Hey From Denver

[jcricket]

Hey Folks,
I have been off and on visiting this site over the past several years. I am retired now and starting to get my garage in order. It has always looked like a bomb went off. My garage is pretty small. It is 22x20ft or 440sqft.
A little about me. I was born with a wrench in my hand. My dad tells a story about when I was five and mom went me outside to play. That night my dad gets home and finds an unbuilt lawn mower. Not a happy camper. I dumpster dived all through my child hood looking for the next great thing to take apart and see if I could figure out how it worked. I started doing solo work on cars at age 14. In high school I took a few semesters of electronics, drafting, and metal smithing. In college I had about 2 years of hydraulic and pneumatic technology. I went to job core and was trained in heavy equipment mechanics. I wound up working most of my life in industrial maintenance. Think, Coors, Keebler, and a few smaller companies. I like fixing things as much as anything, just for the sake of it. Finally, I have also built and repaired many vacuum tube stereo amps and solid state gear too. One of my first loves.

Anyway, I am challenged now as I have to find a way to be ultra efficient in setting up my garage space and area. I have way too much for my size garage. I'll look around and see if there is a place to start a journal or something to list everything I have and need to find room for.

I do ask you have some patience with me, as I have medical conditions that cause massive brain farts, stupidity, memory loss, word mix ups, and memory loss.
Seriously. Call me on it but be nice please.

till later
mark

 

[FJ 432]

Welcome neighbor.

 

[jcricket]

me be littleton too

 

[FJ 432]

I added the same size garage onto my house in 2009. I have to much as well and I am constantly changing things around. It's a process not a goal.

 

[930dreamer]

Welcome to the GJ.

 

[readhead]

Greetings from the lower left corner of the state.

 

[Crabman]

Mark

Welcome to GJ!

Bruce

 

[nadogail]

Welcome to the Forum from a guy who shares a common history of taking apart things to learn how they worked.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

.... massive brain farts, stupidity, memory loss, word mix ups, and memory loss.

Not to worry, Mark. What you describe applies to many; if not all, of us occasionally. Welcome. Post pictures please!

 

[charbar]

I do ask you have some patience with me, as I have medical conditions that cause massive brain farts, stupidity, memory loss, word mix ups, and memory loss.

Most of us do, some worse than others.

Welcome to the sh!t show. Hoity-toity and don't give a damn all rolled into one forum.

Have multiple cousins in the Denver area but it has been a few years since I've been that way. If I am driving it is only about a 6-1/2 drive so I'm not sure why I don't get that way more often.....

 

[jcricket]

Thanks for all of the warm welcomes. The pics below are embarrassing to me. They are as my garage is today. So public humiliation for me, and then the journey begins. It is time to start the process and attempt to become organized, neat, and clutter free.

 

[FJ 432]

Great taste in vintage Snappy boxes neighbor.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

me be littleton too

Add your location to your profile.

 

[jcricket]

Thanks. Maybe 4 years ago I bought a new set of husky boxes to handle my tools. Last year they went to ****. I had spent nearly $1k on those new boxes. What a waste. I started looking for some new QUALITY boxes. They cost a small fortune. I decided to look at used stuff. I think I have about $1700 in all of my boxes. That would include the large base and top box, the smaller base and locker, and the top box on my work bench. That larger base weighs about 750 pounds empty. These boxes will outlast my grand kids.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Thanks for all of the warm welcomes. The pics below are embarrassing to me. They are as my garage is today. So public humiliation for me, and then the journey begins. It is time to start the process and attempt to become organized, neat, and clutter free.

You've got some nice Snap On boxes there. Garage doesn't look too bad, nothing a handful of afternoons can't fix.

 

[Copymutt]

Welcome from SW Co.

 

[Monza Harry]

I do ask you have some patience with me, as I have medical conditions that cause massive brain farts, stupidity, memory loss, word mix ups, and memory loss. [Don't we all 1 kind or another]
Seriously. Call me on it but be nice please.

Welcome to the most expensive asylum on the 'net!
Puzzled look? Just wait! You came look for guidance, that = spend my $ please to us we are fantastic at that! LOL! Many here (self included) have similar/parallel histories. At about 5 yrs. old I confiscated mom's meat tenderize and disappeared telling mom " I fix Mommy" she hears tap, tap tap, girl hunting o ly to find me "fixing" her newish chest of drawers, not a happy night I'm sure I don't remember but I didn't fix anything else that way!
Too much stuff, most members here are very creative, and then develop the skills, collect the supplies, and tooling to flex these creative juices, so you are in a big club here. Thanx for sharing and please stay with us! [Keep posting] Harry
P.S. Your last line should (used to be) an absolute must to all everywhere!

 

[Zeke]

Welcome to the Forum from a guy who shares a common history of taking apart things to learn how they worked.

Me too. I was fixing other's bikes when I was 13. My dad had 2 left thumbs and my mother cooked, washed and ironed, plus clean up after dad and me. So her only tools were in the kitchen drawers, cupboards and closets. I had more tools than my dad by 14.

 

[Mike65]

Welcome to the forum from another smallish garage guy, 24x25 600sq ft.

 

[Kevin J.]

Mark, Welcome to the forum.
I would gladly pay you to help me reach the level of organization that you currently show in your photos.

Kevin J.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Welcome to the forum from another smallish garage guy, 24x25 600sq ft.

That's not smallish to me!

 

[losdudes]

Welcome from another retired Colorado guy south on I25 from you.

 

[Snip]

Welcome to this great forum from a retired and former Colorado resident, Westminster to be exact. Now living in Tennessee. Dad wrenched and drove a truck in my younger years so Im pretty sure my rattle said Snap-On on it. Been fixing or destroying mechanical stuff most of my life. Spent a good part in diesel truck repair and finished my work life as a plant mechanic in wastewater. I wish you luck trying to organize (and finding the time) your work space. Built a good size shop here, still a mess, running out of room already, not as organized as I would like. So if I give any advice on how to set up your shop, I'm properly not the person to listen to, LOL. Enjoy this site, lots of great folks and ideas here.

 

[WisJim]

Welcome from Western Wisconsin. My dad's first job teaching high school was in Colorado but we moved back to Wisconsin before I started grade school. My middle son now lives in Pueblo and we try to get out to visit a few times each year, and keep looking at houses in his area. Why don't realtors show more garage pics in their listings?

 

[Toolfool]

Welcome. Enjoy the atmosphere here.

 

[MileHighRover]

Mark, you sure do have a lot of junk in that small garage. I'm off the next three days. Let me know what time works for you and I'll swing by with my truck and take a bunch of it off your hands. I can make that garage as empty as you'd like. I'll have to get a friend to come along as I don't think I'd be able to lift the Snap-On boxes myself.

 

[coloradojay]

Howdy neighbor to the south. My garage is bigger but way more cluttered and less organized. I'm here to work on that myself. I do, however, have that same band saw!

 

[MileHighRover]

Howdy neighbor to the south. My garage is bigger but way more cluttered and less organized. I'm here to work on that myself. I do, however, have that same band saw!

14 year member and that was your first post. Dang!

 

[coloradojay]

14 year member and that was your first post. Dang!

I joined and lurked briefly when we first bought this house and now I'm getting a second wind on garage goodness. Ha!

 

[jarhead]

welcome to our Garage OCD forum. I live north of you near the border. I am retired too and have spent the last 4 years sorting through and eliminating as much **** as possible. Trying to make my shop more productive.

 

[jcricket]

Sorry I dropped out on you guys for a bit. I have been spending A LOT of time reorganizing my garage. PIcs to follow soon.

On a side note, I happened upon a garage sale loaded with wood working tools.
in my purchase:
Rockwell 14" band saw
homecraft 4" jointer
Rockwell 6" jointer
Rockwell model 10 table saw
Craftsman vintage shaper
17 brand new cutters for the craftsman
23 new unopened moulding cutter knives for a rockwell cutting head
Boxes(many, many) of miscelaneous tool accesories, router bits, router table plates, saw blades, etc...

Total purchase price was $400.
Pics to follow soon on this too.

 

[dfiler2]

Wow, I think that deserves a "You ****" award. (Hopefully you've been here long enough to understand that that is a compliment.)

As far as the organization goes, I had heard my whole life, "A place for everything and everything in its place." I put that into practice about 8 years ago when I built my shop and I really can't believe how much time it saves me and it feels good to walk into my shop. I will even stop in the middle of a project and put tools away or at least every day but when I need a tool I know right where it is. You have a great looking shop already and am looking forward to seeing some pics of the new tools. I retired 2 years ago and when people ask me how I like it I say the only thing I would change is I should have done it in my 20's.

 

[jcricket]

You ****, I hate you, lucky bastXXd, all mean the same thing.

I was working out in the shop and found a few more things. I need to amend the list.
Also included was
a homecraft bench top drill press
a rockwell 16" scroll saw,
and an oxy acetylene torch and tank set up.

 

[Ricky Joe]

Did you know any of the Virginia maintenance at Coors? John Harless and I grew up together, so far as we did grow up. He took early retirement a few years ago with 29 years in after being thrown from a horse. I lived in Boulder and Golden from 2005-2013. Your garage looks great, to me!

 

[Kent_B]

Thanks for all of the warm welcomes. The pics below are embarrassing to me. They are as my garage is today. So public humiliation for me, and then the journey begins. It is time to start the process and attempt to become organized, neat, and clutter free.

Usually things look worse before they get better. No humiliation. My garage has stuff scattered everywhere and I've been in it 10 years.

 

[jonesg]

THeres some nice stuff but some junk, that food doesn't belong, get rid of it. Food pantry will take it.
give that telescope to some kid.
Those junky wooden chairs, ... out.

 

[nadogail]

I have no entitlement to throw the first stone onto anyone who has a cluttered or disorganized workshop. Discarding anything that has the remote possibility of being useful seems to cause me to feel pain.

 

[jcricket]

We had our garage sale this past weekend. Maybe 75% of what I had to sell is now gone. One table saw and one vintage craftsman shaper are left to be rehomed. By nest week I think I will be to a point where I can share some photo's of the greatly improved work place.

BTW- we cleared about $1500 at the garage sale.