Re-purposing an old cabinet as a clean-up area

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Okay, here's why you should go easy on me: I'm a hobbyist welder, self-taught, with only a 20x21 garage to work in.  But I've put a lot of work into my garage, and I thought I'd post my most recent project for it here, since it involved some fabrication.  I still don't have 220 wired to the garage, so the welding was done with 110 and my Miller 211.The project was this: I had a laundry tub sink with a wood countertop and some wood shelves above it.  I'd put it together when I first went through the garage.  I wanted a smaller sink and more storage.  And I'd found this old Strong Hold 12-gauge cabinet for $78.50.  I decided to cut up the cabinet.  I used pieces of it to make the upper cabinets, lower cabinets and countertop for my new (more-compact) shop sink area.I used a circular saw with a Freud Diablo metal cutting blade and a jigsaw with a bimetal blade.  And my grinders.All the middle was gone -- just the top and bottom here.  If I would slow down and clamp on a straight edge more often this would all fit together better.  But I'm not very patient.The back became the countertop.  I drew the curves with a string and a sharpie marker -- and had to do it a second time when I decided the curve was too severe.  Cutting 1/8" steel with a jigsaw is s-l-o-w.The smaller cabinet on the side was made out of pieces of the middle of the original doors.  I harvested the latch and locking hardware from a smaller old cabinet I'd found.  Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:Even with 3M adhesive (which may have been past it's shelf life), it was a pain in the neck to get the aluminum to bond to the steel.The backsplash was made out of 1/8" steel from a table I cut up.  Having a backsplash at all in this application is overkill.  Making it out of 1/8" mild steel is just plain stupid.  But the wall behind it was not flat at all, and I had the table sitting around slowly starting to rust...The top cabinets are set up like apartment-house mailboxes -- because I only had four hinges left.  They were made out of the divider piece inside the old cabinet.  They're also 1/8" thick.  I didn't have hardware handy, so I cut holes for handles.  (Naturally, I cut one at the wrong height and had to fill it back in and cut the hole again.)But that's it.  With a little paint on it, it almost looks too nice for a garage.  It's all made of 12-gauge steel, with aluminum for the horizontal edge pieces and stainless for the sink.  I didn't have any kind of plan for it -- not even a drawing.  It's hard for me to visualize this sort of thing in advance, but I'm reasonably good at improvising a design idea as I go.So I was pretty relieved that it came out looking okay.  (Well, I mean, I like it.  You may think it looks like crap.   )Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:Boy I'll tell ya Jack, you sure have a lot of patience working with that kinda stuff. Looks like a pretty fine job from here. "The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." -Theodore Roosevelt
Reply:looks great to me, real nice job. also I haven't seen a rotary phone with a cord in a shop in a real long time miller 330a bp TIGmiller dynasty 200DX TIGmillermatic 185 MIGthermal dynamics cutmaster 101 plasma cuttersnap-on YA5550 plasma cutterhypertherm powermax 30 plasma cutterbaileigh CS225 cold sawetc....
Reply:That's Incredible.  I wish I had the devotion to make my garage look like that.ars sine scientia nihil est
Reply:I thought, "Hey, I like the phone, I used to work on those, even got one myself."  Nice cabinets though. City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny
Reply:Beautiful!  I have the same situation in my garage. I recently bought a few surplus high quality filing cabinets that I store my tools in.  Great for flammables and keeping the elements off my equipment.  Love your sink area...... Very smart.http://www.youtube.com/user/c599209/videos
Reply:NOW I see why all of the heavy steel is used. You live in L.A.!Great job of re-purposing the cabinets and fantastic use of space.ChrisLincoln Pro Mig 180TMiller Spectrum 375
Reply:Great job.  Definitely an improvement and it's great to re-use all the old cabinets and make them new again.
Reply:Great job. Thanks for taking the time to take and post the pics. The curved countertop with the aluminum facing adds some interest to a shop that's otherwise tooled for work. It looks good and shows that someone put some time into making the place look nice.Milermatic 211
Reply:Great job , makes a very good addition and looks like it was planned from the start.
Reply:Jack, You really transformed that space into a thing of beauty and function. I know you said you didn't have a plan, but you sure had vision and also great metalwork. I was wondering two thing, what's up with that tile floor in a metal/welding shop as that would only last me about half a day until I dropped a c-clamp or something on it. And also that phone, in some pictures it looks like it only made for listening.
Reply:Looks really good, wish I cared that much about what my own garage looked likeLincoln: 255 Mig w/spoolPrecision Tig 275Ranger GXTMiller: 211 Mig w/spoolMaxstar 150 STLSpectrum 875Scotchman 5014 IronworkerHougen-Ogura PunchJancy USA-5 SluggerPowr Kraft LatheVictor Pattern TorchJet 9m Bandsaw
Reply:Thanks, guys.The phone is odd.  I was given a reproduction of an old phone as a gift a long time ago that I put in the garage because I didn't have anywhere else to put it.  I liked that it wasn't cordless, because I never had to look around under everything in order to find it.  But the fact that it was a fake version (with push buttons) of an old phone bugged me a little, and I learned you could buy an actual old Western Electric 352 for not much on ebay, I got one for $45 and was amazed at how good the sound quality was and how you could call your cell phone from a clicking rotary phone.But the old phone took a hit from that heavy backsplash piece and the Bakelite handset split in two when it hit the ground.  The wires are embedded inside the Bakelite handle, so I was doubtful about some superglue fixing the situation.  So the old repro is back up -- but I already found a second-hand handset to put the original back to the way it was.The tile is stronger than you'd think.  I jack the car up on it, drag floorjacks across it.  Oil and paint clean up much better than concrete (since the tile doesn't absorb what you spill on it).  But I did drop the big v-block you see while I was working on this project.  It missed my foot, but left a hairline crack in the tile it hit.  But you have to get down near the floor to even see it.  I can replace the tile pretty easily, but I'll wait until I've got some more I need to replace.Here's the whole garage -- all cleaned up and nice:Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:LOOKS  REAL GOOD, JACK!! I HOPE THE OR I WAS IN IS AS CLEAN AS YOUR SHOP LOOKS.                                     MIKEOl' Stonebreaker  "Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes"Hobart G-213 portableMiller 175 migMiller thunderbolt ac/dc stick Victor O/A setupMakita chop saw
Reply:Hey...Jack I said it before an i will say it again. you have got one of the nicest garages i ever seen, not every garage has got a surgical wash laboratory in it, to scrub up before the big operation. Anyway, as always great job on the cabinet re-work. If there was ever a contest for garages yours would be second to none.In the words of the great philosopher Quagmire.Gigedy Gigedy Gigedy Gigidey Goo.
Reply:I like the table with the rounded rear crosspiece too. It's a subtle element that adds some style to something that's generally just utilitarian.Milermatic 211
Reply:Thanks for the compliments, guys.  The garage isn't always clean -- not by a long shot.  But the thing about it that I'm happy with is that I took the time to set up a storage plan, and now it's never more than half an hour or so away from being clean.  That front bench with the curved crossmember was done as a learning exercise -- I used the same roll bender as for the aluminum fascia piece on the new sink bench.  This picture from when I was putting it together shows the 'every flat surface covered with stuff' look that used to be the way my garage was all the time.  (Now it only looks that way while I'm working on something.)Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:Great work.  Did you use a roller to create the steel edge on the rounded surface?  If so, what kind?Also, are those top drawers near the mirror slanted away from the mirror?  Again, great work.
Reply:Thanks.  I used a cheap Harbor Freight roll bender for the edge piece.  Same thing for the curved steel crossmember in the work table.  You can see it in this picture in the mirror.  In this case, I just fed the flat piece of aluminum (4"x1/8") over the tops of the square-tubing dies.In the same picture, you can see how the upper cabinets have a slanted side where the opening is for the mirror to go.  At first I was going to have the edge be 90, but then I remembered how windows are sometimes cut into very thick walls, with a kind of flare for the light to follow, and I decided to increase the width of the opening as you got farther from the mirror.  I don't know that there's any benefit to this other than the way it looks.  But it was simple to do.Here's one more picture of the new sink area.  My wife got me a stainless soap dispenser that I filled with Goop hand cleaner.  She also got me a door mat to replace the old piece of carpet I'd been using.  Now the place is downright fancy.  Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:Wow, your shop should be in a magazine.  911 & all!Looks really great!Buy American, or don't whine when you end up on the bread line.
Reply:Mr Olson that clean of a garage just goes to show that you have a very SICK mind. Great work by the way. Very good use of material. Does that black workbench get much use? It looks a little flimsy for the heavier work.
Reply:Originally Posted by WeldingMachineWow, your shop should be in a magazine.  911 & all!Looks really great!
Reply:EXCELLENT WORK!!!!  I can only hope that someday my garage will come in a poor second in a contest with yours.  Truly the standard by which others are judged."The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government."  Teddy RooseveltAmerican by birth, Union by choice!  Boilermakers # 60America is a Union.
Reply:Wow Jack, great work!  "Hobbyist welder" my foot!And anytime you're down in TX I need you to swing by and do my garage.  I'll bbq you some ribs in return.Lincoln AC225 and CartLincoln WeldPak HD and CartOne handGreat job Jack, Great use of "used" material!I hate rude behavior in a man.......Won't tolerate it!                   Woodrow F. Call
Reply:nice job 350P 30A spool gun cut master 51  syncro 250 other stuff " take a dog off the street and make him prosper and he will not bite you sad the same cannot be said for man" i didnt use punctuation just to piss you off
Reply:If my garage looked like that I'd sleep in it.  Hey!  What about a combination work table/sofa bed?  BTW...you need a TV...maybe a small refrig too.Seriously, you obviously have an eye for design.  Very impressive.Miller 211 w/ spool gunMiller Dynasty 200DXLongevity 60i IGBT plasmaO/A w/ crappy chinese torch/gaugesSouth Bend 10K latheGrizzly 4029 10x54 millGrizzly 7x12 hor bandsawangle grnders, bench grnder, bench belt sndr7.5 hp 80gal cmprsor
Reply:Originally Posted by Jack OlsenHa!  As it happens, it will be.  It's going to be in an upcoming issue (March or April?) of Car-Craft magazine in their 'This Guy's Garage' section.  Plus, toward the end of the year there'll be an article about the second-hand cabinets I put into it in a magazine called 'Great Garage Makeovers,' which sells at Home Depot and Lowes.
Reply:Fantastic job.  Garage looks great and now I am motivated to do something in mine.One question on the cabinets over the sink, it looks like they open upwards, do you have a way for the doors to stay open,? If not, maybe some magnets to hold them up and allow access one handed if need be.Garage looks great, I think if it was mine, I would never leave, of course if I didn't leave then it would be a mess and I would leave
Reply:Thanks again, guys (and Monica).  Originally Posted by WeldingMachineNice!  Keep us posted, I'll pick an issue up.
Reply:Nice job jack.
Reply:really nice"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Beyond impressive Jack.  Awesome.MM200 w/Spoolmatic 1Syncrowave 180SDBobcat 225G Plus - LP/NGMUTT Suitcase WirefeederWC-1S/Spoolmatic 1HF-251D-1PakMaster 100XL '68 Red Face Code #6633 projectStar Jet 21-110Save Second Base!
Reply:Thanks again.  Here's another picture of the whole place -- without the car.Last edited by Jack Olsen; 01-11-2011 at 09:02 PM.Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:That garage of your cracks me up, Jack. I love seeing it. I suspect very few people have a house as neat as that, let alone a shed.But I can't see a beer fridge? Surely you've got one of them in there?Yeah, I carry.House keys, wallet, some change, usually a newspaper, maybe a pen.
Reply:It's all clean for the pictures.  But it gets used -- we swapped a different engine into the race car a couple of months back.  Rolled the engines over the tiles without any issues at all.And it DOES get dirty.But it cleans up fast -- which is this garage owner's chief garage accomplishment.  Jack OlsenMy garage website
Reply:OMG I never thought I would see the day! Holy cow! Guess you do actually trash the place every now and then LOL I feel so much better now LOLHH187Hobart 500i plasma cutterClark 4.5" GrinderDewalt 14" chop saw30 gallom 1.6 hp compressor10 gallon pressure pot sand blasterlots of hand tools