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Garage/Workshop Take 2

Mrmanface3

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Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
28
Location
New Hampshire
Hi my name is Marcel. First time posting, but I've been looking around the forum for a while now.

I guess to begin with I'll give a little back story.

A little less than three years ago my parents decided to move. My brother Pascal and I were pretty exited because this new house had a two car garage. The original setup was that our parents would take one space and we would get the other. We made a work bench and built shelves on the back wall to store the buckets of parts and tools that we had. Everything was put away neatly and for the first six months it looked like this setup would work great.

However, once we started building our race car things went downhill. We quickly took over the whole garage and thankfully we have really great parents who have allowed us to keep using both spaces. Our biggest problem has been that every time we work on something the garage becomes a huge mess. The kind of mess that takes a whole weekend to clean up. Since we started using both spaces we've spent a weekend almost every month cleaning the garage.

Finally this summer we decided that things had to change. Thinking that having more space would help us keep the garage clean, we made plans to build a shed. Our parents liked the idea a lot and only had two requirements. The outside of the shed had to look nice and the inside had to be set up so that it would stay neat. We ended making it 8'x12' since that is the largest size we could have without getting any permits.

Heres the area we chose to build on.
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After pouring the footings and letting them cure for a few days we put together the floor.
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Next we put together the walls. Had a little difficulty getting them all square but after some pushing and pulling they were fine.
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The next weekend we put up the rafters and joists. Everything went nice and smooth, which was good.
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Once the frame was complete we started putting up the siding and roofing. We decided to use a grey metal roofing. For siding we used T1-11 for three of the walls. To make the front look a little nicer we used tongue and groove boards.
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Next we put in a window and made the ramp.
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Once the ramp was done we made the door and mounted it. The hinges we used were given to use by an old neighbor and are from the 1700s. Made it a little harder to mount them but they ended up looking nice.
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The decorative looking piece in the middle of the door is actually what operates the latch. It is connected to a rod that goes through the door and operates the mechanism which is shown below. Turn it one way and it slides the rod through the three 2x4s that make up the door frame. Turn it the other way and it comes out.
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I don't have any pictures of the inside yet but as soon as I get it all cleaned up I'll post a couple. Here is a picture of it after our first snow fall.
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Now it is time to start on the garage. We haven't really done anything yet but here is what we are starting with.
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KPAero

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Nov 16, 2012
Messages
25
Hello everyone, Marcel's brother Pascal here. I found the site a a few months ago when we were first looking for ideas and inspiration on how to set the garage up for more long term organization and neatness. We have been in the house, and using the garage for various projects for a couple years now. Like Marcel mentioned, keeping the space organized has proved to be a struggle. The nice thing is that during that time we have gone through a few iterations of layout in the space. So we have had a chance to see what works and what doesn't.

Here is a picture of what the garage looked like early on. This is the race car that Marcel mentioned, when it first arrived at the house. We set it up at an angle as it did not move for a couple months and the extra room around the car was helpful at the time. This car has been the main driving force behind most of the work that happens in our garage, and most of the messes that get created.
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Here is the car finished at the Ascutney hillclimb in VT.
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So there is a little explanation on what has got us to this point. I'll make sure some more pictures are up soon of whats been being done to the garage recently.
 
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Mrmanface3

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Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
28
Location
New Hampshire
To help reduce the amount of space taken up by everyones shoes we made some shelves. Each of us gets one shelf and eventually we'll have a bucket to put more seasonal shoes in.
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We also made a small extension off of the shelves that are on the back wall.
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Tired of moments like these, and never being able to find extension cords we decided to make a small hanger for them.
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Pascal got the pieces and welded it all together.
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It's a little to small for all of them so we're probably going to make another one at some point.
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KPAero

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Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
25
Love the shed. Great Job! Keep us posted!

WOW!!!! The shed looks great. I like the latch mechanism that you guys designed. Very ingenious. :thumbup::thumbup:

Great looking stuff here guys.


Thanks guys. Doing a little work everyday when possible, so we will keep the updates coming.

The latch for the shed turned out nicely. It always is nice when an idea works out as planned. It took a bit of adjustment to keep the parts from binding, but it now works very smoothly and keeps the door shut without any play.
 
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Mrmanface3

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Dec 16, 2012
Messages
28
Location
New Hampshire
We had a little time this weekend so we decided to get rid of our buckets of metal. Which, besides being a mess, make it very hard to find what you want.
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We made some brackets to put longer pieces on, and under those we made a place to put smaller things
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Mrmanface3

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Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
28
Location
New Hampshire
Last night we made a tool board which will be hung on the back of a metal cabinet we bought yesterday. The idea was to make a place for tools that we use frequently but don't really fit in our tool boxes. It was pretty simple, we just took some counter tops, pieced them together, laid everything out on top and then hammered in nails for each thing to hang on. There is still a few thing to do to it. The cabinet we bought is a bit beat up. So before we can put the board on it it's got to get cleaned up.
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Shoottx

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Jan 30, 2011
Messages
314
Location
Plano Tx
Keep up the good work. A little at time ad it will all fall into place.

One thought, on the board you have a mix of woodworking and metal working tools. As yoou move forward in the organization, you might think about seperating them.
 
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Mrmanface3

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Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
28
Location
New Hampshire
Keep up the good work

Thanks

Keep up the good work. A little at time ad it will all fall into place.

One thought, on the board you have a mix of woodworking and metal working tools. As yoou move forward in the organization, you might think about seperating them.

That is definitely something to think about, but right now we don't have enough woodworking tools to justify making a separate place for them. Although maybe that just means we need to get some more. :D
 

KPAero

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Nov 16, 2012
Messages
25
Hanging tools on the wall never really appealed to me, until seeing some of the pictures in various threads here. Now that the board is finished and hung I like it for the select tools that are on it.

Today I was also thinking it might be nice to hang grinders, drills etc. up. Anyone have any opinions on that, or done it and have pictures?

Anyway, here is the cabinet that Marcel mentioned. Picked it up at a local industrial surplus warehouse. We had some relatively warm weather for the season yesterday, so I painted it an almond color, and then finished hanging the tool board on the back.
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KPAero

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Nov 16, 2012
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Finally some more updates. We have been slowly chipping away at getting stuff organized. One of the projects that ended up being pretty time consuming was to organize spare car parts and supplies along with things like skis sports stuff etc, in a way that would leave us some extra space for future parts acquisitions yet make it easy to get/find stuff. One issue we have had in the past is that after a good cleaning, it would be tough to stay organized as there was never any space to spare, and bins would already be packed to the brim.

With the addition of the extra shelving, the cabinet for oils and paints, along with finding spaces off the shelves for the majority of tools we gained a bunch of extra space.

Here is one section of shelving that is now dedicated to car parts. You can see the top shelf is currently empty apart from a few large items that could easily be consolidated to only take up a third of that space. There is also still some room for three more of those half size bins in the middle.
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We also tried to be mindful of the weight of various items and how high up we put them, a combination of weight and frequency of use determined where stuff was placed. Another thing we did which has already proved helpful is label all the buckets.
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The other half of the shelves received a similar treatment, except it is all non-car related storage.

I also re-installed these two wall mounted shoe racks we had. I was finding there was still always a few pairs of shoes left on the ground around the door to the house, instead of all the shoes being on the shelves we put in. Its probably half laziness, and half not wanting to drag a bunch of dirt and water up onto the shelves. The lower shelf here gives a place to put those dirty/wet shoes, and is a bit more convenient. The upper shelf is the new battery charger station, and a place up off the ground for our speakers.
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KPAero

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Nov 16, 2012
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At this point we are 95% done with the cleanup and organization. The last parts of our project are the fun things. Such as a welding table! Im very exited to have a dedicated place to weld. My table couldn't be that big for our relatively small space, the top is going to be 48"x32". I could extend it to 36" as I haven't cut the top yet.

The frame I am making out of square tube. It is pretty basic. There is going to be a place for my Miller Econotig, a couple gas bottles and some filler holders. I left one side open (except where the frame for the tig is) to be more comfortable sitting at the table. And the frame is small enough so the top will overhang on all four sides.

Here it is right now:
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The top of the frame I used the tig, just since I hadn't for a while. The rest I did with a Hobart 180.

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I still need to fully weld the feet and install casters, cut the top and attach it (Thinking tapped holes) ,finish the mount for the TIG and finally all the little ad ons like bottle and filler holders. I'll probably wait to paint the base when it warms up a bit.

Also, my top is only 1/4 thick. I was planning on 4" of overhang in the front and sides. Any thoughts on if that will be too much, given the thickness of the top? I can always shift more overhang to the back, or cut the top smaller. Most of my welding is on lighter gauge, smaller parts that are not at all heavy.
 

dubber

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Dec 31, 2012
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5,326
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Canada's Capital
Love that shed. You do have great parents, not only do they let you use the garage, you have taken it over! Wish my parents had been like that when i had a car and living at home, sweet deal!

With your names i had thought you guys were from QC, Canada but i think I'm wrong judging by the Saab dealership. Keep up the great work!
 

Toolfool

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Aug 22, 2011
Messages
4,980
Location
Tallahassee, FL
Great work, and welcome to the forums. It warms my heart to see young guys with talent, ingenuity, and drive. And nothing better than doing projects with your brother !!
 

KPAero

Active member
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
25
Love that shed. You do have great parents, not only do they let you use the garage, you have taken it over! Wish my parents had been like that when i had a car and living at home, sweet deal!

With your names i had thought you guys were from QC, Canada but i think I'm wrong judging by the Saab dealership. Keep up the great work!

They have been very generous in giving up the space. The new lay out should help keep it clean and help us put it to good use, which is really all they ask for. And you are correct, we are in southern NH.

Great work, and welcome to the forums. It warms my heart to see young guys with talent, ingenuity, and drive. And nothing better than doing projects with your brother !!

Thank you! We both really enjoy working on these types of projects. Hopefully I can start contributing more interesting stuff around here, but so far I have learned a lot and found some cool ideas from everyone else. :beer:
 
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