Above 1200 Sq/FT BroncoAZ’s Garage

BroncoAZ · May 27, 2023

The wife and I closed on our new to us home yesterday, and I finally got a shop to play in! The previous owner had it setup as a wood shop with all the toys, unsurprisingly he took all that stuff with him. He did leave the benches and cabinets. The structure squares out to 34’ wide by 44’ deep with a non load bearing wall running close to the middle. The shop is on a separate 100 amp sub panel and he had dedicated circuits for most of his woodworking tools. There are two 10’ wide 8’ tall doors on the garage side for vehicles. The entire structure is insulated and there is a mini split serving the shop. Today’s project was cleaning the garage and shop, I got to break in my new mop bucket that Amazon delivered today. Never mind the Solera, it’s just there for scale.

One of my first projects will be to add a roll up door between shop and garage so I can pull a vehicle through to the shop to work on it. Second priority will be some version of lift that will work with the 10’ ceiling. Unfortunately the former owner didn’t do a great job on the epoxy floor, so I’ll have to fix it eventually. I’m looking forward to posting more as things happen.

LXCam · May 27, 2023

Congrats on the new digs my friend. Chipped epoxy floors or not that’s a hell of a start on a very nice shop. Sure looks like the ridge flows front to back, any chance of modifying the truss to accommodate a taller lift?

BroncoAZ · May 27, 2023

Thanks, Cam! The ridge does flow from front to back and I do think there is a possibility of modifying the trusses to get the 12’ needed for a full size lift. I’m not very experienced with residential construction, so I’d want to consult with a builder before making any changes. I’ve got some pictures of the trusses I’ll post up.

GlennSullivan · May 28, 2023

Congratulations on the new acquisition. Looks like the wood shop section has mini split HVAC, nice.

BroncoAZ · May 28, 2023

Here are some pictures of the garage trusses. My first thought is using 2x6 to span all four legs of the W for strength then tying the cut ends of the current bottom of the truss to that 2x6 and the top for triangulation. I haven’t measured anything yet, but it looks like I’d have to center the lift in the structure rather than having it in line with the right garage door. If I do a 16’ door between the garage and shop I should have enough room to maneuver a vehicle to make that work.

Mike65 · May 28, 2023

Congrats on the new shop/garage that is awesome. What are your plans for the old woodworking shop?

BroncoAZ · May 28, 2023

Most of my shop work in the past has been metal fabrication and truck fabrication related. I want to be able to do my own truck maintenance, boat maintenance, and general household stuff to start. I’m sure I’ll end up with some metal fab tools in not too long, there is an appetite for it amongst my buddies and nobody has the shop space or aptitude. Most of what I’ve done in the past was steel, here in a marine environment aluminum and stainless are the more popular metals. I’m thinking I‘ll need an AC/DC Tig welder, maybe a bandsaw for making plates, probably a tubing bender, etc. I have a full time job, so all of this is just hobby stuff. I wouldn’t mind getting into 3D printing or small scale CNC eventually.

loganb · May 28, 2023

That's an awesome space... congrats! May the wife be as excited about the house as this place would be on that garage!

BroncoAZ · May 28, 2023

loganb said:
That's an awesome space... congrats! May the wife be as excited about the house as this place would be on that garage!

Fortunately she loves the kitchen.

jb3 · May 29, 2023

Congratulations! I like that beautiful bright and open shop space

BroncoAZ · Jun 19, 2023

I picked up a couple of used welders for the shop yesterday, a Miller 190 mig and an Esab ET186i AC/DC tig. The machines are about four years old came with a bunch of accessories and consumables. I need the mig to build some stands for my vise/grinder/disk sander and I’ve wanted to learn tig for a while. Living in MA where stuff rusts and I do boat stuff, tig on aluminum will be useful. I’ll keep my eye out for a deal on a spool gun too.

This sub panel is fed from the 200 amp main panel on a 90 amp breaker. I’m going to have to install a 50 amp breaker and wiring/plug to run the tig welder, it draws 32.4 amps. The mig drawing 21 amps would probably run on one of the existing circuits, but those wires look thinner than I think is appropriate for welding. The panel has an inspection decal from the town from when the garage/shop was built. I’ll start with a simple installation in the wall below the panel and use my 6 gauge extension cord to start. Eventually I plan on adding a 50 amp circuit on the far side of the garage for future EV charging or welder use. No plans for another EV in the near future after my Ford Lightning experiment last year.

BroncoAZ · Jul 3, 2023

I added a HF welder cart for the tig welder and received my Firepower plasma cutter. I may grab another HF cart for the mig and plasma, but the plasma is tall enough I’d have to modify the height of the shelf to fit it below without removing the handle. The cart seems like decent quality for the $100 paid. The front handles are a little flimsy because they bolted round tube to square tube. Maybe I can firm them up a bit with a piece of u channel aluminum between the pieces.

This welding cart made from a hand truck is what the previous guy was using for the welders. It holds two gas cylinders and is a good use of space, but I’m concerned about tipping it over and there isn’t enough hangers for the cords and hoses.

racer-john · Jul 3, 2023

BroncoAZ said:
This welding cart made from a hand truck is what the previous guy was using for the welders. It holds two gas cylinders and is a good use of space, but I’m concerned about tipping it over and there isn’t enough hangers for the cords and hoses.

Yes, that could be a problem. Preferably the cylinders are in line with the cart wheels.

BroncoAZ · Jul 3, 2023

racer-john said:
Yes, that could be a problem. Preferably the cylinders are in line with the cart wheels.

The cylinders were on the platform of the hand truck. It’s not completely unstable, I just don’t prefer it.

Swanny1953 · Jul 3, 2023

Congrats on the new digs - looks like a great starting point.
I have a 4-post lift in the 10' ceiling side of my garage. It was the original structure and all I had to work with before we expanded the building due to there being an upstairs room that was framed in (not conditioned, not being used for anything other than storage). While it can be a pain having to work under full size vehicles and pickups on a roll around stool, it will still work and is better than laying on the floor or trying to use a creeper. While I increased the ceiling on the addition to 13' and have a double wide lift in that section of the garage, I still do most of my maintenance, etc. on the lift with the lower ceiling.
Subscribed to see how you utilize the space.

racer-john · Jul 3, 2023

BroncoAZ said:
The cylinders were on the platform of the hand truck. It’s not completely unstable, I just don’t prefer it.

As an addendem to my last post...and within the wheelbase.

BroncoAZ · Feb 5, 2024

Progress has been slow. I’m still trying to get everything sorted after the move and selling my folks old house in November, throughout the move and cleaning out the old house everything just got dumped in the shop and garage. I spent the last three weekends in the shop sorting, trashing, and planning. Things are getting better, I moved a significant amount of deep storage items to the basement to free up garage floor. I have a large pile of donation stuff that needs one more sort before going away. I’ve done several house and truck projects as needed, and the space will only keep getting better over time. Here are some highlights from the past couple of months:

December: Purchased a Certiflat fixture table, 60x30 with two 12” wings
January: Had 36 panels of solar added to the garage roof, 14.58 kW DC which is about 190% of anticipated need
January: Sorted all of my spare boxes of old hand me down tools I’ve accumulated over the years and cleaned up my dad’s blue Craftsman set
Last week: Mounted the 65” TV on the wall
Today: Purchased a 45 gallon flammable liquids cabinet

I’m looking at racedeck free flow tiles for the garage side to cover the previous DIY epoxy floor, I still need to cut the garage door opening between the garage and the shop and order the door, and I’m trying to decide on a sink setup for the garage side. The lift isn’t a pressing issue until I have the opening with the new door between the garage and shop done. The mini split is doing a great job of heating the shop in the winter.

BroncoAZ · Jun 2, 2024

Updates are slow, my mother was in and out of the hospital from January through May.

I palletized the flammable liquids cabinet and fridge to make it easier to move or clean with the pallet jack. An added benefit is that since I’m 6’4” it makes things easier for me to see and reach.

End of March we added a Tesla Model Y Long Range to the fleet to use some of the solar capacity. I had an electrician run two new circuits, a 60 amp to the garage for the Tesla level 2 charger and a 50 amp into the shop for the welders/plasma. Both circuits are 6/2 Romex, yes, that meets code in MA for a 60 amp EVSE circuit. Most places would require 4 gauge THNN in conduit, but MA doesn’t. I usually charge at 32 amps, so I’m not concerned.

I lost the off site parking for mom’s Solara in early April this year, so I had to get creative to keep both it and the Bronco inside while also having my wife park the Tesla in the garage. With the Solara pushed to the wall on tire dollies I can still easily drive the Bronco in and out, thank you 10’ wide doors!

I decided with the size of this shop I really need to get more acclimated to working out of a cart. Walking to the far end of the shop from the garage or outside when I needed basically any tool was hampering productivity. My old Mac cart with the slide out metal tops didn’t have enough drawers to be a primary box. I looked for a Snap On cart for a few weeks, but nobody was selling them for less than $1600 in my area, nice ones were close to retail. I grabbed one of the US General 34” carts with a 25% off coupon a couple weeks ago. Overall I’m pleased with the quality for the $450 plus tax paid.

With the Memorial Day sale I decided to move forward on the Racedeck free flow tiles for the garage side. I went with the alloy tiles rather than the graphite for the bulk of the install as I didn’t want to make the garage dark. The stripes and royal blue single tiles are there to provide visual indications for parking, the light blue single tiles are just for aesthetics near the flammable cabinet and fridge. The garage doors would be on the bottom of the picture, the opening to the shop will align with the right set of stripes.

The solar is producing well, no shortage of net metering happening with 1100 kWh sported in May. On the program we’re on those are utility credits, not a monthly check. My wife’s daily commute in the Tesla is only 1.5 miles each way and usually a couple 60 mile shopping/work trips per week.

BroncoAZ · Jun 16, 2024

I installed the Racedeck flooring yesterday. All went smoothly, total time for approximately 700 ft2 was about 9 hours with all the cuts. The laminate cutter was a godsend, allowing quick clean cuts with minimal mess. I posted a question in the flooring forum about how to handle the transitions on the wall opposite the garage doors. Here is how the install progressed.

End of hour 1.