Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Tom's Neighborhood Workshop

[wreckdiver1321]

The floor coating is what led me to GJ. After reading a **** ton of threads on it...I tossed down to coats of concrete sealer and called it a day for now.

I made my own cabinets....but used discarded cabinet doors.
This is my thread on the garage build......
Cabinets are towards the end.

DDawg16's Garage Build in One Post

I started my garage build back in October of 2008......I had many posts documenting it's progress....then I got asked today where my link was to my garage build (and jeep build...another story). Makes sense....so I've pooled all the picks and put them in chronalogical order.... First...a...

www.garagejournal.com

Oooooh, that's not a bad idea. I have to check your thread out!

I did the Delta Dye and it worked great. I’m real happy with it!

Your shop looks awesome, and the effect you got on that floor is great. Is that Legacy's Nohr-S?

I'll state that DeltaDye worked really well, I was just a blockhead and didn't prep or plan correctly. That won't happen this time....

* * * * *

I think I have figured out the path forward from here.

Step one is to remove the oil stains as best I can. I'll be looking into ways to do that and try to tackle that this week. Next is to grind the floor in order to remove the color as best I can and get closer to fully removing the oil stains. After that, it should be just about prepped. Maybe. Hopefully.

I'm going to take a stab at using the gray DeltaDye to darken the floor before the polyurea goes down. I only bought a gallon, and my plan is to dilute it to the maximum recommended level of 1 qt water to 1 gal stain. This should dilute it enough to give me a pretty light, minimal effect and be able to cover the entire floor. I'm not aiming for really artsy or pretty, just a nice industrial-looking space.

In other news, I started working on breaking down my pallet pile. Pile O' Pallets? I think I like that better.



My Pile O' Pallets is about 35 or 40 strong. You're looking at 3 layers of six-foot tall stacks there. I'm hoping this will be enough for the projects I have planned. If it's not, I might need to rethink how much **** I take on at once.

Because I want to reduce the Pile O' Pallets to a Pile O' Lumber as quickly and efficiently as possible, I needed a method to break the pallets down without destroying my back, destroying the pallet stringers, taking all the rest of the time I have left on this mortal coil, or some combination of those three. I have used the old hammer and pry bar method before, but I found that marginally less pleasant than being on fire. I came across someone here on GJ with the most brilliant method I've yet found. I apologize, I have forgotten who said it or where I saw it.



Basically, the method here involves using a sawzall to cut the nail shanks and release the stringers from the main beams. If you start by wedging your pry bar beneath the stringers to provide a little separation, you can zip through the nails down one entire side in about thirty seconds, then repeat on the other side. The center support requires some more fiddling, but I can say the whole affair is made dramatically easier by a 12-inch blade. I ended Sunday having broken down 8 or so pallets and having a nice stack of weathered slats for my troubles. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of that, but I will take one once I have more to show for my labors.

Also this weekend we committed to an interior paint color scheme. For anyone wondering, we went with Sherwin Williams Stony Isle gray and their super-duper white color for the ceiling and trim. the whole house will get that paint job, except for an accent wall in my kids' room and probably the gym. It looks great and should brighten up the whole main living space. Our kitchen/dining room is catastrophically dark thanks to a brown color scheme, so this is a much-needed upgrade.



The living room isn't too bad, it just needs fresh paint. We're not actually sure if we're going to paint over the blue accent wall in the living room yet. Regardless, the new color isn't that far from what's already there, but it will definitely modernize it a good bit. That will help once I look at re-trimming and doing the doors.



We have a family friend who is a professional painter doing the painting for us, because I just don't want to. Too many irons, too much fire.

In fun news, I got my JIS Vessels! Wait, that sounds wrong....

I ordered a set of new screwdrivers as a little gift to myself. I'm starting on a long road of upgrading the hand tools I have, not that they're bad, but I'm at a place where I can swing for some nicer stuff that will last. I'm planning on Vessel screwdrivers, Knipex pliers, Hazet or Stahlwille metric wrenches, Wright SAE wrenches, Ko-Ken sockets, etc. Keeping my Kobalt ratchets though, because they're great. It's an eclectic collection of manufacturers and designs, because I'm weird and I like stuff like that.



More to come!

 

[Pbindesign]

Thank you for the mention. Really look forward to seeing this come to life!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Thank you for the mention. Really look forward to seeing this come to life!

Thanks for stopping by!

Okay, update time. Last couple weeks have been exhausting. Just exhausting.

First up, I got my squat rack from Brown Santa and got that set up. Just getting the damn box through the living room and down the stairs was a feat of strength. But we managed it and got it in place. Upon opening the box, we discovered all of the hardware had abandoned the little vacuum-sealed tray it occupied, so we had to do a bit of digging to find it all. Luckily, we were only missing a couple of washers that escaped the big box, so a little digging in my hardware storage got me what I needed to finish the job.



Turns out, the floor in this room isn't even flat-adjacent, so some creative solutions were needed to adapt the rack to the shape of the room. The good news is all of the bolt holes were elongated anyway, so the fudging was pretty simple.



I also unpacked the cable system I got from Amazon. This is pretty great for only $50, and allows a whole new range of workouts without a lot of investment.



And the finished article. The lower barbell stop on the left side didn't quite fit through all four holes (one was a little off), so a quick whack with the 30lb kettlebell got it situated right quick. Otherwise everything went off without a hitch. Now I just need some weights and an Olympic bar. I'm hoping to find a killer deal on those but we'll see. Most people selling that stuff second-hand are selling a rack/bench with it. I may have to **** it up and buy new, but I'd rather not. We'll see. I'm only into this whole gym for less than $500 so far.





With that out of the way, I spent some more time breaking up the Pile O' Pallets. I now have a pretty substantial Pile O' Lumber and should be able to get a lot of it prepped this week. I have three different stains I'll be using on it, and then I'll find a sealer to lay down. Hopefully by the beginning of next week I should have enough done to start thinking about paneling. I've been known to get distracted though, so we'll see how that goes.

Last week, our painter got started and made really good progress for three days. The color really brightened up the house.



On day 3, he had two coats on every wall from the living room to the hallway, so he also painted the ceiling and started doing trim work. Well, my wife came home after work and noticed paint splatter all over the place. On the wood floors, on our new rug, on the couch, on a chair, on the table. All over the place. Luckily, it's a latex paint and thus relatively easy to clean with soap and warm water but still. We opted to pay for this because it was supposed to be less work for us.

Well, I called him up and brought up my concerns without accusing him of anything. I asked if something happened or if he didn't have enough drop cloths or if he needed us to move stuff out or anything like that, hoping to help the problem. He sounded very professional and gave me the rundown on his masking and covering procedure, which sounded exactly right. He was very tactful and said he would make sure to be very careful in the future. Great, problem solved right? WRONG.

I got a text Saturday morning from him, and he quit. He said we'd both be better served if I finished the job myself or had somebody else do it. He also refused payment for the work he had done, saying he had no ill will and just wanted us to be happy with whatever work was done. I was flabbergasted. What the hell, man? Somebody brings up a concern and you just ****** off? I just couldn't believe the lack of professionalism or willingness to work with me. I even offered to pay him for what he had done, but he wouldn't have it. Wild.

Well, now I'm left to do the trim work and the other four rooms upstairs with my wife and/or friends of ours. Fantastic. At least I didn't have to pay for the labor I guess, and I'm happy with the color choices.

Onward!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

More shop stuff!

I was cruising Facebook Marketplace recently, trying to find a good deal on a vise and/or drill press, and stumbled across something cool. A local guy was selling a whole bunch of 55-gallon drums that had been full of spray foam chemicals. $5 for each. Well, now I have a cool-looking new shop trash can.



Then, my weekend was interrupted by news from my hunting buddy. We had planned an elk hunt in the mountains nearby, but I had to bow out this year because I switched jobs. He took his brother instead, and they worked their asses off for 5 days. It paid off, and my buddy put his first ever bull elk on the ground. Great news! Bad news, we have to get the whole thing out.

He and his brother were able to pack out the choice pieces the following day, but the weather moved in and brought snow, so we weren't able to get back in and retrieve the rest. We brought home the meat, processed it, bagged it, and got it in the freezer.

I had the following Friday off, so we left at about 5:30am and headed up to the Beartooth Mountains.



We managed to hit the trail at 9:30am and reach the downed elk before lunch. Luckily, the meat was mostly untouched and still cool, so we cut off anything with nibbles, boned out both front legs, and loaded up for the long hike out. We made it to his camp, packed that up, and hiked the remaining three miles to the trailhead with 65lbs on our backs. This is me by the way. Hello!



We made it back to the truck at 7:30pm and drove the four hours home, dog tired. With the meat safe in the cooler, we hit the sack with plans to process the rest of the meat the following afternoon.

I woke up slowly Saturday morning, nice and stiff from the previous day's labors. An examination revealed only a couple scrapes and a nasty blister on my left heel. Thanks Danner! Some antibiotic cream and bandages had me good as new, except for the audibly creaking joints and occasionally immobile spine. Why do I do this to myself?

Some bacon and coffee helped kickstart my day, so I spent some time breaking up pallets and organizing the ever-dwindling pile of jun... stuff in my garage. I did that until 5, when I threw a tri-tip roast in the oven and got ready for processing the elk by sharpening my knives. Lansky sharpeners rock, by the way.

My wife got back from work and my friend arrived about the same time, so we had dinner and started working. We didn't finish the work of boning out, trimming, cutting steaks, grinding, bagging, antler removal, and ivory removal until 3am! Why do I do this to myself? Oh, right. Meat! We broke up the elk three ways. My friend (the shooter) got one whole backstrap (loin for all you non-hunters), then we split the rest between him, his brother, and myself. We each ended up with ten pounds of elk burger and probably 20 pounds of steaks. All told, we had about 100 pounds of meat to process, bag, and split. My freezer is looking much better now. Elk is on the menu tonight, in fact.

Okay, tangent over, back to house/garage/DIY stuff!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

I realized some of my pallet stringers were rougher than I'd like, so I decided I needed to pick up a belt sander to aid in cleaning these up a bit. After some fun time with the kids and wife, we stopped by my locally-owned hardware establishment which I had yet to go to (what is wrong with me???) to pick one up. I kind of cheaped out on this one, as I'm not planning on using it a ton. Makita and Ridgid were more than twice the price, I didn't want the Craftsman, and Ryobi wasn't available, so Skil it is!





In all honesty, this seems like a pretty solid quality tool for only $50. I know Skil aren't what they used to be, but I'm not needing it for a ton of work, and for being less expensive than the Hazard Fraught models it really seems solid. I like the filter design, but we'll see if it amounts to anything. I'm pretty happy with where the money went on this one regardless. That opinion may change once I start using it, but we'll see. If I end up buying a DeWalt random orbiter, you know what happened.

While we were out and about in the hardware stores, my wife and I looked at tile.

Backstory: this is my living room. The blue has been replaced by gray, but otherwise this is basically how it looks. The old tile fireplace surround is fine, but now it's barely different from the gray and feels really dated. So we want to change it.



Our original thought was a floral pattern black and white tile, but that may not work great with the relatively limited amount of tile work, so we looked at a few other options. Here's one of the top favorites:



I'm not totally sold on this, though. The walls are gray, the trim is white, we have a gray rug. I feel like the tile surround should be a pop of color and a real centerpiece of this area of the house. To add interest and play to that industrial/rustic aesthetic, I'm planning on surrounding the tile work with stained pallet wood to create a whole accent wall, sort of like this but with a tile surround and not bumped out from the wall like this one is. Unless that's really easy to do with a gas insert?



We did find this tile though, and I really like the idea of using this to add a pop of color and visual interest that really adds something special to the whole room. It would also tie into the color choices we have going on with the rest of the house. There will be pops of blue in the furniture and the bottom cabinets in the kitchen will be blue. It also would grab the natural tones from the wood. Maybe I need to enlist a Photoshop-skilled friend to make a mock up of the room with the wood and tile.



What does GJ think? Cool? Crazy? Different tile? Other ideas? Figure out how to bump out the fireplace for further visual interest?

I'm all ears.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Small update from last night.



After pulling apart two more pallets, I think I should have enough to panel the rear wall of the workshop. Considering the door and the main electrical panel are on that wall, I only have roughly 164 sqft to panel on that wall, so I should have enough to finish it off. I think. Maybe. Good news is I still have half of my Pile O' Pallets should any more material be required.

I started sanding down some of the lumber last night as well. The painted stringers will get any rough spots smoothed over, but otherwise will remain pretty much untouched so that I don't sand off their color. The other ones I'm smoothing out with 120 grit in order to keep them splinter free and allow them to take stain better. I'm not aiming for smooth really, I'm just trying to stop them from giving me splinters every time I, or more importantly my kids, go near them.



My goal is to keep the character of the wood, not make it clean, so it's a very quick sanding process. I'm hoping to finish a lot of it tonight so that I can start staining tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes.

This weekend, I'll be attempting to redo the garage floor. I'll grind the floors first and see where that gets me, then go from there. I purchased a single gallon of gray DeltaDye, which I plan to dilute about as much as is allowed, then use that on the entire floor. I'm really just aiming for a darker gray color more than anything else, so that will hopefully do the trick. I also have four gallons of @Garage Flooring AWF polyurea, which should give me plenty of durability. Hopefully it all works out this time.

I had another idea last night while I was watching an older episode of Wheeler Dealers. In their USA workshop, they had what looks to be a sheet metal wall up against a welding bench. I like that aesthetic a lot, so I may incorporate that behind my main bench, or at the very least behind my wall-mounted bench grinder station.



I've also been thinking about how to build the cabinets, especially the upper set along the north wall. The most lumber-efficient way would be to use a frame that gets sheeted in ply rather than building a set of plywood cabinets and mounting them to the wall. Either way, I think I need to buy a track saw to do it properly...

At least that's how I'll explain it to my wife.

 

[gearhead1960]

Welcome to GJ. Following.....

Someone suggested old Kitchen Cabinets....I did that approach when I had the opportunity to purchase an old steel GE kitchen cabinet set (Turquoise) from the 1950's. Bought the entire kitchen for about $200. Here's a few pics from when I build my work bench after adding a HF 44" tool box to it.....

Here's the before.....

...and after.


Here's a wider angle shot of my garage showing a few more of the cabinets. There's more of these cabinets in my basement, including a butcher black top that came with more of the lower cabinets like the one at the workbench.


Here's the top of the workbench right after I poly'd it....

Good luck with gathering ideas and making your workshop a working/living space. I'll be watching and offering my opinions on occasion. We all know what opinions are like.....LOL

 

[wreckdiver1321]

@gearhead1960 Welcome to my workshop, please don't mind the mess, and glad to have your opinions (for what they're worth ) flying about. Should be fun.

That bench top looks awesome! I actually like those cabinets a lot too. I'd love to be able to track down some nice steel kitchen cabinets, but it appears to be relatively uncommon out here to find something like that. I was checking the government surplus sites for a bit, looking for big steel cabinets, and I was checking most of the big names for a while too, trying to find a deal. In the end though, I think it will be easier to get exactly what I want if I just build them myself.

I don't want to cover up the tiny window on the north side, so I'm going to slide my work bench as far east as I can in order to maximize the amount of cabinet space between it and the electric heater from the ceiling. That gives me a rather annoying 68" of wall space between the bench and the heater, so I plan on using that for 72H x 18D standing cabinets, topped with 24H x 18D upper cabs. The 24x18s will run the full 208 inches from the east wall to the heater, above my toolbox, one of the benches, and the big standing cabinet.

I'm then thinking I need shallow exposed shelving from the standing cabinet to the west wall, but not all the way to the floor. Under the heater is great "dead space" to store my welding cart, a simple service cart, and a hydraulic press, so I'll probably only do the shelves on the top 4 feet of wall.

It was somewhere along this line of planning that I realized I still have no plans at all for the SW corner, so I might do more big cabinets there. Or maybe something else. I dunno. We'll see.

East wall (facing the house) will be the main workbench on one side of the man door and the TV on the other side, so I've mostly got that figured out.

There's a lot rattling around in my skull.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Oh, I forgot to mention:

The workbenches will be made of this:



I have three of these Whalen industrial racks from Costco, which are comically strong and a great size at 77W x 24D x 72H. The main bench along the east wall will be cut down to workbench height so there's nothing above it, which is an ideal location for vise mounting. The wall behind it will have lighting and some storage, I haven't noodled out exactly how that will look yet. The other rack will only get the front legs cut to workbench height. I was originally going to leave that one unmolested, but decided I wanted my overhead cabinets to be 24x18 instead of 24x24, and I don't want a six-inch lip in front of them, so there you go.

Underneath the bench tops will be toolboxes. I have two old Waterloo roll cabinet sets that need to be repurposed into stationary units, and the top boxes will go under one of the benches. The other bench will get a US General box underneath it. There will be shelf space for other stuff beside the toolboxes, and dead space under the bottom shelf that I haven't quite figured out what to do with yet. Maybe I'll make toe kick cabinets for them? One of the bottom Waterloo rollers will be scrapped, the other is a good starting point for making a welding cart.

I can see it in my head pretty clearly, now it's time to bring it to life.

 

[gearhead1960]

Just remember, you can never have too much storage space! You might consider buying a system or working with a cabinet maker that specializes in garage space. I know on Bald is Beautiful's thread he bought his cabinets which look nice. His garage build might give you some decent ideas too. Warning, he has a lot of good ideas and will help your spend money!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Just remember, you can never have too much storage space! You might consider buying a system or working with a cabinet maker that specializes in garage space. I know on Bald is Beautiful's thread he bought his cabinets which look nice. His garage build might give you some decent ideas too. Warning, he has a lot of good ideas and will help your spend money!

Ha, ain't that the truth?

The good news is, my wife gets the attached garage essentially to herself save for the deep freezer/s, so anything that I don't want in my shop doesn't need to be there. That frees me up a lot. I do need to store a few things and figure out how to make some things work, but we'll see how it turns out. I may end up with an open shelving unit in the SW corner, or maybe more cabinets. As my friend likes to say, "hard to say, not knowing."

Thanks for the link, I'll have to check that out! Looks like a lot of good stuff there.

I think step one is to finish off the floor and walls, then move my benches, toolboxes, garbage barrel, and air compressor in. That will give me a good idea of what I need to do next and how much space I have to play with. I think having all those top cabinets, plus the big base cabinet, is just going to be a ridiculous amount of storage compared to what I'm used to.

Like I said, I can see the entire north wall of the shop in my head. I can see what it's going to be. I just need to make it real.

 

[cros13]

Hey mate just read through your build so far.

Congrats on the house, looks really nice. Love the fireplace in the loungeroom, I wish we could have one at our home.

I like the Toyota, and good job on the wiring, I am actually contemplating rewiring the Dato from scratch and using those Bussman fuse boxes too.

I like the polished concrete look, but that would mean getting a concrete grinder like someone else said, diamond grind the whole slab then seal it up.

Looking forward to see how you fit out the garage, its great to have a blank canvas.

Rudi.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Hey mate just read through your build so far.

Congrats on the house, looks really nice. Love the fireplace in the loungeroom, I wish we could have one at our home.

I like the Toyota, and good job on the wiring, I am actually contemplating rewiring the Dato from scratch and using those Bussman fuse boxes too.

I like the polished concrete look, but that would mean getting a concrete grinder like someone else said, diamond grind the whole slab then seal it up.

Looking forward to see how you fit out the garage, its great to have a blank canvas.

Rudi.

Rudi, thanks for stopping by!

Thanks! The house is a great starting point, just needs some updating. Luckily all of the updates I want are cosmetic, so it's not like I'm throwing heaps of money at it to fix structural problems or reconfigure the whole damn place. It's a nice layout and lots of space, just needs to be brought up to the 21st century.

That wiring job took longer than I expected, but I really wanted to do it right and not have any problems down the road. I came across a thread on the Toyota Tacoma forums that was very informative and showed how to make one of those Bussmann boxes from scratch, and decided that was the way to go over the Blue Sea boxes I used in my last build. There's something very satisfying about how clean it all is. I'd recommend the Bussmann box solution highly if you're thinking about rewiring the Datsun. You can get the boxes bigger or smaller depending on how many circuits you need. I'd imagine the wiring on that car would be fairly simple given it's age.

Yep, I'll have to grind the floor. It's going to **** and I'm going to completely hate my life, but the botched stain job needs to go, and regardless of what I do next the floor will need to be ground anyway. So I might as well just **** it up and make it happen. We'll see how it all comes up, but I'm hopeful. I spoke with the manufacturer of the stain and he was confident it wouldn't be too hard to get back to clean material. I already have the sealer and enough stain to get to where I want, so now I just have to get it over with. Or, "pull my finger out," as you would say.

You and me both, man! I can't wait to see it decked out with the wall paneling, workbenches, and cabinets. It'll be a lot of work, but eyes on the prize!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

This weekend was kind of hit and miss.

I got up early on Saturday and was full of vim and vigor to get my floor ground and cleaned up so we could re-stain and seal the floor. Right up until I tried to track down a company that was open and had concrete grinding equipment available. I know, I definitely should have thought ahead and gotten a rental lined up earlier in the week. But I let that one slide. Dammit.

Anyway, I called everybody, including Home Depot, who had no idea what I was talking about. Checking their website shows my local store never has those tools for rent, so I was stymied. Alright, scrap the floor grinding plan!

Instead, I had my buddy come over and help me with a few things. I had him sand and whitewash a few stacks of pallet boards for me while I worked on a different project. My wife had commented that she felt so disorganized and couldn't get back on track without getting a few things taken care of at home. To help, I pulled apart a pallet and created an entryway organization board thing. I'm not sure if there's a great name for it. I used the pallet stringers to form a flat base and attached some heavy duty frame hangers to the back, then sanded and painted. I removed the hanging hardware from our cork board, set it in place, and clamped it down before drilling pilot holes from the back and screwing the board to the... board. Then I hung the mail in/out box we had.







I picked this color, Valspar Blue Midnight, for a number of reasons. I wanted the contrast against the wall, I didn't want clashing wood grain, and this is the same color we are painting the bottom cabinets in our kitchen. So I figured I'd test it out on this board first. It came inside, I put up some drywall anchors, and hung it on the wall above the entry table.



I'm super happy with the result I got, especially for a total $15 investment in paint. It goes along pretty well with that rustic/industrial look I've aimed for during this whole thing, and is genuinely functional. The wife loves it too, which is even better. I do think I need to come up with something to hang on the wall on either side of the board, because the wall seems a bit bare. I don't know, we'll see what I end up doing.

We also hung up some of our wall decor, specifically the family stuff, our pictures and wedding guest book sign. I wanted my wife to get the sense of being at home rather than in a house we haven't fully moved into yet.

After that was finished, we stained a whole stack of boards and called it a night. Sunday was all about bird hunting. It was a good day!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Great news!

I contacted another local rental company who is not open on weekends, and they have the equipment I need to tackle the floor. So I reserved it for Wednesday - Thursday, hopefully we'll be able to do the full grind and be done by Wednesday evening. Then I'll drop the stain and wait for the most humid day to lay down the polyurea. Should all come together nicely!

I'm headed home now to do a little more sanding and staining on my pallet boards. Hold down the fort.

 

[Trapps]

1. With your plans, you’ll never regret a track saw.
2. Nice grouse!!!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

1. With your plans, you’ll never regret a track saw.
2. Nice grouse!!!

Thank you sir! We got lucky and got into some good birds.

Yeah, I keep hearing that about a track saw. I think I'll probably end up just buying the WEN saw, since I'm not going to be doing a ton of woodworking. I build something every now and then but carpentry isn't something I do a lot of, so I figure I don't need to buy a crazy expensive tool. Besides, the WEN saw gets great reviews. Though if I run across a Makita for a steal I'll probably do that. I've got a while to think about it probably.

 

[Krfjkm]

Wait for a used Makita…. you won’t regret it!

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

I have the Dewalt track saw, but it's a hard pill to swallow at $600 if you're not doing a ton of woodworking. If you already have a nice, corded circular saw, consider the Kreg Accu-Cut system, or find some plywood scraps and make yourself something like this:

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Wait for a used Makita…. you won’t regret it!

I may put up a WTB in the classifieds for that honestly. We'll see what I end up doing, problem is I'd like to have a system sometime in the next month or so in order to start building the cabinets. Maybe I'll get lucky.

I have the Dewalt track saw, but it's a hard pill to swallow at $600 if you're not doing a ton of woodworking. If you already have a nice, corded circular saw, consider the Kreg Accu-Cut system, or find some plywood scraps and make yourself something like this:

I looked at the Kreg Accu-Cut, but I have my concerns about precision and the clamps that hold the saw to the base. It seems like it has a lot of room for error or misjudgment. I may do the Kreg Rip Cut, but that has the same problems. I do have a nice corded DeWalt circular saw already.

I'll have to watch that video, that could be a solution!

Another option is the Kreg track saw, which has outstanding reviews and comes in right at $400. That's easier to swallow but still really spendy. We'll see where I end up. The reviews on the Wen saw are so good it's kind of hard to ignore. My mind changes daily.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Oh, good argument for the Wen saw: you can get a version that uses 7.25" blades with a standard 5/8" arbor, so blades are more readily available as well as cheaper.

Again, I dunno what I'll do. Track saws aren't commonly seen second hand right now, so the odds of me finding one aren't great.

On another note, I spent some time poking around Home Depot last night looking at lumber, and I'm trying to decide how to build my bench tops. 3/4" ply or glued and screwed boards? I have a Kreg pocket hole jig and clamps large enough to handle building the bench tops out of boards. Plywood would definitely be easier but not as cool looking, and possibly not as strong? I'm really not sure. If anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

I did check out some butcher block chunks that looked nice and were priced low, but online reviews were far from glowing. I'm probably better off just making them anyway.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Retrieved!

Now for the fun bit. Wish me luck, team.

 

[Quarter Life Crisis]

Good luck! Allow me to reiterate or I won't be able to sleep later... PPE, PPE, PPE! Silica dust is extremely harmful and that machine makes A LOT of it.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Alright all, mission (mostly) complete!

I got the grinder back to my house and into the shop. My wife and I unloaded it from the truck, and thankfully we didn't hurt our backs or smash any fingers. That sucker is heavy! I threw on a set of 70 grit cutters and hooked up my shop vac before donning a lot of PPE and getting to work.

I worked in quadrants, starting with the NW corner and overlapping slightly. The first quadrant I had to do twice because I had zero idea what the hell I was doing. I didn't even drop the cutting head to the floor! Anyway, I got it figured out and settled in to strip the color out of the floor.



I got the hang of it pretty quickly and figured out how long to work a section before moving on. For most of the time, it was pretty easy, but there are a few high spots on my floor that sent the grinder, and as a result, me, for a ride. Let me tell you, controlling a concrete grinder over high spots is like wrestling a bear. Probably.

I found out that my shop's 110 outlets are divided into an east circuit and a west circuit, and they don't have quite enough capacity to deal with the floor grinder and the shop vac at the same time. Well, they do, but they don't like it for very long.

I stopped after about an hour for dinner and had made it to here. That felt like pretty solid progress to me.



After re-donning all of my clothes and PPE after dinner, which I absolutely ate whilst dressed in only boxers, I got back at it. I did have a few other interruptions and slow-downs, so by the time I finished it was 11:30 and I was very sore. Then my wife and I had to jury-rig a method of loading the Edco back into the truck. By our calculations, it weights as much as the truck does, so that was an event that included a few metal ramps and no less than three ratchet straps. I crawled into bed post-shower at 12:30.

But look at my floor!



Massive improvement. I didn't do a perfectly "back to clean" grind as I did want a little variation in color and some age to the look, but it's pretty close to fresh. I still have to hit the edges and corners with a grinder and diamond cup, but that shouldn't take too long to do. Then I'm going to sweep, then vacuum, then use compressed air to break up and remove the dust. Then I'll hose down the floor and get it cleaned out that way. I'll keep an eye out for any spots where the water doesn't absorb and attack those as needed. I think I'm also going to re-etch the floor with that concrete prep I got at Lowe's, that stuff worked pretty well. It looks like I did manage to grind through all the oil stains, so here's hoping it goes off without a hitch this time.

Once I've got all that done, I'll get the stain laid down and think about the polyurea. God, I'm ready for this to be over.

In less miserable news, my newest hand tool upgrade arrived. I was doing an electrical project recently and was pissed about how my wire cutters appeared to be blunt instruments. I think I got them out of the bargain bin at Ace six years ago. So I treated myself to something nice. Something red. Something German.







Excellent quality right out of the box. They all operate smooth and the handles are wider and flatter near the tail end, giving you better purchase and more comfort. Overall, extremely pleased.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll have more fun updates soon.

Good luck! Allow me to reiterate or I won't be able to sleep later... PPE, PPE, PPE! Silica dust is extremely harmful and that machine makes A LOT of it.

Worry not, QLC! I was wearing a mask, ear protection, gloves, and safety glasses the entire time. By the end of the process, the mask was filthy outside and squeaky clean inside, so it did it's job. Also, as you can see, I had my shop vac on dust control duty, and it kept all of the dust out of the air. Plenty left on the floor, zero went into the air.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

This weekend was a mix of positive and negative.

On Friday, I had to stay home with Dirk, my 3 year old, who has tonsillitis. He was running a fever and feeling pretty crappy, and Beret had stayed home with him twice already last week, so I stayed home with him on Friday. Bram, my almost-two-year-old, was happy and playful as ever.

Around nap time, I was able to get back out to the shop and finish grinding the edges and corners of the floor. Let me tell ya, grinding concrete with an angle grinder *****. But I got 'er done.



Do you like my super butch ear protection? My wife rarely goes to the shooting range, so I end up using her earmuffs around the shop. Makes for a comical sight. Listen, I'm married with kids, I don't have anyone to impress anymore.





Edges cleaned up pretty well, so I called it a night without getting everything cleaned up. That was a horror for another time.

Meanwhile, my new task lamp arrived! I don't know why I'm so chuffed about this one, but I'm really excited for this thing. I was toying with lighting ideas for my workbenches recently. I've got the east wall figured out, I'll have some wall-mount lamps above that one. My first thought for the north wall bench was small pendant lighting, but then I realized the bottom of the upper cabinets would be at 6 feet above the floor, meaning any pendant lights would be hanging below that line. Being that I'm 6' 1", that ain't gonna work. I briefly thought about a fluorescent/led tube, but that's pretty bougie for the end result I'm aiming for.

I followed the Amazon rabbit hole for a bit without discovering anything I felt was the right answer, and then browsed through @Pbindesign's thread again. He has a small architect lamp on one of his benches, a nod to Jack's setup. I searched Amazon for a bit and then went down another rabbit hole, where I discovered the market for the extremely well-built architect lamps from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Turns out there's a ton of them for sale on Etsy, of all places. In an effort to color-coordinate, I picked up this awesome Swedish-made wall-mount architect lamp for above my bench.





It's built like the proverbial brick outhouse. I think it weighs like 5 pounds and if you swing it hard enough, you could probably kill somebody. Rad.

I'll have to figure out a wall mount for it, but I'm pretty confident that won't be much of an issue. It's exactly the right size and can easily be moved to better light anything I want, so I think it's a good solution. Also, it's crazy bright.

I called it a night after staining a few more pallet stringers for the east wall of the shop. Man, I love this color.



Saturday arrived, and I had some interesting experiences. Again, I was home with my sick kid and not sick kid, so I used nap time to go out and get some shop work done. Basically, all I did on Saturday was sweep, then moved on to other things. I think I swept the floor of the shop 3 or 4 times, moving the concrete dust into little piles to pick up with the shop vac. Turns out, the best tool for this job is actually a squeegee. A shop broom loads up with dust and makes an absolute mess regardless of what you do. A squeegee actually pushes everything around properly, so that's what I used. I vacuumed up the extra material, then used the small attachment to clean the edges before I started on the rest of the floor.







Thinking it cleaned up rather well, I went out and sanded some pallet wood before moving on to other household things.

We had made a deal with a gal on FB marketplace to buy her old dining table, as ours was too small and kind of janky. She drove all the way in from like three hours away to hand-deliver this thing, all for $400! It even has a leaf to extend it. Fits the space perfectly I think, and those end chairs are super cush.



By the way, I've been working on cleaning up the paint splatter left behind by our painter. I started in the hallway and have been working my way through the main area of the house. Well, turns out that moving out old table out was the best possible time to access the dining area floor, so I just dealt with it before she showed up with the table set. It took me about an hour on my hands and knees with a wet rag.

Man, I'm so sick of working on floors.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Yesterday I went out to the shop during nap time (again) and started the process of fully cleaning the dust off the floor. First I took my compressor out there and hit the floor hard with compressed air. That took a long time, because some of that dust is really on there, so I took my time on each panel. Well, turns out the look of the floor just after grinding was pretty damn deceptive. As I hit the floor with the compressed air, dark spots started showing up where the grinder (definitely not me) hadn't been as thorough as I had thought. At this point though, I'm actually pretty happy with it. I'm in pursuit of a weathered, used, but well-cared-for look, and these spots actually suit it pretty well! If you can imagine the floor a darker color with a shine on it, this does look like a pretty well-worn machine shop floor.





Somewhat confident, I decided I was ready for the last step, cleaning out the shop with water to get the floor as clean as possible. I started by hosing the floor off and pushing the excess water out with a squeegee. As I did, something began to make itself clear...

Wanting to bring it all the way back to clean, I actually put down some Dawn Ultra dish soap, wet it down, and swabbed the deck with a shop broom. Then I used the squeegee method again to get all the suds out and rinsed the floor twice to get rid of any residual soap. This actually worked really well to get the floor as clean as I could.



Now the extent of the situation is pretty clear. The floor grinder (again, definitely not me) missed a lot more than I had anticipated. Granted, there's some darkness in this picture caused by the floor not being totally dry, but you get the idea. The amount and size of the dark spots is significantly more than I thought it would be. Again, I'm not actually upset about the floor not being totally spotless as I like the idea of the weathered contrasty look, but this is a little excessive.



So I queried my friend and my wife about the next steps. My original thought had been to do two rounds of etching, with the first being a "spot-etch" where I hit just the darkest areas, but my wife said she would worry about that causing too much damage and being inconsistent. Dammit, she's right. That sort of leaves me with only one option: I have to grind some more.

Now, that's not the end of the world I think. Since I'm okay with the inconsistent color and the weathered look, I don't need to do a full floor grind, I can just spot-grind the worst of it until it looks a little more like I want it to. Then I can etch the floor to dull it a bit more and prep for the coating, then I can finally put down the new stain and polyurea. Maybe.

I'm not too upset by this taking much longer than anticipated, because after talking with @Garage Flooring, I realized I needed more polyurea, so I have another quart of that coming, along with a humidity monitor so I can have the conditions just right for that. So maybe, MAYBE, by next weekend I can have the floor stained and sealed and then move on to the next phase. MAYBE.

Okay, in more positive news, I did make an order yesterday in anticipation of starting my cabinet/bench top builds. I have a Wen CT1272 track saw on the way with tracks and track clamps, as well as some face clamps for my Kreg jig. Again, I chose the Wen as such a good value proposition compared to other stuff on the market, and the reviews really seem to back up that it's a good product for what I'm planning on doing with it. Plus, this version uses standard 7.25" circular saw blades with 5/8" arbors, so I should always be able to get good blades for it. Does it stack up to DeWalt, Makita, or Festool? Absolutely not, but it does the job pretty well for far less investment. I may upgrade to the Makita in the future if I find myself using it more, but for the most part I'll be using this to construct garage cabinets and maybe a few pieces of furniture around the house. Not too much.

I think I'll start a long-term review of it over in the tools forum in order to give a detailed and thorough test of it. Should be interesting to see how it works out for me.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Just got caught up on your thread. Definitely in for more on the 100. I've been hunting for the right 80 or 100 for some time, I don't NEED, but I WANT!

Great work so far!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Just got caught up on your thread. Definitely in for more on the 100. I've been hunting for the right 80 or 100 for some time, I don't NEED, but I WANT!

Great work so far!

Outlaw, thanks for stopping in!

Don't you worry, you'll see plenty more of Sandy in the workshop once I get things squared away. I'm debating whether I buy a welder, move the truck over to my shop, and chip away at it, or take it to a body guy and have him do that work. Either way it will end up in a body shop, just a matter of when I suppose. I'm not sure what I want to do really. I do want to buy a welder anyway so maybe this is a good excuse?

I can't recommend a Land Cruiser highly enough. They're unbelievably overbuilt and well-designed vehicles. 80s are less expensive and more plentiful, but they all have insane mileage. 100s are not as easy to find and more prone to rust, but they're a much nicer drive and generally don't have the mileage the 80 series does by now. I knew going in I wanted a 100 series or 200 series, and just lucked into this one. I'd like to have the damn thing fixed up by now, but you probably know how it all goes.

I have plenty of parts tucked away for it, and lots of plans. Just need to get the body work sorted out first. I'd really like to have it some stage of "done" by next summer.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I can't recommend a Land Cruiser highly enough. They're unbelievably overbuilt and well-designed vehicles. 80s are less expensive and more plentiful, but they all have insane mileage. 100s are not as easy to find and more prone to rust, but they're a much nicer drive and generally don't have the mileage the 80 series does by now. I knew going in I wanted a 100 series or 200 series, and just lucked into this one. I'd like to have the damn thing fixed up by now, but you probably know how it all goes.

Miles don't scare me, an 80 series would get LS swapped anyways. A 100 is about as new as I would go, I would love to have the 80 just for the straight front axle. My K2500 Suburban handles the IFS need just fine and honestly, is more than capable enough to do what I need.

I'd like to have a LC built up to play with, something I don't worry about the paint (laughed even as I typed that, I'll still fret with tree stripes)...maybe in a few years.

 

[cros13]

Floor is looking pretty good to me, but wow, your right, the dust sure did cover all the dark spots.

Knipex pliers are the best there is. I had a set for 15 years at work, that I may or may not have arc'd out across a 48v forklift battery blowing a pinhole in the centre of the jaws. I kept using it, but eventually wanted a new pair of wire cutters.

So that damned snap on tool van lured me in at work one afternoon, and I bought a pair of snap on side cutters, they were $140, and they are absolute GARBAGE!
I get mad every time I use them at work now. I think I need to buy a new pair of Knipex ones, they are 1/3rd the price of the snap on junk too!

Rudi.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Miles don't scare me, an 80 series would get LS swapped anyways. A 100 is about as new as I would go, I would love to have the 80 just for the straight front axle. My K2500 Suburban handles the IFS need just fine and honestly, is more than capable enough to do what I need.

I'd like to have a LC built up to play with, something I don't worry about the paint (laughed even as I typed that, I'll still fret with tree stripes)...maybe in a few years.

Yeah, as far as I can work out miles are more or less meaningless on a Land Cruiser as long as they're maintained properly. They're so overbuilt they just don't break.

80 is definitely a better wheeling machine and simpler to work on. The SFA and smaller size work in it's favor. I've seen the LS done in an 80, that's a really fun combo. I'd love to see you put one together, they can be so much fun. I can't wait to get my 100 back on the road. We were out bird hunting this weekend and I can't overstate how much I missed having my Land Cruiser. My friend's Tacoma works fine but it's no Cruiser...

Floor is looking pretty good to me, but wow, your right, the dust sure did cover all the dark spots.

Knipex pliers are the best there is. I had a set for 15 years at work, that I may or may not have arc'd out across a 48v forklift battery blowing a pinhole in the centre of the jaws. I kept using it, but eventually wanted a new pair of wire cutters.

So that damned snap on tool van lured me in at work one afternoon, and I bought a pair of snap on side cutters, they were $140, and they are absolute GARBAGE!
I get mad every time I use them at work now. I think I need to buy a new pair of Knipex ones, they are 1/3rd the price of the snap on junk too!

Rudi.

I was shocked when I finally got all the dust removed. It was crazy how different it looked. I guess that's a good lesson for everyone about grinding concrete: be overly diligent. Luckily I got the dark spots toned down a lot last week and the floor etch really brought it all together. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the stain down and then get the sealer down a few days later.

I'm so impressed with the quality of them honestly. I'll definitely be buying more Knipex in the future. Seems to be good value too compared with some of the other things available on the market. You can pay a lot more and get a lot less.

You know, I've been kind of underwhelmed with Snap On tools largely. I'm not saying they're bad tools, because for the most part they make really nice stuff, but for me the cost/benefit just isn't there. My brother in law used to wrench for a living so he has a shop full of Snap On, but he agrees that for the majority of people their stuff isn't worth the money.

I had this conversation with a friend this weekend, and he's confident in saying that it's really hard to buy "bad" tools these days. Most brands are selling stuff that will hold up to all but the heaviest use. He uses his tools to make a living (RV/camper repair) and he's a huge fan of everything Milwaukee, for example. Another tradesman I know won't buy any hand tools that don't say Proto or SK. But then I know mechanics with full Kobalt tool sets, and more than a few with Harbor Freight items in their boxes. Most everything is more durable than it used to be and almost everyone has a lifetime warranty now, so paying a premium starts making less sense other than convenience, which I suppose is worth something too if you need the tool to make money.

I'm not a Snap On hater either. I think they make really nice ratchets and their screwdrivers are pretty great. It's just that for a hobbyist like myself I can get 90% of the quality for far less investment. If I was making money from the work I did, I'd probably be a lot more willing to spend that kind of money on my tools. But I'm not, so I don't.

 

[zc15]

Very nice, definitely subbing!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Now we're getting somewhere!

Floor has been ground enough to be a lot cleaner and nicer looking. Many of the darkest spots got a light buff over with the diamond cup to dull them and rough them up a bit, and each section of the floor had some dark spots removed in the most random fashion I could muster. I tried to follow the lines of what was already there so it looked natural, and I think it came up fairly well.

Next I hit the dark oil spots with Rustoleum concrete stain remover. Let that sit, then scrubbed the stains. They're still dark spots, but it appears they are absorbing water without issue.

Next up, I hit the floor with more etch. Lowe's concrete prep again. It did a great job of dulling the dark spots and opening the pores of the concrete, so the floor looks clean and is ready for stain now. Running my hand over the surface feels like sandpaper and my palm comes up clean. Beautiful!





Here's a look as of this morning with the floor completely dry. I'm feeling like all the effort may work out properly this time!



The oil stains concern me a bit, so I will do a water absorption test to determine if they are repelling water, but from my hosing it out repeatedly, I think the floor is readily accepting water. With any luck it will take the stain without a problem.

From the pictures it does appear that one side of the workshop is darker than the other. I'm not sure that's actually the case as I didn't notice it in person, but I will check once I get home today. I believe it's more to do with the light in those two pictures than anything else, though the etch did sit on that side for longer so it could be that as well. Regardless, it's extremely subtle if it is even there, so I'm not too concerned about it.

My next phase is to get the stain down. I plan to dilute the gallon of gray I have with 25% water and then spray lightly. My hope is that this adds a slightly darker gray, accents some of the dark spots I left, and covers a lot of the strange concrete patterns from the initial pour. I think it will work out well. Then I can get the sealer down and start painting!

Hopefully soon after I can start posting things that are actually interesting!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Very nice, definitely subbing!

Thanks for stopping in and subscribing! Lots more to happen here, just a matter of getting the work done.

 

[zc15]

Thanks for stopping in and subscribing! Lots more to happen here, just a matter of getting the work done.

I feel that. We moved in a little under a year ago, and I gained my 720 sqft garage. I actually just started my own thread earlier this month. My garage sees storage, woodworking, auto maintenance, and will be seeing racecar fabrication this winter.

It is currently very poorly insulated, with a janky door. I've started gathering materials and started on installing a heater, but I honestly just need to take it down to the studs, seal it up, and start from there

 

[wreckdiver1321]

If I never work on another concrete floor, it'll be too soon.

Last night I attempted to stain, but as soon as I laid down the first pass, I started to see a hard squiggly line where the stain was not taking. A few seconds of thinking and I realized it was the Dawn dish soap! ****!

So I ran outside and grabbed the hose, which I had set up with the sprayer not three feet from my door for this very reason, and sprayed the floor with water. Good news: the stain didn't take. It hadn't been sitting long enough, so it more or less washed right off without any trouble whatsoever. Bad news: I was done staining for the night. DeltaDye requires the floor to be dry, so I was scuppered.

I'll admit anger took over at that point, and I proceeded to walk every inch of the shop, hitting it all with the water from no more than two feet away. I hosed it out, squeegeed, then hosed it again. If I got suds out of the floor, I spent a long time on that spot. I did that over and over to try and remove the soap.

Dish soap. Stupid plan!

So now I have another dilemma. I now have just slightly less stain than I think I need, which is an annoying problem to have. I'm also not certain about the color now that I've seen it on the floor, though I've not seen the final effect. I may do a test spot where I plan to build the cabinets, which will be completely covered and likely won't see the light of day for a long time. That way I can make a better decision and either forge ahead or try to tweak my plan.

I do have a final contingency if this doesn't work how I want, but I hope it doesn't go that way.

Seriously, if I had known what a massive pain this was going to be, I wouldn't have done this method. I would have chosen another route rather than **** with this. I would really rather just finish the damn floor and start working on the cabinets and benches, but the holdup here has been unbelievable.

Onward!

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Keep pushing forward! If you've read through enough shop builds/rebuilds, we all run into issues, makes the end product that much more worth it!

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Keep pushing forward! If you've read through enough shop builds/rebuilds, we all run into issues, makes the end product that much more worth it!

Indeed!

It's a slog sometimes, but worth the energy to get it right I suppose. I'm just tired of screwing with it and wish it could be done. But I know I'll appreciate the effort in the long run. Thanks for the support/encouragement! Sometimes that's desperately needed.

 

[bdbecker]

Great space you've got there! I really like the house too.

Concerning the finish on the walls, have you considered spraying them with drywall texture? Depending on the paint that is currently on there, this may be an option. My Dad did this in his garage and you can barely tell its OSB underneath.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Great space you've got there! I really like the house too.

Concerning the finish on the walls, have you considered spraying them with drywall texture? Depending on the paint that is currently on there, this may be an option. My Dad did this in his garage and you can barely tell its OSB underneath.

Thanks! We're liking all the extra space and the layout, though the house does need some updating. The flow is great though and I'm happy we are where we are.

You know, I've gone back and forth on that idea a lot. I may just do some knockdown texture because it's a good way to mask the OSB texture. It wouldn't be terribly expensive either since I only need to be covering about 300 sqft. That'd be less than $50 for two gallons of texture mix and a sprayer from Harbor Freight.