Garage Lighting Upgrade

Last summer I replaced the basic CFL bulb in the garage with a 100w daylight LED bulb. It helped but it was still lacking compared to what I had in the garage at my old house. A few months ago my neighbor picked up a four foot LED shoplight from Sam's Club to mount above his workbench. I'd seen them before in the store before but seeing the light output in his garage sold me on it. This weekend I finally got around to buying and installing a few. The difference is absolutely amazing.

Supply list:

-Two four foot long LED shoplights (At least at my local store they're now selling a Honeywell model with a slightly higher (4500 lumens) light output.)

-Light socket adapter with two outlets

-Three prong to two prong adapters

Total was roughly $80 with tax.

In the picture above I also bought longer hooks just in the case the ones that were included weren't long enough to go through drywall and "bite" enough into the stud but I didn't need them.

Installation was easy. I used a stud finder to find the studs in the ceiling, drilled pilot holes for the hooks, screwed them in and mounted the lights. I mounted one in the front and one in the rear centering them as best I could. Using the light socket adapter greatly simplified installation as instead of having to hardwire them in I just needed to plug them in. They also work with the existing light switch this way. The plugs on the lights are grounded so I needed the three prong to two prong adapters in order to plug them in. The cords aren't very long so I used one extension cord as well. 

Before. (Excuse the mess. Putting up a shed to get a lot of this stuff out of the garage is next on my list for the spring.)

After. As usual, the pictures don't totally do it justice but even my wife was impressed with the difference.

Crossposted from my house blog.

Tool Cart

Over the years I've accumulated a pretty large collection of tools. So much so that my existing tool box above just isn't enough space any more for everything. I've ended up buying new drill bits and such simply because I overlooked them in the overflowing drawers of that box and have searched for a while for another solution. I'd love to get a wider tool box but I also like the compactness of my existing set up even if it does require a step stool for me to better see in top. (And I'm 5'11". It's tall.)

I love Harbor Freight. They definitely sell some crap but I've used them for years for getting various odds and ends for far cheaper than the big box stores. It's one of those places I can go into and spend quite a while just wandering up and down the aisles finding stuff I didn't even know I needed. It's kind of like following my wife around in Target.

A few weeks back I got a flyer in the mail that had coupon for a four drawer tool cart for $99. After reading the reviews and taking a look at it in-store I picked one up this weekend. I ended up moving all of my power and air tools into it along with the assorted bits that go with them.

The one complaint I have at the moment is one of the drawers doesn't open very well and overall they're not as smooth as my Craftsman boxes. I sprayed some white lithium grease into the tracks this morning but it didn't work like I expected so I'm going to need to fiddle with it a little more. But for the price I can't complain. It's freed up a lot of space in my main box and made it easier to find everything between the two.