Are You Investing or Wasting Time in the Garage?
While standing at the lathe, putting the perfect chamfer on the end of a very imperfect chunk of aluminum, it hit me that this whole project was frivolous. I did not need to spend an afternoon on a side quest to machine a spacer that I did not need for the task at hand. In the end, that additional project ate up at least five times the amount of time that I would have spent had I just used a different tool that I already had. However, as a person who can justify anything, I say that there is no such thing as wasting time—not if you do it right.
The larger project has to do with the massive stack of tires that the UPS driver—who certainly has opinions about my address—dropped off a little over a week ago. On any given day there is at least one vehicle inside my shop whose tires need replacing. Some projects get those tires right away. Others enter short-term storage when the wear bars start to show. When you have 11 vehicles packed into a two-car garage, prioritizing projects is the name of the game.
My 2005 KTM 950 Adventure S is a machine that gets what it needs when it needs it. The bike is far too useful and fun for me to let it sit in the way. And it is usually in the way—it is neither small nor light, making it an obstacle in the shuffles that take place every other weeknight as something gets finished and another something gets started.
Changing tires is not sexy. It’s not fun. It’s just a repetitive task that I’ve managed to optimize for the bikes I work on. Up on a shelf above my workbench are the levers, lube, baby powder, and tubes needed to knock out a motorcycle tire swap. My personal favorite among my tire tools is a small lever-action assembly from Baja No Pinch that pushes the tire bead out when mounting rather than using a lever to inch the bead onto the rim. That mounting process is a pain. Even with plenty of practice, I occasionally catch the tube with the tire levers, tearing the relatively delicate rubber of the inner tube, which waits to declare its pain until after I put all the work into completely mounting the tire. Cue the hiss of shame and me cursing my own name before I grab the levers and patch kit to remove the tire again.
I like using my fancy little tool, and I like riding my KTM. So when I got the front wheel off to get ready for a new tire, the downright massive 30mm front axle made me set the wrenches down and stare for a second. Girth jokes aside, I realized I wouldn’t be able to use my fancy Baja No Pinch lever. The tool comes with an assortment of adaptors to fit a plethora of axle sizes but nothing close to the 30mm axle of the KTM.
Wanting to ride, and hating the idea of marking up the black rims, I decided that levering on the tire was not an option. An internet search failed to provide any option even if I did want to wait a few days for an adaptor to arrive in the mail—and I did not. I was left with option three: solving the “problem” myself.
So I grabbed a chunk of 6061 round stock that I bought to make wheel spacers for a disc-brake wheel conversion and took a field trip to a friend’s lathe, where I pushed the boundaries of my machining knowledge to make a 20mm hotdog of an adapter that would fit snug in the 30mm hallway of the wheel bearings. After a few hours at the lathe, along with a speed lesson in concentricity and a deeper understanding of just how bad the three-jaw chuck of that particular lathe is, I had an ugly but very functional spacer.
Spending hours to make a thing I didn’t really need may seem like a waste of time, but I was really looking for an excuse to practice running the lathe. The size of this part was too large to fit through the spindle of the Leblonde lathe to which I have access, meaning that it had huge stick-out and needed support from a live center to turn the outside diameter. I also didn’t have access to a 20mm drill or a boring bar long enough to bore the entire length in one setup. Taking a part out of a lathe, especially a tired one, and re-chucking it throws a lot of curves at a rookie like me. But since this was a non-essential and low-risk project, it was perfect for me to put some of the things I had been reading into practice or at least see the problem with my own eyes.
No project is a waste of time if you learn something. In the time it took me to make this spacer, I could have mounted the tire twice with levers, but now I have a spacer and a better understanding of how to make another one. That’s not wasting time; that’s investing it.
My garage is my maintenance shop that saves money, my club house for my friends, my fortress of solitude when I need a mental break.
My garage is my gym where I keep in shape.
Some people drink I polish. Wax on wax off.
I have heat and it is my summer place in winter where shorts and T shirt are the uniform in January.
I see garages with junk piled on cars or just piled full of junk. To me that is paradise lost.
I do my wrenching more for the doing… but it does save me money
I do most of my socializing in my neighbors’ garages since I’m usually doing something focus oriented in mine
Heat is a must. I can live without A/C
Yes you can enjoy your time ands still not waste it.
I can do with out AC but there are a few days now and then.
I live in the desert, so I finally got smart and installed AC in my garage. Amazing how much more I can get done now!
Not wasting time is overrated. I get that it’s our most precious resource and is quite finite, but it also can be immensely enjoyable – and enjoyment may actually be in shorter supply than time for many of us.
You got to hang out with your friend, use a new tool, and make a new tool. Did you really waste 5 hours?
As a custom woodworker who often uses my shop to make jigs, the attention you put into making it as perfect as can be the first time, will pay for itself every time you use it in the future.
i classify my time in the garage under the heading of ‘hobby’. and my personal definition of hobby is doing something i want to pursue & like to do. and it usually isn’t rational and probably a money pit. but sometimes i can’t put a price on the smile a hobby puts on my face. it’s the start of friendships and the adhesive to keep them together. and when a chore to others is a hobby to me, it’s a win-win. all of this helps keep me from looking at time in the garage as whether it’s productive or wasted time, like a job (yuck!).
I’ve learned a long time ago that time is not wasted if you enjoy wasting the time. Enjoyment is the psychic reward.
👍👍👍
Are You Investing or Wasting Time in the Garage? Yes.
There is always a bit of both. Were you having fun? Worth it.
This al reminds me of the Brad Paisley song ‘Time Well Wasted’.
Few things are as satisfying as fabricating a tool that affords you the power to do something no one else can, or do something more effectively than anyone else. I’d wager that your recollection of how long it took to make that adapter sleeve will diminish with each use. Bravo!
A garage is not a luxury. We need a garage to preserve our sanity in this frantic world we live in. A garage is the place where a man can be at peace with himself. The working on a classic bike becomes a form of meditation, where you can slow down, chill out and listen for the sound of one hand clapping – Phillip Tooth.