challenging all for "smallest shop" award...

[daddylama]

edit... added pics/updated to the last post...


hi... been a HAMBer for years, although i mainly lurk... have been lurking here for a year or so. figured i'd post pics of my wee little shop and introduce myself here.

apprenticed blacksmith, former metal fabricator/welder (certified), former building contractor (licensed), currently a software engineer (a crappy one) who's thinking of going back to welding or contracting. sitting at a desk all day really *****.
married and have two kids... 10 year old step daughter and a 20 month old daughter. the little one loves loud cars, helps me work on the house, knows how to use a hammer, and thinks getting dirty is fun. daddy's little girl, she is...

into 50's style hot rods, customs, choppers/bobbers... and turbo volvos (doesn't quite mix with the other stuff...)

we bought a 1913 craftsman style house in portland oregon a couple months ago, on an urban 50x100' lot. after living in grad student housing with the wifey and kids anything was better than working on my projects in a parking lot.
before this, my last home shop was in a 60' x 22' former rabbit hutch, with 8' ceilings at the peak, 5' at the low. good floor space, but hit my head a lot . still built a lot of cars in there... usually a couple of my projects, and one for a client (used to do fabrication for customs/hot rods/bikes, for a livin')

now this... this is a carriage house built in 1913. 10.5' wide by 17' deep. max ceiling height is about 10.5'.

the yard looks pretty ghetto/white-trash... but we're in the middle of lots of construction. sounds like a good excuse, right???

inside... well, it's a little tight

it's also temporary storage while we get situated in the house. lotsa boxes laying 'bout, for now. also restoring the house... so the shop/carriage house is gonna take a while.

the plan is to pull the vinyl siding off, strip the ship lap siding and re-paint... after adding a bit in length to it.
needs a new header above where the swing-out barn-door used to reside... so may as well build a whole new front wall a few feet further out, right? the framing is mostly the old rough cut dimensional lumber... and i've got enough salvaged dimensional to build the front extension. final dimensions will be 10.5' x 20'.
small, but i hear it's not the the size that matters, it's how you use it. right?


keeping the walls exposed inside; jack up the rear corner that's sunk ~2"; repair the VERY THIN slab... likely going to float gypsum/concrete over it, and call it done... and yeah, i know it'll crack again; then move my stuff in.

it'll be a tight fit... but should be usable to build a little hot rod in it. definitely won't be getting more than one project at a time in there.

floor drill press, bench top lathe, small 220v 140a mig, full oxy/acetylene rig (the only way to go), sheet metal brake, english wheel, anvil... and gotta figure somewhere to squeeze in a small natural gas forge (likely outside). tools? damn... they gotta go somewhere, too.

i've got lots of space in the basement for additional tool storage, but would like to use as much space as possible in the little carriage house. the basement is a laundry room, storage, and eventually a studio for the wife and a game room for the kids. carriage house is all mine... unless the wife wants to weld (nothin' like a woman who can weld that doesn't look like a woman who can weld!)

i'm very much into the nostalgia/original/restored/old-school kinda house and shop, rather than modern... so this is a decent start, at least.

despite the "original" thing, i pulled out the crusty knob and tube wiring that would make funny sizzling sounds when it rained... pulled 2/2/2/6 aluminum feed line from the house's 200A panel to a 100A panel in the carriage house, in buried PVC conduit.
in the process of wiring for lights: five 4' T12 cheap-o home depot specials (ugly as sin, but do the job i suppose), four 60W incandescents in some old barn housings/reflectors. plugs every 4', 220V by the door. water for a quench tank and drinking fountain in the front, alarm cable, phone and network.

sorry for the crappy pics... the camera has taken a few falls and i'm a crappy photographer.
hopefully i can contribute here from time to time, but likely i'll just lurk, and occasionally give useless answers.

anyway... that's my story, and i'm stickin' to it.

 

[Franz©]

Well, those dimensions really make me feel good about the vehicle storage box I'm building to get my M-37 out of the welding bay so I can work on some other projects in there when winter sets in.

I find myself becoming more and more interested in what I can fab up out of free and real cheap materials, like pallet racking. Since NY State was kind enough to put the rules of what can be taxed and what can't be taxed, along with the definition of a building, life has gotten to be a whole lot more fun.

 

[wilbilt]

I find myself becoming more and more interested in what I can fab up out of free and real cheap materials, like pallet racking. Since NY State was kind enough to put the rules of what can be taxed and what can't be taxed, along with the definition of a building, life has gotten to be a whole lot more fun.

I built my hole from cheap and free stuff. Mostly free.
A couple discarded mobile home patio awnings attached to an 8x12 shed (also built with free stuff) provide the roof. The walls are in progress, framed as material becomes available.

We get a lot of large deliveries at work (like playground equipment) and it is often crated with very nice lumber. I can take it in exchange for hauling it off. I also got several sections of pallet racking for free. It might actually look like a building someday, but isn't tall enough to set up my lift.

When I can build an actual garage/shop, this one will become a carport. For the time being, it keeps my tools somewhat dry.

 

[wilbilt]

my last home shop was in a 60' x 22' former rabbit hutch, with 8' ceilings at the peak, 5' at the low. good floor space, but hit my head a lot .

I'm going to end up with about 6'2" headroom in the low part of mine once I pour a floor in there. I'm 6' tall, so I won't be hanging any lights in there.

Overall dimensions of the "carport" area are about 12'x24', with a 4x12 "annex" where the compressor and tire machine live. I may cut a door into the side of the shed from the carport to make it easier to access stuff stored in there (like the light switch, LOL). Right now, the shed is so full I can't even get in there.

My yard looks like a thrift store exploded because things have a tendency to follow me home. I really need to seek some professional help in that regard.

 

[Franz©]

This one is about 12 x 18. It came to be when I got tired of lawn tractors sitting under tarps. The walls are a pile of Xerox machine shipping bases about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long. The foundation is made from 6x6 galvanized guardrail welded together.

About the only thing I paid $$ for is the roof sheet.

Thanks to NY State deciding to publish things like the Assessor's manual on line, I determined it ain't a building, it's a big box. The Assessor didn't like that, so he made a special trip to see the box. He pointed out the book says easily moveable. I stuck a bar under the corner and lifted it a few inches.
He thought he'd get clever, and asked to see the inside. I opened the door.
He asked if it had lights. I told him I'd plug the cord in. He was real pissed because permanent wiring would have qualified it as a building. I told him it also wasn't connected to water, gas or the ground, and wished him a nice day. He went away pissed.

My next box will have a frame made from palet rack, sit on more guardrail, and have a metal roof. I'm currently looking around my favorite vendor, Curbside Supply for a few garage doors to use for sidewalls. I like the pricing.

 

[comp]

This one is about 12 x 18. It came to be when I got tired of lawn tractors sitting under tarps. The walls are a pile of Xerox machine shipping bases about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long. The foundation is made from 6x6 galvanized guardrail welded together.

About the only thing I paid $$ for is the roof sheet.

Thanks to NY State deciding to publish things like the Assessor's manual on line, I determined it ain't a building, it's a big box. The Assessor didn't like that, so he made a special trip to see the box. He pointed out the book says easily moveable. I stuck a bar under the corner and lifted it a few inches.
He thought he'd get clever, and asked to see the inside. I opened the door.
He asked if it had lights. I told him I'd plug the cord in. He was real pissed because permanent wiring would have qualified it as a building. I told him it also wasn't connected to water, gas or the ground, and wished him a nice day. He went away pissed.

My next box will have a frame made from palet rack, sit on more guardrail, and have a metal roof. I'm currently looking around my favorite vendor, Curbside Supply for a few garage doors to use for sidewalls. I like the pricing.

 

[PAToyota]

I'm currently looking around my favorite vendor, Curbside Supply for a few garage doors to use for sidewalls. I like the pricing.

I've scored some great deals in the past from them myself. Unfortunately, around here they are eliminating the spring and fall "cleanup sales" they have held in the past and going to one large item any week - makes it harder to coordinate shopping schedules. Also, some locations have actually made it a crime to go shopping due to certain shoppers not being polite and strewing the merchandise about...

 

[daddylama]

This one is about 12 x 18. It came to be when I got tired of lawn tractors sitting under tarps. The walls are a pile of Xerox machine shipping bases about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long. The foundation is made from 6x6 galvanized guardrail welded together.

About the only thing I paid $$ for is the roof sheet.

Thanks to NY State deciding to publish things like the Assessor's manual on line, I determined it ain't a building, it's a big box. The Assessor didn't like that, so he made a special trip to see the box. He pointed out the book says easily moveable. I stuck a bar under the corner and lifted it a few inches.
He thought he'd get clever, and asked to see the inside. I opened the door.
He asked if it had lights. I told him I'd plug the cord in. He was real pissed because permanent wiring would have qualified it as a building. I told him it also wasn't connected to water, gas or the ground, and wished him a nice day. He went away pissed.

My next box will have a frame made from palet rack, sit on more guardrail, and have a metal roof. I'm currently looking around my favorite vendor, Curbside Supply for a few garage doors to use for sidewalls. I like the pricing.

love it.... everything about it. 'specially the Assessor's reaction!

the Assessor came knocking at our door a couple weeks ago. Said he was an inspector, and i kinda didn't hear anything after that... just was thinking "$hit, $hit, $hit"... then when i realized he was a tax assessor, i got real nervous. see, i don't have much land, so nowhere to hide the body.

but it turns out he was real cool... pointed at the carriage house (which had obvious signs of construction, and an open trench with conduit & water pipe)... said "you puttin' a bathroom in there? how about nice flooring? no, then it ain't livin' space, so i don't count it as anything."

he said the same about our basement... if we leave the slab floor, but finish in everything else, it's not considered living space: it's storage space. said to just get some nice area rugs...

 

[C_F]

Cool stories, you guys.
Since there's some other fellow cheapskates here, I'll show you mine...I did buy new wood, though.
I haven't had any tax guys snooping round, hopefully I never will.


http://1970chargerregistry.com/70messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=3967

 

[jimvannoy]

Mine was a 100 year old carriage house. It had a dirt floor with wagon wheel ruts. I poured concrete after a few years of dirt floor use. Then I built a 20x20 with "tarp" walls. Now I have a nice 30x40 shop.

 

[daddylama]

i gotta be a cheapskate with some (a lot of) stuff...

stay-at-home wife, 20 month old daughter, 10 year old girl, pretty fat mortgage, bills, all that stuff.

if i went and built the home shop of my dreams, there'd be no $ left for projects to build in the shop... or food... electricity... etc.

when i was a building contractor, i got a lot of leftover and tear-down/demo building materials, and was coming along very well with transforming the rabbit hutch/barn i used to have into a nice shop. raised the entire building by 6', lofted part of it, welding/metal shop, wood shop, tool storage, lounge/bar, office...
but a divorce put a crimp in the plans of finishing the shop. had to sell the house.
oh well... at least i'm not married to her anymore!

 

[Franz©]

It's all a matter of sequence.
First, you get the tools,
Then you get the shop.
Finally, you find the good lawyer you been lookin for all those years.
Then, the lawyer writes the PreNup
Then, the potential wiff signs the PreNup
Then and only then do you get hitched.

 

[wilbilt]

I've scored some great deals in the past from them myself. Unfortunately, around here they are eliminating the spring and fall "cleanup sales" they have held in the past and going to one large item any week - makes it harder to coordinate shopping schedules. Also, some locations have actually made it a crime to go shopping due to certain shoppers not being polite and strewing the merchandise about...

They don't have any locations around here. We do have Roadside Industrial Supply, though. The management is actually pretty happy if you are shopping the clearance aisles, but all sales are final, as they will not accept returns.

 

[goodfellow]

This one is about 12 x 18. It came to be when I got tired of lawn tractors sitting under tarps. The walls are a pile of Xerox machine shipping bases about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long. The foundation is made from 6x6 galvanized guardrail welded together.

About the only thing I paid $$ for is the roof sheet.

Thanks to NY State deciding to publish things like the Assessor's manual on line, I determined it ain't a building, it's a big box. The Assessor didn't like that, so he made a special trip to see the box. He pointed out the book says easily moveable. I stuck a bar under the corner and lifted it a few inches.
He thought he'd get clever, and asked to see the inside. I opened the door.
He asked if it had lights. I told him I'd plug the cord in. He was real pissed because permanent wiring would have qualified it as a building. I told him it also wasn't connected to water, gas or the ground, and wished him a nice day. He went away pissed.

My next box will have a frame made from palet rack, sit on more guardrail, and have a metal roof. I'm currently looking around my favorite vendor, Curbside Supply for a few garage doors to use for sidewalls. I like the pricing.

I just love it when the average guy does his homework and gets "the better" of the bureaucrats and their cronies. I did almost the same thing, put a "moveable" addition to my woodshop to house lumber and material. No electricals or plumbing, but it sure ticked off the county inspector.

 

[v8garage]

My next box will have a frame made from palet rack, sit on more guardrail, and have a metal roof. I'm currently looking around my favorite vendor, Curbside Supply for a few garage doors to use for sidewalls. I like the pricing.

Franz,
Please fill me in on how you plan on using the pallets? My wifes family is in the warehouse business and I have an endless supply of pallets. I have been thinking for a while that there ought to be a way to build a storage building out of them.
Thanks,
Tim

 

[daddylama]

we built a "movable" shop some years back... broke up pallets, ripped 'em into ship lap for the siding, 4x4 steel tube floor frame (we had a LOT of it, at the time), salvaged 4x10 1" plywood flooring and roof sheathing, salvaged 2x6 framing.

RV water connection on the side, hooked a garden hose up to it for water... "french" drain for the sink, RV power cable for electricity...
and the best part: welded spindles to the frame, put 8 trailer wheels on it, a trailer tongue and tail lights.
damned thing was 18' wide, about 24' long, about 18' tall. hung a sign on the front that read "doublewide speed shop"

one of the guy's neighbors reported an illegal building.... inspector showed up.

inspector was PISSED OFF when my buddy said "it's a trailer. do you work for the DMV? no, then leave."

he ended up having to tear apart the thing when he sold his house a couple years later.


i do really like the well built, very large dedicated purpose shops... some awesome ones here on the board...
i just happen to really dig old barns, odd buildings, stuff done on the cheap, etc. also really enjoy working in a building with "character."

when i was a teenager, a guy up the road from me restored a plymouth superbird in a large chicken coop. it didn't "used to be" a coop... it WAS a coop. he just shoved the chickens all to one end of the building. the car won numerous shows... and eventually sold at barrett jackson. goes to show that you don't need a pro shop to do a first class job.
he did mention that a bunch of chickens acted weird after painting the car, though... guess they don't dig the fumes, much...

 

[Franz©]

OK, you guys are going to work the old man, aintcha. Well, you can all chip in for a new set of brass fingertips for me for Christmas in exchange for teachin ya the dirty little secrets.

My current vehicle storage box is turning out to be 12 x 20, almost 9 feet high, since I modified the design a little based on available material.
I just finished dragging some rack parts into the shopyard today when LN arrived from work. Bein that she has this little visual problem, I had hung 2 foot square red flags on the end of the steel that was a good 10 feet from anyplace she and Bubbette (Hyundai Sonata) needed to be accessing the garage she swiped from me. LN hunted me down and put me on the spot insisting on knowing if that steel with the flag couldn't be pushed farther away from her traffic pattern. I told her it would be gone in 4 hours, and she was happy.

Re the palets, and converting them to walls, I should point out they are about 3 feet wide by 6' 6" long, and have 3 2x6 rails with a solid 3/4 plywood top. If yours aren't that long, you can still pull it off.

I should also probably point out one of my trades is a knuckle dragging weldor who is completely unaware of what he can't possibly do, with more years in the trades than a lot of you guys have been riding the rock around the sun. I pretty much know what I can get away with.

The BOX (that's codeword for shed) starts out with a baseframe of 6 x 6 square tube guardrail. After grinding the galvanize off where welds will be made, the rectangle is tacked together, squared up and welded. I sized the frame to accomodate the palets I had to work with so there would be minimal problems at the corners.

The first palet was stood on top of the rail at one corner, holding back about 1" to overlap the plywood from the palet on the other side of the corner. One edge runner was sawed off the second palet, and that palet slips into place on the other side of the corner. Temporary clamp in place, and beat into position with sledgomatic. Shoot a few nails into corner making secure 90° corner, and weld 3 tabs into position next to runner resting on guardrail. Bolt tab to runner, and install next palet. Other than the doortop, it's pretty much repeat repeat repeat till the walls are up. Other than the corners 1 tab per palet works well. So does a strong helper.

On the side I needed additional elevation, I just sawed pieces of palet to the length I needed, and stood them on top of the wall. They are secured in place by 2 foot long 2 x 4s nailgunned into place.

I used a shed style roof with rafters running in the 12 foot direction, provided by Evicted Tennant who was a mason Supply. Open space between the rafter and endwall was filled in with available plywood cut to fit.

Teh "floor" is just a collection of more palets fit inside of the steel frame. By the time they need to be replaced somebody else will be doing the work.

Siding is actually a fiberglass fabric that is made for the gigantic tents that cover acres in Saudi and other places. It's damn heavy, and slippery. Fortunately the man who developed the process for impregnating the fiberglass cloth with teflon for the purpose provided me some roll ends. I tacked it to the wall with 1" roof nails, after learning staples wouldn't hold the weight. As I finished covering each wall, I added batten strips for extra holding.

The buildings on wheels thing I did 20 years back, it got real boring after a while. They do piss the town off though because I claim they are toolboxes. There are 2 big pains in the a$$ to the concept, one, the tires eventually rot, and two, I almost had a serious problem with the last one I built when I made it too large to go out the shop door. Fortunately the cutting torch solved that problem and a little rewelding outside of the shop completed the redesign.

More fortunately, I'm a mamber of an official Endangered Species, a New York Farmer. It's a good group to be a member of.

 

[russlaferrera]

daddylamma, You made mention your friend sprayed his Plymouth and the chickens acted weird. Did they lay colored Easter eggs? haha

 

[daddylama]

OK, you guys are going to work the old man, aintcha. Well, you can all chip in for a new set of brass fingertips for me for Christmas in exchange for teachin ya the dirty little secrets.

....

now that's some good stuff!

 

[comp]

now that's some good stuff!

I agree

 

[Morrisman]

Smallest shop, 10.5 x 20??????
Try 8 x 16 if you want small. And that was with a 4 foot extension I added to one end, with a door, so I didn't have to go out into the street to get into it.

I managed to build this car in it, new chassis, running gear and all.

It is a real ball ache having to move the whole car just to work on the opposite side, and duck your head every time you walk the length of the shop.

 

[C_F]

Smallest shop, 10.5 x 20??????
Try 8 x 16 if you want small. And that was with a 4 foot extension I added to one end, with a door, so I didn't have to go out into the street to get into it.

I managed to build this car in it, new chassis, running gear and all.

It is a real ball ache having to move the whole car just to work on the opposite side, and duck your head every time you walk the length of the shop.

You win...so far, anyway.

 

[wilbilt]

Smallest shop, 10.5 x 20??????
Try 8 x 16 if you want small. And that was with a 4 foot extension I added to one end, with a door, so I didn't have to go out into the street to get into it.
I managed to build this car in it, new chassis, running gear and all.

There aren't many cars in this country that will fit into an 8' wide shop...with both doors open, no less!

Mine is about 12' x 24'. I haven't been able to get a car in it yet, but I'm working on it.

 

[daddylama]

Smallest shop, 10.5 x 20??????
Try 8 x 16 if you want small. And that was with a 4 foot extension I added to one end, with a door, so I didn't have to go out into the street to get into it.

I managed to build this car in it, new chassis, running gear and all.

It is a real ball ache having to move the whole car just to work on the opposite side, and duck your head every time you walk the length of the shop.

yeah... you win! should have known somebody from 'cross the pond would have something smaller...
8' narrow shop has to be rough!

i've got a mate in finland who's shop is only 1.8M tall at the highest... (about 6'). the dude is 2M tall.

 

[Morrisman]

There aren't many cars in this country that will fit into an 8' wide shop...with both doors open, no less!

Mine is about 12' x 24'. I haven't been able to get a car in it yet, but I'm working on it.

The Morris is tiny actually, barely big enough to sit two average guys in side by side comfortably.

 

[daddylama]

the shop is proving to be too damned small.

i have to rotate stuff from my basement to the carriage house, back to the basement.
the floor is so crooked, that every time i setup the frame jig, i spend an hour leveling it. i've got more time into setting up and breaking down, than i do into building stuff.

moved the drill press into the basement, and some of my other equipment. it's not too far... but 30 feet through a muddy yard, down some narrow/slippery stairs into the basement. then back when the part you just drilled needs something else.


the wind blowing through the walls isn't helping the comfort much, either.

messy, messy bench:

messy, messy left side:

messy, messy back:

the workbench is cantilevered against an outside wall that's falling off the foundation. the rear wall is directly against the neighbor's house's carriage house (zero clearance)... oh, and it's falling off the foudation.
the left wall is nicely attached to the foundation.

the building is right on the rear and left property line. if i tear the building down and re-build, it can't sit on the property line anymore...

there isn't room on the lot (that i want to use) for the carriage house to sit further over/forward.

my only option is to... ahhh... "fix" it. can't completely tear down and rebuild... but i can repair, without need of permitting or inspection. there is no limit to what can be "repaired" without needing to permit.
electrical is done and signed off upon (the only permitting required).

so... it'll grow a bit this spring. just gotta be creative

 

[astondb9]

If you want to see what I think is absolutely the best "small " garage on this site,take a look at 89VERT's.

This a really good example of great use of a small space and unbelievably good execution as well.

 

[ranger_dood]

A buddy of mine "repaired" his garage one wall at a time because he had a similar situation re: property lines. Never had anything said to him about it, even though the garage somehow ended up being "repaired" with a full second floor.

 

[rsanter]

I saw an article in one of the home machinist magazines where the guy made a fully functional small machine shop in a storage shed. of course all the equipment was the small benchtop type but that guy has a lathe, mill, shaper, toolbox and some workbench area.

bob

 

[daddylama]

If you want to see what I think is absolutely the best "small " garage on this site,take a look at 89VERT's.

This a really good example of great use of a small space and unbelievably good execution as well.

yeah... his garage/shop is pretty nice... and clean...
but he's got around 400 square feet.

i'm workin' with 178 square feet of total space inside the building. damn, that's almost pathetic . never thought i'd be jealous of 400...

my last shop was 1490 square feet, divided into 4 rooms... had been a rabbit hutch in the 1920s. never thought i'd miss that half as much as i do now

A buddy of mine "repaired" his garage one wall at a time because he had a similar situation re: property lines. Never had anything said to him about it, even though the garage somehow ended up being "repaired" with a full second floor.

that's more or less what'll be happening here. it'll get a wee bit wider, and a wee bit longer... and a wee bit taller. probably not a full second floor... but at least some area under the pitched roof and gabled dormer (it's got a flat roof at the moment).

I saw an article in one of the home machinist magazines where the guy made a fully functional small machine shop in a storage shed. of course all the equipment was the small benchtop type but that guy has a lathe, mill, shaper, toolbox and some workbench area.
bob

think i saw the same article. guess i shouldn't complain too much

i had a neighbor in brazil who had a pretty well equipped machine shop in an apartment garage. about 200 square feet, total...
he had a Bridgeport mill, 12"x37" gap bed lathe, an old benchtop shaper, a benchtop mill, couple drill presses (floor), and tool boxes. he did production work for a local refrigeration manufacturer. he was also building a hotrod. lots of action in a tiny space... used his living room (about 12 floors above) as storage.

this was all in an underground apartment garage. a lot of the "nicer" apartments in brazil have individual garages inside the underground garage, because of the rampant auto theft issues. people would also use 'em as their place of business, pretty often.

that little space gives me hope, for mine

edit:
oh yeah... if i could just learn to be ORGANAMIZED!

hehe... well, at least it's a safe/secure place for the tools... the roof is good so i'm not being rained on... and most of my neighbors are so old they're half deaf so the racket doesn't bother them...
but it's gonna be reeeeeaaaal tight once the hot rod parts move from the basement to the garage.

1.5 feet wider, 4 feet longer, 5 feet taller... and it'll be a comfortable size. i think i can pull that off when "fixing" it.

 

[kbs2244]

Just shows you don’t have to have a 50x100 with in the floor heat and overhead cranes to be able to have fun in the shop.
In spite of the name of the board, for some of us it is what we do, not where we do it, that is satisfying.
But then, there are some that like to build a place, look around, and say “I could fix Patton’s entire Red Ball Express in here.”
Or, for another generation;
“I could keep Storm’en Norman going all month, out of this place.”
To each his own.

 

[daddylama]

the POS garage is still hanging in there... although after a few months of Portland rain, poorly draining soil, and a neighbor's encroaching "building"... the little carriage house, i fear, is on it's last legs. still a fun place to work and unwind...

i also have a horribly bad (new) habit of being incredibly messy... not good when working in a tight space:

the floor turned into a cluttered workbench. the workbench has piles of stuff on it. i have amazingly skated by without breaking an ankle in there. i'm not so worried when welding, though: the structure has soaked up so much moisture, it just gets kinda steamy

i've been wanting to take everything out, and organize... but laziness, countless other "more important" projects (according to the wife), and now 60 feet of mud in front of the garage... all conspire to defeat me.

oh, so does rotting wood.

the back wall of the garage... the plywood sheathing is now structural. whatever framing had been there is now compost. the neighbor's shed was built directly against the back wall of my garage some time in the 50s. moisture settled in, and there's not much left at this point.

so... tentative plans are to "repair" the garage. same width, a few feet longer, gable roof (it's currently flat), carriage doors and a side entry door. i'm strongly considering building it skid style, with a raised floor... to completely circumvent any possible issues with building authorities, eliminate the water entry problems, and avoid digging / pouring a proper foundation (requiring those pesky building authority people).

 

[zilla1]

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This is my little shop.
I moved in December and I had shoulder surgery in march, so everythings a mess.
But it measures 10x13 inside. I mainly mess around with bikes and a South Bend lathe. I have room behind it to add on to almost double the size. When I do that, I will use that part for storage mostly. I rent a barn right now for 80 a month, but I want to get my stuff back with me.

 

[gsport]

here's mine... the small one is 28x42 and heated.. the large one is 65x40