cool lazySuzan collet rack I’ll pull out of it and mount on the wall here

The front half of the shop has been very dark to work in.

So started hanging the track lights back up. That made a massive difference.

It wasn’t until the last two I realized they are a modulate system and I could remove the extension pole and mount them directly to the track. Will need to go back and do that to the rest later.

That’s way better.

And labeled the switches.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 3, 2026

Back to work island layout. I think I’ll start with these two small vids are between these posts. Can then do a bike work station on each post.

The motor work station will be the taller listas here and arbor press on end on top of an equipto.

The other bike station will be on the backside.

The idea is this leaves the entire other half of the shop for ski service once I order those machines…. And if we get super busy in the summer I can add more bike stations

I’ll be in a mad rush to prep the last cabinets for paint today. Got kids Easter egg hunt at the ski area tomorrow and then Sunday is my last chance to paint for 3 weeks. Hopefully I can pull this off.

legenddc · Apr 3, 2026

Surprised the Ridgid bandsaw made the cut to go to the new shop. Best of luck with the move and the new business. It seems like you're making huge amounts of progress but I'm sure it doesn't feel like that when you're 8 hours into sorting out drawers!

Grant Gunderson · Apr 3, 2026

legenddc said:
Surprised the Ridgid bandsaw made the cut to go to the new shop. Best of luck with the move and the new business. It seems like you're making huge amounts of progress but I'm sure it doesn't feel like that when you're 8 hours into sorting out drawers!

we actually found the wheel bracket broke on it during the move. Plan was just to store it at shop till I can sell it and find a wood / metal replacement. It’s a POS.

legenddc · Apr 3, 2026

Grant Gunderson said:
we actually found the wheel bracket broke on it during the move. Plan was just to store it at shop till I can sell it and find a wood / metal replacement. It’s a POS.

Yeah, I don't love mine either. It's great for the $80 I paid for it, but it runs really rough and I don't use it enough because of that. Good luck getting it fixed and sold.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 3, 2026

Got round two of cabinets sanded and ready for paint.

It’s amazing how little dust the Festool system leaves.

I’m damn bear out of 400 grit now.

I picked up another ½ gallon of color coat and sealer too. Just another $600 for paint. Paint shop guys asked if I was painting a car. They were a bit shocked when I told them tool boxes. Haha.

Going to hang with the kids rest of the day and we got the Easter egg hunt at the ski area tomorrow. Then I’ll paint on Sunday.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 3, 2026

legenddc said:
Yeah, I don't love mine either. It's great for the $80 I paid for it, but it runs really rough and I don't use it enough because of that. Good luck getting it fixed and sold.

I had put urethane wheels on it and got it to cut wood decent enough. I then added a bimetal blade as I had a bunch of aluminum to cut and I think that was a bit too much for it.

I really should pickup a cut off saw for metal at some point.

Ideally once all of the build out at the shop is done all of the wood working tools live at home.

mercracing · Apr 3, 2026

I have a good bit of Ubiquiti stuff. It works well for my application, but obviously no one monitors it. I can have it alert me for motion. I am not into their access control so I can’t speak to that, but their cameras work well.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 4, 2026

I was intending to pull the snow tires off yesterday afternoon and change my front pads. I had ordered those and rotors ahead of time as it’s been 2 years since I’ve done them last and usually plan on inspecting: doing brakes at the season tire change over. The fronts were at 30% so good time to get them done.

Then I got to the rears and realize I had a big issue. I thought I had just done the rear pads last fall. Turns out I had two seized calipers. I had one pad on each at 80% or so and one on each down to metal! Ugh. Ran to the auto parts store and got new pads / rotors but no calipers in stock. So had to order those. So I guess we are taking Jamie’s 4 runner skiing today.

I probably could have gotten the calipers unfrozen had I had a vise at Jamie’s. This reminds me of my early years in college when I was just starting to acquire my own tools, and never seemed to have all that I needed in hand. I hate that feeling. Guess I need to find a vise for Jamie’s and make sure I got a full set of tools at her place in addition to the shop. This isn’t acceptable imop.

That’s the 3rd seized caliper I’ve had in the F250. Never had one in 300K on my tundra. I’ve been greasing the caliper pins at every service too.

Despite most of that being winter mountain road driving.

M.Brane · Apr 4, 2026

I had a caliper seize on my 04. Locked up completely, and had to get towed home. Tried to take it apart, and ended up breaking the SS ring of the top of the phenolic piston. The rubber seal had failed, and let water in. I now inspect the boots closely whenever changing pads.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 5, 2026

Skied with the kids yesterday and they had a blast doing the Easter egg hunt at the ski area. Then got a great ride in with Jamie. It’s finally warm enough to ride in shorts and the dirt is perfect.

I woke up at 4:30 and spent Easter morning at the shop painting the second round of cabinets. After sanding the other day I did an acetone wipe then chemically cleaned with the Lumabase oil and wax remover. I started with a 2k sealer coat. That went well except there are a few spots where it just wouldn’t stick. The sides of a few cabinets were straight up repulsing it. Despite sanding and the cleaning steps. I had these cabinets in the home shop, so they had lots of exposure to suspension oils and in some cases silicone, etc. what’s odd is it worked no problem on the tear down bench that saw the most suspension oil.

I then shot the color coat followed by the 3K clear.

That was a lot of cabinets!

I’m pretty happy given they are just tool / parts cabinets after all and I did zero body work.

I thought the red Snapon transmission teardown table looked tacky so it got painted too. Given all of the suspension oil this thing has seen I’m amazed took the paint!

I left the skylights and back windows open and took off for a afternoon ride with jamie followed by grilling some salmon with her and Evelina before I headed back to the shop to close up the windows / skylights and cranked the heat to fully cure the paint overnight.

Paint color detail. It’s the same metallic blue as my lathe and all of my parts / tool cabinets.

I’m glad that done!

Next up is anchoring them to the floor and cleaning/ greasing the slides so I can put all of my **** away.

SilverJimmy · Apr 6, 2026

Isn’t moving your shop a blast?! I’m so deep into my move but I am actually able to start seeing progress and the end is almost in sight! On your air lines I just have my 2 cents worth. I decided to go with copper and soldered joints cuz I’ve seen 100 year old copper soldered joints that are still working. I just want to do this once, one and done!

Grant Gunderson · Apr 6, 2026

Evelina helped me pull tape this morning before her art camp (it’s spring break)

I got the plastic pulled too then headed to Hamoes for a day of car maintenance.

Replaced the bad e-brake shoe on the F250, both rear calipers pads and rotors then bled the entire system and did an oil change. Damn I hate doing brake drums. Did the front pads and oil on Jamie’s 4 runner. Thankfully no issues there.

Looks like my coolant is awefully dark on the 67 tho. Thinking something must be up, it does have 130k on it now. Not sure if the oil pan is leaking yet again or if it’s the rear main seal. Either way it’s looking like it’s going to need some maintenance that goes beyond what I can do without a lift.

I’ve been thinking about selling it too, as I don’t need that large of a truck after selling my sled… but probably not the best timing to deal with selling / buying a vehicle. Especially a diesel so that can is getting kicked down the road. Tomorrow will be a bid day installing tool cabinets at the shop

Grant Gunderson · Apr 7, 2026

Got a ride in with Jamie this am then her and Evelina picked out colors for the back wall / bathroom

I think we will go with a light grey and dark grey trim

Pulled the feet off of the tall Lista and got it positioned. I need ⅜ hardware to bolt the cabinets together.

It’s all somewhere in this box.

Of course it’s in the bottom, however the Schaller bins kept it all organized!

I bought these Bessey face frame clamps to help align the cabinets. Turns out they are total garbage. Don’t grip worth a damn and no pad on the front portion either so they will mar the finish. They are going back to Amazon.

All of the listas have pre drilled holes for ⅜ hardware to bolt them together. However when you mix series they don’t line up….Thats an oversight with the Lista system. So I started by screwing the two cabinets with doors together. This will be my flammable storage.

It’s level across. I’m surprised given the age of the building but that floor is ridiculously over built. It tips just a hair forward out of level. Close enough to not bother with. I’ll actually want the table on top of this to tilt away from me. We will come back to that shortly.

I need to drill holes into the taller Lista to bolt to these shorter ones. The bottom holes aligned but it had no mid panel holes for the top height of the counter height cabinets. So I used a ⅜ transfer punch to get a center to drill

All of my sheet metal drills are smaller than ⅜’s. Since I need to drill a bunch of ⅜ holes I splurged and bought yet another step drill bit. These are nice as they will automatically debur the hole if you run them back I. The reverse side.

Since all of the holes need to be ⅜ I bought a ½” drill collar. That was too big, but luckily I had a 7/16 one on hand so this is my limit stop. In the past I’ve just marked the last step with a red marker but this is fool proof especially when I don’t have good visibility in the back of the cabinets.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 8, 2026

I now have 3 bolted together. We are starting to get somewhere now. My Snapon transmission tear down table is going on top of this.

I picked up some new ⅜ fuel line for the drain and installed it over the barb. Then secured with an Oetiker clamp. I prefer the compound action version of the tool over the standard one. It’s nice and secure now. Drain catch will go in the cabinet underneath

I punched a 1” hole in the back to bring the fuel line in. Need to find my box of grommets.

The Snapon legs are built so the top angles back so fluids flow into the drain at the back. I’m not using those legs as that’s waisted space. In my old shop I got the angle I need by attaching a shallow piece of unistrut under it.

You can see here this gives me the angle, but it’s not the most solid setup. I need a better solution. Any ideas?

To further complicate things and why I want this table top solid and angled slightly back (drain suspension oil) is that I’m also going to mount my Dawn 5” off axis vice here.

Normally I’d want the front of the static jaw flush with the front of the bench. However in this case I want it set well back so any fluids spilling from various suspension components the vise is holding drain to the trough back of the bench and not all over the floor.

Ideally I machine a plate to go under the vise to bring it back level. But this is why I need to find a more secure way of mounting that table at an angle.

Open to any ideas from the brain trust here.

Btw thinking about possibly powder coating the vise instead of all of the bodywork I did on the Wilton 3C…..I wonder if they have a close metallic blue in powder coating colors?

Two of what I think are Equipto cabinets ( no markings and the drawer sizes can’t be reconfigured like lista / Vidmar ) are going next to the teardown table for strictly doing suspension work. Only issue is the suspension table causes a 3.5” gap and there is a 1”forward off set too.

Maybe I’ll fill this with some Aluminum angle? Might be a spot for some power outlets? Not sure yet but need to cover up the void. To be decided.

I was having a hard time getting the front of the equiptos flush so i took two wedge anchors and stacked them.

Inserted between back of cabinet and wall then tapped together with a hammer until the fronts came flush. That worked super well!

Grant Gunderson · Apr 8, 2026

I then drilled and installed the ⅜ bolts.

I used a rivet specific drill to remove a few rivets / plates from the top of the cabinets. This removes the mushroom head almost instantly and then a quick hit with a pin punch and they are gone.

I picked up a 100 pack of 5/16x2-½ GRK structural screws.

I may regret doing it before attaching the transmission table top / bathroom being finished but each cabinet gets 4 structural screws to hold it to the floor so this rear bank has 20 of them. Those cabinets are not going anywhere! Plus zero danger of them tipping when multiple loaded drawers are opened at once or if there ever is an earthquake.

These door units were on top of my 16 drawer cabinets before so handles are bottom right. Was thinking I could just flip the hinges to the other side to bring the handles up to the top… turns out you can’t do that. I need to see if I can order some RH hinges instead of my LH ones….

Then started to fill them up. It sure feels nice to start to put some **** away and get some floor space back!

I got the other two drawer units cleaned but still need to grease before i install those drawers. However while I have the narrow pallet jack I need to get the feet off of the rest of the cabinets. We will see how much I get done between dropping Evelina off at camp at 9 and picking Stian up at noon. He’s probably going to come to the shop for a bit while I work before we ride tomorrow evening. Finally some significant progress.

Dig Doug · Apr 8, 2026

Looking Fantastic!

Love the progress you make every day!

as for the drain board countertop

edit

depot sells aluminum U channel in 1/2 or 3/4 screw it to the base cab along the face, U shape facing down w/ self tappers
then screw up from base thru aluminum U channel and into top 2 corners to secure the top

similar to the shallow Uni struct

Grant Gunderson · Apr 8, 2026

Next up is the two tall Vidmars next to the lathe.

Pulled the 2x4 skid from the one. On these the feet are welded on so I’ll need to screw some aluminum strips to the front as kick panels.

The Vidmars are pre drilled. Just have to punch the flaps out of the way to bolt together

All lined up

Lower bolts in.

Top was a bit out.

But the bolts pulled them in.

4 structural screws in the bottom corner of each and they are anchored to the floor. I swapped them so larger drawers are next to large. Might swap drawers around down the line for a better combo.

I’d like to see a Snapon or horror freight box hold this much weight per drawer. Got all that done after I dropped Evelina off at 8 and before I picked stian up at noon. Not a bad morning.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 8, 2026

The machinist bench is up next after I picked Stian up. Pulled the drawers.

Got the feet pulled and started to drill them to bolt together.

But this electrical conduit is in the way. Need to locate above the bench and then run a few more boxes off of it.

Taught Stian how to read a meter and he let me know when I found the correct breaker. Need to label them! He enjoyed helping!

WTF is this **** show? Ok I know you can technically use metal conduit as a ground, but it’s not that expensive to run a proper ground. I’m no electrician, but this just looks shoddy. This is 14 guage stranded wire. Not sure why they used the nuts vs just put crimped forms on it directly tot eh outlet terminals. If I recall you use stranded wire not romex in conduit due to heat build up. So at least that’s good.

First time I’ve ran into this kind of masonary screws. They are pretty slick. I need to buy a much better set of masonry bits then the elcheapo set I got. Any recommendations?

I cut the conduit down to a better height.

And just wire nutted the ends for now.

Pretty sure once I get these in packed I have what I need to terminate the standard wire properly into each outlet.

I need to get a permit for all of the circuits I need to run. I’m tempted to either do it myself or run it and then pay an electrical contractor to land it when I get the phase perfect setup… trying to save $ where I can. Plus I need to get open so would rather do it myself then wait for a contractors schedule.

With the box moved I finished bolting the cabinets together then once again used 4 structural screws in the base of each to anchor them. Just need to grease the slides and reinstall the drawers.

Got 4 more left to anchor to this wall and I can pack all of my hardware / parts.

It was 4 pm at this point so Stian and I returned the narrow pallet jack rental and the got a ride in with Stian. He was riding great, on our second lap we dropped off the backside and he was risk great until he stiffed a pedal into a root ball went over the bars, flipped and handle bars landed on his ribs. At first I wasn’t sure if he broke a rib or not. Luckily they are just bruised with a heck of a raspberry on them and he was able to ride home.

Most likely we will get the other 4 cabinets installed tomorrow as he’s probably going to be too sore to ski / ride bikes, but we will see.

cccoltsicehockey · Apr 9, 2026

Things are coming along great. Those cabinets are awesome. Would love to find a couple of those bench height ones on marketplace but never seem to be around these parts for any sort of deal.

I bought this set of bits about 4 years ago to do a network rack install at my father's apartment building. I was mounting it to a cinderblock wall. I have since used them to mount all my lower cabinets to my garage block walling and some electrical boxes to man made stone on the exterior of my house. They have made good work of everything I have thrown at them so far, with nice clean holes quickly.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-SHOCKWAVE-Carbide-Hammer-Drill-Bit-Set-10-Piece-48-20-9058/321506380?g_store=3638&source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&fp=ggl

Grant Gunderson · Apr 9, 2026

cccoltsicehockey said:
Things are coming along great. Those cabinets are awesome. Would love to find a couple of those bench height ones on marketplace but never seem to be around these parts for any sort of deal.

I bought this set of bits about 4 years ago to do a network rack install at my father's apartment building. I was mounting it to a cinderblock wall. I have since used them to mount all my lower cabinets to my garage block walling and some electrical boxes to man made stone on the exterior of my house. They have made good work of everything I have thrown at them so far, with nice clean holes quickly.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-SHOCKWAVE-Carbide-Hammer-Drill-Bit-Set-10-Piece-48-20-9058/321506380?g_store=3638&source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&fp=ggl

Thanks! I’ll have to pick a set of those up with all of the brick I’m going to be using a lot of masonary anchors.

With Stian on the injured list from yesterdays ride. we did a big day at the shop.

I greased all of the cabinet side drawer hardware and all of the bearings. Ran out of graze so will do drawer slide once I pick more up. I can do that with them in the cabinets. Machinist work bench all back together.

Stian was happy to help vacuum.

Got the back corner / wall cabinets all greased and put back together too.

Architect says technically I need 18” clearance around the door, but it’s not a single egress so I may be ok. I left 36” between the cabinets. Same width as door.

All of the drawers from the 4 tall listas are now exploded across the floors.

I then started bolting the cabinets together. I may regret putting the new series cabinet in the middle of three older series, but for now I want the large tool box close to the mill.
I may revisit this later.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 9, 2026

Once again each cabinet is bolted to the next with 4 1” ⅜ bolts.

All 4 bolted together.

Each cabinet gets 4 structural screws to secure it to the floor.

I’m glad that’s done. Need to put the handle trim back on the newer lista.

The south / machinist wall is now done.

I can start to put **** away. Once I get everything put away I can think about optimizing the drawer configuration later.

Still need to do the island work benches.

boyboi · Apr 9, 2026

The color matched workshop is so sick! can't wait to see the final result

Cruzan80 · Apr 9, 2026

Is it bugging you yet that the
drill bit cabinets aren't level (to each other)?

Grant Gunderson · Apr 9, 2026

boyboi said:
The color matched workshop is so sick! can't wait to see the final result

Thanks. Was a ton of work to get them all painted but glad I did. Kind of makes me want to repaint the Bridgeport / arbor press too. Still undecided about what to do with the 3 additional vises I need to restore.

Cruzan80 said:
Is it bugging you yet that the
drill bit cabinets aren't level (to each other)?

Of course it is. The base cabinets are level but the back of the middle is a bit beat up. I’m thinking two layers of ¾ ply with a stainless top should fix that. The two blue drill cabinets are Bradpoint / foster so I’ll probably take those to the new home wood shop once I finish the build out.

Dig Doug · Apr 9, 2026

Grant Gunderson said:
Thanks. Was a ton of work to get them all painted but glad I did. Kind of makes me want to repaint the Bridgeport / arbor press too. Still undecided about what to do with the 3 additional vises I need to restore.

Of course it is. The base cabinets are level but the back of the middle is a bit beat up. I’m thinking two layers of ¾ ply with a stainless top should fix that. The two blue drill cabinets are Bradpoint / foster so I’ll probably take those to the new home wood shop once I finish the build out.

not trying to be a downer or mess w/ you

need to pay attention to the ADA codes / bathroom, exit & egress - IE walk ways / isles / path of travel within the space

all kinds of little things that can hold you up at the end of the project - all due to pulling the permit and the need for the inspection sign off

In Ca.
Due to the exit sign ( and other factors / square footage of space & occupancy usage ) that rear exit becomes an Emergency exit you need 18inch clear to the side of the pull side of the door for ADA Wheelchair

that existing exit sign is also questionable due to the direction it’s facing

bathroom needs a 60inch Diameter circle so a wheelchair can turn around plus other items & equipment

there are loop holes but it’s better to lean into the ADA code then try to work around it

Grant Gunderson · Apr 10, 2026

Dig Doug said:
not trying to be a downer or mess w/ you

need to pay attention to the ADA codes / bathroom, exit & egress - IE walk ways / isles / path of travel within the space

all kinds of little things that can hold you up at the end of the project - all due to pulling the permit and the need for the inspection sign off

In Ca.
Due to the exit sign ( and other factors / square footage of space & occupancy usage ) that rear exit becomes an Emergency exit you need 18inch clear to the side of the pull side of the door for ADA Wheelchair

that existing exit sign is also questionable due to the direction it’s facing

bathroom needs a 60inch Diameter circle so a wheelchair can turn around plus other items & equipment

there are loop holes but it’s better to lean into the ADA code then try to work around it

Chatting with architect I’m probably ok as this is a secondary egress. Worst case if the inspector has an issue I move the one cabinet. I’d argue the limiting factor is the width of the door. Not to mention sending a wheel chair down a flight of stairs directly into a retaining wall is a bigger issue but, that’s just how silly some of this ada BS is. Jamie’s office just had to buy a wheelchair scale. She’s like this is idiotic as they still need to get out is the chair to tare the scale…..let alone if you are wheelchair bound your BMI is the least of your worries….

That being said my friend Trevor Kennison could send it down those strairs no problem. Hell he’d probably find a way to back flip them.

Dig Doug · Apr 10, 2026

Grant Gunderson said:
Chatting with architect I’m probably ok as this is a secondary egress. Worst case if the inspector has an issue I move the one cabinet. I’d argue the limiting factor is the width of the door. Not to mention sending a wheel chair down a flight of stairs directly into a retaining wall is a bigger issue but, that’s just how silly some of this ada BS is. Jamie’s office just had to buy a wheelchair scale. She’s like this is idiotic as they still need to get out is the chair to tare the scale…..let alone if you are wheelchair bound your BMI is the least of your worries….

That being said my friend Trevor Kennison could send it down those strairs no problem. Hell he’d probably find a way to back flip them.

they have a ton Of BS rules w/ hoops that we all have to jump through…

Grant Gunderson · Apr 10, 2026

Dig Doug said:
they have a ton Of BS rules w/ hoops that we all have to jump through…

Agreed. I remember my dad telling me about fighting with the EPA, they wanted him to separate asbestos valve seats from the radioactive valves as they were worried about the asbestos contamination. He argued that radioactive asbestos dust was more of a danger than disposing the entire assembly as being radioactive in the first place…. Regulations without any brains to enforce them is worse than no regulations. That and government employees tend to be mindless drones. God help us.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 20, 2026

Been busy as hell with getting moved out after the house sold.

The weekend before this I took Stian up to Baker for what would be our last weekend of skiing this year. We both did the Ravens edge ski race.

Stian got a 2nd and a 3rd… pretty good considering he was the youngest in the age bracket. Dad also got a 2nd and 3rd but more importantly we had a great time!

In addition to getting mostly moved out of the house last week I also picked up 50 bags of mulch for Jamie’s place. Definitely got a good workout !

We had my dad’s funeral this weekend. I was tasked with carrying his ashes to the alter. By far the heaviest box I’ve ever carried. I have t been in a church since my mom passed 25 years ago. Same priest provided over dad’s service and he did a great job as he knew my dad well. We had a great reception for him and I got to spend time with some of his closest friends and co-workers from Hanford and his hiking and golf buddies too.

Cleaning out some of my dad’s things Sunday I found one of his patents.

So that was cool. Found a bunch of his other possessions along with some of my moms that I thought were long gone so that was a pleasant surprise. Also found a document that was pretty heavily redacted but from what I could gather he came up with this transponder system for remotely identifying nuclear waste containers and his employer sold some of that tech to the national railway system and the 128bit radio id system he came up with ended up being the basis for part of a national railway system car I’d system. Had no idea he did that.

I’m now about 90% out of the house. Got half of it cleaned today then took a load to the shop and spent a few hours putting hardware away.

I got a few chair lifts at the house to move over, the office stuff and then Stian’s room and I’m fully out of there.

Between dads funeral and selling the house I feel like that’s pretty much the close on 3+ years of personal hell between our Japan Avalanche accident, a 3+ year long divorce/ custody battle and watching sjogren's disease take my dad from us.

So starting the new shop / business now sure feels like a new chapter as does my relationship with Jamie.

hampster · Apr 21, 2026

A few thoughts:

Copper vs pex-al-pex.. given the humidity (I live closer to Bellingham Bay than your new space), the nice thing about copper is it will help cool the air. I am literally in the midst of adding copper lines to my garage using propress. I didn't want to drop $1K on a propress tool but I was pleasantly surprised how cheap the manual ones were on Amazon. If I were you, I'd borrow/rent the power tool for the main install, then buy a manual one for the occasional modification down the road. I was worried about EPDM not handling the oil until I realized the only things I personally use air for are blowing things off, filling things up, an air hammer, and very occasionally an air impact. Since I don't use die grinders/sanders/sandblasting, that meant I could sell my 60 gallon oiled and step down to the one of the Teflon pumps from California Air... Much quieter and very cheap for the compressor as I bought a return sold via their eBay store. I'm okay waiting a few time a year for it to recharge for the air hammer. And oil less, which means I can use it for winterizing the RV plumbing w/o worrying about getting compressor oil in our plumbing...
For tabletop, I personally love MDF as the final top sheet because it's dimensionally stable, and yet soft enough that it doesn't hurt anything that I drop onto it, and cheap enough to be easily replaceable. It's quiet too. I have all my work benches using 3/4 plywood topped by 1/4 MDF. Given your oil, stainless makes sense as a final top, but I still think mdf underneath the stainless would provide equal firmness yet deadness in a way that plywood doesn't quite match.

hampster · Apr 22, 2026

Also, for those California air tools teflon-based pumps, they have a shorter lifespan but they are rebuildable. They do run hotter, but for me as a home gamer who uses air infrequently I don't mind letting my pump cool every so often while I work on a second project (who'd doesn't always have more than one project?!).

That luxury may not be possible in a commercial shop, so for cooling air, I've seen guys run cooled soft copper pipe in a 5 gallon bucket of water... Or even through the toilet tank. That is a cheap way to cool it passively, especially if you then dump it into an auxiliary tank that you drain every so often. Another common option is plumb air through an auxiliary transmission cooler. Lots of threads here on GJ about it.

If hot air becomes an issue down the road then I will likely explore one of these options as I like the passive nature of both solutions compared to an active air cooler. They're a little more complexity up front but then I hopefully don't have to think about it once it's setup.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 23, 2026

hampster said:
A few thoughts:

Copper vs pex-al-pex.. given the humidity (I live closer to Bellingham Bay than your new space), the nice thing about copper is it will help cool the air. I am literally in the midst of adding copper lines to my garage using propress. I didn't want to drop $1K on a propress tool but I was pleasantly surprised how cheap the manual ones were on Amazon. If I were you, I'd borrow/rent the power tool for the main install, then buy a manual one for the occasional modification down the road. I was worried about EPDM not handling the oil until I realized the only things I personally use air for are blowing things off, filling things up, an air hammer, and very occasionally an air impact. Since I don't use die grinders/sanders/sandblasting, that meant I could sell my 60 gallon oiled and step down to the one of the Teflon pumps from California Air... Much quieter and very cheap for the compressor as I bought a return sold via their eBay store. I'm okay waiting a few time a year for it to recharge for the air hammer. And oil less, which means I can use it for winterizing the RV plumbing w/o worrying about getting compressor oil in our plumbing...

For tabletop, I personally love MDF as the final top sheet because it's dimensionally stable, and yet soft enough that it doesn't hurt anything that I drop onto it, and cheap enough to be easily replaceable. It's quiet too. I have all my work benches using 3/4 plywood topped by 1/4 MDF. Given your oil, stainless makes sense as a final top, but I still think mdf underneath the stainless would provide equal firmness yet deadness in a way that plywood doesn't quite match.

I still need to draw up exactly what I need and figure out costs but I’m strongly leaning towards copper with pro press. I won’t be running any air tools that require oil….

For the workbench tops I’m thinking ¾ MDO. It’s ½” standard plywood with ¼” mdf bonded to it. Seems to be the best of both worlds and is more moisture resistant too. Before I make the final decision I need to head back to Windsor and feel the density of both. I want to make sure they are heavy enough to feel damp and not springy.

I asked Carlson Steel about doing the Stsinless tops. They said to cut the ply and bring it in and they would wrap it/ weld the edges. They warned me tho that their die will leave a mark on the edge and that it’s tough to get the ends square…16 gauge works out to be about $600 a Bench

I need to call around some sheet metal shops and get a few more quotes.

.

Been making some progress getting small parts put away. That cardboard pile is growing!

Getting closer drawer by drawer.

I decided with all of the new drawers to allocate a few more to the ever growing hardware assortment.

Ugh spot lights are too reflective to see the labels, but went from 2 metric drawers to 4 and for Sae everything bellow ¾ has its own drawer now….. 99% of what I work at the shop is metric tho…. Maybe at some point the sae stuff migrates home. Then again owning old machine tools you find you still need a lot of SAE on hand.

I’ve been contemplating a bunch of different ideas for the island work stations. I think I finally figured out a good solution so started to bolt them together and then clean / grease all of the drawer slides…. I think I’m on can 7 of super lube now! Probably going a bit heavy with the drawer grease but it’s not something I want to redo anytime soon. I won’t anchor these to the floor yet……

Right before I left for dads funeral last weekend the contractor asked for a sketch of my intended layout do the architect could finish drawing up plans. I sent this over yesterday

I’ve lost track of how many time we have discussed that he had the bathroom in the wrong orientation…. Found out this afternoon that the architect is no longer in the project and they have yet to get a replacement…. Ugh delay after delay. Getting an ADA bathroom and compressor room is t rocket science. This is getting ridiculous. So I’m not going to anchor any of the island work bench’s until I know exactly where the compressor room / bathroom is going. It would also be nice to know the final plans before I order the ski machines so I know where all of that stuff will go on the north side of the shop…

I haven’t done any real CAD drawings in 25 years, but to be honest I’m pretty sure I could have relearned, drawn the plans in fusion 360 and had the bathroom and compressor room done in less time then it’s taking these guys.

Would be nice to at least have the new architect draw up plans so I can get going on electrical permits.

I’m slowly learning everything takes 3-10x longer than you expect when you are dealing with others that then hire others.

Grant Gunderson · Apr 23, 2026

hampster said:
Also, for those California air tools teflon-based pumps, they have a shorter lifespan but they are rebuildable. They do run hotter, but for me as a home gamer who uses air infrequently I don't mind letting my pump cool every so often while I work on a second project (who'd doesn't always have more than one project?!).

That luxury may not be possible in a commercial shop, so for cooling air, I've seen guys run cooled soft copper pipe in a 5 gallon bucket of water... Or even through the toilet tank. That is a cheap way to cool it passively, especially if you then dump it into an auxiliary tank that you drain every so often. Another common option is plumb air through an auxiliary transmission cooler. Lots of threads here on GJ about it.

If hot air becomes an issue down the road then I will likely explore one of these options as I like the passive nature of both solutions compared to an active air cooler. They're a little more complexity up front but then I hopefully don't have to think about it once it's setup.

I demoed one of the machines I’m looking at in a shop in Idaho. They were running a California air tools compressor and that thing was cycling non stop and it wasnt all that quiet either. Pretty sure theirs was way undersized. It’s crazy how cheap used screw compressors are…. But they are almost all 10hp+ and 3ph. I’m trying to find a 5hp single phase…. Problem is since I started pricing them out the costs have gone up dramatically…. May have to bite the bullet and go with a piston type but pretty sure that won’t win me any fans with the office people downstairs

zeug · Apr 23, 2026

Grant Gunderson said:
It’s crazy how cheap used screw compressors are…. But they are almost all 10hp+ and 3ph. I’m trying to find a 5hp single phase….

I just bought two screw compressors from Kaeser US. I was looking at used as well, but Kaeser had a 2 for 1 special. It seems they run a lot of special deals that don’t get advertised much. I only found out because I called for a spec sheet for a used compressor and the sales guy was awesome. 240V 1P.

If you go with a used piston, see if you can find a Quincy 325 pump. Two stage pistons and lubricated with oil and filter. They have unloaders and start very easy/quiet. Designed for 3-5 hp motors and run well at 400 rpm and up. Slow=quiet. I bought mine for my garage (1968 model) and rebuilt the top end with new parts. I run it at around 800 rpm and it’s quiet enough to have a conversation next to it while running. At that speed, it puts out about 15 cfm @ 200psi. Plenty for me. They still make them and everything is available from Quincy, but the aftermarket is very supportive as well.

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