New Home Shop - Side Hustle

JRaut said:
Wow, congrats!

Make sure the insurance man knows what you're doing in there, and how much it all costs. It'd be a cryin' shame to have a claim denied because they didn't know you were running a business, and then found out about it after-the-fact.
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Wish everyone thought like you do. I work in the homeowners insurance business and you are correct. My homeowner's policy wouldn't cover any of this stuff. We just picked up commercial insurance through the Hartford. Will cover all my equipment as well as business liability. Not that bad (about $70/mo). We also need a commercial rider on our auto policy. The side benefit is having a track record with an insurance company. That can make things cheaper in the long run (welding and fabrication is not something all the companies like to cover we found - especially for a new venture).
 
Very nice, congratulations and good luck!

Do you plan to weld inside with the door closed? Do you have a ventilation in and out in the garage? I sometimes do light welding inside the shop with both doors at the far ends of the shop open so I get ventilation but I usually try to weld outside to avoid the fumes. Looks like you have some fume evacuation gizmo, how is it used?

One more item to pay attention to is smoke and CO detectors. When you do plasma cutting the detectors will trigger in no time and it is annoying as by code you are not suppose to have a switch to turn them off and I usually use compressed air to clean the air around and stop the annoying siren...

Keep us posted on your progress.

Ariel
 
ahazi said:
Very nice, congratulations and good luck!

Do you plan to weld inside with the door closed? Do you have a ventilation in and out in the garage? I sometimes do light welding inside the shop with both doors at the far ends of the shop open so I get ventilation but I usually try to weld outside to avoid the fumes. Looks like you have some fume evacuation gizmo, how is it used?

One more item to pay attention to is smoke and CO detectors. When you do plasma cutting the detectors will trigger in no time and it is annoying as by code you are not suppose to have a switch to turn them off and I usually use compressed air to clean the air around and stop the annoying siren...

Keep us posted on your progress.

Ariel
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We weld inside with the doors closed. Garage is vented. No CO or smoke (but heat/sprinklers). We have a Plymovent MobilePro commercial weld fume extractor and it does a really good job. Moves a lot of air but moves it gently so as not to disrupt shielding gas. You don't smell fumes after welding if used properly.

As for plasma, we don't want to do this at this point - we'll contract that out. Lack of room and adequate ventilation/waste water disposal, etc.
 
Prototype weld cart is...prototyped. We're going to use it for a while and experiment with placement of handles, cord wraps and the like. See what we like and what we don't. Then we'll smooth some details, prime and paint. We wanted a wide stance since we're using heavy welders (the green one holds 45lb weld wire spools). We'll have two welders and a plasma cutter on this cart. Will also fit two full size gas bottles (MIG/TIG). 10 gauge plate and 1x1 frames for the shelves. Once we get a design finalized we'll build a real one. Maybe have a product line if there is local market (shipping would be horrible).

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Nice build... my ankles would hate the caster mounts though.
Would it still meet requirements if the casters came off the long ends or the sides instead of 45s?
 
DavidR8 said:
Nice build... my ankles would hate the caster mounts though.
Would it still meet requirements if the casters came off the long ends or the sides instead of 45s?
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This was insurance in case of top heavy/tippy. If this was for a customer we'd box in the casters and probably have them come out from one side...yes. As is - we need to at least grind off those sharp corners. This is a work in progress.
 
Very nice shop. They sure look pretty when they are brand new. How have you addressed the grit issue from grinding. Would be a shame to have it get into that nice new mill and everything else.

What is the business plan? What services or goods do you plan to provide?
 
Papa Charlie said:
Very nice shop. They sure look pretty when they are brand new. How have you addressed the grit issue from grinding. Would be a shame to have it get into that nice new mill and everything else.

What is the business plan? What services or goods do you plan to provide?
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We're using the fume extractor for grinding right now and using UV blocking panels as partial protection. Not getting much grit over on that side of the shop - but a downdraft table is on the priority list. Definitely an issue. Good call.

DSC_1331_DxO.jpg
 
What type of fume extractor are you using back there? I'm looking for options that are more cost effective than buying a used Lincoln Mobiflex.
 
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