# The 12-Gauge Garage



## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

THE GARAGE TODAY










I’m calling it ‘The 12-Gauge Garage’ because when I built a steel-topped bench for it, I discovered Strong Hold Cabinets, a Wisconsin company that makes ridiculously strong cabinets. They claim that they’re the strongest metal cabinets you can buy. They’re rated to hold 1900 pounds per shelf. That’s definitely stronger than I have any need for in my garage (and watch out, they’re expensive, too). But the one that was holding up the steel plate for my bench -- well, it just felt good to open and close the thing. Is that crazy? 

This is how it looked when I bought it. 










Here it is painted and with a 510-pound bench on top of it.










I liked using that cabinet so much that I started keeping an eye out for other used Strong Hold cabinets on eBay. 

With a lot of patience, and letting about 50 of the cabinets go to other buyers (I’m cheap, there’s no two ways about it), I finally lucked into a 4’ wide model for $62. This is a 760-pound cabinet that lists for (I think) $2,300 new. I snapped it up, and even got a little less cheap when I sourced a second one for $148. Then I got a Lyon cabinet for a shallower space near my metal bench (it’s made of 14-gauge steel, not 12-gauge). Including the short Strong Hold cabinet I’d already bought, I had about $600 in the four steel cabinets for my garage. It’s about 2,300 pounds of cabinetry.

Getting them to my house and getting them installed into my garage is a very long story I won’t tell here. I did document one bad day when I basically knocked one of the 760-pounc cabinets onto my Porsche. Yeah, you read that right. I ended up not hurting the car too badly, but still -- a pretty bone-headed moment.










Did I mention that they’re heavy? Each of the doors on the 4’ wide cabinets weighs 85 pounds. They open and close easily, but it has the feel of opening a bank safe.










THE BASIC FACTS

The garage is small -- 20’x22’. I store one car in it and use the rest as my home shop. In addition to the normal home and car repairs, I do some woodworking projects and some welding projects in it. It’s not lit like an operating room. I don’t have beer signs, gas pumps or televisions in it. It’s built to remind me of working with my father in his shop in Chicago, where I grew up.










I'll take it wall by wall. In my initial clean-up of the garage, I added a fold-down table for wood projects. It had pre-drilled holes for my router table and was at the same height as the other bench in the garage so I could use it for cutting long pieces of lumber. I liked it so much that when I took up welding, I added a second, steel table for welding. Both of them fold up along the first wall of the garage so I can park my car there. But when I back the car out I can lower one or both of them for work. It’s a really handy thing to have when you’re working in such a small space.


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## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

In the latest update of the garage, I got rid of the yellow paint on this wall. I’ve decided the only two colors on the wall will be the tan and the green. 

Here’s the old yellow:










The back wall is the one that’s changed the most this month. Here’s the way it used to look. I had banker’s boxes on shelves made of hollow-core doors and some crooked cabinets that had been put in sometime before I’d owned the house. 










The main bench I was using was pretty simple, too. A solid core door over a frame with three wooden drawers I’d saved when we’d torn a closet out of the house.










I tore out everything and put in cabinets up above the line that had been formed by a piece of aluminum up above my bench. I extended that line across the whole garage, now, with wooden cabinets up above it, mostly with sliding doors. I can keep a lot of stuff up there that I don’t need to access all the time.










Down below, I adapted both of the Strong Hold cabinets to store as much stuff as possible. 



















One of them now has seven wooden shelves, each holding six bins I sourced from (huh?) Ikea. I keep all kinds of different stuff -- everything from extension cords and trouble lights to hinges, casters, light switches, you name it -- in those bins. I got labels for them so I don’t have to remember where I put what.

For the other cabinet, I wanted to have vertical storage so I could store a small ladder, a broom, and hang my overalls and welding jacket up. So there’s a small space for that, and then a set of normal shelves. On the doors of the cabinets, I put about a hundred bins for fasteners. It’s still not completely sorted out and organized, but I’m getting closer. 










The doors can open with plenty of extra space when the car is parked in there.

Putting in the steel cabinets let me move my main bench 30 inches to the left, which allowed me to move my tool boxes to the back wall. They used to divide the garage, and I never liked the way it looked. I also got a Harbor Freight tool box to function as the base for the bench. I painted it to match the Sears boxes.


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## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

The next wall over has my ‘compliance station,’ which is a steel-topped bench on another Strong Hold cabinet. Next to that, I’ve got one last steel cabinet, a Lyon, which I belt cut and rewelded so it would be short enough to fit in this space.










I still have the sink and a small bench that I built to surround it. I’ve left the yellow paint on those walls -- mostly because I’m too lazy to re-paint it.










Those are the walls. But I also added an kitchen-island-type bench in the middle of the garage, and a new butcher-block-topped bench up front. The garage has eight work surfaces in it, now (three steel, five wood), and a ninth (a steel table) suspended from the ceiling above my car. 

I stained the tops of the three main benches dark with an opaque stain and marine varnish on top of it. I’m still on the fence about this decision -- I don’t want benches that look so nice you’re afraid to use them, but I also was getting tired of all my benches being the same unfinished wood color. 










We’ll see how they hold up.

I try to keep stuff off of the floor and out of plain sight. 





































When you’ve got a place to put everything, you can clean the whole place up really fast with something like this:










Well, that’s the basic rundown of the place. It’s not going to set the world on fire or re-invent the idea of a garage, but I’ve got to admit that I really enjoyed putting it together and I’m really enjoying getting stuff done in it. I got it all clean for the pictures, but it will get messy on a regular basis. 

And, of course, I like having a place to keep the race car:










Any questions?


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## jlhaslip (Dec 31, 2009)

Nice spot to hang out... Looks great!


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## Shamus (Apr 27, 2008)

You have patience, vision and talent. And you missed your calling. 

For me to see an inch of clean floor I have to move a cabinet. And my workshop is 1400 SF.

Very nice workspace.


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## monkeystomach (Jan 9, 2010)

off topic... but, is your rsr a clone or was it a real 1972 racer?


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## Red Squirrel (Jun 29, 2009)

Nice! I never even thought of using ceramic tile in a garage, I think that's a great idea. I will consider that when I decide to do my garage. The lighting looks good too and plenty of storage space.


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## jackie treehorn (Jan 27, 2009)

Very nice, so neat and organized it reminds me o.c.d


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## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

Thanks, guys.



monkeystomach said:


> off topic... but, is your rsr a clone or was it a real 1972 racer?


 It's a clone of the 1973 race model. It's a 1972 body, but it's got a modern (1993) engine, a magnesium transaxle from the 1977 model, brakes from a 1986 Turbo, and a handful of suspension changes.













jackie treehorn said:


> Very nice, so neat and organized it reminds me o.c.d


I'll grant you that it's kind of ridiculously clean in the pictures. But it gets messy when it's being used.

Making a fence for my front yard:










And building that bench for the front of the garage:


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## David911 (Jan 30, 2010)

Jack, awesome garage! Saw it over on Pelican too (I'm david914 there). I also belong to Garage Journal. Serious garage (and car) envy going on here!


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## sbmfj (Oct 3, 2009)

nice job!!
I always forgot to look for used stuff. Looks like yo got some really nice bargains!!!
Thanks for sharing!!!


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## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

Thanks. Used stuff can clean up pretty good.

Here's another picture I took that shows the colors a little more accurately -- less of the yellow hue from the incandescent lights.


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## Mop in Hand (Feb 5, 2009)

Looks way to organized, How do you get anything done? Nice Job


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## diykc (Dec 24, 2009)

I need to borrow a C-Clamp, any idea where I might find one?


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## Lali (Oct 27, 2009)

Now, this is what I call 'extreme organization', but in a good sense. God, looks like you could EAT off that floor! BTW - nice wheels!:yes:


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## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

Thanks.

I am a sucker for a good second-hand C-clamp.


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## Lali (Oct 27, 2009)

Sometimes second hand 'stuff' is better than brand new. Read your 'one bad day' and got a kick out of some of the blunders. Humans...we are imperfect. Terrific writing skills! Are you published? If not, you should be!:yes:


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## seawiz (Feb 22, 2010)

Nice job with the garage, and nice car. My uncle has a 911 from the 80s so I've always liked old porsches.


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## Ashlandian71 (Feb 27, 2010)

Good morning, Jack, I just wanted to drop a line and say what a beautiful job you did on your garage and how inspiring it is. I am closing on my first house in April and am thrilled to be getting an extra deep two-car garage that is begging for modification. The right way, that is. It is way too easy to go to a big box store and run up a credit card with pre-fab garage organizers. Bleh. Your garage has true soul, the way it should be. The paint scheme reminds me of my grandfather's shop, and it is well-thought out by someone who uses the tools therein. I also live to get good deals on things (even better if it's overbuilt) and make it work. Don't know if I can score any Strong Hold cabinets for $62, but one can try. I know I will be 'borrowing' some of your ideas. Love the Porshe, too. There's nothing like taking care of a classic and making it your own.

For the past few years, I have been living like a ******* Powerball winner--renting an apartment with a one-car garage, driving and modifying (cleanly and tastefully) two relatively impractical cars ('99 Mustang GT and a 2006 GTO) and cramming way too many tools and parts into a small space. Don't know if I will be able to come close to what you've done, but I'm really excited about trying. 

Thanks for posting pics and listening to my ramble. Have a good one!

bw


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## Snav (Aug 20, 2009)

My carport with its guts spilling out in to the yard envy's you.

A few thousand for a fixed up area like that, especially if you use it all the time, is a decent figure. My bathroom is running me around $3,000 right now.


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## no1hustler (Aug 11, 2010)

Great all around! Are you the Same Jack Olsen from Pelican?


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## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

Yep. The same guy.


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## Jack Olsen (Jan 26, 2010)

Two years later, here's an update.

The garage has its own website now. You can take a bench-by-bench tour if you're interested. All the information is in one place.

http://www.12-gaugegarage.com

And here are some recent pictures:
































































The VW -- a 1972 base model that I've modified:



















The video's been updated:

The 12-Gauge Garage Video

And yes, there's a video just about the lift I put in:

My Garage Lift


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## Red Squirrel (Jun 29, 2009)

Nice!

Who did you get to paint your garage door? That looks so real!

:laughing:

But seriously, that is awesome! Nice work. I can't wait to start on my garage, but I have lot of other expenses first, such as weeping tiles.


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## Focker (Jun 3, 2012)

Fold downs tables! :thumbsup:

My garage is the same size and I've kept it clear and open but after seeing your compartmentalized work areas...I may have to follow suite. I happen to have a German vehicle too...67' VW bus.

Now if I could just find a good deal on some strong boxes.

Nice work!


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## gjones (Aug 21, 2011)

NICE job! Probably one of the nicest garages I have seen since I bought my house and started paying attention to things. Thanks for the pics, awesome ideas, and inspiration! Now I just need to come up with the money to disassemble mine, pour a new foundation (cracked TERRIBLY bad and has begun to separate and sink on one side) and then rebuild. I am a former engine machinist and still do engines on the side and would LOVE to have this sort of organization and cleanliness in my garage! Thanks!


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## Nacho78 (Nov 22, 2011)

thinking to myself, why didn't i just do foldable (wall) benches to do my car upholstery instead of making a huge table lol


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## shadytrake (Jul 8, 2012)

That is a really nice garage.

Here's mine...well the demo'd. Underneath all that mess is a really nice concrete slab just waiting for a new project. I'm waiting for a break in the heat to finish cutting it up and taking it to the street.

BTW - you should blur your license plate number. :yes: You wouldn't want one of us tracking you down to borrow those cool cabinets. :thumbsup:


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