The Ceiling… <back>

08/13//2004

    Everyone keeps asking why put so much attention on the shop. What started me on this journey was my concept of LEAN. I was asked to be the LEAN Coordinator for the Facilities Department where I work and after much study in LEAN I liked the concept and decided to apply to my life in general. But to move in this direction is a big job and a lot of learning and changing a whole lot of my bad habits. I’ve learned over the years, any major undertaking can be accomplished successfully if divided into smaller steps, what I have coined as ‘Baby Steps’. So in my process here, I am taking ‘Baby Steps’. 

   First I have to learn to “Throw Away” and my wife is so proud of me… Least she is until I start in the house. But for now, I cleaned my shop out, hauled six truck loads of “I might need that or I might could use that” items to the dump. I sold my old Dragonfly project and the money was used to make this transformation happen. I still have all my major equipment but its in storage right now. 

   I’ve cleaned out the entire shop. Cleaned and sealed the cement floor and applied a epoxy coating. Then I insulated the walls and ceiling and covered the walls with heavy gauge enamel coated steel and now putting in the ceiling material.

 

 

 

 

   The material I used for the ceiling was vinyl soffit. The reason for this choice is manly cost, but I wanted something ‘White” and this was by far the cheapest I found without having to paint. The light increase is astounding from just the white ceiling alone. With the white walls and ceiling the light from the 7 8” foot light fixtures should be more than enough. Plus the will keep the insulation up and make for a extremely LEAN work environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Here is the completed ceiling. As you can see this has made the entire shop brightly lit now. There is some trim yet to be done before the shop is complete.  The windows need trimmed and some of the vinyl siding needs a bit more trim around the lights.         

   This view is from the back of the shop showing the ceiling around the heater and viewing the front door and garage door.