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Garage Storage and Working Space
Frankenshelves: Where old lumber goes
Angelo Maretti / autoMedia.com
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When you wander into pretty garages stuffed full of expensive autos and tools with everything on display, is your first question, "Where's the dirt—" Does a sparkling three-car garage that doesn't appear to have ever witnessed a wrench turned leave you wondering what the owner is supposed to be proud of? When a garage is just a pretty car hole, the items you keep inside need only look the part, nothing more. But when your garage is the center of a fully actualized automotive experience, it has to be functional. This includes the all-important supporting cast of shelving, drawers and countertops—they have to W-O-R-K. Pretty is immaterial when functionality is the rule, and $14,000 of special-order cabinetry won't solve your industrialized shortcomings.
Imagine
Let's suppose there's a secondary benefit to going hog-wild with the storage and workspace elements you depend on: you make a dent in that mountain of scrap wood growing in the corner. Whether it be leftovers from a remodel, bits and pieces of a cabinet or piano, ex-furniture or the remnants of something you built once upon a time, as the mound builds you lose working floor space, wall storage space and increase your clutter-factor. How nice would it be to make a pile of used 2x4s and 3-ply sub-flooring turn into a 7-foot monument to ingenuity?
The workbench/storage unit you see accompanying this story is but one manifestation of an almost bottomless potential of what can best be described as "Frankenshelves." As your working material is limited only by what scrap materials are handy (yours, neighbors, friends, work sites), the planning process revolves around three things: functional need, parts availability and fitment. What do you want/need your Frankenbench to do for you and your garage? What can you use to put the unit together? Where's it going to fit in the garage, keeping in mind parking requirements and other action (garage door movement, etc.)? Add some thought, some libation, and some friends' criticism (useful or not)—and let it stew.
Needs & Wants
This workspace needs to do things for you: hold general or specific stuff, provide a safe working platform, and do so in tandem within its prescribed environment. What are you storing? Leftover car parts? Bolts, fasteners and other long-term bits & pieces? Seventeen router bits? Auto-care chemicals? Or is it going to be big power tools and wrench sets? The shelving can be whatever size is necessary because you aren't working within another manufacturer's specifications, you're creating your own from scratch. Wood is a nearly-infinite variable template for your storage art. And if you have an oddly shaped tool or device that doesn't seem to fit any shelves, build one specially for it. It's free wood when it's scrap. Use everything.
The type of item being put on shelves will determine whether doors are necessary. Do you need to hide anything? Have to keep something potentially fragile from falling out? Or if you're in Southern California, do you want things earthquake proof?
Copyright autoMedia.com 2000-2008
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You won't need the finish tools, just the hard-function stuff like a chop saw, a drill with manly-man torque, the carpenter's level and tape measure, a few of the basic bashing utensils and a pencil. Everything beyond that is gravy.
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Any real garage hound has scrap wood. In our case, there's 50-plus year old lumber from the original house being remodeled, remodeling scrap, an old tabletop and bits and pieces of a dozen other projects.
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Insert hardware. As long as the pieces are long enough to properly pick up your target wood and can handle the torque, color and materials aren't important. Don't forget to rub a little bar soap on the threads of each screw before cranking it in.
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Use of available parts: This drawer unit was leftover from a neighbor's office remodel. Heavy, but strong with good rollers, it'll hold big stuff like power tools with relative low-key availability. The lower shelf was built so the drawer unit slid right between its legs and into place.
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Number-one countertop option: old doors. This came from a friend's warehouse. Again, it was rather heavy, but the durability factor was unbeatable. We angled one end to preserve pass-through convenience, and braced it underneath with one 2x4, as HDF likes to bow with age. Probably best to seal the open edges.
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Nice corners don't need lots of artsy details, but smart details improve the brag-factor. We strapped the upper-side panel and vertical support on the inside, then held them together with a full-width bevel face-cut 2x6 that had been looking for a new home.
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When you're working with scrap, mistakes are OK as long as they don't jeopardize structural integrity. We mis-measured the slot for a full-height vertical brace, so the hole became a well-placed pass-through for electrical power.
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Frankencat not included.
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