Lee's Garage/Shop projects

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I need to check out the new place; it's been so long since I've bought metal the last time was at their old location. Their pre cut shapes and selection of tabs is a big time saver. Their aluminum drops make up 99% of my machining projects. I also like how they sell bandsaw blades and bars of the good Lava pumice soap.

 

[Monza Harry]

Lee, can I ask where you sourced your handles, [ the 4" wire ones, I'm betting you had a stash ]. I've been a fan of those for a while, but I can only find 3" (and shallow to boot) here in Canada. Those make awesome air gun hangers! Menard's, Orange [HD] and Blue [Blowes] aren't far away in Detroit if any of those enter into the equation. TIA! Harry

 

[Jgaz]

@Monza Harry
Have you checked Lee Valley Hardware?
They have a huge selection of drawer pulls, handles and knobs

 

[LeeG]

Lee, can I ask where you sourced your handles, [ the 4" wire ones, I'm betting you had a stash ].

I have had them for years. I picked up 3 boxes of 25 from a cabinet supply place that was going out of business. The box is labeled "No 60/4/SC - Satin Chrome". Plugging that into google shows me a few links. Here and Ebay and Amazon.

Lee

 

[Monza Harry]

@Jgaz Lee Valley has an ENORMOUS collection of handles, I'll glance at the store when I'm in there, but those handles are a little low end for L.V. I've looked through them on line awhile back but nothing ! But I'll Thank You for your contribution though, they have a huge selection of some pretty premium "stuff"!
@LeeG Thank You for the links I'll chase those down! Harry
Additional Edit, when I link a member on my phone it posts then way before I'm done typing.

 

[LeeG]

As I’ve mentioned several times, space in my shop is at a premium And I am always looking for ways to make use of unused cubic inches. I’ve been pondering for a few years about how to store spray cans - they seem to multiply like coat hangers. I’ve seen quite a few ideas on the internet, but none really looked like what I wanted until I came across this design on Printables. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it was close. I copied it into Fusion 360, made some tweaks, and spent about two weeks printing to end up with this.



I mounted a piece of unistrut to the top of my container grid, then built a lightweight frame from some plywood scraps I had, and added some strut trollies to allow it to move from side to side. There is a bearing on the back bottom rail to allow it to track against the cabinet without flopping around.

Here it is loaded up. It freed up a bunch of space on shelves and cabinets and hopefully will prevent me from buying something I already have.



I am very happy with the results - I’ll upload the STL files to Printables or Thingaveres and post a link. If anyone wants the Fusion files, I can post them as well.

Lee

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I meant to text you the other day; the new IMS location is great. Finally they found someone with a brain to design a parking lot.

 

[Boosted1]

A ton of great organization ideas here. Well done.

 

[LeeG]

Here is the download for the spray can holder. https://www.printables.com/model/772108-wall-mounted-spray-can-holder

Enjoy.

Lee

 

[LXCam]

That paint can rack is slick Lee, that had to have eaten a serious amount of print time and material.

 

[LeeG]

That paint can rack is slick Lee, that had to have eaten a serious amount of print time and material.

About 20 hours per pair of the uppers, so 250 or so total hours. All of the other solutions I saw either took up too much wall space (i.e., not angled), or were made to be stationary and wouldn't hold up well sliding side to side.

 

[LeeG]

I picked up an extension ladder off of Craigslist. I occasionally need one, but really didn't have any traditional place to store it (no walls with any free space). My small backyard shed has a single pitch roof, so I figured I could store it on top of the shed. I didn't want to damage the roofing or the drip edge, so I welded up a bracket with some steel tubing inside a piece of PVC - the PVC acts as a roller.



I didn't want to alter the ladder at all, but I didn't want it sliding across the roofing, so I made up an axle that fits through the rungs, and put some cheap HF wheels on it.



This allows me to just set it up on the roller, and push it back onto the roof.



The ladder sits about 1/2" - 2" off the roofing, so the only points of contact are the base of the wheels.



This has worked out well. It is easy to get down, and out of the way when I am not using it.

Lee

 

[RickP]

Nice solution -- that's a really good idea!
(Makes me wish my shed didn't have a gable roof.)

 

[LeeG]

This was a little project. I'm not sure I will like it, but it was easy enough to give it a try. I have quad outlets on either side of my garage door with each side of the quad being a different circuit (I do that on all the quads in my garage). On one of the sides, the outlets are mostly unusable due to me storing too much stuff in that corner.

I picked up some of the inexpensive 12ga 1:3 cord plugs from Harbor Freight, and added some plywood and flat bar scraps.



Some 1 3/4" screws, and I have an assembly.



Two of these assemblies get screwed to the garage door trim between the rails and the wall. They plug in to my receptacles and give me easy access when I am working outside. My normal use for these is when I am running a shop vac and a miter saw, or breaking down plywood sheets in the driveway, so I don't have to worry about access with the garage door closed.

Lee

 

[NUTTSGT]

That paint can rack is slick Lee, that had to have eaten a serious amount of print time and material.

I thought it was a bunch of muffin pans when I first saw the picture.

 

[fartymarty]

I picked up an extension ladder off of Craigslist. I occasionally need one, but really didn't have any traditional place to store it (no walls with any free space). My small backyard shed has a single pitch roof, so I figured I could store it on top of the shed. I didn't want to damage the roofing or the drip edge, so I welded up a bracket with some steel tubing inside a piece of PVC - the PVC acts as a roller.



I didn't want to alter the ladder at all, but I didn't want it sliding across the roofing, so I made up an axle that fits through the rungs, and put some cheap HF wheels on it.



This allows me to just set it up on the roller, and push it back onto the roof.



The ladder sits about 1/2" - 2" off the roofing, so the only points of contact are the base of the wheels.



This has worked out well. It is easy to get down, and out of the way when I am not using it.

Lee

Great design, call me paranoid, but I'd add a lock.

 

[LeeG]

A few years back, my local Woodcraft store was closing out on their Colt (Made in Germany) drill bits at 75% off. I picked up one of each size of their metric brad point bits, and a few of them have gotten use over the years. They came in a reusable plastic sleeve that has worked, but the bits are so sharp, I have cut myself a few times either getting them out or putting them away.

Today I took some Tenite plastic tubing, cut it to length, and made storage tubes for each bit. Since the tips of the bits were quite sharp, I sliced up some maple dowels of the appropriate size into about 3/16" thick slices, then pushed them into the end of the cap.





The caps seal very tight, and are difficult to remove, so I cut them down to about 1/2 length. I mark a piece of dowel with where I want the cut to be, then slide the cap on the dowel, and cut it with my PVC cutters.





All finished and labeled. I was out of 1 1/2" tubing, so the larger bits will have to wait, but this is a good start.



The tenite tubes are available in two wall thicknesses. I use the thicker, as the cost isn't much more for the volume I buy, and they are significantly stronger. I have been using this tubing for storage for over ten years and have been very pleased with how it holds up. It is sold in 6' lengths, but they nest the tubes if possible to help reduce the shipping costs.

Lee

 

[Ohmthis]

Cool drill storage!

 

[RickP]

That Tenite tubing looks like good stuff -- good idea!

 

[LeeG]

I have several of the M18 cordless nail guns. They are really handy, but they don’t store well. None of them come in blow molded cases, and they are awkward shapes. None of the places I had stored them – drawers, shelves, milk crates – were very good, so I decided to build boxes for each. The boxes themselves are just pretty basic. I used whatever size plywood I had partial sheets for, and glued and nailed them together.



The lids were just going to be a piece of 3/4″ plywood with a hinge and a latch (similar to an ammo box), but I needed a handle. After some experimenting, I decided that 1-1/2″ polypropylene webbing would work best. I don’t have a sewing machine, and didn’t want to hand stitch so many pieces, so I used copper rivets.



With the pieces cut to 15″ long, I used a hollow punch to punch holes 3/8″ from the ends and well spaced.



I folded the ends over 1-1/2″ and used the first set of holes to punch the second set.



The washers were then installed with the rivet set.



I used a pair of diagonal pliers to cut the rivets to length. I should have cut them all shorter, as it ended up being difficult to get them all to peen over correctly.



Mostly good. I could have done a better job of lining the rivets up, but it is secure.



I used webbing guides to attach the straps to the boxes, and a single 2″ surface mount hinge.



I used some inexpensive over center toggle latches to keep the boxes closed during storage and transport. The interiors are finished with a few coats of shellac. I use Dunn Edwards Aristoshield paint for most of my projects. It is very durable once fully cured (not just dry). I have it color matched to the Rustoleum Dark Machine Grey that I use for smaller pieces, or Light Machine Grey that I use for larger pieces.



Once the paint fully cures, I’ll add labels to the lids for quick identification, but for now, they are tucked in some unused space under my mill.

 

[loganb]

Nicely done...those look great!

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Yeah, those are really well done! Nice job Lee!

 

[LeeG]

I was getting down Christmas decorations from the attic, so I had to move my two rolling toolboxes aside. It was a good chance to get some photos of my woodworking clamp cabinet. I built this many years ago, before I got into welding and auto maintenance.



The outer “doors” are each about 2’ wide by 7’ tall and 6” deep. The right side is all fixtures to hold my Jet parallel clamps while the right is all french cleats with custom fixtures to hold a variety of other clamps.

The hinges are heavy duty exterior door hinges.



The back of the interior has more french cleats holding a variety of pipe, C, corner, and specialty clamps. This has worked very well in my small shop, allowing organized storage of a lot of clamps (over 200) in a compact space.

Lee

 

[Jayman17]

I finally found the guy that actually has enough clamps! Seriously though that is a nice variety of clamps and some very efficient storage for them. Well done.

 

[RickP]

Wow, that is some dense clamp storage!
The deep doors look especially useful.