Garage hacks/ideas to make life better?

[4WDKC]

Comments in another thread made me think of this. Copy and paste the list below adding your ideas to help with others in their garage.

1. Rubber mats for horse stalls - make great pads to keep yoour feet from hurting and hard material your creeper seat can roll across.
2. Laptop and flat screen tv - tvs are cheap as **** on fb market place and install a linux operating system for a cheap garage computer for tracing wiring.
3. old cheap roll around tool box - make great welder carts and storage for welding/fabrication tools.

 

[TravisB]

My wife wanted a new fridge so I put the old one in the garage for beer. Really the best tool in there now probably.

 

[Charlie]

My wife wanted a new fridge so I put the old one in the garage for beer. Really the best tool in there now probably.

 

[legopnuematic]

I got this cart from work, one of the ball bearing slides gave out and spilled the 5C collets on the floor, so bossman bought a new collet rack and wanted this one gone, so I took it home with me, took the bad slides out and cut the front from a drawer to put both of my welders and used the drawer that I no longer needed to make a holder for my argon tank The side cabinet keeps my welding leads, helmets, and gloves.

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Good lighting and good 20A dedicated breakers with 12gauge wiring I would say are important. Nothing like burning the place down from drawing too many amps on undersized wiring. 220 would be nice too.

 

[Camar068]

I got this cart from work, one of the ball bearing slides gave out and spilled the 5C collets on the floor, so bossman bought a new collet rack and wanted this one gone, so I took it home with me, took the bad slides out and cut the front from a drawer to put both of my welders and used the drawer that I no longer needed to make a holder for my argon tank The side cabinet keeps my welding leads, helmets, and gloves.

You must be registered for see images attach

Good lighting and good 20A dedicated breakers with 12gauge wiring I would say are important. Nothing like burning the place down from drawing too many amps on undersized wiring. 220 would be nice too.

Can't beat free.

My fav upgrade for the garage was lighting. I really wish I'd done it before I did the swap though.....the lighting sucked then.

I bought a 6 pack of Barrina 4' LED lights off amazon for $50, some 6' extensions, and flashing from lowes for $10....wow what a difference! $80 total, and all 6 are a total of 120 watts. I used the flashing as reflectors, a lot of the light was wasted going up into the 2' floor joists.

6 or 8 packs available, roughly $7.50 per light. 8' ceiling.

I liked them so much I ordered an 8 pack for the finished basement. Waiting for flashing to go on sale again. I asked my wife for her opinion on the layout, of course she said I don't give a **** about your damn lights. She looked and gave her opinion and walked away. 20 seconds later she came back and said "I could use some of those in the kitchen". LOL I said "what was that about my DAMN lights.....eh?"

https://www.amazon.com/Barrina-Inte...words=barrina&qid=1555378531&s=gateway&sr=8-3

 

[Camar068]

One to make life better. If your building, put a floor drain in your garage!

 

[eskimomann209]

One to make life better. If your building, put a floor drain in your garage!

I had a house with a detached garage in the back
Sewer main ran RIGHT under it
I broke the concrete and tied into the drain with a 4” line. stubbed it up and back filled with concrete and a grate. Put one of them sewer sock type things in it
Oh gawsh I miss that garage

Got another few hacks I’ll share as soon as I get home and can take a pic

 

[legopnuematic]

Can't beat free.

My fav upgrade for the garage was lighting. I really wish I'd done it before I did the swap though.....the lighting sucked then.

I bought a 6 pack of Barrina 4' LED lights off amazon for $50, some 6' extensions, and flashing from lowes for $10....wow what a difference! $80 total, and all 6 are a total of 120 watts. I used the flashing as reflectors, a lot of the light was wasted going up into the 2' floor joists.

6 or 8 packs available, roughly $7.50 per light. 8' ceiling.

I liked them so much I ordered an 8 pack for the finished basement. Waiting for flashing to go on sale again. I asked my wife for her opinion on the layout, of course she said I don't give a **** about your damn lights. She looked and gave her opinion and walked away. 20 seconds later she came back and said "I could use some of those in the kitchen". LOL I said "what was that about my DAMN lights.....eh?"

https://www.amazon.com/Barrina-Inte...words=barrina&qid=1555378531&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Thats what I did in the front half of my basement workshop, so far I am very happy with them, beats the mismatched fluorescent tubes.

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

Some kind of ventilation setup beyond a box fan sitting on the floor might be good. That way you’re not huffing Brakleen all winter long. Maybe a high velocity ventilation fan that sucks all the toxins out quickly.

A rock solid, higher top workbench with lots of drawers is a great asset to have. One with multiple outlets available, a magnifying lamp, lots of overhead light, maybe a hot plate for messing with thermostats or making macaroni and cheese, a hood of some sort for extra ventilation, and other goodies.

I like to put heavy stuff like larger portable air compressors on caster carts to move them around easier.

X2 on the fridge.

Shelving. Seems like an obvious thing but yeah.

A jumbo trash can and even a drum for metal recycling like water pumps or aluminum cans. If you’re like me, projects generate a lot of refuse, and most of it is small enough to go into large containers.

All this depends on how fancy you want to get and how much space you have. I want to put a lift in my garage when it’s finished, whatever year that is, and it has RV hookups behind the fuel trailer m, but this is how it sits right now with the back end open. I’d like to have a one piece door that either folds up or slides to the left or a two piece door that swings open at the edges, but that’s about a 36’ x 12’ opening right there.

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[eskimomann209]

This is my massive kegerator/ beer fridge set at a crisp 26 degrees year round

Also my beer brewing system. It’s setup for sparging temp control and pumps
Tall
Stand up freezer next to the brew system is my climate controlled fermentation chamber with a 20 Gal conical

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[eskimomann209]

I haven’t brewed in about a month so it’s a little buried

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

I’ll come on over there, and we get the ole girl firing up some brewskis. Modesto’s only 2000+ miles away from me.

 

[eskimomann209]

Lmfao

I’ll come on over there, and we get the ole girl firing up some brewskis. Modesto’s only 2000+ miles away from me.

 

[4WDKC]

Some kind of ventilation setup beyond a box fan sitting on the floor might be good. That way you’re not huffing Brakleen all winter long. Maybe a high velocity ventilation fan that sucks all the toxins out quickly.

A rock solid, higher top workbench with lots of drawers is a great asset to have. One with multiple outlets available, a magnifying lamp, lots of overhead light, maybe a hot plate for messing with thermostats or making macaroni and cheese, a hood of some sort for extra ventilation, and other goodies.

I like to put heavy stuff like larger portable air compressors on caster carts to move them around easier.

X2 on the fridge.

Shelving. Seems like an obvious thing but yeah.

A jumbo trash can and even a drum for metal recycling like water pumps or aluminum cans. If you’re like me, projects generate a lot of refuse, and most of it is small enough to go into large containers.

All this depends on how fancy you want to get and how much space you have. I want to put a lift in my garage when it’s finished, whatever year that is, and it has RV hookups behind the fuel trailer m, but this is how it sits right now with the back end open. I’d like to have a one piece door that either folds up or slides to the left or a two piece door that swings open at the edges, but that’s about a 36’ x 12’ opening right there.

You must be registered for see images attach

Id love to have a garage that size but would have to move west of where I currently am and still not sure I could afford the property. one big door that swings or slides to one direction would be hell on hinges and casters. You could do 2 sliding doors like on a house so you can get in one side or the other.

I bought some led lights but thought I would use housing from older fluorescent lights to redirect the light.

 

[Crispy]

The wood cribbing I just made to get the front end of the Trans Am up is going to be used multiple times I feel. very sturdy and safe way to get your car elevated for long periods of time. I feel like at least 1 set of 4 is mandatory for a shop / garage now.