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Well, the outside is finally finished and I can now tackle the interior of my new extended garage.
I don't plan on making it a Better Homes and Gardens kinda project, but all things considered, it is my garage in which I spent a considerable amount of time throughout the entire year and thus I do want it to look finished and somewhat comfortable for the type of activity going on in there. Good lighting and some heat to make it a bit easier through the cold UP winters are just some of the luxury I am intending to integrate.
My friend Mike told me about a cast iron heater on sale at the local Do-It-Best hardware store.
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I drove down there and the Vogelzang wood stove promised the needed heat for the upcoming winter and was just a perfect fit for my current budget.
I just couldn't resist to pick it up and bring it home.
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Although the to-do-list is long for the interior of the garage, I simply had no other choice then start with tackling the corner I decided on for placing the new acquired wood stove.
We insulated the walls and sealing first using R11 and then covered the corner walls and the sealing with the concrete board on a couple of afternoons. Concrete board is a must have to avoid having combustible material to close to the heater.
Afterwards we installed the joist shield, trim plate, and a wall thimble in preparation for the stoves chimney.
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 A picture of the heater's corner!
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What's left to do was finishing the joints up with thinset mortar and some simple white wall paint.
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I already went to my local brickyard for the needed fire brick which needs to be placed in the bottom of the stove before it can be used. Figuring out on how all the different chimney pieces go together to make sense (...or a chimney for that matter) took a bit of time.
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I was really excited trying out my new heater, this is my first wood burning stove!
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In the picture to the left you can see our new wood burning stove in action and let me tell you, it works great. My son and I kindled a small going fire in there and in no time at all we had the new stove heating our garage up well. Although, it wasn't a cold day outside then, but last week we had the first snow of the season and temperatures are now at 35F.
The stove manages to keep it quite nicely inside and I was able to work with just wearing a sweat shirt in here. Keeping in mind that the garage isn't yet fully insulated the stove is sure awesome and it has paid off big time for us to go this route. |
I have finished my "desktop machining corner" by insulating the walls using R11 and sheeting it with 7/16" particle board. I also have built a simple bench utilizing 2x4's and some old kitchen cabinets. I used MDF for the bench top, painted it, mounted my milling machine and lathe onto it, and completed the electrical work in this section.
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There is also lots of progress made on the opposite wall as well. Here you can see one happy camper painting the walls!
Well, it's finally done after building a few shelves and a bit of painting. The machining tools are all in place, electricity as needed and everything lit up for action! |
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| The opposite wall is now furnished with a solid build bench with my vise and my drill press mounted onto. In the outer right picture you can see how much of space was gained. Even my boy's truck now fits in here without causing a problem. I still have to move some of the wood out of here and do some minor cleanup but all in all it's finally done! |
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Well, it's finally all done and finished!
The garage is now warm and comfortable thanks to my nice new wood stove. All of my equipment is pretty much back into place and I moved the tools and other stuff back up from the basement and returned them into the garage where they belong. I also fixed the faulty garage door opener system which now works 99% of the time and hopefully it will keep working that way for some years to come. I know that I wont get around replacing it at one point in the future but for now it did buy me some time and saved me a bunch of money.
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I still haven't decided yet what I am going to do about the sealing but that's a project for another summer.
I am going to purchase a new air compressor for which I reserved a corner next to the machining bench and already placed a 230V/30A outlet for onto the wall.
I also have a 230V/50A outlet installed for my Mig welder in a easy to get to location. No more "hot" wiring to weld something! Everything is up to code and has the appropriate breakers for safety.
I got plenty of lights now and all are on individual switches and thus I am not wasting electricity when not needed. |
I have been feeling a bit frustrated not have been able to work on my truck while this garage improvement was under construction but now I can get finally back to the planned projects on the Durango because this job was completed on 02-15-2011.
Update 04-17-2010:
Well, turns out that my farm bureau insurance agent got somehow wind of that I had a potbelly stove in the garage and he said that he will cancel my home insurance if I keep it in there because it is in a place with combustable material (he was referring to the fuel in my truck). Really?
Needless to say I wasn't happy with spending close to 600 bucks on the stove and all the stuff to make it work and then have to remove it. However, I did comply and removed the stove. I have to think of something else before the next winter comes. Lot's a money wasted for now but I can't loose my home insurance or change the insurance company without loosing even more money. Catch 22 anyone? Hopefully I can use this gem of a stove in some future application!
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