In floor scissor lift

After marking out where the lift will go, the perimeter is then scored on the first pass, then wet cut to full depth on the second.

The bulk of the concrete broken up.

Concrete removed and dug out a bit deeper.

Bottom packed with hardcore and sand.  A channel for the control box cable is cut.

New damp proof course (DPC) laid down and a layer of concrete poured in.

The rebar mesh is laid down and the remaining concrete poured on top to make a total thickness of about 100mm.

Another thin layer of concrete for a smooth finish.

Final clean up of the edges after the concrete has fully set, followed by a few coats of damp proofing paint.

Holding my breath as the driver dangles the half ton lift above the neighbours car as he tries to manoeuvre into position.

But he makes the job a breeze.

A centre cover made from 18mm plywood and well braced/supported to take a fair bit of weight should it be required to (hopefully).

Finished!  Shame I didn't have any matching colour floor paint for the centre cover!

2.5 ton Range Rover is about the biggest thing I will ever want to work on.  As the air suspension can be lifted on these beasts I managed to get some axle stands underneath instead of using the normal rubber blocks.

Ceiling, storage and wiring

Having installed some better garage doors I thought it was time to address the ceiling a bit, not only to make it look nicer but also to plug the big air space that made heating the garage pointless.

 The before shot.

12.5mm foil backed plaster board screwed on.  I also installed a wooden loft hatch and folding stairs for access.

View from the top.

I took the opportunity to lay down lighting cable for new workshop lights and for lighting the storage area above and also dropped wiring for 6 additional double power sockets around the garage.

After taping up all the joints with foil tape I laid down 100mm of fibre insulation between the joists.

...and over-boarded with 18mm chipboard flooring.  The new storage space should allow me to keep the garage below nice and tidy.

Plasterers called in to skim the ceiling.

Twin 6ft high frequency fluorescent battens fitted with 70w triphosphor tubes outputting 4800lm in total.

I chose the 3500k colour temperature tubes as I find the cool/daylight ones too stark.

There's one more batten to come which will be fitted under the cupboard above the workbench.

I can see!

Roller Shutter Doors

It's beginning to get cold and I've started thinking about making the garage a more comfortable place to work.  Firstly I need to plug all the drafts and the gaps around the frame and especially at the bottom of the up-and-over garage doors and perhaps add some insulation to the door panels.

Another problem with up-and-over doors is the frame the doors slide on.  These take up space and can get in the way when using the scissor lift.

I decided to get some insulated electric roller shutter doors from STS Garage Doors and installed them with the help of a few friends.

As well as being electric they also have foam filled slats and the mechanism takes up very little space.

They also allow for a wider and taller opening then the previous up-and-over system which really makes this a win-win in every respect.  Plus STS are cheaper then most of the others out there and nice to deal with in my experience.

Scissor Lift

I decided to buy a scissor lift to make working on the GD427 Cobra a bit easier.  I considered a single post lift, 2/4 post lifts and a few types of scissor lifts. In the end I decided on a scissor lift from Automotech, the AS-7530D for three main reasons: I don't want a post in the middle of the double garage, I don't have six inches of concrete to affix it to either, and nor do I have the height in the garage to lift a car more than a meter. The cheaper scissor lifts on the market don't have clearance in the middle and frankly they don't inspire much confidence to look at either. So in this case the AS-7530D seemed the best option.

The chaps over at Automotech are nice to deal with, although the same can't be said of the courier company they used. I got a call from the couriers on the morning of the chosen delivery date and asked how I plan on getting the lift off the truck and that apparently it shouldn't have been sent via them if I didn't have the means to take it off myself. After a few phone calls back and forward to Automotech they got the real reason out of the courier: the tail lift was broken on the truck they had loaded the lift onto that morning, and the other truck with a tail lift wasn't available until the next day. I hate lying courier company's but c'est la vie.  Anyway, the following morning the lift arrived. The total weight of the package is about 600Kg.

The control unit, extension ramps and rubber blocks come in a seperate box

Getting the lift off the 3 stacked pallets was the hardest part. I used an engine crane and stood on the back of it to counter balance until the lift slid slowly off the top pallet.

After removing the bubble wrap you have to unscrew the last of the wooden mounting blocks and lift it with the straps under the centre bars so that the straps can come out when it's on the floor.

After some nervous moments using a standard car jack and some blocks of wood, I managed to get the engine crane out of the way and get the lift finally on the ground, albeit facing the wrong way. To move the lift around you need to attach wheels while the lift is at near full height, then when it's lowered the rear of the lift is raised on the wheels. The control unit can then be used to lift the font and with considerable effort it's possible to move the lift round. Calling it 'mobile' is a stretch of the imagination, but yes it can be unlike 2 or 4 post lifts.

Also you need a compressor attached the control unit which is used to disengage the safety locks to bring the lift down.

 The lift in it's final resting place.

The lift comes down real slow if it doesn't have any weight on it but after a few goes of raising and lowering I then tried it with the most expendable car (the wife's). I had to modify the up and over garage door supporting frame to enable the car to be lifted to full height.

And this is the sort of clearance that can be expected underneath and through the middle when lifted at full height.

Workbench upgrades

Record 52e Woodworkers Vice

Sourced a second hand vice from ebay and took the mechanism apart ready for installing.

 Profile cut using a router and chisel.

Rear vice jaw fitted flush to the workbench crossmember.

Fitted the front jaw mechanism and added a large jaw face made from solid oak floorboards glued together.

Record No. 5 Engineers Vice

Another ebay addition to the bench is the Record No. 5 Engineers Vice bolted to the workbench.

Tool holder

I added a simple toolholder which is basically a strip of wood going the length of the workbench with lots of varying size holes to store screw drivers and router bits etc.  This also helps stop things falling off the back of the worktop.

Height & Castors

When I decided to re-arrange the garage I found the workbench almost impossible to move.  For a long time I also found the workbench a tad high as it was initially designed from the perspective of a woodworker (i.e. good height to plane boards).  The it dawned on me, hey, I don't actually do any planing and what I really want is somewhere to do some occasional routing and assemble larger stuff like my DIY speaker projects.

I thus proceeded to chop the bottom parts of the workbench legs and drilled some holes for castors while I was at it.  Now if I want to move the workbench I can lift each end with a car jack and slot in these 200Kg rated 80mm Nylon castors, then remove them once I've got it into place.

Shelving & Doors

To keep things a bit tidier I added some more shelves and doors to keep the sawdust out.

Shelving & tools

Installed 9 bays of adjustable modular shelving 18cm deep.  Each shelf can take 100kg.

Tools organised

Positioned some of the heavier tools and DIY heavy duty workbench at the back.

Another view.

Heavy Duty Workbench

I wanted a cheap but rugged workbench for the garage.  It would be used for  woodworking and engineering projects and I wanted to put the milling machine on one side of it.  Here's a design I thought would take some abuse and hopefully last a long time.

Started by cutting up timber for the 8 legs and glueing together.

Workbench legs glued and screwed.

Four completed workbench A frames.

6x2 cross members attached and then finished all edges with a router and chamfer bit.

The worktop was made using 3 layers of 18mm MDF glued together. The bottom shelf slides through and sits on the bottom members.  I routed an inset on the worktop to put small items where they won't fall off the table.  Finally the whole workbench is finished with 4 coats of Yacht varnish.