Hello everyone, I'm Rob in phoenix AZ. Thought I'd start a thread on here to get ideas about how to put my garage together.
I'm a family guy first and foremost, but I put a roof over our heads by being an engineer. I work designing high end force sensors. I went to Arizona state and got a degree in mechanical engineering and I enjoy what I do.
After many years of living with my grandpa to help him out and to save on rent he needed more help than we could give him and it was time for us to move. We got a good deal and bought a house in a really nice older neighborhood with a 2 car garage, no HOA, and 2 RV gates into the back. The commute is short and even though the house is a tad small for our family, we love the location.
The garage is a converted car port, so it's on the small side. It's made a little smaller yet because a previous owner made a built in entertainment center in the living room that sticks into the garage about 2 feet. But it's my garage, and I've never had one before, and it sure beats doing everything in the driveway like I've always done before.
The driveway is 3 cars wide and to the left of the garage is an RV gate flush with the front of the house. The concrete extends all the way back to flush with the back of the house, so I have a one car wide pad, about 35 feet long between the side and the property line. There is a door on the side of the garage near the back that lets out onto this pad.
When we first moved in there were cabinets in the center of the back wall, and built in shelves all down the side adjacent the pad. I moved the cabinets to the back corner, put shelves and a work bench along the side with the built in entertainment center, and put my tool box and a flimsy table my mother in law gave me along the back wall.
About a year later, I got a call from my wife's uncle, my favorite guy to hang out with at family stuff. They were clearing out his dad's place and if I could get it all home, I could have a lathe, a mill, and all the tooling that goes with them. I borrowed a truck and trailer from my buddy and drove to Nipomo California to pick it all up. Its just an old harbor freight mill, like a 3/4 size Bridgeport clone. The lathe is a grizzly model with gear drive for single point cutting threads. I love you uncle Bill! They aren't the nicest machines, but all I paid was gas money and they are more than I could have hoped to have at this point. It came with tons of bits, ends mills, inspection equipment, and more.
This past fall my grandpa passed away that we lived with for so long. It was hard, but he was not himself at all anymore at the end. I'm religious and I believe I'll see him again after this life. My uncle, cousin and I split his tools between us and I ended up with a big pile of things to restore. My grandpa restored 2 antique aircraft with these tools and I want them to continue to live on for another generation or two. My prized pieces from this were two old wood handled Mac screw drivers from the very early 1900s that belonged to my great grandfather. The other prized piece was a cool old metal work table that I plan to add a brace to and use as my primary work surface.
Aside from the mill and lathe, I have a leaky 30 gallon air compressor I bought from a friend, a hydraulic press that's 26" between posts that I got from that same friend because his work was throwing it out, a press brake that fits in the hydraulic press that can bend 1/4" steel, or 1/8"steel 20" wide, a WWII Era delta vertical bandsaw with a 10" throat and a cast iron frame, a bench grinder and vise mounted on a cart, a bench top drill press, a sand blast cabinet my neighbor gave me when he was moving, and an industrial oven that needs a new controller that my work was going to throw out.
The hydraulic press, sand blast cabinet, and oven are outside for now, I don't have room for them inside, but it's Arizona, they won't rust.
Mostly I work on cars in my garage. Humming is after my side business, humming aero, making performance parts and doing CAD work for small aftermarket companies.
I'm pretty lucky, I keep getting awesome tools for free.
In the next few days I'll get specific with some of my layout dimensions and start soliciting ideas, because I need to maximize how I use my space.
Thanks!
I'm a family guy first and foremost, but I put a roof over our heads by being an engineer. I work designing high end force sensors. I went to Arizona state and got a degree in mechanical engineering and I enjoy what I do.
After many years of living with my grandpa to help him out and to save on rent he needed more help than we could give him and it was time for us to move. We got a good deal and bought a house in a really nice older neighborhood with a 2 car garage, no HOA, and 2 RV gates into the back. The commute is short and even though the house is a tad small for our family, we love the location.
The garage is a converted car port, so it's on the small side. It's made a little smaller yet because a previous owner made a built in entertainment center in the living room that sticks into the garage about 2 feet. But it's my garage, and I've never had one before, and it sure beats doing everything in the driveway like I've always done before.
The driveway is 3 cars wide and to the left of the garage is an RV gate flush with the front of the house. The concrete extends all the way back to flush with the back of the house, so I have a one car wide pad, about 35 feet long between the side and the property line. There is a door on the side of the garage near the back that lets out onto this pad.
When we first moved in there were cabinets in the center of the back wall, and built in shelves all down the side adjacent the pad. I moved the cabinets to the back corner, put shelves and a work bench along the side with the built in entertainment center, and put my tool box and a flimsy table my mother in law gave me along the back wall.
About a year later, I got a call from my wife's uncle, my favorite guy to hang out with at family stuff. They were clearing out his dad's place and if I could get it all home, I could have a lathe, a mill, and all the tooling that goes with them. I borrowed a truck and trailer from my buddy and drove to Nipomo California to pick it all up. Its just an old harbor freight mill, like a 3/4 size Bridgeport clone. The lathe is a grizzly model with gear drive for single point cutting threads. I love you uncle Bill! They aren't the nicest machines, but all I paid was gas money and they are more than I could have hoped to have at this point. It came with tons of bits, ends mills, inspection equipment, and more.
This past fall my grandpa passed away that we lived with for so long. It was hard, but he was not himself at all anymore at the end. I'm religious and I believe I'll see him again after this life. My uncle, cousin and I split his tools between us and I ended up with a big pile of things to restore. My grandpa restored 2 antique aircraft with these tools and I want them to continue to live on for another generation or two. My prized pieces from this were two old wood handled Mac screw drivers from the very early 1900s that belonged to my great grandfather. The other prized piece was a cool old metal work table that I plan to add a brace to and use as my primary work surface.
Aside from the mill and lathe, I have a leaky 30 gallon air compressor I bought from a friend, a hydraulic press that's 26" between posts that I got from that same friend because his work was throwing it out, a press brake that fits in the hydraulic press that can bend 1/4" steel, or 1/8"steel 20" wide, a WWII Era delta vertical bandsaw with a 10" throat and a cast iron frame, a bench grinder and vise mounted on a cart, a bench top drill press, a sand blast cabinet my neighbor gave me when he was moving, and an industrial oven that needs a new controller that my work was going to throw out.
The hydraulic press, sand blast cabinet, and oven are outside for now, I don't have room for them inside, but it's Arizona, they won't rust.
Mostly I work on cars in my garage. Humming is after my side business, humming aero, making performance parts and doing CAD work for small aftermarket companies.
I'm pretty lucky, I keep getting awesome tools for free.
In the next few days I'll get specific with some of my layout dimensions and start soliciting ideas, because I need to maximize how I use my space.
Thanks!
