Garage Project – Just about done
… For now.
I’ve been tinkering with finishing this project for a few weeks now. I fitted the sliding doors to the top shelf and the ceiling rack (to the left of my kayak) for storing lengths of lumber back in August.
The top sliding doors were not without their challenges. I knew the garage floor sloped, that makes sense, water and fumes need to be able to flow out of the door away from the house. However, I hadn’t noticed that the ceiling wasn’t level – there’s about ½” to 1″ difference across the 12′ span. Either that or my spirit level needs adjusting… That raised a problem with the top doors, which slide in a track fixed to the ceiling. Musing over how to work out the best height for the doors — one that allowed me to easily insert and remove them, but also held them in place — I made myself this little gauge, which I used to experiment with different heights. The ceiling was out by too much though, so had I make the doors at each end a different height, but the gauge enabled me to optimize the doors to work over a larger span.
Workbench storage revisited
One of the main goals of the project was to try and declutter and improve access to everything. A major issue with the original build of the workbench and storage was that I used a load of cat litter boxes for storage. The boxes are great, but they stuck out four inches and would catch on bags and clothing as you walked past. Some of my tools stuck out a bit too. Changes were needed.
While I was building the end units I made mental notes of issues using the bench and accessing tools etc. Last weekend (and some evenings this week), I’ve rearranged where I keep most of my tools and I replaced the cat litter boxes with drawers. I also built the final drawer for the ‘suck and blow’ (Vacuum cleaner and compressor) closet.
The drawers are pretty primitive, and I could have made a better job of them, but they are holding all my screws, nails, brads, sanding belts and pads, safety equipment (masks, gloves, glasses, etc.), and more besides! And they don’t stick out.
Still to do …
Quite a lot, but I’ll save that for Stage IV ( or is it V? I’ve lost track).
- Paint the back door.
- Fit trim around the back door.
- Doors and external ventilation for the Suck and Blow closet.
- Dust extractor and vacuum connections plumbed to the workbench.
- Compressed air plumbed to the workbench.
- Re-wiring, and wire in new sockets (Needs an electrician. A pox on code is all I can say. I could do this easily)
- Install an AC Unit.
- Repaint the ceiling.
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