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Inside The Secret Underground Laboratory

#481
A quick update on the Secret Underground Laboratory:

The regulatory mess with the city has been mostly resolved, and we've been working with the building's new owners. Things are getting sorted out and the future looks good. They want to keep us craftsmen tenants in the basement, at the same very reasonable lease rates. They are going to make some general cleanup improvements on the building, but nothing drastic. Keep it historic and a quiet place for light craftsmen shops and museum type storage.

I'm going to be signing a 5 year lease, at a very reasonable rate. And my lease will include some management responsibility for the basement shops. I'll have some control over who we bring in as tenants, safety rules, maintenance, etc. This is all good.

We are now open to take in new tenants! Small one-person craftsman type shops preferred, especially Luthiers! Let me know if you are interested.
 
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#482
Bruce Johnson said:
A quick update on the Secret Underground Laboratory:

The regulatory mess with the city has been mostly resolved, and we've been working with the building's new owners. Things are getting sorted out and the future looks good. They want to keep us craftsmen tenants in the basement, at the same very reasonable lease rates. They are going to make some general cleanup improvements on the building, but nothing drastic. Keep it historic and a quiet place for light craftsmen shops and museum type storage.

I'm going to be signing a 5 year lease, at a very reasonable rate. And my lease will include some management responsibility for the basement shops. I'll have some control over who we bring in as tenants, safety rules, maintenance, etc. This is all good.

We are now open to take in new tenants! Small one-person craftsman type shops preferred, especially Luthiers! Let me know if you are interested.
Click to expand...
that is awesome, Bruce!
 
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#483
Bruce Johnson said:
A quick update on the Secret Underground Laboratory:

The regulatory mess with the city has been mostly resolved, and we've been working with the building's new owners. Things are getting sorted out and the future looks good. They want to keep us craftsmen tenants in the basement, at the same very reasonable lease rates. They are going to make some general cleanup improvements on the building, but nothing drastic. Keep it historic and a quiet place for light craftsmen shops and museum type storage.

I'm going to be signing a 5 year lease, at a very reasonable rate. And my lease will include some management responsibility for the basement shops. I'll have some control over who we bring in as tenants, safety rules, maintenance, etc. This is all good.

We are now open to take in new tenants! Small one-person craftsman type shops preferred, especially Luthiers! Let me know if you are interested.
Click to expand...
Great news, Bruce!
 
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#489
Yes, it's almost all good news. The new owners want to basically stay with our original plan for the use of the building. One change is that they want to fill the building space with tenants. No empty open areas to use for open house public events or indoor movie shoots. We're going to go quiet; private shops, not a public place. I think I like that.

I'm still pissed off at the city for what they did to us, and I'm not going to forgive them. There will have to be some changes before I put effort into helping to develop the city. The new owners have made peace with them, but I'm going underground.
 
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#492
3DCD3AEE-7C54-4E24-912B-D4B54B67BE17.jpeg
has anyone tried one of these? if so, how do you like it?
 
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#493
Gilmourisgod said:
So.... pretty much a Hotbed of Secret Underground Activity with no public scrutiny.... and lots of tools!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a scary situation when you have multiple mad scientists, each with shops full of tools, in a large underground space. And we start meeting in hallways and chattering about crazy ideas that we've had.....

There have been discussions about building our own zeppelin, or maybe an underground drone hanger, or.....
 
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#494
Hey guys;

Many of you have been envying my giant circa 1945 Royersford 21" drill press. I know you want one.

IMG_1052B.jpg


Well, here's your chance if you are in the Los Angeles area! The picture above is mine, which I'm never, ever selling.

But one of these is available right now on CraigsList. The exact same machine, a Royersford 21. Not as clean and pretty as mine, but it appears to be complete and fully functional, nothing broken. They are asking $500 or Best Offer. They are moving and need to get rid of it soon, so they'll probably just about give it away. Probably your last chance of ever seeing one of these machines for sale. Please, someone save it from the scrap yard!

It's in Newbury Park. It's listed under Ventura County/Tools/Royersford Excelsior 21 Drill Press.
 
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#496
Bruce,

I thought you might have a passing interest in a "new" lathe I bought. Originally I was going to go Chinese but on seeing a real lathe, that went out the window. This thing is an Australian-made Hercus 9 Model A from 1956. It is, in essence, a local copy of the South Bend 9in with many parts interchangeable. It is a lot more capable machine for the money than I ever expected--much more rigid, power crossfeed, quick change gearbox--and made every modern machine in the price/size range feel like a toy. Amazing.

Due to a lack of 3-phase in my shop, I'm going to have to rewire it, though that isn't such a bad thing (1956: a safety-stop? pah!). Otherwise, it seems in great condition for its age, though I yet to get an idea on way wear (runout at the spindle is next to zero). These machines are a total rabbit-hole! Thank you :-)

installed-01.jpg
 
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#497
Bruce Johnson said:
Many of you have asked for a look inside my shop, known as the Secret Underground Laboratory. Here's a video interview/shop tour that was taken a few months ago. It's 5:40 of me walking through my shop, talking about my business and my machines. The video was shot by Scott Duckett, with me talking to Ernie Villegas. Ernie has been hired by the city of Fillmore (where we are) to promote business development in the city.

Ernie and Scott shot similar videos of most of the other tenant shops here in the building. Eventually, the plan is to put them all into an official city web site. But Scott went ahead and posted this one of me on YouTube.

This video doesn't cover all of my shop, but we briefly go through most of the areas specifically used in building my Scroll Basses. We didn't really go through my heavy woodworking machines, or the routing bench, or the other bay with my oldest antique metalworking machines. But it's a good overview. It was all shot in one continuous take.



If you didn't know it, I'm in the basement of a giant old Sunkist orange packing house in the little historic town of Fillmore California. The old wing of the building was built in 1914, and the "new" wing was added in 1934. Back in those days, this packing plant was a bustling operation, the heart of the town.

It's about 50,000 sf on the main floor, with a tall timber-trussed roof. Down below is a long narrow basement of about 40,000 sf. It's all concrete walls, 7 feet below ground level, divided into about 50 rooms and compartments. It was designed specifically for storing oranges. The whole basement naturally stays between 65 and 75 for almost the entire year. Perfect shop working conditions.

Sunkist closed the packing house down in 1970. The building went through several owners, including being a furniture factory and a warehouse for aircraft parts. It was then semi-abandoned for about ten years. The current owner, David Storrs, bought it on Foreclosure about 5 years ago. The city was very concerned about the building, because it's right in the middle of the city, and it's such a part of the history of the city. And it's a very unusual building in structure and layout; not suitable for most normal development things.

David's plan is to restore the building in fairly historic form, and lease it out to small private craftsman shops. That's what we're doing. I was one of the early tenants, moving my shop into the basement in late 2013. The building is now about 2/3 full of tenants, all kinds of interesting creative people. There are currently six of us Luthiers: Myself, Keith Horne, Mike Lipe, Jon Wilson, Rob Allen, and Raul Reulas. A few others are thinking about joining us. I help to manage the building, particularly us basement dwellers.

It's a wonderful environment for small craftsman shops. Cool and comfortable and secure and inexpensive. And Fillmore itself is a neat little town. Peaceful, no real crime, hot rods, old trains, surrounded by farms and orchards, California weather, 25 miles from the beach. Americana, stuck in 1963.

If any of you are looking for shop space around the Los Angeles area, contact me. We still have some space.

We just started an overall web site for the building at: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Click to expand...


OMG I had no clue my shop is on the 8th floor of a high rise building it's 12feet X 10feet LOL
 
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#500
Jon Clegg said:
Had a chance to visit the Secret Underground Laboratory today--it's as cool as you might imagine and Bruce is a wonderful host. Lots of cool things for a luthier to :drool: over :thumbsup:
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Yes, after a thorough security screening, I gave Jon a tour of the Secret Underground Lab. We talked about the intricacies of bass design, machines, life working in the aerospace world, my Top Secret projects, and machines. It was good meeting you, Jon!

I'll continue to extend an open invitation to any of you Luthier's Corner folks to visit the Lab, if you happen to be in the northern Los Angeles area. Fillmore is about 50 miles directly north of downtown Los Angeles, about 25 miles east of Ventura.
 
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