sorry no pictures but my friend painted all the cabinets in his garage to match his Snap-On rollaways. Then he got some extruded aluminum that looks similar to the handles on the tool boxes and made full width handles for all of the cabinet doors and drawers. His place looks like a Snap-On showroom.
I guess there are really three types of workshops and garages: showplaces, functional, and pigpens. It sounds like your friend built more of a showplace. Really clever idea, and I'll bet it looks nice, but that expense and effort did not get his car built any faster. Personally I prefer functional - to look 'OK' but not at the expense of getting things done. Pigpens, well, probably no one really likes them but sometimes that might be all you have to work with.
Another thing i love is those office lamps from staples, they have articulated arm & magifiying lens; and with halogen lamps. I have 2 of the magnified lamps (one at the carb bench and one at the big bench) and 2 of the metal halide (one at the lathe and another on a mill). Those things are inexpensive and just too handy. I don't think i paid $20 each for them.
That sparked a story my dad's friend Lige Moffat told me. He worked at Lockheed decades ago and managed the machine shop. One day the head of Lockheed toured the plant and even though each machine was spotless, complained about how dingy the place looked. Lige got ticked and walked through the machine shop later that day, pointing to each machine "paint that one blue, that one yellow, that one green, etc" all down the line. He said the place looked like a crayon box. and apparently was kept that was for years after.
Code or not GCFI's are great to use anytime outside, around water, garages or anywhere hand power tool are used. You can string them, up to a point, by placing one connected back to the breaker box and other regular outlets downstream of the GCFI outlet. They do have limits and will wear in time, buy the best quality and they will last longer. These GCFI's are for nothing more than personal safety (Your Ass) not the equipment, so don't be cheap here. You can also buy GCFI Breakers that will protect everything on that circuit, but they cost more than GCFI outlets. It's a good Idea to wire each bench with at least two different circuits (Breakers). GCFI (ground circuit fault interupters) monitor the current on both the power lead and netural lead. If the current is not equal, which is an indication of a leak, the GCFI will trip and remove power from the circuit. The speed is such that if something was to happen to cause current to detour and go through your body that the GCFI would trip prior to you being able to sense any sensation or damage.
I've got an old bowling alley. They are heavy as heck, come in 20 foot lengths, are made out of hard maple nearly 3" thick and you can separate 6" off it and turn it into a nice back stop. You can regularly find it cheap as well. Just bring a couple strong friends to help move it. If you paint your floor, make sure your put the grit in it. I didn't the first time and ended up right on my can the first time it got wet. But MAN what a difference a little paint makes. When wiring your bench, I used two separate circuits, alternating plugs, so if popped a breaker, I'd just move the plug over and keep working, then reset the breaker when I was done
I used Masonite to cover my workbench secured with sheet rock screws. Cabinets are from kitchen remodeling projects found sied the streets . Fluorcesent lights were all recycled fixtures. My shop in in my basement so0 take particular care with fire protection. Several dry powder fire extinguishers plus a 5 gal pail of water. Smoke alarms a plus. Store all clamps from floor joyces. Made racks to hold steel and tubing to hang also from floor joyces. Sheet metal is stored against one wall.
In addition to the benches I have made, I utilize an old table saw 40's-50's version as a table that also happens to be the same hieght as my benchs and is a great addition. Especially for a solid hammering surface and a nice flat strong table that's easy to move around. Also can hook up a motor and sander attachments to the arbor that the held the saw blade, and then lowered when I need the table surface.
Here are a few more: Wire rope fab shops often have their vises mounted on posts, rather than benches, so that they have 360 degree access to the work piece. They are usually fabbed out of heavy wall tube and plates and bolt to the floor. Some even telescope to adjust the work height. A little research would source construction anchors that are flush to the floor so that the vise can be moved out of the way as needed without leaving anything to trip over. I had a sheet metal shop bend an 18 ga. galvanized steel top for my bench. It has a backsplash so that small parts, spilled beer, etc. doesn't go down the back side. I hit it with a little ATF and a paper towel once in while and it still looks good after 20+ years. Check used office equipment dealers, business liquidators, etc. for cheap storage cabinets. I picked up some file cabinets from a trucking company that was liquidating old office equipment ... $5.00 each. The one in my shop is wider than standard (22" wide and 6 drawers) and is perfect for supplies, long tools and excess equipment. I made it mobile by welding up a dolly for it with some channel iron and industrial casters. Someone on this thread mentioned using oil-based paint to protect their walls. Here in the People's Socialist Republic of California, it is no longer legal (as I recently learned when trying to buy some). I used a good quality gloss latex and it cleans up and has held up well over the years. Check with companies that sell industrial coatings if you need something super-duty.
If you have a refrig. in your shop, try not to have it on a GFI as motors will trip them. GFI's will also trip on wire 10ga. and larger. For good shop equip. and accs. try your local school General Svcs. In some states by law they have to salvage items removed and sell or throw away. I have outfitted my shop with all metal cabinets, with S.S. tops and art upright cabinets for next to free. Sometimes they have auctions with great bargains.
All of the cabinets and shelving in my two car garage came from craigslist, and was free. You just have to look and be the first one, I scored the old metal cabinets as well as wood ones. I use 2x4s mounted to the block then the cabinets anchored to the wood. I find a lot of free stuff on craigslist that can be used in the garage or workshop........
In my neighborhood all the houses are the same and were built in the 50's with steel kitchen cabinets. I watch for remodel jobs and scour on garbage day for the old steel units, very good in the garage. Also I scored a direct vent furnace from a guy remodeling his rec room, its a Sears unit with the pilot assembly vented to the outside, so you can paint or use solvents in the garage in the winter with-out going BOOM ! I built the work bench out of UNI-STRUT and a big solid wood door from a hospital. Its bolted to the wall and the floor and it aint going any-where. Then I took a piece of 10 ga steel and bent a 90 on the front edge and fastened it to the door with screws and made a durable top that you can use for light duty welding.All in all, the total cost of the stuff was nill but it all works great. Garbage day is my favorite day of the week. Mike.
I flipped the masonite on a bench at work today, paneling nails work great to hold it down(nails used for paneling interior walls). Think its been about 3 years, and I treat that bench like a Parts are screwed down on it, its covered in oils & paint, drilled, etc. Air lines- I use 10' sections of pre threaded black iron, with a "T" between each section, pointed up, and an hose connector on each. Slope to the air tank, drain on each end. I have an old medicine cabinet in my garage, and keep first aid stuff, (+ a few other things) Nice to look at your self before running to town
When we built my shop we put in GFI breakers into the panel on the 2 circuits that feed the wall plugs. You should be able to get GFI breakers to snap into the panel for the circuits that feed the wall plugs. Very easy and cheap. If you have ever worked in a heated shop during or right after a snow storm you will like having them while standing with wet shoes in the puddles. While building it I had the radial arm saw plugged into an outside weather proof plug. The plug became dead with no blown breakers. I had to get power from a different plug. Months later I discovered the GFI plug in the spare bathroom was tripped. Yep resetting the GFI in the unused bathroom restored the power to the outside plug.
YeP I like the idea of outlets under the bench top. My bench was in my electronics shop. We tossed the old stuff... Which was new to me. It has over 10 outlets with a 8 foot bench top. The over head rack has 4 also.
May not be as useful as other suggestions but if you have a couple sets of tires stacked up in a corner take a piece of wood a door some ply wood whatever throw it on top and make use of the wasted space that pile of tires used to be -Ralphie
I cover the cement floor with scrap plywood. There is no shortage of 1/2" exterior scrap in useful sizes from any nearby framing job. It warms up the shop and is a lot nicer than concrete.
Love these post.Here is my 2 cents worth for guys with small garages with basic tools.I grew up with a garage 12X22.The biggest problem you will face is not enough floor space.Storing stuff on the floor will kill you floor space,A floor space of 12X22 can turn into 8X16 in no time I find with 8 foot high walls there is close to 2 feet above your head that is usable. I put cabinetes up high. A 1x2x22 Cabinet can hold alot of stuff and you can still walk under them.Built hanging frames for storing tires or long peices of steel. Bench grinder mounted to the wall and a work bench only 2 feet by 4 feet. Keep it small cause with big benches they turned into storage shevels.Most of the time you working in a 2 foot square area and working on small parts and don`t need alot of room,for big project used 2 work horses and some steel or plywood as a top. I built a bench that my roller cabinet would fit under and my top box was laid on top of the bench.Keep evething that has to be on the floor off the sides.place jacks and stands in corners and Don`t get carried away with buy big tools unless you have the room you never going to be able to use them. I would rather rent a engine hoist for a weekend then have one taking up what little space I have on the floor for 362 days out of the year. Alway keep one wall clear so you can put you car close to the wall to give you more room to work on one side. These are just a few things I learned working in a small garage.
I took an old vent a hood from a kitchen remodel and mounted it over my weld table to suck fumes.It works great.I also welded strap to the table so I could bolt it to the wall so it would not move when yanking on stuff in the vise.
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