A little history tour.

[irish fixit]

Well digging for the burned truck pictures took me through a rather extensive archive. I ran across a lot of history there and I've decided that I might share some of it here.

I'm going to start out with a before pic I managed to dig up. It a pic of what was my grandparents house that we moved into when we where expecting out daughter. It wasn't much house but it was better than nothing. Notice the rather run down garage.

The second and third pic shows the metal stacked up that eventually became my shop. That was a Chevron gas station building. It originally came in a kit that they assembled. Nearly all standing seam 20ga metal. I came by it after they tried to move it but the mover left it on the skids to long during windy season. It blew off the skids and partially collapsed. I got it for the dismantling and hauling off.

The fourth pic is a overall shot of the place. To the left is the old hay barn where my original shop as a kid and later after getting out of the Air Force my first fixit shop was at. The wood fence was to hide my junk from my step mother. The brick house is my dads.

The fifth pic is just a shot of the other side of the house.

[irish fixit]

Now for the next installment.

In this episode we tear down the garage. As you can see it wasn't much of a garage but it lasted a long time.

The last pic shows me leveling the ground for the reason that I tore the garage down at the time. That's coming in the next episode.

[irish fixit]

Now for the reefer box.

At the time I was still working at the local machine shop and starving (I made $9.50 a hour when I left them after 8 years). I fixed TV's in my spare time to try and make a little more money. I had been doing it in the back of the trailer house taking them in the door that's in the last pic of the first batch. But it was a pain for the big TV's. So I decided to buy a refrigerated trailer storage box to turn into a TV shop. It wasn't much to look at when I got it but then I got it cheap and it was a old one with lots of structure in it. Notice the rails for hanging beef.

I did manage to get it to clean up and it turned into a fairly nice TV shop while that lasted.

[irish fixit]

Now we go to a little while later and I'm building my shop.

I'd just left the machine shop after getting the news that they didn't have enough money to pay me the next week. I've got about $2000 in the bank and a little more than that in dept at the time. It's around April so I throw up flyers in town that I'm back at the fixit shop and manage to get enough business in mower repair to equal or better my pay checks from the machine shop the next week.

I start to build the shop from what I've collected in materials.

First is my daughter helping clean the holes for the foundation.

Second is my wife pulling nails from the wood that was donated. The wood came from the crates that the new Chevron stations canopy and other pieces came in. The owner of the station had a bad wreck not long after the old station was torn down and it wasn't till now that they'd gotten to building the new one.

The third pic shows the overall shop area. With the rest showing the main structure up. Notice that I used the wood with the reefer to support the north wall of the shop.

[irish fixit]

and the story continues.

The first shows after pouring my only bit of work area concrete. I work a lot of the summer with it like this.

The rest show a little later stage in the build. By this time the local machine shop has shut down and is getting ready for a auction. I can tell this because of the oxygen bottles show that I've already taken over the drop dealer status for Airgas at the time. I've gotten some of the cabinets and work benches from my old shop moved in by now. And I've gotten some auction spoils already installed.

[irish fixit]

Some more progress and shots of that summers auction spoils.

First shows the two drill presses I scored that summer at a auction. The closest one was a Rockwell that had a foot feed option on it. It ran to fast for most work though. The far one was well worn but very powerful. I used it for a long time till I managed to get a better replacement. I then sold it to my friend who still has it.

The next pic shows the start of my steel rack.

The next two pics show how I saddled the pipe in my Shop Task for the steel rack.

Another shot of the steel rack progress.

[irish fixit]

and now the start of a large series of shots

This next batch of shots come from after my former employers auction. It's probably about October or Nov of the same year I left them.

With some help from some local bigwig backers I'd managed to twist the bankers arm enough to loan me some money for the auction.

The auction was originally scheduled for the saturday after 9-11 happened. But only about 9 people showed up so they postponed it a few weeks. But even then there wasn't a lot of people and with the locals wanting me to be in business I didn't have a lot of trouble getting stuff for fairly cheap. So for about 13k I came away with the seeds of my machine shop.

[irish fixit]

More shots

[irish fixit]

and they continue

[irish fixit]

last ones from this batch

[irish fixit]

Well that's all I can find right now.

I ran that winter with tarps for doors but the only shots I can find are rather lousy. It wasn't till the next winter after the truck fire I showed on the other thread (that does show the tarps) that I got real doors for the shop.

[Bandaid]

Thats Awsome! i love to see how shops build from humble means. Congrats.

[DSW]

I never thought much about using a reeffer box as a shop, but it makes a lot of sense having insulated walls vs a regular Conex box, especially where it's hot like where you are at. 1st few picts of the shop are a bit deceptive. Later shots look a lot bigger than the 1st ones do.


It's nice to see some one else's shop is sort of like the one I'm using right now. Your old garage looks almost exactly like the original shop did, except ours had a peaked roof. Same tin over wood slats. I'm not sure if I can find any of the build picts for our shop, but I'll look. I'll get some picts of the shop even though it's a wreck right now maybe later this week...

[irish fixit]

Thats Awsome! i love to see how shops build from humble means. Congrats.

Thanks.

I never thought much about using a reeffer box as a shop, but it makes a lot of sense having insulated walls vs a regular Conex box, especially where it's hot like where you are at. 1st few picts of the shop are a bit deceptive. Later shots look a lot bigger than the 1st ones do.


It's nice to see some one else's shop is sort of like the one I'm using right now. Your old garage looks almost exactly like the original shop did, except ours had a peaked roof. Same tin over wood slats. I'm not sure if I can find any of the build picts for our shop, but I'll look. I'll get some picts of the shop even though it's a wreck right now maybe later this week...

I can heat that box with a small electric oil filled radiator and cool it with the smallest window unit you can buy. The only problem is the long narrow of it makes it hard to use for some things. Currently it's my laundry, shop bathroom, storage, and I keep my hydraulic hose fittings and machine in there.

I'm planning on getting another larger reefer box to turn into my living quarters. Hopefully before the end of the year if things go right.

The main shop area is 38' wide by 40' deep and with the equipment I have now way to small.

[hvw]

That's a great story Irish.

[Oldendum]

That Abene mill looks almost new. Very nice piece of equipment!

[7A749]

I take it all these shots are very earlly 2000's then?

Man, Wayne. That's cool. Ive looked at all the ones on your site too. I wouldn't mind digging thru your bone pile.

It's gotta be a littler bittersweet I'm guessing. I remember when you lost your house in the fire. Prolly brings back up some memories. I was trying to find an old business contact's information a few months ago & had to dig thru a bunch of stuff from 2007. That was the year I rented the building & started doing the business full time. Things were good with my first wife & I then.

Yeah, bittersweet.

Thanks for sharing it Wayne. I don't care what you say, you're my hero.

[VPT]

Love it! Absolutely amazing and congratulations on your accomplishments thus far!

But, TX winter? I laugh. haha

[dumb as a stump]

It is nice that you are posting this.. Its good to see how it can be done. Your not a big fancy place but thats just fine. thanks for letting see your story.

[irish fixit]

That's a great story Irish.

Thanks.

That Abene mill looks almost new. Very nice piece of equipment!

It was far from new when they bought it but I did work pretty hard cleaning it up back then. Unfortunately I stay so busy that I can't do the cleaning and my help doesn't do as good a job as I'd like so it's not as pretty right now.

I take it all these shots are very earlly 2000's then?

Man, Wayne. That's cool. Ive looked at all the ones on your site too. I wouldn't mind digging thru your bone pile.

It's gotta be a littler bittersweet I'm guessing. I remember when you lost your house in the fire. Prolly brings back up some memories. I was trying to find an old business contact's information a few months ago & had to dig thru a bunch of stuff from 2007. That was the year I rented the building & started doing the business full time. Things were good with my first wife & I then.

Yeah, bittersweet.

Thanks for sharing it Wayne. I don't care what you say, you're my hero.

The first shots where earlier. I'm not sure when the original was taken but probably around 97-98. The reefer was put in around 98-99 I believe. The start of the building of the main shop was April of 2001 and the last shots would of been the end of 2001. I did almost all the work myself except for a little help from my wife.

Yes it's dredged up some emotions that's for sure. Not all bad though.

You're welcome.

Love it! Absolutely amazing and congratulations on your accomplishments thus far!

But, TX winter? I laugh. haha

Thanks.

Most people do but then most think of south Texas. Up here in the panhandle you never know what's going to happen next. While we may not keep the snow on the ground like you do up there we can get very cold here. I went through fire truck maintenance school at Chanute AFB, IL the winter of 83. That's the one where the bad blizzard came in just before christmas. I then spent two years in Germany basically on a mountain where we had snow on the ground 8 months of the year and the hottest it ever got was 80 deg. With all that I've never felt colder any place than right here. When you've got a 50 mph wind blowing 15 deg air over you it get's a little tough. Then there's the fact that you can never fully adjust to the temp. We'll be 60-70deg one day and the next will be 15deg.


I'll do some more digging in the old archives when I get a chance. I've got backups no top of backups on top of backups from old computers buried in there. I always copied all the important files from my previous computer to the new when I upgraded. Makes for a bit of a mess to dig through.

[irish fixit]

It is nice that you are posting this.. Its good to see how it can be done. Your not a big fancy place but thats just fine. thanks for letting see your story.

Thanks and Your Welcome.

[NVW]

You've made do with what was available, my hats off. Nice score on the equipment.

I went through fire truck maintenance school at Chanute AFB, IL the winter of 83. That's the one where the bad blizzard came in just before christmas.

5 college buddies and I flew out of Dallas around that time, cars were in the ditch all over. Being Canadians we thought nothing of it

[VPT]

You've made do with what was available, my hats off. Nice score on the equipment.

5 college buddies and I flew out of Dallas around that time, cars were in the ditch all over. Being Canadians we thought nothing of it

When I went to Texas in the dead of winter in the 90's with a few friends we were the only ones swimming in the pool.

[roadkillbobb]

Thats a great timeline story, on building from scratch and working twords a goal, something the kids of today know little about, they want the new corvette and bran new house right outa college and expect someone else to pay it for them..lol... your history is something to show your kids as they get old enough to understand...looking foward the the next set of pics....

[irish fixit]

You've made do with what was available, my hats off. Nice score on the equipment.

5 college buddies and I flew out of Dallas around that time, cars were in the ditch all over. Being Canadians we thought nothing of it

Thanks.

I spent the night at DFW when that blizzard hit. We'd gotten out a day early due to the blizzard coming and I road standby from St Louis to DFW then had to wait till 5:00 in the morning before getting a flight to Amarillo. When my dad and family came to get me the diesel gelled in the van on the way to Amarillo.

When I went to Texas in the dead of winter in the 90's with a few friends we were the only ones swimming in the pool.

There can definitely be some warm days especially down south. However it's not all warm and nice especially up here.

Thats a great timeline story, on building from scratch and working twords a goal, something the kids of today know little about, they want the new corvette and bran new house right outa college and expect someone else to pay it for them..lol... your history is something to show your kids as they get old enough to understand...looking foward the the next set of pics....

Thanks.

I think I figured I had about $2500 in materials when I got done that year before the doors. The labor was another story though.