Calling all household electrical geniuses......

[MrRiden]

DeeG,
You mention a host of applications you would like to use the 12v for but I'm not so sure it would be a good idea. Many of the recharges you mention may very well be of application specific design and connecting a universal 12v supply to to your cell phone or gps may just void the warranty in a spectacular way. For running a 12v air pump or  firing up your Gerbings an outdoor light transformer [think Malibu lights] may be a good accessory. I Also like the overhead auto retracting cord reel. I'm remodeling the shop as well, some pegboard and also track lights from the recently remodeled kitchen are going up. Also looking for a small but good quality tunes box.
rich

[drewboid]

Careful - The Malibu outdoor light transformer that I have is 12 volts AC!!!  It may work your Gerbings but it will damage your battery, air pump, and many other things. Come to think about it the Gerbings controller might not like it either!  YMMV
One way to add your 12V DC supply is to use an old 12V car or motorcycle battery - put it on a float charger and you should have a good stable source of 12V DC. Just make sure that the "old" battery still has some life left in it - don't use one with a bad cell.

[Justin B.]

The 12V requirements/uses will have to be well defined before any kind of recommendation could be made...

[MrRiden]

Good catch Drew. I just thought 12v & didn't realize my error. Forgetabout the Malibu lights thingie. Bad Idea.

[weasel01]

Just wire your garage to code with a few seperate 120v circuits and buy yourself a standard bench top 12 volt dc power supply many of which come with a built in car cigarette lighter jack on the front and you could use your car style chargers plugged into that...like this  :

http://www.autotoys.com/x/product.php?productid=7208

[J_Hirst]

OOH I like that table top converter.

Wish it also had a BMW plug on it.

[DeeG]

After the electrical/radio genius at work overheard me chatting about wiring up the shop, he offered to come and help. Well, he offered to come over and teach me how to do it.  This guy wires up all our radio towers and everything associated with our comm center, and he built the two houses he has on his property, so I think I'm in good hands.  Which is probably just as well, as the spouse is thinking that maybe we should install a couple of them radiant heaters so we can work in the winter and not freeze to death.  

He also pointed out a 12V converter box thingie he had on his workbench.  About $100.  The one that ampliflyer posted the link to would work just as well.....

MrRiden,  I've been wanting a radio/CD player for the shop as well.  I have a set of Altec Lansing computer type speakers set up in my kitchen. Fairly inexpensive (about $90) and it sounds really nice.  I'm going to use a Am/FM/CD player that I already have and just plug it into the speakers.  It also has a port for an MP3/sat radio as well.
The one in my kitchen is plugged into the Garmin GPS which has the XM puck on it.  

Now I just have to wait for the temps to cool a bit before I start the project.  The shop temp was about 8 degrees warmer than the surface of the sun this afternoon. I had to wait until 10pm before it was tolerable to work in.

[wilcom]

when I need 12v in the garage use a wall transformer , they are cheap. If ya need more ........ there's alwasy your batter charger!

[wa1udg]

On Fleapay or a ham radio site like QRZ.com you will often find ASTRON 12 volt (13.8 nominal) power supplies in models up to 75 amps or so.  They use common repair parts and are "short" sensing meaning you can short the leads of a 50 amp Astron and it will shut down without big Thor's Hammer sparks.  Only down side is the shipping,  their pass regulated supplies are HEAVY.  I have a 35 amp which has been plugged in and operating 24/7 for about 20 years.    Big switchers - like PC supplies -  are tough to fix, "they have to be working before you can fix them".

[wa1udg]

Battery chargers are about as unfiltered and unregulated as you can get.  I wouldn't use one to power anything "electronic" without a battery across it for smoothing.  BTW one can buy all sorts of parts for custom in wall (or anywhere else) speakers from Parts Express, just google them.   Among other things, they send you a nice fat  paper catalog just like the old days.  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

My car battery charger is a 110v to 12v converter, and it has 3 levels of output: 2, 10 and 50 amps.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_02871222000P?mv=rr&i_cntr=1312332073385

Oh yeah, Herr Stig, I suppose it isn't the cleanest power out there.

Duane Ausherman would recommend a Variac transformer for your experimenting.
http://w6rec.com/duane/bmw/battery/index.htm

I don't know how regulated that output is, either.

[DeeG]

I did away with the 12v idea.  Too much of a pain.  I FINALLY had the time to run some conduit.  Installed four separate 20 amp circuits and one hard wired 4' fixture over the main 'work desk'.   Next month I'll hard wire the banks of 8' fixtures and an outside light next to the door and an outside GFI to plug the tractor into when it starts snowing.  

Spouse has two of them electric infrared heater things hanging from the ceiling of his company shop, I'd like to get a couple of those as well for when the temps drop.  Working on a bike with old ski pants/parka and thick gloves on is no fun at all.    

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Ceiling heaters sound good, except that heat rises.

Is the entire building insulated?

Except for the noise, I really like my propane-powered forced-air floor heater.

It's fun watching the thermometer at the other end of the garage rise!

Yes, mine is a small 1-car garage.

[wa1udg]

Duane's a "radio guy" like me, part of his email address is his "ham" callsign.  A variac will produce variable voltage but it will be UNFILTERED AC. You could crank it down to 12 volts but nothing electronic  or electric motor powered in a car, bike, boat, or aircraft shout be subjected to 12 (or 24 for a lot of aircraft)  volts AC.  It has to be DC and CLEAN, or all the magic smoke inside the unit will be let out, and it ain't easy to put it back in.  We used to call cranking up a new  mains powered transmitter or whatever for the first time the "60 cycle smoke test".  

[wa1udg]

Pure DC on a scope looks like a straight line.  Lousy DC from a charger or cheap power supply looks like a politician's trace on a lie detector.  AC, of course, goes the wrong way half the time.  It's the PEAKS on a badly or non filtered supply that kill small expensive transistors and ICs.