What happens when you don't have a plan.

[Ray Kelly]

It looks like a pretty cool place to me. Good work.

 

[my68spit]

**Subscribed**

I love the french cleat/chair rail idea. Where i do work in my garage varies from project to project so having that kind of flexibility around the entire garage would be nice. What kind of wood did you use for your cleats? (I started typing "how thick is your wood..." but didn't think that would go over so well.).

Sorry....found my answer. Must have missed that section.

 

[smedly]

Np problem. I was laughing too hard to type my wood's thickness anyway.

 

[K2sno311]

Np problem. I was laughing too hard to type my wood's thickness anyway.

LMAO

Deeper drawers. Use the sides for storage and organization.

Only problem is poking the ends of my fingers when getting the spade bits out.

Did you try turning them upside-down?
With that much room you can still clearly see the size if they're flipped the other way, and with your rubber liners, the tips won't get dulled.

GREAT garage and I (along with all the rest) will be using most of your ideas...
Thanks for posting such simple, yet elegant and useful tricks!!

 

[slidemx5]

Great drawer organization ideas. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Hornman]

What you have taught is to not be a slave to a plan, but to adjust to the changes to our lives and to GET THINGS DONE! Atta boy!

 

[DWooderson]

Wow, your garage looks great! I wish I had that much sq/ftage.

I'm taking Thursday and Friday off this week to work on mine. We moved into our current house almost three years ago, and I've never properly organized things. It's currently a disaster.

What interests me in your garage is that I also have way (way) too many bikes. I currently have five complete bikes and four frames. Between my wife and kids, we have six more. Add about 8 wheelsets and so many bike parts.. Uggh. I need to learn to part with things.

Is that a Salsa on the workstand (Spearfish)?

My garage is only a slightly oversized, a two-car model (that only has space for one car), and all of the walls are spoken for by things like doors, windows, a refrigerator, and a small built-in workbench alcove. There is no space for shelves or hanging anything. Half of the bikes are hung above my wife's car, and the rest take up floor space, along with a rolling shelf unit, and big recycling and trash bins.

Wish me luck, I need it.

 

[jktruck150]

Great evolution of your place! That is what I like to see...all the improvments we all do to our garages! well done!

 

[smedly]

Wow, your garage looks great! I wish I had that much sq/ftage.



What interests me in your garage is that I also have way (way) too many bikes. I currently have five complete bikes and four frames. Between my wife and kids, we have six more. Add about 8 wheelsets and so many bike parts.. Uggh. I need to learn to part with things.

Is that a Salsa on the workstand

Wish me luck, I need it.

Thanks and good luck.

Yes, a spearfish, now sold and waiting for my 2014 horsethief to arrive.

As much as I love bikes, they are a PITA to store. It only works for me to go up, bit the kids bikes stay on the floor and are always in the way.

3 of the file cabinet drawers are full of parts, and I am going to need to take over a 4th soon. I'm down 2 bikes and a wheelset, but it won't be long till more comes back.

 

[smedly]

Great evolution of your place! That is what I like to see...all the improvments we all do to our garages! well done!

Thanks.
Someday I will replace my temporary shelves storage shelves (12 years old) temporary workbench (2 years old) with more finished versions.

At least that is the plan.

 

[smedly]

Finally got around to doing something in the garage.
Old shelves/cabinets all constructed of scraps taken from dumpsters when there was a building boom in my neighborhood.

Close up of some of my finest joinery.

Hey- we just moved in and were not exactly swimming in money. I scrounged whatever scraps I could find to get things off the floor. 13 years later it's still standing and level(ish)



Took a day off and started tearing it out.

 

[smedly]

Plan was to create the cabinets found in the Home Handyman magazine. Attach 2x2 strips to the studs, attach plywood to those, join it all together with 2x2s. Could not bite the bullet for the 3/4 plywood at $45 a sheet, though it looked nice and wasn't warped. Went down a grade which was not the greatest decision. Looked fine, and is strong enough but I was working with warped 2x2, warped plywood and uneven walls and ceiling. Lots of fudging/forcing things straight.

Day 1

A few mistakes here and there, but the shell is up and fairly straight.

 

[smedly]

Re-used some of my scrounged chipboard shelves. Forced the plywood straight with the shelves and dado'd some pine 1x2 to trim the exposed plywood edges.

Wanted something other than the normal hardboard or plywood doors that would be bright without painting. Found 4x8 sheets of v-groove paneling on hardboard backer at Home Depot.

Finished it off with 1x3 and 1x2 choice pine for trim.

End result.

Next will be replacing the shelves to the left of the bench. I have a few ideas on how I want to tackle that.

 

[smedly]

And finally put in a permanent solution for the garage door eyes getting blinded by the sun every fall and spring.

 

[studlyrs]

I spy a pre Trek Klein, I have always been a fan of those.

 

[truckin23]

Just finished reading from the beginning subscribing awesome and thanks for the electric eye fix

 

[rubberrodder]

Unlike some of the folks here that are going to "borrow" some of your ideas, I am going just outright "steal" the ones I like!

 

[smedly]

I spy a pre Trek Klein, I have always been a fan of those.

That was a nice bike, but long gone now. Latest is this

Now only if we could get some sort of spring going in MN...

 

[BUGTHUG]

I like the dead end sign, most the ones I see are about 2'sq. Is it for sale?

 

[W0rLDWaR4]

Looks better as the years go by!!! Not like my father's garage lol.

 

[Xporter]

I like alot of your orginizing ideas and the cabinets look great.

 

[metalhead140]

Looks great and very functional without too stupid a $ outlay. Just what I am hoping to be able to achieve myself eventually. Good work! Shame about the Datsun though... My wife has a 260Z.

 

[smedly]

Thanks. I am definitely keeping costs as low as I can. I'd love to do a ton more. I find that doing it on the cheap is part of the fun. I think I have $200 into the new cabinets which was a big expense compared to everything else not including the HF toolbox.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

 

[smedly]

Haven't updated this in some time. No changes to the garage, but the house is sold and our new house should be ready by June. So....

I'm starting over from scratch

Nice thing is I now have all my experience and knowledge gained from this site. The only thing I'm taking from the garage is the black file cabinet bench, so it's time to start planning and scrounging again. Just like the old garage, this needs to be done on the cheap, but that is part of the fun.
The new garage is just a bit larger, maybe 40 sq ft, but laid out differently. A standard 3 car with a 6x19' storage area on the two car side. The extra width will be nice, but The storage and work area are on opposite sides. bulkier tools , band/table saw etc. will be kept on the other side. Cieling is 12' in most of it so I've got space for shelves.

1st scrounged item. 2' deep pallet racking from my FIL. Should be plenty of it, and it will cost me nothing. I think it is 10' tall, but not sure. That goes on the storage side.
Pics to come.

 

[smedly]

New place will look like this with 2' higher ceiling.

 

[onething]

Another opportunity to do it all over!!!
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[smedly]

Wanted this

Did not want to spend that much.

Got two of these for $120. Ugly, but functional.

Little paint, some casters and a handle. Less ugly, more functional.

 

[smedly]

The ugly tan has one advantage- the lighter color interior is easy to see things in.

 

[smedly]

Woah. It looks pretty big like this. Hope the new owners use it.

 

[smedly]

Getting things ready-ugh.

 

[smedly]

So before I moved out, I acquired 7 of these office flip door cabinets with lights for free. I jumped on the deal as I would have hardly anything for my new garage when I moved in. Just needed to figure out a way to hang them on normal walls.
Odd thing is I started planning this time.... Sorta goes against the whole thread.

Decided that french cleats were the answer again. The sides of these are some super dense particle board- a bit brittle.

 

[smedly]

So 5 weeks of temporary housing with my stuff scattered to the winds, and now-
Blank Slate

These were taken about 2 weeks from our closing date.

 

[smedly]

Then of course a few weeks of this.

When you pack up all your stuff for staging your house over a few months, you realize that you have a lot of stuff. When you move to your new place and BAM-All the contents you have been putting into 2 storage lockers, 2 pack rat boxes, 1 buddies garage, 1 in-laws barn and one temporary house all need emptying in a week- good gawd do we have a lot of ****. That with no shelves in the garage and no shed yet at the new house means I don't have a garage for a few weeks.....

 

[sublime68charger]

good luck in the new place and all the things you did in the old garage will serve you well when setting up the new garage.

 

[smedly]

First thing needed was to create floor space. Only way to do that was go up. Scored a pile of pallet racking from the in-laws for free[/B. ] Did I mention I'm a cheap *******? A sort of strange 17" deep uprights with 6' beams. I ended up bolting the uprights together to create 34"deep shelves. They fit nicely into the 6' deep extra width section of the new garage.

The ceiling 11' at the highest area so I cut down the uprights by 3'- I have plans for the leftovers.

 

[smedly]

Next thing to do was set up the workbench area. Re-using my file cabinets, lower frame and worktop- and adding the flip door uppers.

Still a gigantic mess, but the french cleats worked very well for hanging the cabinets.

 

[smedly]

Getting there- just will take some time.

I did hook the beer sign up to the switched outlet on my receiver- so just turn on the music and the sign lights up.

 

[smedly]

And just for sh*ts and giggles-

HF roller cabinet-made in USA- hardly. (I'm a follower of the industrial metal desks thread too) The rest of that file cabinet went to the scrappers..

 

[BUGTHUG]

Oh I'd love to have that DEAD END sign! Been looking for one for awhile. Looks like you put the shelves to a good use. I like all the old industrial stuff, seen a bunch of the metal desk go to the scrappers cause no one wants to mess with them.

 

[jbmatth]

I like the size of the new garage, too bad you couldn't paint it before moving all of your stuff in. I've learned I hate to paint after everything is in the way. Love the bikes, I don't do much off road riding, but have a heavy old mt. bike I picked up a few years ago and did a 50 mi dirt and gravel ride at night, we finished at 2am and it was still in the mid 90's, fun ride though.

Bugthug, I've helped to procure those signs in a long lost life, but come across them from time to time even that smaller size and will let you know if I find one.