Years ago when I converted by horse barn into a shop, I used the horse trailer rubber mats throughout the shop. I'm using the 3/4" size rather than the 5/8". Easiest way to move them is with pair of vice grips. Tractor Supply is a good source. Easy on the feet and stuff bounces when you drop something!
Use the lowest rack for your workbench. Depending on the length of the Pallet Rack rail, you can make the bench anywhere from about 8' to 14'. Put some wood 2x on the rack and then a steel sheet on top of that and you have a great workbench. You can buy cheap heavy metal cabinets (usually $50) off Facebook. Paint em gray and mount them on the wall and workbench and a shoplight on the rack above. Makes a great workbench. I got the wooden cabinet sitting below it for $12 at a school auction. If you want to emulate this, just remember to get rails that are long enough to hold two cabinets or more. This worked out as I found some of those small parts cabinets that also fit well. I consider a little dirt in my shop to be more nostalgic............ Notice also that at the right end of the rack, I can store sheets of steel between it and the next rack.
73RR I use to do shit like that, might be why I was at the pain Dr. today getting a needle with some stuff I can hardly identify injected in my back. you must be like me Im thinking we're not in bad shape for the shape we'er in
Here's one addition to Geezer-izing my shop. This is a wheelchair lift rated for 500lbs. I know it is supposed to be mounted to the floor, but I move this to where I need it. When all the way down the deck is about two inches off the floor. This particular lift raises over 4'. Perfect for sliding something heavy off the truck bed onto the lift, then lower to the floor. Or hand truck onto the lowered deck and then raise to a comfortable working height. The lift makes a good work bench in a pinch. I bought this lift off craigslist 10 or so years back for $400.
I know at least one guy who's going to check craigslist and fb for wheelchair lifts now.. Thanks for the tip.
That depends on where you are at! Here in Oklahoma, tall ceilings are way cooler! Cooling in Oklahoma is way more important than heating. Even tho we need heat at times, we have way more hot days than cold days! The ceiling in my ranch shop is 14 feet….I wished I had made it 16 feet. At 40x80 and a full cement floor, it stay warm enough, most cold days without heat! And , by the way, ekimneirbo, you are just way too organized! lol Bones
I , too, am starting to add things to my shop! I am in the slow process of updating my work bench. I am adding a hoist at the end of it, for the heavy stuff. I have just now started “ not” picking things up! I am the oldest in my group and have for years done all the hard stuff! Just turned 73….changing my ways….before it’s too late! Bones
Presto hyd roll around lift. Rated for 1000 lbs I think. Powered by 12v battery. About 5 ft height +/-. Used it in all kinds of lifting, from the walls of my garage addition build to person [me] lift for electric and hanging lights and other imagined uses. Heavy by itself and a little hard to maneuver but the price was right, Free.
Also look for an appliance lift! I have one in my ranch shop, but I have no pictures at this time of it! Instead of a platform it has two square tubing arms sticking out! Mine has a hand crank winch for lifting and will lift about 8 feet. It also has an about 6 foot extension, to take things higher! Probably a little more common. Bones
I used one of those when working on RVs for the roof mount A/C units. Beat toting it up a ladder, but it didn't like gravel, and it wasn't the most stable or easy thing. Beat all other solutions we had, though. It was probably a few decades older than this one.
I like this little manual forklift I have for loading and unloading things as well as holding things up in position (like a rear bumper). When all my other tables are full of "unfinished projects", I have a small (2'x4') tabletop that I sit on it and use it as an additional workbench. I can jack it up if I need to stand while doing something, or lower it and sit in a chair when my back is hurting. You see them come up on Facebook now and then. I like the manual roll-a-round and it has a hydraulic cylinder. That way, no battery to go bad and if the cylinder goes bad once in a lifetime, I can rebuild it pretty easily.
All those lifts are great when you need them. But when not in use, which is most of the time, they take up valuable floor space in the shop.
Everyone has to have their priorities! As you can see they easily store against the wall and something else can be stored on the arms. Kinda doubling up on storage. In my 40x80 shop on the ranch , I have plenty of room to store my lift! In my garge at my house…..not so much! Bones
Everyone knows that your "stuff" automatically expands to completely fill your shop no matter what you do. I have found that limiting the size of my shop is easier than exercising self control. Cheaper, too.
Thanks for the help fellas I got to find one now, main reason is I already have the answer when my wife says "WADYA NEED THAT FOR!"
When we built the shop, we put in the mezzanine for light stuff. A couple of years later, went to an auction where the owner had about 40 feet of pallet rack; which we bought for basically scrap steel prices. One of the very best additions to the shop. Added a pair of forks to the bucket on our front-end loader; and pretty easy to store heavy items, i.e. engines, etc. on the racks. As to the mezzanine; I don't need the handrails yet, but the day is coming. Jon
During the search for the mid engine Chevy that @Dan Glover built in Yucaipa, CA he either posted or messaged me a photo of the small single car garage that he built the car in. The point being is that size doesn't always matter. I built a 24x32 two story shop when I retired (although my wife has 1/2 of the upper level) and can't seem to get much of anything finished. Just saying.
I posted this pic above..... Here it is with the table top which I can roll over to the shop "loveseat" and sit while doing some task. Its handy..... I just finished sorting and organizing a drawer full of Allen Wrenches that I picked up somewhere. Had to check sizes and sort them. One thing I found out was that they are not perfectly sized.......so when you get an allen wrench and it fits loosely....thats probably why. I decided I would organize them according to size......meaning the next larger size is in the next slot......whether its Metric or American. Then when I get a loose fit, I can see if the next size fits better. Makes it easier to determine if you are trying to remove a Metric or American Std set screw. Some of them are pretty close to the same size. Did you know there is a .030 Allen Wrench ? Its handy for cleaning finger nails.......... Here is another lift I picked up at a school auction. It cranks up and down and again, can serve as a work table next to whatever I'm working on. Roll it up next to a vehicle when working under the hood and you have a place to sit all your wrenches.....at a perfect height for that vehicle. Holds a transmission pretty nicely. I'm telling you, these things just don't sit against the wall in my shop....they get used regularly. The trick is watching Facebook till a cheap one shows up. Here are the Allen Wrenches....all sorted out. What I want to recommend here is that everyone go to Amazon and order a pack of these adhesive charts. They are cheap and you can stick them next to your drill press. I took one of them and put it on an aluminum plate and set it in the Allen Wrench Drawer. You can see when Metric and Standard are close and choose one from your Allen Wrench holder. Good next to your drill press as well. Little hard to read, but this shows a Metric next to an American Std and there is only .008 difference. Given that they all are generally on the undersize side of what they are labeled, that 3 MM (.118) may fit better that the 7/64 (110) you are using.
I usually just get "the look".......... (I also make it a point whenever I'm fixing something for her to remind her that if I hadn't gotten that tool sometime beforehand, I would not have been able to fix that for her. ) Don't get me wrong, I have a great wife and believe it or not......I do have my faults.
The Jalopy Journal
