# Trying to organise a garage workshop...



## MrCrankyface

I felt like taking a trip down memory lane so I'm going to try and document my journey as a hobby-machinist which has been one long project on it's own.   
I've always been interested in making things so when we could finally afford moving to a house back in 2017 I aimed to make my dream come true in the 2 car garage.
The garage was delivered "as-is" so fixing the walls was a priority, but I figured painting the floors would be easier before I did that.



	

		
			
		

		
	
'

I roughed up the surface with some kind of steel disc and then epoxipainted the entire thing.
If I were to do this again I would've mixed the first layer of epoxi thinner so it gripped the concrete better and then done more/thicker layers after this for a more durable surface.
I even think it would be enough to just empty a bucket of paint on the floor and squeegee it around rather than carefully using a paint roller like I did.
After using this space for 4 years I've gone through the epoxipaint in some places.




After this came the horrible part, glasfiber insulation. 
I didn't use a respirator so I can from experience tell you to WEAR A RESPIRATOR.
My lungs and throat itched for weeks, horrible experience.
This first layer of insulation is 90mm / 3.5" thick and then has a layer of plastic to stop moisture from traveling out. The rest of the house is built in a similar fashion so I figured I'd copy the construction.



After doing more research I figured I would actually want more insulation than that and added 45mm / ~1 3/4" studs going the other direction from the other studs.
Apparently this helps stop thermal bridges ruining your total insulation efficiency.
You can also see some of my first investments here .. A proper shopvac and miter saw.
4 years later they're both still working well and have many projects behind them!



After stuffing all of those pockets full of insulation I started adding sheets of OSB.
Plywood would've been even better but not economically sensible for me.



And on to playing with drywall, plasters and sanding.
All of my powertools lined up neatly below the windows. 
Budget drill press, budget belt sander, budget tracksaw, budget stick welder my dad gave me and so on. 




Some paint later and at least the walls are getting there.
Lower half is not painted for a reason I'll get to later.



To be continued soon.


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## MrCrankyface

So in the middle of this mess, my brilliant mind decided that I should start up a project.
I found some steel scrap and a disassembled frame for an office desk.
Together it made a decent height adjustable worktable.
Definitely not sturdy enough for precision work but good enough for the time.
Biggest problem was as usual the legs, there's just too much play in the sliders for the table to be rigid, but at least I don't have to work on the floor.



I then invested in a table saw, a planer and an air compressor since that's something I really wanted.
The table saw is quite good for it's size and even 4 years in I still like it.
The compressor leaves some to be desired but that's mostly because my needs have outgrown the compressor.
Some tools simply use much more air than this one can comfortably deliver.
If you think you'll be using a lot of air tools, definitely get something bigger than 3kw/4hp.
The planer was some half-budget tool but has been working out quite well for me.
It does produce some snipe or whatever it's called but there's ways to work around that.



I was probably getting tired of the big pile of stuff in the middle of the garage so I started making a sidetable and storage.
This was a lot of work but it's super rewarding getting stuff exactly how you want them and also let me get used to the, back then, super scary table saw.
You can also see how I've started adding sheets of steel against the walls here. Bump and spark protection etc.




Working with whatever scrap I had laying around, I started making boxes.
Slides from some kind of oak I think.
Quite tedious making so many of the same parts.
Something I learnt over time here is that big boxes are almost worthless unless you need to store really big stuff.
It's much easier to keep things neat if the boxes are less tall and each item has it's own place in the box.
Otherwise you end up "digging around", quickly messing up any kind of order.



Pretty much my full collection of hand tools in two pictures, and most of the electrical ones(only missing one welder, the planer and miter saw). 
Makes me really appreciate how much I've managed to grow my shop over the years...





I was so tired of fabricating boxes/drawers that I started looking into some kind of pre-made solution.
Being way too cheap I wouldn't buy something finished but I found a shop that sold cheap plastic boxes with lids, so I designed this cabinet around them.
This let me store a quite large amount of stuff in labeled boxes, so it was easy to find things again.
This was yet another solution that I over time KINDA grew out off. I started taking "often used" tools out of the boxes and changing the contents to only having "less used" things.
Again, try to avoid having to dig in boxes to find common items, it makes a mess!




Kept working on this corner, adding a DIN rail underneath and making custom holders for machines to have them out of the way but still easy to access etc.
At the time I  had a few different brands of battery machines, so the chargers quickly piled up on the shelves..
The clamp holder on the wall has a design flaw being completely horizontal, I would really recommend leaning it up a bit so the clamps cant fall off from vibrations or whatever.
Overall the shelf hasn't been the most space effective but still serves a purpose 4 years later.
The custom holders ended up taking too much time to make for it to be worth in the long run and tended to snap at the mount every few months, a design flaw on my part.



So at this point the garage is looking pretty nice!
All painting is done, steel sheets around the entire wall, LED lights in the ceiling and so on.
In the middle there's a MIG welder my dad gave me, not a good one but it worked for smaller stuff.
The LED's have started failing 4 years in, some of them will start blinking randomly and then work for a while more.
I think I installed 8x 40W but if I were to redo it, I'd add even more as they seem to have lost some power over the years, or it's the fact that I've added in tons of dark stuff in the shape of tools, parts and cars.




To be continued, we're roughly at april 2018 here, roughly 8 months from when I started working on the garage.
There's always other things to do so the workshop is on a lower priority.


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## brino

Done well enough to live in......(with a little heat).

That should make a very comfortable shop!

It looks to be about 9m x 6m (30 x 20 feet) in floor space, right?

-brino


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## MrCrankyface

brino said:


> Done well enough to live in......(with a little heat).
> 
> That should make a very comfortable shop!
> 
> It looks to be about 9m x 6m (30 x 20 feet) in floor space, right?
> 
> -brino


Thank you and extremely close guess! It's 8.4 * 6-ish. 
Ceiling height is only 240cm but definitely works.


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## MrCrankyface

The brown ceiling hatch in my last picture goes up to the crouch-height attic.
To the right of it I've started adding 3D-printed holders for various safety equipment.
I figured that the easier it'd be to access, the higher chance of me using it, like most people I'm a bit lazy and will avoid things that take too much effort.



Up in the attic I started installign more flooring for 'very rarely used but good to have stuff' storage.
Up here it's OK for stuff to be bunched up in big boxes as you're rarely going to shift through it, just make sure you somehow know what's in each box.
I go up here maybe once a month or less, if I need a specific cable or seasonal tool.



As I was getting tired of lifting the heavy saw and planer up and down from the work table when doing woodworking, I decided to put them on a dedicated rolling table.
It's funny how weeks of work can be summed up in one picture. 
Every piece of wood has been cut, planed and sanded to be as close to perfection as I can make it.
The planers switch had broken when I accidently toppled the machine over, so it's now controlled by the switch on the side of the table and an emergency stop was later added that'd shut off both machines.
This was a good solution although a big bulky but as I moved more and more to metalworking, it was too rarely used to justify taking up that much space so it was eventually scrapped.



Doing quite a bit of woodworking at the time, I was getting real sick of all the fine dust, so I built this thing from an old ventilation fan, some scrap plywood and the biggest box filter I could find.
All it does is circulate the room air to catch the dust, makes an incredible difference and I would highly recommend having some kind of dust-catching equipment no matter if you're grinding or woodworking.
It does take up quite a lot of space on the wall but I will most likely be moving it to the roof in the center of the garage soon(a few years later relative to the picture).



Another "game-changer" for me was having water and a basin..
Both tap and basin had been thrown out from an office getting renovated, the studs were leftovers that I cleaned up.
So much nicer being able to clean off your hands or clean things without having to take it outside or inside the house.
Later on working on machines and cars, this has been absolutely invaluable.
The first aid kit box has also saved me a few times, always count on injurying yourself eventually!



Here's a slightly funny investment I made. I was SURE I needed a big piedestal grinder, then I ended up not using it for months... 
At least it wasn't very expensive and really heavy duty, also pictured is the first bottle of gas I ever bought.




One thing I realized quite early was that if it's large and heavy, it probably need wheels, no such thing as permanent placement.
Since wood is easy to work with, this was the choice of material, reinforced with pieces on the sides going different directions.



Jumping forward quite a bit, it got renovated with new electricals and a second smaller grinder added ontop.
The drill jig was poorly implemented and is hard to use, not sure if it's supposed to work better on the side of the wheel or maybe on a belt grinder.




Back to where I was in time...
My next investment was this trusty old mill, quite worn but too cheap to not buy it.
This is the purchase that really kick-started my love for old machines, this one being around 72 years old or so.
I added some modular shelves behind it for mill-related storage, granted that it's always easy to be smart in hindsight(is that even a saying?) but having open shelves, next to a chip-spraying mill, is not a great idea.
If/when I redo this, the shelves will have covers or doors as they're always full of dust, oil and chips.
It's also quite difficult to get to when the table is out to the left and you need to change tools on the mill...


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## brino

I've been watching the background of those pictures.

I saw the first appearance of a little lathe....then later this picture that really shows the difference in size:




Great thread, I am enjoying it!

Thanks,
-brino


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## MrCrankyface

Good catch there!  

Around the same time as I got the mill, I thought that a material wagon would be a good thing to have, also on wheels for mobility.
As usual with hindsight, not such a great idea.
When loaded down with a few hundred kilograms of material, it's not very mobile even if it's on wheels.
Not to mention that it takes up a massive amount of floor space if it is to contain any decent amount of material.




Trying to empty out the last moving boxes, I added some more shelves for chem stuff.
Whilst I still think shelves are a good idea for this, open shelves is still a bad idea in a garage/workshop, everything gets incredibly dirty after a while.
A bit later I added these compartmentalization bars and thought it was a great idea but it's just too much effort to keep everything here arranged as I use up and buy new different chemicals.
I haven't come up with a better solution yet though.




By this time I had really started putting things up on the walls.
Trying to make sure every single tool is easy to access and has a very specific place so it doesn't end up on the floor or on a bench, taking up valuable space.
Decluttering is super important to keep myself focused and happy.



The deeper boxes I had started adding dividers to, so not everything woudl get mixed with everything else.
Granted that this was done in a hurry and the order wasn't perfectly clear, there's at least a better overview of it.



This was early 2019 when I found a used TIG welder for sale, with all the accessories you could want.
I modified my MIG welder cart and put the TIG ontop and both gas bottles behind, wobbly and difficult to roll around but at least it was more space efficient.
I'm really trying to consider the volume being taken up by things.
Vertical volume on something that rolls around isn't as valuable as horizontal volume(floor space).
By this time I've also invested in a small bandsaw for metal(4"x6" I think) which is hiding behind the welders.
Invaluable when you start working with thicker steel and aluminium.




Up until this point, I had boxes of things kinda everywhere, so I decided that I needed a easy-to-access storage unit.
Simplest solution was this shelving system from whatever leftovers I had. No full shelves to keep the dustgathering to a minimum.
Where I needed more support(for odd shaped things) I added removeable planks between the aluminum tubes.



By this point I was getting real tired of the wobbly worktable I built earlier and wanted to try to build a really solid one.
I drew a lot of inspiration from various woodworkers I saw on youtube.
It's made from planed and glued 2x4's and came out quite solid.



For some reason I was still a bit obsessed with having it height adjustable and figured I could make it more sturdy than the previous version by using both thicker and more legs, so I combined this system from 2 different scrapped desks and also used the lower surface to bind them together.
This made it a lot sturdier than the previous version but still not as rock solid as you might want when pounding on things.
But at least this version was so heavy that you could excert A LOT of force without moving it.
One big problem with height adjustable tables is that any space under and above is sacrificed, and the lower area ended up as "misc storage" which is never efficient.
I still have the legs stashed away but ended up scrapping the table itself after ~1.5 year of use.
I simply valued the space higher for machines than I did for work surfaces.



To be continued ... We're currently at ~march 2019.


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## MrCrankyface

By this time I've owned my TIG welder for a while but still haven't used it because I don't own a watercooler for the torch, the only accessory I didn't get with it.
I used a very sketchy temporary setup of a big bucket of water and a aquarium pump so I could start building a dedicated unit. Works fine but oh boy is it difficult to move around 
It was my first time TIG welding so took me a few tries to get the water tank sealed up.
The cooler is a heater unit from an Audi 80.



It's a bit of an eye-sore but it works for now.. It has a lid that's been misplaced in the picture.
Came out an incredible amount cheaper than a commercial unit as well.
There's triple radial fans mounted behind the cooler, in a shround that covers the entire backside of it to push airflow through.



At the same time I started the long road of vehicle renovation and bought this thing, more about it in this thread: Volvo Amazon(131)
You'll be seeing this in the background a lot...



Having never really worked on cars before I needed to invest in some tooling, so a full set of metric and imperial socket and wrenches.
I had a bunch of stuff on the wall before that I replaced with this tool wall instead, figured it'd be more efficient and easy to use.
At the same time I'm trying to cram in as much as possible around here since I can't use the area for anything else because of the ceiling hatch that comes down here.




Looking back I must've been absolutely everywhere in the garage at the same time. 
At the same time I've started renovating and upgrading my old milling machine.
It used to sit on a bunch of pallets, which definitely didn't inspire confidence when the machine was taking heavy cuts.
Moved it onto a proper steel base instead that I painted with hammerite.
I've also semi-started installing a DRO system on it, only X was connected here I think.
DRO is something I would recommend to anyone, on any mill. It makes such a difference!
Old table is still on the right here, so much things happening around the same time.
The "mill shelves" on the left are also really starting to fill up.



Lathe-wise all I during these years were that red 7x14" mini-lathe and whilst you can do impressive work with them, they do leave A LOT to be desired.
Being quite picky on the size and functions I wanted, it felt like my only option for an upgrade was to buy a new import machine.
So I took out a loan to be able to invest in this BL250G, max workable dimensions are something like 250x750mm and has neat functions like quick change gearbox for speeds and feeds, crossslide powerfeed etc.
This was the first time I ever took out a loan to buy tools, but it's really been worth it.
Not only has it allowed me to do things I could never do before but has also taught me so much about machining.
Always make sure you check interest rates and pay-off times before you buy things with loans, luckily I could get superlow interest rates that made the amount of 'wasted' money minimal.



Here's a solution that I'm quite satisfied with.
I took a scrap 5mm plate and countersunk a bunch of holes for screwing it into the worktable and also welded nuts on the back on it.
On the table I milled out space for the nuts and sunk the whole plate down a bit as well.
The hole pattern where I welded in nuts works for a bunch of different things I have like vices, metal shears(the kind with a long lever ontop), sheet benders etc.
Real handy being able to throw them up on the bench and bolt them down, you don't even really need to sink the entire plate down, I just did that to have a perfectly flat tabletop when nothing is mounted.



On the topic of things being on wheels.
This easily let's me put big but rarely used items up against the wall, so I have more freedom to work on things around the shop and only roll out what's neccessary.
A kind of modular setup I guess.
I've also purchased a cheap 20t hydraulic press here which also got it's own set of wheels later.
There's also a 2 ton workshop crane on wheels, hidden to the left, that's been absolutely invaluable in everything from moving machines to lifting really heavy items up on the worktable and mill.




When adding wheels to the press I had a serious design flaw because I cheaped out.(Picture is from a later date)
Caster wheels are expensive so I put two fixed wheels on one side and two casters on the other, I figured this wouldn't be much of a hassle but it really is..
It's suprisingly often you want to move the press sideways to get it out of the way, which of course is near impossible with this setup.
Lesson learnt, casters everywhere.



Eventually I took a second look at the welding wagon.
I figured the more welding-related-items I can keep on it, the less shelfspace I need to occupy.
One side has all possible TIG fillers and the other wise a whole bunch of MIG/Stick related things.
Filler tubes are just PVC sewage pipe with some 3D printed adapters and milled
Thick gloves, wirebrush, hammer etc, this has also been a very useful addition.


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## jwmelvin

I’m enjoying your progress journal. I’ve been through a similar process with my own workshop, slowly adding and making changes.


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## MrCrankyface

So time for an overview so you can compare to the earlier posts, just how much stuff you can fit in a 2 car garage. 





At this stage I had been thinking for a while about expanding my pressurized air setup.
For now I just had my compressor in the corner and a hose reel right next to it.
Not an optimal solution when you need air for a whole bunch of different things, some permanent and some less so.
My just recently CNC converted mill for example would be much better off always being connected than having to run the hose over there.



I came across a rather large tank being sold for cheap which sparked the idea of having more air storage up in the attic and then piping it back down.
But how do you get a seriously heavy tank up a very narrow attic door?
Winches!
It was such a narrow passage that I had to lower the tank back down again, go up ahead of it in the attic and hoist it from there whilst trying to steer it in.
Not a single aspect of this was smooth sailing but it worked. 



To hook everything up I somehow got sidetracked for some weeks and made this pipe bender you can kinda see in the previous picture.
Always good to have a heavy duty pipe bender I guess, I can make dies for different diameters further along as I need them.
With this I could then do some tricky bends so the current system works as this:
50 liter/3kW compressor sits in the garage and goes up to 10 bar, this goes through a moisture trap and then up to the 2 tanks(the big and one smaller) in the attic where a combined pressure regulator and moisture trap stores it at 6 bar,
This then goes back down into a hose reel, two quick-connects at the work table and a hose connection behind the milling machine.
The only upgrade I regret not doing was pulling a line to the garage gates but overall this has been great to use.



I thought a garage PC would be great to have for looking up information online, so with the help of a friend I connected a raspberry to this monitor and set up some kind of operating system.
With the flick of a switch the screen goes up towards the ceiling and gets shielded from whatever stupid things I'm doing in the garage(grinding or w/e).
Due to my wifi being unstable and other reasons I haven't used it as much as I wanted.
I did a short video about it here:





Shortly after this a neighbour randomly asked if I wanted a coldsaw he was about to throw out.
In my mind I had some small table-top machine.
Yeah, no. It was this >>>500kg piece of cast iron. 
Biggest problem is that it didn't lower the saw arm and he didn't know what was wrong with it.
Turned out pretty nice if I may say so myself! A whole thread about it here: Renovation
Also moved it to the other end of the garage, so by opening the door and moving some lighter tools(bead roller etc) I can cut very long items.
It sits on big rubber pads to absorb all the rocking motion from the saw itself, if it was on wheels I'd probably have to chase it down everytime I cut something.




My next big investment was this drill press that can also do some milling with the right collets.
Several years into this garage I was still relying on my little 1/4 hp drill press to do that kind of work so this was a massive upgrade!
Eventually when I properly renovate the big mill I can use this for making parts if there's a need, always good to have a backup.
A proper machine that weighs in at close to 500kg, it was a bit challenging getting out out of the van and into the garage..
I'm hoping to put this on wheels as well in the future but use thick steel rather than wood.
The machine itself has various issues:
-It's missing cover plates for the Y screw.
-The coolant pump doesn't work(I fried it because I was being stupid with it),
-It has a tap-to-depth function where the endstop switches doesn't work anymore
-It has power downfeed where the gearbox is broken
I haven't felt the need to repair any of these yet.



Getting real tired of trying to renovate a car and do various other welding jobs with a underpowered MIG welder, I decided to take some of the profits I've managed to work in and invest in a brand new MIG welder and move the TIG over ontop of that to make a new welding tower/cart.
There's plastic buffers between the TIG and MIG welders and the lower end of the filler pipes are not attached to the MIG welder, so no damage has been done to it.
Felt like sacrilege to instantly drill and screw into a new machine so I worked around it.



This is around a year ago, so we're starting to get up to date!


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## Braeden P

MrCrankyface said:


>


Nitro grinder?!


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## DavidR8

Thanks for the journey!


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks for following along!

There's been a bunch of smaller projects being done so I've built myself both a sheet bender and sheet roller(used scraps, hence limited size of the roller).
Whilst they're not as good as a commercial unit might be, all they cost me was my time which I back then had plenty of.




Got some really neat metrology equipment from my wife when I turned 30 last year, hopefully this will help me reach even higher levels of precision in the future!
Here I'm working on refinishing a cheap vice for the big drill press, it was skewed all sorts of directions which needed fixing.
Milled the bottom flat and then did the sidebars parallel to it and machined some custom clamps.
I'm really looking forward to being able to use these tools for renovating the big mill.




Another thing it will be used for is to scrape this straight edge in, bought it new on ebay, can't wait to get to play around with it but haven't had time so far.
I've also invested in both micrometers, indicators and various other measuring equipment whenever I've found them at decent prices so I'm finally starting to be able to get good measurements of things.



Then one day I'm just casually scrolling around on facebook marketplace and I come across this beauty.
Seller says it's mostly just been sitting in their barn for the last 25 years and is dirty but starts.
I go check it out and it has hundred of kilos of accessories, there's no real noticeable wear on either bed, screws or other mechanisms.
The guy only wanted around 300 USD so it felt like a no brainer, even if sold as scrap it'd be worth more than that.
Luckily I've made friends with a guy who drives crane trucks who could help me get it home, it's around 2000kg/4400lbs so not something you move too easily.
Garage door for scale. 




This was the moment I scrapped both the material wagon and worktable so I instead could fit this in and still walk around comfortably.
To be able to get it into the shop I made some roller skates from more scraps I had laying around.
The grease fittings let's you push the center part full of grease, which then comes out inside of the steel wheels.
Not only does it lube everything up nicely but also pushes out any dust and dirt.
This was one of those "okay I have 2 hours, let's see what I can come up with" solutions, the night before going to pick the lathe up.



This was months ago and I've been quite busy since so have sadly not had time to service it and give it a test run but at least my wife could help me move it into the right place in the shop after sitting at the entrance for a few weeks.
I used the rollers under the legs to the right and then lift the heavy left side with the workshop crane, took an hour or so of carefully moving it but was overall uneventful.
I now finally have a large lathe that should be a lot harder to outgrow. 




Trying to clean and organize the shop, I had gotten real tired of my drill management. I had a box full of random drills and 3 different places with indexes. One set of drills at the mill, one set of drills at the small drill press and one boxed set in the drawer system. Overall a complete mess and always walking back and forth looking for the right one.
I instead chose to rebuild one tall drawer into two slim ones, I then printed a load of boxes for the various drill sizes I had and try to store all my drills at one place instead.
This should be both more space efficient and easier to find what I'm looking for and when I need to get new drills.
The drawer beneath it looks similar but is dedicated to all the different taps I have.


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## MrCrankyface

Another thing I've invested heavily into the last year is my battery powered tools.
Ryobi has decent machines that don't hurt your wallet too bad, and this 6 slot charger makes it really easy to always have charged batteries.
3D-printed holders on the tool wall makes it easy to pick the machines you need for the moment and then put them back in their place.




I did a similar solution for the various air tools I've collected over the years, rather than having them everywhere, I designed and printed a universal bracket that simply holds onto the air inlet.
I've chosen to angle both these and the ryobi tools out from the wall quite a bit.
Depthwise I have room around here that I can't do much else with, but height/width I'm very limited with, so this is a more efficient use of the available volume.
It can make an incredible difference how much you can fit into a space just by angling them around rather than having them flat on the wall.




Overall I can really recommend 3D-printing for making storage solutions.
This was a 6 hour print or so that easily let's me store my different wrench sizes and all possible extenders right behind the handles.



Now we're pretty much at "today".
I'm really tired of having to dig in boxes for handtools that I often use, but I've also previously tried having a few "most used" ones on the toolwall and it takes up too much space.
So my next idea is to try having boxes/buckets right on the wall, each for a category of tools and a selection of anything I could need in it.
For example bottom left is not all the flat bladed screwdrivers I have, but there's one of every size I have so I never have to open a box.
I've saved these yoghurt buckets for months since I usually mix paints or keep screws in them, but they work great for testing this system as well.
I like the idea but hate how it looks so I'm already 3d-printing some neater boxes.



Overall the shop is quite a mess right now, I've gotten too much tools, parts and chemicals for my current storage systems so I'm going to need to spend a while on fixing this up before I can get back to working on my various projects..


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## brino

Excellent thread.
Thanks for the tour!

You are making me wish I had photos of my shop evolution.

-brino


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## Steve-F

I'm wishing my shop HAD evolution!!


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## NC Rick

Many, many kinds of awesomeness!


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## Winegrower

Steve-F said:


> I'm wishing my shop HAD evolution!!



Agree completely.   I started evolving when it would take longer to get to the equipment and set it up than to do the job.   Guiding principles were:
1) The common jobs had to be instantly accessible with zero setup.   
Lathe, mill, tablesaw, wood bandsaw, shear, brake, die filer, hydraulic press, shop vacuum, metrology instruments; power and air are always connected.
2) frequent, like weekly, had to be usable by moving only one other piece.   Power and air could be connected.
 Jointer, metal bandsaw, planer, mortiser, wood lathe, miter saw.  I also got 5 metro carts and put 5” casters (5PCB) on them, and store in plastic tote bins or directly on the shelves.   I put them long ways against the wall and it’s easy to pull each cart out to access both sides.  These castors are terrific, and let me move a 1000 pound load effortlessly.
3) infrequent, say monthly or less, could take some setup time, but all components needed to be dedicated and stored together.
Engine hoist, slab leveler, big projects;  these need operation flow considerations and might involve moving non-involved equipment out of the way for working space.
4) Everything else has an actual assigned space, even if it’s in a box labeled “Other”.

This is working better than I had hoped, though the evolution is not yet complete, maybe never will be, and improves my attitude a lot.


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## NC Rick

I’m continually fighting the evolution in my shop.  Like those things from in the drawer which find their way to the work surfaces…


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## extropic

Enjoying your thread. Watching your process provides me a counterpoint to my own and useful perspective for someone just starting out..

One thing I've noticed is you must be quite tall. Six six?

That big lathe was a surprise, but I under stand the motivation.

Keep up the good work.


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## NC Rick

I’d enjoy knowing a little about the lathe too. Brand, vintage and a little known history?


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## Winegrower

MrCrankyface, you should get the Nobel Prize in Shop Management.   You have to be setting a record in most stuff per unit volume.
In my world, even getting one car in a two car garage is beyond the current state of the art.   You can even drive to the awards ceremony.

And a great writeup, thanks!


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## mattthemuppet2

very neat! Always fun to see someone else's journey and solutions. I'm jealous of all your space though, I have just under 1/2 a 2 car garage and I have to fit 6 bikes in there too


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## MrCrankyface

Thanks everyone! Definitely gave me some motivation to organize more! 



extropic said:


> Enjoying your thread. Watching your process provides me a counterpoint to my own and useful perspective for someone just starting out..
> 
> One thing I've noticed is you must be quite tall. Six six?


Thanks! I'm just above 6'4 at 194cm.



NC Rick said:


> I’d enjoy knowing a little about the lathe too. Brand, vintage and a little known history?


It's a Storebro BA SA 205B from 1938, I don't know much about it's history besides mostly sitting for 25 years in previous owners barn.
It was hard to get much info about it from him, he mostly just seemed to want it gone since it was taking up space.




Winegrower said:


> MrCrankyface, you should get the Nobel Prize in Shop Management.   You have to be setting a record in most stuff per unit volume.
> In my world, even getting one car in a two car garage is beyond the current state of the art.   You can even drive to the awards ceremony.
> 
> And a great writeup, thanks!


Thanks, I'm still hoping to fit a lot more! 
I would absolutely love to find myself a decent sized surface grinder.




mattthemuppet2 said:


> very neat! Always fun to see someone else's journey and solutions. I'm jealous of all your space though, I have just under 1/2 a 2 car garage and I have to fit 6 bikes in there too


I believe that's a feeling that never goes away, I got a few neighbours with "real" workshops so I'm looking jealousy over at their stuff. 
I'm extremely lucky to have an understanding wife who eventually let me have the entire garage mostly to myself.



I did manage to get some stuff done today despite having a mad headache.
Superquick mockup just to test for a few weeks how i feel about this solution.
One thing I completely missed thinking about is that the top decides the shortest piece you can store, the final version will have compartments with covers between them or a lower layer of sticks so shorter stuff don't fall over.
For now I just solved it with an extra crossbar and some sheet steel, don't wanna spend any nice material on this as I'm just testing the idea out.
The taped square on the floor was to get a sense of where the attic staircase comes down.




I also got tired of looking at the ugly tool buckets real fast and booted up some 3D printers.
Definitely more aesthetically pleasing..
Still printing a bunch of them, a few will be deeper for longer tools like files.



I have an idea for a storage unit for longer material that I can hopefully take a look at tomorrow.


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## NC Rick

I will do some reading on the lathe.  Not a brand I have heard of previous to this.  At least from memory…

material storage is a difficult challenge for me, one I like seeing different solutions to.  I also have problems with files, many of mine are in a drawer rubbing one one another which grates on me…


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## hman

Here's what I do with files ...





It's not ideal, because the file surfaces kinda drag inside the clips.  But it gets them organized, visible, and handy.  The mounts are meant for screwdrivers, but I found them a lot less than satisfactory for that purpose - difficult to get the shank of the driver exactly into the notches.  But OK for files!






						Amazon.com: PD Magnetic Screwdriver Organizer, Tool Tray Holder Rack, Premium Ultra Strong Magnet | Holds Screwdriver sets, Drill Bits, Nail Sets (Red): Home Improvement
					

Buy PD Magnetic Screwdriver Organizer, Tool Tray Holder Rack, Premium Ultra Strong Magnet | Holds Screwdriver sets, Drill Bits, Nail Sets (Red): Tool Trays - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases



					www.amazon.com
				




Non-magnetic version:


			https://www.amazon.com/HORUSDY-4-Piece-Screwdriver-Organizer-Holder/dp/B07ZKGBKFK/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2J24J3WMIS1NI&dchild=1&keywords=magnetic+screwdriver+holder&qid=1621810597&sprefix=magnetic+screwdriver%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyRlRDVFlJVkdTMlQ5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzgxMDc2M0dBTExBSFAzUzRETyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMDU4NTQxM1cwUTVISkM0Q0RMRSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=


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## MrCrankyface

Neat! I've considered a similar solution but I want them to take up less space in height and width so my only chance is to lean them out from the wall more.
I considered the "bucket approach" but I want a better overview of the files so haven't made much progress on it yet.

I did work on the "long storage" a bit. Let's me store up to 6 meter long pieces
The shelf has two bars going up to the ceiling so material can (no longer) fall down and attack me. 



This is the shelf where I keep "misc" things and all my clamps. Not super space efficient but easy oversight.
Added some pins underneath for all cutting discs since that's something I use fairly often and always had problems when they were in a drawer.



I did take a long look at my "chem space" but haven't really come up with a better solution so ended up just emptying the entire shelf and cleaning everything off.
One thing I need to do is change the labels so they're easier to sort after.
It's crazy how much stuff you collect after a bunch of projects...
I also used to have a bunch of small tubes laying on the shelf which I instead put standing up in a small bucket, easier to keep things organized.



I'm trying to sort all kind of screws and nuts into different labeled boxes but that part is so much of a work in progress that I'm gonna wait with showing anything.
What I'm instead, or rather also, working on is flattening two large plates of cast iron.
I have two of these that are ~400mm x 800mm and then a surface plate that's 400mm x 600mm, the idea is to build a small work station where I can do both general work and metrology stuff.
According to the seller the plates are ~60 years old and used to sit in a factory where they used these to straighten some kind of dowels.
I needed to remove around a millimeter to get rid of all the smaller pits, the big one in the middle I'm not even going to try and remove.



Using a 40mm endmill it looks like my side to side tramming is pretty good but depthwise it varies and there's a tiny tiny edge.
I don't think this is related to my head tramming though due to how it varies, probably more related to the machine being old and worn and this plate being heavy as heck causing movements.
I can only machine ~60% of the depth and 80% of the width per setup since the plate is a bit big for this mill, will set it up again later tonight and continue.
The other plate is thinner(100mm versus this 140mm or so) so I will see if I can remove 40mm from the backside which is not solid but rather a 30mm edge around the entire casting, this just to get them to sit on an even height later on.


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## extropic

When you say "flattening", how flat do you intend?
After the clean-up from the milling machine, what other processes do you have in mind to improve the flattness further, if necessary?

Edit: spelling


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## MrCrankyface

It will definitely not be surface plate quality.
If it's within 0.5mm across the entire plate I'm happy but I think it will be within 0.1 judging by the DRO and what I've been able to measure so far.
I'm probably just going to do a light stoning once I've milled the entire thing and then see if I can use my surface plate to measure this.
I'm thinking of setting them up side by side and using the surface plate as a base for my indicator stand, extending the arm over to the cast iron and seeing how close it is.
I would love to build an electric scraper and scrape it in even better but I don't have that kind of time nor do I have a plate large enough.


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## NC Rick

MrCrankyface said:


> It will definitely not be surface plate quality.
> If it's within 0.5mm across the entire plate I'm happy but I think it will be within 0.1 judging by the DRO and what I've been able to measure so far.
> I'm probably just going to do a light stoning once I've milled the entire thing and then see if I can use my surface plate to measure this.
> I'm thinking of setting them up side by side and using the surface plate as a base for my indicator stand, extending the arm over to the cast iron and seeing how close it is.
> I would love to build an electric scraper and scrape it in even better but I don't have that kind of time nor do I have a plate large enough.


If there was a Blanchard grinder at a shop somewhere local to you, I think that piece would be worth the effort and cost  to have them clean it up.  I have a smaller one (steel) which is only about 40mm thick and was a ground die plate or something.  I got it from a frkendo dad’s estate and besides having his name stamped in it.  I use it as a bench block.  I can just lift it so it isn’t super portable but I find it handy.


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## NC Rick

hman said:


> Here's what I do with files ...
> View attachment 367040
> 
> View attachment 367041
> 
> 
> It's not ideal, because the file surfaces kinda drag inside the clips.  But it gets them organized, visible, and handy.  The mounts are meant for screwdrivers, but I found them a lot less than satisfactory for that purpose - difficult to get the shank of the driver exactly into the notches.  But OK for files!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Amazon.com: PD Magnetic Screwdriver Organizer, Tool Tray Holder Rack, Premium Ultra Strong Magnet | Holds Screwdriver sets, Drill Bits, Nail Sets (Red): Home Improvement
> 
> 
> Buy PD Magnetic Screwdriver Organizer, Tool Tray Holder Rack, Premium Ultra Strong Magnet | Holds Screwdriver sets, Drill Bits, Nail Sets (Red): Tool Trays - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
> 
> 
> 
> www.amazon.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Non-magnetic version:
> 
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/HORUSDY-4-Piece-Screwdriver-Organizer-Holder/dp/B07ZKGBKFK/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2J24J3WMIS1NI&dchild=1&keywords=magnetic+screwdriver+holder&qid=1621810597&sprefix=magnetic+screwdriver%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyRlRDVFlJVkdTMlQ5JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzgxMDc2M0dBTExBSFAzUzRETyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMDU4NTQxM1cwUTVISkM0Q0RMRSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=


That solves the problem I see with peg board hooks which rely on the handles being always on firmly, which they are “mostly”…


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## mattthemuppet2

it's a never ending battle, that's for sure! I'm in the midst of rearranging part of my pegboard and bench due to putting a much (much!) bigger lathe on it.


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## hman

NC Rick said:


> That solves the problem I see with peg board hooks which rely on the handles being always on firmly, which they are “mostly”…


I've tried pegboards in the past.  Trouble is, even with the many styles of "hooks" available, it's often difficult to hold all the different shaped tools I have.


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## mattthemuppet2

yeah, there's quite a bit that goes in the draws under the bench top, but for commonly used stuff (hammers, screwdrivers, drills etc) it's really handy. This'll be the 3rd time I think that I've had to rearrange stuff, so the flexibility has been worth it.


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## vtcnc

MrCrankyface said:


> So at this point the garage is looking pretty nice!
> All painting is done, steel sheets around the entire wall, LED lights in the ceiling and so on.


I like the steel sheets protecting the lower section of wall. I would like to have done so in my shop but costs and time got in the way.


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## MrCrankyface

vtcnc said:


> I like the steel sheets protecting the lower section of wall. I would like to have done so in my shop but costs and time got in the way.


Thanks! The idea was to mostly protect from grinding sparks and similar, the sheets are also siliconed to the floor so sparks can't get in behind and cause problems.
I'm in constant fear of accidently starting a fire so I tried to build in as much safety as possible.


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## MrCrankyface

So whilst I'm renovating my car, restoring my milling machine, building a workbench and organizing my garage, I figured I needed more to do. 

Technically it still falls under organizing my garage so I'm not really starting a new project I guess?

Either way I got annoyed by this area, it's just a mess with no real order of any kind.
It started as a good storage for car tools but has since lost it's purpose and just collects crap.




After emptying the entire section I turned my attention to the compressor to start with, it's very loud and also shakes the entire wall behind it.
On the other side of the wall is our kitchen and whilst my wife has a really good patience, it's not endless. 
This is where I really overcomplicated things.
Kinda shooting from the hip I ended up with a variant of this frame.



And made this up with the mill and lathe, I know I could've just used off-the-shelf parts but my time and scrap is essentially free, store-bought items are not.
This consists of a 3/8" to 1/2" adapter, a milled, bored and threaded 90* angle, another adapter(1/2 to 1/2), lathed and threaded tube and a valve.
This hooks up to the bottom of the compressor tank for draining it, previously it had a tiny ball valve underneath that was really difficult to reach.



The frame now let's me hang up the compressor on what's essentially bungee cord, hopefully stopping any vibrations from transfering to the frame.
The frame then further sits on anti-vibration pads made for laundry machines.
Behind this I spray glued some foam pads to further reduce echoes, vibrations and general noise.
I really overcomplicated things here by making a single cord go into 5 cords on the other side of the pulley but it's fun to experiment.



The compressor slid into it's place.
It does stick out considerably more sitting like this but the amount of space I gain on the right is more valuable than the walking space to the door on the left.
You can still walk by it without having to do anything funny.



So did any of this help?
I didn't do any sound tests before I tore everything apart but this is what I measured afterwards.
74db standing quite close to the compressor and 49db in the kitchen on the other side of the wall.
It used to be so bad that it rattled the glasses in the cabinets, now it's like a calm conversation!
In the garage it's gone from deafening to bearable although headphones is probably still a good idea for longer periods of running.



I need to look further into silencing it by altering the intake, I've heard that can make a very large difference as well.


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## hman

Nice sound deadening results.  The new compressor layout looks like it will improve cooling as well.


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## MrCrankyface

Quick little project and I think the compressor part is now done, I've decided it's quiet enough to not start messing with mufflers etc.
The compressor has always gotten pretty hot which has a significant impact on how moist the air is that comes out.
The less moisture the traps has to catch, the better.
The pulley wheel has some fins on it but it obviously only cools the head whilst it's spinning(and generating even more heat).

I've previously had this fan up under the bench, basically just unmodified motor and propeller from a floor fan.
What I did now was cut the shaft way down to make it more compact and roll up this shroud to help it focus the air flow.
It's currently in a pull configuration so it doesn't start counteracting the pulley fan blades.
Also doubles as protection so you don't get a fan blade in your thigh. 

Everything is of course automated, as soon as the block goes above 40c, the fan turns on and doesn't stop until it goes below 35 again.

I had to extend the sheet as I didn't have any stock long enough and the welds are absolutely awful. Both my MIG and TIG are out of action so I had to resort to trying to stick welding 1.2mm sheet metal, so much not fun.
After blowing a lot of holes I just gave up and ground most of it down flush, looking closely you can see the two darker "lines" in the back.


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## hman

Looks great! ... and should be very effective.


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## Weldingrod1

Yes, a bigger silencer/filter is likely to help your noise level.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk


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## MrCrankyface

I've been playing around a bit with this today and the electric fan is actually surprisingly efficient.
Without the extra fan, the heatsinks on the compressor go way above 110c and keep rising.
With the fan, the temps never go above 60c and quickly go down below 50 once you turn the compressor turns off.



I started filling in this section and think I'm pretty satisfied with the setup now.
All my bigger woodworking machines now fit on the old shelf board which has wheels underneath.
Makes it real easy to get them out and also hide them away.



The fan shroud needs a tiny bit more work as it's touching the compressor at two points where it shouldn't, and making one hell of a racket when stuff starts vibrating.
Once that's fixed I'll slap on some paint and call it done.


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## MrCrankyface

As another mini-project in making things more mobile, to make it easier to keep organized.
My drillpress has been pushed up against the wall for quite a while and I often find that I'd want it out in the room when I'm working on large or weirdly shaped things.
In general it'd just be much nicer if it wasn't so extremely difficult to move, it weighs in at around 400kg/900lbs so it's not so fun trying to slide it around on the floor.



So in comes my idea of putting it on wheels.
I don't want it taller than it already is so the wheels will be mounted quite high.
Started out making a kind of subframe for the front, 10mm flatbar bent to shape with oxytorch and then a 5mm flatbar welded in on the top to resist bending.



Then started making another part of the subframe around the back.
I want to have a wider stance than the foot, to make it even more stable than before, hence why I'm extending it backwards.
From what I've managed to "feel" when moving it around, the center of gravity seems to be just infront of the column so a "deeper" stance should help.
Temporary M10 bolts are holding this in place for now, I didn't have the M12 hardware I needed.



Next I was sorting through my scrap pile to see what could use to attach the wheels to.
Found these weird looking T-bars, I believe they've been used for some kind of rail/gantry system before.
Cut some pieces of it but didn't want it all square so played around with my mill for a while.
I often think of the saying "With a hammer in hand, everything looks like a nail", this is really true for owning a mill. 
I used Fusion 360 to make a program, it mills the piece down to correct height, mills the steps and then smooths it all over by going up and down the steps, pretty fun but slow process!
Right picture shows before/after, I did touch it up a bit with a flapdisc after the mill smoothed out the steps.
The holes are threaded so I can attach the casters/wheels underneath later.
The back has been chamfered down so I can get plenty of weld in there later.


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## MrCrankyface

Well it's been 2 weeks of all work and no fun but I'm finally back at it.
I attached all the casters and used a spacer on the floor to get them all on the correct height then tacked them in place.
The wheels sit far up enough that even if something were to fail, the drill press is only going to fall a centimeter or so.



Took everything off and fully welded it, so much fun playing with the MIG welder again after having to use stick for a while.
Hopefully the mere weight of the drill press doesn't cause the structure to sag and scrape against the floor. 
If that's the case, the fix will be quite easy but no point in fixing what's not a problem.


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## hman

That's a nice looking solution!


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## keeena

First time I've seen this thread - great theme. I like the storage solutions and the universal mounting plate for the workbench.


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## MrCrankyface

A great way to make a few hours disappear, do all your work in the wrong order.  
I was supposed to grind the welds down, countersink the mounting holes on the underside and then paint it.
What I instead did was grind the welds down and start painting it and only after everything was real sticky, realize I hadn't countersunk the holes.
Had to let everything dry for two hours then try to countersink everything without messing up the paint too bad since it needs to harden for 24h to really set.




I also didn't hacve countersunk screws of this size and the minimum amount I can find is 50 pieces which is ridiclous for my needs.
Ended up doing some custom bolts, just a simple chamfer and slotting, should give me enough torque.
The screws don't really do much work in tension, the majority of the load will be shear.
Might need to lengthen the treads a tiny bit judging by eye, will wait with testfitting until the paint is proper hard.
Leftmost screws is what I started with.


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## MrCrankyface

Sometimes it's a bit of a curse insisting on using scraps... But rather waste my hours than waste money I don't have. 
Anyhow I can't reach some of the nuts when mounting it all together so I made these 4 pieces, acting both as spacers/washers and making sure the nut sits in place when tightening the screws.




After that it was pretty straight forward mounting it back together and the drill press can go back into it's corner of shame. 
I should really get back to working on the workbench now...


----------

