Dream Shop - Old Shop Demolition finished. Demo photos added.

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Been getting a lot done over the past week. The store is going on reduced days and hours starting this week, so I will have an extra day to work on the new shop, too. I am starting on painting things and bringing stuff in from storage and other places. I will take more photos this week, but here are some of my antique cigar humidor from an old general store. The original glass was broken so I replaced it with acrylic and put in a hygrometer in the top. There is storage under the display shelf for more cigars and accessories.
I filled it up with some good cigars so my buddy and I can have a smoke and a glass of Balvenie and a fine cigar when he drops by.

 

[Fallbrook Forge]

Gurkhas! Fine smoke indeed!

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Those are Grand Reserve Tubos, soaked in Louis XIII cognac. I have had a box of their Abuelo 7 Private Reserve Select on backorder for a while now. If you only smoke a cigar about once a month or so, it might as well be a good cigar. I added a few more cigars and took a clearer shot of the humidor.

I am intrigued by the Gurkha His Majesty's Royal Reserve Tubos. Intrigued, but not enough to ever buy them, because they are the worlds most expensive cigar - $15,000 a box of 20 cigars or $750 each. They make a fancy humidor for them that sells for $7500 ... I'm not getting one of those either

I got the beginning of some painting done and the upstairs shelving is all but finished. The shelving looks like the berths in a slave ship. I hung the big KNIVES sign.It took some creative engineering to get it up by myself. The shop will have a New Orleans look with bright colors on the walls. There will be pastel colors of blue, red, and green.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Haven't posted an update lately.
The virus has been good to me in the fact that I get to work all alone every day. I have become very good at leverage and other ways to move heavy objects and tools. There are a few things to move that I will need others for, and they can wait.

The upstairs is done and all electrical work finished - Lights, shelving, whole building vent fan, stair rails and safety railing.
I started putting stuff upstairs on the shelves to make room downstairs. The storage pod is finally gone from the front driveway and the garage is relatively empty.

The stainless workbench tops are installed.

I got the breaker panel installed and temporarily connected the old sub-feed that went to the wood shop to the new shop.
I am almost done digging the trench for the new 100 amp sub-feed (2-2-2-4 cable) all the way to the house. Even though it is direct bury cable, I will lay the power in a conduit as well as lay a water line.

I started wiring lights and receptacles downstairs. I also hooked up the mini-fridge to keep some cool beverages in the shop.

I took a couple days off from the shop tasks to get the outside garden at the entrance to the shop done and planted, tidy up the other beds and deck around the house, build some new railing on the house deck, planted some basil and coleus, .... and cleaned out the pond before the full moon. The pond was really full of crap from the winter. Now it is all clean and pretty. I know that the spring full moon along with a good rain (which was due that night) is the mating call to all the toads in my yard (I have lots of them). The toads all showed up that night singing away. Two days later there were twenty or so mated couples swimming around laying eggs.

Every day I move more boxes of stuff to the new shop. I haven't moved even 10% of the stuff going into the new shop yet and I already see it is half as big as I would like. Luckily, the upstairs storage is only about 20% full. I will make some serious cuts in what I install, what I put in storage, and what I let go. There will be lots of stuff to pass on in the next few months ..... That, plus the mother of all yard sales this summer.

I'll take a bunch of photos this weekend and post them.

 

[Lieblad]

I will lay the power in a conduit as well as lay a water line.

If you didn’t already. Might as well install a few CAT5s too.
Computer, phone, perhaps security signaling..

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

So what made you decide to go with stick built instead of a steel building?
It is in a residential neighborhood and a steel building would not be allowed or look

I have just about finished all the electrical work. There are so many outlets in this shop I can't count them. Probably 50 or so.
Lighting is mostly done ( waiting on a shipment of LED lights to finish).
Conduit trench dug, conduit laid. 2-2-2-4 cable pulled, trench filled.
Front of shop geo-grid drive finished and graded. Grass seeded and sprouting.
Almost everything was done solo by me so far.

Time for some photos.

Front of shop all graded out and seedced.

Geo-grid before filling and then covering with 3" of dirt.

Grass sprouting


Me standing in the conduit trench which I dug by hand.

conduit laid



I did have some help from "Shop Possum". He is handy at driving the tractor and really good at electrical work.




I drug out my old troy-built Pony. It will be farm-art along the side of the shop.

Mega-vise - about 250 pounds.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

More photos:

Antique phone booth. It was beast to move in. It weighs a good 300 pounds. I repaired all the bad veneer, cleaned it up, and got the lighting working. p well.



Not your average door stop - 3" shell.

Crappy photo of a juvenile blue heron who dropped by to see what I was doing.


Outside watertight receptacles
t

My old horse trough that is now a planter.

 

[Hawkfan]

That is one hell of a mega man cave dude. If you ever get bored of making knives, you would murder it as a weed grower.....lots of knowledge overlap! You could easily do both in that building! haha

Nice job on the details!

 

[Lieblad]

Thats fun to see any time a guy builds a new shop.
As an aside,
It must be nice to be exempt from electrical codes us Northwestern guys live with.

So what made you decide to go with stick built instead of a steel building?
It is in a residential neighborhood and a steel building would not be allowed or look

I have just about finished all the electrical work. There are so many outlets in this shop I can't count them. Probably 50 or so.
Lighting is mostly done ( waiting on a shipment of LED lights to finish).
Conduit trench dug, conduit laid. 2-2-2-4 cable pulled, trench filled.
Front of shop geo-grid drive finished and graded. Grass seeded and sprouting.
Almost everything was done solo by me so far.

Time for some photos.

Front of shop all graded out and seedced.
View attachment 1331586
Geo-grid before filling and then covering with 3" of dirt.
View attachment 1331587
Grass sprouting
View attachment 1331589

Me standing in the conduit trench which I dug by hand.
View attachment 1331588
conduit laid
View attachment 1331590


I did have some help from "Shop Possum". He is handy at driving the tractor and really good at electrical work.
View attachment 1331598
View attachment 1331609
View attachment 1331615

I drug out my old troy-built Pony. It will be farm-art along the side of the shop.
View attachment 1331601
Mega-vise - about 250 pounds.
View attachment 1331600

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

More interior work and hook up of stuff . The jewelry store has reopened, so I only get four days a week out in the shop right now.
Today, Mike, Jesse, Steve, and Tom came over to help me move the big bandsaw and drill press into the shop. We also put my table saw and all the attachments into Steve's truck for him to take to his shop.
I mounted the Moose antlers on the shop peak.
I also got time to bolt together my Reeder system. More to do on it, but wanted to show that Greg Reeder makes a wonderful product.


I'll shoot some better shots of the grinder later on.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

WARNING!!
The following post contains graphic sexual images.


Yesterday, while I was in and out of the shop a pair of pretty old box turtles were in the yard. I see the old gal every year about this time looking for a place to lay her eggs. This year there was a male with her. Females have a higher domes shell. The males get filled with testosterone and turn bright yellow all over their head and shell. The male was chasing the female all over the place. He finally caught her in the grass, but she got free. I put them up in the raised garden and he finally wore her down and got lucky.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Glad he didn't suffer from ereptile dysfunction!

 

[954Ink]

Congratulations. That's a great accomplishment and an awesome work space.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

Congratulations. That's a great accomplishment and an awesome work space.

Stacy, or the turtle?

 

[954Ink]

I guess both lol. They hit it hard and accomplished what they set out to.

 

[Ken H>]

Great series of photos - you've got a really NICE place there. Since the first time I saw the Reeder grinder at Blade show a few yr back I've felt it would be the grinder I'd buy, if I were buying rather than building.

 

[Drew Riley]

WARNING!!
The following post contains graphic sexual images.

I'm gonna report you to the modera...

Nevermind.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

OK, got a lot done in the clean room. Wiring all done, Granite floor on the path from the hot shop to the entry door, industrial carpet on the other part. showcases and antique phone booth in place and wired for lights, shelves up, and Yo Bear rolled in place. A few more decorative things to finish, but it is now ready for my jewelers and carving benches. The AC unit should be installed this week. I am still doing all this single handed. In a week or two I will have a group gathering to demolish the old woodshop.

Also, my crocosmia is all in bloom. The humming birds love it. Looks like a tropical forest.

 

[wcbill]

OK, got a lot done in the clean room. Wiring all done, Granite floor on the path from the hot shop to the entry door, industrial carpet on the other part. showcases and antique phone booth in place and wired for lights, shelves up, and Yo Bear rolled in place. A few more decorative things to finish, but it is now ready for my jewelers and carving benches. The AC unit should be installed this week. I am still doing all this single handed. In a week or two I will have a group gathering to demolish the old woodshop.

Also, my crocosmia is all in bloom. The humming birds love it. Looks like a tropical forest.View attachment 1368626 View attachment 1368627 View attachment 1368628 View attachment 1368629 View attachment 1368630

Hi Stacy, I have been making knives for almost 40 years,from back in the days the oldtimers had a lot secrets they didn't share. We have come a long way since then and info is freely shared by folks like you. Always enjoy your input on the forums. I'd love to meet you someday and share some storys from my past in the "Knife World" as I know it.
Bill Johnson

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I don't know where you live (no profile info), but you are welcome to visit anytime.