Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT tworley's garage

tworley · Dec 16, 2024

Thought I'd join garagejournal! I am always researching things and seem to end up here more often than not

We bought our current house 3 years ago. Its a 1980s home with a 20x25 2-car garage. It had 1 usable outlet on the wall and one on the ceiling for the garage door opener. 2x4 frames, all with a single 60 watt bulb and nothing more.

tworley · Dec 16, 2024

Late 2022, after finally getting settled in the house, I focused on the garage.

First, I found a steel work bench at auction.

Next, I needed power. I had my jeep and bike on battery maintainers, a stereo, a powered tool box, an air compressor, 120v welder and various other things to use. The single 15 amp wall outlet obviously wasn't going to cut it. So next was adding a subpanel. I went big with 1/0-1/0-1/0-2 SER wire. Knowing now what I didn't then, this was overkill. By far.

I fished the SER down thru the corner stud and into the basement, where it 90s into the crawlspace, and runs along the floor joists to the back side of the house where our meter sits outside.

I ended up adding 5 outlets to each wall. Each wall is on its own 20-amp circuit and protected by a GFCI outlet. On the open walls, I fished the romex thru the studs. On the shared living space wall I went with surface mounts and conduit. For the south wall, the romex goes into the basement, thru the floorjoists, and back up and into the opposite corner.

tworley · Dec 16, 2024

For lighting, I used "Bolt" LEDs by primelights. These have 2, 4-foot tubes side by side and they produce 5700 lumens with a 5k color temperature so a very white/bright light. The LEDs draw only 44 watts each. There is a support beam that runs along the center of the ceiling, so 5 lights went on either side.

Hooked everything up, and wa la!

I went from 1 usable outlet, to 15! Since then, I've also added outlets on either side of the house outdoors (mainly for christmas lights), one at the front door and 5 in the basement. I've used every single one in the last two years. Not having to worry about what to unplug in fear of overloading the circuit, is a good feeling.

tworley · Dec 16, 2024

Some more auction finds.

The garage sat like this for a bit. I ended up moving the steel work bench to the otherside of the entrance door. A lot of the excess romex you see at the outlets was trimmed and stapled, hung some decor and tinkered when I could.

In May of 2024, I bought a new Lincoln 211i and installed a 240v 6-50r receptacle.

Built a new winch hoop for the jeep

tworley · Dec 16, 2024

Latest project; insulation!

The garage is open wall as you can see (sans the ceiling the shared living space wall). Did some research and came across rockwool. The garage is typically the same as ambient temps outside. I am right on that border where energy star says Zone 5 or 7. I **** right up to the mtns. Our average temps are 35° in the winter with low humidity. I figured the R15 batts should be good.

I got one wall insulated this last weekend. Hoping to get the other one completed this weekend.

I'll get the garage door insulated with foam boards (OC foamular NGX, polysio, something along those lines). I also have a DR966 (6k watt heater) on hand that I will install. For the occassional tinkering I do, the garage should end up being a cozy little spot. TBD on whether or not I install a vapor barrier. In the very near future I plan to install 1/2" OSB in lieu of sheetrock.

GlennSullivan · Dec 16, 2024

Alot of good improvements and hard work there.

tworley · Dec 17, 2024

GlennSullivan said:
Alot of good improvements and hard work there.

Appreciate it

I want to finish with the insulation/heater and move onto a handful of other projects I have.

Currently painting kitchen cabinets - started this a few months ago, but the colder weather moved in and the paint I am using recommends 70° to spray/dry correctly.

Have a 32rh transmission for the jeep that needs rebuilt along with a few other jeep projects.

Have a '63 Santa Fe camper that I need to repair some rot on.

Just need the time....

GreenIron · Dec 17, 2024

Nice!

The lighting upgrade alone made for a huge improvement.

tworley · Dec 17, 2024

GreenIron said:
Nice!

The lighting upgrade alone made for a huge improvement.

My wife calls it walmart lighting

They have been great lights. They sell fixtures without ballasts and the tubes and tombstones are all prewired. The clear tubes that I opted for are very light and the plastic housing has held up really well to general shop work (metal flakes, saw dust, air compressors, etc) and handling overall. I am not worried about breaking one if I happen to drop it.

tworley · Dec 23, 2024

Got the remaining wall insulated.

We have a weather station with a remote sensor (not sure on accuracy), but I put the sensor in the garage and kept an eye on the temps. Our overnight low was 34° and the garage low was 57°. Insulating the garage door will help a bit. Also, there are a few spots at the corner framing of the garage door where you can see daylight, plan is to seal those corners with spray foam.

I had a little bit of extra time yesterday so wired up my DR966 heater. I was sitting comfortable at 70°. I am eager to see how this unit does when it gets a little bit colder. l

tworley · Jan 2, 2025

A neighborhood find. I didn't need another set of toolboxes but for $20 I couldn't pass it up. Gave the boxes a scrub down, lubed the drawer slides, vacuumed out the drawers and all the cobwebs. Looks like it sat outside for awhile, but everything works just fine.

tworley · Jan 20, 2025

I had to take down my stereo when I was putting in the insulation batts last month. Its been sitting on my workbench ever since. Last night I decided to hook it up again. A little bit of left over white melamine, 4 left over shelving brackets and a couple of staples for the speaker wiring and its back up and playing tunes.

tworley · Apr 28, 2025

Not in my garage, but my folks place.

My dad bought this '84 K2500 new. Its hovering around 272k miles and has been sitting out behind the horse shed for the last 8 years. We put in a new battery, fresh gas, changed oil and dumped some starting fluid down the carb. After a few tries it fired right up. I drove it down the road and the power steering is gone, the brakes barely work, the clutch takes a bit to engage and an unknown wire began to melt. We got it into the garage and he's going to start stripping the interior (rusty floorboards, random drilled holes, dash pad, etc..)

K2500. On its second anemic 350 with some sort of holly carb and hedman headers. Muncie SM465 trans, NP208 tcase, 10 bolt front axle and a 14 bolt rear with 4.10s. Its really not in too bad of shape. The floor boards are rusted thru, so is the driver side cab corner and rear fender. But otherwise in decent shape...

tworley · Aug 26, 2025

A buddy of mine 3d-printed some milwaukee battery/tool holders for me. I spent some time this last weekend getting them mounted above the work bench with some leftover 2x4 I had laying around. It really opens up the space available to me on the bench and the tool chest.

tworley · Sep 2, 2025

I've collected an "ok" set of sockets/ratchets over the years but wanted something a little nicer that filled in the gaps. I opted for Tektons 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 set.

tworley · Sep 21, 2025

I started repairing the torque box on my Jeep. The center body mount was rusted out. I was able to drill out 5 spot welds using a rotabroach before the bit shattered. These bits are incredibly sharp though and are working well.

tworley · Sep 27, 2025

More torque box progress.

I have a repair section to install. Will need to trim it a bit, but I hope to get it installed in the coming weeks as time allows

tworley · Dec 3, 2025

Im like a bumble bee, the torque box has been put on hold because i decided to build a new work bench. The current steel one works, but its shallow and short. This follows the eaa build plans, but I did 8' long, 38" tall and 30" deep. I still need to put on the lower shelf and the top will be plywood for short while. The plan is to top the bench with 1/8" steel since I'll be welding on it from time to time. Ill see if I can sell the steel table locally.