re: I'm building a Metal Shop

Just seeing this thread. Great work! Only thing that comes to mind you may want in there is some type of overhead lift/winch.

Been a couple of months since I've updated the thread. Here are some random updated pictures.

The electrical in the whole building I would say is about 95% complete. Just need one more circuit for the microwave in the guest house, relocate the fridge circuit, and add a 10' run of wire for the bar nook. Lights are installed and hanging in the guest house now. Outlets are all terminated in the guest house also.

I've gone through 2000 feet of 12/2 Romex 300 feet of 10/2 and 375 feet of 6/2.

Air conditioner and ducting were contracted out and installed last week. It is a 2 ton 2 stage heat pump unit.

Water lines are all roughed in for the kitchen and bathroom. When I poured the concrete, I put a 2" PVC stub in so I could pull the water up into the building instead of coming up above the ground and T'ing into the building. Had to find a way to latch on to the pex and pull it through. Wanted a 1" line all the way to the water treatment area so I welded up the expanding contraption seen in the picture in my hand. The rest of the water lines are 3/4" all the way to the faucets.

The water treatment is a Carbon filter, water softener and inline filter. I'm waiting on a drain pan to come in before I hook these all up. Installed a tankless water heater as well. It required 3 40A circuits. That stung a little.

Insulation is the biggest expense remaining, and is the second most expensive part of this build. I didn't realize it was going to be $15k to spray foam this thing. So I decided to make a little extra money on the side a couple of weekends ago.

I was contracted to frame up a shop for another guy. Took 4 days to frame. Now I'm helping him with his electrical as well. It's a friend of a friend. He's in an HOA and he was worried about the HOA giving him grief about his building so he decided to skin it in camo. And sure enough, the nosie Karens in the neighborhood were posting on their neighborhood app asking why all the "commercial" vehicles were coming and going. But you physically cannot see the shop without driving down his driveway and down a hill.

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you do nice worth brother. On that water heater I would have been tempted to go propane even with a 10 gal bottle.

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Thanks man.

I went back and forth on it. The bathtub the wife wanted is a capacity of 81 gallons and she likes to take baths frequently. She won't be filling it up 81 gallons every time, but I don't know how much she'll actually use. There's so much conflicting information around efficiency and convenience. Decided to go this route and if it doesn't work I can change it up later.

I found a level that gets you insanely accurate. Brand name is stabila. Not exactly cheap, but I wish I had it when I framed my shop. A couple of the posts are not quite level and it's nothing anyone would notice, but it drives me insane. It's digital and prints out down to the hundredth of an inch per foot how out of level you are. We were able to get the posts accurate to .01 inch per foot.

Used it on the camo shop and that thing is about as dead nuts level as you can get.

I also bought a bosch laser tape measure. That thing saved me a ton of measuring on the shop I framed up as well.

I've had a 3 axis green laser for my barn interior buildout, i recently bought a cheapo 2 axis to use in conjunction with the other for hanging wall cabinets. I find the studs behind a particular cabinet and align the lasers on them then put the cabinet hanging cleat up with the studs still shown by the lasers, then finally the hold down screws when the cabinet is hung.

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Really wish I knew structural engineering math

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I know a dinky looking steel truss is extremely strong. Im sure theres tables available for round numbers. I used to know how to do this stuff.