Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT The Scooter Workshop
- Thread starter Modern Jess
- Start date
Workspaces sized between 265 and 485 squarefeet.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Heh. Well, had I been on the clock this whole time, I would have been fired. Had I drawn up a blueprint to begin with, it would have been a lot quicker in the long run. Instead, I spent many evenings stroking my beard and drinking bourbon, trying to imagine how all the pieces fit together in my head.
I'm stubborn that way. Even though I'm quite capable of drafting designs on paper or even in CAD, I much prefer to build things in my head. The down side is that it takes forever sometimes, and I have to keep thinking three steps ahead to make sure that any dependencies are taken care of.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Thank you very much. Really? Nobody else has done this? That would be awesome, but I'm sure somebody must have done a shelf like this at some point.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Moving right along: The underside of the shelf is now taped and has the first coat of mud. Also spackled up all the screw holes in the fascia.
dhubbard422
Well-known member
There are some great ideas in your workshop... I particularly like the raceway. Your shelf is nice also. Perhaps you've seen the following build? I couldn't help but think of the similarities. It looks like your vertical space is tight, maybe too tight without recessing the track... but XcYZ also uses trim pieces to hide the roller track.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45022&page=4
Great build thread. And I'm jealous of the Gilera and the fact that you have an event like the Giro in your neck of the woods...
Thanks for sharing!
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45022&page=4
Great build thread. And I'm jealous of the Gilera and the fact that you have an event like the Giro in your neck of the woods...
Thanks for sharing!
MKE Mike
Well-known member
Nice work! - I've been following along. Fun to see this taped and mudded. Time (in your head...) well spent!
The (soon to be) end result looks so deceptively simple - great ideas always are. How much to build one in my garage?
The (soon to be) end result looks so deceptively simple - great ideas always are. How much to build one in my garage?
andyaus
Well-known member
Love it really nice work tidying this shop up 
really nice work tidying this shop up don long
Well-known member
I have just spent the morning reading thru your amazing garage rebuild
I am very impressed with the forethought that has gone into your place
I love the Idea of running ALL the electrical in the channel for later access (Brilliant)
The unistrut shelf turned out much neater than I first expected and lastly putting up flooring on the ceiling was a clever plan
Thanks for sharing in great detail all of your super ideas and the documentation of the ideas as they developed
Great job
Don
I am very impressed with the forethought that has gone into your place
I love the Idea of running ALL the electrical in the channel for later access (Brilliant)
The unistrut shelf turned out much neater than I first expected and lastly putting up flooring on the ceiling was a clever plan
Thanks for sharing in great detail all of your super ideas and the documentation of the ideas as they developed
Great job
Don
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Thanks!
Indeed! XcYZ's build was perhaps the most significant inspiration for this shelf. My only quibble (if you can call it that) is that it uses a lot of vertical height for the 2x lumber. Of course, if you have tall ceilings, it works great. I didn't, though, so had to find a way to make it work with fewer inches.
I love the Gilera, but man that thing is an effort to ride. The foot brake and the shift are reversed, so I roll through stop signs on a pretty regular basis. But at least I'm always in first gear!
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Love it
Thanks much, guys. I've made a whole bunch more progress in the last couple of weeks -- to the point that I'm actually starting to get excited about it. Pictures will be up in a couple of days.
The (soon to be) end result looks so deceptively simple - great ideas always are. How much to build one in my garage?
One million dollars! Muahahaha!
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Don - Thanks very much for the comments. I've been watching your extensive build for a while now, and I am impressed, to say the least.
andyaus
Well-known member
Just because your a scooter guy I thought you may like this my Father has had this as long as I can remember (in this condition) around 20 years ago I sat this on blocks in a corner of his shop and it hasn't moved since 
As he still lives in New Zealand and I now live in Australia my plan next time I visit is to create it up and bring it back to restore
I know it's from the early 60's
my Father has had this as long as I can remember (in this condition) around 20 years ago I sat this on blocks in a corner of his shop and it hasn't moved since As he still lives in New Zealand and I now live in Australia my plan next time I visit is to create it up and bring it back to restore I know it's from the early 60's
Attachments
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Just because your a scooter guy I thought you may like this
I know it's from the early 60's
It's worth restoring, for sure. I can't tell from the photo if it's an SS180 or a Sprint, and there were (I think) regional differences among the models. That one has a trapezoidal headlight, which could be... either. I'm not as good at spotting the vintage details that some of my scooter brethren are (I'm mostly into modern). I do own an SS180, though, and I can tell you that they are considered very collectible -- much more so than the Sprint. But really, you can't go wrong with either.
Get on it, man!
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Okay, time for some updates! I finished mudding, sanding, priming, and painting the first wall, and started to put up some of the WallControl metal pegboard that's been sitting in my living room for months.
Next up, I needed to caulk the space between the concrete slab and the bottom of the drywall. I've mentioned before that I'll be welding in here, and I'm pretty much paranoid about the possibility of fire. I'm okay with setting something on fire while I'm welding it -- I can douse it with a damp cloth or even a fire extinguisher. What really freaks me out, though, is the building going up in flames while I'm not there due to some slag that flew into a corner or a crevice or something, igniting sometime later. I went to the trouble of putting up 5/8" drywall (even though this is a detached structure and code did not require it) but all the drywall in the world won't help if the slag goes under the drywall and touches the wood behind it. The logical thing to do, of course, is to use intumescent caulk. Necessary? Well, maybe not. But it can't hurt.
I put a commercial rubber wall base on top of that. The eagle-eyed will notice that I've got the strip of wall base -- with adhesive applied -- facing the opposite direction that it needs to go on the wall. @#$%!
Next up it was time to choose a bit of color. The white was getting too monotonous. And in a weird kind of way, one of my takeaways from Jack Olsen's garage -- one of the many takeaways -- is to not be afraid to pick a relatively offbeat theme color (i.e. not red or black) and just go with it. I almost fell into the easy choice of red or black many times during this project -- I like red and black -- but ultimately decided to try to be just a little bit more imaginative than that.
I went through about nine colors (all from swatches), and was dissatisfied with all of them. Some were too light, some too dark, some too desaturated, some too purple, etcetera. At some point, I remembered that most of my formative years as a software engineer were spent in the field of color science, and that I could mix the damn colors myself. Heck, I didn't need a degree for that -- I just mixed two of the shades of gray/blue together and added a few drops of pure white to counteract some of the resulting muddiness and voila! I present to you denim cornflower.
I painted a stick with the mixed color and went back to the store for a color-matched quart.
Next up, I needed to caulk the space between the concrete slab and the bottom of the drywall. I've mentioned before that I'll be welding in here, and I'm pretty much paranoid about the possibility of fire. I'm okay with setting something on fire while I'm welding it -- I can douse it with a damp cloth or even a fire extinguisher. What really freaks me out, though, is the building going up in flames while I'm not there due to some slag that flew into a corner or a crevice or something, igniting sometime later. I went to the trouble of putting up 5/8" drywall (even though this is a detached structure and code did not require it) but all the drywall in the world won't help if the slag goes under the drywall and touches the wood behind it. The logical thing to do, of course, is to use intumescent caulk. Necessary? Well, maybe not. But it can't hurt.
I put a commercial rubber wall base on top of that. The eagle-eyed will notice that I've got the strip of wall base -- with adhesive applied -- facing the opposite direction that it needs to go on the wall. @#$%!
Next up it was time to choose a bit of color. The white was getting too monotonous. And in a weird kind of way, one of my takeaways from Jack Olsen's garage -- one of the many takeaways -- is to not be afraid to pick a relatively offbeat theme color (i.e. not red or black) and just go with it. I almost fell into the easy choice of red or black many times during this project -- I like red and black -- but ultimately decided to try to be just a little bit more imaginative than that.
I went through about nine colors (all from swatches), and was dissatisfied with all of them. Some were too light, some too dark, some too desaturated, some too purple, etcetera. At some point, I remembered that most of my formative years as a software engineer were spent in the field of color science, and that I could mix the damn colors myself. Heck, I didn't need a degree for that -- I just mixed two of the shades of gray/blue together and added a few drops of pure white to counteract some of the resulting muddiness and voila! I present to you denim cornflower.
I painted a stick with the mixed color and went back to the store for a color-matched quart.
Last edited:
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Whisky intermission.
Last edited:
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Several days after I got the baseboard in place and the pegboard up on the wall, I finally got the place cleaned up and a bit arranged. Presentable, even.
So here's the first wall, finally complete in all of its glory. I dare say it's starting to look like a workshop.
And a fisheye shot, just because I can:
So here's the first wall, finally complete in all of its glory. I dare say it's starting to look like a workshop.
And a fisheye shot, just because I can:
Last edited:
I have been following along and taking notes. First the wiremold, then the channel for air lines, unistrut for shelves all are brilliant ideas.
Now ya gotta explain this cabinet. the one with pull out storage bins. I presume the top is a cabinet with Akro type back with hanging bins, But what is the bottom? I have been trying to find something like this for the shop. A few details please.
Now ya gotta explain this cabinet. the one with pull out storage bins. I presume the top is a cabinet with Akro type back with hanging bins, But what is the bottom? I have been trying to find something like this for the shop. A few details please.
Last edited:
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Ah. Yes. I was afraid someone was going to ask me about that, as I've been kind of holding it back for the last few months. I'm intending to do a separate thread about this, but here's the general gist of it. I call it "The Hardware Store".
After thinking for many years about why it's so hard to organize all the various parts I have, I realized it was because (a) traditional Flambeau-style parts trays are too hard to re-arrange to make room for a new part, and (b) that there are really two distinct classes of parts -- one-off types of stuff (best suited to akro bins) and sets of parts -- i.e. 1/4" fasteners, or pop rivets, or what have you.
The solution I came up with is a combination of those two different types of storage systems.
Those pull-out trays are Sortimo organizers. The T-Boxx system, specifically. They are (I am genuinely embarrassed to say) outrageously expensive -- for parts trays. This is not a brag -- once I had seen them, I spent literally six months actively trying to forget that I had seen them. What has been seen, however, cannot be unseen. Once you hold one of these things in your hands, you realize why they are priced the way they are, even though rationally a parts tray shouldn't cost that much. It's a weird bit of cognitive dissonance, and one that I was ultimately too weak to cope with. I sought out every single other kind of removable-cup organizer tray, and found them all to be deficient in some way. Eventually, with a bonus from work in hand, I broke down and bought a set of them. And it hurt. But just the once.
I built the cabinet around the trays. I still have a few more slots to fill (okay, that will hurt a second time) but so far they are exactly what I've wanted -- the ability to be OCD about arranging and re-arranging the various sets of fasteners and parts that I always seem to be unable to find -- moving everything around when I get a shipment from McMaster with a couple new lengths of whatever fastener.
The akro bins up top are mounted to an akro-mils sheet metal panel, which just happened to fit neatly in the space that I had available. I made the whole thing 24" deep, even though the Sortimo trays aren't nearly that deep. That left me with about 8 inches of unused space on the back, which I turned into shelves for more akro bins. Tons of them, in fact -- a kind of deep storage for things I don't need to get too frequently.
The removable cup system is really wonderful. Washers and such can't migrate over the top, because each cup is fully indexed in the tray and all possible top surfaces are mated to the lid. The range of cup sizes is the real seller here -- from a small red cup to a huge green cup that will hold the tools that go with a particular set of parts.
Like I said, it hurt to buy these. But I am so glad I did. And it was a pain in the *** to build the cabinet, too. But the whole thing is done now, and it serves me well almost every time I go in the shop.
Last edited:
1/2 Cup
Member Emeritus
Awesome work, looks fantastic.
Okay, back to the build. I hope you guys like excruciating detail, because I tend to overthink everything.
Corner Braces
The house and workshop are both stucco-clad structures, and built without sheathing. There's no plywood under there. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that, but all the houses in the neighborhood are built that way.
To make up for the lack of sheathing (especially considering we're right on the San Andreas Fault) the house has lots of corner bracing in every possible plane. The workshop, though it was built four years after the house, is built in exactly the same way.
These particular braces, though, were in my way. Running just under the rafter ties in the workshop, they were preventing me from mounting drywall flush up against the ties.
So I moved them. I'm hoping I don't regret this someday when the workshop comes down on my head.
The new braces are cut into one of the rafter ties, and bolted and nailed to the top plate, next to where they were originally mounted.
Good job !!the only thing I may have done different ( because I'm **** about overkill ) was to have built a strap , attached it to the cross brace and down through the top plate with lag bolts . Like I said I'm a idiot about over kill sometimes and it stops me from second guessing .,,,,,,great job though !!!!
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Good job !!the only thing I may have done different ( because I'm **** about overkill ) was to have built a strap , attached it to the cross brace and down through the top plate with lag bolts.
It's actually a good idea. The other end (which is now covered up in drywall) has a carriage bolt all the way through the top plate. This end just has big nails, and it bothered me when I did it that I couldn't bolt it all the way through.
As it happens, the pictured end of the brace is still accessible, so I may very well do something along the lines of your suggestion. Thanks!
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Awesome work, looks fantastic.
Thanks much, gentlemen.
polexican23
Banned
Well there goes 2 hours of work time. Great ideas. I might use the channel shelf idea, but I would like to figure out how to set the shelf within the channel itself. I would shoot for a more industrial feel with the shelving. Then again I am all over the place and GJ is not helping with having one plan. Everyone here has some awesome forethought and ingenuity.
Sunbimmer
Well-known member
Wow man thanks for the update your place has a lot of "awesomness"
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Yep. It can definitely be done that way, and I almost did. The inside of the channel slot is right around 3/4", so 3/4" ply slips right in. The only complication (slight, at best) is that you'll have to trim the ply at the corners (due to the L brackets there) and anyplace where you've done a straight-join on two pieces of channel. And, of course, you'll have to put the ply in while you're assembling the channel, and figure out the exact order of operations.
I considered it, as it would have made the whole shelf even thinner. Ultimately I decided that I could spare 3/4" of an inch on the top side.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Wow man thanks for the update your place has a lot of "awesomness"
[Bows]
Thank you, kind sir!
Damn, I was afraid you were going to say that. The reason I asked, I saw the Sortimo system, including the Sortimo racks, on a Youtube by one of the guys from Mythbusters. They appeared to be exactly what I have been looking for. The system is spectacular, but after researching and pricing them, I am now in the six month process of trying to forget. I had hopes of your setup being something else. Now you have extended the six of forgetting.
Thanks for the response. (I think)
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
That's exactly what happened to me. Same video, even -- Adam Savage.
I did manage to find them for a bit less, but you have to go straight to the Sortimo distributor. They don't sell online, and it's hard to get ahold of them. But once you do, they'll give you a quote on whatever you want, then you call them and give them a credit card number over the phone. The price of each tray from them is around $62-ish (depending on the configuration -- what mix of cups). So a bit better than Knapheide. Also, you can buy additional cups from Sortimo by the box load, which makes them a lot more reasonably priced than the outrageous prices that Knapheide sells them for. That was the single biggest thing that was initially keeping me from buying into the Sortimo system -- Knapheide wanted $4/ea for the small red cups.
If you want to contact them, send an email to: thuggins (at) sortimo.us and tell them Jesse sent you.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
My pleasure. I have to say that Garage Journal has motivated me to really work hard at making this a very functional workshop. Between all the great ideas that I've borrowed from everyone else here and the positive response that I've gotten to my own thread, there's a definite incentive to go the extra mile and sweat all the details. My workshop will certainly be the better for it.
If I finish it before I die, that is.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Heh. Congratulate me when I finish. So far, it's just one wall and some very strategic camera work.
(But glad you like it just the same).
AP2TUDE
Well-known member
First you hooked me with your Hibiki 12, then killed me with the Sortimo. I saw that same Tested.com video and have been somewhat obsessed with those organizers ever since. Thanks for the connection on how to get them, my wife won't be as happy as I am about it.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Last edited:
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Muahahaha!
Though I should point out that you've returned the favor by piquing my interest with that Yamazaki 18.
Dammit.
my58
Well-known member
Jess,
As everyone else has already said, Incredible thread!!!!! Thanks for allowing all of us to follow along.
I know you have added the Sortimo system to your shop, but I was wondering about the containers visible in post 89. They look something like plano cases in milk crates. Can you tell us anything about them?
I used old static control bins and a budget based wood version of your cabinet many years ago and probably need to improve upon it one of theses days.
As everyone else has already said, Incredible thread!!!!! Thanks for allowing all of us to follow along.
I know you have added the Sortimo system to your shop, but I was wondering about the containers visible in post 89. They look something like plano cases in milk crates. Can you tell us anything about them?
I used old static control bins and a budget based wood version of your cabinet many years ago and probably need to improve upon it one of theses days.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
My pleasure!
A photo so everyone knows what you're referring to:
Those are my previous best-attempt at parts sorting, and I used them for several years. They are Flambeau "infinite divider" cases. They're reasonably large and have a lot of flexibility to adjust the width of a given cubby, but the height is still fixed. As conventional parts trays go, they are very good. My main beef with them is that washers still migrate under the dividers (or over them if you were foolish enough to turn a case sideways) and re-arranging parts is still just as hard as ever -- you have to scoop everything out, move dividers around, and put everything back. It's difficult enough that I could never be bothered to keep things sorted properly.
McMaster has them: http://www.mcmaster.com/#67425t33/=qy9clk
If I had access to a pile of those, I would have done something very similar.
OP
Modern Jess
Well-known member
Small Victories
After completing the first wall, I spent much of Saturday and Sunday compacting what remained in the workshop, which seemed to occupy all of the available floor space. Three things in particular were floating around, constantly in my way, excessively bulky, and without a permanent place to live: my mig welder, my tig welder, and the harbor freight "mini forklift" (which is actually supposed to be a weird kind of motorcycle lift that is completely useless for scooters).
Well, they still don't have a permanent place to live, but after freeing up some space where some other junk used to live (it's a giant puzzle, I'm convinced) I found a place for the harbor freight lift. And what do you know, I can park my two welders on top of it!
To anyone who has ever struggled with too much stuff in too small of a space, you know exactly what this feels like. And it's not like these pieces will live here forever, but at least for the moment they're taking up a minimal amount of space, and they're out of my way. And just to put some icing on the proverbial cake, I stashed some shovels and other long-ish things in the remaining corners of the space, making it a win-win-win.
I'll take these little victories where I can find them, thankyouverymuch.
After completing the first wall, I spent much of Saturday and Sunday compacting what remained in the workshop, which seemed to occupy all of the available floor space. Three things in particular were floating around, constantly in my way, excessively bulky, and without a permanent place to live: my mig welder, my tig welder, and the harbor freight "mini forklift" (which is actually supposed to be a weird kind of motorcycle lift that is completely useless for scooters).
Well, they still don't have a permanent place to live, but after freeing up some space where some other junk used to live (it's a giant puzzle, I'm convinced) I found a place for the harbor freight lift. And what do you know, I can park my two welders on top of it!
To anyone who has ever struggled with too much stuff in too small of a space, you know exactly what this feels like. And it's not like these pieces will live here forever, but at least for the moment they're taking up a minimal amount of space, and they're out of my way. And just to put some icing on the proverbial cake, I stashed some shovels and other long-ish things in the remaining corners of the space, making it a win-win-win.
I'll take these little victories where I can find them, thankyouverymuch.
andyaus
Well-known member
My Father just emailed me the details of it and it is a 1966 SS180, just out of curiosity what sort of money are they? Barn fresh and Restored, cheers for any info
KCarGuy
Well-known member
Fantastic Job on your Re-work/Re-Build of your Shop.
Well thought out!
And Well Executed!
Well thought out!
And Well Executed!