garage shop with cars

[DaveW]

I doubt (ok ok I'm hoping) that I'm not the only one who lives in an area where I'm fortunate to have a two-car garage, but unfortunate because I have to have the cars in at the end of each day.

Any time I want to do any wood working, I have to spend time pulling my tools out of various storage areas and set them up, scramble to get some wood work in, then spend time putting everything away and cleaning up.

So, the question to you... what little (or big) tricks do you have up your sleeves to minimize the time wasted on setting up before and cleaning up after?

[Ken Weaver]

I started out the way your did. The cars haven't seen the inside of my shop in two years.

[lrogers]

I agreed to buy the house LOML wanted only on the condition the garage was mine until a shop gets built. I did give her enough space for the mower and other yard gear, but no where near enough to even think about putting a car in.

[onedash]

I have a 2+ car garage and 2 cars in the Driveway. My last place in California had a finished 3+ car garage but I didn't have much of a workshop then so we actually parked in the garage.
Around here though everyone seems to be converting their garages to living space.

[JR]

My shop is the third bay of a 3-car garage. But, here's an article from Wood Magazine that is directly on point.
http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/sto...xml&catref=wd8

JR

[LCHIEN]

quote:Originally posted by Ken Weaver

I started out the way your did. The cars haven't seen the inside of my shop in two years.

hmmm, sounds like me, too.

[don_hart]

My oversized 2 car garage is my shop. The vehichles get parked in the driveway. My wife and I have an understanding that this will continue until we build a shop.

[LarryG]

Um, I think maybe Dave is saying he literally MUST put his cars in his <s>shop</s>garage at night -- either because of subdivision covenants, a zoning ordinance, or orders from a Higher Power (aka, LOHL).

Before setting up my current shop I worked either on the covered front porch, under the shade trees in the back yard, or in the carport; either way, I had to set everything up and break it all down when I was finished. So I can sympathize, to a large extent.

The article JR posted is about as good as I've seen.

[DaveW]

quote:Originally posted by LarryG

Um, I think maybe Dave is saying he literally MUST put his cars in his <s>shop</s>garage at night -- either because of subdivision covenants, a zoning ordinance, or orders from a Higher Power (aka, LOHL).

Exactly! LOML is actually VERY understanding, and wouldn't have a problem with leaving both cars out - it's the dumb home owner's association rules that require the cars back in.

JR - I've seen that article before, and it's good, except that I have little to no room on the sides (we used to when we had two compact cars, but now we have a minivan that is much larger and the garage feels very crowded as a result.

Anyway, yeah - I'd love to live in a place where I'd actually have a driveway! We live in a condo with the garage, but no driveway. So, back to the original question - how do you speed up the setup/cleanup process? (I guess I could give the thread a more focused direction like "show me your folding/collapsing tool stands and/or hoists" etc, but I don't want to restrict this discussion too much.

[RayintheUK]

It can be a real pain, Dave, but you can live with it successfully. In my case, prior to my retirement we had two cars in a garage with separate up-and-over doors and a partial dividing wall (can be seen here), so I had to make use of EVERY bit of wall space and a couple of flip-up tables which were used for the SCMS, morticer, dovetail jig, sharpening sustem, etc. as well as each having a router insert and miter track fitted. Now that I've retired, the right-hand side is for me (my van's too tall to garage), the family car goes into the left-hand side every night.

What I tried to do was to return each tool to its storage position when I was sure I'd finished with it, rather than leave all the clear-up to the end of the session. Prior to assembly, I clear up anyway so that I've got somewhere clean to stand the clamped-up items.

After a bit, you soon get used to doing it - I still do it now, even if I don't have to. Tools I use every day are fairly well to hand, whereas the morticer and dovetail jig are a little harder to dig out!

That's probably not much help, but at least I understand the initial frustration working that way can cause. I'll never build a shop at this address and I've accepted that. By the time we move, I'll probably not be as keen to build a shop anyway, so I live with what I've got and include the "set-up/take down" time as a normal part of any shop time.

Ray.

[DaveW]

quote:Originally posted by RayintheUK

That's probably not much help

Actually, that was helpful - seeing everything mounted on the wall like that gives me hope. Thanks!

Anyone else have similar garage shop pictures to share?

[bigstick509]

The new car is 5 months old and has yet to see the inside of the (garage)shop.Her car stays inside year round.The only question now is do I put up with cleaning the car off in the winter or play the weather forecaster game and put everything away only when needed.

[twistsol]

I don't have pictures, but in my old "shop" we had the same issue, we moved in part because of it. We had a two car garage, a Chrysler Town & Country and a Dodge Intrepid.

Tool layout in the garage positions.
Front of the garage. I built the Ultimate Tool Stand for router, miter saw, planer, and a second for the BT. I stored those at the front of the garage. I had two foot deep shelves from 4' to ceiling the width of the front wall. There was also a door to the house on that wall.

On the left wall. I had a dust collector in the front left corner, bandsaw on a mobile base and drill press against the wall. The drill press was next to the front edge of the driver's door of the Intrepid and I left a blank space on the wall to open both doors on that side. At the rear edge of the back door the jonter on a mobile base was up against the wall. It was thin enough that you could squeeze by it.

On the right side I had a workbench with foldable legs that was attached to the wall and hinged. It took up about 6" when folded down. This lined up with the van doors. There was also a freezer, 1' deep shelves from eye level to ceiling and a service door on that side.

Shop Setup.
I pulled the tablesaw to the center of the garage with the outfeed facing the garage doors, The UTS was right behind the operater side of the tablesaw. The bandsaw was pulled out and placed next to the tablesaw and the jointer next to that. Flipped up the workbench connected power and dust hoses and was ready to work. Total time about 15 minutes.

Tear down. Put away the cords and hoses, folded down the workbench, blew off all the tools with compressed air swept their parking spots and rolled them back into place Swept the rest of the garage and was ready to bring in the cars. 20-30 minutes total.

The secret to making this work well is to put away each small tool when you are done with it. If I finished the day and had chisels, drills, sanders, clamps, etc on every horizontal surface, It took two hours to clean up and put it all away.

[DaveW]

quote:Originally posted by twistsol

Front of the garage. I built the Ultimate Tool Stand for router, miter saw, planer, and a second for the BT. I stored those at the front of the garage. I had two foot deep shelves from 4' to ceiling the width of the front wall. There was also a door to the house on that wall.

I can picture doing this - I currently have 18-24" deep shelving units at the front of the garage. They're the kind with the metal framing and MDF/particle board shelves.

Did you build your own shelving, or did you use some buy-and-assemble kind? I'm a bit unsure of how to get my shelves 4' off the ground... though that's one thing I've been wanting to do for a while now, since it'll clear up a lot of floor space for me. (I'm unsure because I'm not sure how to keep the shelving units square)

[twistsol]

Both, I started with shelves framed with 2x4 and particle board for the shelf surface. I used pressure treated 2x4's and screws run vertically in the front spaced 4' apart. Once I built the two UTS I couldn't get them between the legs and moved those shelves to the basement storage area. I used heavy duty shelving brackets from Menards and attached them to the wall wilth 4" lag screws. The brakets were spaced 16" apart at every stud. I used 5/4 decking for the shelves themselves. I piled everything I could, including lumber on them and they never moved. The brakets were the white enamel kind with the double row of slots. I think the whole set cost me a little over $200.00. They were kind of spendy but it was the quickest way to solve the problem.