Above 1200 Sq/FT Restart

[Honch]

Like many I have been lurking here for a long time. My previous garage was a nice three car in AZ, but nothing particularly photo worthy. After two years I had finally accomplished all the air lines, storage, shelving and lighting to make it a place I could work my projects from. Then we moved and it starts all over again.

Last August this was the start of my new garage. I was limited by lot size and the prefab builder to a standard bay third stall but was able to extend the main two bays by four feet. The fit was so tight on the lot we had to get an exemption for the brick being 1" over the minimum distance to the property line.





13 weeks later the home and garage are finished. I also had insulated doors installed in addition to the garage being insulated and finished, it currently is not heated but has the gas line run.





Between the move, work and the winter my new garage ended up looking like this.





Last month I decided with it getting warmer it was time to get my garage back in operation. Before getting everything in place I wanted to get some paint on the walls. I found with my previous two garages that in a working garage white walls don't last long from 3 feet down. Water splash, grinding, welding all take their toll on the white so I chose to do gray lower with a blue accent stripe.





Lesson learned, I should have painted over the existing white paint, it was poorly applied and was a poor base to tape to, pulling up frequently along the tape line. Fixing the areas took much longer than it would have to just paint it properly to begin with.



With just the blue and gray the wall was much more bland than I wanted. The wife unit suggested I add a red pinstripe on each side of the blue.



Over the last two weekends I started setting up my Lista cabinets, these were a $220.00 CL score from Phoenix. I purchased them from a guy that liquidated buildings for a living and they were too tall for the ceiling in his garage. Unfortunately I was not present when the items were moved from my previous home and the movers completely disassembled the cabinets losing much of the hardware in the process. I spent a good portion of one day making the square captured nuts that are used throughout the cabinets.



As you can see they totally dwarf the 60 gallon compressor in the corner. Next on my list is to run the 220 to the compressor and pipe the airlines.

 

[Sureshot]

That looks awesome. I see you have the same saw Ridgid saw as me. To reduce the width in storage I turn the blade all the way to the right.

Those cabinets are an awesome score. What is the history with the workbenches?

 

[Honch]

The work benches are Lyon, I found them on CL 5-6 years ago in Indy. They were advertized with no picture as steel work benches. When I arrived it was a appliance recycling center and the benches were all stacked out back in a semi trailer. It took them about an hour to unload the 20 benches and because I had to wait they let me pick the two I wanted from the lot. All of them were in excellent condition as they appeared to be used for electrical work of some kind.

The tops are 34"x72" pressed wood over steel, they have optional lower and riser shelves along with full electrical and pneumatics I would guess they were in the 450-500 range apiece when new and I got both for 200. I was so excited to get them and concerned on how I was going to transport them I didn't even consider buying more to resell. The following day when I called back the other 18 were gone.

 

[Kevin54]

Holy **** You deserve a YOU **** for the Lista cabinet score!!!! Those look great in there.

 

[Honch]

Last weekend it was cold (45°-50°) and I wasted most of Saturday looking for 1/4" pegboard. I would have thought that would be fairly common but apparently it isn't. This weekend it was much warmer and I was able to get the 240 run to my compressor done.

Running 4/10 to a finished, insulated wall fuse box wasn't much fun. I didn't need 10 gauge wire, the compressor is only 14 amps but I have it if I ever upgrade to a real compressor.



I found a cheap safety disconnect and left enough flex to be able to move the compressor out for maintenance.



I didn't realize how much I used it until I didn't have it to use. Now I need to decide if I am going to run PEX-AL-PEX or black pipe. I don't currently have plans for a huge run probably just a 35 foot single run to the work benches on the other side of the garage and maybe 2 drains.

 

[Honch]

This weekend I stopped at HF and picked up a automatic compressor drain kit. I trashed all but the auto drain valve and used copper line with compression fittings in place of the supplied plastic line. The installation was fairly simple and once the compressor filled the drain valve opened with a satisfying pffftt.



I was looking for my tubing cutter for the auto drain and found an old box of suspension bushings from various projects I have done in the past. Some upper a-arm bump stops caught my attention and I decided to put them to good use under the compressor.



They did help some with the noise and the compressor is much easier to move without scraping the floor.

I also picked up a Gladiator GearTrack section to hang some of the more commonly used items in the garage. I was never a big fan of hanging a bunch of junk on the walls but for these items the easy access made sense.



I also finally started installing the pegboard I cut down for the Lista cabinets. When I first got them they had hard board pegboard installed in this area but the owner had let them sit outside for a couple of weeks and the pegboard got wet and warped. I would have liked to install metal like the back of the cabinet has, but the cost of it was prohibitive. The old pegboard was bolted through the shelf cutouts which left the bolt threads protruding through nuts. For this I used existing holes in the rails, back drilled the pegboard and installed #10 screws.

 

[Honch]

This weekend I got a lot of stuff done but not much of what I had planned to do.

I finished installing the pegboard and lights in the cabinets. The one to the left is all house items, the one in the center is mostly yard equipment and the one on the right is all automotive. I still have a lot of items to load into it.



I needed to finish the pinstripe in the double bay and behind the work benches. While I had them pulled out from the wall I decided to mount some T8 lights on them and change all the outlets around them from twist locks to standard plugs. This took the better part of the day because the benches had small boxes and were all wired with 10 gauge wire.



I still haven't made a decision on pneumatic lines and will probably wait a bit longer, I think I will work on the lighting next. My last garage has 8ea 4ft 4 bulb fixtures. I think for this one I am going to use the 4ft end to end fixtures. Right now it has 2ea 4ft 2 bulb builder fixtures and is very dimly lit.

 

[Honch]

Last weekend I purchased some T5HO lights from HD, 8ea four foot and 2ea eight foot. I only had time to remove the existing 32 watt T8 lights and replace them and install one 8 foot long fixture above my work bench. Initially I was going to use only 8 foot fixtures but there were too many obstacles on the ceiling limiting where I could place them, I ended up buying two anyway because HD only had 8 of the four foot lights in stock.

This weekend after seeing how the existing light circuit was wired and the current loading on it I did not feel comfortable adding all the new lights to it. I decided to wire in another 15 amp circuit for the additional lights, an added benefit to this would be that I could split how many lights were on at one time.

The pictures I have taken are with just over half the lights installed, I still have three more four foot lights and one eight foot light to install in the other two bays. Looking at the post before this you can see how dim my garage was even with the lights on and the door open. Taking a picture of the new lights does them no justice, the auto exposure dims the camera and disabling it only produces a washed out picture.



The photo brightens when the camera is moved away from the lights giving a better indication of their brightness.



The placement I chose for the lights only places one over the top of the double door and one partially blocked by the single door when they are open. It appears this will be more than adequate lighting on the door side of the garage.

 

[55cadillacking]

It's look pretty darn fabulous thus far. Let me ask you, did your builder finish the walls/ceiling/trim in the garage as part of the package or was that an upgrade? Where I am, they just made it standard to drywall the ceiling and walls but they leave it pretty rough. Look forward to seeing the continued progress of your awesome 3-car.

 

[skyking]

You **** ! Looks great , really clean work. Can I drive your car ?

 

[Honch]

It's look pretty darn fabulous thus far. Let me ask you, did your builder finish the walls/ceiling/trim in the garage as part of the package or was that an upgrade? Where I am, they just made it standard to drywall the ceiling and walls but they leave it pretty rough. Look forward to seeing the continued progress of your awesome 3-car.

The garage being finished was part of an insulation package. Initially I wanted just the insulated doors, the quoted price was basically the same. The finish work they did do in the garage was of the same quality as the rest of the home with only the paint being sub par.

I seen your thread a few nights ago, very nice garage, the floor looks great. I have resigned myself to bare concrete due to the welding and grinding sparks.

You **** ! Looks great , really clean work. Can I drive your car ?

Thanks, you can drive it if you keep it clean. With all the water rationing here, its a pain in the **** to keep clean. I can take it to a hand operated car wash and and spray it to my hearts content, but I cant use three gallons of water to wash it in my own driveway, that is a 300 dollar fine from the water police.

 

[shopnut]

Absolutely love those Lyon cabinets Honch. Those rollup (tambour) doors are up and out of the way giving full access when your working and then look so clean when it's time to shut things up for the night.

 

[Honch]

Yesterday I chose to buy a couple more four foot lights and finish the install.

I ended up with 10ea four foot and 1ea eight foot lights.

I think it will be enough.

 

[Honch]

I bought a magnification light at a garage sale a few weeks ago for 2.00. The lamp did not work and the pivot pin out of the cast metal base was broken. The lamp was a new bulb and some contact cleaner in the switch. For the base I welded some strap around the cast housing along with a 5/8" steel rod as a new pin. It pivots on a piece of polished steel that I found at the junk yard years ago, I think it was designed to be a union for fluid lines. This allows for it to be easily removed from the bench and moved out of the way. I cleaned it up and knocked out some of the dents that were in it, tightened up all the loose hardware and polished the lens. I'm happy with how it turned out and will probably end up using it quite a bit.

 

[Honch]

Since I painted the walls in the garage I have been slowing putting up banners, pictures etc. One wall I have been saving for something big but too cheap to spend the money on something big to put on it. I have been looking at sites online that will make vinyl from a photo, both photo realistic or a black line drawing. The prices for them are not terrible until you get into the larger ones like I was looking at.

Instead I decided I would try and transfer a photo by using a grid. I am not what I would consider to be an artistic person so I figured if it doesn't turn out its as simple as painting over it and I'm only out my time.

First I chose to use this picture as a basis for the wall.



I then used GIMP to make the photos perspective straight, desaturate it and turn it into a drawing. After that was done, using the license plate as a known size reference I laid out a one foot grid then broke it down to inches.



I then laid out a grid on the wall and began drawing a rough outline of the picture.



This is all the further I got with it today, once it is drawn in I plan to paint it black as in the second picture and depending on how it turns out I may do something with the emblem either actual colors or a real emblem.

 

[Kevin54]

Doesn't look bad so far. Did you ever think about getting an overhead projector like they use in school to transfer a pic to the wall?

 

[Shoottx]

Doesn't look bad so far. Did you ever think about getting an overhead projector like they use in school to transfer a pic to the wall?

Kevin has a good Idea, but... using a computer projector (what we used to call a Proxima) also works and are even easier to find these days. I have done a couple of logos for a club (ya know that volunteer stuff) with a projector and then sketching and filling with paint.

 

[Honch]

Doesn't look bad so far. Did you ever think about getting an overhead projector like they use in school to transfer a pic to the wall?

Kevin has a good Idea, but... using a computer projector (what we used to call a Proxima) also works and are even easier to find these days. I have done a couple of logos for a club (ya know that volunteer stuff) with a projector and then sketching and filling with paint.

Either of those might end up being plan "B" if this does not work. I currently dont have access to either, thats why I chose to do it with a grid.

 

[Honch]

I had some progress on my wall art this afternoon. I ended up just using the 1 foot by 1 foot grid and free handed most of the drawing and paint. There was no way to really tape line anything and the one line I did tape ended up pulling most of the base paint from the wall. Its not an exact duplicate of the picture and was never intended to be, I don't have the artistic talent for that.

I am happy with how it has turned out, I still need to add the emblem which I may either use a real one or a decal. I want to find a frame for the plate and have some shading I want to add left of the bottom and to a couple other areas. I may also add the Corvette script to the lower right bumper area, it was washed out when I converted the picture.

 

[Shoottx]

Cool

That came out really well!

 

[Kevin54]

Wow!!! Great job on the drawing.

 

[Honch]

Yesterday I finished my wall mural, I added some shading, a emblem, license plate frame and the Corvette script.



I have been searching for some other posters or banners to put up, most of what I have found was either smaller than I wanted, over $100.00 or was way too expensive for shipping. Saturday I decided to give Walgreen poster service a try, for $30.00 they will print a non copy-write picture at 24"x36". I have been working on modifying a picture I took a few weeks ago, I uploaded it and 30 minutes later I got an email informing me it was ready.



The camera picked up some reflection off the plexiglass covering the print, the quality of the print was quite good.

 

[jimmyjammoto]

Nice work on everything! Have to ask though; what does the AZ plate (really) say?

 

[littleviking]

Nice work on everything! Have to ask though; what does the AZ plate (really) say?

Im thinking

PP extender.

I could be wong though. HAHAHA

love the garage and the vette!

 

[Kevin54]

Nice work on everything! Have to ask though; what does the AZ plate (really) say?

PeePee Extender

 

[JC23]

Nice job on the mural!

 

[Kevin54]

It'd look pretty cool around your drawing to add a curb, then hang an actual Stop sign and add an original parking meter on a painted post. Just an idea. Mad57 has some Parking Meters. Which reminds me that I need to get back in touch with him about a couple.

You need to add two more lines to your drawing. One under the third brake light and one under the license plate. Don't get me wrong, I'm not picking on it. Heck, I can't draw a straight line using a ruler. I just noticed those two lines stood out on the real 'Vette and not on your drawing. And yes, I'm jealous, I don't have a 'Vette, I can't draw for chit, and I don't have any wall space in my garage. I may try something in Momma's garage though and I do have a projector!!!!

 

[Honch]

Thanks for the complements.

Nice work on everything! Have to ask though; what does the AZ plate (really) say?

I have never been big on personalized plates until I bought the car and the first plate I got was like ANN572. It seemed like every time I got out of the car people asked me who ANN was or if it was my wife's car. The BMV wont change a plate because you don't like it so I paid for another "free" plate and got JEN228. That's when I decided to get a personalized plate and after much deliberation I decided on BLUBYU which is apparently to the BMV censors is much worse than PPXTNDR my second choice.

The plate says different things, it was one thing when I explained the meaning to the Arizona BMV, something a bit different when I visited my mom and she noticed it while it was parked in her driveway, not a conversation I want to have again. My wife had a couple of interesting conversations with strangers asking what it said when she was driving the car. It said something much closer to my intent when I tried to transfer it to bible belt Indiana, a fight that lasted for almost three months. It was when they added a man to the battle that I could no longer embarrass them to moving it up another level by asking "Could you explain to me what you think it means?".

 

[Honch]

I have been watching CL a while now for a abrasive chop saw. Last weekend I came across a new listing for a 14" Milwaukee dry cut saw, "barely used" for $200.00.





I only know a small bit about dry or cold cut saws and would normally research more before buying but this seemed like a deal I needed to jump on. It appears that the owner did not properly clamp whatever he was cutting. The blade was deflected into the edge of the throat causing only minor damage to the base.

Unfortunately the blade did not fare as well, initially I thought it was only a couple of broken teeth so I tried to remove it and found the outer flange had rotated on the spindle shaft



After fighting with it for over an hour I was able to get the flange off the spindle shaft. The damage was limited to the outer flange which I was able to order for less than $3.00.



The blade had damage to over 1/3 of the teeth, at $5.00 a tooth to replace I started looking for a new one. Because I didn't research this in advance I had no idea that ferrous dry cut blades were that expensive. The cheapest I could find a Milwaukee blade was in the $150 range with most other brands being $80 - $100. Even with buying a new blade the total cost would still be less than buying a new saw but more than I had planned on investing.

This week I debated selling the saw as is and looking again for a abrasive chop saw when I found a HD link selling the original blade for $35.97ea. Needless to say I selected 2 and blasted through the checkout pages.

 

[Honch]

Its been over a year since I posted to my thread. I have been doing a lot of projects with the house and corvette but not much on the garage. This time last year I re-purposed a laptop that the motherboard video died on. I found a socket "P" motherboard and case which allowed me to use the processor, wifi, hard drive and optical drive from the laptop for less than $70.00. Now I have a nice small computer in the garage that has no fans and is completely silent.

As a point of reference the mini ITX motherboard is 6.69" x 6.69".



Late last summer I bought some fans from HD. At the time I purchased them it was too hot to mess with running wires in the attic for them. As summer turned into fall I got very busy with work and I even at one point forgot I had purchased the fans. I ran across the box a few weeks ago and decided to get them installed.

Originally I had not planned on installing ceiling fans but the price on these was so good, around $57.00 if I remember right, I decided on them versus using box fans. They have a nice industrial look, no lighting and are fairly quiet.



I initially was going to do a quick and easy jumper from the garage door outlets and just use the pull strings on the fans to control them. That plan quickly went away when I found out the fans had no pull string controls. Instead they came with these huge controllers apparently left over from 1974, that allow them to be set to five different speeds.



This of course required a new circuit, drops through insulated walls and multiple trips in and out of the attic. I am happy with how they turned out, I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality of the fans and the total lack of plastic. Hopefully they will be useful this summer when it gets hot and humid.

 

[rixtrix1]

Drawing looks great!

 

[GRN96WS6]

Nice drawing, I dig it!

 

[Honch]

Two years ago I was trying to decide what material type to use for the air lines in the garage. Two weeks ago I was still undecided but determined to do something over Memorial Day weekend. The temporary setup I had was not working with 75 feet of 3/8” air hose my high speed grinder was a low speed noise maker. Because of the humidity here I decided on ¾” black pipe, hoping it would help condense the water better than PEX or copper lines.



I had been hesitant to use black pipe because of the mounting options, but I am happy with how it came out. The only thing I have left is the drip leg by the stairs, I am not finished with the drain side of it. I may use some PEX to move it off the stairs.

 

[sunsation288]

Wow ,very nice work , and thanks for sharing picture !

 

[alberto]

Great job. I'm very envious of your lista cabs. Always wanted those with pull out drawers.

 

[Linda@Lista]

@Honch – Those Lista cabinets look perfect in your garage, that’s a great set up.

 

[dubber]

Instead they came with these huge controllers apparently left over from 1974, that allow them to be set to five different speeds.

I actually laughed out loud when i read that. Fans look great, nice work getting them all hooked up.

 

[lisiecki1]

Thanks for the ceiling fan pics. I think they'll look great in my garage also!

 

[Honch]

After nearly two years, I finally won the battle with my builder over my garage floor.

This weekend I had to move everything over into the single stall side.





Today they came in and broke up the slabs.

 

[zkling]

Those tambour lista cabinets are beyond awesome.