Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Evtron's 2 Car Garage

[Evtron]

Hi. My name is Evan. I discovered this forum a long time ago, either in college or early industry (2008-2010ish) and have been lurking ever since.

Warning: this thread is extremely photo heavy. Excessively so.

First, some pics of my first garage, in various stages. This was a rental house and I refused to put money into lighting and electrical. With only one outlet and light fixture, I had to get creative. I did a ton of work and learned a lot in this garage, and still miss it today.





This was my workbench for a while



Then after a while I built my first workbench

















I inherited this Snap-On box from my father, and it needed a little love. The lid support was broken, handle and emblem missing, and the foam liners were destroyed after years of professional use.











Spot treating some rust



Cleaned and lubed the slides and cut out drawer liners. Husky drawer liner material is my favorite yet, cheap and readily available.





Love this box



In 2018 I bought my first house. 2-car garage with a flat driveway were minimum requirements.







Finally getting settled in



File cabinet bench build. Meridian lateral files with an Ikea butcher block top. Love this thing.

















Somewhat related, I got some Eley hose reels. Worth every penny.





I also built new shelves for the shed.



Back to the garage. My grandfather gave me this Husky Professional box in the early 90s when I was about 7 years old, which was full of USA-made Husky tools. Unfortunately I’ve lost most of the tools over the years but I still have a handful of wrenches and sockets.







Decided to keep the original felt drawer liners, and cut a new piece for the top. Kept all of my childhood BMX stickers too.





My friends and I bought an old Subaru Impreza wagon for rallycross racing. Our objective is to destroy it. We’ve been doing a good job of that.





Now onto serious work. While my garage had twice the number of electrical outlets that my previous garage did (two outlets to be precise), it wasn’t cutting it. My garage also has one light fixture, which wasn’t cutting it either. But first, this ****** old pegboard had to go.







I’m not the biggest fan of pegboard, but you simply can’t deny its utility. I felt like this is a great use of space on the wall here.



Drywall repair and paint





Next I had the electrician come out and replace both main and sub panels

 

[Evtron]

Once that was completed, I started mounting light fixtures. 9 Maxlite LSS2XT8USE4803 fixtures with 4000K bulbs mounted in the garage, and one fixture in the attic.







20A outlets





This was a really fun project. It was my first time doing any AC electrical work and I learned a lot. I had the electrician come back out to inspect my work and make the connection to the sub panel. He offered me a job.

This is the first garage I’ve ever worked in with proper lighting. What an absolute game changer.







Finally, the new workbench. Ever since I bought the garage I had been mulling over a design for a new bench, nearly 3 years by this point. I’ve sketched it dozens of times thinking through every joint and fastener.



I used Douglas Fir for the frame.











Plywood lower shelf and finished the edges.



Onto the top. I knew I wanted to make my own butcher block. I chose Knotty Alder, as I knew I would be terrified to actually use the bench for its intended purpose if I went with Maple. It was also about half the price of Maple.

Glue up at my friend’s shop. Filled in the knots with epoxy.



Finished with boiled linseed oil



Mostly finished at this point. I still haven’t fastened the top to the frame, and soon I’ll be making a 2’x3’ drawer for the right side of the bench.



I love this bench, it turned out way better than I had envisioned. I couldn’t bring myself to scrap my first workbench, so I’m using it as an island bench in the open bay



I needed a bench grinder. Thanks to Garage Journal, I fell in love with Craftsman block grinders. Picked this one up locally.













Bearing replacement







Mostly finished. Still need to paint the bulb cover and get arbor spacers so the wire wheels will fit correctly.



I’ve had these Westling Machine socket trays for a few years and absolutely love them



I recently bought some Quickjacks, and I can’t say I recommend them. Extremely loose in the hips. I returned them and got my money back. Looks like I’m sticking with my 4 ton Craftsman Professional jackstands.





My dad recently came to visit and brought a ton of his old tools and toolboxes.

Union Manufacturing box (IIRC), made in the USA



US made Craftsman Project Center



3 old Craftsman boxes. The long one in the back with a towel draped over it is a Kennedy. I’ll have to snap some more photos another time.



One of the many jewels of the lot





This ½” Plomb breaker bar is amazing. I ended up with lots of classic Plomb, Proto, Challenger and Craftsman V tools and I’ll cherish them forever. It’s a shame none of them are metric though, between my M3 and my bikes that’s all I ever use.



I gave the Project Center my usual treatment









My dad gave me his old framing hammer that he used professionally. I mounted it to the wall using a countersunk neodymium magnet



Adding to the poster wall





Just treated myself to this fine set of metric hex keys, specifically for my bikes.



Pretty happy with where my shop is at the moment. The one thing that really needs attention is the flooring, a DIY epoxy job from the previous owner. It’s peeling up all over the place and looks horrible. I’ll likely take care of that after I complete a big project I have planned for the M3.

 

[cool50]

Looks so good. I like the bench grinder rebuild

Anthony

 

[joey1320]

Nice garage and M3

 

[97f150]

Awesome garage progression, loved the new workbench.

Keep up the good work, cheers.

Luis A.

 

[jonshonda]

Right off the bat I knew more lighting was in order, and you already knew that! Nice work on the work bench as well, once lumber prices settle back down (if ever?) I want to complete a bench rebuilding.

 

[Evtron]

Thanks y'all!

The new bench is 38 ½" tall, 114" long and 30" deep. I'm hoping to knock out the drawer for it in the next few weeks, 2' x 3' and will be used primarily for parts storage for in-progress projects. About half of my bench is covered in new car parts waiting to be installed, they need to live somewhere!

I spent the weekend running ethernet through the attic, now I need to get my attic re-insulated and then I can begin a complete suspension overhaul on the M3. It's unfortunate that the car's bay is directly under the only access to the attic. I'll be sure to include some pics of the progress.

I also added some dual locking casters to the Project Center to make it a little easier to maneuver around the shop



Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving!

 

[captain14]

Get the attic insulated over the winter when it’s cool outside.


Nice work in the garage and Craftsman grinder. It’s the little things that make the garage your shop over time.

 

[Evtron]

Thanks captain. Got a crew coming out in two weeks to blow in 10.5" of R30 on top of the existing insulation.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Great little story there and loved all the pictures. You're putting together a sweet little shop, can't wait to see it progress. I especially liked the grinder rebuild and the butcher block. I may have to do something like that for mine.

Nice score by the way, it looks the garage already has epoxy? That's gotta be nice.

 

[Evtron]

Thanks! The floor was a poorly executed DIY job with some Rustoleum product by the previous owner of the house. Painters tape will peel it right up. It doesn't bother me too much as it is now, but I'll likely get the floor done professionally next year when the suspension overhaul of the M3 is complete. I think I'll go with polyaspartic when the time comes.

 

[mybigwarwagon]

You are packing a lot into that garage. Looks great.

 

[Dan99]

Nice garage project!

 

[shellback]

Very nice!
M3/4/5 and Chuck Schuldiner. Enough said!

 

[Evtron]

Nice garage project!

Thanks!

 

[Evtron]

Very nice!
M3/4/5 and Chuck Schuldiner. Enough said!

My man!

 

[Trapps]

Great space, nice attention to detail!

 

[qwerty18]

Very nice!

How did you refresh that bench grinder label? Or did you find a new one?

Also, how did you fasten the new bench top to the frame?

 

[Evtron]

Great space, nice attention to detail!

Thank you sir

 

[Evtron]

Very nice!

How did you refresh that bench grinder label? Or did you find a new one?

Also, how did you fasten the new bench top to the frame?

Thanks! A forum member reproduces them, exceptionally well I might add. Dig around in the giant Craftsman Block Grinder thread and you should be able to find him pretty easily. Just provide the model number and he'll do the rest. Message me if you need help tracking him down.

I actually haven't fastened the top down yet, but I have the angle brackets ready to go. I was considering applying boiled linseed oil to the frame so I held off, but I reckon I should probably do that now considering it's been a year. I'm hoping to build that drawer soon so I'll probably wait until that's done and installed.

 

[AJHD]

Cool stuff. Always enjoy seeing realistic garages... We don't all live in mansions with warehouse sized workshops attached.
But anyway, I really need to build a proper workbench and stop procrastinating.