Inside The Secret Underground Laboratory

#41
hypercarrots said:
are the temperature fluctuations in the underground lab minimised by being underground? what's the indoor climate control like for the sake of the wood?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's one of the main reasons why we're here! The temperature here in our shops stays between 65 and 75 almost all year. During the "winter" season, it'll be 60-65 for a few weeks. If there's a summer heat wave, we may get 80 for a few days. None of us use any real heating or air conditioning.

Humidity is more of a problem, because we're only 25 miles from the ocean. Most of the time it's 35-50%, which is good. But, when the ocean winds get going, we can get sudden drops in the humidity, sometimes within hours. During those fires a few weeks ago, it was 0% and under 10% in our shops. That low humidity causes problems for Jon Wilson and Rob Allen. They were running humidifiers around the clock to keep their shop wood storage areas up in the 40% range. I had some trouble with some poplar body blanks cupping badly, but they've flattened out now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bobo, delta7fred and hypercarrots
#44
On the lighter side, here are two amusing pictures. Scott and I are working on a story for the local newspaper, a semi-humorous thing about What's Going On In The Secret Underground Laboratory? It's an Area 51, Weekly World News kind of theme.

IMG_5247X.jpg


That's the west end of our building, taken from across the street. You can see the ramp going down into the basement. I made the picture black & white and added the notes to add to the mystery.
IMG_5243X2.jpg

The ferocious canine is Keith Horne's dog Chip, a feisty old Miniature Pincher. He's there in Keith's shop most days, and is the official Chief Of Security of the new wing of the basement.

Down at the other end of the hall, Rob Allen has his dog Daisy. She's a sweet elderly German Shepherd who goes everywhere with him.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: rogerbmiller, Bobo, S-Bigbottom and 10 others
#45
Here's a recent picture looking down the hall of the basement, lit up. The first shop on the left is Keith Horne. The second is Jon Wilson. Mine is on the right, where the gate is open. Mike Lipe's shop is about halfway down on the right. That dark square down there is the mid-point of the building. The basement continues way down another couple hundred feet. Rob Allen's shop is down there, on the right.

IMG_5249.JPG


Here's the entrance to Keith's shop. He's got about 480 sq ft. Last year, he and Jon worked together and completely walled in their shops with wood. Jon fully insulated his shop, because he's real fussy about temperature and humidity.

IMG_5250.JPG
 
  • Like
Reactions: John_Nicholas, Bobo, S-Bigbottom and 9 others
#46
Bruce Johnson said:
Here's a recent picture looking down the hall of the basement, lit up. The first shop on the left is Keith Horne. The second is Jon Wilson. Mine is on the right, where the gate is open. Mike Lipe's shop is about halfway down on the right. That dark square down there is the mid-point of the building. The basement continues way down another couple hundred feet. Rob Allen's shop is down there, on the right.

View attachment 2864952

Here's the entrance to Keith's shop. He's got about 480 sq ft. Last year, he and Jon worked together and completely walled in their shops with wood. Jon fully insulated his shop, because he's real fussy about temperature and humidity.

View attachment 2864953
Click to expand...
Wait a minute.... I see the crate with the ARK OF THE COVENANT!!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: sissy kathy, John_Nicholas, Bobo and 5 others
#47
Jon Clegg said:
Wait a minute.... I see the crate with the ARK OF THE COVENANT!!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's probably back there in far end of the basement somewhere, with all the other junk. We did find a crate with a pair of replacement wing flaps for an A-10 Warthog. And there's a bunch of passenger seats and storage compartments from a DC-8 (?) airliner. We have one of the aircraft galley cabinets in our basement bathroom, for toilet paper storage.

Did I mention that there's an underground tunnel that goes under the street, over to the Public Works building, next to the Fire Station? That building used to be the shop where they built the orange crates, and the crates came over through the tunnel, under the street, into the packing house. The tunnel is still there, although it's blocked off on the other end. We've been down inside it. It's about 4 feet square, with a big old wooden conveyor system mostly still there. Real 1930's stuff. Fascinating to see it up close, how it was all built.
 
  • Like
Reactions: zuma, Bobo, wraub and 10 others
#50
So cool. I live in North county SD, but make trips all ocer SoCal for club soccer with my kids. I'm gonna have to drop in and check out the basement someday. Looks like such a cool building. It doesn't hurt that there are a ton of amazing craftsmen doing some amazing work there!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bobo
#56
Giorgetto said:
Hi Bruce, So relieved that you came through those fires unscathed, you were in my thoughts... Wishing you a wonderful 2018! George B.
Click to expand...

Well, hello George! I haven't heard from you in a while.

Yep, we're cozy and safe down here in the lab. It actually rained steadily all day today and is supposed to continue through tomorrow. The first real rain storm we've had since last February. I guess there are some problems with mud slides already. I'm sure the ashboarding is good up in the hills.

Come on by and visit, next time you are up in this neighborhood!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bobo
#57
Getting back to the walk-around tour of my shop, this is my glue-up bench area.

I have these two old special work benches that I built about 35 years ago (it's hard to believe...) back in Pennsylvania. I call them the Saw Cows, variants on the more traditional Saw Horses. If you lift off the top 1/4" plywood surface, it's an array of 12" square rectangles. Clamps fit down into the spaces between them, allowing almost infinite possible clamping of parts for sawing, routing, etc. A clever design, which works well. But these days, the 'ol Saw Cows serve as my gluing benches. Big wrenches and pry bars hang on the front of them.

Parked over on the right is the Neck Horse.

IMG_5431B.jpg


The white cabinet holds my supply of West System epoxy and other various glues and casting resins. I dispense and mix the epoxy right on that shelf, right next to the gluing operations. On the left is my fret slotting saw, which you've probably seen in other threads. In the background are racks of routing templates and fixtures for making Scroll Basses.

IMG_5433B.jpg


Here, I'm doing the main glue-ups on a couple of walnut AMB-2 Scroll Basses. On the near bench, I'm gluing the laminations for two necks. They are clamped to a pair of gluing beams. These beams are made up from MDF and raised up above the bench surface, so the clamps can reach underneath. The top surfaces of the beams are covered with clear packing tape, plus in this case I've also laid down a strip of waxed paper.

These beams are very handy for all kinds of neck gluing operations. I use them every day. I mostly use this joined pair of MDF beams, but I have two more single ones made from square aluminum tubing.

IMG_5434B.jpg
IMG_5430B.jpg


On the rear bench, I'm gluing up two walnut body tops and two backs in my stack fixture. I'm edge gluing the halves together. This fixture is made up of a base frame, a top frame, and three intermediate frames. By using different combinations of the parts, I can glue from one to four pairs of boards at a time. The vertical clamps squeeze the frames together, which holds the edges of the boards accurately aligned. The horizontal clamps squeeze the pairs of boards together. I'll post some more pictures of this fixture if it's not clear how it works.

Behind the stack fixture is a holding rack, which holds the jointed pairs of boards edge-up. That makes it much easier to apply the epoxy. I'm using West Systems 105/206 here for the bodies and the necks.


IMG_5422B.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: zuma, rogerbmiller, Bobo and 10 others
#59
Here are a couple more shots of the stack fixture, to help clarify how it works. The fixture frames are made from strips of 3/4" MDF screwed together. Then I added short and long pieces of 1" x 1/16" wall aluminum angle, epoxied to the MDF cross bars. The long pieces are on the tops of the bars, supporting the undersides of the boards. The short pieces are on the undersides of the bars, pushing down on the boards, just on either side of the glue joint. The bars have V-notches to clear the the glue joint, so they don't get glued in.

As the stack gets clamped vertically, these aluminum angles pinch the boards right near the glue joint, holding them in line with each other all down the length of the board. Then the horizontal clamps squeeze the joints together. The vertical clamps are 24" and 36" Jorgensens; the horizontal clamps are 18" Jorgensens.

IMG_5448B.jpg


Here are two of the intermediate frames, to give you a better look at the locations of the aluminum angles. The construction is really pretty simple. I built this fixture around 1997, and have used it for every bass I've built since then. It's saved me a lot of hours.

IMG_5449B.jpg


IMG_5450B.jpg


Here's what the base looks like. Same construction; MDF strips screwed together, with pieces of aluminum angle epoxied on. Behind it is the rack for holding the boards while applying the epoxy to the edges. A simple time saver.

IMG_5451B.jpg


And here's the top frame. When not in use, these frames all interlock and stack up in a neat pile under one of my workbenches.

IMG_5452B.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: zuma, John_Nicholas, Bobo and 10 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back