PROGRESS!!!!
All the circuits are run in the carport. Lights, both walls. There is an outlet on the light circuit as well so all 3 are usable. The 100 feet of MC cable I bought was perfect. Seriously, just enough to tie them into the panel.
This leaves burying the 4x4 and conduit, and connecting the wires to the house.
This is one of those 4ft LED's that Pat found at Rural King for $20. It's on an extension cord so I could see to work, SUPER bright. I can't wait to see all 4 of them lit up.
In reply to RevRico:
Very nice!
It didn't suck outside, so I thought I could dig. Nope.
The way the hole filled back in with water, it might be August before I can actually dig a trench to the house. That's maybe 3 minutes from pulling the shovel out of the hole.
Finally, after more than a decade of it just sitting on the ground, the conduit it's buried. I may regret only running one conduit, but I don't foresee a real reason right now.
The 4x4 that the panel will mount to is cemented in as well.
All that's left is drilling into the garage and running the wire. If I could have gotten a helper today, it would already be done, instead the conduit is taped shut.
Got to do some work today after auto cross, as it was actually dry. I'm trying to feel accomplished, but I'm really pissed off. Started at 230 finished at 930. The box is mounted and wired, the wires are pulled, after 4 attempts, panel to panel. All that is left is connecting the breaker. The square D breaker I bought, because square d is square d, doesn't fit in the square d box in my garage. Found this out at 930, after all the stores were closed. 2 simple screws, in one breaker, and I have power down there. Just not tonight.
Since we took the miata to home depot today, I need to go back anyway to pick up some bigger things, but I think that makes it worse, that we were already there just didn't know the breaker wouldn't fit.
Still not having as bad a day as someone I know did this morning, but that's a story for another thread.
They make it brighter during the daylight, but really shine at dusk.
Now that power is in, I need to make things a little more workable. Especially before snake season starts.
Much much better. Yet another garbage bag of trash, and 2 full leaf sucker bags later, and I have room beside both cars to walk all the way around a table and actually work on things.
Electrical parts just suck. Even when you think you thought of everything, there is one little piddly piece that gets missed (in my case anyway).
It looks great!
I can officially call this a shop now. I have purchased a welder.
Sunday the neighbor that I don't despise is going to come by to help me hook up the 220 outlet, and everything will be good to go.
I'm already deciding I need a few more outlets. Like I should have put in double boxes instead of singles. A surge protector is doing well.
I guess context for that would help, I unintentionally setup a woodshop on one wall, and it got annoying quick changing plugs between tools.
I need to start thinking about doors or a cover for the ends. I'm thinking greenhouse plastic, clear, heavy duty it will last for years, and not ridiculously expensive if I can find somewhere local to buy it, shipping is a killer.
It seems any time I try to spray paint anything the wind kicks up. And while it does stay very dry and clear under there, it would be nice to have everything protected during the winter instead of finding room indoors for it.
Nice progress!
In my old shop, I set up power strips all over the place to avoid having to plug and unplug stuff all the time.
The welder is powered!!!
I totally ruined my first spool of wire dropping the end trying to load it into the liner, but I was smart enough to try with the harbor freight stuff so no big loss. I'll probably wind up cutting half the spool off from the birds nest.
I probably won't have a chance to actually practice until the little one leaves Thursday unfortunately, but I've got a few chunks of plate and some tube steel to practice with.
I'm thinking about getting a steel door to use as a table. Maybe a full on fire door. I haven't seen anyone recommend against it, they can be had cheap/free, and I wouldn't have a problem drilling holes for clamps and stuff.
I also found the check list of mods for the welder. I'll be waiting until my warranty is up to mod it, most likely, but adding a capacitor and bleed resistor is really suppose to wake this thing up, and clean up the arc.
Just copying some links here so I have them for future reference Spool gun mod
RevRico wrote: I totally ruined my first spool of wire dropping the end trying to load it into the liner, but I was smart enough to try with the harbor freight stuff so no big loss. I'll probably wind up cutting half the spool off from the birds nest.
Doh! At one time I used to keep an old Ace bandage in the welder cart to wrap around the spool to prevent exactly this.
I once spent half a day unwinding about 300 feet of wire and rolling it back onto the spool. I'm very glad I haven't been that broke in long time. LOL
Don't mind the mess, I'm in the middle of a few projects right now, but while I wait for tonights live show, I thought I'd update my threads.
A couple weeks ago, a member stopped by and dropped off some very helpful stuff.
A bigass metal table that needs a top, a welding cart pictured in my smoker thread with a removable top, and another cart that doesn't move very well but is a good working height.
This cart may get chopped up. The sheets of steel that act as shelves are the perfect size to go across that table frame. A couple holes, a couple studs, and they would be awesome adjustable table tops. 
This got dropped off last night. It's an oak table top, 48 x 25. The space in the big metal table frame is 24.5", so I'm going to have some planing to do.
This combination of wood and steel should make for a damn useful shop table setup, and didn't cost me a dime.
Once I get the smoker finished, I'll be able to cleanup the floor some and hopefully get the miata back under cover too.
You should clean it all out and get a couple yards of 5/8 crushed rock and a plate tamper. Would make the floor a little easier to deal with. Plus if you get a sheet of 3/4 plywood you can cut it into pieces to lay on when working on the car when it's in the air. They work well for supporting the jack as well.
I got the coolest toy ever today!! A motherberking PLASMA CUTTER!!!!
because let's just jump into the deep end, and start trying to cut letters on round pipe.
freehand circles are nice
Poor penetration...
obligatory action shot
This is with my tiny little 4 gallon compressor. About 30" of cuts through aluminum before the air cutout. AWESOME I can use it without a big compressor.
Might be too blurry to express the awesomeness that plasma cut cast aluminum is.
Then I got impatient and cut the wheels off a cart that Fasted58 gave me that I couldn't move around the car port.
Welded on some 10" pneumatic wheels, kicked them up to 34psi, and while it doesn't steer well, it hold plasma cutter and welder.
I did manage to find the hooks I was looking for, and will be welding them onto the cart ot hold grinders and consumables and wires and such out of the way.
Good to see the cart work out.
Can the plasma cutter cut up an aluminum wheel in small enough pieces for use in a crucible?
I may need one.
In reply to fasted58:
It should. I wanted to test exactly that, that's why I carved into the wheel. I just went over the middle of the wheel like that to see how much cutting my little compressor could handle, and learn what running out of air feels like.
With the guide on the cutter it's really difficult going around a curve, but taking the guide off it should cut it up like a big cake.
It's so fast and so smooth. I really need to get a pair of torch goggles to make best use of the speed. Like shade 7, because the 9 on my welding helmet is too dark to see any lines through.
I'd been thinking about just using the metal on that cart to make other things because it was so big and the wheels were just terrible on the gravel. But then I started seeing other people's welding carts and realizing that having 4 grinders just scattered around is annoying. I still want swivel casters, but those were $60 and these wheels were $16 (for all 4), so the casters can wait. Once I get the hooks welded on and everything in its place, it should be a fantastic cart for my house, I really appreciate the hell out of it.
So maybe I should have double checked spacing on the hooks, but now most everything is all in the same place.
All told, my 4 4.5" grinders, my 3" cutoff tool, and seperate hooks for cutting and grinding discs and flapper wheels, plus the drawer with wire wheels and welding spools in it.
I think I'm just going to mount a power strip on it for the grinders and give it it's own extension cord.
I need to mount a bracket for the air dryer for the plasma cutter, I'd like to mount the 220V extension cord on it under the handle somehow too. More hooks most likely.
As a bonus, I still have the bottom shelf for storage, which will hold a gas bottle chained to a leg very well when I get one.
Didn't realize I haven't posted a picture of the "finished" table.
I'm waiting on a call about steel grating drops, and may replace the metal square with it. But for now, the square is moveable and makes for a good mostly flat welding table. The wood I pictured above I trimmed down to fit, and it's being pretty good at flat surface to collect E36 M3 on.
Honestly, that's a damn nice looking little fab area. I know guys who get paid actual money who work in worse.
I'll be ordering them soon and figuring out exactly how to use them later. Being a foot taller than I need, mounting the top to the carpet and stitching in some conduit with eye bolts on the bottom and using a rope and pully comes to mind.
Nothing else has been going on with this for a while because broken cars and nasty weather.
I'm still planning to double my LED bars and outlets this year. I'm thinking about just buying some 4 outlet reels to hang from the ceiling, it may be easier in the long run.
I'm also torn on whether to just use reels or put in some hard plumbing for the 30 gallon compressor I scored this fall. As it sits right now, it's ready to plug into half inch black iron pipe, I just don't know how to attach a 3/8" air connector(all I can find) to a half inch iron pipe. I actually don't know how to connect an air hose to it as it sits. It's been explained to me, but I couldn't find the pieces that were described. Probably should just go browse garage journal and see how they do it.
Most of the 3/8" hose I seen has 1/4" NPT ends. Check thread size, they should have 1/2 x 1/4 too if needed.
I wonder why my pics are disappearing from my old threads, I'm paid up on my hosting.
Anyway, since I finally got the broken crown Victoria gone, I have some space to work again. Today I vacuumed up leaves. Tomorrow, I'm going to start working on the Billboard doors, mounting the compressor onto a plastic pallet, and do some more cleaning.
I may have found a lead on almost unlimited free wooden pallets. While breaking them down and rebuilding with the wood is an option, I'm also thinking about making essentially storage cubes from them. Something like this, but with pallets. 
Once I decide where the compressor is going to live, I'm finally going to get it running as well, hopefully I can get to that this weekend too.
The compressor station is ready
Well this wasn't the job I set out to do today, but I'm glad it's done.
I need more pallets, lots more. But I can fit vehicle in again, and do have things a bit more organized on that side of the carport.
Now, next time it's warm and dry, I should be able to make actual progress.
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