One big part of getting yourself out in the garage is making it easier to do work. One of the things I truly hate in the garage is rolling out and winding back up air-hoses. Air hose reels make life a lot easier, but take some up front work to get mounted. Read more to see how I mounted mine!

I have a Lincoln 83754 1/2″ x 50′ hose reel I removed from my last garage. It is Lincoln’s ‘value’ hose reel series, but when you pick it up to mount it you will find that it is built very well and is quite heavy. I have been using it for years without any troubles.

In my last garage there was an exposed beam going across the ceiling of the garage that I welded tabs onto and tabs onto the mounting plate of the hose reel so it would swivel. This is probably overkill as the reel has its own fairlead to guide the hose back in. Really you could just bolt it onto a 2×10 board and attach the board across multiple studs or onto a workbench (the manual says the reel weights 41lbs).

Air hose reel and hose removed from my last garage. Now taking up space on the floor of my new garage.

In my new installation I wanted to retain the swivel ability but didn’t have any exposed beams to weld to. I had installed two units of Menards Xtreme shelving in my last post. After some measuring I discovered that one additional 8′ wide unit would fit perfectly

Upright and top shelf added.

Cut two 2×4’s long enough to cover two studs. Screwed one into the studs of the wall and the other into the first. Then lag bolted from the shelf leg into the 2×4’s. It ain’t going nowhere. Also added second shelf.

Now for actually hanging the hose reel. I didn’t really feel like welding on the shelving so I rummaged through my steel supplies and found two 3″x3″ generic use plates that would work.

Marked the centers with sliding square and soapstone.

Threw them in my DIY press brake.

…and bent them to 90 degrees(ish) 🙂

Next up was to drill some holes in the center. Two to bolt to the shelving unit leg and one on the other side for the hose reel bolt.

Bolted to the shelf leg and hung the hose reel from them. I had to trim the corner on the top bracket a bit so it would swivel all the way without hitting.

The red tabs on the reel in the pic above I welded on myself a long time ago. You would have to do the same to use this setup. Normally the back side of the mounting plate is flat with 4 holes for bolting.

Yay! All mounted, now I just needed to run the supply line.

I took a shortcut on the supply line and just used a 50′ 1/2″ rubber line. What I really should have done was use copper, or one of the air supply line kits available. I ran out of time to do a permanently installed air supply line kit. The benefit of air supply line kits is that they help cool the air (it is aluminum tubing sandwiched with polyethylene), add air drops, and drain points.

I connected the air hose to the reel then ran it along the back of the shelving. Huge zip ties made this go really quick. I used a foam noodle/roll cage padding to pad the air hose from some potential wear spots on the shelving.

I dropped down the back of the shelving and used a spade bit to go through the wall into the basement. The junction box seen there is where the power supply for my welder is going through the wall to the basement also. (I shoved some foam insulation around the hose for draft and hose protection)

The hose drops down the wall directly to the compressor in the basement.

This setup was more work, but since the reel has 90* of movement I can reel in/out from anywhere in the shop

Finished product! This is probably the cleanest and most organized any of my garages has ever been.

As a side project during this project, I put up some wall protection behind my welding table. It is just a ~5ft x ~5ft sheet of aluminum. A couple of washers and screws into studs made for a simple install. At my last house I didn’t do this and the sheetrock was pretty beat up behind the table by the time we moved out.

Wall protection from projects on the welding table.

I am excited with this new setup because the welding table is not in the corner and I have access to 3 sides once I roll my welders out.

Hope this helps your project or gives you some ideas. The point here today is that with a little extra work up front you can make it easier to do work in your shop down the road.

Hose reels and organization remove the barriers to getting started on projects, it is no different than the fitness junkies that tell you to put your running sneakers by your bed. Now you can be motivated enough to fill your tires at home instead of going to the local gas station and waiting FOREVER for the crappy pump to top off your tires.

Now YOU, go outside and work on something.