Textanker

I just moved into a new house with a detached garage. It has a cement floor, and I know that standing on that for more than a few minutes will be less than fun. Can you guys give me some advice on flooring? Also, I am going to build my own workbenches, etc. Any advice in these matters would also be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

dr_wogz

My Feedback: (3)

Build teh biggst bench you can, and make sure you can get around at least three sides! Build it on / use cabinets as legs, to maximize storage space.

As for teh flooring, you can get rubber mats form industrial supply stores, that can eliviate standing pains...

Jim Finn

My Feedback: (2)

I have a concrete floor in my basement workshop andI love it! I have three benches placed in a horse shoe shape and an office chair with wheels . I just roll from one bench to the next. Works for me!

DrDeath

My Feedback: (3)

Textanker,

Check out my website for advice on building good solid workbenches and tables. I have the cut list and parts you need to build them. You can build very strong and very sturdy benches and tables for under $70 dollars.

http://www.speakeasy.org/~ldharris/workshop.html

It shows also my before and after pictures of my garage. Hope this helps.

Lee

SkyBound

Textanker,

I concur with Lee, use solid core doors. I have two of them in my shop and you will not find a better, smoother, more solid work surface than these. I also used 4x4's for legs. It is heavy, but is well worth it. You can also mount one against a wall for "general" workbench use by only using 2 - 4x4's. Just screw a 2x4 into the wall studs, horizontally and level, at the desired height. Measure from the floor to the top of the 2x4 and cut two 4x4's to that length. Attach the 2 - 4x4's on two corners (or inset if you like) of one long edge of the door. The other edge will rest on top of the 2x4 and against the wall. Now just put a few screws from the top along that wall edge (3 should do.. one each corner and one in the middle) these are not load bearing.. they just keep the bench in place) and there ya go. Although it's nearly a must to have one free-standing table out in the middle of your shop for building planes, it's also nice to have a solid bench on one wall. I have a vice mounted on one end and a bench grinder on the other. Also you should seriously think about mounting a peg board in your shop, and there is no better place than on the wall above the aforementioned work bench. They are cheap and easy to install. You can get all kinds of hangers and hang all kinds of stuff from them. I also mounted many magnetic tools trips on them to hold a lot of little tools (great for screwdrivers and ignition wrenches, or anything that is metal and does not have a hole in it) If you get really bored, you can also put an air compressor in your shop and route the air to different places around the shop with PVC as I did, you would not believe how much you would use it if you had one.... but that's another story, and I use my shop for more than building planes.

Good Luck,
Monty

aimmaintenance

As for flooring just get with a local carpet place and ask them nicely if you could get somethin they are tearing out. You can usually get this sort of thing for free although you may have to go to the job to get it. I do this and I love it. I get a 12 X 12 or so about once a year and just flop her down. You can easily move it under the table your workin at. Once it gets too nasty to look at, (oil spills etc) just cut it into easy to handle strips and set it out for the garbage man or burn it. (I live in the country so I burn mine)

Be careful about building tables for your garage that will set in the middle. You may want to pull a car in there someday or somethin like that. I just set a sheet of particle board on my table saw. When I want to clear the garage for a different project I stand the board up along the wall ond roll my saw to the side.
Benches along the walls can be anything ya want.

In the pic you can see the carpet under the left corner of saw table. I have it placed under another small folding table in the back corner. I have a few smaller pieces that I move around when Im workin at the saw table they just weren't laying where you can see them when I took the pic.

DrDeath

My Feedback: (3)

Monty,

Man, I thought that mine are heavy with the 2x4's, yours must weight a ton . Bet they are solid as a rock. There is nothing like a good solid core door. I had used saw horses first and found that they were difficult to move if you needed to move the entire table. Building the 2x4 base is really easy. What is really nice is that HomeDepot will cut your 2x4's to whatever length you want. I really don't need a miter saw, so going to one in my area is great. I pick out the straightest 2x4's with the least amount of knots and then tell them what lengths to cut. I then go home and put together my table. The complete process takes about 4 - 5 hours from the time I leave my house, to the time my table is complete (now that I have done it a couple of times) .

Lee

SkyBound

Lee,

They are heavy indeed, but like you said, you can't beat it. I don't get HD or Lowes to cut my wood, mostly because I have more saws than I know what to do with, but more importantly, I cut as I go.. remember the old carpenters saying "measure twice, cut once"!

Monty

FHHuber

Visit a restaurant. Ask to look at the mat the guy washing dishes stands on, then ask where to get one.

These mats are appx 1/2 inch tall, perforated rubber. (they come in darn near any size/shape you want...) They are non-slip even when wet and greasy! They hose clean easilly. (they are expensive...) Nice cushion to then to relieve the legs a bit. (but that's not why the restaurants use them... its to keep the dishwasher from slipping and falling.) They seem to last forever. (they also make good entry doormats ... the mud gets tracked in a lot less. )

The actual floor... you want to be concrete or inexpensive vinyl tiles (squares, not sheet vinyl flooring) The tiles are individually replaceable when you destroy one. (and you will occasionally ruin a tile....)

A solid core door on two 2-drawer file cabinets makes a decent workbench (or computer desk. The knob hole is handy for the cords.) Carpenter's shims to level the workbench go under the file cabinets. (screw the door to the cabinets...)

Be sure you Level the workbench... you can check that its straight easier. (and it helps when 'trammeling" and doing incidence checks to be working off of a level surface.)

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

Go to Lowes or Home Depot and check out the kitchen counter tops. Usually they have slightly damaged one that you can get at a discount. A white counter with a small lip and rolled up back so nothing can roll off works great. Build a solid bench at least 36" high (or more) and just sit the counter on top of it. I also use a 4x8 folding table in the center of the room for assembly.

I like the cement floor as carpet and padding makes it hard to find things when you drop them.

KW_Counter

Go to Lowes or Home Depot and check out the Simpson brackets for building a workbench with 2x4s.
I have two benches with supports in the middle and two shelves. I toped them with two layers of
3/4 " ply and 1/8" Masonite. Solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. I did not build these as building benches
and cannot attest to their flatness. You could go that route if you want. Do make sure everything is square
before you start putting in the screws.
KW_Counter

DrDeath

My Feedback: (3)

KW Counter is correct. That is how I made my benches and tables. Check out my website.

bojangle

Last year we built a new home on our ranch, with a detached garage, 24 X 48. My shop area is separated from the car area with a wall-double doors. The shop area is further divided into 5 rooms/areas, one for woodworking, another area for ranch related stuff, water storage and pump area, house storage, and last but most important, my "hangar". Right after we moved in, I drove by a carpet store in town and saw huge piles of almost new industrial carpet by their dumpster. The store owner gave it all to me just to haul off. There were pieces large enough to do wall to wall in all the rooms. We just cut to fit and laid it down loose. The timing was perfect, as the work benches were not yet built. The floor is warm, and the dirt, mud and balsa stuff vacuums up easily.

AMT

SkyBound, I would be extremely careful using PVC for compressed air. It is not rated nor is it designed for that use! For compressed air you have to use black pipe. I think it is the same pipe you would find natural gas routed in.

saramos

I am just completing a workshop conversion of my garage. I built my own cabinets so they would be long enough to hold kits pplus building cabinets is something I've been wanting to try. I build my main buildboard as an island. It's 4' x 8' steel topped to build using magnets instead of pushpins. Be sure to have plenty of lighting. I currently have 4 floro shop lights and may add a 5th. Here's a recent photo, but I have done more work since this photo. I'll take another photo and post this week.

Scott

Jimmbbo

Lee, aimmaintenance and Scott -

Those qualify as hangars - they left garage status behind some time ago

My spare bedroom building space would just about fit in one corner...

Cheers!

Jim

Ben Diss

My Feedback: (23)

I converted my garage to a workshop as well. I made a bench at the head of the garage from a full sized solid core door and then ripped another door in half lengthwise and lined the wall with another. The main work surface is in the middle of the room. I bought these legs and casters from Rockler:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10276

and attached a full sized (80x36) solid core door to it. I can roll this into any area I want. When I paint, I kick my wife out of her side and roll the table into her free space and hang plastic from the ceiling to create a makeshift paint booth.

-Ben

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The best advice I can give is to plan on having two work benches.

One that is solidly attached to the wall where (among other things) your vise will be attached, so that you can hammer, bend, etc without shaking the bench to pieces.

The other a free-standing table (Mine's even on casters) so that you have 360 degree access to it. That comes in really handy when you need to work on either side while something is pinned (or weighted) down and you don't want to move it.

BWooster

I put rubber flooring in the mudroom of my house last year. It's great stuff, and would be perfectly suited for a shop. It's the same stuff you see in hockey rinks, airports, etc. Easy to clean, nice to stand on, impervious to everything. Only problem is that it's not a retail product, so you have to find a flooring compnay with a scrap piece.

iaclmac

As far as your flooring goes .... I have a basement with nothing but cement floors. In front of my benches are horse trailer pads. That's right these are pads that go on the floors of horse trailers. They are about an inch thick and have enough "give" in them to soften your walking. I cut mine in half which gave me close to two 2'x8' runs from one pad

JeffH

My Feedback: (43)

Once finished, I will have a granite top on my mobile bench as well as my 10 foot wall bench. All of mine is built of 2x4s and the granite will be shimmed to be perfectly level. To facilitate pinning, sheetrock or ceiling tiles will be used.