The New Shop

lnlogauge said:

The answer to your internet is 2 ubiquiti nanobeam m5s. Seriously. Don't run cat5. You'll be maxing out the distance cat5 can run without a repeater anyway. 

I have the nanobeams 300ft apart. My internet transfer speed is about the same, the latency went up like 10m/s. It's impressively good. Been running it a year with absolutely zero issues. They go up to like 10 miles with line of site, so you should be good on distance.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N9ZIEJC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_GfyYAbFDA978N

Two of those plus an access point, right?

Here's the video where Jamie talks about it.

https://youtu.be/EA1jeViV4l8

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Right. i have a modem with a wireless router on one side, with the nanobeam connected to the router. The other house has a nanobeam connected to a wireless router. No settings were needed on the routers. Figuring out nanobeams was the only challenging part. Once I found the right installation guide it was easy. 

Nanobeam 5Ms and an access point ordered.

I'm definitely going with a 4x8 lean-to for the compressor. I'll pour a little pad for it and put some insulation in the walls. I'll also put a stub for a future water line through the pad so if/when I do trench down from the house I'll be able to hook it up and keep all the lines protected from frost. Gotta figure out the house end of all that. It's more important right now to get the lean-to built than it is to get the water done.

I'm also looking at the lift layout. It's a 10,000 lb Bend Pak that's a surplus unit from work. 11' wide. Most of the cars I work on are 14' long, but I will want the ability to put the 20' long Cadillac or 2500 on it. I am willing to accept the occasional inconvenience under exceptional circumstances if it means that I can use the shop for something other than a roof over the lift.

I'm thinking of 3' between the lift and the side wall shelves, which of course translates to more like 5.5' between the side of the car and the "wall". I'll set it up so that a 20' car will be up close to the wall - I'll point the side I'm not working on at the wall. I do have some big rolling workbenches that are 20" deep, so I can put those in front of the lift and move them when the big vehicle is in the air.

1000 words worth of pictures. The dark blue square with the Miata shows the max width of the actual lift, the black squares are the posts. I think this layout leaves a lot of room around the lift but there's still parking for 4 other cars with the buffer even if two of them are 20' long.

Keith Tanner said:

Nanobeam 5Ms and an access point ordered.

This is the guide you want.

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205142890-airMAX-How-to-Configure-a-Point-to-Point-Link-Layer-2-Transparent-Bridge-

Not sure if you know all this, but it took me awhile to figure out. 

to communicate with them, you have to change your IP to match. 

control panel
network and sharing center
change adapter settings
right click on your network card
Internet protocol verison 4 properties
change from obtain IP automatically to use the following address
IP address 192.168.1.100
Subnet 255.255.255.0
default gateway 192.168.1.1

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I’m sure it depends on your expected use of the lift, but I think I’d prefer to have it closer to the door, with room in front for storage/parking. That way I didn’t need to move a(potentially non-running) vehicle to get access to the lift. 

Then again, if you plan on using your home-lift for long-term projects that may be (literally) up in the air for a while, and can access a lift at work when needed during those times, then I understand you wanting it toward the back of your shop. 

Interesting, I hadn't thought of that. I was thinking primarily of long-term builds, and also this way the fairly sprawling lift setup won't get in the way of bringing cars in and out of that 16' door. If I put the lift by the door I'll make it really difficult to squeeze a car past so I wouldn't have access to parking in the back. I guess it's up to me not to park dead cars just inside the 16' door! The goal is more functioning vehicles than non-functioning, which seems like a good idea to me

For what it's worth (not much, I suspect) I don't actually like a lift for long term builds.  I move the car back and forth between the fab table, tall jack stands and cribbing under the tires as needed.  I love a lift for short term repairs.  If it were me.  I'd put the lift by the door and use that for parking , short term project and repairs.

But how do I get to the parking if someone put a lift in the way?

I tend to think of it as long term because that's what we concentrate on here at FM, and most of my upcoming lift requirements are of the "first the engine comes out" variety. But mostly I didn't want the lift in the way of day to day use, and if I can't get past it I've just lost the biggest chunk of my day-to-day parking.

The rear of the shop will be the working area, with the welder bench, heat and tool storage back there. The front is for parking because I hate to have to move multiple cars to get one out.

If you could solve this layout dilemma before I build the new shop, that would be swell... 

If you're putting a lean-to on anyway,  any chance it's going on the side with the narrow garage door? Maybe put a couple of man doors into the lean-to from inside the shop, one on each end, and put the lift in front of the smaller garage door? Man doors to/through the lean-to would let you put the lift essentially against the wall and still be able to get around both sides of something on it.

That would leave you a maximum of space around the lift,  plus your drivers would be coming and going through the bigger door and when you have to line up for the narrow door you are essentially lining up for the lift too.

Set your workspace up behind the lift, maybe with a storage loft over the top, and you have the maximum amount of of unobstructed space possible at the only expense a more difficult walk around one side of the lift.

If you really want to get the sound deadened in the lean-to. Get some uneven length cone shape foam.They use them in the quiet rooms and they deaden the sound amazingly well. Put them on the ceiling and two walls bingo nice and quiet. Do all the walls and the ceiling and I doubt you will even hear it running. Also for the compressor noise we use transformer pads. They come in different sizes and work well to isolate the vibration from the compressor. 

My original thought was to put the lift in line with the narrow door, but it's fairly close to the wall - maybe 2'. That means the lift post would have to basically be in contact with the wall, which means very little room to work on one side. I spend more time on suspension stuff than engine stuff, so that's a nope. 

This is a good thought exercise guys, much appreciated. It's making me seriously consider things I wouldn't have come up with.

Brad (if I may call you Brad instead of the more formal brad131a4), that's a good suggestion. I'll check out the insulating value of the stuff, as I do want to vent the lean-to into the shop in the winter so I can keep it above freezing as suggested earlier.

I'll see if I can come up with a diagram of the full shop layout I have in mind, including the two windows and man door.

To be honest, this thought process is one of the main reasons I want a Max Jack over a stationary 2-post if I don't have space to really dedicate as a service bay. I'm willing to give up being able to stand under the car for the ability to get the lift out of the way for the 90% of the year I probably won't need it.  Plus, in a shop like yours, I'd just put anchors in multiple locations depending on what I was doing: longish term project - in the back. Need to do some quick service and don't want to move a bunch of winterized cars out into the snow - in the front.

It's decisions like these that make me want to get one of These.

Congrats on the new place. You've got a great start!

For the lean to, I'd seriously consider spray foaming the walls/ceiling. It will insulate better than anything else, suppress noise to the outside, and increase the strength of the lean to at the same time.

I've had a lift in the back for a bit over a year now and it's on something like it's fourth long term project being held in the air. Only now have I figured out how to use the space. 

For me the key is to keep parking spot between the lift and the door as open as possible. Parking "good" cars there is a pain. Needing to move them happens surprisingly often and it's never on a day when I'd drive them regularly. That means that I have to either plan way ahead (which I suck at) or go inside, wash up, change clothes, move the car, go back inside, change clothes again, work, and put the good car back at the end of the day. What I think works, for me anyway, is to keep the dailiest of the dailies behind the lift. The car that is most often moved or gone anyway. In my case that means that we're now parking the Volt in that space and it's gone every day when my wife drives it to work. Doing it this way lets me have an open work bay for oil changes and swapping tires for autocross and all of the general day long maintenence that goes with owning a fleet. 

For what it's worth, the more I use my lift the more lifts my ideal garage has. My next wish is for an outdoor pad with a lift so that I can either work outside in nice weather (which I enjoy) or put a car in the air, pull the wheels and power wash the underside before digging into a project. 

Don't forget that the lift goes up and down.  If you have the lift near the door, then you just raise the lift and drive underneath it to get to the parking at the rear of the building.

This is exactly what I want. I've been looking for properties on a little land with a workspace like that and they are $$$ here in the San Antonio area. 

Your view is amazing from that shop!

mazdeuce - Seth said:

For what it's worth, the more I use my lift the more lifts my ideal garage has. My next wish is for an outdoor pad with a lift so that I can either work outside in nice weather (which I enjoy) or put a car in the air, pull the wheels and power wash the underside before digging into a project. 

Totally.  Outside lifts are not uncommon, even up here in the snow belt.  It seems most lifts are surprisingly weather resistant. 

How many lifts are enough?  Probably one more than you have... 

docwyte said:

Don't forget that the lift goes up and down.  If you have the lift near the door, then you just raise the lift and drive underneath it to get to the parking at the rear of the building.

Yes, but being 11' wide it turns a two-car door into a one-car door and then you have to futz around behind the lift trying to move cars sideways. I've had a garage where the back parking space (where I built long-term projects) could only be accessed by turning the car sideways, and that is not something I will be repeating. I am okay with occasionally having to move a car to gain access to the lift, and the lift gives me a reason for my work area to be a bit more spacious than it would be otherwise.

One lift will be enough. If I need access to another, I'll use one at the FM shop.

Ian F said:

mazdeuce - Seth said:

For what it's worth, the more I use my lift the more lifts my ideal garage has. My next wish is for an outdoor pad with a lift so that I can either work outside in nice weather (which I enjoy) or put a car in the air, pull the wheels and power wash the underside before digging into a project. 

Totally.  Outside lifts are not uncommon, even up here in the snow belt.  It seems most lifts are surprisingly weather resistant. 

How many lifts are enough?  Probably one more than you have... 

It's just freaking amazing how often having one car up on a lift seems to create the need to put a different car up there!  It must be the result of some kind of undiscovered universal principal, like the ability of 10 mm sockets to disappear.

Keith, something to think about with your lift placement is that going from a 14' Miata to a 20' Cadillac (or the 2500 pickup) may not add an even 3' front and back. It might be even on the Cadillac, but more rear biased on the truck. It's all about the balance point of the vehicle, location the lift points, and the range of the lift arms. You may want to get a little more detailed with your 1,000 words diagram before settling on a final location for the lift. The lift installation instructions would likely have some information about this.

I've had my truck on one of these lifts before. Maybe I'll drive it on again and measure. 

You weren't kidding when you said you lived on the edge of town. Damn it.

I need to get up there soon. 4 trips to Denver this year already for lass than 2 full days each is just killing me :) Since the internet issue is handled, that's all I was going to add.