Setting a 2 post lift to lift a car got too hard for me. All that getting down and back up to make sure the arms were where I wanted them got to be a problem. Bought a drive on lift with a rolling bridge jack and love it.
I carry modern small flashlight. It uses Sure Fire batteries. Drop something on floor. Get down shine the light at floor level find lots of dropped items.
I'm geezeretting my garage. SWMBO needs a ramp, as even a couple of steps have become difficult for her. So I'm cleaning up stuff, and got the trailer out and inspected. Next some lumber and fasteners and me and the neighbor are going to build a ramp to fit. And I'm not going to complain either. My knees aren't the best anymore. Going to check out a 4 post as well. Maybe in the spring...
alchemy I think you coined a new word, geezerism , I LIKE IT!!!!. however I wanna know what are the symptoms and how old you got to be to get it?
I don't have stairs to deal with moving/storing parts. Ground level both upper garage and lower garage/cellar, its the stairs up to the house living area. Been looking at how to add railings, might have to go half way and swap sides. Any ideas?
Great stuff here. This getting old stuff with bad knees, back, etc. is certainly challenging. But I recently lost a buddy at 50 years old with a young family and a collection of cool stuff. I have since decided to be happy to get old.
When my wife and I bought "this place" 15 years ago I was a youngster at 65. My mother in law who was in her 70's said something about a railing going to the ba*****t walk out garage. Not a bad idea so I put in a railing. A few years later as I got into my mid 70's I decided to put a hand rail to go upstairs in the shop (I am lucky...I have a 40x50 shop that is two levels). I never needed handrails when we moved here, but now I use them all the time. I don't have enough headspace for a lift with 10 foot ceilings so part of my "physical therapy" is getting up and down from the floor. It has gotten harder but it forces me to work a little harder. I hope it works in the long haul.
If I do end up building a shop in my upcoming retirement, it'll be a steel building tall enough for a storage mezzanine. It'll have stairs, but I'm also thinking if I position my lift close enough to the mezzanine I can also utilize the lift as an elevator for items too heavy or bulky to walk up/down stairs. Make a removable, solid fitted floor/platform for the lift, roll on the load, then lift it up. A section of the mezzanine railing will be a solid steel plank that drops down on the lift platform like a drawbridge. Then you can roll the load on or off to complete the upload or download without any lifting or stairs. If I build the shop with a side door or deep enough for a back wall mezzanine, I could conceivably back my loaded pickup onto a 4 post, raise it up, drop the tailgate so the bed floor is at mezzanine floor height and slide or roll the cargo straight on/off the mezzanine.
This sounds like a novel idea to me. Having both a 4-post lift and a mezzanine, I think it would take some careful designing to be fully practical. Experience has shown me that you want quite a bit of space around your lift or you run into problems. This means that the "drawbridge" would need some serious engineering to get it right. Other than that, I see three minor problems. First, for me anyway, backing a loaded pickup onto a lift sounds like a recipe for disaster. Second, it probably violates all of the local building codes. Third, I was able to ac***ulate too much junk just carrying stuff up the stairs; I hate to think of the amount you could ac***ulate hauling it in by the truckload.
Not sure if this is geezer-izing, or just me being plain lazy. I have a small single car shop that always tends to have a car and a half in it There is enough room to move around stuff and use the workbench, but not enough room to work on fabrication or anything large. I tend to work a lot under the nearby carport, or failing that in the open driveway. Seems I'm always running air and power leads out of the shop. I bought a retractable air reel and a retractable power reel and mounted them under the peak of my shop roof. They are close to the rollerdoor, high enough that I can't hit them, but low enough that I can grab the end of the hose/lead (stretch up old man... it will do your back good ). The air reel is plumbed into my compressor, and the power reel into a 240V socket. I turn the reel off when I am not using it to lower the chances of a fire. Easy enough to stretch up and grab the hose/lead, sling it over my shoulder and walk to wherever I need to use them. Uses my legs more than my back. A quick pull on the end and they wind themselves up. I had a bad experience with big-box shop retractable garden reels, so spent a little more on industrial grade reels. Ten years in and still working well. I also seem to get distracted easy (attention span of a goldfish), and sometimes forget where I am up to. I walk away from a job for a few hours... and it sometimes turns into a few months. I bought a stack of red Remove Before Flight keytags, and some el-cheapo karabiners to go on them. You can see them hanging in the photo above. If I am halfway through a job and need to leave it then I attach a tag to it. Just like aviation ones, the red tag catches my eye and reminds me to tighten something. Cheers, Harv
That might be in the very near future. Got to make room in the garage for 3 vehicles and lots of stuff. One part of the garage is set up with a lathe, 2 drill presses, an hydraulic press, an antique Sunnen bushing grinder, and some miscellaneous odds and ends. But the whole outside wall, 30 feet long could be set up like you've suggested. Some areas would have the lowest shelf pretty high up to clear workbenches, but with a 9 ft 8 in ceiling, shelves could start at 6 ft up. Hmmm...
If you look closely at the first picture in my original post, You will see that I have pallet racking on my mezzanine. It extends all the way across the back wall. I agree that it is very useful and creates an efficient storage environment.
Depends on how high your outside walls are. Ahhh, pallet-racking *under* the mezzanine, spaced correctly to allow backing the cars up to the wall. Also does dbl-duty holding up the mezzanine, if you lay it out correctly. You need posts anyways, why not add a bit of storage around them too? Marcus...
I agree Dave. Im thinking if mine looked like that I wouldnt have time to do anything else. Besides if I dont throw tools or parts back on the bench or floor where I found them I cant find them again until I go out and buy a new one.
Regarding pallet racking.....a couple (or???) of years ago the Shopco (sp??) stores in our area were closing and selling fixtures etc. I bought a bunch of odd ball stuff including rusty pallet racks that were outside. I think I had about $50 to $75 in two segments (20 feet) plus on a couple of pallets there were wire racks that were about four feet long. I was buying what else was on the rack but they priced it so good I took it. It turned out those wire racks placed on the pallet rack really worked good to store iron etc. plus water etc just ran through...yeah these are outside. In the deal I got some other racking that we use inside. The point is....watch for store closings there maybe some inexpensive solutions for your storage problems.
I was carrying a cast iron T-10 transmission down the steps when I slipped and fell. Fortunately, the transmission landed on me so it didn't get damaged but I did mess up my shoulder. That happened when I was only about 40 years old, so getting a hoist and working smarter not harder is a good idea at any age.
You're a better man than I. I was able to manhandle the "shoebox" Ford 3-speeds up and down the stairs back then, but couldn't quite make it with the B-W T85's (progenitor of the T10).
...when I was 40 I could throw a Mopar A833 across my shoulder...now I use a hand truck and a small forklift for such endeavours
I've got some pallet racking uprights available, left over from my house roofing project(~`18'-24' x 42". I can cut them to length if you need.). I've also found that you can bolt some different styles together, by lightly drilling out the holes & using 1/2" bolts to secure the rails to the uprights(recommended by the pallet-racking supplier I got them from). Not as easy as properly dropping in matching pieces, but still - safe & strong. Marcus...
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!
73RR I use to do **** 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
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