Office Desk

The apartment's loft (office) has never been finished, the finished flooring has not been installed, it has been covered with plastic for the last 15 years.  My sister, Carolyn, did me a favour and removed all of the plastic in preparation on doing something about finishing the floor.

With the loft floor in the starting stages of progress, I decided I needed to try to take my oak desk apart, as it will not fit up the stairs to the loft in one piece.  I thought it  was glued together, but just a few lot of screws. Getting this task done, mean just that much more space in the High Bay as two or three shelves will be empted and moved to the loft.

Now to figure out what to cover the plywood floor? Carpet, wood or just a clear finish?

The loft will be my Hanger Shop Office and Formal Ham Station - and with the addition of a cot a spare bedroom, if and when needed.

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Nine High Bay Lights

Thanks to my Son and Sister (Carolyn), all nine Shop High Bay Lights are installed, and working.  With about 1 minute of warm-up they provide good light.  The Lights are Outdoor 65watt CFL's from Lowe's Hardare, they are mounted at the 21 foot level. More light at shop floor level would be better, but these will work for now.

Installed High Bay Lights

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Two More High Bay Lights

I purchased two more High Bay Lights, but when I got them home, one was crushed inside the Cardboard box - it will be returned.

I did some experiments building a shield using sheet metal flashing, but so far it looks like a lot of work for a 360 degree shade.  I may decide to just buy chimney rain collers.

I worked on the lawn mower, it has been missing on one cylinder for a long time - I just had not had time to fix it before.  I cleaned the plugs - it started up on both cylinders, but then a large cloud of smoke came out of the exhaust. The smoke is from oil that had driped into the cylinder with out it firing.  Too much smoke to continue running for now in daylight.  I know the problem, the oil is diluted with gas from the fuel pump, which has filled up the oil sump - it should be drained and new oil installed.  The fuel pump must be leaking into the oil sump - again.  I would like to replace the stock fuel pump with an electric so this problem can be forever avoided.

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Hanger Door Problem and Solution

While Jeff was here at the Shop today, the main Hanger Door stopped working - again!

This time I know where to start looking for the problem - I decided to jumper-out the anti-theft delay timer - everything started working correctly.

Now I will have to replace the timer to get proper delayed open action.

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Some High Bay Lighting Experiments

I purchased another Outdoor 65W CFL to try some shade experiments for the High Bay Lighting.  This is the second of what will be a minimum of nine if all goes well.

Jeff - KO7M - came by and helped me install the new light in the High Bay. Jeff operated the Forklift while I was up on the forks at the 21 foot level at the ceiling. He has never ran a forklift before, but is a quick study and all went well.

The thing that I wanted to try was using a  round "chimney rain shield" as a shade/reflector for the light.  With the test complete - I think it will work quit well.  The rain shield are about $11.00 online - I may be able to build something cheaper with normal sheet metal flashing.

The need for the shield is that it prevents a flood of light into the apartment at eye level - which is very distracting or worse.

Thanks, Jeff for the help

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High Bay Lighting

Problem and Status

The High Bay Lighting is 15 years old and six of the 9, 300 watt bulbs, have burned out - what is more, the bulb elements are no longer available.

I have found "Outdoor 65 watt CFL" lights that may work for general lighting in the High Bay, they produce nice bright white light at 6500K and they are instant-on because of the ballast (I think). They are about $30 at the local build supply store.

The only real problem with them is they provide too much light at the Apartment level as they are at eye level while standing in the Apartment, a shade in that direction will be necessary.

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Low Bay Heating

Problem and Status

My hanger is in the shade of tree most of the day, and therefore it stays cool or cold most of the time.  To work in the lower bay (under the apartment) some heat will be necessary.

Previously I had installed a "block burner" to help heat the low bay, but it and the chimney was removed for other property (the Ranch Shop). 

During the move I found time late in the evening to reinstall a chimney and hook up the retrieved "block burner" and now I have some heat for the low bay.

Some new chimney element were necessary, but the went together without too much trouble.

I have been saving block and scraps of wood to burn.

Later, I plan to install "Propane" to heat the low bay and the above Apartment. Currently I am using Electricity to heat the Apartment. The Apartment is well insulated but I have not received my first electric bill yet to see the damages.

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Hanger Doors

Problem and Status

After setting idel for the last 15 years the Large Hanger Door would not open reliablely. The up and down latching control relays would not latch to provide power for the door operation.

This was a real pain for the last 100 days as I was moving, manual holding in of the relays was necessary to operate the doors.  The door operation takes about a minute to open - hold the relay by hand was done on a ladder up about 10 feet.

I tried to trouble shoot the problem, but with the time available did not find or fix the problem.

Yesterday, I spent about 3 hours on ladders checking the door control circuits. And, as you would expect I found the problem the last place I checked - a blade connector was intermitting at on the relay delay circuit device.  A quick pinch of the clip connector fixed the problem.

The Doors works as normal from the connivance of the remote switch station near the doors.  This is GRAND!

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Well Pump and Water System

The Problem and Status

The well and pump has not been used in about 15 years, and it was not completely installed. The water pressure switch at the well needed to be hooked up, but was temporary while I was moving in.  The pressure tank is located in the Shop about 60 feet away - which is problem. The pump and tank are too far apart for proper operation - I had to restrict the well head flow to avoid "Slugging" within the feed water plumbing. Again, a temporary fix was to restrict the water connection to the pressure switch and install a rise pipe (an air chamber) at the switch. Now the pump can run full flow to the remote pressure tank.

As it turns out, this may be the final configuration (even though I may change the implementation) as this saves me from having to build a larger pump house to hold the pressure tank and then plan to heat it in the winter.  With this configuration only a small pump house will be needed.

The well is 160 feet deep and 8 inches in diameter  with a (poor) refill rate of 2 gal per minute. It does fill to about 20 feet from the top. The well can be drained in 30 minutes at 10 gal per minutes.  This is not much, but will be OK for my Hanger and Apartment.

It is nice to have reliable showers, bathroom and wash machine water.

I will live with the current configuration until summer.


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Why This Blog

This blog is not intended for the general public, it is notes to myself and history for my Grand Kids, But, all blog readers are welcome.

It is a "log" of my progress of setting up my Shop and Hanger for my own use.

Due to a divorce of 42 years, I have moved my work Shop and personal property to my previously own Hanger with a small apartment.

I will be only spending some of my time here, because I will be spending most of my time on my Boat.

This blog is a place to save my Shop Goals and Progress, and a place to save Web Links for later use.

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