Whiskeybadger's 20'x 20' MotoCave / fab center

Hi All,
I have been getting some great ideas from the site and I figured I'd document my build here.

Wife and I had been moving around for a few years but finally bought a house here in Milwaukie, OR.

It's a little smaller than the past garages we've had, So I'm having to get creative with storage. On top of that it had a washer/dryer in the garage (gotta go) along with the water heater and furnace as well as the backside of the fireplace insert.

I Bought the house mid January, and converted a tiny bedroom to a laundry room to get the W/D out (convinced the boss she wouldn't want grinding dust in her laundry), and painted the crappy drywall to brighten it up.

Then I setup my workbench in the corner and refinished the top with thin melamine sheet and put up some slatwall that I had bought off a running store that was going out of business. 4 sheets and a box of hardware for $80!

I mounted the cabinets I had found on the side of the road (still with plastic on the fronts) and pulled in the rest of the **** from the move. Luckilty we have 2 sheds out back so I made a rack for all my raw materials, dirtbike parts etc, and moved the lawn equipment out there.

I wanted to wall off the water heater and furnace so I could use the space as well as keep the dust out and put my compressor in to slightly muffle it.

I got a Rage Evolution 3 Mitre saw for Christmas, so I made a rolling cart for it with Shop vac storage below. I wanted this saw for wood and metal, and it has been working aweome for both, couldn't recommend it enough.

I have been putting casters on everything so that I can roll things around and make space where it's needed.

The build is still in progress, but here's the Plan:

I want this to be a shop for my dirtbikes as well as a fab shop to work on projects for the truck and eventually a dedicated wheeling rig

-Since this is smaller, all raw materials are going in the shed. I didn't realize how much room wood and steel took up in the old garage.

-No cars are to be parked in there permanently, my truck doesn't even fit lengthwise without the bench.

- Lawn equipment goes in the shed

- Flammables go in the shed

- Limit the amount of spare oils, paints, etc go in the garage. I have like 20 different bottles of the same kind of oil, paint, etch. I'll keep one in the garage, put the rest in the shed

- Bikes will be kept in the garage unless working on something big, then they can be put in the shed

-Beer fridge to remain in garage (of course)

- less frequently used equipment to go into overhead cabinets

[U]Project List:[/U]

- Install 2 more Flourescent T-12 Fixtures towards the door side
- Casters onto the Welding table
- Plumb air line from walled section into reel hose
- Wire 220V to wall near breaker
- (Farther down the road) bump out back wall by approx. 6-7 feet to create workbench nook / space to pull nose of truck in
- Outside, move fence forward, turn into a full gate (Man door size right now.)
- Any other suggestions??


I'm open to any ideas, thanks for the great forum and posts for the inspiration!

Here it is as it stands now. I have the half wall painted and lagged, working on the casters for the weld table now, I'll post pictures after its all painted up

Looks good!
I have the same size garage and the same storage issues.
Do you have attic space above your garage?
My loft and ladder are a great place to stash parts and seldom used tools



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AldeanFan said:

Looks good!
I have the same size garage and the same storage issues.
Do you have attic space above your garage?
My loft and ladder are a great place to stash parts and seldom used tools



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Click to expand...

Thanks man,
I do have an attic, but it doesn't have its own ladder, so I have to grab mine from the backyard, set it up etc. I do have some attic space but its Awkward because I have the truss braces that look like this: _\|/_ so the space is limited, but it is a good place for moto parts. I need to lay down some more plywood up there for more room so I don't fall through the ceiling. Ask me how I know haha

Finished painting my welding table to match the orange theme I'm gonna go with. Casters work great. I added a hinged leg that you can step on to raise the table up and lock into place to roll around

Had some buddies over to work on the Gambler 500 "racecar". Had to pull the door off, line up the latch, then weld the hinges to the body. It actually works now. Also made a plexiglass window to keep the rain out (kinda)

Cleaned it up and moved the bikes back in, here how she is now

Got a couple of new tools. Old driver was stuck in low gear so I got a driver, impact and hackzawll plus two batteries for 249 from Home Depot. Also mounted the 2 additional T12 fixtures and have them on an extension cord for now. So much brighter!

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