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Post by brotherbanzai on Jan 9, 2016 15:20:21 GMT
I'm moving to a 5 acre place outside of Atlanta GA toward the end of this month (January, in about a week and a half) and will finally have space for a real shop building. For me, this is very exciting and has been keeping me pretty busy for a while. I can't wait to have a real work-space and a bit of elbow room! Here's the slow preliminary progress of the shop... First, the location. I had originally planned a pretty large shop on a concrete pad already at the location and about 100 - 150 feet from the house. Turned out that pad was badly out of level and likely too close to the property line to build on. It was going to be a long way to run power lines anyway and will now be the area for the shooting range. So I decided on a spot next to the carport which is attached to the house. Shorter distance to run power lines and more convenient. First problem was that the land there is quite sloped. The cure for this lies in another problem with the property itself. The land was not properly graded around the house, so water seeps into the crawlspace. I had the area around the house re-graded with a swale on the opposite side. All the dirt from that side, a little way around the front, and all the way around the back was moved over to the side where the shop will go. So a few weeks later I have a spot for the shop. That was a lot of dirt. Next was to get the concrete pad poured for the shop floor. I planned a 26' wide x 22' deep pad. This would allow for a 26' wide shop, 18' deep, with a 4' pad in front which would be covered by a 12' lean-to creating a large, protected, outside work are with a cement floor for part of it and gravel for the rest. I month or so later the pad was done and I drove up to check it out. Nice! Now we're getting somewhere. Wait a minute, something looks off... Oh for fracks sake they put the pad in sideways! Well now I have a pad that is 26' deep and 22' wide. That doesn't work with the building I had planned. Evidently, there wasn't enough room to go farther out to the side without moving in a lot more dirt and likely killing the large oak tree to the side, so rather than call me to see what I wanted them to do, they just put it in facing the other direction. So I'll have to go with a different size building than I intended. Oh well, it will all work out in the end. That's what you get for having work done on a house in a different state when you aren't there to supervise. The last bit of prep is to put down a bunch of gravel. Aaaand we're out of money. Next will be the actual building, which is on order but won't likely be put up for a few weeks yet. Now I'm off to look for some more boxes to pack crap in for the move
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Sean (Shadowhowler)
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Post by Sean (Shadowhowler) on Jan 9, 2016 15:28:10 GMT
You got space to shoot out there brother? If so... just let me know when I can come out... :-)
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Post by brotherbanzai on Jan 10, 2016 13:32:18 GMT
Hey Sean, there won't be anything actually set up for the range for a while, but there is room to shoot and a natural berm, so we can technically shoot anytime after I get there :D Here's the spot - This was take a few months ago when everything was still green up there. You can see a little more clearly in this picture how the land slopes up pretty quickly once you get into the trees. The property slopes upward about 50 feet through the last acre and a half into the woods, then there is nothing beyond that for about a mile or so. The house is about 35 minutes from the Atlanta airport and 30 - 45 minutes from downtown Atlanta. I'm figuring with this decent sized property and more central location (compared to my current place in Florida), I might be able to host some cutting parties or something. Maybe shop tours or forge-ins or something like that. Possibly get my long sword group going if there are interested people in the Atlanta area. Maybe offer some kind of bronze casting or sword making workshops. Lots of possibilities with this place, though for now I just need to get up there and set up the shop. Then I have to get things ready for our wedding (not you and me, me an my fiancee ;) ), which is supposed to happen in March.
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Jan 11, 2016 1:09:08 GMT
Very cool BB... hope you'll be happy in your new home/shop... can't wait to see what you'll cook up now that you'll have your own place! And very cool that you now have space to host parties, do some shooting.
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Post by brotherbanzai on Jan 14, 2016 14:48:13 GMT
Thanks LG, I'm sure I'll be much happier in the new shop, compared to my current work space. Hopefully they'll be putting up the building in the next couple of weeks, that will be interesting to see. It's going to be so great to have space to move around without bumping into my own equipment and having to move one piece to access another. The shade will be awesome too, nothing worse than grinding or forging a piece of steel in the Florida summer sun. Here's an aerial photo of the place some years before I bought it... Sadly, the large building next to the house was already gone when I looked at the place. Would have been the perfect spot for the shop and would have saved me a bunch of money as well. There used to be a pole barn out back where the large cement pad is, but it was gone too. There is a large open area in back next to that pad and one out front next to the second driveway leading to the pad. Plenty of room for cutting parties or camping out or whatever. The rest of the area from the pad to the front of the property is lightly wooded, like this... The area from the pad to the back of the property is heavily wooded. The neighbor on the west side hunts deer on that part of his property. The neighbor on the east side teaches a gun safety class for his church or something, so from what I've been told, no one will have any issue with me shooting on the property. All cool with county ordinances and chief of police too. Once I get established there, I'll see what kind of interest there is from forum members to have some kind of sword related gathering. The big Georgia Renaissance festival is only about 15 - 20 minutes from us and the tommorrowWorld music festival is a similar distance on the other side of us.
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ChrisA
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Post by ChrisA on Jan 19, 2016 16:24:34 GMT
Looks beautiful BB. I am thinking more and more lately about packing it up and moving to a similar location.
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Post by brotherbanzai on Jan 24, 2016 15:49:13 GMT
Thanks ChrisA, where are you at now? My old place was in the residential area of a fairly expensive little city on a 50 foot wide lot; I could (no kidding) hear the neighbor snore at night in the house next door. I hated it. No space to do anything, no privacy, no quiet time without traffic noise or people talking or dogs barking. I'm sure I'll miss the convenience of a 5 minute drive to the grocery store, but there are so many good trade-offs. If you can do it without the hassle of a terribly long commute to work, I highly recommend it :)
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Feb 5, 2016 15:29:08 GMT
I use to drive a hundred miles a day to go to work and it was still worth it to live in the Adirondacks even when gas was $4 a gallon. If you're not happy where you live all the money in the world isn't going to make life good. A day doesn't go by where I don't look around me and smile. Enjoy the new home.
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ChrisA
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Post by ChrisA on Feb 5, 2016 19:26:35 GMT
Thanks ChrisA, where are you at now? My old place was in the residential area of a fairly expensive little city on a 50 foot wide lot; I could (no kidding) hear the neighbor snore at night in the house next door. I hated it. No space to do anything, no privacy, no quiet time without traffic noise or people talking or dogs barking. I'm sure I'll miss the convenience of a 5 minute drive to the grocery store, but there are so many good trade-offs. If you can do it without the hassle of a terribly long commute to work, I highly recommend it I live in an increasingly crowded town on Long Island NY, Hicksville. I have a good sized property (for Long Island! Rural folks would laugh at what we call "good sized") Not sure of the dimensions, but wider than 50ft. Plenty of backyard space for most things. Nice 6ft fences give me some privacy from neighbors. And I like my immediate neighbors. My house is small, which is good for me. It's quiet except for lawn mowers in the distance and planes overhead when the air traffic is routed my way. Location is central to lot's of stores and two of the 3 main highways on Long Island. Crime is low. Schools are decent. And I hate it! Taxes are high, and getting higher. Traffic is becoming unbearable and getting worse. And, having recently taken up a new hobby of firearms, I am very restricted in my rights to enjoy them. I just can't help but feel that after living in New York my entire life I would prefer the quiet life in beautiful country. I just need to get the financial situation to match where and how I want to live. What you got there looks a lot like what I have been envisioning.
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Post by brotherbanzai on Feb 5, 2016 22:04:58 GMT
Thanks Gunnar, I'm loving it so far! I agree, it's so nice to get up in the morning and just go out the front door and look at the property instead of the neighbors boat. I'm sleeping better, breathing better, loving the chill air... Hey ChrisA, I hear you on the taxes and traffic. We had plenty of both in Sarasota, though I expect yours are likely even worse. We're about 25 minutes from the really great town of Newnan, which is where we go for groceries, home depo, and that sort of "Regular town" stuff. The GA renaissance festival is only about 20 - 30 minutes from us as well, so maybe we'll check that out. The building got put up yesterday, don't know that many people are interested in this, but I found it interesting so I took bunch of pictures. The crew showed up before daylight and were at work by 7am. Here they are just setting up after I explained where on the pad I wanted the building. They had a bit of trouble maneuvering the truck and trailer along the drive but eventually got situated after a bit of ramming and smashing of the foliage. Here they have the frame up and the panels for the side walls. At this point I noticed the color and asked "hey, is that white, cause it looks grey?" The walls were supposed to be white with the roof gray and doors barn red to match the house and carport. Oh well, turns out it will be grey with white trim and barn red doors. Hold on, those doors are way too small, what am I a hobbit or something!? Oh, nevermind. Here they are almost finished with the sun beginning to set. They wrapped it up at 7pm in the dark. Those guys worked a loooong day. In the cold too.
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Post by RicWilly on Feb 5, 2016 22:31:51 GMT
Looks like a great place, Brother, you have my envy.
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Post by L Driggers (fallen) on Feb 6, 2016 7:07:51 GMT
Do you have a real thick concrete pad set up for a power hammer. Know when I finally get a power hammer I will cut have to have a hole cut in the floor on my shop cut out and a concrete pad repoured to put in it. The floor in my shop is only 4in thick need at least 6in for a power hammer.
I too envy you to have a new shop designed to be a blade working shop starting out.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Feb 6, 2016 10:46:44 GMT
Thanks ChrisA, where are you at now? My old place was in the residential area of a fairly expensive little city on a 50 foot wide lot; I could (no kidding) hear the neighbor snore at night in the house next door. I hated it. No space to do anything, no privacy, no quiet time without traffic noise or people talking or dogs barking. I'm sure I'll miss the convenience of a 5 minute drive to the grocery store, but there are so many good trade-offs. If you can do it without the hassle of a terribly long commute to work, I highly recommend it Have you considered sound insulation towards the house ? we may love the ring of hammer on hot steel but the other half may find it a little wearing after a bit.
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Post by brotherbanzai on Feb 8, 2016 15:54:04 GMT
Thanks RicWilly, feel free to stop by if you are ever in the area.
Hey L Driggers (fallen), the pad is 6" thick with a footer around the perimeter. I'm currently planning on a forge press rather than a power hammer, though I'd like a power hammer at some point as well. It would have been good to plan on a thicker, reinforced area for a power hammer from the beginning, but won't know exactly where everything will be set up until I start actually using the space. All my mental plans for the layout went out the window what I had to use a different size building without the lean-to.
Thanks for the tip aussie-rabbit, but that won't be necessary in this case :) I'm generally at work while she's at work, so she's not home when I'm in the shop most of the time. Also, at my old house (where she also lived for the last 6 years) the "shop" was in the little garage which was part of the house and it was never a problem then. So if anything, this should be an improvement as far as noise goes.
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Post by Lukas MG (chenessfan) on Feb 8, 2016 16:06:32 GMT
Please keep posting pics, I am ogling them and dreaming of the day I will finally be able to set up a proper shop myself.
REALLY envious. In a good way ;)
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Post by L Driggers (fallen) on Feb 9, 2016 5:52:47 GMT
If you are at 6in and it has the right reinforcing you are fine in less you get a monster mechincal power hammer. I really want to get a press first too a Uncle Al's. When I get a power hammer I want a air powered one. Looking at KZ100 right now, but I'll probably end up building a spare tire hammer at first. Do you have a anvil already.
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Post by brotherbanzai on Feb 24, 2016 23:45:25 GMT
Here are some more pics chenessfan :) As soon as you have the ability to set up a shop, definitely do it. I only waited so long because my previous property didn't physically have the room, and I wasn't about to waste money renting a space. Sucks not having an adequate space to work in. I had an electrician come and run wiring to the new shop and install some basic stuff to get me going; one large overhead light with wall switch, a few 4 plug outlets, and a couple of 40 amp 220 outlets. The breaker box has plenty of room for expansion and I had him put in an extra junction box so I can add more lighting as needed. I'll put in whatever else I need myself now that the hard work has been done. And here it is, cluttered up already. Some of the stuff in here is only temporarily stored until the slurry room, overhangs, and some other stuff is built. Here is the 30 gallons of "actual" quenchant I picked up the other day. Behind that are the target stands I put together for the range, they'll be stored out at the range once I get a shipping container or something out there. Still need to get a large steel table and replace some equipment I left behind or gave away when I moved. Hey L Driggers, I'm not familiar with the Uncle Al's press. Looks like it's $1000 cheaper than the one I was looking at from Carolina Custom Knives. I'll probably end up building my own. I want to save some funds to put toward replacing at least one of the bikes or the convertible I sold to buy the new property. I have a few "anvil like objects" but not a real anvil, might never bother getting one unless I stumble on a nice large one for a good price. I have the 3 foot section of RR track I started with, then little Chinese 70lb anvil, and a 75lb rectangular block or O1 I was planning on mounting up to use for most of the hand work. And now here's the concrete for the footings on the new deck taking up a bunch of space. That's another big project, but will be a nice space for cutting practice and other outside activities.
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Post by L Driggers (fallen) on Feb 25, 2016 5:06:29 GMT
The Uncle Al's is what Walter Sorrels uses if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me. The Caroline press is a nicer looking press. I am 1 maybe 2 years form getting a press. Could built my own but just don't feel comfortable doing it myself.
You will love it if you ever get a good anvil makes a big different working on a good one. But they are expensive.
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Post by brotherbanzai on Feb 25, 2016 23:25:33 GMT
Funny, I remember seeing his press in some video of his I watched and thinking, "that's a nifty press". I like how it has the cylinder underneath (making it easier to move around the shop) but still presses from above. I really liked the Claiborne press which comes with 8 sets of dies, though it's $5000 plus whatever it costs to get it to you. I don't know anything about hydraulics, but I'm pretty sure I could build one if I bought that book by Jim Batson or something similar. I'll check into the Uncle Al's some more and maybe give them a call.
I've used a 300 or so pound anvil at a friend of mine's shop and it definitely is much nicer to work on. I'm always on the look out for one, but as you say, they're pricey.
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Sean (Shadowhowler)
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Post by Sean (Shadowhowler) on Feb 26, 2016 0:38:38 GMT
But... but... have you set up a range to do some shooting yet? I wanna bring my 'Ghost Gun' out for some fun. ;-) I typically go to the GA RenFaire once a year, sometimes twice. You are certainly close enough for me to drop by sometime.
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