[TheForge] building a new shop/shed

[ries]

Well, for me, its essential to have a concrete floor. A lot of my  
equipment has wheels on it, and rolls around.
Plus, we need to use the forklift inside all the time- and I have a  
semi-pneumatic wheels on it, which will just not work well on dirt, or  
even on compacted gravel.
full on rough terrain forklifts cost 3 times as much, and have much  
higher headroom requirements for the same lifting capacity, and are  
just generally bigger.
I use my forklift inside the shop all the time for fixturing, holding  
parts during assembly, and even moving tools around.

Then, there is cleanliness- its just a lot easier to keep a concrete  
floor clean, sweeping, mopping, and so on. Easier to find lost parts,  
as well.
And several of my machines need to be bolted down- the hossfeld  
bender, various vises, power hammers, and so on. So I would have to  
build special foundations for each one in a dirt floored shop.

And then, we often use the floor as a jig or layout tool- we drill and  
put bolts or angles down on the concrete, we draw on it, and generally  
rely on its relative flatness and stiffness to make sure larger items  
we build are sorta straight and flat.

Maybe none of these affect your intended uses- I dont know.

I just find its a lot more flexible to have the concrete, and, in  
areas I stand or work a lot, I throw down 4' x 4' rubber fatigue  
matting. I have 4 or 5 pieces of it, they move around where needed.  
Keep my feet from getting as sore, and keep me warm, too.

Ries


On Jan 18, 2009, at 4:31 AM, terry l. ridder wrote:

hello;

i have settled on a design for the new shop/shed, the only quyestion now
is whether the floor is left as dirt. i am leaning toward leaving the
floor dirt. a step up from dirt would be compacted crushed stone.
i am planning on burying radiant heat piping in the floor whatever the
composition may be and using a wood fired boiler to heat the water.

the reason for leaving it dirt is that dirt is easier on my legs than
concrete. granted this winter has been an unusual chicago winter, but
the cold dampness of the concrete floor in the current garage causes
pain issues with the legs. the perimeter of the shop/shed will be a 4
ft. deep footer. i could dig out the dirt and back fill with sand, pea
gravel, and compacted crushed stone.

the shop/shed is a design from www.barnplans.com. right now i am  
figuring
on a 24 ft wide x 30 ft long  shop/shed. i need to build a couple models
out of art foam board to determine which size will blend in with the
house and landscaping. the shop/shed will have a 2nd story. i am
planning on this being long term storage and home office space. a
small size freight elevator ( 8 x 8 ) which i am planning on putting
in will allow me to get to the home office easy enough. there will be
a wide staircase for those with working legs. ;-)

the first picture on the below url is the design i have choosen.
http://www.barnplans.com/dormer.html

anyway, what have others decided on for their shop floors?

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>
_______________________________________________
Manage membership or unsubscribe at:
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
theforge mail list group photo site is
http://www.photoaccess.com
Login:  blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
password:  anvil
___________



Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/