Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
That would be great. I have been wondering if it's worth getting the 56"
That would be great. I have been wondering if it's worth getting the 56"
Above 1200 Sq/FT Casa de Frijolee - SoCal to Hawaii - gear head style
- Thread starter frijolee
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Quick version: unless you're doing a workbench, I'd vote 56 every time. The basic choice is double the cost for double the volume of space (but it only eats up ~25% more wall space which is a big deal). Several features are also nicer on the 56. Specifically: casters, latches vs detents, drawer liners, and a better spread of drawer sizes.
If you are doing a workbench then the shorter height of the 44 becomes compelling.
Quick version: unless you're doing a workbench, I'd vote 56 every time. The basic choice is double the cost for double the volume of space (but it only eats up ~25% more wall space which is a big deal). Several features are also nicer on the 56. Specifically: casters, latches vs detents, drawer liners, and a better spread of drawer sizes.
If you are doing a workbench then the shorter height of the 44 becomes compelling.
Duker
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Just to toss out another opinion on the HF chests...I like the 56" size as well as the deeper depth and drawer height fit my assortment of tools better. I have also used them in my work benches as I like a little taller bench. The 72" cabinet also is an option. Here is one I built into a hitch just to give you some ideas on incorporating them into your specific build.
The range of sizes gives you a lot of options for storage.
Just to toss out another opinion on the HF chests...I like the 56" size as well as the deeper depth and drawer height fit my assortment of tools better. I have also used them in my work benches as I like a little taller bench. The 72" cabinet also is an option. Here is one I built into a hitch just to give you some ideas on incorporating them into your specific build.
The range of sizes gives you a lot of options for storage.
Duker
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Thanks, the HF cabinets have been nice additions to my shop. As for LL, yeah their everyday prices are good and when you can find a remnant that has minor damage they will discount it down to a price that hard to beat.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Thanks, the HF cabinets have been nice additions to my shop. As for LL, yeah their everyday prices are good and when you can find a remnant that has minor damage they will discount it down to a price that hard to beat.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Welding Cart
Figured this might be an appropriate spot to throw in some detail on a weld cart I finished a while back and then recently upgraded.
I wanted a low slung cart with a few drawers so I could stash my two little welders on top with consumables inside and tanks off the back. Couldn’t find quite what I wanted off the shelf so I said screw it and went back to the Freight.
It started at the 5-Drawer Roller from Harbor Freight
I cut down and used some of the spare material to built a shelf for hanging tanks on the end.
The drawer also got cut up to make guides for the tank and to hold some spare welding rods.
I also disabled the internal locking mechanism (normally you have to have the top open to open drawers) and riveted a bit of scrap around the edges to keep things from sliding off. There’s also a bit of channel on one edge where I can toss scrap rods if I have partials after any given project. Worked great for several years with no real messing with it.
Problem was that in the new garage I really needed the tanks on the opposite side in order to have the welders facing the bench in the correct direction. I went to pull it apart and what do I find?
Uh ohh, I’ve either exceeded the load capacity and/or gotten close enough to capacity that the casters are hammering the bottom something fierce when I drag this around (it’s gone down the street to a neighbors a few times). Yeah, that’d be the floor starting to cave in.
Check underneath, sure enough, the wheels are showing some positive camber that’s not supposed to be there.
Since I was also planning to throw a plasma cutter on top (more load than already) but I still like my little cart I decided to reinforce it. Casters off and you can see the dent-age (I’m making up words!)
I need something to reinforce this with so I’m looking around the garage and get the bright idea: MONOLITHIC DRY CARBON PANEL STOCK (~20 layers thick…) Yeah, that should do it.
Not kidding actually.
Good friend of mine works in the aerospace industry and they regularly have to scrap panels from some tiny flaw. He’s brought me all this weird scrap over the years that I use here and there for mindless whatever jobs.
So that’s my plan and I get to it, laughing the entire time. The absurdity of reinforcing a $150 cart with a few thousand dollars of pre-preg has me chuckling the whole time I’m doing the job.
The one thing I will say about drilling solid carbon. It ruins drill bits like very few things I’ve ever seen. You only get 6-7 holes before your drill bit looks like this:
Inside is reinforced as well. They cross each other so I kind of have a non-traditional movers dolly underneath the cart.
Longer hardware naturally. Grade 8 just because that’s what I have handy.
Also through a few more fasteners in the side. Floor is still just a touch wavy, but there’s a cover that lives over this so it doesn’t really matter.
Since I’m going to all the trouble to reinforce the bottom, I might as well reinforce the top skin as well right? This one used a nomex cored piece that’s a featherweight but still stiff as all get out. I notched around a few things to help it land.
And here it is from the inside of the top deck with a few stainless bit to keep from crushing the thin skins. The bracket that’s almost covered up is the shallow notch in the pic prior.
The cored piece wasn’t quite big enough to cover the top deck so I made another piece to index the plasma cutter in place (also raises it up a bit so my cords overlap better) top deck is getting crowded! Nice shot of how well the tanks fit too.
And here it is, tank mount reversed and back and ready to get loaded up once again.
-Joel
Welding Cart
Figured this might be an appropriate spot to throw in some detail on a weld cart I finished a while back and then recently upgraded.
I wanted a low slung cart with a few drawers so I could stash my two little welders on top with consumables inside and tanks off the back. Couldn’t find quite what I wanted off the shelf so I said screw it and went back to the Freight.
It started at the 5-Drawer Roller from Harbor Freight
I cut down and used some of the spare material to built a shelf for hanging tanks on the end.
The drawer also got cut up to make guides for the tank and to hold some spare welding rods.
I also disabled the internal locking mechanism (normally you have to have the top open to open drawers) and riveted a bit of scrap around the edges to keep things from sliding off. There’s also a bit of channel on one edge where I can toss scrap rods if I have partials after any given project. Worked great for several years with no real messing with it.
Problem was that in the new garage I really needed the tanks on the opposite side in order to have the welders facing the bench in the correct direction. I went to pull it apart and what do I find?
Uh ohh, I’ve either exceeded the load capacity and/or gotten close enough to capacity that the casters are hammering the bottom something fierce when I drag this around (it’s gone down the street to a neighbors a few times). Yeah, that’d be the floor starting to cave in.
Check underneath, sure enough, the wheels are showing some positive camber that’s not supposed to be there.
Since I was also planning to throw a plasma cutter on top (more load than already) but I still like my little cart I decided to reinforce it. Casters off and you can see the dent-age (I’m making up words!)
I need something to reinforce this with so I’m looking around the garage and get the bright idea: MONOLITHIC DRY CARBON PANEL STOCK (~20 layers thick…) Yeah, that should do it.
Not kidding actually.
Good friend of mine works in the aerospace industry and they regularly have to scrap panels from some tiny flaw. He’s brought me all this weird scrap over the years that I use here and there for mindless whatever jobs.
So that’s my plan and I get to it, laughing the entire time. The absurdity of reinforcing a $150 cart with a few thousand dollars of pre-preg has me chuckling the whole time I’m doing the job.
The one thing I will say about drilling solid carbon. It ruins drill bits like very few things I’ve ever seen. You only get 6-7 holes before your drill bit looks like this:
Inside is reinforced as well. They cross each other so I kind of have a non-traditional movers dolly underneath the cart.
Longer hardware naturally. Grade 8 just because that’s what I have handy.
Also through a few more fasteners in the side. Floor is still just a touch wavy, but there’s a cover that lives over this so it doesn’t really matter.
Since I’m going to all the trouble to reinforce the bottom, I might as well reinforce the top skin as well right? This one used a nomex cored piece that’s a featherweight but still stiff as all get out. I notched around a few things to help it land.
And here it is from the inside of the top deck with a few stainless bit to keep from crushing the thin skins. The bracket that’s almost covered up is the shallow notch in the pic prior.
The cored piece wasn’t quite big enough to cover the top deck so I made another piece to index the plasma cutter in place (also raises it up a bit so my cords overlap better) top deck is getting crowded! Nice shot of how well the tanks fit too.
And here it is, tank mount reversed and back and ready to get loaded up once again.
-Joel
Last edited:
Cris B
Well-known member
- 
- 
thesteveyo
New member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Joel,
I was reading through this garage thread and really enjoyed it and thought I recognized your style, or "voice" (and username). I remembered your thread on NAXJA! I understand you parted ways with that rig, but I very much drooled over your your rear storage solution. Do you have another 4x4 in your arsenal?
Joel,
I was reading through this garage thread and really enjoyed it and thought I recognized your style, or "voice" (and username). I remembered your thread on NAXJA! I understand you parted ways with that rig, but I very much drooled over your your rear storage solution. Do you have another 4x4 in your arsenal?
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Thanks Steve,
Yep that's me. I still have the XJ but am planning to sell that eventually. I actually need to post a few things on NAXJA as I've been cleaning up little issues with it. I had too much work into that rig not to sell it in tip top shape.
There is a new project afoot as well though. 1972 Land Cruiser. My girls dig it and that's rad. This is what happens when you ask a five year old to pose by the front tire.
I'm not 100% sure it'll even fit in the garage. The above pictures are with shocks fully compressed so ride height should be 6" taller.
Thanks Steve,
Yep that's me. I still have the XJ but am planning to sell that eventually. I actually need to post a few things on NAXJA as I've been cleaning up little issues with it. I had too much work into that rig not to sell it in tip top shape.
There is a new project afoot as well though. 1972 Land Cruiser. My girls dig it and that's rad. This is what happens when you ask a five year old to pose by the front tire.
I'm not 100% sure it'll even fit in the garage. The above pictures are with shocks fully compressed so ride height should be 6" taller.
thesteveyo
New member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
The new toy looks like a lot of fun. What's planned next for the garage?
The new toy looks like a lot of fun. What's planned next for the garage?
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Working on drywall today (day off). Still need to do write ups on a bunch of electrical work. After that finalize some storage, clean up, and take round 1 complete pics. Then it's time to start really using this garage rather than mostly working on it.
Working on drywall today (day off). Still need to do write ups on a bunch of electrical work. After that finalize some storage, clean up, and take round 1 complete pics. Then it's time to start really using this garage rather than mostly working on it.
CodeRedZ
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Any other pictures of the table by chance?
Any other pictures of the table by chance?
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Frijolee,
Thanks for taking the time to document all your hard work for us to follow. Great job, and a great read. I enjoy your attention to detail.
That photo of your welding table and the vise.....I had to go out to my garage and make sure my vise was still there.....they are identical, almost down to the scratches...
I look forward to seeing how the Toy LC comes out.
Caddis295
Frijolee,
Thanks for taking the time to document all your hard work for us to follow. Great job, and a great read. I enjoy your attention to detail.
That photo of your welding table and the vise.....I had to go out to my garage and make sure my vise was still there.....they are identical, almost down to the scratches...
I look forward to seeing how the Toy LC comes out.
Caddis295
CodeRedZ
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Was thinking maybe some other angles.
these are the only two I saw
I still wouldn't mind building a V8 table at some point.
Was thinking maybe some other angles.
these are the only two I saw
I still wouldn't mind building a V8 table at some point.
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Sure thing. Here's a write up I did on the coffee table for my local car forum with more pics. This garage setup mentioned was my last garage in our rental....
Coffee Table
I’ve been trying to get the new garage set up for maximum functionality. I’ve upgraded a few bigger tools, set up industrial shelving and reorganized a few times. One thing I just couldn’t seem to find a home for… I had held onto my blown engine block from my original rx7 build (complete with holes in both sides) because I’ve been threatening to turn it into furniture forever.
Then I stumbled across a nice piece of tempered beveled glass at a garage sale (technically it already had a base but it was this strange Greco Roman looking thing). Picked that up for $30. Since I was tripping over the block in the garage I decided to fast track the project and make it actually happen.
Since the glass was a large rectangle and since I still had the blown cam and crank as well, I decided to try something a bit like an exploded engine view with the heads shifted over and cam/crank flipped around and hanging out the front. Then I added in a spare set of 98 heads (just about worth nothing). I figure it weighs a little north of 300 lbs all told.
I’ve seen quite a few engine block coffee tables but none in this configuration. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning and then clear coated all the bits prior to assembly so hopefully it’ll stay nice for a long time.
I dig the fact you see the one blackened journal and the windows in both sides of the block.
Glass is padded with some clear tubing along the edge of the heads and the whole thing is bolted to a welded frame I scratch built. The ends hang over so two dudes can carry it, a la “Ark of the Covenant” style.
Yes, it’s in the living room and yes my wife loves me.
-Joel
Sure thing. Here's a write up I did on the coffee table for my local car forum with more pics. This garage setup mentioned was my last garage in our rental....
Coffee Table
I’ve been trying to get the new garage set up for maximum functionality. I’ve upgraded a few bigger tools, set up industrial shelving and reorganized a few times. One thing I just couldn’t seem to find a home for… I had held onto my blown engine block from my original rx7 build (complete with holes in both sides) because I’ve been threatening to turn it into furniture forever.
Then I stumbled across a nice piece of tempered beveled glass at a garage sale (technically it already had a base but it was this strange Greco Roman looking thing). Picked that up for $30. Since I was tripping over the block in the garage I decided to fast track the project and make it actually happen.
Since the glass was a large rectangle and since I still had the blown cam and crank as well, I decided to try something a bit like an exploded engine view with the heads shifted over and cam/crank flipped around and hanging out the front. Then I added in a spare set of 98 heads (just about worth nothing). I figure it weighs a little north of 300 lbs all told.
I’ve seen quite a few engine block coffee tables but none in this configuration. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning and then clear coated all the bits prior to assembly so hopefully it’ll stay nice for a long time.
I dig the fact you see the one blackened journal and the windows in both sides of the block.
Glass is padded with some clear tubing along the edge of the heads and the whole thing is bolted to a welded frame I scratch built. The ends hang over so two dudes can carry it, a la “Ark of the Covenant” style.
Yes, it’s in the living room and yes my wife loves me.
-Joel
Last edited:
JustinS
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
That coffee table is too cool
That coffee table is too cool
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Thanks, it turned out classy enough that I get complements from my wife's friends as well as the dudes you'd expect. As an added bonus, the open cylinders are angled such that they make an ideal footrest as well. It's now in front of my couch in the living room.
Thanks, it turned out classy enough that I get complements from my wife's friends as well as the dudes you'd expect. As an added bonus, the open cylinders are angled such that they make an ideal footrest as well. It's now in front of my couch in the living room.
CodeRedZ
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Wowza, bad ***
Wowza, bad ***
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Time to get back into the major work as write-ups are still lagging actual progress.
200 Amp service upgrade
For many folks electrical upgrades are novice territory. Well it was hard for me. Wiring cars and DC voltage is fine, but when you start talking AC and circuits with color conventions that mean different things in different applications and it’s just no bueno. I can stare a crusty old circuits for longer than I care to admit and still not be sure I have it right. At the same time, I am a pretty handy guy and I’m operating on a budget so I wanted to do as much as I could.
I hit up my electrician friend at church (the one who helped walk me through setting up the branched circuits for my lights). Given what I wanted to do, I really needed to upgrade my electrical service from the 100 Amp service my home come with, that which was installed when built back in ~1969].
Basics steps are as follows:
• Contact utilities provider (So Cal Edison in my case) and have them inspect whether an upgrade is an option based upon existing infrastructure. They can pull new infrastructure from the local transformer but the cost goes way through the roof if you have to. Thankfully, they approved me for 200A and I had 1 year to complete the work.
• Pull permit from the Local City hall Building Dept. Home owner can do this but it’ll raise less eyebrows if an electrician w/ contractor’s license does so on your behalf.
• Perform electrical work.
• Patch around the panel (stucco guy).
• Schedule city post inspection. City notifies utilities provider.
A service upgrade is an all day affair for two guys so we were well out of the realm of favors for the work. Also my friend had hurt his knee recently so it wasn’t a good option for him to help. Anyways, I still got hooked up as he let me use one of his guys as a side job w/o any overhead. I was the 2nd guy and served as lackey.
Starting point:
1969 wiring confirmed.
There are a metric ton of custom tools needed for this job so I recommend calling in the pros. Mini jack hammers, impact drills with non-standard masonry bits, conduit benders, crazy connnectors not available at your standard big box hardware stores… Never been so happy to pass a guy $500. What a nightmare.
A quick note on main panels. There’s a line in the existing electric code that references that a second energy source shall always be installed on the opposite end as the standard feed. This means if you ever think you might add solar it’s smart to avoid the center feed panels and get one that feeds from the end. The code may get clarified at some point but for now there is no “opposite end” on a center feed panel.
The meter is one of the few things that gets reused.
Anyways, while my electrician was tearing apart the side of the house I was put to work running a new/massive ground. Kinda a duh moment for me, but installing a new ground meant driving two ~8’ poles into the ground. The mini electric jackhammer is super useful here.
One is around the corner in front of the garage. The other is driven in near my home’s water supply main (and connects to that as well)
I ran this around the perimeter of the garage through these small 1” tall triangular openings between my attic joists and rafters. The ground is jacketed, kind of like a heavier version of MC cable so it tries to snag on the openings constantly. I probably spent 2 hours getting the 60’ of cable dragged into position 2-3 inches at a time. Fun stuff and a heck of a workout.
One thing I don’t have pictures of was the two of us fighting to get the existing the main conduit (big ***** 2.5” or 3” rigid conduit) aligned to the new sub panel. It needed to be over about 3/8” from prior and it looked like it had enough flexibility to get there but it was damn hard to both push it over and get the internal jam nut started.
I ended up contributing a tool to the mix and we used my high reach 4x4 jack to pull and hold this in position. Felt solid about overcoming the hurdle. But hey, it was a mechanical problem. Those hurdles are surmountable.
Last step of the day was having me throwing breakers over and over while we figured out what went where inside. I broke out the label maker sometime after this.
Stucco patch work is a different contractor but my electrician friend got me a referral and a deal. Tack on an extra $250 (the gent even painted it for me) and things were starting to look tidy again. The stucco guy was bragging how he’s been setting rates in our area as typically it’s a $400 job and given the work involved and artistry required I believe it.
I went back after the fact and took a few pictures of internals. Mighty fine work. Heck, even the service loops are tidy.
Dielectric grease on connections. Really really stellar work.
End result:
Looking at this pic vs. the hole it was above, I'm all kinds of impressed with the Stucco guy I was referred to. If anyone needs a referral in Orange Count CA, let me know.
By the way, the box up top is the run to the sub panel inside the garage. That happened in round 2 which I’ll be writing about shortly.
To this point I was in give or take $600 in material and $750 for labor (electric and stucco). With overhead and markups (which I didn’t pay) I was told $3000-$4000 is more normal. Given we both worked our asses off for a full 10 hour day, I believe it.
-Joel
Time to get back into the major work as write-ups are still lagging actual progress.
200 Amp service upgrade
For many folks electrical upgrades are novice territory. Well it was hard for me. Wiring cars and DC voltage is fine, but when you start talking AC and circuits with color conventions that mean different things in different applications and it’s just no bueno. I can stare a crusty old circuits for longer than I care to admit and still not be sure I have it right. At the same time, I am a pretty handy guy and I’m operating on a budget so I wanted to do as much as I could.
I hit up my electrician friend at church (the one who helped walk me through setting up the branched circuits for my lights). Given what I wanted to do, I really needed to upgrade my electrical service from the 100 Amp service my home come with, that which was installed when built back in ~1969].
Basics steps are as follows:
• Contact utilities provider (So Cal Edison in my case) and have them inspect whether an upgrade is an option based upon existing infrastructure. They can pull new infrastructure from the local transformer but the cost goes way through the roof if you have to. Thankfully, they approved me for 200A and I had 1 year to complete the work.
• Pull permit from the Local City hall Building Dept. Home owner can do this but it’ll raise less eyebrows if an electrician w/ contractor’s license does so on your behalf.
• Perform electrical work.
• Patch around the panel (stucco guy).
• Schedule city post inspection. City notifies utilities provider.
A service upgrade is an all day affair for two guys so we were well out of the realm of favors for the work. Also my friend had hurt his knee recently so it wasn’t a good option for him to help. Anyways, I still got hooked up as he let me use one of his guys as a side job w/o any overhead. I was the 2nd guy and served as lackey.
Starting point:
1969 wiring confirmed.
There are a metric ton of custom tools needed for this job so I recommend calling in the pros. Mini jack hammers, impact drills with non-standard masonry bits, conduit benders, crazy connnectors not available at your standard big box hardware stores… Never been so happy to pass a guy $500. What a nightmare.
A quick note on main panels. There’s a line in the existing electric code that references that a second energy source shall always be installed on the opposite end as the standard feed. This means if you ever think you might add solar it’s smart to avoid the center feed panels and get one that feeds from the end. The code may get clarified at some point but for now there is no “opposite end” on a center feed panel.
The meter is one of the few things that gets reused.
Anyways, while my electrician was tearing apart the side of the house I was put to work running a new/massive ground. Kinda a duh moment for me, but installing a new ground meant driving two ~8’ poles into the ground. The mini electric jackhammer is super useful here.
One is around the corner in front of the garage. The other is driven in near my home’s water supply main (and connects to that as well)
I ran this around the perimeter of the garage through these small 1” tall triangular openings between my attic joists and rafters. The ground is jacketed, kind of like a heavier version of MC cable so it tries to snag on the openings constantly. I probably spent 2 hours getting the 60’ of cable dragged into position 2-3 inches at a time. Fun stuff and a heck of a workout.
One thing I don’t have pictures of was the two of us fighting to get the existing the main conduit (big ***** 2.5” or 3” rigid conduit) aligned to the new sub panel. It needed to be over about 3/8” from prior and it looked like it had enough flexibility to get there but it was damn hard to both push it over and get the internal jam nut started.
I ended up contributing a tool to the mix and we used my high reach 4x4 jack to pull and hold this in position. Felt solid about overcoming the hurdle. But hey, it was a mechanical problem. Those hurdles are surmountable.
Last step of the day was having me throwing breakers over and over while we figured out what went where inside. I broke out the label maker sometime after this.
Stucco patch work is a different contractor but my electrician friend got me a referral and a deal. Tack on an extra $250 (the gent even painted it for me) and things were starting to look tidy again. The stucco guy was bragging how he’s been setting rates in our area as typically it’s a $400 job and given the work involved and artistry required I believe it.
I went back after the fact and took a few pictures of internals. Mighty fine work. Heck, even the service loops are tidy.
Dielectric grease on connections. Really really stellar work.
End result:
Looking at this pic vs. the hole it was above, I'm all kinds of impressed with the Stucco guy I was referred to. If anyone needs a referral in Orange Count CA, let me know.
By the way, the box up top is the run to the sub panel inside the garage. That happened in round 2 which I’ll be writing about shortly.
To this point I was in give or take $600 in material and $750 for labor (electric and stucco). With overhead and markups (which I didn’t pay) I was told $3000-$4000 is more normal. Given we both worked our asses off for a full 10 hour day, I believe it.
-Joel
Last edited:
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Garage Subpanel
With 200 amps now available on the house it was time to wire the garage. Goals: 100 amp subpanel inside the garage. Conduit run to a drop on the welding table. 220 and 110 V sockets on both welding table and two walls. Wire up lights and switches properly. Conduit out to a big external air compressor. Swap out exterior light with a security light.
Started with nothing but bare studs.
Main panel to subpanel required a little creativity. We used this ~4x6 box to hide having a big enough hole to gain access to the top of the main panel.
This is 1” conduit instead of the 3/4" used elsewhere. It ducks through the wall directly from the rear of the sub panel.
I picked the studs to land between to allow the easiest run over to the welding table. There’s a conduit that runs out of the sub panel up and out through the top plate of the wall. Here’s the internals:
Picture is a bit out of order as it shows me already getting into insulation and drywall but that’s another story.
Cool tool note. If you really want to drive some big holes in wood--pulling conduit through a series of studs for instance--a standard spade bit isn’t going to cut it (ba dun dun – pun intended ). It wears you out from applying the necessary pressure and it’s far too slow. I had some big jobber bits (standard drill bits) that worked ok, but what you really want is one of these: the Bosch Dare Devil spade bits that my electrician turned me onto.
www.boschdaredevil.com
BAD ***. The self feeding tip pulls itself through amazingly well. Just watch out if you snag a nail because it’ll twist right out of your grip with a quickness. Still, I know what I want for Christmas. I was looking for a picture of these and it turns out they kicked *** in a 3rd party magazine test as well.
And that’s the sub panel. Plenty of space left for a dedicated circuit for Christmas lights or something else later. More label maker needed.
Garage Subpanel
With 200 amps now available on the house it was time to wire the garage. Goals: 100 amp subpanel inside the garage. Conduit run to a drop on the welding table. 220 and 110 V sockets on both welding table and two walls. Wire up lights and switches properly. Conduit out to a big external air compressor. Swap out exterior light with a security light.
Started with nothing but bare studs.
Main panel to subpanel required a little creativity. We used this ~4x6 box to hide having a big enough hole to gain access to the top of the main panel.
This is 1” conduit instead of the 3/4" used elsewhere. It ducks through the wall directly from the rear of the sub panel.
I picked the studs to land between to allow the easiest run over to the welding table. There’s a conduit that runs out of the sub panel up and out through the top plate of the wall. Here’s the internals:
Picture is a bit out of order as it shows me already getting into insulation and drywall but that’s another story.
Cool tool note. If you really want to drive some big holes in wood--pulling conduit through a series of studs for instance--a standard spade bit isn’t going to cut it (ba dun dun – pun intended
). It wears you out from applying the necessary pressure and it’s far too slow. I had some big jobber bits (standard drill bits) that worked ok, but what you really want is one of these: the Bosch Dare Devil spade bits that my electrician turned me onto. www.boschdaredevil.com
BAD ***. The self feeding tip pulls itself through amazingly well. Just watch out if you snag a nail because it’ll twist right out of your grip with a quickness. Still, I know what I want for Christmas. I was looking for a picture of these and it turns out they kicked *** in a 3rd party magazine test as well.
And that’s the sub panel. Plenty of space left for a dedicated circuit for Christmas lights or something else later. More label maker needed.
JustinS
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Good progress
Good progress
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Wiring up the Garage
After the sub panel was in it was time to wire up the rest of the garage (most of this happened on the same day).
First run needed was from sub panel to the weld table. The conduit runs out and up through the double 2x4 top plate of the wall. Thereafter, it immediately turns through an LR junction box and runs along the attic joists over to where it drops down to the weld table. There are a variety of thread conduit connectors available.
But I learned a neat trick to help remember the different types of 90 degree conduit boxes (LB, LL, and LR boxes). LB is “L” shaped with “Back” access (easy). Whether you have an LL or LR box is which way your palm faces if your thumb and fore-finger make the L. As shown this is an LR.
If the opening were on the other side I’d have to use my left hand to make the same shape.
Above the weld table this drops down using SOOW cable. No idea what that stands for but it’s basically intended for exposed electrical cables. The strain reliefs used were sourced by my electrician as this wasn’t something Home Depot carried.
I had to have at least one junction in my main wires to the weld table (standard wire inside conduit, SOOW for the drop and table wiring). Wire nuts work ok for gauges up to 10 or so. Bigger than that and I was recommended to use the dedicated Polaris connectors to switch from standard wire in conduit to the SOOW cable. I believe several brands sell things like this and they use allen keys internally so they should be easy enough to recognize.
Even though this was slightly bigger than a typical j-box we still had to use a knock out punch to upsize the hole for the bigger of the two strain reliefs.
Wiring up the weld table took some thought. I was concerned that I could have an unintentional ground path through my wiring if I didn’t have the outlets isolated. The ground clamp should want to be the path, but if I ever forgot to install that and/or ended up with a parallel ground path, it wouldn’t be good. This is what I came up with:
The mounting surface is scrap UHMW I had lying around from something or other. Holes allow backside access of the SOOW cable inputs. Drilling and taping soft-ish plastic is fun and fast. You never need to break a chip it just runs right through.
I ended up adding one more 220V plug so I’d have two styles readily available (turns out my new plasma cutter used a different plug than what I’d decided to narrow in and use). I also switched out the sockets to the 20 amp variety before final install (that’s what the “T” shape of one blade slot means… I love learning random things like that).
Here’s the basic installed. You can also see the SOOW cable run to the opposite end of the table where my power tools hook up. It’s drilled and tapped into the structure of the table every 10” or so. This is yet another fun job where you have to keep high yet steady pressure on a hand drill held above you head crouching under a table while metal chips rain down on you. It’s really more of a light misting of chips particles to be fair since drilling steel by hand is a slow crappy process. I think I’d have been happier with some better drill bits but I still got it done.
Apparently it’s ok for the hot wires to jump between sockets inside a 4 outlet box (double gang box), however for the ground the proper form is to use a wire nut with wires well twisted inside.
Green should always be “safe” which typically means ground unless you’re into a three wire 220 v circuit in which case green become neutral. Again, when you don’t know the conventions by heart this stuff confuses the heck out of me. I just don’t use it often enough to remember it all.
Here’s the power tool end done. Most of the time it’ll be filled out with a big sander, band saw, drill press, and chop saw.
Moving over to the wall of the garage shared by the house. We ran romex from sub panel into the attic and then dropped into the wall from above. I really wanted this at a specific elevation to tuck under my work bench shelf and the wire wouldn’t get there. Then I looked over at the open wall and noticed the cross supports… Yep, have those here too. Quick work with a stud finder and some notching and we were in business. This will get patched later.
By the way, this was the first time I’d used one of the vibrate-y saw tools. This one was a Makita but I ended up grabbing a Harbor Freight corded version for myself. For drywall work, it’s rad. So much nicer than using a drill like a roto-zip. So much cleaner than using an angle grinder.
Here’s the lights wired up with switches properly. Yes there’s apparently a ruler inside my wall, and no it’s not coming out.
The one switch inside the house which controlled the original two bulbs I started with was converted to three way operation with a redundant switch at the garage side door (very helpful when walking in at night). The bank above has the two main garage circuits—the branched wire circuits I alluded to back in the lights write up—as well as the attic lights.
There are added outlets on the sub panel wall as well, but those were just romex in wall direct from the sub panel so I’ll touch on those in a bit. I did use the trick of one GFI outlet per circuit. The weld table doesn’t use GFI but its protection is back at the breakers.
Moving back outside, I already had a junction box built into the house which was a drop from below the main panel. That made wiring up the external air compressor much easier after we added in an exterior doubler box. We had this hooked up to the main previously and then ran conduit from there.
Conduit connectors.
Other end. This both has an “in service” box which has both 110v and is also directly wired to my compressor’s service disconnect for the compressor.
I haven’t run the air lines back to the garage as of yet, so I’ll cover a bit more on compressor when I get back to finishing that.
Wiring up the Garage
After the sub panel was in it was time to wire up the rest of the garage (most of this happened on the same day).
First run needed was from sub panel to the weld table. The conduit runs out and up through the double 2x4 top plate of the wall. Thereafter, it immediately turns through an LR junction box and runs along the attic joists over to where it drops down to the weld table. There are a variety of thread conduit connectors available.
But I learned a neat trick to help remember the different types of 90 degree conduit boxes (LB, LL, and LR boxes). LB is “L” shaped with “Back” access (easy). Whether you have an LL or LR box is which way your palm faces if your thumb and fore-finger make the L. As shown this is an LR.
If the opening were on the other side I’d have to use my left hand to make the same shape.
Above the weld table this drops down using SOOW cable. No idea what that stands for but it’s basically intended for exposed electrical cables. The strain reliefs used were sourced by my electrician as this wasn’t something Home Depot carried.
I had to have at least one junction in my main wires to the weld table (standard wire inside conduit, SOOW for the drop and table wiring). Wire nuts work ok for gauges up to 10 or so. Bigger than that and I was recommended to use the dedicated Polaris connectors to switch from standard wire in conduit to the SOOW cable. I believe several brands sell things like this and they use allen keys internally so they should be easy enough to recognize.
Even though this was slightly bigger than a typical j-box we still had to use a knock out punch to upsize the hole for the bigger of the two strain reliefs.
Wiring up the weld table took some thought. I was concerned that I could have an unintentional ground path through my wiring if I didn’t have the outlets isolated. The ground clamp should want to be the path, but if I ever forgot to install that and/or ended up with a parallel ground path, it wouldn’t be good. This is what I came up with:
The mounting surface is scrap UHMW I had lying around from something or other. Holes allow backside access of the SOOW cable inputs. Drilling and taping soft-ish plastic is fun and fast. You never need to break a chip it just runs right through.
I ended up adding one more 220V plug so I’d have two styles readily available (turns out my new plasma cutter used a different plug than what I’d decided to narrow in and use). I also switched out the sockets to the 20 amp variety before final install (that’s what the “T” shape of one blade slot means… I love learning random things like that).
Here’s the basic installed. You can also see the SOOW cable run to the opposite end of the table where my power tools hook up. It’s drilled and tapped into the structure of the table every 10” or so. This is yet another fun job where you have to keep high yet steady pressure on a hand drill held above you head crouching under a table while metal chips rain down on you. It’s really more of a light misting of chips particles to be fair since drilling steel by hand is a slow crappy process. I think I’d have been happier with some better drill bits but I still got it done.
Apparently it’s ok for the hot wires to jump between sockets inside a 4 outlet box (double gang box), however for the ground the proper form is to use a wire nut with wires well twisted inside.
Green should always be “safe” which typically means ground unless you’re into a three wire 220 v circuit in which case green become neutral. Again, when you don’t know the conventions by heart this stuff confuses the heck out of me. I just don’t use it often enough to remember it all.
Here’s the power tool end done. Most of the time it’ll be filled out with a big sander, band saw, drill press, and chop saw.
Moving over to the wall of the garage shared by the house. We ran romex from sub panel into the attic and then dropped into the wall from above. I really wanted this at a specific elevation to tuck under my work bench shelf and the wire wouldn’t get there. Then I looked over at the open wall and noticed the cross supports… Yep, have those here too. Quick work with a stud finder and some notching and we were in business. This will get patched later.
By the way, this was the first time I’d used one of the vibrate-y saw tools. This one was a Makita but I ended up grabbing a Harbor Freight corded version for myself. For drywall work, it’s rad. So much nicer than using a drill like a roto-zip. So much cleaner than using an angle grinder.
Here’s the lights wired up with switches properly. Yes there’s apparently a ruler inside my wall, and no it’s not coming out.
The one switch inside the house which controlled the original two bulbs I started with was converted to three way operation with a redundant switch at the garage side door (very helpful when walking in at night). The bank above has the two main garage circuits—the branched wire circuits I alluded to back in the lights write up—as well as the attic lights.
There are added outlets on the sub panel wall as well, but those were just romex in wall direct from the sub panel so I’ll touch on those in a bit. I did use the trick of one GFI outlet per circuit. The weld table doesn’t use GFI but its protection is back at the breakers.
Moving back outside, I already had a junction box built into the house which was a drop from below the main panel. That made wiring up the external air compressor much easier after we added in an exterior doubler box. We had this hooked up to the main previously and then ran conduit from there.
Conduit connectors.
Other end. This both has an “in service” box which has both 110v and is also directly wired to my compressor’s service disconnect for the compressor.
I haven’t run the air lines back to the garage as of yet, so I’ll cover a bit more on compressor when I get back to finishing that.
Last edited:
Dude Lebowski
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Superb work. You are in California so an exposed compressor, while nuts to me, will still probably last 50 years there.
Superb work. You are in California so an exposed compressor, while nuts to me, will still probably last 50 years there.
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
When the garage is small you have to move as many things out as you can. I do want to give the compressor a bit of a restoration and build it a little shed to live in though. I may go a bit simpler and just extend the eves. CA is a big advantage in this regards for sure. If I ever move anywhere else I'll have to adjust my biases. Of course if I ever move anywhere else I can probably afford a bigger garage!
One weird thing about garage journal is that I'm always kinda posting thinking someone is going to call something out and say "why the F did you do that!". It forces you into a thoughtful posture trying to be smart about as much as you can.
When the garage is small you have to move as many things out as you can. I do want to give the compressor a bit of a restoration and build it a little shed to live in though. I may go a bit simpler and just extend the eves. CA is a big advantage in this regards for sure. If I ever move anywhere else I'll have to adjust my biases. Of course if I ever move anywhere else I can probably afford a bigger garage!
One weird thing about garage journal is that I'm always kinda posting thinking someone is going to call something out and say "why the F did you do that!". It forces you into a thoughtful posture trying to be smart about as much as you can.
jbmatth
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Great work on the electrical, and a very thorough write up.
Or you just don't show enough of the details so they can't call you out on something you screwed up.
JB
Great work on the electrical, and a very thorough write up.
Or you just don't show enough of the details so they can't call you out on something you screwed up.
JB
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
JB, I don’t think I’d be as bold as to presume to tell folks the details about how to do electrical. There’s nothing like misinformation floating around on the web to really screw up someone else’s project.
I’m still doing a bunch of looking before I launch into just about anything I haven't done before. Case in point:
Insulation
I wanted to insulate the walls of the shop which were bear studs. It’ll hopefully keep the inside from turning into a hot box so quickly (that side of the house gets blasted by sun) and also cut down on some noise as my neighbor's master bedroom is the closest point to the garage.
Had a friend who moved into a proper shop (launching a welding and fab business). In the process of that he ended up tearing out an interior office and gave me a very healthy stack of used fiberglass insulation. Something like 50-60, 8’ strips. (Thanks Anthony!)
I read a bit on the process (youtube was pretty helpful here as well). It looks like there’s a bit of debate regarding plastic vapor barriers vs. letting walls breathe. I went with the later (no plastic), since CA is so dry most of the time, I don’t see much condensation forming inside the wall.
I did follow a couple nice tips about splitting the batting to run on either side of obstructions.
General rule is you want a complete fill of the space with no extra compression. It cuts pretty easily with a razor knife.
Nice little label from 1969 I covered up.
The biggest portion of work was planning where I would be bolting down the drywall after the fact and getting the studs reasonably in line with one another. Here I’ve shaved the cross bar, sunk in the piping a bit, added padding around a conduit clamp (lower profile than the padded-hook-nail thing it had prior), and added a second vertical so the drywall on the other side has a place to land. You can shim everything as you go (maybe should have in hindsight) but a wood plane wasn’t terrible either.
And here it is ready to start drywall.
JB, I don’t think I’d be as bold as to presume to tell folks the details about how to do electrical. There’s nothing like misinformation floating around on the web to really screw up someone else’s project.
I’m still doing a bunch of looking before I launch into just about anything I haven't done before. Case in point:
Insulation
I wanted to insulate the walls of the shop which were bear studs. It’ll hopefully keep the inside from turning into a hot box so quickly (that side of the house gets blasted by sun) and also cut down on some noise as my neighbor's master bedroom is the closest point to the garage.
Had a friend who moved into a proper shop (launching a welding and fab business). In the process of that he ended up tearing out an interior office and gave me a very healthy stack of used fiberglass insulation. Something like 50-60, 8’ strips. (Thanks Anthony!)
I read a bit on the process (youtube was pretty helpful here as well). It looks like there’s a bit of debate regarding plastic vapor barriers vs. letting walls breathe. I went with the later (no plastic), since CA is so dry most of the time, I don’t see much condensation forming inside the wall.
I did follow a couple nice tips about splitting the batting to run on either side of obstructions.
General rule is you want a complete fill of the space with no extra compression. It cuts pretty easily with a razor knife.
Nice little label from 1969 I covered up.
The biggest portion of work was planning where I would be bolting down the drywall after the fact and getting the studs reasonably in line with one another. Here I’ve shaved the cross bar, sunk in the piping a bit, added padding around a conduit clamp (lower profile than the padded-hook-nail thing it had prior), and added a second vertical so the drywall on the other side has a place to land. You can shim everything as you go (maybe should have in hindsight) but a wood plane wasn’t terrible either.
And here it is ready to start drywall.
Last edited:
Jay Sco
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Your attention to detail amazes me! Top notch work.
I'll be cruising the NAXJA forum to see what goodies you're putting up.
Your attention to detail amazes me! Top notch work.
I'll be cruising the NAXJA forum to see what goodies you're putting up.
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Thanks! I'm having fun.
The Jeep in question if you're curious.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1081640
Pretty simple from the outside (albeit this is a scratch built tire carrier with two positions for running the spare low or high)
A few shots of aluminum armor follow. The top one is a double deck, ribbed and riveted. The exhaust is mandrel bent stainless so a big mid skid helped me in keeping that happy.
You know that old joke about sending your girlfriend to buy muffler bearings at the car shop? Yep, I ran one... It's linear bearing for thermal expansion and moves about 3/8" as the car warms up.
I guess if I'm going to claim it's a "gear head's garage" a few shots of car projects won't hurt. Folks here seem to like the weird things anyways.
Thanks! I'm having fun.
The Jeep in question if you're curious.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1081640
Pretty simple from the outside (albeit this is a scratch built tire carrier with two positions for running the spare low or high)
A few shots of aluminum armor follow. The top one is a double deck, ribbed and riveted. The exhaust is mandrel bent stainless so a big mid skid helped me in keeping that happy.
You know that old joke about sending your girlfriend to buy muffler bearings at the car shop? Yep, I ran one... It's linear bearing for thermal expansion and moves about 3/8" as the car warms up.
I guess if I'm going to claim it's a "gear head's garage" a few shots of car projects won't hurt. Folks here seem to like the weird things anyways.
Last edited:
GDPossehl
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Lots of great fixes in this shop.
Lots of great fixes in this shop.
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Drywall
Almost drawing current with existing progress now. All the drywall I plan to do this round has been roughed in. I’m about to start mudding/taping.
This gent’s video series were pretty helpful:
http://www.house-improvements.com
Youtube playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF6D5F910F11A363
HF has two saws of the type I mentioned (oscillating multifunction power tools):
http://www.harborfreight.com/oscillating-multifunction-power-tool-62279.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/variable-speed-multifunction-power-tool-67537.html
Difference, the cheap guy doesn’t come with any attachments (which run ~$10 each). The pro series has adjustable speed and pulls 2.0 amps instead of 1.6. I did the better version since the cost with attachments is almost the same. Cuts a nice tidy line.
Working along bottom edge, used 1/8” shims to keep it off the curb. Becomes obvious why I needed the extra 2x4’s next to the pipe I mentioned.
The next piece needed was hard. Lots of notching for joists. Neither end is exactly square, nor is the subpanel box.
Cheat sheets can be helpful
Boom. Proud of that one.
Plenty of weird details needed since this was a retrofit. Life would have been easier if everything had been tucked back into the walls all the way.
And here’s how it sits now:
Drywall
Almost drawing current with existing progress now. All the drywall I plan to do this round has been roughed in. I’m about to start mudding/taping.
This gent’s video series were pretty helpful:
http://www.house-improvements.com
Youtube playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCF6D5F910F11A363
HF has two saws of the type I mentioned (oscillating multifunction power tools):
http://www.harborfreight.com/oscillating-multifunction-power-tool-62279.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/variable-speed-multifunction-power-tool-67537.html
Difference, the cheap guy doesn’t come with any attachments (which run ~$10 each). The pro series has adjustable speed and pulls 2.0 amps instead of 1.6. I did the better version since the cost with attachments is almost the same. Cuts a nice tidy line.
Working along bottom edge, used 1/8” shims to keep it off the curb. Becomes obvious why I needed the extra 2x4’s next to the pipe I mentioned.
The next piece needed was hard. Lots of notching for joists. Neither end is exactly square, nor is the subpanel box.
Cheat sheets can be helpful
Boom. Proud of that one.
Plenty of weird details needed since this was a retrofit. Life would have been easier if everything had been tucked back into the walls all the way.
And here’s how it sits now:
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
I do need some advise though. I’m trying to figure out how to finish around the joists/top flange hangers. It makes an inside corner (kind of), but I’d rather leave the joists clear coated and I kind of like the look of the bit of metal sticking out. Anyone have thoughts? Can this be done with mud and painters tape to protect the surfaces I care about? Should I just hit it with RTV or caulk at the end?
If there are trick pieces for finishing up to door frame (actual frame is sunk by the 1/2" thickness of the drywall) that would be helpful to know as well.
I do need some advise though. I’m trying to figure out how to finish around the joists/top flange hangers. It makes an inside corner (kind of), but I’d rather leave the joists clear coated and I kind of like the look of the bit of metal sticking out. Anyone have thoughts? Can this be done with mud and painters tape to protect the surfaces I care about? Should I just hit it with RTV or caulk at the end?
If there are trick pieces for finishing up to door frame (actual frame is sunk by the 1/2" thickness of the drywall) that would be helpful to know as well.
Last edited:
CodeRedZ
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
just joking
just joking
CodeRedZ
Well-known member
xtremek
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
I'm so sorry, but I have to do it.
Is that so you can measure the current? I know, that one is beyond lame, but the voices were screaming in my head to do it.
Here’s the lights wired up with switches properly. Yes there’s apparently a ruler inside my wall, and no it’s not coming out.
I'm so sorry, but I have to do it.
Is that so you can measure the current?
I know, that one is beyond lame, but the voices were screaming in my head to do it.xtremek
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
1/4 round or some other type of trim? I know where the boards meet the drywall in barn, my plan is to use 1"x4" as a sort of chair rail.
1/4 round or some other type of trim? I know where the boards meet the drywall in barn, my plan is to use 1"x4" as a sort of chair rail.
wasfast
Well-known member
Re: Casa de Frijolee - a Gear Head's 2-car garage
Perhaps a bit late but the usual recommendation is to stagger the vertical joints (like running bond for bricks) between sheet runs.
The joist bracket area is a bit more challenging. You could partially trim it but you'll need a spacer to get the trim over the hanger/joist nail. It could be done with drywall but using rectangular section trim would be far easier.
Perhaps a bit late but the usual recommendation is to stagger the vertical joints (like running bond for bricks) between sheet runs.
The joist bracket area is a bit more challenging. You could partially trim it but you'll need a spacer to get the trim over the hanger/joist nail. It could be done with drywall but using rectangular section trim would be far easier.