A Great Shop Grinder

I was out in Utah visiting a buddy when on one of our scrounging adventures I discovered a Baldor 12 inch grinder for sale. This thing is a brute, but it is also pretty beat up looking from sitting outside. I paid the man 75 Bucks for the opportunity to take a possible pile of scrap home to play with.

Well, I should have known I was chewing on a mouthful when it was decided the grinder and pallet had to be loaded into my truck with a forklift. This made Ruby squat a bit and caused me to wonder how I was going to get this thing out of the truck.

Well, I have no pictures of how rough she looked, but we got it back to my buddy's house, took it apart to get it out of the truck, then proceeded to spend the better part of a week scrounging parts, sandblasting, knocking off grinding concretion, and painting.

About 115 Dollars later and we get it working! Most of the refurbishing cost was in replacing the safety visors, but I also replaced every nut, bolt, and washer possible with stainless steel and bought two rattle cans of paint along the way.

Here it is in the background. This grinder is the largest Baldor grinder that is single phase; meaning it is also the largest grinder likely to be found in a home garage. For a total investment of $190, I now have a refurbished grinder that would cost about $1500 new. The only thing I should replace is the magnetic starter, and then only because the on/off buttons are beat up looking

There is no doubt that a grinder is a requirement in any garage. I just think there's a little Tool Time in all of us so there's nothing at all wrong with overkill.

This is what scrounging is all about. Find something cheap, refurbish it myself, have something nice for far less than it would normally cost to obtain it. Use the leftover garage budget money to find something else to play with.

Spooled Cordage Dispenser

I have a spool of 550 cord that I found at a garage sale years ago. I've had it turn into a rats nest far more than once, so I naturally wanted a solution that puts the cord where I will find it and eliminate rats nests for good.

I hit on the idea of making a dispenser modeled after a paper towel dispenser.

I scrounged around and picked up the 2x4 wood, a piece of pipe, and screws from around the shop. I routed out the slots for the pipe, screwed it all together and painted it red.

I then hung it under the twine bobbin I'd already made and hung on the wall. Pretty simple project.

A Wall Clock Helps Keep the TIme Organized

I suggest a wall clock that's easy to read from anywhere in the garage. Having a clock is a great way to time a task or project or to have some means of knowing when to knock off for the day.

I already had a wall clock hanging around in the house so it got pressed into service in the garage.

I placed it near the door as this was the one place where it could be seen throughout the shop. The lone exception is when I'm sitting at the project workbench, but all I need do is stand up to see the time.

Repurposing the clock cost me a double A battery. It also illustrates the results of beginning scrounging, which is to find stuff I already have that can be used for the need at hand.

Pegboard's Importance in Organizing the Garage

While buying pegboard usually represents actual cost in setting up a garage, it never hurts to keep an eye out for it when out on scrounging adventures. It pays to know what a sheet retails for in order to avoid paying too much from someone that thinks their stuff is made of gold.  The basic pegboard starts at about Nine Bucks for a 4x8 sheet and it goes all the way up to Forty-Five bucks for a hardwood sheet the same size.

I bought two sheets six or seven years back and hung them in a traditional manner with vertical furring strips mounted at the wall studs to provide space behind the pegboard to mount the hooks. This was necessary due to the finished walls in the garage.

I'm fortunate that I had room for two sheets. Anyway, the furring strips aren't necessary if the garage has bare stud walls.

 I also cut and mounted a partial sheet to the back of my project workbench.

This gave me the opportunity to hang my most used tools right where I'm likely to use them.

Pegboard is important to organizing the garage in a creative manner. While scrounging it is an option not to be overlooked, it doesn't turn up that often. Pegboard also rarely turns up at garage sales because once mounted, people almost never take it down. The only scrounging likely to help reduce the cost is to acquire the screws, washers, furring strips and nails.

Akro-Bins in the Garage

Never overlook the possibility of finding great storage bins at a sale of some sort. In this case I'm referring to Akro-Bins, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Here's two varieties in one. The upper bin organizer is plastic and from the mid Eighties. The lower one is made of metal and probably from the early Eighties or before.

It never hurts to take a picture of the bin part number in case you have missing bins and want to try tracking down replacements.

 This is another type of Akro-Bin.  These are larger and are stackable.

In this case I placed some of them under the workbench in the picture while the rest are to the left.

The early plastic organizer I bought new years ago. The rest are garage sale finds.

Wire Spool Box from an Old Wooden Crate

I actually found this wooden wire spool box at a garage sale for the princely sum of a Buck. The wire spools that were already in it have hand written dates form the mid to late Sixties. How cool is that?

One could be made from plywood, screws, some metal strips, pipe, and rubber grommets. I modified the cabinet by cutting some of the holes larger and installing larger grommets to accommodate the 12 and 10 gauge automotive wire seen on the third pipe down. Other than that it got a fresh paint job when I hung it where it sits now.

I really like it as it organizes most of my spooled wire and provides a handy dispenser all in one box.

A Buck! The only way to beat that is to break out the scrounge-O-meter!

Small Lidded Vials Used for Small Parts Storage

I'm sure we've all seen small vials, and various lidded containers floating around in our lives and they do have a use in the garage for storage.

This one is an example. The advantage of the clear ones are the usual being able to quickly identify the contents.

At any rate, free is the watchword when finding storage items for the garage.

Baby Food Jars for Storage

Yes, I think it's still possible to get baby food jars in glass containers. The ones I have are pretty old though.

They do have some advantages though. They are smaller than other glass jars, they have lids that reseal decently, and the clear glass makes identifying the contents of the jar pretty easy.

The only real downside is the jar is made of glass making them easy to break if dropped or knocked off the workbench.

Still, they are a decent storage option for free.

Peanut Butter Jars for Storage

My sister is quite the peanut butter fanatic. I think she goes through two or three jars a month. Well, I decided to take a look at the jars as a possible storage container in the garage.  I ran one through the dishwasher to remove the remaining peanut butter and proceeded to clean up the jar to my standards;  namely no labels and no glue.

The peanut butter jars are pretty sturdy and have the decided advantage of being made of clear plastic. The plastic is unlikely to break if the jar is dropped, and being able to see the contents speeds up finding things. I also like that I can label the contents in sharpie. An added bonus, the tops can be color-coded to some extent if you are willing to plan out what the colors mean and be willing to buy different brands of peanut butter to take advantage of the different colored lids.

Plastice Coffee Cans for Storage

At first I lamented the change over of coffee cans from metal to plastic as a loss of a source for storing nuts and bolts.

I got to looking at a can that my sister threw in the trash and realized the plastic ones are at least as good as the metal cans were.

In this case I've got two cans, the larger one has plastic imprinted labels, but the small one had a paper label which I removed along with the glue. The containers are reasonably sturdy, the lids appear to be superior to the old coffee can lids, and it's easy to write the contents on the can in sharpie.

So the venerable coffee can as storage idea still has legs!

Wiring outlets to the Workbench - Overhead

I got good and tired of hunting for outlets around my project workbench so I decided to take care of the problem.

I sat down and looked at the stuff I had on hand. Let's see: I had a nice piece of heavy duty electrical cord from a broken reciprocating saw, plenty of electrical cable, 2 outlets, particle board screws, some nuts, bolts and washers to mount the outlets with, and I swiped some cable protector plastic bits from come cable staples I had on hand. This left only the metal surface mount outlet boxes and metal covers. The whole buy list came to something like Six Bucks.

Here's the result:

I mounted one outlet on the right side of the bench using nuts, bolts and washers. 

 Then I did the same on the left side of the bench.

 I ran the electrical cable from one to the other on the underside of the particle board shelf using the plastic cable protectors and particle board screws.  I fastened the cable as close to the outlet boxes as I could and then fastened the cable every 6 inches. This may be overkill, but I didn't want someone to decide the cable makes a great hanger of some sort. Better would have been a section of conduit between the outlet boxes, but this will do for now.

I wired the salvaged electrical cord to the left side outlet and simply plugged it into a convenient outlet.
I then rerouted the cord for the light and plugged it in. The beauty of this design is that I can still take the workbench apart easily if I feel it's necessary.

And here's an overview of the workbench with the new outlets. After accounting for the bench light I still have three outlets conveniently located right at the bench regardless of where I may move it to.

If I were to buy all of the bits to do this project the expense would have been quite a bit higher so I made out pretty well and it totally validates scrounging as a means of extending the garage budget. While this project depleted the garage budget a little, it was more than worth the effort and Six Dollar expense.

Cast Iron Tape Dispenser - Thrift Store Find

I went down to the local thrift store the other day to poke around; just looking for opportunities to add stuff to the garage.

What I like to do is just stand and stare at the items in front of me and let my imagination decide what things might be used for. It also lets me absorb what is on the shelves.

So I'm walking around and I spy sitting on a shelf tucked back into the corner; a tape dispenser! Now a tape dispenser is not something I wold normally get worked up over, but this one is different.

It's made of cast iron!

So I grab it, plunk down the two Bucks they are asking for it and drag it home. I've seen one of these before when I was in the military, and never seen one anywhere else.

It was an ugly tan color so that had to be fixed right away. A session with the rattle can of yellow later, and here is the result.

 This thing is just about indestructible! I could use it for a wheel chock, door stop, or self defense weapon. I figure it would take a tank tread or an acid bath to do significant damage to  the body. Since there's not a handy reference to size, that's a standard roll of 1 inch masking tape in the dispenser. The best part is the parts that could be damaged, the cutting bar, roll holder, and rubber base are all in perfect condition.

My guess is they aren't made anymore.

And now with a depleted budget I can say I at least picked up an interesting piece of equipment for the garage.

Lazy Susan Tool Caddy

I scrounged this lazy Susan type tool caddy at an estate sale a few years ago and I admit it's nice to have the most used tools parked on it. It's sitting on the near end of the bench just behind the red vise.

I don't even know where to buy something like this, although the usual suspects are worth a look.

If I need the space I can easily move it as well.

Tin Cans Reused in the Garage

I needed containers in the garage and there in the bottom of the trash can was a fresh batch of empty tin cans from making vegetable soup. So I grabbed up a few and headed to the garage for a quick makeover.

 As usual I have to paint my stuff to make it look 'complete'. This is a standard 15.5 oz can.

 Here's another standard sized can.

 I mounted the blue one to a speaker magnet stuck to the column of my drill press.

 The red one became my pen and pencil holder on my project workbench.

 This one is a tomato juice size, 64 oz, I believe.

 Using it to hold my soon to be growing push stick collection at the table saw. I later glued a speaker magnet to the trolly and placed the can on it for more stability.

 A group of smaller cans. The two on the left held mushrooms. The next two are older 6 oz tuna cans, and the last one I suspect was a sardine can. The little ones are convenient to use in a tool chest drawer and the like.

Here's two others that I drilled holes in to hang on the pegboard. The one on the left has art brushes in it and the right one has toothbrushes.

Cheapie Fluorsecent Light for a Workbench Light

I had a cheap fluorescent light lying around and decided to use it to light up my project workbench. This is the type that is mounted using two screws and has an on/off switch to one side near the light bulb.

 Here's the light after mounting it.

 And here's what happens when it gets bumped.

I fixed that problem with a third screw to keep it from moving.

I know I've seen these at Walmart, but can't remember the price range. Needless to say, retail value doesn't matter if you managed to scrounge it from somewhere.

Painting Table out of an Ironing Board

My neighbor was going to toss an ancient ironing board awhile back, and I sweet talked it out of him.  I now have an improvised painting table that I can do quick painting jobs on without worrying about the overspray from the rattle cans I use.

Because it has holes in it already I can also hang parts from the edge of the ironing board to get a better squirt on the part.

 Here is the board set up to shoot some shelf brackets. No, I didn't actually shoot paint this close to my bikes! Outside with that, Magoo!

This is the label on the ironing board.  The address predates zip codes and it says something  about the fair trade contract price. I can only assume the ironing board is older than the mid-Sixties.  It needed a little straightening here and there plus it will require a spot weld where a weld is broken, but this thing is made like a tank!

I also like the ability to fold it up to put it way.  This saves floor space when it's not in use.

Gotta have a Vise!

I already had two vises, but felt both were too small for any really big or tough projects. I started poking around Craigslist to see what would turn up and to my surprise an old Reed vise was for sale.

I contacted the seller and went out to look at it. I knew nothing about old vises, but this one was big and heavy. It was also one big lump of rust.

I took a chance, paid the man 40 bucks and dragged my boat anchor home.

Lots of rubbing, cussing, filing, honing, electrolyzing, wire wheeling, sand blasting, plus a decent coat of paint later and I finally have a vise that I'm pretty sure will handle most problems I come up with.

 Here's the technical info on it. It's a Reed 105 R. It weighs about 73 pounds and has almost no play side to side or up and down. It also has no play in or out. I painted the fixed portion with a undercoat of Rustolium Cold Galvanizing Compound followed by a good black epoxy paint I bought at Advance Auto.

I neglected to get before pictures, but suffice to say, it took me three days just to get the movable jaw out of the thing. The vise has two problems that I see. The first is the movable jaw looks like someone took a hatchet to the top of the back side. There's lots of deep cuts in it. I have no idea why, but it was the reason why it took three days to get the jaw out. I had to file the upper corners followed up with sessions with a honing stone to remove the mushroom on the top side. The other problem is there is a minor flaw in the hardened jaw tooth that looks like a crack between the tooth and the cast jaw. Reed vises have imbedded jaw teeth unlike other makes that are bolted on and I suspect there was a forging defect in this one. The imperfection hasn't failed in 70+ years so I'll live with it.

I mounted it on a Gladiator roll around cabinet I bought back when I had more money than sense. I like Gladiator stuff, but it has a tendency to come out of the box with dents in it. It is also light duty so I decided to beef up the top to take a bit of punishment. The plywood top is 3/4 inch and there's another sheet of 3/4 inch inside the cabinet to sandwich and reenforce the top. I used 5/8 x 3 inch carriage bolts around the perimeter to hold it all together.

I cut two more pieces of 3/4 plywood using the base of the vise as a template, routed the top using a 1/4 round-over bit, and finished up with a nice Varithane stain and sealer.

Now I'm ready to crush some stuff!

Seriously though. A vise is an important investment. A good heavy machinist vise made of ductile iron bought new will run hundreds of Dollars. I recommend keeping an eye out for a neglected antique one for cheap that you can restore yourself. Just don't stoop to buying a cracked, broken, or worn out one.

This whole project; vise, rattle cans of paint, plywood, nuts and bolts, stayed under a Ben Franklin. I also had plywood and paint left over for other projects to boot. A new bought 5 inch vise from Harbor Freight may cost the same or less, but will weigh more like 36 pounds and be made of cast iron which is far more likely to break if you over tighten it.

So, yes Virginia there is a huge difference between cheap and cheapo.

Do this and chances are your vise will still be in your shop ready to give great service when your kids begin fighting over your stuff after your funeral.