Anyone have multiple garage workshops?

[forceten]

I have my main two car garage attached to my house that almost all my stuff has been in for years. Welding mig and tig and plasma cutter, 220 air compressor,drill press, bench grinders, miter saw table saw and main toolboxes and so forth. Last year we got the amish to build us a garage at the back of our property. Good size one (not as big as I wanted but zonning wouldnt allow it) So this year been putting shelving up and cabinets. The back garage is to store my tractors and mower and so forth.

I was just gonna use the back garage for storage but somehow plans for power and water to it and then workshop benches and now its turning into a work area mostly for my tractors, trailers and excavator.

I am trying to convince my wife that it would be nice to have duplicate power tools and tools in general so I can work at either garage. She isn't having it. Still working on it. The back garage is 2 acres back so a good distance. I would love an air compressor, miter saw, band saw and maybe chop saw, drill press at the back garage. The welding stuff can stay up front. But I really want to leave those things in the front garage and have duplicates at the back. Anyone have two shops on your property with duplicate stuff? Or do you guys just have one set of things and I have to pick which garage you are doing say woodworking in and welding in. I can just see myself at the back garage doing something and need a drill press - so have to move the project to the front to drill, or grind or so forth.

 

[Nick Rivers]

1. 2.5 car garage: Workbench with two vises and tool cabinets, grinder, buffer, clamps, welder, portable hobby lathe, at the back of the garage. Most of the power tools and M12 tools hang from the overhead garage storage rack.
2. Workshop out back with Atlas lathe, lathe accessories cabinet, Electro-mechano metal drill press, Rockwell shaper, spindle sander, belt sander, band saw, BT-3000 circular saw, Bosch miter saw and Radial Arm Saws
3. Home office with a electronics tech bench in the corner. Two Vidmar cabinets of tools support the benchtop (repurposed granite kitchen countertop), 2 Sensitive drill presses (Hamilton), small vise, solder station, magnifying glass/lamp, bench DVM, Dremel set up.

All three areas have their own tools.

 

[Packard V8]

You'll eventually end up with three times the stuff.

I work out of three different locations and even with sixty years of accumulated tools, there's always some tool or part which is not where it is needed.

jack vines

 

[kbuhagiar]

You'll eventually end up with three times the stuff.

I work out of three different locations and even with sixty years of accumulated tools, there's always some tool or part which is not where it is needed.

jack vines

Yeah, this.^^^

At my last residence I had two separate garages - the main (upper) 3-car attached garage and a second (lower) 2-car workshop attached to the main structure but only accesible from the outside. Most of my tools and consumables (bolts, nuts, scrap metal, etc) were located in the lower garage, where I did most of the dedicated 'project car' work. I would resign myself to going to the 'hardware store' (i.e. lower garage) if I needed anything beyond the small subset of common hand tools kept in the upper garage.

On the average day I would make seven or eight trips between garages, and since the garages were about 200ft and a set of stairs apart, it was good exercise. That would explain the extra pounds I have added to my frame since moving three years ago, lol!

 

[jbailey927]

I have 3 garage spaces at my house. I have been completely kicked out of the main house garage (2.5 car with closet) and it has been repainted, new lights and acts as a lobby for my wifes business that runs out of our house.

Everything is in a container at the moment as I refinish the 1400sqft shop which will be the working area for the vast majority of what I do.

The Trailer Garage is mainly storage, both the actual trailers + all the big stuff I dont want cluttering the shop. Unless I am working on the physical tailer or RV then that happens in place for the most part.

There are some duplicate tools I keep in the house/trailer garage, but I don't have duplicate sets of full tools that do the same thing.

What works best for me is that I have a tool bucket that goes with me really everywhere, its a seat, has my favorite tools and snacks, drink rest, stepstool, I love the tool bucket.

Consider projects that move (vehicles, trailers, etc...) vs projects that can't, cabinet builds, etc... so coulld you start a job in the small garage and wheel it back to the large one or not....

I would start a list with a portability score and focus your purchase priority on things that are least portable and maybe your wife would be more willing to let you focus your expenses in a targed manner.

Have fun and good luck!

 

[u2slow]

I have the attached car-port/shed, and a detached shop 100ish feet away. Intentional duplication sound excessive. What I have done is upgrade a few items and kept the old/small one for the 'lower use' space.

 

[racecougar]

Two main shops here (2700 sq ft and 1800 sq ft), plus attached two-car garage and a few outbuildings. The shops have some duplicate equipment, but most of it is complimentary. Hand tools are duplicated everywhere for the most part. Shops are about a mile apart from each other.

 

[Kurt4440]

I have 4 different garages to work out of. Yes I have duplicates of most mechanics tools in all of them. 2 have woodworking equipment and only one has a welding setup.
Eventually, I will start to consolidate and sell some tools and equipment, but I have never regretted having duplicates. Fortunately, I have been able to buy good to excellent tools at a discount and used tools for pennies on the dollar. Used tools and equipment are easy to purchase if you always have cash on hand.

 

[bdbecker]

I'll be following along for insight as I will be in this situation soon (moving). Right now, my plan is to setup the attached garage for automotive work and metal fabrication while the basement shop will be for woodworking and general tinkering. I'm assuming I'll want to have duplicates of certain hand and power tools in both spots as access between the spaces, while not far, would require cutting through either the living room or the kitchen. Not something I really want to do if I'm in the middle of a project.

I'm okay with buying duplicates, especially on the hand tools. A lot of my sockets and wrenches are USA Craftsman that my Dad gave me over the years and have sentimental value to me. I always have this fear in the back of my mind that I'm going to break a tool when working on a vehicle, so retiring them to light duty use in the basement and replacing them with something I'm not so attached to in the garage will be good.

 

[kbeefy]

I have several. I try to separate the different areas for different tasks and keep the tool duplication to a minimum
I have multiple sets of hand tools so there a decent one for each work area.

My house has 2 attached, 2 car garages. one is for parking and general storage but also has my 'home' tool chest.
The other attached garage has been converted to my wood workshop. Table saw, mitre saw, small drill press, planer, air compressor and all my handheld wood tools live in there.

I have one outbuilding I call the woodshed. I store and break down sheet goods in there.
It has my track saw and a bora centipede 'table'. Theres also a wood cutting chop saw out there.

I have an oversized 2 car garage that is storage for powersports stuff and parts. I also park my zero turn in there.

I have my main 'shop', a 40x60 pole barn is about 100 yards from the house. It has my 2 post lift in it. I do all my mechanical work and fabrication in there.
The majority of my hand and specialty tools are there, plus a compressor, sandblast cabinet, gantry, tube bender, welder, plasma, oxy torch, tire machines, grinder, big drill press etc...

I originally had a lot of stuff stored in the 40x60 shop. As I added tools it became too cluttered and I got all the stored items out. It's much easier to work in now without doubling as a storage area.

I do some RV fabrication projects and thats when it would be nice to have the woodworking stuff in the big shop, but I hate mixing sawdust and grease.

 

[welder4956]

We have a 2 car basement garage that was where I kept all my tools and equipment until we built a detached 3 car garage. Once the detached garage was finished I moved all of my tools and equipment out there, except for a workbench, tool bag and battery powered drill/driver. The tools I keep in the basement garage are only just enough to do minor household repairs such as hanging pictures, light plumbing, electrical outlets, etc.

 

[Dodgepu360]

I used to have the garage at home, a rented shop space, and the the shop at work. It was very hard trying to remember which one of those locations the particular tool I needed was.

 

[TurnipTruck]

At my starter house, I got a good deal on this 24x60 Quonset and fitted it out with a 2car clean room with an apartment above and 70’ of benches, but I couldn’t store cars and parts and work on them, too. So my youthful idiot brain said I needed to build a 24x52 parking garage to keep the finished stuff and the daily drivers out of the workshop, but the day I ordered trusses for it, I found a used 2post and had the one tall bay changed to scissor trusses and ended up with two workshops but only one set of tools. My youthful idiot brain then said a heatable apron between both buildings would allow the toolbox to roll from shop to shop. I even buried pex in poly underground so both buildings could share the compressor.
Rolling the tools back and forth was a first class hassle, though, so I was just about to hang pegboards in the “parking“ garage and buy a second set of tools when my new wife‘s bucket list had a waterfront home right near the top, so we compromised and spent a decade singlehandedly remodeling an old house and then building the current Blizzard Built 40x60 shop with everything under one roof.


One big deep and wide roof is better. Each of the prior shops were hindered by their respective 24’ dimension.

 

[dcg9381]

I have my main two car garage attached to my house that almost all my stuff has been in for years. Welding mig and tig and plasma cutter, 220 air compressor,drill press, bench grinders, miter saw table saw and main toolboxes and so forth. Last year we got the amish to build us a garage at the back of our property. Good size one (not as big as I wanted but zonning wouldnt allow it) So this year been putting shelving up and cabinets. The back garage is to store my tractors and mower and so forth.

I put all the major tools in the shop. The garage is just for cars. I mean if I need a screwdriver, my spouse better have it (or it needs to be in my multi-tool). Otherwise, I'm walking to the shop. This means that I have the absolutely cleanest garage any of you have seen. Because it has no tools. Or anything else useful. It's just cars.

Walking to the shop is a good thing at my age. Seriously. Do I enjoy it? No. Is it good for me? Yes. I'm in Texas and it's often 102+.

When I need to transport a lot of tools, materials, or whatever, I drive the Polaris down to the shop, load it up, and bring it to the house and drive it over my lawn.

Welder? At the shop. Grinder? At the shop. Everything Makita? At the shop.

My deal is (still work for a living) if I'm going to hammer out some serious work, I cool the shop down and pretty much live there for the weekend. Major projects are started in the shop and don't come out until they are done.

Is this the right way to do it? Dunno. But a little walking is good for you.

 

[finn]

My shop is a mile by road from the house / about half that as the crow flies, plus I have a third workplace in the shed that I have enough tools to do chainsaw and small engine work.

I have one more 24’x 32’ garage at a house we have in town. We store the boat there, so I keep a small amount of tools there.

So, including our winter house in Az, that makes five functional air compressors, plus the pancake compressor, so call it six. The pancake and the compressor in the shop are both obnoxiously loud direct drive units, and I could probably buy an inflator for the house in town, so if I got rid of the noisy direct drive compressors, and bought a small portable quiet compressor, plus an inflator, I could reduce the count, but just keeping the status quo works and costs me nothing.

There’s a similar story for other tools, since I have multiple work spaces. All have to be partially stocked, at least, to have any efficiency at all.

 

[Skellyii]

I have an oversized three car garage attached to my house, it's mostly for keeping our daily drivers, but it has a large bay that's good for quick and dirty automotive work, that doesn't require a lift.

I also lease a garage condo about five minutes away with lifts, that I use for long term projects, more intense maintenance and storage.

I have duplicate tools in both, but I keep the specialty tools in the condo where they get used more.

Pictures in my signature.

 

[Mike65]

I have my woodworking workshop in the basement & the 2 car detatched garage next to the carport. All of my automotive tools & large air compressor are in the 2-car garage while I have all my woodworking tools, a small pancake air compressor & a small selection of duplicate hand tools in the woodworking shop. I also have some basic hand tools upstairs of the house for basic repairs.

 

[tez929rr]

Yes. Our house has a semi-detached garage that stored our motorcycles, one car, and all the tools. We built a big shop about 100 yards away. It only took a couple of trips back and forth to realize I needed separate tools in each location. We have a second building we built later that has an apartment and hobby room for my wife and I have a tool cart there with a moderate set of tools. If you try to haul tools back and forth you are going to forget something. In the one big shop I even have a smaller roller cart so I don’t have to move my big tool chest around.

Besides, it means more chances to buy tools you see on this forum,

 

[thammel]

I have my basement wood workshop, a house 2 car parking garage, an attached larger (28x32) 2 car auto shop with lift and a 12x16 shed for all the yard stuff. One problem is that I have many tools in the basement wood shop that I often use in the larger auto shop. This is a hassle. For example, when using polyurethane I usually do the in the auto shop where I can open windows and let the vapors harmlessly vent outside. My ideal would be a very large building, say 40x60 or larger for both a wood shop and auto shop, separated with a wall. Also, it would be nice to have the garden shed on one side of this shop. This way, tool duplication and access would be much easier. It would also be nice to have an integrated vacuum system to serve both sides. And of course, the same goes for the compressor system. LOL, the more I think about it, 40x60 is way too small. Wood shop part of it could be 20x30. Then 40x 60 for auto. Add 20x30 for yard stuff. That would be a place about 60x 60. Sounds good to me!!

 

[tarmy]

I have 4 shops/garages. As mentioned, you end up with multiples of…everything. In my case they are combined set ups. Garage/tools/woodworking and metal working in the same place. Rolling benches and shop tools is a must. I keep very clean workplaces and clean up after every day…helps with dust/grinding and messes accumulation.

 

[drmarkr]

We have four. The main big shop at the house, a relatively small supply of stuff in the three-car garage of the house, a substantial shop / garage at the car race track and finally, the rolling shop of the stacker race trailer. Granted, the trailer tool cart and supplies get moved in and out of the racetrack garage so those are kind of shared.

As one of my buddies says to me quite often, "Russell you have a lot of ****.". And I have to say, reading the replies above, makes me feel way better about this...it's good not to feel so all alone!

 

[cody1325]

1: Basement.

Woodworking
General Carpentry
Hobby stuff for trains and slot cars.
Most of my fairly antique tools
Also, a few mechanic's tools as I had multiple duplicates in other boxes.

2: Garage.
Most gas-powered outdoor power equipment (I keep the electric stuff in the root cellar as it tends to be one of the cooler parts in the house)
Fencing Tools
A lot of general mechanic's stuff.


3: Farm Shop.

It is the original garage--the main walls and foundation were built as a part of a stone retaining wall back in the '50s. Originally, there were stairs leading up to a garage apartment--those were removed, but the apartment's front door is on the top of the hill where the garage was built.

In recent years, it's been the main focus of my cleaning up efforts. Dad used to work on Jeeps and Farmalls, but didn't touch the stuff after landing himself in a bad marriage in '09. He'd crammed my Granddad's shop full of junk (and trash), so I boxed all that up in totes and put it in the barn. He broke the bottom drawer of the Craftsman roller due to over-loading with junk--NOT tools. That freed up a ton of room. The apartment--geez. Full of 50 years of junk, and even rather large leftovers from previous home projects--guttering, doors, and even a window. . Been cleaning it out--plans are to make it a hobby area/man cave for displaying my diecast, a place to set up trains/slot cars, and definitely where I'm putting the 3D printer. Been trying to work to the point that I fill at least a contractor's bag a week.


It's been a shop since my folks moved here in '69. It's where I tend to do most of my equipment work, as well as sharpen axes. Decent sized concrete pad in front--rest of the place is gravel, so NOT fun to lay/kneel/sit on--thus everything gets done in front of the shop.

Currently working on the garage only being for vehicle/mower storage and the shop housing all my mechanic's tools. Getting the wood splitter and 4-wheeler running and outta there (though I will store the four-wheeler in there when not riding it). The 4-wheeler hasn't run in 20 years (1980-something Kawasaki Bayou 250 that was replaced by a 2006 Kubota RTV 900 in July of '06).


My bedroom:

Basically, it's where another large chunk of the antique tools are stored, my 12V stuff, and a couple smallish toolboxes for general-purpose work.