Garage Mod -- A 'Compliance Station'

[Jack Olsen]

My garage has a lot of work surfaces. I've got a main general purpose work bench, a fold-down wood working bench, a counter by the sink, a small portable welding table and a large fold-down welding table. I've also got a lot of storage, thanks to some big cabinets that were put in when the garage was built in 1925, some shelves and cabinets I've added, and a separate shed I built.

But I finished a long-term work project recently, and started to hear the siren cry that maybe most garage owners hear when they've got some money in their pocket -- more storage, one more work bench...

You know the cry.

My garage was originally cleaned up and redone during a strike that kept both my wife and I out of work for 100 days. Understandably, it was done on a pretty modest budget ($500, with another $500 for the floor when I got the idea of ceramic tile in my head). I like it the way it is -- I'm not a shiny diamond plate chrome cabinet guy. But my welding table is only 1/8" thick, which means I can't really go at it with a hammer. So the idea of a heavier work surface held some appeal to me. And steel prices are pretty low right now.

So an idea started to form about building a bench where I could bang on anything to my heart's content. Do I NEED a heavy surface just for that? No. Do I WANT a heavy surface just for that?

I guess I do, since an idea started forming in my head last month and before I knew it I'd picked up a cabinet on ebay that looked to be able to shoulder the weight of the 1" thick 30"x60" plate I was imagining for my bench top without any issue at all. The cabinet made of heavy gauge steel and is rated for 1,900 pounds per shelf. It's made by a company called Strong Hold and weighs 360 pounds all by itself. Getting it home and out of the Jeep broke one of the 2x4s I was using as a ramp. But I got it.



A grinding wheel made short work of the legs, which meant it would be 36" tall instead of 42".



Next burden for the old Jeep? A 510-pound slab of plate steel. Next burden for the old Jeep owner? Figuring out a way to get the 510-pound piece of steel out of the Jeep and onto the cabinet. I took it slow and easy. I am NOT a guy who can lift 510 pounds. I'm also not a guy who wants to see a 510-pound weight fall onto my foot.

Since the 2x4s had not been fully up to the task of the cabinet, I used some 2"x4"x1/8" rectangular tubing. It's strong stuff.


Still, the steel isn't going to move itself. So I took a cue from the guys who built in the days before steam engines and used steel dowel rods to roll it very slowly over the tubing. This isn't a very good picture, but it's what I was working with.



It took a long time, since I'm cautious with stuff that can hurt me. But it worked.



Until I saw the bodged corner. I got the steel for a pretty good price, but it had one section that was cosmetically not up to snuff. The only way to move that to the back (and underside) was to rotate the piece and then flip it like a pancake.

Did I mention that it weighed 510 pounds?

You'll see my car jack and some 2x4 blocks in this picture. There's also a line to slow it down if it started to slide. I worked VERY slowly on this part.



That got it up on its side. Then I had to lower it back down. Since the wall I was lowering it against was a stucco surface (originally an exterior), I was able to use a system where I would clamp progressively shorter 2x4 lengths which I would release slowly (first one, then the other) and slowly let it move back down so its good side was up. This part was done even more slowly. I sweated a lot whenever it would slip a little.



I finally got the steel on top of the cabinet. I used sulfuric acid to clean off the mill scale. I haven't yet secured the steel to the cabinet top. But it's 510 pounds. I can jump on it all day and it's not going anywhere.

[Jack Olsen]

Then I tried it out with a 10" forged steel vise.



Paint came after that:



To hold hammers, I had a metal shelf that I botched up pretty badly when I tried removing a special-purpose shelf. I covered the messed-up sections with wood, which also meant I could use screws to hold the hammers in place.



There's still a lot of wasted space up above. So I started some more cabinets.



I wanted to do sliding cabinets instead of hinged ones. So I used the table saw to cut two channels in a set of 2x4s. It was easier than I thought it would be.





Then I put a skin on it. The reason for the curved section is two-fold. I wanted it to have the feel of a bench from the 1950s and 1960s, and I also wanted to be able to open the cabinet above my main wood bench.



I used a sliced up 2x4 for trim.



And more paint:



I was able to get two 12' lengths of 3" wide 1/8" aluminum for $12 each. They completed the retro look.

[Jack Olsen]

The total budget was in the $900 range. The wardrobe style cabinet on the right is metal, and cost me $30 off of Craigslist. The short one holding up the big new piece of steel is made by Strong Hold, and is thick gauge steel rated for, well, pretty much whatever you want to put on it (you can put in 1,900 pounds per shelf, according to the specs).

I'm also including a big cabinet I picked up on ebay that has doors with shelves in them. It was a little banged up, but I straightened it out enough to work.

Before:





After some paint:



Here's another angle that shows the lights I built into the undersides of the cabinets. They're motion activated, made out of one of those cheap outdoor security lights.



Hammers, anyone?

[Jack Olsen]

Since I'm on a roll, and your modem is totally destroyed, here are a few more pictures:

[porsche4life]

I don't see how anyone could possibly work in a space that organized... I more like something like this...

[Schumi]

Me and my friends are all 'material nuts' as well. A 510lb. slab of steel would excite the hell out of us. There isn't anyone in their right mind who doesn't need a 510lb slab of steel.

[svandamme]

Jack's work shack is cleaner and more organized then my kitchen... Not sure what to make out of it

[Bill Douglas]

That's cool Jack, but how's the front fence?

[look 171]

Jack,

If you're gonna bang on the steel top with hammers and such, be careful it will break your floor tiles for sure. No way to get around that. I think stuff like hammering should be done outside so it would not destroy the floor.

That's not a cabinet, it is a safe.

3/8" steel top over 1" thick plywood on top of some 2x4 frame should be able to take most hammering one could dish out. What you did is damn nice, crazy, but nice.

[Schumi]

Throw another steel slab, albeit a thinner one, under the cabinet bottom to distribute the load over a large area, thus keeping the bottom of the cabinet from cracking the floor.

If you intend to hammer that hard....

[azasadny]

Great work!

[1990C4S]

What's with the shelving? No space left on the floor?

[Mrmerlin]

Nice work, and a good color choice.
I would suggest to put the vise on the corner that has the damage and make a 45deg cut on the corner, that way you will have 3 good corners, if thats where you plan on putting the vise

[Joeaksa]

Looks very nice. Can tell you are a HF junkie... I have the same yellow hammers in my garage!

[URY914]

Looks good.

Are you a member of garagejournal.com?

They would love to see this.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

Your fab skills have come a long, long way. Nice work Jack. Do you have any more pics of your garage?

[URY914]

Originally Posted by URY914

Looks good.

Are you a member of garagejournal.com?

They would love to see this.

I see you are a fellow member.

[john70t]

This is going to turn into another one of those "Want to be Jack Olsen" threads. There should be a seperate archive for them.

Nice work area! The only thing it's missing is a ceiling/wall pull-down vacuum system.

[911Freak]

Very nice indeed!

Your garage/shop reminds me of my Grandfathers garage/shop when I was younger; the color (avacado?), character of the cabinets, lots of bfh, a big ole vice, metal top work-bench...any model airplanes in there?
How bout STP stickers?

I bet it has that great mix of aromas; oil, wd40, paint, gas, some electric metallic smell from grinding and/or welding..... Oh the memories...

Great work Jack!

Thanks for sharing!

[look 171]

Who scribes the top of their "garage" cabinets? Oh, and the curve ends. Nuts. Great work BTW.