W1VTP Relocation plan

[w1vtp]

Getting myself ready for retirement.  Part of that plan is to relocate my "shack" from the bedroom to a new location -- my old garage.  It will be torn down and a new fully insulated and HVACed.

This has been long time in coming.  I plan on having at least two work benches -- lots of storage room.  A nice feature will be the ability for me to walk from the main quarters to the shack without going outdoors.  I'm making new discoveries each day in the depths of the old garage.  My junk box is growing -- I'm finding stuff I didn't even know I had.

Al

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Very nice. You'll be sitting pretty.   

[N3DRB The Derb]

al, thats a great layout. you'll be able to play radio in gentlemans style.

have you thought about any kind of interior decor? How about getting some serious grounding put in at the same time the building goes up? A lot better to do it then than later.

[AB3L]

You didn't mention if the garage slab stays or gets redone. If redone consider putting Pex tubing in the concrete for a heating system. We have it in our addition and it is a great feel under foot when the heat starts at ground level for those cold winter days.
Even if you don't get to the heating plant right away at least the tubing will be in for later. Our contractor used an instantaneous wallmount heater with a circulating pump and a backflow preventer.

Window AC for the summer?

Good luck with the project.

[Superhet66]

Congrats on retirement Al.
PEX based radiant heat is Soooooo nice. I built a project truck in my friends radiant heated, 40X60 garage and would snooze on the concrete floor in 15deg. weather!

While your grounding, as Derb said, grid the walls before the sheetrock and make a big, stealthy Faraday cage for yourself. Spurious schmurious.... 
                               D.

[W3GMS]

Al,
Your retirement priorities sound a like mine!  You will enjoy you new space more than you realize.  Its great to get the stuff organized and the station well laid out.  

When I retired in December 2008, my first project was to move an existing  12 x 24 building on the property to a new location on the property to create a new Radio Parts storage building.  All the parts are categorized and in special bins with makings on the end of the bins.  I have an inventory book, so if I need something I look it up in the book and as an example go to "isle 3" and open the appropriate bin and get the part.  Its a great feeling not to have to look for stuff for hours like my old system.  For the bins, I used large Rubbermaid containers with snap on lids.  I used blue painters tape to give a general category and assign a number.  As an example, bin #150 is marked vacuum variables.  In that bin is just vacuum variables and nothing else.  Then in the inventory book, it list the various values of vacuum variables in that particular bin.  In the old days things where just put in Xerox paper boxes and stack on top of each other.  Over the years the building got so full of boxes that it was nearly impossible to find the goods.  In the new parts building, I built shelves perpendicular to the 24' wall and they became the isles.  The shelves are 54" deep, 6" high and 10' long and built with framing lumber.  Two of the largest Rubbermaid containers will fit end to end on the shelves.  The scheme has worked out extremely well and having like items in each box keeps it well organized.  

After that 1st retirement project I then set out to rebuilt my electronic workshop.  I tore the old one out and put new floor joists in alone with all new insulation in the floor and walls, new sub flooring and finally new laminate floors.  Then came new drywall and recessed lighting in the ceiling.  Its a very comfortable and well organized place to work.  The restoration effort of my Johnson Desk KW will be the first project in the new shop.  For electronic parts storage. I keep often used parts in the shop but the stuff that you may only use every few years is kept in the Radio Parts building.  That keeps the lab cleaner and not so junky.  

This winter I will shift gears and work on my museum room.  That is an 18' x 40' room that started about 30 years ago, but never got done due to career demands.  I don't like museums with radio on shelves so it will have 8 to 10 working stations starting in the spark era and going up to the late 50's, or early 60's.  I am trying to make that room fit the period of the stations which is quite a challenge!  I do have some old furniture which I will use in the various period stations.  I figure that project just to complete the room and set up the stations is a couple of years worth of effort and then comes the restoration of the gear!    

I wish you all the best with your "retirement project" and I hope you enjoy working on it as much as I have.   I could have continued to work but I tell people, "you can always make money, but you can't buy time"!  I left my job at 56 and the wallet is not so fat now but I wouldn't trade my new life for anything in the world.    

I hope yours is as rewarding and satisfying as mine has been.

Best Wishes,
Joe, W3GMS                

[N3DRB The Derb]

Al, one size does not fit all but maybe you could look at the K4KYV video on my you tube channel, I've always thought that he has one of the cooler shack setups on the planet, with the exception of having no way to roll in BIG monster txer's.  I still cant fathom how he got his Gates BC 1T TX up those front stairs.

Put in a Big Transmitter Door - at least 85" high. It'll save ya later if somehing big and nasty mean wants to come live in your space.

And windows - if you need em put in the glass brick style like you used to find in old bars. copper thieves and other such radio haters cant break those and vandalize your stuff.  Besides a row of those would look buzzardly as all hell. 

[W1UJR]

Congrats on the retirement Al!

It is clear you really thought it out. Looks like a great set up, esp. the HVAC garage/storage area, nothing better than to have both separated, keeps the "junk" away from visitors and makes the XYL very happy here. When I designed my "dream barn" a few years back, still not built - life gets in the way, had a similar layout. Nice to be all on one level, it gets tough to carry boat anchors up and down stairs, already my 32V and DX-100 seemed to have doubled in weight, guess that is why I've gotten right of the heavy iron. Designing from scratch you can handle all of those pesky things, power and antenna feeds, that are such a challenge to do right later. I keep dreaming of retiring, its been 25+ years in the euro auto biz, but we keep growing and adding staff. Keep thinking that more folks will allow me more time off, I have not yet quite mastered that trick.

Here's to many years of happy hamming my friend!

[w1vtp]

The shop started out being a 2 storey but mortality has been reminding me that stairs may end up being a problem so I went for 1 storey and a little more square footage.

I really missed the "tinker factor" in my life while I was bringing up the family so here we go back into some fun stuff

Thanks for the best wishes all

Al

[k4kyv]

I acquired my shack in the early 90's long before retirement. Everything Joe says is true, except for one thing.  I have shelves and bins and have spent many hours "organising", but I still spend more time looking for stuff - everything from parts and hardware to tools. - than actually working with it if and when I manage to retrieve it from the ever-present black hole.

[W1AEX]

... but I still spend more time looking for stuff - everything from parts and hardware to tools. - than actually working with it...

Don, that is well said, and it is a vivid description of my own storage skills. I'm still looking for that box of low voltage transformers that I put somewhere where I would be sure to remember. Now let me think...

[w1vtp]

I acquired my shack in the early 90's long before retirement. Everything Joe says is true, except for one thing.  I have shelves and bins and have spent many hours "organizing", but I still spend more time looking for stuff - everything from parts and hardware to tools. - than actually working with it if and when I manage to retrieve it from the ever-present black hole.

I tried to take notes of what I had during the last move.  But I still am amazed when I come across something that I do not remember acquiring.  I'm beginning to think that we all develop those "collector" skills to the point we do not even have a clue to the "stuff" we collect.  Even the latest fad I'm going through, collecting iron, occasionally surprises me when I run across something I got for forgot.

I'm beginning to think that the first part of my new shack experience will involve a lot of cataloging.