(Almost Finished) Shop

Here are some pictures of my almost completed shop.  It's a work in progress, so lots of dust from storage and building.

I'll try to describe each picture as briefly as possible.


This is my convention cart temporarily stored in the shop in a position that I can use it for modeling, etc..  The vintage vehicles and other stuff on the shelf are the stuff of my dreams, future projects, fun casting (of the obviously copyrighted things), and some materials.  (Yes, Norm, that's your truck on the second shelf next to the lamp.  It'll be one of the first things I set up when the shop is in working condition.  Really sorry for the wait.)



This is the modeling station on my cart.  It will be nice to have two tables to work on.



This is my compressor.  I desperately want to replace it with a belt-driven one.  The racket from this one will deafen you.



The room was originally a bedroom.  Not wanting to shut myself into a room with no air conditioning or heat, and realizing my both of my pet's needs to see what I'm doing (hey, they have to pester someone!), I cut out the Masonite sides of the door and replaced it with hardware cloth.  I wasn't sure if the door would hold together after cutting out both sides, but it appears to be working quite well.



My air circulating mechanism.  Gotta breathe and stay cool/warm.



My rather dirty pressure pot lid.  Red valve on the exhaust side, blue on the inlet.  The exhaust is piped to a copper line that leads out under the home.  Pressure curing clear resin taught me to exhaust the fumes somewhere other than into the room where I could breath it in.  Inlet side has a quick release connector for the compressor.



Old ceiling fan light fixture for lots of light in the shop.  Along with a light over the pressure pot bench and a light on my cart.



Shelves under the pressure pot bench.  You can see the copper line for the pressure pot exhaust.  There's another quick disconnect fitting where the flex line from the lid meets the galvanized nipple and the copper line.



I installed two separate 20A circuits, one for the compressor and one for the oven and microwave.  The vac pump plugs into a 15A circuit under the table.  I had two 20A breakers left over from removing the hot water heater, so I figured I could use them for this instead.



My converted pressure pot.  It's an Alumilite one that'a been turned on its side and mounted in a wooden frame.  I made several plastic shelves for it.  I still want one that has one handle to shut and lock it closed...



Upper shelves over my cart.  The water heater use to be in the corner on the left of that picture.  There's actually a piece of the paneling missing behind the shelves.  You would not believe what hot moist air can do in an enclosed space... shudder.  I figure I can go back and repanel that space after I get the shop going.  The shelf brackets are 6 foot long and extend down behind the cart.  When I complete the deck and outbuilding, I'll move the cart into that room and do something else with the resulting space.



This is my home-made lazy susan modeling table.  It was originally a bar stool that I modified into a glass topped modeling table.



Upper shelves over the pressure bench.  Lots of plastic containers for mixing RTV.



My Alumilite Vacuum chamber and Gast vacuum pump.  There's a union on the wall on the exhaust for disconnecting the vac pump.  It, too, exhausts outside.  There's an RC car muffler thingy on the outside.  The gray plastic disk on top of the vac chamber can be placed into the chamber to rest on the coupling's center ridge.  I don't use it very often unless I'm degassing very small amounts of RTV.



The pressure bench.  Actually an 18 inch wide door bought specifically for this purpose.  It's in it's second home and third room now.  It's been urethaned to protect it.



The vacuum chamber exhaust where it goes through the wall to the outside.(Yes, the wall's dirty.  It was a kid's room before we moved into the home and afterwards.  When I finish the area around the door, I'll probably paint that wall.  Oh, added the 36 inch wide door to facilitate getting my cart into and out of the home.



Like I said above, the door area is not finished.



I added another phone and a network receptacle. I might go back and run the power cord for the phone up through the wall.



This is the exterior vent for the vacumm chamber.  I used an RV car part for this.  There's a plastic cup over the part for rain protection.  At least the "muffler/air cleaner" (?) part keeps the bugs out of the vacuum pump!



That's all for now.  I may update this page as I finish up the shop over the next few weeks.

Thank you for visiting.