More garage progress

One wall was left in the garage that I hadn't yet gotten around to. I knew I already had a good amount of storage so didn't want to add cabinets to it. Instead I sketched this out in my projects journal:

The idea was that I'd build a small cabinet with a shelf and put it over the workbench I already made for that wall. Trying to keep a vintage theme, I thought I'd add some chevrons to the door front.

Using scrap pieces of wood I had in the garage I put this thing together in an hour or so and painted it the green color I'm using on the other cabinets. 

I added some family photos from my grandpas, great grandfather and great great grandfathers:

I picked up the deer antlers off of eBay, the American flag is from the thrift store but is actually an Annin flag. Annin is one of the best and oldest flag makers in the USA, the flag the Marines raised on Iwo Jima was an Annin as is the flag Armstrong and Aldrin planted on the moon.


 Still a lot of plans to make the garage more usable, organized and awesome...

the Shop

Here's some photos of the garage, though I'm no longer referring to it as that. Garages contain cars or clutter and this really has none of that. It's a shop.

Built my last workbench and incorporated the metal drawer cabinets that I got off of Craigslist.

Still more work to be done, but it's really nice to have an organized place to play in.

More Garage stuff

So, I was browsing on Craigslist the other day and came across an ad for this: 

The perfect thing to hold all of my screws/bolts/etc. So I called her and she said she still had it and had some other cabinets like it too. She was cleaning out her dad's garage.

So I drove over there. She had two other cabinet units that had these small drawers. I asked her how much she wanted for all three, and she said, well, you know I think they're worth $40.

Done.

Got them home and into the garage ----- am going to build a workbench over them I think ---- the small unit might just sit on top and under the cabinets:



Small bin has built in dividers ---- the grey one has removal dividers:

Also, I restored this Wilton vise ---- stamped 12-46 (made in December 1946): 

Before: 

After: 

      

Garage progress

So, first post on the garage in a while...mainly due to focusing my energies on other parts of the house. I wanted to add another workbench to increase storage and general workspace.

Did this a few months ago using mostly left over scrap wood I had laying around:

Then, I added four pull out drawers (no pictures). This weekend, I got it nearly finished: 

Still needs a second coat of paint on the front doors. I'll be building more workbenches like this around two other walls of the garage. The sliding doors were really cheap and help keep things looking organized. 

Garage island again

Reinforced the legs last night with some 4 x 4's I had. It's fairly sturdy has a very slight wobble in it when I try really hard to knock it down --- when I enclose it on three sides that should go away.

And here's an updated panorama shot of where the garage currently stands:

Staining

Is that a new table top? Yes. For the house? No, for the garage!

Started building this garage island a few days ago and used cabinet grade plywood for the top. Last night I put a few coats of stain on it and think it's looking great. Will put a glossy varnish on it once I'm happy with the color, which may be very soon.

More structural support beams will go below as well as a shelf or two. I'll also enclose the entire bottom area and add doors and maybe a low profile drawer or two. Then, things will get painted.

You can see that the island is the same height as the table saw --- not a coincidence. Now, when I rip a large sheet of plywood, the board will be supported by the island.

The plan is to keep this thing clear and clean on top --- void of tools. Instead they'll be stored underneath and I'll pull them out when needed.

Drain Valve modification

I've read that you need to drain air compressors after each use because condensation can rust out the tank. The problem is, the existing drain valve (see above) was 1) difficult to turn 2)leaked air 3) broke twice.

So I googled "air compressor drain valve" and found this post outlining how to upgrade it.

Next, I went to Emigh hardware and got the parts for about $24.

I used to have to tip the tank over to get access to the drain valve too, now it sticks out the side. Pretty sweet.

Vise handle

Got this Wilton vise off of Craigslist for like $30 and it had this bent handle:

I ordered 24" ($13.00 on eBay) of 17-4 Stainless Steel rod which had one of the highest Yield Strengths I could find at 145,000 psi. This means bending this metal is very difficult.

And two of these collars ($5):

So got the parts in the mail yesterday and installed. After about 5 minutes with a hacksaw and fresh blade I barely scratched it. I switched to a jigsaw which was slow but worked. Feels very solid. This vise has 5" opening which is pretty good but I think it was made in China, when it breaks I'll get something made in the USA ----- now lets see how long it takes to break this thing!

Bike Rack

I've always used hooks to store bikes in the garage before. But recently I had the idea for putting the bikes on the ground like in a bike shop. You'd think that I'd lose a ton of floor space, but actually the bikes only stick out 10 inches more than before, and this way I have wall space. Maybe I'll install some used kitchen cabinets above the bikes?

I used scrap plywood I had and also used my new radial arm saw to cut the 45 degree cuts for the pieces that hold the rear wheel. Tacked together with my pneumatic nailer and glue then reinforced with screws. Only two screws holding the rack to the wall because there really isnt that much force on it.

My "new" radial arm saw

Saw this DeWalt radial arm saw (model# 1400) on Craigslist yesterday, emailed the seller and it was still available, so went with my parents and picked it up last night. The old man who owned it said he had it for about 35 years and he still had all of the paperwork to go with it. Including a price list of DeWalt items dated 1964, the saw was priced at $279 and the cabinet at $39. I went to dollartimes.com to check what $318 was worth in today's dollars: $1,971.90! This was an expensive saw!

via vintage Popular Mechanics found online from 1964:

Dust Separation

So the more I've been working with wood, the more of an issue dust has been; it's messy. I've decided to use my ShopVac more and create attachments on all of my tools to plug the ShopVac into to collect the dust at the source.

Researching online, I came across these dust separators guys have built. The idea is that you collect the dust before it gets to the ShopVac so that the vaccuum's filter never gets dirty/clogged.

So I built one myself:

 

 

Dream Garage

This guy lives in a LA as a screenwriter and has what is probably my dream garage including a Porsche!

source: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55006