Detached Workshop Garage Design

[Joel Heinke]

The workshop interior build out continues. The mezzanine is now complete, OSB flooring painted, storage racks painted and assembled. Have I said how much I like the re-purposed pallet racking for an interior structure? It's much easier and cheaper than the alternatives.

I completed the wiring for the under mezzanine lighting today and it's nice an bright. I used 8ft LED strip lighting that can be daisy chained together to simplify the wiring.

A friend loaned me a hydraulic lift on wheels (orange thing) with the thought it can be used as an elevator of sorts for mezzanine access instead of having a fixed set of stairs. To make it useful, it will need some modification so the initial lift point is 18" or so from floor instead of 6 feet but I think it might have promise.

Next up is to finalize the position of the pallet racking on the side wall, then repaint it, and configure shelves. All the storage rack space is needed as we are about to start a "whole house remodel" and most all of our furniture and possessions need to be stored somewhere. I'm hoping to have a usable workshop even with the new garage being used as a warehouse at the same time.

 

[Brian]

They make a deep back to back unistrut that could be used vertical from a floor mount to 5' or so past the mezz floor, and with these https://www.ebay.com/itm/151126142295 make a platform, and use a 4x4 winch to raise and lower.

Sort of like a big dumbwaiter. that you can load with heavy stuff and/or yourself.

Obviously, this isn't code or osha compliant, but for your own limited personal use.

I've noodled this idea for myself, but I'm reluctant to permanently occupy the 24" x 24" or so of floor space. With my stairs, I have storage and a bench below.

 

[Joel Heinke]

They make a deep back to back unistrut that could be used vertical from a floor mount to 5' or so past the mezz floor, and with these https://www.ebay.com/itm/151126142295 make a platform, and use a 4x4 winch to raise and lower.

Sort of like a big dumbwaiter. that you can load with heavy stuff and/or yourself.

Obviously, this isn't code or osha compliant, but for your own limited personal use.

I've noodled this idea for myself, but I'm reluctant to permanently occupy the 24" x 24" or so of floor space. With my stairs, I have storage and a bench below.

My main challenge is that I have multiple above floor storage spaces and I'm hoping to find a single lift solution providing access to all of them. In addition to the mezzanine, there's this space above the office/half bath, and the pallet racking now installed along the long side wall (not shown in picture below).

A mobile lift with a small footprint seems to be optimal versus stairs or an attached vertical lift on each. I do think the Ballymore lift (orange thing) could be fairly easily modified to make it work better and parked under the pallet racking when not in use. So it's the leading contender right now but I'd go another direction if there's a better solution. A old, used forklift would be great for putting "stuff" on mezzanine and office ceiling but not so good for putting people up there, especially in a one person shop. The shop is outfitted with the trolley mounted chain hoist which I think will be suitable for lifting stuff up on mezzanine and office ceiling. I'm going to build a "lift basket" so multiple boxes can be easily lifted with chain hoist at the same time.

Please post up any other ideas for lifts that might work better than what I'm currently thinking....

 

[Ian Anderson]

How about something like this?

Peco Lift Scissor Lift Work Platform Inc VAT & LOLER | eBay

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Seems a smaller footprint than what you have

Ian

 

[Joel Heinke]

How about something like this?

Peco Lift Scissor Lift Work Platform Inc VAT & LOLER | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Peco Lift Scissor Lift Work Platform Inc VAT & LOLER at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

Seems a smaller footprint than what you have

Ian

That lift does look interesting but must be more of a UK thing. I don't find anything similar (that small of a footprint) here in the US. I'm guessing the safety police here have some regulations that don't allow a powered lift that is that compact.

 

[Joel Heinke]

I did get the final piece of the storage shelving done today. It's now positioned, fastened to the floor, painted and shelving assembled. I've been thinking about how to best secure it to ensure it won't tip over in case of an earthquake. Wouldn't you know it, about an hour before I installed anchor bolts in the floor, we had a 3.8 magnitude earthquake occur. Not a big enough shaker to move anything around but it was a good safety reminder as to why anchor bolts are a good idea.

Next up is fabricating a lift basket to get boxes up on the mezzanine and then it will be time to fill the shelves. Somehow I think building the storage shelving will have been more fun than filling the shelves

 

[Brian]

GENIE GR20 20’ ELECTRIC RUNABOUT SCISSOR VERTICAL MAST DRIVABLE MAN LIFT | eBay

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They do make such a lift here. Trust me, they're safety BS is more stringent than ours. This one actually drives.

 

[Joel Heinke]

I'll provide an overall progress update soon, but I have a question for now. What have you guys found to best work for fastener storage in you home workshops? By fasteners I mean bolts, nuts, washers, machine screws, sheet metal screws, pop rivets, etc.

Unfortunately, my cars have a mix of standard and metric fasteners and it's a 20 minute drive to the nearest hardware store, so I need to keep an inventory of many types and sizes of fasteners. To date I've used the cheap benchtop cabinets with small plastic drawers and I've come to the conclusion I've "out grown" that method because even with 4 of them I've ended up with lots of extra boxes of fasteners that end up on a shelf somewhere and I end up forgetting what's there and not using them. In addition, bench top or shelf based cabinets are not very good use of a useable horizontal surface.

I'm leaning toward buying a large fastener cabinet for the new garage and given the cost want to make sure I get the biggest bang for the buck. Here's some various options:

Bins only.

Drawers, bins, and shelves.

Pigeon holes and bins.

Drawers only.

My first inclination is the cabinet with drawers, bins, and shelves because of the versatility. Also the drawers can be easily subdivided which is convenient for different lengths of fasteners. The draw back is that you need very good labeling or you will end up opening many drawers to find the bolt or screw you need whereas with bins or pigeon holds you can quickly scan to see what's in each.

So what type of fastener cabinet have you guys found to work best. One of these or another type completely?

 

[Randy V]

I’m very space challenged in my little shop. I use a roll-around storage unit like this one.

 

[Markus]

Here is what I used.... Sorry could not turn the pics for whatever reason....

 

[Joel Heinke]

Ok, here's the progress update. The garage/workshop is now mostly usable with remaining items more in the convenience category.

I ended up putting in five workbenches that measure 3' deep and 9' long. My experience is that you just can't have too much horizontal work surfaces. The workbenches were made as part of the pallet racking with a wire deck/channel topper covered by 3/4" OSB and then topped with 20 gauge galvanized sheet that has the edges folded downward.

The drawer storage under the workbench was purchased from Home Depot online. At $180 each, these all steel, ball bearing slide, powder coated rolling drawer units are a cost effective way to get drawer storage under the workbenches.

For shop air, the RapidAir Maxitube system (blue tube on the wall) was used. A loop of tubing was installed on all four walls at the top with 5 drops coming down at various points around the shop. Given the size of the shop, I had to buy the 300' tubing kit and still have enough left over to run another drop to the middle workbench. One tip if you go with this product for shop air, get the tubing straightening tool otherwise it's hard to get the tubing into straight sections. I borrowed a tubing straightening tool from a neighbor and it was a great time saver.

I also put in a sheet metal layout/cutting table with four built in storage shelves for 4' by 10' sheets. This table was fabricated with a combination of pallet racking and Unistrut, OSB, and topped with galvanized sheet. The table surface is close to 5' wide and over 10' long. The plan is to slide a sheet out from the storage below onto a rolling transfer table and then up onto the layout table for marking and cutting. This should be a vast improvement over my previous method of wrestling a sheet out of a stack leaning against the wall and down onto a carpet scrap to then mark and cut while kneeling on the floor.

Over the top of this area (and under the mezzanine) is storage for metal tube/shapes in up to 15' lengths and down to 3' lengths.

Next up is installing an air hose reel and power cord reel. Like I said, it's down to the convenience items. Well that's except for putting in a 4 post hoist, that's more than a convenience item at my age

 

[Brian]

Looks great if you have a little more discipline than me. I have half that, but any horizontal surface get's loaded down with shit I should have put away with the last project.

I found a bird's nest in my shop. Barn swallows had found a gap under a door, and they made a nest with aluminum swarf from the lathe.

 

[Bill Kearley]

I sure like the upper ones in post 128 Joel. One thing, bolting that sucker to the wall would be a must.

 

[Joel Heinke]

Looks great if you have a little more discipline than me. I have half that, but any horizontal surface get's loaded down with shit I should have put away with the last project.

I found a bird's nest in my shop. Barn swallows had found a gap under a door, and they made a nest with aluminum swarf from the lathe.

Truth be told, I don't have much discipline from having stuff gathering on the workbenches either. With five of them, I just don't have to do a cleaning cycle nearly as often as the overflow just spills to the next one. I did take those pictures knowing that never again would the workbenches be that uncluttered

As to keeping the insects and birds out of the shop, I installed brush seals on the coil up doors.

These brush seals are really your only choice for sealing the gaps on a corrugated door. There was a 3" gap at the top of the door letting dust, insects, and even small birds have a free passage into the building. The doors used to bang and rattle in their channels when the wind blew. Now no more banging and there isn't a breeze through the shop interior when the wind blows.

 

[Joel Heinke]

So my garage/workshop build is winding down (which is a good thing) but the last couple of things came in very large containers that required trailering in and a couple days of assembly time.

I've been thinking about getting a 4 post hoist for a while and finally pulled the trigger on it. I went with a 9,000 lb. capacity lift from Advantage. They offered a warehouse pickup option in Phoenix, AZ which is about a 2 hour drive away. The pickup was easy but just figuring out how to get a 2,000 lb. container safely off the trailer without a forklift took some head scratching.

Once setup, the hoist works well and appears to be a high quality product.

I can stand at full 6' 5" height under the car when the hoist is fully raised. The hoist came with a castor wheel setup so I can move it around the shop for accessibility to storage racks, etc. Hopefully the days of scooting around on a creeper are over.

The other garage addition is a small parts storage cabinet that will be used mostly for storage and organization of nuts, bolts, screws, fasteners, etc. It weighed in at just over 500 lbs. as shipped and I'm fortunate to have a pair of forks for my tractor to get it off the trailer.

I'm sure this is the least disorganized this cabinet will ever be. I'm thinking a label printer will be just the ticket to help me find things once all my collection of fasteners are stored away in all the nooks and crannies of this cabinet. At 3 feet wide, it makes for a nice book end to one of the workbenches.

The last large item I need to find is a better man lift for getting people up on the mezzanine and accessing stuff stored on high pallet rack shelves. A Genie GR20 looks like a good option for this but I'm still trying to find a used one at a reasonable price. Once found, it will be one more large item to trailer home to the new garage.

 

[Randy V]

Massive shop-envy here!
Great job! Love the overhead mezzanine too!

 

[Joel Heinke]

Massive shop-envy here!
Great job! Love the overhead mezzanine too!

Thanks for the compliment! Not my intent to start envy but to share some ideas for things that can make out hobby more enjoyable.

We are under going a major remodel on our primary residence. Part of the "grand plan" for the garage is to use it as a warehouse for our belongings while the house is uninhabitable. The pallet rack mezzanine has worked better than my hopes in this way.

 

[Joel Heinke]

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Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for GENIE GR20 20’ ELECTRIC RUNABOUT SCISSOR VERTICAL MAST DRIVABLE MAN LIFT at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

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They do make such a lift here. Trust me, they're safety BS is more stringent than ours. This one actually drives.

Thanks to Brian for pointing out the Genie GR20 as a good candidate to use as a man lift type elevator for mezzanine access. It checked all the boxes: battery powered, drivable, compact footprint, easy step up/on from the floor, and 20+ foot vertical reach. I'd been keeping my eyes on Craigslist for one of these at a reasonable price for a while. I found this one within a few hours drive and pulled the trigger on it.

It's 2 1/2 feet shorter and an inch narrower than the other man lift I'd been borrowing. This one has the optional extended platform that slides out about 1 1/2 feet which should come in handy for putting up boxes on the office roof and upper shelves of the non-mezzanine pallet racking. Here it is positioned for access to the mezzanine.

Now I just need to get proficient enough with the joystick controls to run it around the shop without bumping into things like a nicely painted car

 

[Davidmgbv8]

Those wheels on the Miura project are bad ass.

 

[Joel Heinke]

Those wheels on the Miura project are bad ass.

Augment Wheels ( https://www.augmentwheels.com/ ) custom made them for me. They did the CAD work based on pics of the Campanola rims that originally came on the Miura. They also did a nice job of making them look like knock offs but still use the wheel studs/lug nuts from the C5 hubs. I thought for what I got, the price and timeframe were also reasonable. If someone is looking for wheels that are not readily available, I'd recommend Augment.