Homemade: Tricks for your shop/garage

texas_mikey · Post by **texas_mikey** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 8:27 am

Howdy --

Just moved into a new house and the wife is giving me the garage as "my" room. I have a 68 (type 1) baja and am wondering what yall have made to help yall arounf the shop. I've read a few posts in the past and in other forums that folks, traditionally on a limited budget, tend to make or modify their own engine dollys, jack stands for the car shell/chassis, tool stands, work benches, etc. from local materials. i.e. office desk into work bench, or a 2x4 frame with locking castors as an engine stand.

I'd love to hear others ideas AND HOW they made them. Reason being is that (where we live is a new development) and there is an abundance of lumber, especially 2x4's, laying around for me to...liberate....and use...

Any ideas...

Max Welton · Post by **Max Welton** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:46 pm

Here are some pictures of building a solid engine bench from 4x4s.

http://66.225.214.60/misc/bench/

Here is my engine test stand (old tranny plate steel and wood scraps):

http://66.225.214.60/enginestand/

Max

Max Welton · Post by **Max Welton** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:56 pm

Sliding closet doors can become shelves. Good for getting the light stuff up off the floor.

http://66.225.214.60/misc/shelves/

Max

slowtwitch · Post by **slowtwitch** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 8:56 am

Nothing like having your your own "room"

Anyway, here's some pics of a stand I built out of 2x4's, for my 67.

I also built a work bench for my shop. The tops were being thrown out at the place where I work and I used 2x4's for the legs.

Here's another angle...

Hey, good luck with the new home....gotta run out and do some welding

pete

texas_mikey · Post by **texas_mikey** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:55 am

Looks awesome guys! Keep the ideas coming...

Hank Winning · Post by **Hank Winning** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:36 am

I have all our bolts and nuts and washers seperated in large wooden drawers we got used.
Finding the right nut is pretty easy when they are all in the drawer.

When visiting the junk yards we grab all the loose bolts and nuts

good lighting and a CO2 fire extinguisher ( no mess compared to dry chemical)

good luck and have fun with your work space
hank

XMOZZAZX · Post by **XMOZZAZX** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:43 pm

I think you will like this one. I took a steel pipe the same size as is required to fit in a VW engine stand and welded a steel plate table to it. Mounted a vice, 120V power and a light stand off of the table. Power is just an old extension chord ran into a normal plug box, mounted under the table. Welded some little bars on the stand to roll the chord onto. Now what I have is a rotating welding table. You can hook the ground anywhere on the table, put your piece/s into the vice or clamp to the table and weld away. You always have good lighting, and never have trouble with yanking the grinder chord out of the extension chord. The best part is, you can rotate the table, 360 degrees, so you can always weld flat. When you want to use it as an engine stand, just take it off, and replace to the original engine mount. I am thinking of making a female plate for the wall to accept the engine mount pipe. Then I can use the table all the time, and if I need to move it outside, or elsewhere, just move it to an engine stand.

Should I go get a patent? J/K

Max Welton · Post by **Max Welton** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:29 pm

That sounds interesting, XMOZZAZX. Got any pictures?

Boneloader · Post by **Boneloader** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:09 pm

I made a brake bleeder from a garden sprayer:

The cap was the hardest to fabricate... I drilled a hole in a spare resevoir cap and modified a fitting so it would fit inside and seal against the resevoir. Be creative here. You could probably spend more cash and buy the adapter from a parts store... these bleeder kits often sell them seperately for your application.

To bleed my brakes I just screw it to the resevoir and pump it up--then go crack open each bleeder screw. It also makes it easy to flush and replace all of the fluid in the system.

You might wanna add some kind of valve in the hose so you can turn it "off" to prevent fluid from siphoning out. I just use a chunk of larger O.D. hose to hold a kink in mine... super cheap!

As a bonus, the brake fluid really does the trick on the weeds!

~Troy

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:27 am

sweet

vdubluv222 · Post by **vdubluv222** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 11:18 am

Kick ass body stand. I just printed the pictures and I'm going to have to copy that this weekend. I have the body of my 65 hanging from ratchet straps from the joists in my garage. I think your stand idea is alot safer!!!!!

Any body know any tricks on how to keep your garage clean? for some reason everytime I walk in my garage there are tools everywhere and empty beer cans all over. I can't figure it out.

robbied31 · Post by **robbied31** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 11:56 am

Hi,
I built a body stand out of 2" galvanized pipe. I built it so I could roll the body over the pan so the pan and the body would only take up one stall in the garage. Depending on what I wanted to work on, I would roll the other out of the way.

I bought all the pieces at Lowes.

Rob

vdubluv222 · Post by **vdubluv222** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:13 pm

Too late for the plumbing parts I've already bought the 2x4s and casters. Lowes + Harbor freight divided by $28.79 = body stand. I'll post a picture tomorrow if I have time to build it. wifes on my nut to decorate for halloween and mow the grass and all that sh*t.

fastactracing · Post by **fastactracing** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:01 am

New here but will give it a go!
After many years of working outside and on the ground, fixing stuff, I finally got my garage. One tip that I have is a way to keep from having 10000 feet of compressor hose that you have to keep coiling up. It is a mass air supply from any part of the Garage, allowing me to only have to use 10-15' of hose with my air tools. Keeps stuff really neat and organized.
Purchase some PVC or copper tubing. I use copper because I have plenty to spare after installing a new boiler in my home, and the soldering is a snap.
Designate a place for the compressor to "live". Designate how many "legs" you will want to supply air from. I went with three legs, across the front and down both sides. Each leg has a shut off valve installed. This keeps me from having to fill all the legs, and concentrate only in the space I am working.

From this point, I installed quick disconnects on the legs, in accordance where I would be working. I put one every 4'. When installing to the compressor, you will want to make sure you use a swivel hose system to connect to the first leg. It will keep from having problems down the road because of vibration, etc...
I have mine about half way finished right now. When it is complete, I will post pictures so you can see.
A+ tip in my book!
Good luck!

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:49 am

Good point... the Graco/Sharpe site has a cool how to... one of the best.