Our 16' mobile shop

[Old School Carpenter]

I thought I would make a small video of one of our trucks that we use as a small mobile shop. Like most of our own projects, it is a work in progress, ever changing and adapting to our needs. It isn't a good fit for all of our work, but its great for some of it.  Please excuse the poor quality cell phone video.

http://s626.photobucket.com/user/oldschoolbuilds/media/VID_20130609_122239.mp4.html
Mike

 

[mastercabman]

Not a bad set up!
I used to drive a box van like that.
I did not have it set up as nice as what you did.but it worked for me.
I must ask about the fridge.
I know it is nice to have but does it cool that quick? I must assume that it is not running after working hours.so it would have to start cooling only when you plug it in?
I think that having a cooler with ice would be better?

 

[Old School Carpenter]

The fridge works quite well. The truck is plugged in at the shop at night and so is only unplugged for about 2 hours at the most during the drive to and from the job. In effect, a cooler without the mess/ maintenance of ice. [smile]

Mike

 

[mastercabman]

The fridge works quite well. The truck is plugged in at the shop at night and so is only unplugged for about 2 hours at the most during the drive to and from the job. In effect, a cooler without the mess/ maintenance of ice. [smile]

Mike

That's ......cool! [laughing]

 

[duburban]

can't see it, do i need a photobucket account to view?

 

[peter halle]

You shouldn't.

Peter

 

[AlexThePalex]

can't see it, do i need a photobucket account to view?

You need to have Flash installed to see it.

 

[peter halle]

Alex, that is what I thought, but I checked and I can see it on my iPad. 

Peter

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Alex, that is what I thought, but I checked and I can see it on my iPad. 

I suspect Safari has an integrated MP4 player since Apple is an advocate of the H.264 MP4 video standard for HTML5. Sorry, a little geek talk there. But, you would need a browser that can handle MP4 inherently or a plug in probably.

Cool van tour video. You need more green tools.  [tongue]

 

[land_kel]

I didn't see any green. Maybe, needs some green kool-aid in the fridge.

 

[Old School Carpenter]

I didn't see any green. Maybe, needs some green kool-aid in the fridge.

About that, the story goes like this. 
I bought a bunch of new extension cords last weekend, placed them in a truck and 2 hours into Monday someone cut cleanly through one.

Not one of the old patched/ ugly cords, Nope, a brand new, didn't even have the shine off of it yet, cord [mad]

So that's why no green tools in the trucks, and why no one but my sons are allowed to work in the shop.

No one cares for your tools like you do.

Mike

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

An explanation I've unfortunately heard before, Mike.

So, what could we do or offer that would make you feel more at ease with allowing your crew to use our tools?

 

[fshanno]

An explanation I've unfortunately heard before, Mike.

So, what could we do or offer that would make you feel more at ease with allowing your crew to use our tools?

I realize that this should be a thread about a well thought out portable shop.  But this is intriguing.  It's not too far off topic because security and loss and all that must be among the first considerations. 

In Texas the labor situation can be challenging for small outfits, or should I say tiny outfits.  From what I've observed, and my dealer can verify this, Festool products are mostly in the hands of hobbyists and one man operations.  Or as in this case, in the shop in the hands of long time trusted men, many times family.  And it's not just caring for the tools, it's hanging on to them.

 

[farms100]

In Texas the labor situation can be challenging for small outfits, or should I say tiny outfits.  From what I've observed, and my dealer can verify this, Festool products are mostly in the hands of hobbyists and one man operations.  Or as in this case, in the shop in the hands of long time trusted men, many times family.  And it's not just caring for the tools, it's hanging on to them.

It really depends on the kind of work you do, where you work, people you hire, and supervision/training. We have had some meat heads over the years, worst being the ones that thought they knew it all.  [blink]

 

[Old School Carpenter]

It is an intriguing question,
My own experience is like that of fshanno's, Festools and other expensive tools are relegated to personal tools or one man crews.

For myself, I started with Makita tools over 20 years ago and still use my original pair of 9.6 volt screwguns in the shop on a daily basis. Their brand has been a proven performer for us for many years.

It's hard to justify putting a saw that costs over 3xs as much into the hands of someone else, when a saw for less than a third of the cost will do the same job for 90% of the work.  It doesn't hurt as much when someone has a bad day and destroys it either [mad]

I do this work for the love of it, but the bottom line is to make a profit. The track saw looks like it would be great for interior casework and flooring but I need a tool that I'm just as comfortable putting in the hands of a young guy framing a deck, as it is in the hands of my lead carpenter doing interior work. To see a festool saw set in the mud by a newbie that hasn't learned the value of good tools would not be good [doh]

You can train the guys well, but mistakes do happen, and you can't be everywhere at once. We have a great crew at this point, but it has taken us plenty of years to get there.

Mike

 

[peter halle]

Love your rig!  The amount of time and skill that you and others have spent and demonstrated doing setups like this is an indication of your dedication and pride.

I understand your unwillingness to have the crew use your Festools and what works for you works for you.  When I had a helper for a period of time he wasn't allowed to use mine.  But then I came to the conclusion that unless I let him learn how to use them he never would learn to respect them and all tools as if he had to purchase them.  He quickly learned and soon became more productive and profitable to me.

Now that being said, a circular saw on a construction site doing decks in the mud and slop isn't the best comparison for a TS-55 or -75.  In that situation pulling the rail and saw out when running boards wild and making finish cuts makes perfect sense, but not for the framing usually.

When I started in construction years ago I had to provide ALL my tools.  That might be what taught me respect mine back when I was making $8 an hour.  I hate the idea that the employer supplies ALL the power tools and the employees supply their hand tools.  I personally think that employees should at least have to provide their own circular saws.

Like I said, this is not a criticism of you.  You have a system that works.  But there might be a variation that would work even a little bit better.

Peter

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

I set my kapex in the mud, put my domino there once or twice.

They are just tools used to make pieces of wood smaller an into different shapes.

My brother is a concrete guy and after showing him how stuff works, he can use whatever tool he likes.

They will and do hold up to hard daily use, abuse and even misappropriation.

I don't get the dainty tool polishing mentality around here.

 

[fshanno]

I set my kapex in the mud, put my domino there once or twice.

They are just tools used to make pieces of wood smaller an into different shapes.

My brother is a concrete guy and after showing him how stuff works, he can use whatever tool he likes.

They will and do hold up to hard daily use, abuse and even misappropriation.

I don't get the dainty tool polishing mentality around here.

Perhaps we do baby them too much.  Hard daily use yes but never abuse and misappropriation. 

But I'm not talking about how, I'm talking about who. 

Like I said, it's people you have a high degree of trust in.  Yourself, family and trusted employees.  You mention your brother and that fits the profile, no matter what he does for a living. 

Festools are not crew tools. 

 

[Kev]

I set my kapex in the mud, put my domino there once or twice.

They are just tools used to make pieces of wood smaller an into different shapes.

My brother is a concrete guy and after showing him how stuff works, he can use whatever tool he likes.

They will and do hold up to hard daily use, abuse and even misappropriation.

I don't get the dainty tool polishing mentality around here.

Perhaps we do baby them too much.  Hard daily use yes but never abuse and misappropriation. 

But I'm not talking about how, I'm talking about who. 

Like I said, it's people you have a high degree of trust in.  Yourself, family and trusted employees.  You mention your brother and that fits the profile, no matter what he does for a living. 

Festools are not crew tools. 

I've experienced the down side of trusting people to use and care for my things - people I've had respect for ... never again!

On handling tools, I treat tools with the care they need to perform their job and a degree of OCD tends to keep them clean and tidy - but I don't polish the lawn mower [wink]

 

[Old School Carpenter]

No tool polishing around here, but we try not to abuse them, and use the tool for what it was designed for.

No OCD, around here its CDO like it should be!  [big grin]

Mike