The Hodgepodge Garage

[JeremyBurke]

I have been thinking about doing this and planning since shortly after I found the garage journal and started looking around. I don't know what first brought me to Garage Journal, it was probably a link on The H.A.M.B. that led me here. However, I know what made me stay, this place was home. It had the tools, shops/garages, and the vibe of the place I had been looking for. A group of fellow enthusiasts enjoying their hobbies and sharing them with there friends. This is where the Jack's of all trades, the renaissance men/ladies have gone to swap stories techniques and tales. I was hooked and decided immediately that I wanted to add my garage to the mix. I knew that if I developed a community of interested people they would help me stay motivated and help ideas and project grow and improve. Also as my little shop grows up in its use and functionality and hopefully expands in size over time. But even if it doesn't or can't it will run better hopefully smarter.

The Dream
I, like a lot of people here on Garage Journal, have been inspired by many of the projects and garages that fill this site. I dream of having a shop like some you see here. A shop like Jack Olson's 12 Gauge Garage, or Shopnut's, Asylum, or BB767's, restored 1930's autoshop.
Just to name a few that have inspired me. But one of the reasons that those shops are inspiring is we saw the process that got them to the masterpiece level shops that they are now. So as motivation to work in my garage, and to document the process, here is my Hodgepodge garage, with all its warts and ugliness. My dream is it can to one day be an inspiration to others like me.

So here is what we are starting with, first the brutal pictures

First the Overall Panoramic view:
Garage Panoramic View

Far Wall (front from house door)

Far wall (away from house)

Back Wall (Bench Wall)

Old Craftsman Bench
One of my first project posts is going to detail getting rid of this bench and replacing it with a work surface that I can hopefully keep a little cleaner and more usable.

[/url]Garage House Shared Wall To Back (dead Corner) I hate this corner of the garage it is nearly unusable and the way the contractor plumbed this makes me nuts.

Garage House Shared Wall to Front With Special guest appearance by the oldest of my 3 sons. (7,4,2 as of this writing).

Garage Layout Dimensions


So what comes next. In the next few posts I will detail my dreams for the garage. I will layout some of my inspirations, interests and tools I have and hope to have. And I will start a Project index for the stuff I am working on or have worked on in the Garage. I hope this can be a place to share my ideas and inspirations and to learn from others.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Current Shots of the hodgepodge Garage

This was taken about a week ago and I will detail these benches in another post.













This layout is pretty close to reality right now. I will flesh it out more soon as well as the project that it highlights is complete.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Cool Tools and Inspirations:

Here are a few tools and additions this site inspired me to get.


Napa upper Proto Duplex Bottom

Perhaps my favorite box.
Vintage Craftsman 3/4
Here are a few more pictures on the vintage tool box thread


Napa Cab 2 The Napa Cabinets

My Block head grinder

Craftsman Blockhead
The post in the blockhead thread with more pictures

 

[JeremyBurke]

Who I am, Why I do this, and What I would like to have in a Garage/Shop:

I thought I should take a little time to explain a little bit about who I am and what my garage will be used for. I am a mechanical engineer, I have been lucky enough to make my living designing power tools for the past 10 years. In that time I have worked for a few of the companies you may have heard of but I won't drag their good names into my mess. You may have noticed in the pictures above as well that I have a few rusty old cars. The main one is a 1963 Ford Fairlane 500 2 door hardtop. Also my lovely and incredibly understanding wife gave up her spot in the garage this past winter ('13/'14) so I could buy and part out a 1962 4 door fairlane 500 to donate my 2 door some parts.
This is the 2 door the day it came home. It moved inside once the HOA sent the nasty letter

This is the 4 door the day it arrived.

So that is the main thing I am setting up my garage for.

However, I am a home owner and most importantly the father of 3 small boys so I wanted to have a place to do things with and for them and for my home. The kids are another variable in the big equation that makes up my garage theme. Kids cost money and my wife and I decided that we are all best off if her job is taking care of them so I don't have a lot of extra funds to spend on a garage. I am trying not to let that stop me just provide a challenge to overcome. This is also what led to the naming of my garage. I have to take what i can find at prices I can afford. This led my lovely wife to comment that I had a real "HODGEPODGE OF COLORSIn the garage." The "hodgepodge garage" was born. I do hope to reduce the amount of colors by a few someday though.

Here are a few pictures of projects, items or garages that have inspired my garage and where I am headed (I hope). First one of the biggest inspirations to me was the afore mentioned 12 Gauge Garage, by Jack Olsen. If you haven't checked out Jack's garage leave now and spend the time to read through his thread. It is long but worth the time IMHO. These two photos of Jack's garage pretty well encapsulate what I love about his shop but there is way more. So without further ado the inspiration pictures.

Now once you have a bench you need a seat. So I am searching for one of these. It's a drafting chair from the fifties and fits with my engineering roots.

Here are 2 more work tables, both of which were found in the show us your workbench thread, elements of which will make it into my welding table that is in the works right now.

I really like the extension for cut offs of sheet goods on this cart.

I am also looking for an old Remline or Craftsman box to be my main tools box.


Remline Box
Borrowed from the another thread

Or one like redleaders box


Craftsman Box 1

 

[JeremyBurke]

Projects

Current project
Work Bench
The thread starts here but continues for many more posts.

Completed projects

Welding Cart Starts just below this post.

Future Projects

Welding Table (currently in planning stages)


welding table

My youngest son's big Boy Bed. It will be a rip off of this one. The only difference really is I will be using the bed from a 1948 F2. That project starts here

Its similar in theme to my last big boy bed project for my middle son.


Train Bed

And a Bike Rack for my boys bikes.


Bike Rack

The Never Ending Project

My 1963 Ford Fairlane 500 2 door hardtop.


Fairlane day 1

 

[JeremyBurke]

WELDING CART Part 1of2:
One of the first projects I wanted to tackle was getting a better cart for my little welder. A while back I found this great vintage craftsman roller cabinet and I wanted to make it into welding cart with out adding any holes to the cab so I could reverse it later if I wanted to. So these are the elements I started with.


Vintage Craftsman 3/4

Vintage Craftsman Front open

And the little welding cart that gave its life to the cause.
Welding Cart 2

First I removed the bottle holder and uprights from the small cart.

And clamped it together. This is the part where I lucked out. With the setup clamped together I used the two open threaded handle holes to screw it to the side of the Craftsman box, THE HOLES LINED UP!

Welding Cart initial fit

Since I didn't want to damage the craftsman box I attached some left over drawer liner to the back of the bottle holder to keep from scratching the craftsman original paint.
Drawer Liner Added

Rolling out the Bubbles

I have found rolling out the air bubbles with a blue moon bottle works best.
Once it was ready and screwed to the former uprights from the welding cart I put it back on the Craftsman box to check fits.

Back on the cabinet

Part 2 to follow.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Welding Cart part 2of2:
To keep the gas bottle from swinging out when I moved the cart around a mounted a rubber coated sheet metal hook to the bottom of the bottle holder to keep it snug.
Retention Hook

The clamp shown held it all together while I placed about 20 sheet metal screws between the sheet metal uprights and the bottle holder.

Welding Cart Near Complete

And here's what the finished product looks like.
Completed Cart

 

[JeremyBurke]

Workbench Prelim

As noted in my first post I have a had a craftsman work bench that was undersized, didn't have enough storage for the space it took up, and like most work benches was constantly covered. So being and engineer I set about planning a new work space. I found a lot of inspiration cruising the pages of multiple threads. Jack Olsen's 12 Gauge Garage has several (9) great work benches. A few of which I pictured above. Another great source with pages and pages of resources is the lets see your workbench thread

I spend a few months constantly checking craigslist and socking away pennies trying to find Vidmar or Lista cabinets to make workbenches from. Every now and then one would list for way more than I could pay. Once i saw one in Seattle for $80 so 3.5 hours drive away but it was gone in seconds so the search continued. Until a tried searching a new way and found some terrible pictures of "metal cabinets" listed a set of 6 for $180. It was hard to tell from the pictures but they looked like the cabinets from a high school science lab. Called the seller and it turned out he actually had 12 total cabinets and to get the ones I wanted I had to take 2 I didn't but I could have a total of 8 for $180. So I rented a uHaul trailer and my son and I headed out to pick them up.

Loading Metal Lab Cabs


Metal Lab Cabs on Trailer

They checked out and were built like tanks so I loaded them up and headed back. I had the start of some pretty great workbenches. Unfortunately I didn't have any room for them since I still had most of the shell of a 1962 Ford Fairlane in the garage taking up space.


Parts Car 2

So I called up the scrap guy and took a half day off work and set about ridding myself of the remains of the car.

Cut up Fairlane Back


Cut and Ready to leave

The scrap man came and hauled away the remains.

Cut and Ready to leave


She Gone

I know a few of you car guys may notice there is a complete Ford 302 and C4 on that scrap pile. It kills me I had to do it but I needed the space. If it helps I had them both listed on Craigslist for months below core prices with no takers. So I tried.

More to come in Part II

 

[cdestuck]

Gee,all the Fairlane needed was a good waxing. Go to it on your project. Will turn out great I'm sure

 

[JeremyBurke]

Gee,all the Fairlane needed was a good waxing. Go to it on your project. Will turn out great I'm sure

I wish. Heck I wish that's all my main car needed. Someday.

 

[JeremyBurke]

So getting rid of the old Fairlane gave me two new opportunities. The first and perhaps the most important was I got the garage cleaned up enough to put my wife's car back in the garage.





Wife Ready



You guys that share your work space with your families know its important to keep the harmony as best you can.



The next opportunity was planning. As I have said before I am an engineer and planning is kinda in the blood. So I set out to solve two big problems where to place them and what to use for tops.



First the planning:

I created a layout of my garage with the fixed points located and sized correctly. Furnace and water heater, 2 man doors, car door, and metal pole too keep me from driving into my furnace I guess.





Garage Layout for Cabs



Once you do that you start dreaming of what it could look like and where to place things.





Garage Layout





Garage Layout rev2



These first too illustrate that I decided to go with an L shape pretty early on. This was driven by a lot of factors but mostly by having a corner cabinet included in the bunch that I picked up. Plus it would provide some separation between my work space and the kids toys and bikes (hopefully)





Garage Layout for Cabs 2



This last one shows nearly exactly what I landed on for a layout. It also includes 2 Napa wall cabinets I picked up from Craigslist ($65) and a free All-steel cabinet Green also from Craigslist.



Now I just needed to find some material to make tops for them.

 

[kfainf]

Great score on those metal cabinets. Looks like you have a good plan and are making good progress. Keep at it. Looking forward to your updates.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Great score on those metal cabinets. Looks like you have a good plan and are making good progress. Keep at it. Looking forward to your updates.

Thanks KF. I think they will serve me well. They are a little lacking in the looks department but are solid and very well built so I can always paint away the ugly.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Placing the Cabinets

I am very fortunate to have a good friend that offered to store the cabinets for me in his barn until I had the space to place them all in the garage. So I cleaned up and sold my old Craftsman Bench on Craigslist ( Craig's giveth and he taketh away) and shifted everything around to make room for the new cabinets.


Craftsman Bench 1
This picture shows the first batch of top material for the new bench in the back ground


Craftsman Bench 2
This one shows all the tools and other items I moved to get to the bench.

Even though I didn't have the tops sorted out yet a sunny weekend finally arrived (It rains a lot here in western Oregon) so I jumped at the chance to get a few cabinets placed and see if my planning paid off.

So I took several trips to my friends place in my little truck and picked them up.

Moving Metal Cabs in 1

And started placing them in the garage.


Placing Cabinets


Moving Metal Cabinets 2


Back Wall In 2
Sorry this one is tilted but the others were blurry. Also should note that the gaps between the boxes were taken out with a little leveling and bolting everything together tightly.

 

[tpond]

Nice work!

 

[JeremyBurke]

Thanks tpond. I think I need to spend a little more time on my pictures compared to some others here mine look pretty terrible.

 

[FBJR]

First post guys, nice score on those cabinets!! Those will last a lift time for sure!!

Still redoing mine after a garage fire in 2006;

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=704660&highlight=garage

Just an idea but it looks like you are working a lot to avoid that water heater. Why not take the opportunity to move it outside or install an on demand system?

 

[welder4956]

Great thread!

Liking the 63 Fairlane. I picked one up myself last December, but haven't got much done on it.

 

[machine_punk]

Looks like a great start! Great score on those metal cabinets.

Other than the welder, is there any other machinery (drill press, saws, etc) going into your shop?

Looking forward to the rest of this build.

 

[Sunbimmer]

Good start, very good first posts here

I like your layout. I'm following, please keep us posted.

 

[JeremyBurke]

First post guys, nice score on those cabinets!!!! .....

Just an idea but it looks like you are working a lot to avoid that water heater. Why not take the opportunity to move it outside or install an on demand system?

Thanks FBJR. Sorry to hear about your fire. Hope the rebuild goes well. By the way welcome to Garage Journal. It's a great place with lots to see. But be warned we are all enablers.

As for the water heater. When it finally gives out it will be getting replaced with a wall mounted on demand unit. For now though it serves us well and if it ain't broke don't fix it right.

 

[1/2 Cup]

You will have a nice set up, well planned..

 

[JeremyBurke]

Great thread!



Liking the 63 Fairlane. I picked one up myself last December, but haven't got much done on it.

Thanks welder. I have had fits and starts on mine. Last August my awesome wife flew in one of my college buddies for a long birthday weekend. He and I got the engine started and running again. It had sat unused since 1995 (the PO, I have only had it since June 2013). It smokes a little but runs smooth. I need to get the brakes working and the front foot wells repaired before I can drive her. My time this winter was taken up by the parts car.

Looks like a great start! Great score on those metal cabinets.

Other than the welder, is there any other machinery (drill press, saws, etc) going into your shop?

Looking forward to the rest of this build.

I do have a pretty good supply of tools. Never enough though right? I will post some more on tools soon and have several projects planned along those lines. Here is my current Drill Press.




It's for sale as I have a "new" one coming into the shop today and will post about it soon.

Good start, very goog first posts here

I like your layout. I'm following, please keep us posted.

Thanks Sunbimer for your kind words. There are a lot of cool shops here. I hope this thread will keep me motivated to grow and improve my little shop.

 

[JeremyBurke]

You will have a nice set up, well planned..

Thanks Cup. I am really enjoying the process and this site is so awesome for help, ideas, and inspiration.

 

[FBJR]

Thanks for the welcome. Guess I should start a thread on mine. I am retiring in 2 months (25 yrs LEO) and learned about an in ground lift here on GJ. Mine is on the way

My projects are a 6BT into a solid axle suburban, 87 elky getting a 5.3 and a 86 Samurai (my 4 yr old in avatar)

 

[Crazy Backyard Builder]

The NAPA cabinet's are great, and that is going to be one stout bench with those 4x6's as a top. Looking forward to seeing more updates.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Thanks for the welcome. Guess I should start a thread on mine. I am retiring in 2 months (25 yrs LEO) and learned about an in ground lift here on GJ. Mine is on the way



My projects are a 6BT into a solid axle suburban, 87 elky getting a 5.3 and a 86 Samurai (my 4 yr old in avatar)

FBJR: Congratulations on the retirement. I too have seen several in ground lifts here on GJ. It is definitely on my dream list. But for now only a dream. Please post pics of yours and your process here on GJ, and please post a link here so we know where to find it. With those project it sounds like you have plenty to keep that lift busy.

The NAPA cabinet's are great, and that is going to be one stout bench with those 4x6's as a top. Looking forward to seeing more updates.

Crazy: Thanks. I am always on the hunt for good enclosed storage. Wall cabinets are the best too. I have very limited flood space but with 10'-6" ceilings in most of the garage I do have room to go up.

Also nice eye on my Doug fir beams. I got several and will go into it in depth very soon.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Fellow Garage Journalors if you will allow me a little detour to wish all the mothers a happy Mother's Day. Especially to my mother and my wonderful wife who is a awesome mom to my 3 boys.

Last night I spent a little time in the shop and built a little yard art for the mothers in my life.

The parts are mostly mis-cuts from one of our vendors at work. But the idea was mine. I hope she likes them.


Yard Art 2


Yard Art 3


Yard Art 7


I'm still deciding if I should paint them. I may let her decide.

 

[188slo50]

Love the vintage stuff being used. I may have missed it but what did you use for the top of the bench it looks awful beefy!

 

[JeremyBurke]

Love the vintage stuff being used. I may have missed it but what did you use for the top of the bench it looks awful beefy!

I plan to post on that very soon. It is still in process.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Work bench part 3 of ???

Several have asked what the tops are and as can be seen by the mockup pictures I went with some beefy stuff. To be exact I scored some well aged Douglas Fir beams (3) 4x8x14' and (2) 4x10x7' from 2 different farm sales. I paid $60 for the lot or about the cost of 1 of the 14' and 1 of the 7' from the local lumber yard. The sellers said they had them for upwards of 30 years so they are dry stable and hard as rocks. I already had a trip south to my dads planned so I tool them along. He has more woodworking equipment than me (sourced through my old jobs) and the space to use it all. I didn't get any pictures of the milling process but they were all flattened on the jointer and milled to the same thickness on the planer. I then trucked them home, along with a pickup full of tools from grandmas (more in that later). Once home I glued and clamped the peninsula part up.


peninsula 2


peninsula 4


And let is all sit for a few days.

Once I un-clamped it I went to work getting it truly flat, this section is made up of the (2) 4x10's and (1)piece of 4x8. Where they met there were a couple of spots that had a bit of a lip. Here is the jointer plane dad loaned me to flatten them.


Planing peninsula Top 3


Planing peninsula Top 1


Planing peninsula Top 2

So that's where I am now. 1 section flat just needs to be cut to length. Then glue and clamp and flatten the other. I will hopefully get to that one this week and post more when I do. I have to run now, I just finished grilling mamma's Mother's Day lunch.


Momma's Lunch

 

[JeremyBurke]

I should have added on the benches. The reasons I went so thick on the tops was to get my desired height cabinets 35-1/2" plus tops 3-1/2" = 39" without having to add to the bottom and the top with thinner materials. Second I wanted them strong. I may rebuild a transmission on there and I wouldn't want it sagging.

I should also ask a question. Does anyone have a suggestion about finishhing the bench tops? What have you guys used? I want something tough that can hold up to a little oil and maybe even a light solvent. Thoughts?

 

[JeremyBurke]

So I did a test fit of the long set. This is just clamped up to make sure what gaps are left can be clamped out.


Test Fit Long Top


Test Fit 2 Long Top


Test Fit 3 Long Top

Hopefully the glue can go on tonight and then final hand planing Tuesday. After that it gets cut to length. That should be fun since I am pretty sure the clamped assembly weighs somewhere north of 150 pounds if my calculations are correct. Moving it is a joy. Anybody wanna come help.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Work bench part 4 of ???

I got a chance to glue it up tonight after all. I wouldn't have even tried on Mother's Day but my wife being as awesome as always suggested it. I think it was just so she could finish an episode of "call the midwife" a show she does like to watch when I'm in the room because of the constant wise cracks. So here are the shots of it all clamped up. I had to use a few calls to pull together a joint in the middle but other wise it's just a straight clamp job.

Here is the glue going on.


Long Top Glue up 2

Clamped up.


Long Top Clamp up

Pulling the center together.


Closing the Gap

I'll hopefully do some more hand planing Tuesday. Still looking for suggestions for finish if anyone has one.

 

[bizfeo]

Pour on from hobby lobby has served me well. Its basically barcoat epoxy.

 

[JeremyBurke]

Pour on from hobby lobby has served me well. Its basically barcoat epoxy.

Thanks biz: I will look into it. How well does it clean up or repair, maybe just a sanding, or a recoat?

 

[madoc1]

good score on the cabs and that awesome fir. this will turn out nice I predict.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Polyurithane works good with 3 or more coats. Also recomend tempered masonite on top as a sacraficial replaceable top.

 

[captain14]

I thought your avatar was a '63 Fairlane. My dad had a 63 Fairlane stAtion wagon. I remember riding home with him from the dealer with it.

Good luck in the shop with the new cabinets and bench top

 

[Crazy Backyard Builder]

Good to see you are pushing a head and working on the bench top, the hand planing in going to give it a really cool look.