Trying to organise a garage workshop...

[Braeden P]

Nitro grinder?!

 

[DavidR8]

Thanks for the journey!

 

[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.

 

[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..

 

[brino]

Excellent thread.
Thanks for the tour!

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

-brino

 

[Steve-F]

I'm wishing my shop HAD evolution!!

 

[NC Rick]

Many, many kinds of awesomeness!

 

[Winegrower]

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.

 

[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…

 

[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.