The Hunt!/Eric's new dump.

[ericjon262]

Shop passed it's electrical inspection, I'm working on getting it cleaned up and organized while I wait on the power company to come out and quote the drop. I'm hoping I don't shit my pants when they quote it.

I've been working on clearing the property, especially along the fence line, in the process, I found an old Pontiac hubcap, it's pretty cool, I figure clean it up and will look great as wall art.

[ericjon262]

I've been tearing into the brush around the shop and the property line, it's been a giant mess.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at here, it was in the woods, along with a ton of other debris.



I'm guessing its for a fireplace or wood stove of some kind.

I also found this old washer, it's a shame appliances are stylized at all anymore.





next I need to work on getting this old stable pulled down, hopefully it won't be as much of a fight as I'm expecting it to be.

[ericjon262]

I've been weighing a ton of options with the house, I haven't put a dime into it yet, that can't be extracted out. As I've lived here, I've slowly figured out, that every part of this house is an addition, and that every part is built differently than the last.

The current problems:

Electrically, this place is a disaster, I've been trying to look away, but it's like a train wreck.
Huge footprint, small house. because of the overall layout of the house, I have a ~2000 sq ft house, that feels like 1000 sq ft.
the house is pretty close to the road, and the road is busy enough to bother me when I'm on night shift.

Originally, when I bought the place, I figured I could rearrange the floor plan a bit, to make the house feel bigger, or at least, more it's size.

this approximate the floor plan the yellow outline represents what I think was originally built:



the more I try and rearrange it to work, the more I realize it's not going to be easy, or financially responsible to do so, I would be in it 60% of the way to building a better house, and still have a odd shaped, uncomfortable house.

so, where do I go from here?

here's a terribly drawn aerial view of the property:

The road is black, the house purple with the "X" on it, and pool, blue, and the shop, yellow.



My plan, build a pole barn out back a ways (orange block) and start buying materials, keep large stuff under the pole barn, and keep stuff that needs to stay dry inside the house in one of the bedroom not in use, or one of the other rooms. I can stay in this dump of a house while I do it, and even do some pre-fab of the walls, then once I have everything together, build the foundation, and throw together a house relatively quickly.

it's not an ideal plan, but I want to maintain not having to make payments on anything but my mortgage, and I don't want to refi (unless I somehow am able to get an even lower rate).

The hardest part so far, is finding a set of plans that even remotely meet what I want. so far, I've only found a couple of plans that even come close to what I would want to build. most modern designs have lots of detail in the roof lines, with a bunch of gables and different pitches. I HATE THIS. it's ugly, expensive, hard to build, hard to maintain, more places to leak etc... I want simple, Ideally, I would like to find plans like this, but I'm not wild about the dormer design, I think two smaller dormers would look way better, and probably use less material overall.




I'm going to keep looking and see what I can come up with, I also need to look into the building codes, and make sure whatever plans I end up with are up to par.

[pmbrunelle]

most modern designs have lots of detail in the roof lines, with a bunch of gables and different pitches. I HATE THIS. it's ugly, expensive, hard to build, hard to maintain, more places to leak etc... I want simple

I agree with these feelings towards roofs, so when I picked my place, the plain gable roof weighed heavily in my decision.

Also I find that most house extensions reduce value (to me). It's very rare that an extension is well-integrated into the existing building.

[ericjon262]

I'd been trying to modify the plans above to make something more like what I wanted, and I was having trouble nailing down a plan that really worked, so I started looking at plans again, and found a couple that worked with less invasive modifications.

This plan is a on the small side of what I would consider, I'd prefer to be at about 1800 sq feet or so. I would change the roof to remove the dormers, cover the back deck at least partially, and make the front porch at least 8' deep.

https://www.houseplans.net/floorplans/5 ... FwIzUBL1iY

this plan is sized better, doesn't have the dormers, and has the front porch and deck covered. I wouldn't build it on stilts. The picture looks like the back of the house? IDK, that view is kinda meh. I may be able to work with it though. I think I would turn the "Tech center" into a 1/2 bath. of the plans I have looked at, I think this has the most to offer, but it is far from perfect.

https://www.houseplans.net/floorplans/1 ... y6WcUR8Uc4

[ericjon262]

Forgot to mention, shop got power on monday! I also picked up my air compressor and poured a small slab for it to sit on, I'll use redhead concrete anchors to hold it down.

[ericjon262]

I had a thought, which is usually a bad thing....

My shop doesn't have air conditioning, and it would be expensive to add. I have a pool, pools stay fairly cool year round. I need to run wire out to the pool to run the pump. The thought I had, was pumping pool water through a radiator, and then blowing air from in the shop accross the radiator, and back into the shop to cool it down a little bit on hot summer days. I get it this won't be nearly as effective as a AC unit, but it will take way less power to run, and use stuff that will be running anyways(the pool pump and fan(s).

Thoughts? I bet I could make it work stupid easy, without much additional work, as I need to run a pipe from the well behind the pool to the pool and shop anyways.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Not much different than a geothermal system.
In summer, a heat pump can dump way more heat into 50F water than 90F air. In winter a heat pump can pull way more heat out of 50F water than 20F air. Geothermal just pulls that water out of the well, accomplishes the heat transfer then pours the water back down the well.

[ericjon262]

Not much different than a geothermal system.
In summer, a heat pump can dump way more heat into 50F water than 90F air. In winter a heat pump can pull way more heat out of 50F water than 20F air. Geothermal just pulls that water out of the well, accomplishes the heat transfer then pours the water back down the well.

I've actually been considering geothermal cooling for the new house. I haven't invested any effort into the research yet though.

[pmbrunelle]

It's an interesting idea, and if you use an automotive radiator, it would also come with a compatible fan+shroud. Hose size might be small for a pool pump though, so maybe use two? I guess you would have to drain the water before winter comes to avoid freezing.

The evaporator on my house AC looks to be in a similar size range as an automotive radiator, but pool water is not as cold as chilled refrigerant.

********************************************************************************

At my dad's work, they have a flat roof (industrial type of thing, corrugated steel + membrane + tar + gravel). When the roof was done, they screwed up on the slopes to bring water towards the drains.

After it rains, pools of standing water remain, and the building is cooler (unintended side effect) as a result. Some points:
1. The surface of the water is shiny. This reflects the Sun's radiation better than the dry roof surface.
2. Heat from the building evaporates the water. As the water evaporates, heat is taken away.
3. Standing water may cause problems with insects and the diseases that come with them. This depends on where you live.
4. Your shop has a sloping roof, right? This idea might be hard to implement with a sloping roof.

[ericjon262]

It's an interesting idea, and if you use an automotive radiator, it would also come with a compatible fan+shroud. Hose size might be small for a pool pump though, so maybe use two? I guess you would have to drain the water before winter comes to avoid freezing.

The evaporator on my house AC looks to be in a similar size range as an automotive radiator, but pool water is not as cold as chilled refrigerant.

********************************************************************************

At my dad's work, they have a flat roof (industrial type of thing, corrugated steel + membrane + tar + gravel). When the roof was done, they screwed up on the slopes to bring water towards the drains.

After it rains, pools of standing water remain, and the building is cooler (unintended side effect) as a result. Some points:
1. The surface of the water is shiny. This reflects the Sun's radiation better than the dry roof surface.
2. Heat from the building evaporates the water. As the water evaporates, heat is taken away.
3. Standing water may cause problems with insects and the diseases that come with them. This depends on where you live.
4. Your shop has a sloping roof, right? This idea might be hard to implement with a sloping roof.

it does have a sloped roof, it would be quite difficult to implement something like that on it, and as you suggest, it would make for a mosquito infestation very quickly.

I figure for the idea to work, I'll need to have recirculate air in the garage, if I were to get an old air handler with a good coil in it, it would have way more surface area than a radiator, and a blower that moves more air. if I wanted to get extra special, I could install a heater.

Good point on draining in cold weather. I'm not sure it would get cold enough to freeze in the pipes with flow, but it is a possibility to keep in mind.

[Shaun41178(2)]

Get a ductless system

[ericjon262]

Get a ductless system

I could, but I think that will be a consideration for a bigger/better shop.


I dropped the compressor on the pad the other day, I need to run wire and setup a heat exchanger. I also need to put a note on it that says something to the effect of "add oil jackass"

[The Dark Side of Will]

A prominent duct tape note with "NO OIL" is good, especially if you have to remove it in order to damage the machine

[ericjon262]

I have the plasma cutter about halfway assembled. Hats off to Langmiur Systems, their instructions are very detailed, and pretty easy to follow. Each hardware bag is labeled, both by size, and by number, there's absolutely no guesswork involved.

[ericjon262]

a little further, so far, I only have one gripe. the gussets and side skirts that bolt onto the legs and frame are secured with self drilling screws, I think they could have done better, but oh well.



Some of my mild OCD tendancies struck while connecting the stepper motors.

[ericjon262]

I spent a not insignificant amount of time working in the shop this week. Hypertherm specs a 100 Amp breaker for the Powermax 85! I ran the wire, and got the circuit ready to go.

The wire for a 100 amp circuit is no joke.



it works though!



I also wired a circuit for the air compressor



The start capacitor on the compressor had been damaged at one point, I had to replace it, and the belt which was flopping around like a fish out of water. Speaking of water, the humidity around here is such that if I press the tank up to about 5-10 PSI and then vent it, you can actually see the moisture leaving the tank with your naked eyes! gross. The plasma cutter won't like that at all, so when I was at the junkyard, I took the AC condenser off of one of the Suburban's I took parts off of, and stuck it to the wall, then ran the discharge of the compressor to the condenser.



it's really ghetto, but it definitely works



Will suggested that I lay the condenser down flat to improve convection airflow, I'll probably do it later this week.

I have had this tiny little 8 gallon, 2 hp compressor that I got for free in Washington, I had been keeping it to use as a receiver for the condensed water out of the condenser. I took the compressor off, and made a quick and dirty mount kit to mount it to the wall below the condenser.



I got it 99% of the way plumbed in, but I'm short 1 tube nut... DOH! oh well, I'll pick one up when home depot opens in a few hours.

Back inside the shop, I've been working diligently to get the CNC table assembled, after a few minor hiccups, I was able to test the motion axis, so far, everything is working as desired.



When I ordered the table, I had ordered it with a razorweld plasma cutter, which uses a hand torch mounted to the table, I found a deal on a WAY bigger Hypertherm, so I bought it and a machine torch, unfortunately, the machine torch isn't compatible with the hand torch mount...





I ordered a machine torch mount, but langmuir seems to be dragging their feet, I'm probably going to make one tomorrow if I don't get a shipping confirmation...

I'm also waiting on the interface cable that interfaces table with the Plasma, I might make that too...

So far, I only have 2 complaints about the Crossfire pro table:

1. leg gussets and skirts are installed using self drilling screws, it seems a little sloppy when the legs and crossbeams have drilled holes for other components already.

2. The water table... it's a terrible design, it's shipped in 2 halves, that get siliconed and bolted together, then more self drilling screws attach the water table to the table, through the bottom.... WHAT? do you want it to leak? The way I see it, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. the drains are also a these big brass fittings, that have no way to actually tighten them.... I'll be extremely surprised if I don't find myself making a new water table very shortly after getting this up and running.

[ericjon262]

I got the missing tube nut yesterday morning at 6 am on the dot. got home and got everything installed. The heat exchanger is definitely working, but I think angling it off the wall will significantly improve performance.



I also discovered the compressor has a pressure release to bleed pressure off of when the compressor stops, so that when it starts it's not fighting 100 psi on startup. The tank has a small check valve in the top, to stop air from bleeding off through the bleeder. the system is currently configured like this:



the issue with this configuration is that the air in the condenser and the small tank has nothing to keep it from going through the bleeder. this wouldn't really be a big deal except for there's about 8 gallons of air in the small tank, so it bleeds off for a while.

I took the check valve out of another compressor, and am going to install it in a large piece of pipe and make a drop leg, to install after the condenser. it will still have to bleed off more air than it originally did, but not 8 gallons.



I plan to make these improvements when I get off work either tonight or tomorrow.

[draven]

Eric,

just catching up on everything here since last year.... you're right across the border in SC, right? You aren't too far from where the GA Fiero club meets on the east side meetups...

cool property, shed, etc...!

[ericjon262]

Eric,

just catching up on everything here since last year.... you're right across the border in SC, right? You aren't too far from where the GA Fiero club meets on the east side meetups...

cool property, shed, etc...!

Thanks!

Yep! I'm about 45 minutes from Augusta I'll have to try and make it to a meet, need to do a bit more tuning first though. and get some road miles on the car to get good and comfortable with it, it still has it's cranky moments here and there that I would like to iron out before I trip it too far. I also wouldn't mind trying to setup a east coast(west too if you want to make the trip...) meetup.

I was shooting shit in the breakroom at work with a couple of buddy's, and a guy I work with chimed in and asked if I wanted to by a car lift...



me? never? how much? at first he wouldn't give me a price, so I said $200, he said his bottom was $500, I went and looked. It's a little small for what I really want, but it will work great for the Fiero, the Gran Damn, and maybe the Suburban/2500HD shenanigans. buying it does mean I'll need to pour a slab to put it on, so it will take a not insignificant amount of planning to decide where exactly to put it.

In other unrelated news, I've officially decided that caving in the pool will be in my best interest. it will be too much work, for pretty much no gain that I can see. it will also clean up the yard a ton to have that eyesore gone, and make it easier to get into/out of the workshop. I'm not sure when I'll tackle that, I know it will be a nightmare though.