[The Hobbyist]

I am building a business slowly, and things are moving along ... slowly.

http://www.aguyintown.com

I now have five CNC machines, one 4x4 PlasmaCam table that I use for plasma cutting, one 5x10 Samson table (Made by PlasmaCam) for my plasma cutting of larger sheets, one 5x10 Samson table with a router mounted in place of the plasma torch for routing operations, and two new 2x2 Go Torch machines (also made by PlasmaCam). One will have a light duty router on it, while the other will have a low power laser mounted to the carriage. :smile:

I used my 510 table with a DeWalt 611 router and a 1/16" bit to experiment routing into solid surface material. I sure like the results!

 

[The Hobbyist]

I like the machines, and I really like the software. They are capable of a lot.

 

[The Hobbyist]

I have vendor booths in Owensboro, Greenville, Madisonville, two in E-town, and one in Whitehouse, TN.

Joe

 

[The Hobbyist]

Love the sign. I'll bet your shop is way bigger than most... that's an impressive list of machinery!

Well ... :nerd: ... the wood shop certainly is. Affectionately known as "FrankenBarn," (my cousin calls it "Barnzilla") it started out as an idea to tear down a 108-year-old tobacco barn and replace it with a 600 sq. ft. wood shop, 20'x30' on a concrete pad. We were about to begin the project when my neighbor came over ...

"Hey Joe. Does your home have a basement?"

"No. Why would I need a basement?"

"Well, since you're building a new work shop, you might think about putting a small tornado shelter into the foundation, so you have a place to go if a tornado comes this way."

Having just moved to Kentucky from CommieFornia, I never gave any thought to tornadoes. So the contractor came over to discuss it.

"What would it cost, to add an 8'x8' concrete tornado shelter under the pad, you know, with a ladder and a metal door?"

He calculated the price. Then I thought, "Gosh, that seems small. What about 8'x10' ... no, 10' x12' ... Wait! What if I have friends over at the time. We would need chairs to sit it out ... let's go 12' x16' Then we can put in a stairway and store some food and water ..."

It ended up 32' x 48' with 10" thick, 9' tall 4,000 psi concrete walls with a 6" floor :surprise: Then we poured an additional 12' x 32' pad with a footing on the ground level to expand the length and give me a separate work bay for ... you know ... auto repair ... or maybe building an Ark. So the ground floor is 32' x 60'

When the 6x6 timbers arrived they were WAY too long.

"Joe, I'm sorry. I couldn't get the shorter ones, but we will cut these down to length. It will waste some money though, because it would be a long wait for the shorter timbers, and the discarded timbers will be too short to re-sell..."

"Wait! As long as they are that long, why don't we just go up one more floor?" And four guest bedrooms (unfinished yet) , each with it's own bathroom were born.

Then the roof. A low pitch? No way! I'm an old guy. I don't want to be stumbling around and tripping over studs to get at the Christmas ornaments and lights. So lets build a walking attic. Thus was designed the 12' x 60' attic with a 6' 6" center height, and no lumber to step over.

And just how would I get things from say ... the basement to the attic? Drag them up THREE flights of stairs on a dolly?! Nope. That is why I decided to add a residential elevator to the design. When completed, it will extend from the basement to the attic.

It was one of those things. "If we are doing this, we should also do THIS. And since we are doing that, it only makes sense to also do THIS. Now we might as well go ahead and do THIS as well ..."

What began as a 600 sq. ft. workshop ended up as a four story creation sporting 6,096 sq. ft. of usable space.

There is much more to this story, but as they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Enjoy!
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEbnBYk

 

[The Hobbyist]

That is a nice looking shop.

The size of FrankenBarn is deceiving. The shop is actually only 32 x 48, with the vehicle service bay extension making it 32 x 60. The height is ... just because. The bedrooms will be completed in a few years. I sort of started them, and then lost interest in finishing them. It is being used for storage and work space for now. The other building is the metal shop. It has the 5x10 plasma CNC table in it, along with a myriad of tools and other machines. In the photos at the end, you can see I am adding a 12' wide x 36' extension to it, because I ran out of room.

Joe

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[The Hobbyist]

I tend to jump into projects without fully knowing how they will come out.

Our town had the annual Christmas Parade. Franklin only has 9,000 people, but I decided to go for it, and make something they will talk about all year.

so I entered my truck into the parade. I have a 14-foot flatbed that used to be used as a motorcycle tow truck in southern CommieFornia. We started with the idea of a few kids sitting along the edges waving and tossing out candy. Maybe some Christmas garland and a wreath on the front grill ... you know ... simple. As with FrankenBarn, things just sort of morphed into something bigger as the project moved forward.

All of the drizzled frosting and the roof frosting was done with the Samson 510 CNC table and a router mounted to the carriage in place of a plasma torch. I also used the table to cut out the arched windows.


Joe

http://flic.kr/s/aHsm9YyefD

 

[The Hobbyist]

If you aren't having fun in life, you're doing it wrong.

Joe

 

[The Hobbyist]

I am so excited! My solid surface material order is arriving soon. I can't wait to see what I can create with it. I was leery about this stuff. I thought it might be brittle or hard to route, but it routes like a stick of butter!

Joe

.

 

[The Hobbyist]

That sounds great Joe!
I want all your offcuts and scraps!
That stuff is great for outdoor signs. Joe.

I have NO IDEA how to color in the routed regions of solid surface material. I experimented with using simple flat spray paint, sanding the top surface after the paint is dry to produce a nice crisp edge. However, I do not know if the paint will STICK to it, or if it will flake off over time.

Any helpful hints or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Joe

 

[The Hobbyist]

I am building a business slowly, and things are moving along ... slowly.

http://www.aguyintown.com

I now have five CNC machines, one 4x4 PlasmaCam table that I use for plasma cutting, one 5x10 Samson table (Made by PlasmaCam) for my plasma cutting of larger sheets, one 5x10 Samson table with a router mounted in place of the plasma torch for routing operations, and two new 2x2 Go Torch machines (also made by PlasmaCam). One will have a light duty router on it, while the other will have a low power laser mounted to the carriage. :smile:

I used my 510 table with a DeWalt 611 router and a 1/16" bit to experiment routing into solid surface material. I sure like the results!

If you look closely at the sign, you begin to appreciate how nice this solid surface material really is. Those letters are routed with a 1/16" single flute bit. Look at the extremely thin segments between the "ili" in Military, and the "ll" in shall. Those walls must be 1/64" thin! Look at how the centers of the 'e" characters did not chip out under the stress and vibration of the router bit!

Joe

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[The Hobbyist]

Can someone point me to a source for a 1/32" router bit? Or do I just go with a ball engraving tip at that point?

Joe

 

[The Hobbyist]

I haven't been here for a while. A LOT has happened in the past several months. At the moment I am doing nothing with my machines. On Labor Day 2018, my back threw me to the ground in my shop. No cell service inside, so a 30-minute crawl with more pain than I ever thought I could feel finally got me a cell signal. 9-1-1 took me to a hospital where they told me my spine was "straight as a ruler" because my back muscles were having spasms, and they were straightening out my lower spine from stress.

So I am moving around again now, but still not back into my shop.

I bought a retail building on the Square in the center of town and remodeled the interior. Long story made short, the building is currently on the market again. I had six vendor booths to sell my metal and signs, but I recently closed all but one of them.

I started up a business, and things were going well, until ...

A Guy In Town

Now I am trying to decide what I will do in 2019.

Joe

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[The Hobbyist]

The Edsel plates were not the cause of the drama. It was other stuff. I have largely lost all faith in humanity as a result.

This was my latest endeavor. I invested a whole bunch of money into buying this building, and remodeling and improving it. It is up for sale again now, but if I get back into this, I may keep the building and try to make it work in 2019.

Joe

Retail Store Project