Ok...just found out that I have a contract on a house! Really excited at this point, but I don't close until July 31 (to minimize double rent situation). Well, I basically told the GF that she can have the house, but the Garage and Office are mine. Now, that means a new virgin garage for me...so I need some help setting it up. Mods...I know this isn't really Tool/Fabs, but felt it belonged here more than anywhere else.

Has anyone had any experience painting their garage floors? I know POR-15 makes some good looking stuff, but don't have any experience with this at all. Anybody here even worry about painting their garage floor? The reason I want to is because I know the Toy will get broken into quite abit...and I don't want to have to worry about gear oil stains, etc. Hell, I don't even know how much it would cost.

I've got a starter toolbox, so not too worried about that arena.

Dropping 220V. Got to do it. No other way to run my Miller 210. Granted, I have to analyze the drop into the house and determine if the wire gauge is sufficient to run another 30amp drop into the garage. What I may do, is run a Gas Dryer...and just use that breaker for the garage...any ideas??

Peg Boards. Anyone know where to buy'em? Anyone use them?? Was thinking it'd be nice to store things on the wall that I don't need all of the time.

Any other recommendations, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Excited homebuyer that currently rents a shop can't wait to go fanatical on the garage.

Max

Have never painted my basement floor, just use laundry deterent (for big spills) and 409 to wipe up small drips of oil..

Have seen the epoxy floor paint in Griot's catalog for painting concrete floors but quite expensive.. I sure it would make cleaning up oil spills easier.. I've thought about it, but I also weld down there and occasionally have molten metal splattering across the floor and figure that, or my occasionally dropping heavy pieces of steel on the floor would trash the paint job..

Hopefully the power distribution panel won't be totally full so won't be a big deal to add another circuit..

I never got into peg boards, I just drive nails or build shelves to hold things on the walls..

Enjoy!

<small>[ June 10, 2003, 10:24 PM: Message edited by: Dandeman ]</small>

Hey Dan...good point on the welding. I forgot that I even do that *DUH!*. I can't paint my floor if I'm welding in there...what was I thinking?? Not to mention firing up the oxy-a setup. Man, you saved me alot of money...that would've been disastrous.

I've got to quit studying so much...all of this school is crowding my mind...not thinking too straight.

Again, thanks for the suggestions!

Max

One word: Heavy Duty Shelves! Oh wait that's more than one word... I like the Gorilla Racks at Lowe's / Home Depot. I have a few in the current garage and they really hold some heavy junk.

Compressed air. I am finally running lines in my garage. I'm running a series line around the perimeter of the garage with several quick release fittings and one outside.

The biggie. My garage has a very large deficit of electricity. I'm running three dedicated circuts (one 208 and two 120) to the garage. Luckily, there's enough room and capacity in the service panel.

Finally, I'm recycling a ceiling fan from inside the house to the garage. It gets a bit warm around here during the summer...

Just some ideas.

Mike

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by azrain:
<strong>
Finally, I'm recycling a ceiling fan from inside the house to the garage. It gets a bit warm around here during the summer...

Mike</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Good point on the fan.. I forgot to mention that.. I recycled a 1300cfm blower out of the air handler for my old heat pump and mounted it overhead where it blows out through the open garage door..

I'm concerned about breathing the fumes from welding especially when I sometimes use recycled metal that god know what has been on it or occasionally have to weld something that has been plated..... Some of this stuff ends up producing quite a cloud of smoke.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Dandeman:
<strong>I sometimes use recycled metal that god know what has been on it </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">BWAHAHAHAHA! Junkyard dawgs! Went down to the local mill salvage today to pick up some steel for my new rear bumper, caught the yard dog whizzing on the exact piece of 2X4 tubing that I wanted.

Although this topic gets a little droning on in the off topic forums, I think that this would make a fine thread right here in T&F. Home fabbing garages and everyones setups.

I'll be sure to post some pics and junk as time permits.

Mike

OK...so Gorilla Shelves it is. I meant to ask that exact question...as I wasn't sure what the best ones were. I'll head down to Lowe's and get some of those after I move in.

Roger that on the fan too...it just so happens that my GF hates the one in one of the spare bedrooms, perfect candidate. Thx for the tip!

I think my first step is to do some electrical work. Got to drop my 220 for the welder, no questions asked. While I'm at it, I'm sure I'll end up adding some 110's as well.

Keep'em coming!

Max

Getting back to the painted floor idea, I've got epoxy painted floors
in the machine shop at work and it's great. Seems to be very tough
stuff. Not sure what they used but they added sand for traction. Right
now I regret not painting my garage floor when I moved in. Now I've
got all kinds of oil, trans, and coolant (Toy Red) stains even after
cleaning them up right after the spill. I've tried just about everything
including concrete etchant and it still leaves a brown stain. I've got so
much stuff crammed into the garage now, it would be a real pain to
move it all out to paint the floor. I figure I'll just have to live with it.

I'm planning getting a 12 x 24 shed to put a mill and lathe into real
soon and plan to paint the slab before the shed goes up. I've found
there are some waterbase concrete paints (sold at Lowe's and Home
Depot) but if you read their brochures it says not to park on it with
wet tires as it can soften it (What the F? Kind of defeats the purpose).
I plan on using a two part epoxy floor paint but haven't decided on
the brand yet.

Oh, I using standard Home Depot peg board to hang stuff that I don't
want to cram into my toolbox (grease gun, AC gauges, degree wheel,
paper towel roll, clamps, hammers, etc...). This works pretty good
since all I have to do is reach over to grab a hammer or clamp without
having to dig thru my tool box.

Also, don't forget about a workbench and lots of lighting. I put a cheap
plastic sink next to my washer/dryer so I can clean up before going into
the house, although it usually has parts soaking in it. Another thing, can
you say shop vac?

hmmm...Shop Vac. good call. i think that'll have to wait a little while, but that definately needs to be placed on the list.

Max

One thing you might want to think about a bit and before you run your power for the welder is pros and cons of different places you could put the welder.

Mine is right next to the garage door opening (back up against the wall just behind the welding table shown below). That way I can weld outside on a vehicle or on my welding table rolled into the door opening.. btw I built the welding table out of scrap and left the under/back side of the table open where it can roll over the welder when not in use... With the welding table, it's much easier welding stuff at standing height than squatting over to do it on the floor...

<img src="http://personalpages.bellsouth.net/d/a/dandeman/weldingtable.jpg" alt=" - " />

Any time I'm welding directly on a vehicle, I always like to have a water hose turned on and ready to squirt in case the unthinkable would happen.. You can see the hose connection just outside the door in the picture above..

and.... god it just keeps coming... if you have water and sewer drain connections close to the garage, put in a laundry sink as BobG mentioned above..When you are filthy dirty and greasy this is very handy to have rather than going in the house... I built mine into the work bench as shown below..
<img src="http://personalpages.bellsouth.net/d/a/dandeman/photos/workbench.jpg" alt=" - " />
This is what the bench looks like when I'm working on car stuff and welding.. Alot of the stuff you see on the shelves above are for building amateur radio repeaters.. which I do here after I ummmm, clean up the place a bit.. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

If you build any wood shelves or work benches, take the time to soak the wood with a thick layer of polyurethane.. The surface will be much harder to dents and leaking, grimy oil from something you are working on won't soak into the wood. The bench surface you see above is just plain old soft white pine shelving boards, but after 20 years of pretty hard use still look pretty good thanks to the polyurethane coating.

Now if I only had a vehicle lift, instead of crawling under to do welding.. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

<small>[ June 12, 2003, 06:12 PM: Message edited by: Dandeman ]</small>