Author: Joe Hohenfels

Elgin Cabinets – Part 2

Got a bit more work done. Put a Red Oak trim around the top and sanded it down:
Few coats of Poly and sand paper:

Next cut up the drawer faces, Polly and sanded like the top. And mounted them up:

You can see in the above picture I got the bottom cabinet slide out drawer bottoms cut. I also have the sides cut but dont have them pictured. Hope to get those made and installed this week.

Elgin Cabinets – Part 1

Started on the cabinet lowers. There are 6 sets for a total length of of about 20 feet of counter top. The basic idea for the cabinets came From Norm and the New Yankee workshop, garage workshop series.
Here is a shot of one of the lowers going together:
Here are all the base cabinets lined up, leveled, and mounted to the wall:
Drawers installed:
2×4 with lap joints for the counter top:

Here is the counter top plywood screwed on:

Here is a shot of what we have right now:

Elgin Shop – Table Saw and Out Feed

Got everything moved in and starting to put it all together. The first thing to go back together is the Table saw. There was a little bit of rust on the saw and router table.

And

WD-40, steel wool, and a little elbow grease got most of it out. I am going to use metal polish and my normal maintenance to get it finished out:

Next I attached the shop made DIY – Biesemeyer fence rails and side table

Next up was the OutFeed Table. Pretty much the same as I did HERE. Couple shots of the new one:

And:

I will put the bottom shelf and the miter slots in and call it done.

Elgin Shop – Electrical – Floor Plugs

I could not find any instructions on finishing and putting plugs in the Raco 98.0 cu. in. Non-Metallic Floor Box. I put in our foundation http://hq38.hohenfels.com/2013/12/shop-finishing-foundation.html So, here is what I did to get them finished and installed. I used standard plugs and the Raco 1-Gang 1/2 in. Non-Metallic Round Floor Box Cover.
First, I cut the floor box as flush as I could with the concrete floor using a Dremel Multi-Max tool. When they finished the concrete they created a “lip” around the box, so without more work than I want to do, I can not cut it flush with the rest of the floor. The Raco 1-Gang 1/2 in. Non-Metallic Round Floor Box Cover will not be 100% flush with the entire floor. For me that is not a huge issue.
Then put the 4 metal clips in the slots of the plug holder. I had to use a flat tip screw driver to clean out the slots, the Dremel tool melted some plastic into them during the cutting process. Then placed the plug holder on the screws and tightened them down. The 2 all plastic screw holes are where the plug will be placed. You will need to keep this in mind so you orient you plug the way you want it.
Then removed the ears and wired up the plug. Not pictured: I wrapped the connectors with electric tape.
Then put the eyelets in the cover.
Then put the ring plate down and screwed in the plug.
Dropped in the foam cover and put in the center screw.
Then installed the plug cover with the 4 included screws.
Done installing!
Hope that some one finds this useful, Please let me know if you have any questions.

Elgin Shop – Floors

We got the shop floor finished. We used 2 of the Epoxy-Coat kits “384-fl oz Interior High-Gloss Garage Floor Light Gray Epoxy-Base Paint and Primer in One”

We swept all the large stuff out and scrapped what we could off the floor. Then we sprayed it out with the hose and cleaned up with a large squeegee.

Then we used a half Muratic acid water mix in a hand sprayer over the whole floor, then rinsed and squeegeed again. The floor is pretty rough to begin with. Let it dry over night and then ran a lightly damp mop over it. When we finished, you could run your hand over the floor and it would be clean.


We made our own measuring stick for double batches. The one that comes with it is not very good, the lines disappear after the first patch. We transferred the lines from the stick to a scrap piece of ½ inch EMT we had, used a pipe cutter to etch in the lines.


We then prepared and applied as instructed in the included video:


Think it came out pretty good!


We need to touch-up the walls a bit, but over all happy with the way it went down. Time will tell.

Elgin Shop – Electrical Part 3- We Have the Power!

We have the power! Hooked up and on when needed. The panel is exposed and we turn everything off when not in use.


With the breakers in and a couple hooked-up:


Then we started hooking up the plugs:


And:


Started on the other side:


We will continue installing the shop plugs and then the lights. We are going to put the caps back on the floor plugs and hook them up after we do the floor. Then we will shift to the back room, we want to get the shop done first so we can start moving stuff in and use it.

Elgin Shop – Electrical Part 2


What a weekend! The trenching was done Friday after work, went better than expected and we finished the evening ready to lay conduit and 3 strands of 2/0 and one run of #4.

Well….we had no idea that 2/0 was so unforgiving! We laid out the conduit straight to make the run easier, soaped up the cables, and used the riding lawn mower to pull it through.

We then dropped it in the trench and buried it up:

We started early and I really thought we would be done in time to go to town for lunch. We finished up around 6 in the evening, learned a lot and had some quality family time.

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