Bike Rack

It's been warm and nice around here lately and the kids have been riding their bikes and scooters as much as possible! They tend to pull something out, ride it down the driveway and around the cul-de-sac, and then right back up to switch toys and head back down... super fun, but the resulting pile of wheels, pedals, and handlebars gets cluttery and frustrating!

We spent a lot of time Saturday cleaning out the garage and I decided a bike rack would be a great help with the bike and scooter situation! Building is way more fun than cleaning, of course, so I decided to start right away! ;)

I collected some 2x4s and 3" screws and got to work. I cut 3 30" pieces for the long sides of the base and the connecting piece on top. Next I cut two 17" pieces for the rest of the base. I wanted to use my Kreg jig so that I could lay all of the base pieces flat, but I didn't have long enough pocket hole screws, so I improvised and pre-drilled and screwed right through the outside of the base frame. 

Next I cut 2 18" pieces for the vertical supports, connected them to the base, then connected the cross piece. 

Next for the fun part! I used my miter saw to cut 1x2s at 45 degrees on each end (22" on the long side) and my super fun Ryobi Airstrike nail gun and Gorilla Wood Glue to attach the 1x2s to the frame! 

 (don't be confused - I did start with a 2x2, but realized I wouldn't have enough!)

I only went part of the way across the rack with the 1x2s because I realized that the scooters would sit in it better without the supports. Time to test it out!

Paint makes everything better!

Here it is in place! I hung an old coat rack on the wall above it for the helmets to help avoid the constant, "Mom, where's my helmet?" question!

One more step toward a more organized garage!! 

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Finally some progress!

Whew, after weeks of stops and starts, I finally made some major headway on the garage today!

When I last posted about the garage, I was as far as painting the soon-to-be-storage area. After that, I started emptying the shelves in the back of the garage in the hopes of reusing as much wood as possible. The progress then grinded to a halt as I found the (very old) remnants of a mouse's dum dum lollypop feast. Oh, gross.

So, shop vac acquired, shelves removed, poop removed, and lollypop sticks disposed of.

Then finally a few shelves built in the old workspace.

Better.

I stocked the shelves with what was in my way, just for now.

And then finally, today was a big day of progress.

I removed the shelf supports from the back wall of the garage and was happy to find that the mouse party didn't involve eating into the wall. I painted the back wall - with a much more drab gray than I had intended, but the bright saw tables will help the drabness. :)

I finished the table saw stand. And painted it, of course.

Then I stared at everything a lot. I was trying to decide exactly what I wanted to be able to store where, as far as the workshop space goes. Eventually I figured out that an old Ikea shelf that has been being stored in the garage for 2 and a half years would work perfectly on the back wall! It was in our kitchen before we moved and I just never found the right place for it in this house. I'm so glad I didn't get rid of it!

Once that was up, I needed to do something about all of the paint cans on the floor. I have a (not so) slight "oops section" paint addiction. That's another story for another time, but have you ever played in the oops section at Home Depot?! It's so fun... Anyway, I found our old "C" cabinet that we've been holding onto through 2 houses now and it works great for all my sample size paints. ($.50 each for the "oops" at my Home Depot!) An old shoe shelf worked perfectly for the quarts ($2 for "oops" - I mean, seriously) and for now I just stacked the larger cans. Now I just need to figure something out for my spray paint...

Once all of this was up and out of the way, I was able to put away a lot of the stuff that was hanging out in the middle of the garage. So proud of this progress today! I can actually get to everything I need to be able to build stuff and we're so close to having space to get the cars back in!

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Happy birthday to me! (and table saw stand build)

Yesterday was my birthday - Happy birthday to me!

My birthday theme this year was apparently tools...

Check out my super cute cake from The Boutique Bakeshop! (And it was so yummy too. If you are local, you need to visit this bakery!)

And here is my swanky new Ryobi nailer from Brad and the girls! So excited to try this out! :)

My super supportive in-laws got me a Ryobi tool set (drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw, flashlight, batteries, and charger), which I don't have a picture of, but am so happy about. The circular saw I had been using was very old, crazy heavy, made of steel (including the handle) and shorting out. So.... yeah. It was time. Fortunately that was an early birthday present and so I've been able to use them all for a couple of weeks - the reciprocating saw came in handy when I got mad and chopped 3 inches off the legs of my miter saw table!

I spent a couple of hours of my birthday in the garage building a stand for my table saw. Another step in trying to get the garage reno done. It was so nice to get a chance to build! After my happy accident with the height of the miter saw table, I designed this table to by the same height as the workbench as well. I figure it's especially important for this one since most of the pieces I will cut with the table saw will be long and supporting them will be necessary.

I measured the saw about 100 times and got started cutting 2x4s. I screwed them together with 3" screws for the cross braces on the sides of the table and used my Kreg jig to make pocket holes in the base pieces to connect the frames. I got going and didn't take many pictures, but I did have to admire this contraption. It's practically a work of art... I call it "Working alone with two hands when you could really use four."

Three paint cans just happened to be the perfect height to support the frame while I attached the pocket hole screws!

I used scrap plywood and 1x2s to make a table for the saw to sit on. This is where I got pretty frustrated because even though I measured and re-measured, I still didn't get it quite right. But with some shims and stubbornness, I made it work.

I guess I can give myself a break for small mistakes since I was trying to build this in the tiny space I made among all of the clutter! Look at that mess!

I need to put the finishing touches on it the next time I can get into the garage and I'll post a picture of the finished product then!

Here's hoping that will be soon! I love my garage time!

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Miter Saw Table

So, it's fall!

And as much as I love fall and am actually making a bigger effort this year to live in the moment of fall and enjoy it for what it is without thinking of it as a precursor to winter, I do have to admit that winter is coming. And that means it would be nice if we could use the garage to, you know, put cars in.

Since the garage is also where I work on projects, it is pretty messy right now with my workbench, tools, and random "in progress" projects all over. I've been staring at different areas of the garage to find ways to make the whole space more usable. I know that if I can get it arranged well, I can make it work for the cars, storage, and a workshop. At least, I hope so!

My staring and thinking helped me figure out that the work table area that was there when we moved in is actually wasted space right now - the table itself is too tall and too deep for me to use, so it basically just holds materials on top and has bigger tools and a bunch of random stuff stashed underneath. Time to pull that out! (this picture is actually deceiving since my miter and table saws are both out right now! It's usually even more cluttered!)

In thinking about a better design, I decided I need to get my miter saw up onto a small table that I can pull out and put away as I need it. (Depending on how it works, I may make one for my table saw and my chop saw as well, though I use those two much less often. We'll see.)

But first things first.

So, GARAGE RENO - PART 1 - Time to build a miter saw table!

I looked around at different plans and designs online and decided I wanted to build one that would allow the saw to sit down in it so that the piece I'm cutting can lay across the table and be level. For space conservation, I decided to design something with drop-leaf wings like this (found on Wilker Do's):

Hers is beautiful, but I wanted to make mine with wood I had on hand, so I needed to design it to using 2x4s instead of plywood.

So, I measured my saw, decided about how tall I wanted the whole thing to be, and drew up a plan. (If you decide to build a table like this, be sure to add a couple of inches to the width to allow for the saw to rotate for angle cuts.) I cut the 2x4s and started screwing them together.  Below, you can see the picture of my basic design. I used 2x4s for the legs and cross pieces. I don't have a picture of this step, but I basically made 2 identical frames - the front and back frames. Then I used my Kreg Jig (love that thing!) to attach scrap 1x8s to the top and 1x2s to the bottom to connect the frames together. Does that make sense? 2x4s probably would have been better on the bottom, but I didn't have the right size pocket screws and was impatient (shocking) - so no trip to the store first. ;)

I'm not sure where I went wrong with my math, but the saw ended up sitting just under an inch too low. As luck would have it, though, the difference was actually the exact same size as a 1x2, so I put 2 1x2s across to support the saw and raise it up to the perfect level. This was a happy mistake, since the saw seems more secure this way anyway!

Then I got mad, because I forgot to figure in casters into my plan of the height of the table. Off to Harbor Freight to find the smallest locking casters possible. The smallest they had were 3" and I really didn't like it when I attached them - too tall, too rickety, hard to lock. Boo. So I took them off.  I was frustrated because I felt like the table really needed to be 3" shorter anyway, so that I could add nicer casters later. In a bit of an angry move, I grabbed my new Ryobi Reciprocating Saw (early happy birthday to me!) and cut off the whole bottom of the table and then used my circular saw to cut 3" off each leg. This was a risky move since it could have ended with me endlessly cutting "just a little more" off each leg to make them even, but fortunately it actually worked! I glued and screwed the bottom back on and needed only one small shim to even out the table. :)

Next I decided to add a shelf under the saw since I'm always needing a place to stash my measuring tape or pencil when I'm working. I cut 2 1x2s to attach as supports and then cut a piece of scrap plywood to fit and just glued it down. Here it is with my drills holding it in place to dry.

Later that night, I ran over the whole thing quickly with a sanding block and then painted it. I could make something up about how I painted it to protect the wood or something, but let's be real here... I painted it because of course I did. I love color. It needed PAINT.

Next it was time to rig up the wings. I attached a 1x2 to the side of the table to give the wing more support and to allow for space for the support wing to be added later. I put a hinge on a scrap shelf from our closet and used 2" screws (to be sure it would go through the 1x2 and into the table) to attach it to the table.

I was about to start on the other side, but then noticed that my workbench looked pretty close to the same height. Grabbed a scrap and my level. Well, how about that?! Suddenly I'm feeling pretty good about hacking off the legs and leaving the casters off. And all of the other little measuring mistakes along the way. This. Is. Awesome. How randomly lucky is that?!

So, yeah. I'm going to go ahead and not bother with the other wing on this table. When I'm cutting a long piece, I can support it with the workbench!! Awesome! And to keep that height perfection, I'm going to try just leaving the casters off - it's light and it's sturdy, I'll just drag it.

So, I still need to add the wing support on the other side of the table, but otherwise, I'm DONE! (I'll add a picture when I get that finished.)

What do you think? Any questions about how I did something? Ask in the comments!

On to the next phase of the Garage Reno - tearing out that huge bench top!

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