My mobile garage shop

Dewayne Baker

Member
Messages
148
Location
Vacaville CA.
I started woodworking about 8 years ago and have gradually transformed my two car garage in to what it is today. It’s nothing elaborate mind you but I call it home. In the beginning I had promised my wife we would be able to park both cars inside and we did. By now I have pretty much taken it over but one car can still be parked inside.

For starters all of my tools are mobile. I built a cabinet system for the back wall that holds all of my small power tools, bits blades and supplies etc.

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The base cabinets have a cubby or garage underneath where I store my table saw, roller stands, spindle sander and jointer. The miter station has a sliding stop and measure set up similar to what I saw Norm build. The drawers have removable dividers And are mounted on full extension slides.

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I store my sheet goods upright to the left of the miter bench. My hardwoods are stored under my main workbench.

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That bench may not look to sturdy but don’t be fooled. The bench is a fold down design mounted to the wall with door hinges. Talk about immovable, this bench won’t budge an inch under the heaviest push pull motions. The bench has a sub frame constructed with 2 x 4’s and half lap joinery. The plywood sub top is covered with a replicable hardboard top. Once again inspired by Norm.




I built an assembly table which doubles as a out feed table. The table is a torsion box with a replaceable melamine top. The base is inspired by Norms drop down mobile work table.

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I built a venture vacuum press system purchased from Joewoodworker.com
The cradle for the venture set up rests on a cleat on the table base and can be easily lifted off for use in another location. I’m quite pleased with the vacuum press system and even more so with the affordability.

Here are some shots of my bits and blade storage.

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Since my larger tools are mobile getting them just where I like hem can be hit and miss, so I mark the footprint of each tool on the floor with a marker. Here is a shot of my layout.

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My router table serves as an extension wing on my table saw. This saves space and provides a nice big surface for large work pieces.

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This next shot is of a mortising jig I made from plans in shopnotes magazine.

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The jig works well but it’s no multi router. The table slides side to side and has movable stops for precise start and stop points. Table height is controlled by two angled halves. Downward spring tension and aluminum track make it adjustable and a threaded rod serves as a micro adjuster. The carriage for the router is on drawer slides. A pivoting handle moves the router in to the work piece. The plan for this is in shopnotes issue 68 vol.12

Well for those of you who are still with me, that concludes the tour. Thank you for visiting and come again.
 
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to post your tour. I would be very proud of what you have done there. The fact that you can still get a car in is a bonus. This will really be a help to anyone faced with the shared space challenge. The challenge can obviously be met. Well done.
 
Awesome

Thats great motivation for someone like myself who is in a similar situation. I'm in the process of turning my third bay into a shop. I will have to use your space saving techniques in my garage as well. What do you use to warm it?

Thanks :thumb:
Chris
 
Thats great motivation for someone like myself who is in a similar situation. I'm in the process of turning my third bay into a shop. I will have to use your space saving techniques in my garage as well. What do you use to warm it?

Thanks :thumb:
Chris

I have two electric heaters. Here in CA. fending off the cold is not such an issue as keeping cool in the summer. Winter is my favorite time of the year to woodwork. Much easier to stay focused and have fun when it's not so darn hot.
 
That's a great-looking setup, Dewayne. Your shop is nicely organized, and based on the pictures I've seen of your work, it's very functional, too. Thanks for the tour. :thumb:

BTW, I think you and I have the same model of jointer. Sure looks like mine.
 
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