My humble garage: Turning a mouse nest into something useful

more minuscule progress!

The music was a repeat (radio, i REALLY need to find a place that sells CD's), as was the mountain dew flavor for tonight, but organizing happened! Behold!

Some of that stuff is just in holding until it makes its way to long term storage, but it's good to know the shelves work after a few days.

I also started utilizing the pegboard. Now that i painted it nicely reflective white, lets cover it up! The most important tool goes first:

Then come the sockets...

And before i know it, too much time has gone by and this is what it looks like:

Not bad, not great, not complete, but good enough. There is a method to the madness, i promise you, and i will be able to find the tools i'm looking for with ease. Until i don't put them back, of course. Then they're lost forever.

One thing I learned about pegboards, I don't think i'll ever have enough of those hangers, and the hangers absolutely do NOT stay put. They wiggle and wobble and pull out if you aren't careful, with the exception of hangers with multiple pegs to keep them steady. Many of the things you see on the bottom half are actually hanging or attached by short screws, not hangers, for that reason. I must consider the ramifications of this discovery regarding the future of my garage organizational strategy....

Or just screw things on. The board has holes already, and i found a thanksgiving dinner sized e36m3-load of drywall screws in the basement.

For the record, i'm putting things on the wall and not in normal toolboxes for 2 reasons- the first is floor space, which i want to maximize at the cost of keeping things looking tidy on the walls, and secondly (most importantly) i don't have one of those toolboxes. They aren't free, so i probably won't get one anytime soon, either.

Alright, things get a bit different sounding today:

I didn't go buy it, i already had it. Before i was a repair guy, i was an archaeology PhD student. Before the anthropology happened in college, i was a music theory/composition major at a conservatory, with violin as my main instrument. I still play, but i don't have many CD's on hand from those days. They seemed to vanish after i imported them into itunes. This one isn't bad, though. I have probably 10 different recordings of these (different violinists) and i was forced to learn a lot of it. Memory lane time.

Anyway, back to progress. I'm going to tackle this nightmare:

Some of the paints that I found when i cleaned up (currently under the shelves) are doomed. They have frozen, probably repeatedly, and they also didn't have sealed lids. According to the local sanitation website, i need to fill them full of oil dry/cat litter, or let them dry out. This is to prevent paint from dumping all over in the truck/at the dump. Latex paint is not considered hazardous, but wet paint is annoying as berk, i guess...

Fixed! In my extensive recent experience dumping lots of cat litter into buckets of paint, I have found it best to dump while stirring, and fill it up as far as possible. Then, once well mixed, wait a few days. It will get really really solid.

I then emptied the upper shelves, moved the wood, writhed in back pain for a while (the logs are HEAVY) and eventually came out of the pain coma. At that point, i scooted the shelf over.

Upon relocating the fridge, i discovered why it leaks when it defrosts:

That's a touch rusty. Since it's in the garage and the floor under it slopes away from the wall, the water will simply run out onto the concrete floor and evaporate. It's not going to cause an issue. I most likely can't get this drain pan anymore so i'm just going to forget this exists and move on with my life. I could try to patch it, but since this fridge is about as old as I am, i'm going to just ignore it.

Success! Here's a pro-tip from an appliance guy:

If you have a fridge with a condenser on the back, don't push it flush with the back wall. Leave a couple inches to improve airflow, your compressor will thank you by not burning up as quickly. Also make sure air can get out the top, but that won't be an issue for me here.

Wait, what happened to the drywall?!

Just kidding, it was already screwed up. At this point, i didn't have tons of time left (remember, small incremental progress is the theme here) so i organized what i could:

On the plus side, nothing that is difficult to move is keeping me from now installing those folding work benches I have yet to build...

On that note, i DO have some 2x4's and the plywood tops for those... hmmm... I don't have to work tomorrow...

Work bench time! If you remember the sketchup model from the previous page, i'm planning on 2 fold down work benches to start with. First, i'm just going to build one to completion, then build the next one later (i.e. when i get more 2x4's). The top of the bench is 2'x 4', 3/4" plywood. Simple, fairly tough, cheap, etc... The only cuts are made on 2x4's, so that's easy. First up is the front piece. I go just under 4', to leave a little room. I'm going with fairly large tolerances here just to get it up fairly quickly:

The pull saw cutting method works well for 2x4's too:

The front piece is cut, now the sides are 24"-1.5"=22.5". awesome. Cut those, now to attach to the top. The problem i have is that the top is kinda big and cumbersome, and i don't have a good work bench to do it. How to I hold it in place and screw them onto the underside of the top with only 2 arms? Easy, clamps:

I pre-drilled the holes to help something or another, and the screws went in easily enough:

Everything screwed on:

For the legs, the boards are 35.25" (36 inches minus the 3/4" thick top) and the horizontal brace is just under 45" (48" wide top minus 3" for thickness of the side boards, and a little more cut off just in case. The main problem I had was how to screw them together square and in a way that will fit under the top as it folds up. Oh wait, just set them in place under the top and screw them together in there! it's like a jig:

Ok now some front braces- just 3.5" shorter than the top of the legs (the width of a 2x4):

When open, it looks like this (upside down)

OK success so far. The model had the benches painted white for light reflection:

It's harder to hide brush strokes when using a brush this time, but I was careful to spread the paint as far as possible, not leaving any thick droopy spots. This is good for looks in my opinion, but also for conserving paint.

Done and drying:

At this point i left, did some gardening which i should probably post in the gardening thread, and went to menards.

3 hours later:

Tadaaa! more bins, hinges, and some other stuff in the bag that can't be seen, including....

Local lo-cal root beer! It didn't taste as good as the sugary stuff.

Anyhoo, set the thing up again and install the hinges connecting the top and legs:

Yeah, i skipped painting the back of the legs. they aren't going to be seen. The legs fold down! success:

Then much struggling which was un-photo-able and i got a line on the wall to mount the top. The issue i had was that the concrete slopes up to the wall, creating a slight bowl, so if i measured up from the base of the wall, it would actually slope the top. Instead, i set the legs on the ground, put a level on the top, and moved the top around until it was level. Go down 3/4" (thickness of the top) and attach a board horizontally, like so:

In this case, the giant hole was nice. I could see one of the studs, and i measured for the other ones. Easy peasy.

I then set the top up on the horizontal board and put a placement screw through the top into a stud. The wall has enough holes in it already, another won't hurt. Then, put the piano hinge (in this case a 30" hinge) in the middle, attaching the top to the board, and done!:

And down:

I'm going to use the screw to hold it up for now. It works. The top went together easy enough, not i just need to build the second one. I didn't paint the top of the bench, either. I'll probably finish it with something from my wood finishing stash. I haven't planned that far ahead.

They make peg board hooks now that basically have a molly bolt to secure the hooks to the board. They cost a bit more but totally worth it if you're putting all of your tools on it.

In reply to RossD:

interesting... i'll have to look into that. Screwing things into the board seems to work well, but if i'm going to do that, why pegboard? Plus there are a lot of pegboard mounting options i'm sure i haven't looked into. thanks for the tip!

For tonight's progress, i did very little. Work was long, very hot, sweaty, and i don't have the energy. However, i saw this posted by the 12 gauge garage guy:

Hey, i bet i can make a much worse looking version of that in no time! The 12 gauge garage is obviously extremely aesthetic, but also highly functional. One day I may try to make mine attractive, but i don't see that happening. For now, i'm just going to mine out as many functionality ideas as i can from that guy (and others on garage journal) until i move on to making things IN the garage, and WOW are there a ton of good ideas.

I decided i'm going to make a screwdriver rack using some pine 1x2's i had left over from something i disassembled. I don't have many screw drivers that i can find at the moment, so i'll just make one i guess.

Here's the board and 2 of the larger HF screwdrivers i have. Notice the nut looking thing at the base.

Now notice what happens when you take a camera from the air conditioned house into the garage which is currently way to hot and humid:

I'm trying to make one with holes as opposed to slots. I will drop the screw drivers in through the holes. This requires the holes be big enough for the screw driver to go through:

Not quite...

good enough. 1/2" is the biggest non hole-saw bit i have.

I decide on 1-1/2" spacing, with the hole 1/2" in from the edge. This will allow enough space for my fingers on the sides and back of the screw driver if i need that for some reason.

Marked holes:

Small pilot holes:

And the big drill:

Ooops. Looks like old rusty drill bit, soft pine, and absolutely no tricks to try to prevent tear out resulted in lots of tear out. Hmmm... tool rack, don't care for now. I'll revisit this during the future probably-not-going-to-happen time when i make things look pretty.

I drill some smaller 3/8" holes for smaller screw drivers:

and test fitting:

Perfectly functional.

Now i dug out some more wood tools from the box i have yet to unpack:

A half inch butt (heh) chisel. I'm going to cut the edges at 45 degrees like I did with the shelves, because of some reason i can't articulate. Take small shavings off:

Screw into position:

Apply screwdrivers:

aaaand done. You can see that the bottom of the longest screw driver is still above the top of the SAE wrenches. It's almost like i planned that! I have enough 1x2's to hold a couple hundred screw drivers, which i don't have, so this was an easy project to test out screw driver holders until i can make it to menards to buy more 2x4's for the other bench, and get the energy i need for those 2 more shelves i have yet to make.

A small dab of adhesive holds pegboard hooks in, clear silicone or black or red or blue.

I hadn't thought of that. Oddly enough I found a box of silicone sealant in my basement yesterday

No updates lately because of family trips, but the work that i did do has been more of the same. I made the other folding work bench like the first one, put it where it is in my sketchup model, and built/installed the rest of the shelves. Now instead of posting pictures of exactly the same bench next to the first one, and pictures of exactly the same kinds of shelves i already built, i'm onto planning the next step, what do you think of these:

The little red bins are available at menards or a few other sources, they are hanging on racks i designed using metal (aluminum) that is also available at menards, but it didn't end up cheap. I can get the same stuff in steel for cheaper, but it's heavier. The design can be welded or simply screwed together if i don't have a welder yet when i build these. When you need metal, what is your go-to source?

Rufledt wrote: When you need metal, what is your go-to source?

Online Metals has always been my go-to for metal supply. They started in Seattle when I lived there, so being able to pick up same day was always a big plus. Now I'm a few hours away, but UPS still works out to be 1-2 day delivery, so it still suits me fine. Haven't done any comparison shopping in years, so YMMV.

wow they have tons of stuff, i can easily see myself losing LOTS of money to them at some point!

In other news, destruction of the built in too-large work benches is about to begin. By about to, i mean i've been removing nails and bending some stuff to find out the most efficient way. Don't worry, i'll take pics.

a little progress since the weather cooled off a bit, but first some update pics:

New second workbench:

It's next to the first one, as it was in the model i made. I put an inch or 2 in between them to allow for sawing, one table will act like an outfeed table if need be. If i REALLY needed 8 feet without a gap in the middle, i'll need to figure something else out. I don't know.

The new shelves already full of stuff:

Now i'm starting to pull and prod on the workbench:

Curse you, anybody who uses nails!! This is why i screw everything like this together. I can take anything apart easily later and reassemble, but not so with nails. Curse nails. Actually, nails are very nice and have some features that make them superior to screws in some applications, just not in easy disassembly by me without a pry bar...

I decided this looked like it had to go early on in disassembly:

And after struggling, it did:

I found out something useful, that the board along the back on the left seems to connect the two halves of the bench together. In looking underneath i find no other way they are connected, these might just be 2 benches with a single connection point.

I was having some trouble scooting the thing away from the wall, so goodbye, vice:

I'm certainly not getting rid of something as useful as a vice, i just need to find a new home for it.

Finally, it started scooting over:

At this point, i could feel my spine crying to mercy, so i devised a plan:

use the jack to raise up the bench. The jack has wheels. surely this can't go wrong...inches from my rx8...

and...

It didn't! I then stopped before my back went from "i feel tired" to "CALL THE HOSPITAL" and i'll walk to work on stuff another day.

I learned quite a few things, first off, these are 2 benches joined at an angle and held together minimally. It also is NOT attached to the wall in any way. Also, the garage was painted some time after the bench was installed:

Beige walls, but white behind the bench.

Also, remember that mouse i found dead, and the mouse nest i found in the bench? Well, i think i found the late resident's other residence:

I'll know for sure when i get down there to clean up, but it looks like the standard concretion of mouse crap, mouse urine, and discarded mouse food. In short, gross.

This leaves me with another question, what should I do with these benches? having 2 free standing benches is nice, but they are still too large. Do i pull them apart and build some more folding work benches? Do I throw them out? make shelves that don't take up as much floor space? I can use the materials for a LOT of stuff, the only thing I don't want to do is leave them as-is, since they are too tall and too deep. At a minimum i'm going to cut them smaller and move them elsewhere.

Here's about where i left off, minus 1 board:

After removing the top board that connected the two halves, i realized something. It's not all that was connecting the halves.

Behold! Hidden nails reveal themselves:

A little more:

This all took about 20 solid minutes of struggling for minimal effect. Seems usual for me i guess. However, after much more struggle...

(dramatic pause)

Sharp nails! Hooray!

Anyways, some disassembly later:

Saving some nails:

Not sure i'm going to save all the plywood, it's splintery, full of holes, and irregularly cut:

But the guts of the work benches seem to be pretty solid:

I think i'm going to make one of these benches into a larger folding work bench. This will leave a lot of 2x4's, which combined with the other work bench's materials, could make some nice shelves. Good idea? bad idea? Still haven't whipped up the shelves or bench in sketchup, but I will.

If you clamp another 1x2 on top of the one you are going to use and mark and drill through both then the holes will not splinter on the bottom one that you a using.

Yeah I did none of that kind of thinking. I did more measure and "drill baby, drill". Maybe I'll do it pretty later.

In other news, I have one of the work benches half disassembled.

Got off work early today, so more destruction time. No pics, but one observation: nails suck, but otherwise come out as expected... Except those under a long term mouse nest. I assume they are all rusty because of years of mouse urine...

One part of the old work bench turned into this:

Plus some more piles of wood, some of which made it to the garbage.

I then designed this:

To fit in a spot that was wasted, while still allowing the door to swing open a full 90 degrees.

Transferred to a super detailed blueprint:

I then set to work and got this far:

before running out of wood. D'oh. This is probably the weakest free standing shelf thingy that i've made in a LONG time. I like to design utilitarian things so that the weight is mainly on the wood, with the screws simply holding the boards in place. This one uses the screws to hold the shelves entirely. They are still 3" screws, very shallow shelves, and will only hold lightweight things, but it's still not super-mega overkill like i tend to prefer. It will probably only qualify as really overkill. I did jump up and down on the boards to make sure they didn't splinter (at personal risk i now realize). Even those folding work benches have the top resting on the wood frame which rests directly over the legs on the side away from the wall... This should still be strong enough to hold quarts of oil and stuff. And anything i'll be able to fit through the 10" openings. Probably.

Big work day, today! It's the only sunday i've had in recent memory without a long day planned going places or spending time with people. In other words, i did lots of work. Fortunately i had gone to menards yesterday for supplies, so all day today could be used productively!

Finished building the shelf thing out of mostly reclaimed bench wood:

Slapped on the sloppiest coat of paint i've ever done:

I didn't bother AT ALL making it look nice. Most of the boards were full of nail holes and literally hammered over and over to get apart from the bench. They are far from pristine. If i tried making it at all nice, i'd be planing all the boards smooth before i finished. With my hand planes. I might have 3 of them done by now!

Fitting it in place took a lot more work than i anticipated (because i don't plan things well):

Here it is. I had to clearance the right side for the door hinges, despite making the shelf almost an inch narrower than the opening. The floor is also slanted horribly in that corner. Like, i don't know how they got it so weird in concrete. The back right leg is standing on the ground. The front right is on almost an inch of shims, and the left front is raised probably 2 1/4". Don't know about the back left leg. I'm not super worried about the shims making it unstable, however, because i screwed the thing into a stud to hold it firm. Also with the slanted floor, the whole thing is kinda wedged in between the walls at a slight angle. The screw is just for added security, because safety.

I then backed the cars out, moved out all the junk:

Got some help sweeping:

I moved all that wood into another storage place, got rid of all the molding, filled a garbage bin with what remains of the other work bench and a bunch of other junk, and ended up with only this stuff on the far side of the garage (to be removed shortly)

and this by the door, most of it also to be removed shortly:

Still lots of room in the shelves, but i want to reorganize now that i have more space here (and in a storage room in the basement)

I do have 2 plastic bins marked "To be organized" so that'll all probably go in the trash or on the shelves.

I also now have all this space, even with the car in and the bench pulled off of the wall a couple feet:

Now i'm going to pause a bit and figure out just how i'm going to turn that work bench into a folding one. I already have a space that it'll fit (on the wall to the right of the RX8), but since it is nailed together, i may have to fully rip it apart to get the pieces needed to convert it. I also haven't decided how i'm going to build it. Now it's planning time. Also sleep time, because moving those 7' logs SUCKS.

Aaaand last bench gone:

Most of the wood falls into 2 categories:

on the left, materials for the folding work bench. On the right (by the door), stuff to be thrown out. A little saw action and a lot already made it into the bin. Unfortunately, the garbage bin is a set size and i can't throw more than one full bin away, so i may have to stretch out the disposal over a couple weeks.

I ended up ripping apart the whole bench because i figure rebuilding it as a folding bench would be better than trying to selectively pull apart a nailed together bench.

Either way, look at all the room i now have!

Something changed!

I moved the big particle board thing that was screwed into the wall, and found some treasure underneath:

That's right, a pair of plastic safety glasses, a tennis ball thrower, and...

Mouse habitat number 3! I have no idea why someone would crapily cover up a winder like this, but i'm especially confused as to why he wouldn't just take the glasses and ball thrower OUT of the window first. Like, did he not look first?

Anyway, i modeled the larger folding work bench idea, and with it down it took up WAY too much room. Back to the drawing board.

What should I use this window opening for? seems like a good opportunity for some built in, very shallow storage. I just can't screw anything too deep into the wood on the back, or it might poke through the siding!

Also, any idea how to neutralize all the mouse urine that has to have soaked into that 2x4? soak it in bleach?

Try some white vinegar. Worked pretty well for me in the past...

thanks for the tip! I used some in conjunction with bleach, hopefully the one-two punch will help me not get a massive lung infection or whatever happens from breathing mouse e36m3 and urine, properly aged in a hot garage.

Today's work, removed the other peg board!

I came up with a creative (for me) way to get that board removed from the wall:

I get some space, fit a hammer back there, and use another board from a year-ago failed project to spread out the hammer prying force. I didn't damage the drywall. Well, the hammer didnt...

All the nails did, though.

Anyway, time to move it to here:

I put some boards on the wall to use as a mount for the pegboard, but also to space the pegboard away from the wall.

The next step sucked, putting the thing up. It's thin, but wow is it heavy and flexible. I had to come up with a cleaver way to hold the board up in place while using my other arm to screw the thing in place. It was so clever, i cleverly forgot to take any pictures, but trust me, it was amazing. By amazing i mean i didn't end up bleeding too much by the time the thing was up:

Hooray! There's one issue, though. There's a power outlet behind there, hidden now.

A little cutting away:

Coat of paint:

And viola! another plan come to fruition. It's almost like i might finish this at some point! Then what will I do?! Oh yeah, there's tons more to do here, and then it's car time. Only 1 project at a time. First is garage, then it's probably learning metal working and welding to make some more stuff for the garage, then it's onto my old van. I may even finish before i retire!

You might want to cut away a little bit more around the outlet, in case you need to use something with a transformer right at the plug.

Yeah I considered that. The other pegboard has the outlet built into the pegboard and not the wall behind it, I suspect for that exact reason. I want to address it, but probably not until I do the wiring for more power and 220.

Turns out time grinds to a halt when doing other projects. I did get a little more progress done on the garage:

Hanging a few more tools, and also i mounted the vice on one of the folding work benches:

Build thread incoming on what i've been doing and what is to come, but it's all part of the plan...

But honestly i can't for the life of me figure out what to do with the wood from the other work bench. The larger folding bench idea has been scrapped because it took up too much space when folded down, but the wood could prove useful. Any thoughts? What do you people do when you have some nice materials and have an itch to build something?

Zombie thread revival time! I didn't post this when it happened, but i got some free lights from the side of the road:

They worked, but were pretty filthy:

Lots of scrubbing and the like:

One cleaned up but the other is still pretty filthy:

New bulbs and installed, it's getting bright in here!

Even my compressor has its own light now:

wow this WAS a long time ago, my gtx is FILTHY. It has since been cleaned and such, and sadly put away in storage for the winter months. Now i have lots of space!... until my wife parks her car inside.