As the days get colder and shorter, with no big rides planned for the rest of the year, it's time to look at the workshop and do some cleanup and rearranging. It's a never ending battle, every year I think of new and better ways to organize things. This year Mrs. Gugie wanted a refrigerator in the garage. I talked her down to a small model, one to hold the not-yet-cooked turkey, not-yet-smoked brisket, and other large meats and other overflow items from the kitchen fridge. Oh, and it should hold beer, of course. Rather than put it in the area with the cars, why not in l'atelier?

My collection of vintage bike bells were mounted to a wooden round, a hook on the end, and now you can see and ring all of them. The beer cooler is right underneath.




Raise the drafting table for sit/stand use, hang the most interesting bike from the ceiling, park some of the rest of the fleet front and center.

I think you need a special Gran(d) Sport(s) corner.

...and a bottle opener mounted above one of the catch tins.
Unless of course they are twist-off's, which I have found they do not play nice together. lol

Great minds think alike

I hear ya - went through my space a month or so ago to try and arrange and get ready for winter.

I've given up on arranging... until I add the new 8x12 storage area.

Nice. I've got an "I <heart> corn" button I got on Ragbrai a few years ago. I'll send it to you for your button collection by the beer opener.

You're the only bike guy I've visited whose shop is bigger than my own (and by a lot). I would be in serious trouble if I had your cubic volume

I just happened to start tidying up my space this weekend, with an eye to 86ing non-usable stuff and getting the workbench clear, so it's actually usable as workbench. I've added a couple magnetic tool bars on the wall (with a couple more to hang) nailed up an old medicine cabinet that has been a part of the problem (sitting around on my floor, for years) so now it's part of the solution.

Not yet as sleek as Le Atelier Gugie.

But hey! Baby steps.

Wow! don't mess with [MENTION=280039]Lascauxcaveman[/MENTION] . His wrenches are ready for combat.

Yeah, but I have to share that space with my wife's two brothers.

I like the knife addition to the tools - might have to consider that.

To say nothing of the butcher knives....

I am pretty handy with a knife. So, yeah, don't piss me off when I'm cooking.

But what you're seeing on the rack there is what me and my Dremel tool came up with one night when I realized I had no 10mm, 12mm, 14mm and whatever size a head set nut is and I was trying to tear apart a couple old bikes. Base metal knives from the dollar store can be readily converted to useful wrenches and whatnot if you're not shy and have a steady hand and a Dremel. At that time I wasn't quite aware exactly of what tools I needed to work on bikes. So I just cut sections out of those cheap knives as needed, until I had the wrench to do what I wanted to do. Many brake calipers and headsets have yielded to them and been reset in the last couple years.

​​​​​​​ Since that night, I've acquired a lot of proper wrenches as well, but sometimes these old improvised things still come into play.

Love that drafting machine, the old Vemco 3300! I was a draftsman for Ma Bell back in the late 70's, wired parallel bar, rotary pencil sharpener, full set of triangles, thought I was hot stuff. I'd have killed for your machine. Nice.

You have to respect the integrity of a man that has a sticker over his work bench that says "Safety is my goal but let's be real here"

I do not miss board drafting at all. Large format printer for the win.

Really nice! How does it look while you are in the throes of filing lugs and such?

Too bad the drafting table can't do double duty as an alignment table! I've used Mrs. Road Fan's kitchen counter as a surface plate for measuring forks, but only when she is not home and I will have enough time to clean up!

You're only looking at part of the Atelier. The lug filing area is in the north 40, alignment table's in the south 40.

Here's the rest of the story.

Nice set-up. Can't wait until we get moved to a permanent location next year. I see a couple ideas I plan on appropriating. Been a long time since my architect dreams died (probably all for the best), but I do have a fondness for the drafting board.

[MENTION=19743]USAZorro[/MENTION], where are you landing?

It slices, it dices, it juliennes and you can even set your old headset with it! Now how much would you pay?

Cleaning, organizing and sorting parts of my part of the garage is on my list. My wife's list conflicts with this...... such is life

We don't know yet, but it will either be on Eastern or Central time. Has to be one of the 20 states I can work from though, so Arkansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia are out. Can also scratch Texas and Florida on general climatic principle.