Building the AvidPro: Part 1 - site planning.

We'll get the boring stuff out of the way first. As realtors like to say "Location, Location, Location". So, today I'm doing location.

The Avid Pro4848 needs about 8'x8' of working area and I am having trouble finding space for it. I am lucky to have a 55' X 20' workshop. At this point you are probably thinking - plenty of room, quit your whining and get on with it. Well, yes, but it being "my" workshop is a bit of a fantasy on my part. It seems to be a dumping ground. While I was cleaning it up, my wife was storing stuff for our kids. It was originally part of a Carriage House built in 1913 as part of a larger estate. The walls and ceiling are, literally, 1 foot thick concrete. It had 5 bays for cars and a car wash. We call it "The Bunker".

When I bought the property it was a disaster - leaking ceiling, oozing black slime on the walls, broken windows, piles of rotting firewood and a stored Mercedes sports car with mold growing on the seats. (I didn't keep the car, the owner was just slow to take it away.) My wife said "Perfect place for a murder". Plus, there were English Ivy Trees growing up the walls on the outside. A good shoveling out, membrane roof and a steam cleaning made all the difference. The doors had to go - they were made of old growth fir, a good 2 inches thick and weighed a ton. They ran on rusty sliders - it was exhausting just to push one open plus you could only have 2 out of 5 doors open at the same time. It had a Saturday Morning Electrician wiring job for the lighting - 2 bare bulbs for 5 car bays??? A complete gutting was in order. So 6 months and too many dollars later I had a great new shop area with 120AMP service including a 240VAC 40A line.

Fortunately, the work made quite a difference and I've grown to like the post-industrial look of the poured concrete. I think you agree that "The Bunker" is a perfect name for it even though it evokes a somewhat undesired image.

To complicate the space planning issue, I am seasoning a large number of slabs from a Madrone Oak that blew down on a neighbor's property in one of the bays. I am looking forward to carving bowls and trays from this wood - it has some wonderful grain. Should only be a few years...

As you can see from the photo, lots of stuff needs to get moved - the Pro4848 goes in the bay to the right of the photo with all the wood. So all those boxes of "good stuff" need to be relocated. A lot of the wood against the back wall needs to get relocated as well. There is definitely a big dump run in the near future. Lots of fun!

For power, I will be using 240VAC. Fortunately, there is an outlet on a wall right near where I will be putting the Pro4848 so it will only require a little bit of work to swap out the connector and move it to the other side of the wall.

Anyway that's the context. Next blog - Spindles and Steppers and Drivers, Oh My!