Let's see some garage/workshop pics

[arcas]

Hi. There are a lot of drool-worthy threads here showing off dedicated workshops but I haven't seen as many pictures of garages that, first and foremost, must remain garages and attempt to double as functional workshops with whatever space remains. I'm by no means a serious woodworker but over the last couple years I've amassed a few tools and have a "would-be-nice-to-have" list of other tools so I'm curious to see how other people have solved the space/organization delimma.

My particular situation: I have a 21x20 attached garage that must remain functional as a garage. It has 9-foot ceilings but there's an exposed joist across the middle that hangs down about a foot. It's a side-entry garage so one of the walls is monopolized by a pair of windows so that kind of limits what can be done along that wall. An extension ladder monopolizes a good part of another wall though it's conceivable that I could hang it from the ceiling (taking into account the exposed joist issue).

Happily I have only one vehicle so in principle half the garage is available for storage/workspace. But once you toss in the standard fare of outdoor and garage items (mower, pressure washer, generator, air compressor, bicycle, workbench, recycle bin, extension ladder, BT3100 etc) it becomes obvious that there's not a whole lot of room for woodworking tools without some sort of organization plan.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this situation so I'd love to see how other folks have solved the problem!

[RayintheUK]

Welcome to the Forum! I'm the only UK contributor nowadays and you can see how I cope here when you get time.

Ray.

[BobSch]

Let me add my greetings also. I've got the same situation you do — a double garage that I have to share with the car. I'm just in the early stages: I've cleaned everything out and have the drywall and insulation ready to install. The electrician was over last week to installed a sub-panel and a 3 quad outlets on 20-amp circuits.

I'll post some pics as I go.

[dlminehart]

Add me to the list of head-scratchers. My two-car garage is half full of stored stuff, so I have a space of about 10x24 available. Most of the front half of the ceiling is interrupted by the garage door when it's opened, making it hard to use that space to hang DC pipes, etc. And there's a door to the side yard near the right rear of the potential woodshop, so access has to be maintained across the back of the space.

I've almost cleared out the space of unneeded stored items, so I hope to share some organizational plans soon.

[Mr__Bill]

Welcome to the Forum! I'm the only UK contributor nowadays and you can see how I cope here when you get time.

Ray.

Ray, it never ceases to amaze me that half a world away your garage shop looks amazingly like mine. Except that yours seems to have tools in it and some organization. Other than that though, remarkably the same. Nice brick house too.

Bill, way over here on the Sunny Oregon Coast.

[shoottx]

I'm sure I'm not alone in this situation so I'd love to see how other folks have solved the problem![/QUOTE]

I believe it is still an unsolved problem!

I think the question might be how do you talk the LOYL into permanately parking her car outside Not a chance at my house! So how do you work in a mobile environment with out spending as much time setting up, taking down and cleaning up?

I have no answers other than winning the Texas Lottery. I have not done well in that venture either!

[poolhound]

What you describe is exactly my setup. My garage is approx 23' x 24'. It has to do double duty and it houses 2 cars most of the time. I utilized nearly all the available space around the edges and with tools on rolling bases it turns into a shop once the cars are removed.

I will take some pics for you but I am actually in the UK right now. So Ray I guess there are now two contributors in the UK - or at least until the end of the week. :-)

[BobSch]

Add me to the list of head-scratchers. My two-car garage is half full of stored stuff...

I finaly realized the only way to get anything done in mine was to rent a POD (http://www.pods.com) and clear everything out to the bare walls. This has two advantages: It forced be to sort theough and eliminate some of my packratisms and, since the POD is a monthly rental, it also puts a bit of urgency to the job.

[MikeMcCoy]

Any innovative ideas to use garage door overhead space?

My pickup was in the garage once about a year ago when I was starting to move my tools in so I can't relate to the dual use. My table saw resides in the area under the garage door and I was curious if anyone had an ideas how to route DC pipe in the overhead area just under the garage door. I'm not tall so if I could figure that one out, I could get rid of a lot of flex hose on the floor.

[jonmulzer]

Move the saw somewhere that you could route it overhead? That would be the easiest solution.

[LarryG]

If the door is for a single bay, you could suspend something under the tracks to bridge across them that is stiff enough to carry the DC pipe or hose -- a 2x4 on edge would probably do it. You'd have to mount it such that the attachment hardware didn't interfere with the door operation, but that shouldn't be too hard.

If it's a double door, the same approach would work in theory, but the longer span from track to track would be working against you because you'd need a deeper bridging member to keep it from sagging.

[dbhost]

I guess I got lucky. I had the house, and the garage as workshop space prior to having the wife... And she likes the fact that the stuff coming out of the shop is helping to un bachelor the house...

However it has been made quite clear that we are going to sell this house, and buy a bigger house on more land. I do however get to put up a shed / shop on the new property...

[dbhost]

My shop is functional, but far from drool worthy. I am still building up the tool collection, and doing a lot of make do, and borrow equipment that I am lacking, but what I have set up so far...

The "Dave Built" clamp racks. I may redo my clamp racking along the lines of the clamp racks in Suwat's articles... Very cool design he had going on there!


I picked a few of these up at Sams Club. 1 is in the master bath, 1 in the guest bath, 1 in the shop, and 1 in the camping / hunting gear. The door mount keeps it handy for sure!


The green thing at head level is a canoe... I need to get it OUT of my shop... BTW, that is a GREAT duck boat! Okay that workbench isn't pretty, but it works!

Not a BT, but the BTS-21 has given me decent enough service... I would MUCH rather have a BT3100 / 21829, but I know now what I should have known then. The story of my life!


My shop built router table cart. It isn't finished, but it is functional, and will probably stay that way... I have been lazy on this one... The router is getting ready to be replaced. It is an old Ryobi R161K, which hasn't been a bad router, but I need something that will spin 1/2" shank bits now...

The majority of my tool storage is under the workbench, and the router cart.

One thing I am noticing, is that the shop is always in a state of development. Partially due to budget, partially due to me learning, and changing my mind constantly... I am having fun with it.

[arcas]

Ray, that's an awfully impressive setup for a dual-purpose garage. Kudos.

dbhost (sorry, didn't see your name), your bench looks a lot like mine only longer. I would have liked to have made mine an 8-footer but I had to squeeze it between the windows so I was limited to 66-inches. Being so small, I'm hesitant to mount both a vice and a grinder to mine so I'll probably have to rig up some sort of rolling grinder base.

[dbhost]

HF has some decent looking grinder pedastals.

My grinder, and vice, and are mounted with wing nuts underneath. I can remove each in less than 30 seconds to free up open work space... The drill press is mounted using lag bolts because my brain was out to lunch and didn't take me with it when I made that particular choice...

The Strong Tie bench is definately a very STRONG work surface... HOWEVER... I made some serious mistakes with mine.

#1. 27" legs. I did that because I have 3/4" ply on top, and a 2" concrete lip. I thought ~ 30" was a good working height. I feel like I am working around my knees...

#2. The 3/4" B/C plywood. It was free, so I couldn't complain at the time. And it is GREAT for automrotive projects. But for anything that needs a smooth surface it stinks...

To solve the problem of the short legs, I have a set of 34.5" legs cut, which combined with the next idea below, gets me to 38" which is ideal for me...

To solve the smooth, level bench top problem. I have thought about using 3/4" MDF over top attached via bottom side screws through the plywood.

Eventually, I will finish building my "Ultimate Workbench", and be able to get rid of the router cart, and the big bench. I am working toward a combination of the "Ultimate Workbench" and a Hybrid Design of Alex Franke's tool storage cart where I can mount the planer in a pass through fashion, and keep that in place... and lose the router bench, and big workbench, with that lumber going into building an outfeed / side table for the T.S.

Of course, if I can come up with a decent shed plan, and get it built, get the camping gear and yard tools out of the garage, then I can shove the woodworking world into one side of the garage, and put the wife's car in the garage. The pickup simply won't fit. It's too tall, and too long... (F150 Super Cab 4x4 with 2.5" lift and 34" rubber...)