What did you do to / in your garage / shop today?
- Thread starter Zorba
- Start date
Every time I go on this site it cost me money 😂
Since the neighbor won't sell me the 0.73 acre lot between our houses (which means I can't build the shop/casita yet), I'm working on making the garage into a more manageable and thought-out workspace. I have a 1-car wide x ~2.5 cars deep garage; the front half will be for boat/Jeep/automotive stuff and the back half will be for wood working and reloading (ideally not at the same time lol).
The pic below is from by the garage door looking down the length... stairs on the right lead into the sunroom and back entrance of the house. The whole garage is in a bit of disarray just due to me moving things around to see how it "feels", while also having the boat in there (at a minimum, once the boat is done, it will be stored in backyard on a 10x12' asphalt pad that the PO must have used as a base for a storage shed. Currently looking at getting a 10x18' shed for the boat, lawn tractor, snow blower, and the rest of the lawn and garden stuff.
This pic is from the rear of the garage looking out at it currently stands (again, don't mind the clutter, I'm repairing some holes the PO left in the wall while figuring out where I want equipment to be so I can plan the wiring out better).
At the moment, the garage is fed by two different circuits, both of which are undersized (one is a 15A and the other is a 20A but already feeding the office, the spare bath, and 4 outlets in the garage!), without grounding plugs, and not GFCI (the one is directly below the boiler pipe coming from the basement that also feeds into the bedroom immediately behind the wall). Last year, we had the service/meter box and service line upgraded. I also had the guy run a 100A subpanel into the garage. My current plan is to separate the two in-house circuits with the garage wiring, putting all the garage wiring, as well as the outdoor circuits (currently 2) on breakers within the subpanel, then expand the number of circuits I need. Currently, the expansion looks like the following:
We are toying with the idea of extending the garage ~5' to match the dimensions of the house, so I may take my time and rewire the rear exactly how I want with in-wall outlets (I can get above the ceiling on the back half) but just run 1/2" and 3/4" conduit on the front half of the garage (since much of it may be coming down anyways). I don't have a great photo by itself, but you can see in the image below how there is an awning/covering that extends out from the garage door.
The problem I have is that there are a shit ton of things in my way on the front half of the garage to conveniently run new wires, plus the fact that the office is directly above makes it impossible to pull wires from the attic space (like I can on the rear of the house). Additionally, the office above the garage and the front-half of the garage below share at least 4 "crossovers", where an outlet or light upstairs in the office feeds an outlet downstairs. I marked out where I would need to cut an access hole in the drywall (ceiling and walls) and it ended up being like 15 holes that I would have to patch repair. The current drywall is a thin plaster coat over gypsum with grit/texture sand in the mud. It's gritty, hard to clean, and looks dirty. I am half toying with the idea of ripping out all the drywall out in the front half (the rear half of the garage, since it was an extension, is already smooth 1/2" drywall), making my wiring upgrades and changes properly, and then redoing it with modern mold-resistant board, primer, and semi-gloss latex.
I drafted up what I want my miter station to look like (below), so what I think I may do is build the cabinets and install first, this way everything has a place and a home that is out of the way (and I can still add the 3 outlets above the workbench with relative ease), finish my boat project before spring (which I want to do anyways) so I can move it outside, then do the garage tear-down in late-spring/early-summer. My summer is going to be busy with the boat as well as with the remainder of the basement remodel (which is also tied together with the garage rewiring work). If you want to see how the basement is going, check it out here...
BTW - my daughter took woodshop this year and is enjoying it and said she would like to do stuff in the garage, and my son wants to start building his own RC planes (vs the kits he's been doing), so this space will get plenty of love and use.
The pic below is from by the garage door looking down the length... stairs on the right lead into the sunroom and back entrance of the house. The whole garage is in a bit of disarray just due to me moving things around to see how it "feels", while also having the boat in there (at a minimum, once the boat is done, it will be stored in backyard on a 10x12' asphalt pad that the PO must have used as a base for a storage shed. Currently looking at getting a 10x18' shed for the boat, lawn tractor, snow blower, and the rest of the lawn and garden stuff.
This pic is from the rear of the garage looking out at it currently stands (again, don't mind the clutter, I'm repairing some holes the PO left in the wall while figuring out where I want equipment to be so I can plan the wiring out better).
At the moment, the garage is fed by two different circuits, both of which are undersized (one is a 15A and the other is a 20A but already feeding the office, the spare bath, and 4 outlets in the garage!), without grounding plugs, and not GFCI (the one is directly below the boiler pipe coming from the basement that also feeds into the bedroom immediately behind the wall). Last year, we had the service/meter box and service line upgraded. I also had the guy run a 100A subpanel into the garage. My current plan is to separate the two in-house circuits with the garage wiring, putting all the garage wiring, as well as the outdoor circuits (currently 2) on breakers within the subpanel, then expand the number of circuits I need. Currently, the expansion looks like the following:
- 1x 15/120V for lighting (it's all LED and I don't want to run new switches or switch wiring, which is currently 14/3)
- 1x 20/120V dedicated for air filter unit (Jet)
- 2x 20A/120V general service circuits with 4 receptacles per circuit (4 in front half of garage, 4 in rear)
- 1x 30A/220V for mini-split (coming this spring/summer).
- 1x 20A/12V dedicated circuit for future panel saw
- 3x 20/220V circuits (with NEMA 6-15s) for table saw, dust collector, and air compressor
- 1x 20A/120V dedicated for garage opener with 2 receptacles - one by the current opener which I just had to replace and one by the door itself so when I upgrade to a side-mounted opener, I already have electricity there
- 1x 50A/220V near the subpanel/garage door for welder (or possible EV charger)
We are toying with the idea of extending the garage ~5' to match the dimensions of the house, so I may take my time and rewire the rear exactly how I want with in-wall outlets (I can get above the ceiling on the back half) but just run 1/2" and 3/4" conduit on the front half of the garage (since much of it may be coming down anyways). I don't have a great photo by itself, but you can see in the image below how there is an awning/covering that extends out from the garage door.
The problem I have is that there are a shit ton of things in my way on the front half of the garage to conveniently run new wires, plus the fact that the office is directly above makes it impossible to pull wires from the attic space (like I can on the rear of the house). Additionally, the office above the garage and the front-half of the garage below share at least 4 "crossovers", where an outlet or light upstairs in the office feeds an outlet downstairs. I marked out where I would need to cut an access hole in the drywall (ceiling and walls) and it ended up being like 15 holes that I would have to patch repair. The current drywall is a thin plaster coat over gypsum with grit/texture sand in the mud. It's gritty, hard to clean, and looks dirty. I am half toying with the idea of ripping out all the drywall out in the front half (the rear half of the garage, since it was an extension, is already smooth 1/2" drywall), making my wiring upgrades and changes properly, and then redoing it with modern mold-resistant board, primer, and semi-gloss latex.
I drafted up what I want my miter station to look like (below), so what I think I may do is build the cabinets and install first, this way everything has a place and a home that is out of the way (and I can still add the 3 outlets above the workbench with relative ease), finish my boat project before spring (which I want to do anyways) so I can move it outside, then do the garage tear-down in late-spring/early-summer. My summer is going to be busy with the boat as well as with the remainder of the basement remodel (which is also tied together with the garage rewiring work). If you want to see how the basement is going, check it out here...
BTW - my daughter took woodshop this year and is enjoying it and said she would like to do stuff in the garage, and my son wants to start building his own RC planes (vs the kits he's been doing), so this space will get plenty of love and use.
Nice, PC. You may remember that I build furniture, but I get just as much enjoyment building storage cabinets and work benches. There is something about building something that exactly and absolutely fits your needs.
Cool that the kids are getting into it as well.
If I did know that, I have long forgotten it! That's cool - something I've always enjoyed and admired. Growing up my dad was an excellent plumber and an awful carpenter, so I just assumed it wasn't in my DNA. I ended up building a really nice built-in entertainment center in our house in AZ, then a really nice cherry custom closet for the Mrs. and I was hooked (people didn't believe me that I built it!).
I haven't done much in a couple of years, but being close to reasonably sourced hardwoods (including potentially setting up a small sawmill on some land in the future) is certainly kicking it back into gear. With a heated garage and nice setup, I figure wood projects and reloading will take the place of off-roading and fishing/boating in the summer months.
My next purchase is a SawStop PCS 3HP and hopefully a nicely sized drum sander, so space savings are important for my shop cabinets.
We use Steel Supply LP a lot. If you're comfortable with a butt weld the you might have better luck finding one of those
https://www.steelsupplylp.com/sku/1...dra4PrpIl_94zeCCOsDsZZAS1rs7eSzkaAvG8EALw_wcB
https://www.steelsupplylp.com/sku/1...dra4PrpIl_94zeCCOsDsZZAS1rs7eSzkaAvG8EALw_wcB
Chopped ice from the driveway all afternoon. Boring, but needed to get done before next snowstorm blocked the door completely.
I'm building a tailgate table/cook top for my XJ. It involves some sheet metal seam welding and spot welding. Years ago I built a foot pedal stand for one of my spot welders and it's really handy for jobs like this. It literally gives me a spare hand.
Took some time and refinished one of my work bench tops. It was getting a bit gnarly - should have taken a before pic…
Finished the subpanel! Both hots are showing 245 volts. All the GFCIs trip correctly, and all the lights work. The house hasn't burned down yet...
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
WestCoastDan
TJ Enthusiast
I borescope 2 engines to look at the cam lobes, one was bad and is 48,000 to overhaul with new cylinders, the other will get magnetos, starter, and alternator reinstalled and put back together.
Found two cabinets at auction. 100% is not a snap on as its just a decal, and the top (not seen) is orange. But I do like the vintage and worn look. Not sure where these will live yet, but likely directly above my work bench or immediately adjacent to it.
Mounted! Honestly a waste of time since I am insulating and sheet rocking everything this summer but I got them off the floor.
