Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT The 12-Gauge Garage

[Jack Olsen]

It was a $12 broom from Harry Epstein. So, I suppose if it got out of shape I could replace it. But the fix was very quick -- one hole to drill and two nuts to tighten. And if the floor floods now, the broom will stay dry.

I actually DID have a plan to use at least one of the two extra drawers -- since I believe in using the whole buffalo and all of that. In shortening the top of the desk to allow the cabinet to fit, I reduced the space where I sit to the exact width of one of the drawers. So it seemed a no-brainer to put a shallow drawer under the main bench, right where I sit.

But as soon as I started filling the drawers, it seemed like a shallow one would be more useful in the stack. So I rearranged it. Now I could still fit a 3" drawer there -- I checked the clearance. But I'm on the fence about it. I've got the parts set aside. But it may be that both drawers end up as donors to the drawer swap thread that someone else organized. We'll see.

I just cleaned the place up on Friday. So that picture of the bench was taken today. While I was at it, I walked around and snapped some more pictures. I keep thinking I need to get a full set 'now that it's finished.' Of course, it keeps not being quite finished. But this thread is long now, and I haven't put up a set of general pictures in awhile. So here are some more.

 

[-Brent-]

Jeeze. What's next, Jack? It seems 100% complete. That's a rarity.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Jack, just saw the picture above of your cabinet stacked and noticed your garage ceiling, or is that a storage shelf?
Do you have living quarters above your garage? If so how is the noise and fumes controlled?

That's just a storage shelf that runs above the garage door. Above that is a flat asphalt roof. There is living space adjacent to the garage (my office and the garage constitute one detached structure), but the office was built first and there is actually an exterior wall along the right side of the garage -- complete with a brass downspout that was built for the free-standing office and then included when they built the garage. You can see the downspout in the corner behind the new red cabinet in this picture. I just had to build around it:

But the exterior wall prevents fume/noise migration. (Well, maybe it's still loud in the office when I'm working in the garage -- but it's just me on either side, so that's fine.)

I always thought that the arched table should have a thin drawer or two under it.

The way I did the frame would make that tricky. But it WOULD be handy. There's no arms-reach storage for that table.

Jeeze. What's next, Jack? It seems 100% complete. That's a rarity.

Just keep using it, I guess?

 

[pals444]

I really like Your garage, Jack. It's an inspiration on how to make the most out of limited space, DIY-ideas and projects, organizing and attention for details. Everything well documented and presented with the same quality and commitment.

I'm thinking that in 50-100 years, threads like this will be valued even more. Not only by Your children and grandchildren, but people like ourselves that enjoy and admire how things were done in "the old days".

One question:
This project has been going on for some years. And I am sure that You have diverted a bit from the original plan along the way. If You were to start with a blank sheet (empty garage) tomorrow, is there anything You would have done different?

 

[Jack Olsen]

Thanks. That's interesting to think that this documentation might last longer than I do. I think I've always kind of assumed it would disappear as technology leaps forward.

The original plan was simple. My wife and I were both sidelined by a strike, and I had a few hours every day with nothing to do. So I attacked the four-years-useless garage and finally cleaned it out. Since there was no money coming in, and the strike could last weeks, months or years, the plan was to spend very little money and re-use as much of what was sitting in piles in the garage in the course of making it useful. A car had never been parked in it during our tenure.

I don't have many pictures from back then. It wasn't any kind of a showpiece, although the basic layout was similar to what it is now.

The tile made for a big leap forward. But still, those were old Ikea book cases, and a lot of used lumber, and some wrought iron furniture that I cut up and repurposed.

If I'd known it would become a place I use as much as I use it now -- would I have done it differently? Yes. Absolutely. I would have gone in and cleaned up the box of the place itself before I started. I would have re-roofed the building so that there wasn't a copper gutter running down along one wall. I would have added insulation. I would have done extensive wiring work and run air lines to three or four different points. Those kind of below-the-surface improvements never occurred to me back then. Now, I have to work around them.

I still have plans to try and re-do the roof and possibly work out some better electric and air distribution in the course of that. But the place is perfectly functional the way it is, so it's entirely possible that those plans will remain plans indefinitely.

We'll see.

It's funny: the place actually looks smaller in the pictures above, where there was a lot more square footage since the cabinets weren't encroaching in as much. But better lighting and a cleaner look just makes a place seem larger.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Still looking great Jack.

You still don't have any fluorescent lights in there, do you? I love how the incandescent looks so bright in there. In order to take that last photo, how many light switches do you have to throw? Have you somehow got all the individual clip ons, halogens & cake pan lights all on one or two switches?

 

[Oggy]

I think that moving the Tool Box that was in the middle of the garage and being able to see through the table in front helped open it up too. You've done a lot of work and it looks really good.

 

[Bob Heine]

It's funny: the place actually looks smaller in the pictures above, where there was a lot more square footage since the cabinets weren't encroaching in as much. But better lighting and a cleaner look just makes a place seem larger.

Jack,
Your garage has evolved into a great example of form and function. When you had things stored in open shelves there were lots of shadows, which darkened and closed in the space. My first two garages had open shelves and besides everything being covered in various kinds of garage dust, it always looked messy. When I moved into my current garage I installed a bunch of cheap cabinets and built some shallow shelf units with cheap laminate doors. It's just as messy behind the doors but the cabinets (when closed) make it feel bigger and brighter. Only difference in these two shots is the cabinet doors opened and closed. The white doors brightened the room enough so the flash didn't go off in the second shot.

Open Shelves

Closed Shelves

 

[Jack Olsen]

Thanks.

Still looking great Jack.

You still don't have any fluorescent lights in there, do you? I love how the incandescent looks so bright in there. In order to take that last photo, how many light switches do you have to throw? Have you somehow got all the individual clip ons, halogens & cake pan lights all on one or two switches?

Almost all the lights are fluorescents -- although they're CFLs, not straight tubes. There are five switched groups -- each is triggered by a motion detector. Here's a clip I (just) shot of walking into the shop when all the lights are out. The convenient thing is that I never have to turn a light on or off.

Lights On Video

I think that moving the Tool Box that was in the middle of the garage and being able to see through the table in front helped open it up too. You've done a lot of work and it looks really good.

I agree. I think having more open space above the bench height means your eye doesn't see how much less space there is below bench height.

Jack,
Your garage has evolved into a great example of form and function. When you had things stored in open shelves there were lots of shadows, which darkened and closed in the space. My first two garages had open shelves and besides everything being covered in various kinds of garage dust, it always looked messy. When I moved into my current garage I installed a bunch of cheap cabinets and built some shallow shelf units with cheap laminate doors. It's just as messy behind the doors but the cabinets (when closed) make it feel bigger and brighter. Only difference in these two shots is the cabinet doors opened and closed. The white doors brightened the room enough so the flash didn't go off in the second shot.

Open Shelves

Closed Shelves

I agree. It's less visual clutter.

 

[jerseywild]

It looks like Jack ran out of green paint. I do like the red and black are you going to switch over or just looking for a contrast? I like the bench that you made by cutting the cabinet in half and the built in air line is sweet.

 

[W650Mike]

I'm watching, learning, and stealing ideas.

Thanks for sharing and taking the time to document with both photos and write-ups.

 

[akdiesel]

Jack,
After looking more at the ceiling picture I see they are 2x4's.
I forgot to congratulate you on your Handyman Award. Quit an achievement.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

I'd forgotten you told us your lights were on sensors. I still need to look into that. In my experience, CFL's don't "instant on" as yours seem to in the video. Unless of course they've been on awhile before being cycled off-on again.

I have a bunch of free CFL bulbs that were provided by the city under an old program. Guess I need to get out there and start figuring out how to copy your setup!

 

[felixgogo]

Jack,

I really love your garage - it is the top garage on this site I aspire to.

You have convinced me my storage must be boxed in!

 

[Exceller8]

Jack, how do you like that Wilton 1765? I was thinking that might be my next vise purchase. I have a few other Wilton's but I need something larger that can take some abuse.

 

[RSIFireRescue]

The end.

WOW. I'm at the end. It's actually disappointing.

I want more Jack Olsen!!!

This is the only reason I joined Garage Journal, and the only thread I have seriously perused.

You have shown fine exampled of ingenuity, recycling, repurposing, efficiency, styling.

You are a innovator and motivator.

I start Garage redo tomorrow. I've had an 18'x24' detached garage that met an untimely end (roof collapse) and I start the consolidation into a 15'x20' now.

I feel I need to document the progress now.

It will be a Jack Olsen tribute thread I do believe.

Thank you for all this, congratulations on your awards. Also love your Youtube vids.
Should you ever make it Watkins Glen International, look me up, I'm a Captain on the Fire Rescue Team.

 

[rj440]

but it's so clean and organized, I'm confused, how does that happen? Try as I may mine always looks like a tornado ripped through it.

I shall strive to do better, must build more cabinets for starters

 

[mdbeck1]

The end.

WOW. I'm at the end. It's actually disappointing.

I want more Jack Olsen!!!

This is the only reason I joined Garage Journal, and the only thread I have seriously perused.

You have shown fine exampled of ingenuity, recycling, repurposing, efficiency, styling.

You are a innovator and motivator.

I start Garage redo tomorrow. I've had an 18'x24' detached garage that met an untimely end (roof collapse) and I start the consolidation into a 15'x20' now.

I feel I need to document the progress now.

It will be a Jack Olsen tribute thread I do believe.

Thank you for all this, congratulations on your awards. Also love your Youtube vids.
Should you ever make it Watkins Glen International, look me up, I'm a Captain on the Fire Rescue Team.

Jack this post made me think.... ....what are YOUR favorite garages?

 

[Squankum]

Dan in P:
I don't follow the subject closely, but I think CFL's are getting better. They seem to turn on faster, and seem to put out max light with less delay. You may also be lucky that your old-timey ones have lasted this long! Just my subjective, non-expert opinion.

I just put one in the closet (replacing a dead one) and was shocked, hey, this isn't making that creepy, icy blue light! It's almost warm and yellowish!

Jack, your garage/thread ***** a lot of newbies into GJ! I know it got me here.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Hadn't thought of that. Maybe you're right about the CFL's I've got. I've got two types and I don't know their proper names but one looks kinda like a conventional incandescent light bulb. The shape is slighty different and the base is big. The other is the little "piggy curlie cue tail" shpaed kind. I've had both for at least 5 years. I installed them when I got them, hated them, and took them out. They've been in a closet since then.

 

[rharman]

Dan,

Your freebies are probably in the 2500k-3000k range which is pretty yellow. 5000k or more is really white and bright.

I have the 8' Philips 6500K in my garage and it's great light.

 

[Jack Olsen]

It looks like Jack ran out of green paint. I do like the red and black are you going to switch over or just looking for a contrast? I like the bench that you made by cutting the cabinet in half and the built in air line is sweet.

Thanks. The tool box and bench next to it were originally red, so I painted the replacements red, too. It makes for some contrasts against all the green.

Jack,
After looking more at the ceiling picture I see they are 2x4's.
I forgot to congratulate you on your Handyman Award. Quit an achievement.

Thanks! The 2x4's are actually 2x3's. I ripped them down to that size so that I'd have enough room above them to store a full size banker's box, which is what I was using for storage back then.

I'd forgotten you told us your lights were on sensors. I still need to look into that. In my experience, CFL's don't "instant on" as yours seem to in the video. Unless of course they've been on awhile before being cycled off-on again.

I have a bunch of free CFL bulbs that were provided by the city under an old program. Guess I need to get out there and start figuring out how to copy your setup!

The newer ones seem to come on (and up to full strength) quicker. And they're also available in lower color temperatures, which is how you get lighting that doesn't look blue-green and depressing, like old fluorescent tubes in the seventies. Mine are mostly 2700° Kelvin bulbs, which is close to the color temperature of incandescents.

Jack,

I really love your garage - it is the top garage on this site I aspire to.

You have convinced me my storage must be boxed in!

Jack, how do you like that Wilton 1765? I was thinking that might be my next vise purchase. I have a few other Wilton's but I need something larger that can take some abuse.

I think that would look great. You could also run some cabinets along the upper side of that wall to the left. What's under the cover, by the way?

The end.

WOW. I'm at the end. It's actually disappointing.

I want more Jack Olsen!!!

This is the only reason I joined Garage Journal, and the only thread I have seriously perused.

You have shown fine exampled of ingenuity, recycling, repurposing, efficiency, styling.

You are a innovator and motivator.

I start Garage redo tomorrow. I've had an 18'x24' detached garage that met an untimely end (roof collapse) and I start the consolidation into a 15'x20' now.

I feel I need to document the progress now.

It will be a Jack Olsen tribute thread I do believe.

Thank you for all this, congratulations on your awards. Also love your Youtube vids.
Should you ever make it Watkins Glen International, look me up, I'm a Captain on the Fire Rescue Team.

Thanks very much for that. And thanks also for working as part of a safety crew. That's something I think about every time I'm at the track.

but it's so clean and organized, I'm confused, how does that happen? Try as I may mine always looks like a tornado ripped through it.

I shall strive to do better, must build more cabinets for starters

Well, it's clean when I take pictures. It's in-use more often than it's clean like this. But I've got a guy from a French magazine coming tomorrow, so it had to get swept out.

And as a side note, I also washed the car today, since the French magazine is Porsche-specific. Her paint is beaten up from all the track use, but I still like her look.

Jack this post made me think.... ....what are YOUR favorite garages?

That's a great question. I'm going to have to think about it a little -- part of what makes garages 'stick' here is the shop itself, and part of it is the participation of the owner. There have been some great shops where the owner only sticks around here for a short time and then the shop is harder to remember. Some of the ones I like the most are because the owner keeps participating in the forum.

I'll bet there's a handful I could come up with, though. Like I said, I'll try to come up with something.

Dan in P:
I don't follow the subject closely, but I think CFL's are getting better. They seem to turn on faster, and seem to put out max light with less delay. You may also be lucky that your old-timey ones have lasted this long! Just my subjective, non-expert opinion.

I just put one in the closet (replacing a dead one) and was shocked, hey, this isn't making that creepy, icy blue light! It's almost warm and yellowish!

Jack, your garage/thread ***** a lot of newbies into GJ! I know it got me here.

Thanks, Squankum! I've always enjoyed your posts in this thread.

 

[felixgogo]

Hi Jack - thanks for asking, its my Caterham Seven:

All detailed here -
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102265

I am definitely going to put some doors of some description over the main shelving, and the idea of some soffit cupboards on the left, or rear wall is something I will explore.

Cheers!

Ian

 

[luvit]

jack, what is your height and is your welding bench also 36" tall?
thank you, sir

 

[Jack Olsen]

Ian, I got to drive one of those once at our local track. I can't say it's the most relaxing car I've ever been in, but it left a big grin on my face for the rest of the day.

luvit, I'm a hair under 5'11", and all of my benches are 37" tall. I'm not sure how much thought actually went into that height, but my back feels good every day -- so I'll stick with it.

 

[nickv]

Fantastic garage Jack. I like the consistency and thoughtfulness into the end result.

 

[Huxley]

It must be tough to get at those big pipe wrenches on the wall under the workbench

I saw this yesterday at a Sears Outlet & thought something like this would work well to get you out of that predicament...

Then again, I see the drain cleanout in there now.

 

[alpinewhite]

Jack,

From another thread, you said:

The one in the middle is a Lyon. The one holding up the steel plate and the chubby vise is a Strong Hold:

Assuming the "middle" cabinet is the one with the phone, I thought this was also a Strong-Hold. I thought the Lyons had different-looking hinges.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Huxley, that vertical drawer is a cool idea. I think for the number of times I'll be taking out those pipe wrenches, it wouldn't make sense. But I'll bet there are some good applications for using drawer runners that way.

And yes, alpinewhite. That tall one is definitely a Lyon, although the design is clearly borrowed from Strong Hold. The only differences are the height, the depth and the weight of the steel. It still says Lyon in big letters on the handle. Here's what it looked like when I got it:

Maybe they changed the design of their line at some point? Maybe Strong Hold's lawyers sent a menacing letter?

 

[Exceller8]

Hey Jack, I think my question got lost in the mix. How do you like that Wilton 1765? That may be my next vise purchase.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Sorry about that! It's a very stout vise. I bought it at the same time as a 1760, and I like the construction of the larger 1765 more. It's the same model Snap-On sold with red paint on it. A no-brainer, if you can get one for a decent price.

 

[Exceller8]

Sorry about that! It's a very stout vise. I bought it at the same time as a 1760, and I like the construction of the larger 1765 more. It's the same model Snap-On sold with red paint on it. A no-brainer, if you can get one for a decent price.

That's all I needed to hear, it's now on the Christmas list for the wife. Thank you very much!

 

[Jack Olsen]

That wife's a keeper.

I picked up a wide-angle lens for my camera today. Already, I can't believe I got by without one.

 

[Dan in Pasadena]

Ah.......finally.

The famed Jack Olsen pose. Everything looks really nice Jack. Go get something dirty in there!

 

[HOTFR8]

I like the Eveready T-Shirt.

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

Did that last shot crack the lens? lol Just kidding Jack, just kidding.

 

[Jack Olsen]

I haven't gotten much time to dirty it up. We were out of town this weekend (which is why there's a suitcase sitting in the back corner of the place), and then this morning I decided to attach the front splitter to the car and put together some ramps to keep it from scraping when I leave early in the morning for track days. What I came up with is a prototype at best -- I kept fitting scrap pieces together by trial and error. I made a recording of it to see where I was still scraping. There's no screeching now, at least. But I think I'll use these new ramps as a model to make something simpler to do the same job.

Then I got the new camera lens (used, from Ebay) and if you look carefully you'll see some sawdust from cutting the ramp pieces in these pictures. But the wide-angle effect is kind of cool, and I can now take a picture of the whole garage from more than one point.

Here are some gratuitous pictures.

It's a whole new perspective on the most over-photographed shop on the GJ.

 

[alpinewhite]

empeg9000, I rattle-canned the red toolboxes, but everything else is quick and dirty -- brushes and rollers and latex house paint. It gives the cabinets a surface texture you can see in this big picture of the phone. If I were a perfectionist, I'd approach it differently. But the nice thing about doing it this way is that if you hit it with a piece of steel or something, you can just grab a disposable brush and touch up the mark.

Jack,

I currently have gray concrete stain on my garage floor and contemplated on tiling it a la 12-gauge. Once I saw how easy it was to touch up scratches on your cabinets, I was reminded that touching up my stained concrete floor would be easier than fixing tile. Thus, I am officially abandoning tiling my floor. That saved me about 4 weekends' worth of back-breaking tiling and grouting. I'll just maintain the stain on a regular basis to keep the floor looking new.

 

[dwp99]

Hey Jack, What the specs on the on the new lens. I just picked up a 20mm f2.8 which has a minimal wide angle effect, it doesn't distort too much. I also have a 15mm f2.8 which if your not careful will include your feet in the shot. This is especially true if I use it on the film camera. Since my digital camera doesn't have a full frame sensor there is a 1.5 aspect ratio which multiplies the 20mm into a 30mm and the 15mm into a 22.5mm.

Doug

 

[alpinewhite]

Hey Jack, What the specs on the on the new lens. I just picked up a 20mm f2.8 which has a minimal wide angle effect, it doesn't distort too much. I also have a 15mm f2.8 which if your not careful will include your feet in the shot. This is especially true if I use it on the film camera. Since my digital camera doesn't have a full frame sensor there is a 1.5 aspect ratio which multiplies the 20mm into a 30mm and the 15mm into a 22.5mm.

Doug

I think you mean "crop factor". Anyway, you have Nikon gear, don't you?