Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT The 12-Gauge Garage

[cbacres]

Am I the only one who was skateboarding in 1978? Today, I remembered a logo and made myself a t-shirt. I'm going to wear it to a car show tomorrow.

Jack, these the wheels?


I bought these when I was a kid, about the timeframe you mentioned. I'm cleaning out my childhood home and came across these, never used. Has the German bearings, but rusted from being in the closet with the ac. I remember them being great wheels, wish I still had the skateboard that I made in shop class.

 

[xCOYOTEx]

Ok, at the very beginning of this thread, the second picture (I think) has a picture of a desk, with what appears to be a toolbox to the right of it. (the drawers are throwing me, I cant tell if they are homemade or not)
How did you make that desk? I like the hose reel that is hidden inside of that, and the outlet at the front. if those are toolboxes, what brand were they?

Also, in the revamp of the garage, you replaced the desk with a bench and a harbor freight toolbox. What is the box (with one door) to the left of the harbor freight box? Your shop is awesome, great job

 

[Jack Olsen]

cbacres, I remember those wheels. I wonder if the plastic gets brittle over the years? I also remember making my own board. I'd totally forgotten about that.

xCOYOTEx, the bench in the second picture is my current (and final) bench for that location. I made it by cutting a tall stack of drawers in half, and then (since it was nine drawers) added space to one side so that 1) my vise handle wouldn't block a drawer, and 2) I could put in a (sideways) air reel. I also tacked on an outlet strip, just because it was wasted space otherwise.

Some of the pictures have disappeared, because imageshack is not what it ought to be -- and I apologize for that. But if you start on the page in this link, you can see most of that bench as it came together:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55006&page=80

There's also a shorter version at this link: http://12-gaugegarage.com/blog-2/index.html

The previous bench was a Harbor Freight tool box with the wheels removed and some wood spacers bringing the top (a solid core door) to the height I like (37"). I liked that as a work bench, but the HF box isn't as deep as a full bench (30", in this case), so there was wasted space behind it. Cutting up a damaged 9-drawer Equipto cabinet gave be a full 24" of storage depth.

The open cabinet attached to the HF box is a HF cabinet they sell as an accessory.

Here's the old one:

And here's the new one:

 

[xCOYOTEx]

Wow, that is awesome. Thank you for the reply, your shop is beautiful.
From your posts, I see you like to do stuff cheap. How expensive was the butcher block top for your bench? I love how that laid out and the look of it.

 

[wasfast]

It would appear that the hitch receiver concept didn't work out? New vice is permanent to the bench.

 

[WWShop]

Jack, sorry if this has been asked, but do you ever wish you had a floor drill press?

 

[Jack Olsen]

Wow, that is awesome. Thank you for the reply, your shop is beautiful.
From your posts, I see you like to do stuff cheap. How expensive was the butcher block top for your bench? I love how that laid out and the look of it.

I just googled their 95"x1-1/2" butcher block, and it's $139. So, somewhere in that neighborhood. Sometimes they have scuffed or seconds on sale for less.

It would appear that the hitch receiver concept didn't work out? New vice is permanent to the bench.

Well, I still like the idea. And I've still got one receiver in place. But I ended up permanently mounting two bench grinders and three vises -- partly because I got a deal on the vises. So, there isn't much I need to swap in or out, at this point.

Jack, sorry if this has been asked, but do you ever wish you had a floor drill press?

I haven't yet. I deliberately don't have that drill press mounted to the bench so that I can turn it and/or nudge it out for long stock. So far, that's worked fine for me. I don't miss having a floor mounted model -- but I'm sure that need varies for different guys who do different types of work.

 

[stonesg]

I haven't yet. I deliberately don't have that drill press mounted to the bench so that I can turn it and/or nudge it out for long stock. So far, that's worked fine for me. I don't miss having a floor mounted model -- but I'm sure that need varies for different guys who do different types of work.

For what it's worth, I squatted for years in a friends garage who had a full floor model and I just moved to a new house with an actual garage (almost exactly the size of Jack's but no where NEAR as nice....) and found a nice bench DP for a good price. I've used it several times now and as I never had to move the table down lower than bench height on the floor DP at my buddies place, nor out of the way for something large, I haven't noticed the difference.

The only thing I'm jonesing for now is a nice cross slide vise. I think that's probably more important that room under the quill.

TG

 

[31 Chevy]

Jack,

I don't remember where I originally found your garage but I eventually found your thread here, I didn't go through all of the pages but certainly a good chunk of them. Great work!

You mentioned SketchUp a few times (I had never heard of it) but I went and looked it up, ultimately downloaded it and started messing around. I am pretty tech savvy so I like to think I got the hang of it pretty quickly but it is certainly clunky at first.

Anyway, one of the really cool aspects of your garage (imo) is the fold down tables. So I took the liberty of drawing the wood one up in SketchUp. I made a few changes but everything should be to the scale of the drawing you posted on your garage website.

For anyone interested: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=a37fbee0-1761-40bb-8e21-5d3a55020781

You can download an extension for SketchUp called Builder and it will also estimate prices for you. The build should cost ~$47 according to the extension.

Keep up the great work, I love all of the updates.

 

[rharman]

Jack,

Just curious if/how that Ikea rolling 3-tier cart worked out for you. I've been considering one for some time and noticed the price has come down about $20.

Thanks.

 

[erniebahr]

I feel as though I have made it through my rights of initiation. I have been a member of this forum since January but only recently learned of the famed 12-gauge garage. I have been working through every post of this thread over the past three weeks. It has been quite a journey. I will now need to fuel my daily vicarious garage fix with the other famed garages.

Jack I know you have heard all of this before (I have read it many times). At the risk of sounding redundant, your work and willingness to share it with us is inspiring. I have been looking at ways to set up my garage for the past year since we moved into our new (to us) house and I will definitely use some things I discovered here. Thank you again for sharing with us.

I do have one question for you. In one of your posts you showed a Hossfeld bender that you had acquired. I do not remember seeing any other posts showing what you used it for or how you liked it. I picked up a #2 several months ago and it has become one of the most used items in my shop. I have used it for many of my custom tool racks.

I will soon start a garage thread to document my own garage journey. Funny, for a long time I thought I was weird for spending so much time in my garage. I have found my kind of people.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I don't remember where I originally found your garage but I eventually found your thread here, I didn't go through all of the pages but certainly a good chunk of them. Great work!

You mentioned SketchUp a few times (I had never heard of it) but I went and looked it up, ultimately downloaded it and started messing around. I am pretty tech savvy so I like to think I got the hang of it pretty quickly but it is certainly clunky at first.

Anyway, one of the really cool aspects of your garage (imo) is the fold down tables. So I took the liberty of drawing the wood one up in SketchUp. I made a few changes but everything should be to the scale of the drawing you posted on your garage website.

For anyone interested: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=a37fbee0-1761-40bb-8e21-5d3a55020781

You can download an extension for SketchUp called Builder and it will also estimate prices for you. The build should cost ~$47 according to the extension.

Keep up the great work, I love all of the updates.

That's cool! I still haven't gotten a handle on sketch-up -- or working from plans, if I'm honest with myself -- but I can see the appeal of it. I'm glad you put in the cross-piece to hold the legs at the right distance. My floor chocks annoy me every time I look at them (or sweep the floor and see stuff get caught up around them). One of these days, I'll put in the right piece and knock them out of place.

Jack,

Just curious if/how that Ikea rolling 3-tier cart worked out for you. I've been considering one for some time and noticed the price has come down about $20.

I still use it. Still like it. In a small shop, I don't use it all that often, but I keep a few things on it ready to go, and it's useful for that. On big jobs, it gets cleaned out and put to more use.

I feel as though I have made it through my rights of initiation. I have been a member of this forum since January but only recently learned of the famed 12-gauge garage. I have been working through every post of this thread over the past three weeks. It has been quite a journey. I will now need to fuel my daily vicarious garage fix with the other famed garages.

Jack I know you have heard all of this before (I have read it many times). At the risk of sounding redundant, your work and willingness to share it with us is inspiring. I have been looking at ways to set up my garage for the past year since we moved into our new (to us) house and I will definitely use some things I discovered here. Thank you again for sharing with us.

I do have one question for you. In one of your posts you showed a Hossfeld bender that you had acquired. I do not remember seeing any other posts showing what you used it for or how you liked it. I picked up a #2 several months ago and it has become one of the most used items in my shop. I have used it for many of my custom tool racks.

I will soon start a garage thread to document my own garage journey. Funny, for a long time I thought I was weird for spending so much time in my garage. I have found my kind of people.

Thank you! And welcome to the forum! I honestly haven't used the Hossfeld bender yet (mine's a #1). There's a learning curve I'm in for with it -- both of how to use the thing, and also learning if I'm missing any essential pieces. But I'm sure I'm going to hit a job where I'll use it. Recently, I came close to making a set of monkey bars for my kids' school. I got a Williams Lowbuck notcher second-hand in preparation for it. But then one of the school's lawyers shut me down before I could even start. Liability issues that seem stupid, but that I'd want in place if it was some stranger I'd never met making equipment my kids would trust their safety to. So I was frustrated, but I also understood.

I made the stage instead. I pulled out the Hossfeld initially for this, but then saw that it would be straightforward to do the bends with my trusty old roll bender:

 

[erniebahr]

That's cool! I still haven't gotten a handle on sketch-up -- or working from plans, if I'm honest with myself -- but I can see the appeal of it. I'm glad you put in the cross-piece to hold the legs at the right distance. My floor chocks annoy me every time I look at them (or sweep the floor and see stuff get caught up around them). One of these days, I'll put in the right piece and knock them out of place.

I still use it. Still like it. In a small shop, I don't use it all that often, but I keep a few things on it ready to go, and it's useful for that. On big jobs, it gets cleaned out and put to more use.



Thank you! And welcome to the forum! I honestly haven't used the Hossfeld bender yet (mine's a #1). There's a learning curve I'm in for with it -- both of how to use the thing, and also learning if I'm missing any essential pieces. But I'm sure I'm going to hit a job where I'll use it. Recently, I came close to making a set of monkey bars for my kids' school. I got a Williams Lowbuck notcher second-hand in preparation for it. But then one of the school's lawyers shut me down before I could even start. Liability issues that seem stupid, but that I'd want in place if it was some stranger I'd never met making equipment my kids would trust their safety to. So I was frustrated, but I also understood.

I made the stage instead. I pulled out the Hossfeld initially for this, but then saw that it would be straightforward to do the bends with my trusty old roll bender:

Jack,

Your daughter looks great on that stage. Being a parent is the most important thing I will ever do.

If you contact Hossfeld (they are still in business) they can send you some printed information that shows how to set it up for different bends and materials. It also shows the various tooling for it. There are also some videos on YouTube they put out that show how to use it. I was a little intimidated the first couple of times but I really like it now. Here are a few of the racks I made for commonly used tools near the garage entrance. It really helps when I am working on something outside of the garage.




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[erniebahr]

I forgot to mention that the hooks were all made on the Hossfeld. For me that was better than using pegboard as I have full control on the spacing and can scale up for larger items like the pipe wrenches.


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[gwellwood]

Hossfeld Bender #2 Manual/Catalog

 

[Jack Olsen]

Cleaned up. Changed the oil. Bled the brakes. Reset the sway bars and shocks for a track day with no aero.

Taking the car out to Willow Springs next week.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Looking great, Jack..

All the best for Willow Springs..

Regards

 

[Brompty]

I thought about your car recently in the light of several articles about the Singer Porsche Re-imagined cars. I think your car was ahead of the curve - bits taken from different eras to produce the car that you enjoy and now - it seems - so do many other people. I know it does not have the polished interior of the other cars, but presumably this is secondary for you.

 

[Aroberson77]

Jack,

Saw your garage on popular mechanics, thanks for the inspiration. Nice car too, I love wide bodied 911s.

 

[Thirdyfivepickup]

I have a new place with an attached 2+ car garage. Space is going to be at a premium so I plan on stealing some of your ideas for my workspace. Really cool, well thought out garage!

 

[Jack Olsen]

I thought about your car recently in the light of several articles about the Singer Porsche Re-imagined cars. I think your car was ahead of the curve - bits taken from different eras to produce the car that you enjoy and now - it seems - so do many other people. I know it does not have the polished interior of the other cars, but presumably this is secondary for you.

I've been friends with Rob (who founded Singer) since shortly after he came to Los Angeles back in 2003. I'd already had my 911 with a swapped 3.6 for four years, then. He built his (narrow-body 3.0-liter) prototype a year later, and that's the same time my car was getting the widebody treatment in the aftermath of a crash at Laguna Seca. He was still years away from putting a 3.6 in a widebody early 911 at the time, but I'm sure my car had some influence on his thinking. Back then, we were getting our mechanical work done by the same guy and our paint work from the same shop. Still, his cars are unique in the attention to detail and all the finishing touches he puts on them. They're really beautiful -- whereas I see mine as more of a beast.

Jack,

Saw your garage on popular mechanics, thanks for the inspiration. Nice car too, I love wide bodied 911s.

Thank you!

I have a new place with an attached 2+ car garage. Space is going to be at a premium so I plan on stealing some of your ideas for my workspace. Really cool, well thought out garage!

Thanks. Good luck with the project!

 

[Zeke]

The beauty and the Beast. There ya go.

 

[31 Chevy]

Hey Jack,

I know you take your Porshe out to Willow Springs a lot. Do you ever run into any of the big Porsche builders (Rod Emory, Rob Dickinson of Singer, Magnus Walker) out there?

 

[Jack Olsen]

They're all local, but I actually haven't met Rod Emory in person yet.

I've known Rob and Magnus for a long time. Magnus used to drive with the Porsche Owners Club, who I instructed for -- but I haven't seen him at the track in a while. I used to see Rob at R Gruppe events, but now I see him less frequently -- usually at events like Rennsport Reunion or the Luftgekuhlt show.

I've seen Chuck Beck at Willow a couple of times -- once when he was testing his Porsche 904 replica out there.

 

[bolensboneyard]

Thanks. Pictures like this help me keep everything in perspective.

Jack, congratulations on your achievements. I love your garage. I also love the fact that you write and like to work with your hands to keep busy. I write also, and have often wondered what the connection might be between two totally different interests, as are building and writing. I have come to the conclusion that the creative/analytical mind must explore whatever interests it, with reckless abandon. I would guess that many other craftsman have explored and contemplated life's interwoven interests and mysteries; as to do otherwise would be to ignore the fabric of who they are, but are not moved to write about them. Most will not build on that talent in ways other than to become, as human beings, a creation equal to that of what they produce with their hands; their true notoriety therefore being embodied in what others see as character. Some, such as yourself, manage to achieve both. Bobby

 

[Stuart in MN]

Petrolicious recently posted a panel discussion with the guys from Icon, Emory and Singer on Youtube:

I found it pretty interesting.

 

[Grizz1963]

Jack, I just wanted to take the time to wish the Olsen a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Looking forward to 2017 and all you get up to.

Regards from England

Rian

 

[shortykorte]

May your Christmas be peaceful and filled with love and the New Year be a time of rebirth.

 

[tinbender 66]

Merry Christmas to you and yours Jack!

 

[Outlawmws]

MERRY XMAS Jack! Congrats on an outstanding year! So many great things happened to you though your hard work! Well deserved!

 

[bandlaw]

Merry Christmas and thanks for sharing inspiration of what the average guy can do with some thought and determination. Kudos on the recognition! I've just finished reading the entire thread (for the last 4 weeks) and the commentary, discussion and photos are super helpful! I recently started my garage redo and will hopefully start a thread on it in the next couple days. Just wanted my first post to be my thanks to you for taking the time to share your process and especially taking time to answer the hundreds if not thousands of questions about your garage and methods. Hope you and all the folks here at GJ had a merry Christmas and a wonderful holidays!

Ron from North Carolina


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[Zeke]

Jack, congratulations on your achievements. I love your garage. I also love the fact that you write and like to work with your hands to keep busy. I write also, and have often wondered what the connection might be between two totally different interests, as are building and writing. I have come to the conclusion that the creative/analytical mind must explore whatever interests it, with reckless abandon. I would guess that many other craftsman have explored and contemplated life's interwoven interests and mysteries; as to do otherwise would be to ignore the fabric of who they are, but are not moved to write about them. Most will not build on that talent in ways other than to become, as human beings, a creation equal to that of what they produce with their hands; their true notoriety therefore being embodied in what others see as character. Some, such as yourself, manage to achieve both. Bobby

Interesting thought but I must say that anyone who regularly posts on this (or any other forum) is writing about their various interests beyond their career endeavor. Anyone's garage, if used other than to park cars or be stuffed to the rafters with possessions, is that interest that lies beyond work and family.

I pretty much know that Jack attends to his work and family with the utmost dedication and yet is able to have a diversion and even a following. BTW, Jack has a bit of a following outside of the garage with his car. But it's hard to separate the two because of the connection given the car is in the garage. But when it's out of the garage, that's another long running episode of its own.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Thanks very much for the kind words and the Christmas wishes. I'm not sure how I didn't see it until now, but I hope all of you had a great Christmas as well.

One of the reasons I was less in touch was two 'testing Fridays' in a row at my local track. I improved on my previous best lap time (a 1:26.88), and then improved on it seven more times by the end of the second Friday. But still -- frustratingly -- failed to get down into the 1:25's. It was good progress, but not as much as I'd like. I'll try again next winter.

I'd been given a little magnetic-base camera as a gift, so I tried a new angle on the driver and made this clip explaining my better-but-not-quite-what-I-wanted lap times. It's short and has some loud music. And it tells you exactly what I said in the paragraph above this one.

 

[Brompty]

They're all local, but I actually haven't met Rod Emory in person yet.

I've known Rob and Magnus for a long time. Magnus used to drive with the Porsche Owners Club, who I instructed for -- but I haven't seen him at the track in a while. I used to see Rob at R Gruppe events, but now I see him less frequently -- usually at events like Rennsport Reunion or the Luftgekuhlt show.

I've seen Chuck Beck at Willow a couple of times -- once when he was testing his Porsche 904 replica out there.

This, plus this:

"I've been friends with Rob (who founded Singer) since shortly after he came to Los Angeles back in 2003. I'd already had my 911 with a swapped 3.6 for four years, then. He built his (narrow-body 3.0-liter) prototype a year later, and that's the same time my car was getting the widebody treatment in the aftermath of a crash at Laguna Seca. He was still years away from putting a 3.6 in a widebody early 911 at the time, but I'm sure my car had some influence on his thinking. Back then, we were getting our mechanical work done by the same guy and our paint work from the same shop. Still, his cars are unique in the attention to detail and all the finishing touches he puts on them. They're really beautiful -- whereas I see mine as more of a beast. "

Makes you officially too cool for school.

Have a great New Year everyone, and I am looking forward to the last 1 sec knocked off your time at Willow Springs.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Thank you!

Today, I stumbled on a still from the movie Apollo 13 and discovered another work space with my same color scheme. It's a different sort of mission control for a different kind of rocket -- and theirs had (by one calculation I found) 111,744,000 hp and mine has 272.

 

[kjdhawkhill]

It's a different sort of mission control for a different kind of rocket -- and theirs had (by one calculation I found) 111,744,000 hp and mine has 272.

Just a good reminder to in whatever competitive endeavour, that no matter how fast/strong/big you are, there will always be someone/thing fastER/strongER/biggER.

But your garage, is still the standard against which all other are measured.

Happy New Year.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Thanks!

Today, I got a little time to work on a project that will be part of an upcoming video or two.

Here's a quick video showing it:

 

[Huxley]

And both of those rockets were born in Germany.

 

[Boosted1]

Cool slider

 

[rmalkow2]

Thank you!

Today, I stumbled on a still from the movie Apollo 13 and discovered another work space with my same color scheme. It's a different sort of mission control for a different kind of rocket -- and theirs had (by one calculation I found) 111,744,000 hp and mine has 272.

Jack,
Now that you point out this color theme I remember that as I got to take the tour of this original control room at Nasa Houston. That's a cool similarity and just shows that great minds think alike.

I also recommend the tour in Houston by the way for anyone nearby and, like me, old enough to have grown up watching space flight launches. It's pretty amazing what they accomplished back then with technology of the day. Yet another similarity to your garage and all that you've accomplished there.