Master of None Garage/Shop Evolution

[Fyrme]

Master of None: My Garage Evolution

I guess it's about time to have one of these of my own......
First, a little background and explanation of my situation. Being a full time fireman, like most firemen, I have a job outside my career. However, my "part time job" consist of pretty much what ever I can to make a dollar. From remodeling, welding, small engine repair shop, auto repair, as well as hobbies like tool restorations and general tinkering on projects.
We bought this house back in 2008 and I have always planned on building a shop. But like many of us, finances don't allow. Fortunately for me, my "garage" happens to be 28' wide X 30' deep. I consider this as a huge blessing for my lifestyle and have made it work.
Secondly, I consider my garage an "evolution" of sorts because I like changing it on a regular basis to make things more functional. So you will see things change locations regularly.
And since you guys like pics, here ya go.
This is probably the cleanest it's ever been, but only half the garage

A perspective of its size.

 

[Fyrme]

Just one of many "jobs" I've used this garage for.... I built and painted this entire closet system and vanity inside the garage with the door down in the middle of winter.

 

[Fyrme]

As you can tell it stays a little messy. I did do a little organization recently though.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Thanks for sharing, looks great. I always consider my garage a work in progress, it all part of the fun.

 

[nine4gmc]

Nice garage, I'd be proud to work there! Love the cabinet below the clock, too!

 

[Fyrme]

Thanks guys. Nine, that was a freebie from a few years back.
As well as the small single door cabinet to its right and the steel work bench was a free Formica topped office table that I put a 3/16" steel top on and the 4' wide drawer.

 

[Jmatlock88]

Awesome job on the closet.

You've got a lot of nice tools. That one steel cabinet sure caught my eye too. It would be so nice to have a sink in the garage like that.

I think organizing the open shelves needs to be the next thing on your list. Maybe even use your skills from the closet build to make some large storage cabinets to keep out the dust and grime. Those drawers (from a work van?) would be awesome worked into a piece of shop furniture like your bench or cabinets.

 

[Fyrme]

My ultimate goal is to have every shelf in the garage covered with a door of some kind. Also the white shelves will disappear and be replaced with simple upper cabinets, likely with doors. I love sliders because they are a great space saver, but it's all too easy to leave them open, defeating their whole purpose. Open swing out doors are a constant reminder that the need to be shut. I'm not the neatest person and need all the help I can get. Im not sure what the original use was for the big grey drawer tower. The single door cabinet was in a van as were all the parts drawers on the shelves.

 

[Sunbimmer]

I love the "open" neon sign above that window , you gave me a great idea for my garage....thanks

 

[HSpencer]

It is such a pleasure to see a real working garage. You have a good one. Looks like you can do about anything in there. The closet job was great. Seems your set up is very well suited to the work you do in there. Everything is looking great. I will be watching your progress on your shop.

 

[Cris B]

Great space and lots of potential.

This has given me some inspiration. Thanks for sharing your work.

 

[Sergeant82d]

Re: Master of None: My Garage Evolution

Great looking shop! I hope to put a sink in my shop sometime - the drain being the difficult part.

Can't wait to see more!


Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Rothaus]

You got a nice space there. I like the cabinets in the closet and bath room you have build.

Looks like your space is once wood shop and once welding, grinding, etc.

Talking about sliding door for storage, I did some above the cabinets, just used white hardwood panels and cut grooves where they slide for and back.

Here is a picture, not expensive to do.

Keep us posted with your nice space

Cheers
Engelbert

 

[Fyrme]

Engelbert, those cabinets look great. After talking to my frustrated wife this morning, I doubt I will be getting to to plans to build cabinets. She's ready to move, again. We tried a couple years ago and was not successful. But the market is coming back here and I've since remodeld the master suite and put new siding on the house.
The up side here is, she said we will be finding a house that already has a shop and pool. I'll still be doing several planned things to the garage over the winter, so this thread won't die.

Not much acomplished to the garage this weekend because I was busy using it. Yesterday was spent drilling new bottom pin holes in my press so i could spend the rest of the day changing the axle bearings on my wifes Grand Wagoneer. Much of Today was spent in the garage putting a head gasket on a customers generator and helping my boys rebuild the carburetor on their gokart. However I did start cleaning off the wooden work bench this afternoon. I will be tearing it out and building a new top to go on the metal base cabinets I bought. Not to worry. They will be moving with me.

 

[Fyrme]

I've been busy in between working on mowers, and refurbing tools and other stuff, I've managed to get some time in on the garage itself. I've been needing to do this for quite some time. These cabinets have been basically stored there empty for a couple months because I knew I would be refinishing this area soon and didn't want to unload the drawers.
The mess I'm embarrassed to show a pic of:

Got all trash and a few things close by put away....

Cleared off ready for demo...

Im not ready to take down the shelving just yet so I had to figure out a way to support the middle temporarily. This was my solution...

These will be the tree cabinets used for this bench...

But before any of that, it's time for paint. When I sell the house, all of my benches and shelves will be going with me so I will mount this unit to a toe kick frame and make it easily removable.

And......done with this little area.

 

[Fyrme]

I also got one of the drawer cabinets repainted today. And this area Kinda done. I'm having to do this in sections since I can't afford to tear down my whole garage and do it all at once.

 

[nine4gmc]

I've been on the lookout for some 6 drawer cabinets like that for a while, maybe I need to stop looking and they may turn up...

Love the two tone w/stripe!!

 

[Rothaus]

You are making progress. A little bit at the time is good. Take it easy, and have a beer.

Cheers
Engelbert

 

[skippy24]

Nice work. I have a quick question though. What is the flooring in your bathroom? It looks like the tile that is supposed to look like wood. Is that the case? Or is it wood or laminate?

 

[Fyrme]

Nice work. I have a quick question though. What is the flooring in your bathroom? It looks like the tile that is supposed to look like wood. Is that the case? Or is it wood or laminate?

Thanks. The floor is ceramic tile made to look like wood.

I hope to get an update on my work bench soon. I got the base cabinets painted and ready to install on the toe-kick base. I have a plan for the bench top that I will reveal once its done, but I'm having a hard time sourcing the particular used materials I'm looking for.

 

[Fyrme]

Update. Base cabinets are painted and mounted. I also started on lining some drawers so I can start using this thing. I finally found my top material. I just need to find the time to get it done.

 

[safetyman665]

Looking sweet so far! I never thought about lining drawers with outdoor carpet...very clever.

 

[Fyrme]

Quick update. Life has been very demanding lately so I have been getting very little done on my work shop/garage. But this is where I'm at today. I have almost got the bench top done, and figured it's done enough to share . I also got the upper shelf pulled down and the wall painted.
So I thought I took better documentation of the bench top build but this is what I've got.
I wanted a 2" thick top as a finished product. I started with a one piece sheet of 3/4" plywood and added a piece of 1/2" plywood and attached it with liquid nails and screws.

Then I laid out some #2 White oak 2.25"x3/4" flooring to fit on the top. After that I split all the pieces back up into 3rds. Each third will get stained a different color and reassembled.

I liquid nailed the bottom of each piece as well as wood glued the t&g ends and nailed them down to the plywood. Not going anywhere!

Once that was done I wrapped the face and sides with red oak and attached it with finish screws to the flooring and plywood both. I finished the holes off with oak plugs

After that, I took a mixture of wood glue and oak saw dust and made a slurry to fill in the knot holes and checking in the #2 flooring.

After that was done, I belt sanded and distressed the whole thing to help the colors blend together better and give the top a used look.

Then it was just time to start laying down the Poly.......

Between coats of poly, I used that time to tear down the terrible looking shelves that have been there since 1980, and finished painting above the stripe.

I hope to get the back splash done at the fire station tomorrow and get it installed this weekend.

 

[SBogaCH]

The table is great! Why did you use wood?

 

[Fyrme]

I feel any bench top not used for welding should be made of wood. It's strong, but also forgiving at the same time. It absorbs vibration. You can do anything from rebuilding a transmission to building cabinets on a wood bench. I went with the wood flooring because it allowed me to have a large hardwood top for cheap. Material wise, I used leftover plywood from other projects and I bought 30sq ft of left over flooring. I have $23.50 invested in the flooring material and finished off a couple of half cans of polyurethane from the shelf. Other than time, the top was VERY cheap but looks expensive.

 

[katotter]

Good work man, like the way you do things, bit by bit like me.

 

[Rothaus]

I like the top also. It reminds me on the desk I redid many years ago, and now I converted it to a drawer and table for my garage.

Keep going

Cheers
Engelbert

 

[N0tt0N]

Beautiful work! Well done, man!

 

[Fyrme]

There hasn't been much on the grage refurb lately. But I've been busy using it for sure. Between restoring tools, building industrial furniture and converting a 85 year old buffet into a vanity for a friend, My new work bench is getting well used and holding up very well. I bought a cabinet the other day that is on casters and I plan to build another top for it to use as my assembly table.

Here are a couple pics of the vanity to tide you over until I can do actual work to the garage.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Vanity turned out nice. Good idea of saving the front face to make the functional drawer. Nice design and execution. You should be proud of that piece.

 

[Fyrme]

Stopping by for a update. Not much in the form of Evolution to the shop since it's been full of paying and non paying projects since my last check in. Currently working on a couple large wardrobe cabinets for a friend. And I can't wait to get these damn things out of my garage. They are taking up way too much real estate.

I've also made a couple industrial furniture pieces that I've posted in the industrial furniture thread.

And on my down time at the station I threw this together.......tell me what you think?

 

[nine4gmc]

looks great Fyrme, love that work bench!!

 

[Fyrme]

Man, it has been a loooong two day douching of the garage. I can't believe I ever let it get as bad as it did. Yeah right, no way you guys get any pics of that!. But I am pretty proud of what I did get done the last couple of days. Part of my problem was/is, that I have been trying to reorganize a ton of stuff. I also decided to repaint the drawers on the bench to be two tone. The tall cabinet to the right will be getting a matching paint job after a few sections are removed to just below the bench top and a wood top added to it.
Also the big miller will be moved in place of yet another 42" matching roll around cabinet. That is down the road a bit because after today, I'm shifting gears and getting back to my tool resto's and furniture builds. Ya know, the fun stuff. If I could just stay organized I'd be so much better off.

 

[Mpower5266]

Great looking shop and awesome wood working. I just sold a Grand Wagoneer just like the one in this thread. I miss it already.

 

[Fyrme]

Oh, I almost forgot, Remember those huge *** cabinets? I finally got them outta here right before spring break. I'm pretty sure My days of large wood working projects INSIDE my garage are over. I've been cleaning dust for over a week. and it's still everywhere.

 

[Fyrme]

Well it's official, the Garage/shop refurb is over. We have a signed contract on our house. It would be considered a fluke deal to some, but to us was all in the timing of The One in charge. We tried to sell our house for almost two years with no luck. Then it had been off the market for almost two years now. My wife and I had committed to stay and make due with the house we wanted to sell so bad. Over our recent vacation, we get a call from our former realtor saying he had a lady in his office looking to buy a house that had just moved here from Houston because her husband took a pastors job in a local Church. He mentioned our house to them and then called us to see if we were still looking to sell it. Not really wanting, nor ready to sell, we were reluctant. But went ahead and invited them over. Fast forward a week, and we have now a contract on our house for $10k more than the lowest price we tried to sell it before.

After looking at all 8 listings in our area within our search criteria, I began to panic because there was NOTHING worth a **** out there. I did a search on CL and found a for sale by-owner about 3 miles away with more land and less house (which is what we wanted.) And it is almost perfect. I sent an offer today on it and hope to hear back soon.
Of coarse, I'm already looking at where I can put that shop.......
Maybe this will be the place I build the Masters-of-None Garage Take II

 

[UN4GTBL]

Congrats on the sale! That new property looks good

 

[upndown]

Hope both transactions go smooth! Nice clean slate to build your Masters-of- None Garage Take II. How much land?

 

[Fyrme]

3 acres. Here is a wide shot. Plenty of fishing in walking distance. It is a water supply lake so no swimming, but there is a boat ramp and I'd get to use the lake for free since I'd be on town utilities. There's been a couple record size fish pulled out of there too.