OCDFabworks Shop Projects: Anything Worth Doing is Worth Overdoing

[95riosnake]

Correct me if I'm wrong but for some reason I'm thinking the garage door is wooden?

 

Sand and stain it, lots and lots of varnish.  Would look awesome, imo.

 

The door is odd, it's a steel clad door that is solid wood inside. It weighs about 30,000lbs I believe lol. I would LOVE to have a natural wood door, but I'd have to get a new door and that isn't in the budget for a long time.

[Prokiller]

If it was just normal white I would probably leave it alone, but it's this terrible off white color that I've been finding in different places in the house. It isn't bad until you get bright white next to it, then it looks terrible. You can see what I mean in this pic:

 

 

So the garage door being so massive, it definitely needs something. I'll likely end up carrying the wall stripe scheme over it, but I've had a couple other ideas as well. We'll see, I need to scrub the hell out of the door first, and that hasn't been an appealing prospect to me yet lol.

i hear that.  we had some trim that was like that.  an off-white that didn't look bad...until you got white near it and then it looked horribly dirty.

[Blackmage]

nice garage space thus far Dan!  

[95riosnake]

I just about have the garage door opener install finished, but have a few finishing touches left to do. I'll be posting that once I get it finished but in the meantime I thought I would share a recent vintage tool acquisition of mine.

 

I've wanted a radial arm saw for a while, I know some people prefer a sliding compound miter saw, which I have, but having grown up with a radial arm saw in my dad's shop I still believe it has advantages in some situations. I'd been keeping an eye out for a nice vintage example on CraigsList for a while and came upon a listing for a Penncraft radial arm saw, no pictures, and an asking price of $50. Some quick online research told me that now defunct Penncraft was a line of machinery and tools sold by JC Penney in the 50s/60s that were largely rebranded Rockwell machines so I emailed the seller asking for a model number and pics. He emailed me a couple pics and I was interested, but I was busy with other things and a couple days went by before I remembered to respond. In the meantime, he emailed me again saying he really just wanted it out of his garage, and to make any offer at all. So I said what the hell, and shot over an offer of $25. He accepted and I told him I needed to line up a truck first but I would come pick it up asap. He said that he had a truck and would deliver for $10... naturally I took him up on that deal. So him and his father (the original owner) came and dropped it off, and even helped me get it down to the basement shop, gave me a quick crash course on running the saw and went on their way with a total of $35 in their pockets. I think I did well. Pics:

 

 

 

 

It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's a turret-style saw which is one of the more accurate designs in the RAS world, and everything was there and functioning properly. Some of you may recall a while back I scored a restored Delta Rockwell table saw and Craftsman band saw from a guy on CL who restores them as a hobby and to "save them from the scrap yard". When I picked those saws up I spent a good bit of time BS'ing with the guy and had kept in touch ever since, just keeping me updated on his various projects. Even though I usually do EVERYTHING myself, time is something that has been in short supply lately and it would be quite a while before I got around to fixing it up. I figured it was worth seeing if he was interested in fixing up the Penncraft for me. He said he would be happy to, and to bring it by anytime. So the Scion did some work.

 

 

I dropped it off at his house and, I shit you not, 5 days later he was finished restoring it. I told him to paint it light gray and said he could add red touches anywhere he saw fit (you all know my tendency toward the gray/red scheme lol). He sent me these pictures before I went to pick it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went and picked it up the next day and he had added a couple more touches of red, which I like personally. You may notice the base/stand is missing, that's because I decided not to restore it. The base was in really rough shape, mostly beyond the point of fixing, so I didn't bother. I plan to build this saw and my miter saw into a long work bench along one wall in the shop, so I don't need the stand anyway. It currently is on boards in the shop waiting for me to fix the shop up a bit before I build the bench for it.

 

Excuse the crappy pics; the basement shop needs a serious lighting upgrade. Three 60w bulbs aren't cutting it lol.

 

 

[Prokiller]

wow that guy does some amazing work in a short period of time.  that's a hell of a score Dan!

[95riosnake]

wow that guy does some amazing work in a short period of time.  that's a hell of a score Dan!

 

Thanks Ryan! Oh and I forgot to mention, the bill for his services came to $100... that's it. So for a grand total of $135 I have a rock solid, fully restored saw that will likely outlive me lol.

[Prokiller]

Thanks Ryan! Oh and I forgot to mention, the bill for his services came to $100... that's it. So for a grand total of $135 I have a rock solid, fully restored saw that will likely outlive me lol.

i was going to ask how much he charged you to restore it but i didn't want to pry.  figured if you didn't mention it there was a reason.  that makes it even better.  i'm all about doing things myself too but for that type of price it's hard to justify the time you would have spent doing it yourself.

[ttocs]

that's funny as I thought my dad was the only one that had a radial arm saw in his shop.  His is an old craftsman from the 70s I think he said.  Personally I would prefer a simple table saw but it is a handy tool.

[Blackmage]

wow good deal, thats a damn good price for his services.  

[Prokiller]

i can't believe over the holidays we didn't get an update here Dan.  color me disappointed. 

[95riosnake]

@Prokiller progress has been made, just haven't had a chance to post an update lol

[Prokiller]

you should buy this Dan

https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/tls/5391720651.html

[95riosnake]

you should buy this Dan

https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/tls/5391720651.html

 

Haha just what I need, more drill presses lol.

[95riosnake]

Ugh I miss that show @Evilcw311! Last Man Standing is pretty good too, but still not nearly as good as Home Improvement. But I digress...lol

[95riosnake]

I have a few projects to update this thread with, so I'm just going to do one at a time as I get a chance.

First up was the garage door opener, the existing opener was no doubt assembled shortly after the invention of the wheel so it needed to go. I do admit the faux leather housing almost swayed my decision to let it stay... just kidding lol.

The old:

I decided to go with a Liftmaster 8500, these are pretty cool units and they eliminate all the components mounted to the ceiling.

The first step was a tune up of the door to get it properly balanced. I ordered some tension adjustment rods and gave the springs 3/4 turn. Some people online are unnecessarily scared of this task, it's really not hard and as long as you position yourself out of harm's way there's nothing to worry about. It's definitely not worth paying someone $100+ to do it for you.

Mocked up the opener on the jack shaft:

Even at the longest setting of the slotted holes, the bracket didn't quite reach the wall.

A couple layers of 1/2" plywood made up the difference

I forgot to take a picture of it but I also made another bracket to mount to the left side, it's nice and solid now.

Attached the release cord

This traditional lock works, but the 8500 comes with an automatic lock so this won't be used anymore.

Drilled a couple mounting holes and a 3/4" hole for the lock cylinder above the second roller and mounted it up.

Also needed another block to mount the cable tension monitor (will stop the opener if the cable would ever snap or lose tension). Forgot to take a pic when I mounted it but you'll see it in other pics.

Used quarter round and cut a channel cut in the back with the table saw. Brad nailed it to the wall to hide the wires.

Next up was the long-awaited removal of the old opener.

Naturally they plastered over the brackets... smh.

This was the first of 4 coats of spackle that it took to get it all smoothed out.

There were some gaps between the garage door frame and the ceiling that bothered me, some quarter round fixed that up.

The nice, empty ceiling

I'm going to paint the tension rods soon, the rust isn't my style. Also the door tracks and brackets will get some paint to cover the paint they slopped all over them when they built the garage. The extension cord plugged into the opener is temporary. I need to add outlets all over the garage, so when I do I'll put one up next to the opener. All in due time though, lol.

[GTTRacing91PGT]

Hm. I never saw that type of opener. I like that it eliminates the motor on the ceiling. I may have to look into these! Looks like it is coming along nicely

[SublimeRT]

Bad ass work Dan! That is a really cool garage door opener. Kinda makes ya wonder why they weren't always set up like that. Really seems like the more logical way to do it. I like your use of all the quarter round, esp to hide the wires.

Did you remove and save that faux leather for a future project??

[Tabres]

Super envious.  I've wanted an 8500 for a long time.  They're just so expensive to justify when my two openers work just fine.

 

Kudos to you for adjusting your own springs.  I think you may have significantly underestimated your savings by doing it on your own, too.  I had one of my door springs snap on me in late summer.  It cost me almost $400 to have the new spring put in and everything lubed and adjusted.  And they were here maybe 25 minutes.  Felt like I had been robbed when I saw the bill and that the spring was not the bulk of the cost.

[95riosnake]

Hm. I never saw that type of opener. I like that it eliminates the motor on the ceiling. I may have to look into these! Looks like it is coming along nicely

 

Thanks! I love having the ceiling open. When I get around to mounting lights I'll have more freedom in the placement of the fixtures.

 

Bad ass work Dan! That is a really cool garage door opener. Kinda makes ya wonder why they weren't always set up like that. Really seems like the more logical way to do it. I like your use of all the quarter round, esp to hide the wires.

Did you remove and save that faux leather for a future project??

 

Haha nah it met the sad fate of the curb a month or so ago, no reclaimed faux leather for me lol.

 

Super envious.  I've wanted an 8500 for a long time.  They're just so expensive to justify when my two openers work just fine.

 

Kudos to you for adjusting your own springs.  I think you may have significantly underestimated your savings by doing it on your own, too.  I had one of my door springs snap on me in late summer.  It cost me almost $400 to have the new spring put in and everything lubed and adjusted.  And they were here maybe 25 minutes.  Felt like I had been robbed when I saw the bill and that the spring was not the bulk of the cost.

 

I wouldn't have dropped the cash on it if I had a nice, newer one already but since the existing one was ancient and I needed a new one, I figured why not go all out lol.

 

Damn $400 is rough, I don't blame you for feeling robbed lol!

[95riosnake]

I decided I needed to christen the new shop with a sign. I worked up some ideas and sent them off to a guy in western Canada who specializes in old school pinstripe-style sign making. A few weeks later a box was on my front porch.

 

 

A huge pizza?

 

 

Nope, just some old school flavor!

 

 

 

I love the details of the patina look he gave it, great craftsmanship

 

 

 

Decided to mount it away from the wall just a bit

 

 

 

Sorry for the shitty pic quality, I hadn't dug out the good camera yet and my iPhone wasn't agreeing with the lighting lol.

 

[95riosnake]

The green vinyl roller shades weren't really my style, to say the least lol. You can see one in this older pic:

 

 

I ordered some custom 2" aluminum blinds to bring the window treatment into this decade

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decided on a simple flat trim to keep things clean

 

 

I decided to paint the outer part of the window white and leave the frame wood toned because I actually like the look.

 

 

 

 

Found the screens for the windows in a pile in the attic, so I cleaned them up and put them in.

 

 

All finished up:

 

 

 

[SublimeRT]

That radial arm saw is really cool. I will have to look up some YouTube videos of one. Can't say I've ever seen a saw like it. It looks like it rotates on that column. Then it looks like it rotates on that arm extended from the column? And also slides front to back on a track so you can cut, say, a 2x10 or so?

I think that guy is short changing himself. That's a really awesome price for that work. And awesome price for the saw itself. I'd almost feel bad about both cases. Maybe have to mail them a card or something, or buy them a beer or two, haha.

Really digging the sign and the window treatments as well. I wonder how he gives it that patina. It's really cool how you and a few others on here have some nice catchy names for your shops.

[Yeahloh95]

dan did you get the remote light with your opener ? i did with mine and its a nice feature to come in and the motion sensor turns light on

[95riosnake]

That radial arm saw is really cool. I will have to look up some YouTube videos of one. Can't say I've ever seen a saw like it. It looks like it rotates on that column. Then it looks like it rotates on that arm extended from the column? And also slides front to back on a track so you can cut, say, a 2x10 or so?

I think that guy is short changing himself. That's a really awesome price for that work. And awesome price for the saw itself. I'd almost feel bad about both cases. Maybe have to mail them a card or something, or buy them a beer or two, haha.

Really digging the sign and the window treatments as well. I wonder how he gives it that patina. It's really cool how you and a few others on here have some nice catchy names for your shops.

 

Yea you can tilt the blade as well as set the angle of the cut, then the blade slides forward and can cut about 12" or so wide. Similar to a sliding compound miter saw, which I also have, but much more accurate and is nicer for making repeat cuts. Sliding compound miter saws have all but replaced radial arm saws but I still have needs for one that the miter saw doesn't quite fill.

He definitely should charge more for his services, I tried to give him more but he wouldn't take it! He just loves rescuing old machines and has a lot of free time, so whatever floats his boat is ok with me I suppose lol. I love the sign and usually spend a minute looking at it each time I go in the garage, haha. It took me a while to come up with the shop name, I think there are a few pages in my other build thread where I was deciding on it.

 

dan did you get the remote light with your opener ? i did with mine and its a nice feature to come in and the motion sensor turns light on

 

Yea it came with the remote light. I have a bunch of 8' 4 bulb T8 lights I'm going to be installing soon, so I'm just going to wire one of them in the middle with a 360 degree motion sensor to turn it on whenever you drive or walk into the room. The remote light would work well enough but I thought it would look nicer to have all the same fixtures on the ceiling.

[Yeahloh95]

I mounted mine on the wall instead and now I have two, they work great for walking in with your hands full and not having to turn a light on or worry about turning it off

[95riosnake]

I mounted mine on the wall instead and now I have two, they work great for walking in with your hands full and not having to turn a light on or worry about turning it off

 

That's not a bad idea, maybe I'll mount it on the wall near the entry door

[Josh@RideTech]

I'm loving the garage, Dan!  

[Tabres]

That sign is absolutely awesome.  Killer stuff man.

 

Definitely logging that one away.  My Dad would love something like that.

[410sn95]

Another Liftmaster user here.  They r sweet.  Super quiet.

 

We mounted the motion light above the man door, works like a charm when hands full like Yeahloh mentioned.

[Blackmage]

I 

I decided to go with a Liftmaster 8500, these are pretty cool units and they eliminate all the components mounted to the ceiling.

 

So i just realized we have the same garage door opened on our small parts loading door at Toyota and we have replaced the thing 3 times in the 2 years we've owned it :-/   The door is only like 8'x8' but it has been nothing but problems for us.  Hopefully you have better luck with it!!!

[95riosnake]

So i just realized we have the same garage door opened on our small parts loading door at Toyota and we have replaced the thing 3 times in the 2 years we've owned it :-/   The door is only like 8'x8' but it has been nothing but problems for us.  Hopefully you have better luck with it!!!

 

That's odd, every review I've read was great, and people love these things over on Garage Journal. You're the first person I've heard having issues.  What kind of problems has it had? I'm 2-3 months in so far and no hiccups yet.

[95riosnake]

The next thing to address was getting the 100lb+ box of hardware and miscellaneous stuff off the floor and into my parts bins that I previously had mounted to the side of my old work bench. That work bench won't be in the garage anymore so I decided on mounting them to the wall, but with a built-in feel to them. Decided to mount them next to the man door for quick access when I need to grab something when I'm working on stuff in the house.

 

 

Shaved down some 2x4's to 1" thick on my jointer (will fill you guys in on that acquisition in a future post) and built a mounting frame screwed into the studs.

 

 

We took down some massive curtains in the house, the top of which had a valance mounted to a 1x10, 12' long. So I pulled all the staples out of it, cleaned and squared it up on the jointer and built a cabinet out of it. The bins slide into it and are mounted to the 2x4 frame with lags so the cabinet itself isn't supporting their weight when loaded with hardware. I had a picture of the cabinet before I put the bins in, I'll have to dig that up and edit this post later tonight.

 

 

 

Painted it white, I might add some of the red/gray color scheme to it. The lower shelf is a place to sit bins when you pull them out or a place to put hardware you pull out of them, so that area will get dirty and scratched. If I paint that gray it will hold up better over time.

 

 

A project that was happening simultaneously was getting much needed heat in the garage. My old garage was integral and surrounded by structures since it was in a townhouse, so it rarely got very cold. This new attached garage got cold pretty quickly. A birthday gift from my dad was an industrial electric heater. It has 3000w, 4000w and 5000w heat settings and has a thermostat to control it.

 

 

I decided to mount it just inside the door so I could just pop in to adjust the thermostat whenever needed. That bumped down area of the ceiling is a very odd situation. My guess is it was done to clear some plumbing for a bathroom upstairs... but there is work. Even the edge didn't have a stud or anything... very unusual. Anyway, I settled on mounting a 2x4 block to the wall stud which would support a 2x4 "beam" that reached out to the next ceiling joist, which was right at the edge of the bump down.

 

 

 

Next up I had to run a new 30a 240v circuit from the panel. Not much to show pictures of, but suffice it to say it wasn't fun pulling 85ft of wire from the panel in the basement to the garage, lol. I'm still working on cleaning up the wiring mess around the panel. The new wire is the orange one obviously. I wish I took a picture of the panel when we moved in... wires and shit everywhere. I believe all that crap to the right is for the now-gone old school security system I took out, so hopefully that's the case and I can get rid of it.

 

 

Drilled a hole through the block wall to pass the wire through, and trimmed it out a bit with some wood.

 

 

 

It was tough getting all the connections packaged inside the box. I could have gone with a bigger box but wanted to keep it minimal.

 

 

Finished up installing the 30a breaker in the panel.

 

 

 

Used a flex conduit and stranded wire from the box to the heater so it can be turned/aimed as needed. Powered it up and all was well.

 

 

 

Painted the mount and conduit so it all blends in.

 

 

 

The heater has been in service a couple weeks now and it's great. I usually keep it on the low 3000w setting with the thermostat set to around 45-50°. We had temps the first week with highs around 10° to low teens, with overnight lows down to -10° to -15° and it held the garage around 45-50° without a hiccup, didn't run constantly either. Whenever I plan to come out and work in the garage I just turn the thermostat up about an hour ahead of time and it'll be nice and comfortable when I come out. I've only used the 4000w setting once when it was super cold outside and I was working in the garage. I have yet to need the 5000w setting

 

 

[95riosnake]

@Evilcw311 The door is really well insulated, but the seals need replaced. I ran out of time before it got cold so those will get attention come springtime. I'm gonna go with some brush seals from here: https://www.americandoorsupply.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1877#goand do a new bottom seal. The door is definitely leaking some air around the edges. The top middle of the door is bowed inward slightly from 30 years of the old garage door tugging on it, so I'm going to put a strut along the top to straighten it.

 

Insulation-wise, the walls are all blown-in insulation, and the ceiling is insulated between the ceiling joists. The roof isn't insulated but I don't think I've ever seen anyone insulate more than the ceiling itself. I might replace the insulation at some point and go with something of higher R value (not entirely sure what they put up there).

[Tabres]

Quality work, Dan!  The cabinet looks great.  I need to do something like that with my parts bins.

 

I feel your pain on pulling wire through the basement to the garage.  I had to pull about 70 feet this past summer when we moved into our new place.  And of course the main level's floor joists run the opposite direction of the way I needed to go so I had to drill about 35 floor joists.  Sucked.

[95riosnake]

Quality work, Dan!  The cabinet looks great.  I need to do something like that with my parts bins.

 

I feel your pain on pulling wire through the basement to the garage.  I had to pull about 70 feet this past summer when we moved into our new place.  And of course the main level's floor joists run the opposite direction of the way I needed to go so I had to drill about 35 floor joists.  Sucked.

 

I feel your pain, about 2/3 of the run was the same for me; perpendicular joists. I only had to drill a few though, there was enough room in the existing holes for other wires to feed it through, but I did have to drill a few when I needed to go where the existing wiring didn't. It SUCKED pulling all that wire through, my shoulders were dead lol.

[SublimeRT]

Great work as always. Props to you for doing your own electrical work as well. That stuff scares me.

[Psychorugby]

Great work as always. Props to you for doing your own electrical work as well. That stuff scares me.

 

Me too.  He showed me this when he did it and all I could think is I would be dead from electrocution.

[95riosnake]

Really the electrical work is simple stuff guys. Make sure you get the right size breaker and the right gauge wiring and it's really all plug and play. As for the safety aspect, a good multimeter and patience saves lives. I always have my multimeter with me when doing electrical. Anytime I am about to touch a potentially live wire, just test it really quick to confirm it's not and move along. The only thing you really have to be careful about is the terminals above the main disconnect where the service wires connect... those are ALWAYS live, touch those and you're dead. Obviously you have to look up local codes for electrical sometimes but it's all very straightforward.

[SublimeRT]

The electricians have come over a few times to wire up the compressor and welder, and it always looks fairly simple.  I guess I just don't have much faith in myself to do that stuff by myself without any kind of training or reading some good books about it.  With the help of my Dad, we replaced the on/off pressure switch on the air compressor and put the Syncrowave in the cart, it had to be disconnected to get it into the cart (something I'll address with the cart's redo/update).  We tested for voltage, then turned the breakers off and verified no voltage with the meter, but I was still sweating bullets.

[95riosnake]

I was trying to wait until I finished this next project before I posted an update but the pictures have been piling up so I figured it was time.

 

Some of you may remember the Mosler cabinets I picked up from Craigslist back when we moved. They sat in the garage largely untouched for a while because I had other more pressing things to work on but they finally got the nod and I began the work bench build. First thing they needed was a good cleaning to remove years of tape, decals, etc. as well as a ton of cobwebs. This picture shows the basic layout I'm shooting for:

 

 

After that I had to get them all leveled. The cabinets had provisions for leveling feet, but they were all missing except 4, so I measured them and ordered some better ones from McMaster Carr. The total was a bit rough but a couple days later 36 of these beauties showed up. 

 

 

Then a couple hours of fiddling with the feet followed to get the cabinets leveled.

 

 

 

The floor of the garage is sloped for drainage, and as you can see there's about a 1-1/2" drop over a 9' run.

 

 

The next thing to address was the Hobart cabinet that I'm using for the front of the peninsula. It didn't have any provisions for leveling so I built a wood base with threaded inserts to accept threaded leveling feet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With everything leveled, I started building the frame for the peninsula. It's sized at 4'w x 5'd, and will give me a place to store my welder and other things underneath, as well as a place for my legs when sitting on a stool.

 

 

 

 

This is the point where I finally found my camera and could stop using my phone for all the pics lol.

 

 

 

I bought a Kreg pocket screw jig, which is one of the best purchases I've made in a while. This thing makes some seriously strong joints.

 

 

 

With the Kreg in hand, I kept adding to the peninsula frame. This thing is SOLID.

 

 

 

 

 

Added some heavy duty corner brackets for good measure:

 

 

And bolted the Hobart cabinet to the frame.

 

 

(Pic sucks I know )

 

 

The Hobart cabinet isn't extremely heavily built and I was a little concerned about it supporting all the weight of whatever big thing I may be working on in the future, so I added a couple legs to the rear.

 

 

With adjustable leveling feet of course

 

 

The completed peninsula frame:

 

 

 

The next thing to address was the 6 side cabinets. I spaced them out from the wall so I would end up with a 28-1/2" counter top depth (1/2" will be taken up by a back splash board) so I decided to build a frame behind them. The frame is mounted to the studs and the cabinets are mounted to the frame. It's ridiculously solid.

 

 

 

 

With the framework complete, it was time to start sheeting it all in 3/4" plywood, starting with the peninsula.

 

 

 

Then the sides

 

 

This work bench is massive, it's actually tough to get the whole thing in one picture. That means it's almost big enough

 

 

Added some 3/4" plywood strips under the overhang to beef it up.

 

 

 

 

 

(Hadn't sanded the wood filler on the corners yet in these pics)

 

 

These drawers are awesome. Ball bearing slides and they're full pull plus about 2".

 

 

There are two single cabinets with drawers only that I decided to put under the window. They got the nod next. First up they needed cleaned and leveled as the others did, then I decided to bolt them together to make one solid cabinet.

 

 

 

 

These are mounted to the wall in a similar fashion to the main bench.

 

 

 

Overkill framing: check.

 

 

 

Added the same 3/4" plywood top and extra front edge lip. This bench is sized at 28-1/2" x 48" and will be home to my bench top drill press in the short term. However, I made the bench large enough to have room for a 9" x 48" metal lathe. Still on the hunt for a nice vintage one to fit the bill, missed a great deal on an incredible one a couple weeks back. I'm still kicking myself for sleeping on it before making a decision.

 

 

 

Had Sherwin Williams mix me some gloss oil based enamel to match the cabinets and painted the framework. I forgot to take a pic of the window cabinet but the frame for that is also painted.

 

 

Underneath the peninsula is painted a two tone color scheme of light gray and dark gray enamel for absolutely no reason other than OCD. Some under cabinet lighting will be added under here with a hidden switch at the front to turn them on.

 

 

Bonus project: Last week a power surge during a thunderstorm (in February? ) blew the GFI breaker feeding the garage outlets. So I took the opportunity to add two outlets from it. One is near the garage door for plugging in work lights, shop vac, etc. and the other is solely for the garage door opener so I could finally stop using an extension cord to power it. The conduit will get painted white to match the walls and the shelving hides the majority of it anyway. 

 

An open-backed 4x4 box gave me room for the added wiring and gave me a place to run conduit from.

 

 

 

 

Should have picked up a single surge protector but oh well, it helped me hide the wires.

 

 

Back to the work bench; the next phase will be adding the final layer to the top. I decided on using 3/4" solid tongue & groove hickory hardwood. It has a really high janka hardness rating and looks killer. (do a google image search for common grade hickory). I got a great deal on a bunch of it at $1.59/sq.ft. and had it shipped to my work for cheaper shipping. The scion did work that day... it was riding rather low for the commute home!

 

 

That's where I'm at for now, the next step is going to be installing the flooring on the benches. The preliminary plan is to do bar top epoxy over the whole thing for a super tough durable surface. It seems like it's a little bit of a PITA to do the epoxy but I think it'll be worth it. That's all for now, stay tuned!