Living with the updated shop.
Follow-up on my first Shop Makeover post.

One of the largest reservations I had about moving the workbench, was the lack of electrical on that side of the garage. Nothing was originally wired there. In fact there are 8 plugs in the shop, 6 of them on the ‘red wall’ side and 2 at the very rear of the shop.

What is the oddest thing about that, is the side of the shop with the main breaker box, there are no outlets!

My buddy Bill to the rescue! About an hour of parts selecting, wire stripping and doing it the right way (I’m sure I would have burned up something or killed myself, I’m a DC wiring guy, not AC), I now have this nifty 4-gang box right on the wall. And with it’s own dedicated breaker to boot. Now I have plenty of power options for the workbench. I’m currently selecting a multi-plug switched gang box to drop off the last connector. No rush, I have the power I need right now. My mini air compressor lives right there in below the box. It had always been a bit of an orphan floating around the shop. How, it has a place (like I said, a place for everything, and everything in it’s place).

For those (few) that asked, this is how the toolbox fit under the workbench. Almost looks like I build the bench around the toolbox, instead of tweaking the toolbox to fit the bench. Either way, I’m SO happy to have the toolbox AND workbench together. So far the tendency to leave tools on the bench and not put them back in the box has been nearly eliminated. As I said before, a man has to know his limitations and eccentricities, and find ways and methods that provide the opportunity to do the ‘right’ things instead of the ‘easy’ things.

Now… the banner.

That banner.

A gracious gift from my friend Mary (THANKS!). It has hung in multiple garages. Originally it was hung on the ‘big red wall’ before I painted it red. Now I have it suspended from the ceiling, via hooks (damn cement wall) along the back wall, covering the natural gas pipes the intrude into the shop.

I was not a big fan after I hung it up, and as time goes on, it’s losing even more favor with me.

So I took it down.

I think it’s less visually distracting without the big banner there. My Porsche banner, well, I plan to keep that. It covers the nasty pipes along the wall, and it does not hang down along the wall like the H&R banner does (did).

For me it works.

This is what the shop looks like this morning. The CLK tucked neatly away, out of the ice (and the soon to be arriving snow). Plenty of room in the shop.

Now I need to work on heating it. That’s been a big issue for me. I used to have a heated shop. I do miss that quite a bit. I’m sure it’s just a matter of getting some good electrical advice. Some space heaters should do the trick in the short term. Sealing up the horribly installed side garage door should also help. Right now leaves (yes leaves!) blow in there, along with the cold wind. One more item on my 2010 Shop ToDo list.