Building a shop

Will52100

Will52100

Joined
Dec 4, 2001
Messages
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Getting ready to pour the slab on my shop, it'll be 24'x30' with a 12' drop shed for the smithy. I'm planning on insulating and sheatrocking the walls, and will be metal covered on the outside.

Any suggestions for the rest?

I would have gotten it poured the last time I was in but it rained too much to get a concreat truck in.

Between building a house and working overseas I'm about to die for some shop time.
 
Having a concrete apron out front never hurts...

Paint your walls a nice bright color. White always works :)

Adding structural support through the floor so you can have some lifting equipment inside is a good idea.

I don't have it in my current shop, but the next one will have an epoxy painted floor.

About 60- 110 outlets and a half dozen 220!!! :)

LOTS of LIGHTS! If your ceiling is high enough, the canister halogens are nice, but if not (like my current shop) then the daylight flourescents are hard to beat.
 
I wish I would have installed an exahust fan near my grinder. One thing I did do that works very good is I wired the plug in for my dust collector and 2 plugs in for my 2 air fillters to one swich that is next to the grinder.

I have about the same size of shop as the one you are building and I put an 8'X10' room in one corner so I would not need to heat the hole shop if Im hand sanding, doing file work, ......

I agree with Nick on the lights and outlets. Run a few of the 220 outlets with larger wire if you have a HT oven or might get one in the future.

Good luck and post pictures when done!
 
All good suggestions! If this is going to be a forging shop..... make certain the concrete is right! When I built my new forging shop (about 6 years ago), I did a monolithic slab, starting a 6" thick on one end, and going to 12" thick on the end where all the equipment sits. The concrete was 7 1/2 sack mix, with fibermesh added to the concrete at the plant. I also have two layers of welded wire mesh...one at the bottom to hold the radiant heat tubing, and a second layer set on 4" stands above that. I finished out the concrete with a "burned" finish, so that sweeping would be eaisier.

For the wall coverings...if you can avoid Drywall, I would. In a forging shop things get jabbed into the walls, and with drywall, you'll either have holes everywhere within a couple of years, or always will be patching it. I did 7/16" waferboard on the interior walls, sprayed them down with fire retardant, then primed and painted the walls white. I also put 30 gauge sheet metal on the walls surrounding the immediate forging/hot work areas. Originally I was going to leave the ceiling open (insulation exposed), but rethought that one and put the same steel sideing over the ceiling that is on the exterior of the building.

Every 6' along all the walls I have doube four-gang 110v outlets, and in all the locations where larger equipment resides there are 220v plugs....and I wish I had placed more! Never enough plugs! :o
 
had a neighbor put "peg board" on walls. hang stuff anywheres. but insulate first. go with 200A panel if possible. you'll need it.
 
Thanks. The interior will be aprox. 5" thick slab with a 12"x12" chain wall. All forging will be outside under the drop shead. It'll be gravel floored, but I'll pour a pad for the power hammer. The interior will be for grinding and working on cars, guns, ect. I plan on installing a dust collector, not sure what kind rite now. There will be 3 doors in and out, along with a 8' roll-up garage door for summer tiime cooling. I decided on drywall as I will be buying a lot for the house shortly and it's a natural fire barrier. The drop shed will be enclosed with metal and have large swing out doors to darken it, weather protection and to keep anybody from screwing with it while I'm gone. I haven't figured how many outlets yet, but they will all be about 4'+ up the wall to get them above the bench to and be weather proff to keep dust and crap out of them. I plan on using high output floresent lighting, expensive compared to the cheap ones but they will last a long, long time and I've seen DHO's burn half submerged in water. I think I'm going to add a several 220 outlets for posible grinder use and future heat treat oven.

Haven't been able to work on knives so I've been dreaming of building this shop!

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Will,
Just finished my own new shop and the builder talked me into 1/2" osb for the interior walls instead of drywall and I am not sorry I did so. Please reconsider, It cost me about $200 more for the osb. My shop is 16' x 32' with a wall in the middle to seperate the forging and finishing areas.
Del
 
I envy Caffreys heated floor. A friend of mine here has a new cabinet shop and he has a steam heated floor. In the worst of cold weather you can wear tennis shoes to work and every corner is warm.
As for the electical I went with a 200 amp panel and conduit so I can add outlets as I grow. I have 6" stud walls with the waferboard and hardiback over that in the forging area.
I had an exaust hood made and next spring plan to install it and a fan to draw out heat and fumes from the forge.
I want to make a new front door too. The roll up garage door is costing me money because you cant insulate around it plus it takes up room on the ceiling where I want some lighting.
 
I'll look into OSB, and see what the diff is.

As for cost, not that much, but it's a build and pay as I go. I'm getting all the lumber free except for the green plate and trusses. Pluss I'm doing almost all the work myself. I've got a 100 amp breaker for a tempory power pole for my house, I'll look into maybe trading it in on a 200 amp breaker.

Thanks
 
200 amp breaker isn't much more than 100 and it never hurts to have more than you need, I doubt you'll need it but it'll be a good investment. While you've got the cement truck there I'd pour a big doorstep and a nice area along the building for level, clean outdoor storage. Put some outlets in the middle of the floor, I'd say no less than a double ganger (with two 20 amp circuits) and a 220. I would also build a utility room on the outside of your building where you can put things like a compressor or dust collection.

I don't know what the weather is like there but make sure there's good drainage all around the shop.

I have peg board inside my shop, I hate it, it collects dust and gets damaged really easily, but I'd take a rolling cabinet with a peg board on it.
 
On an addition we're doing now we just installed some receptacles that have built in child safety tabs. They look just like a normal outlet but there is a plastic guard on the inside that moves out of the way when you push a plug in. One won't move by itself, so a kid couldn't put something in and get shocked.
Anyway, it looks like they would be great for keeping dust out of them. I think they were about $10 to $12 for a box of 10. That's a little more than the normal ones, but worth it.

I'd put a 220v outlet by the door and put your grinder on a mobile base so you can grind outside on nice days.
Good luck with your shop.
 
I just looked, and I've got 64 - 110V and 7 - 220V receptacles, and that's NOT counting all the ones in the ceiling for the lights.... and my shop is only 24X26. So you'll probably want about 150 receptacles in a shop that size!

Ed... you really thought that shop out well and it sure sounds great! I can't believe I haven't been back to see it.-
 
Quad box 110 outlets 4 feet up every 4 feet, 220 outlets every 8 feet, divide your wall up so that no 2 quad boxes on the same wall are on the same 20 amp breaker so you can run say the shop vac to collect chips, the mill to make chips, and the air compressor to blow the chips out of the hole you are making without blowing a breaker. Put quad box outlets in the ceiling every 4 feet starting 4 feet in from your walls,run flourescent lights around the perimiter walls and at 8 foot intervals across the ceiling, you want a lot of even light. Use white painted 5/8 inch sheetrock. Pegboard and OSB are very flammable, I wouldn't do a metal shop interior with either one, sheetrock is fire retardant, the white paint helps even out the illumination, yes it gets dirty, it's a shop, it's supposed to.

-Page
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, just heard it rained all day and night at home, it may be spring befor I can pour concreat.
 
One more suggestion that I do not think has been mentioned. If you have any idea of your layout for things like your grinders or any mills or other larger type of pieces, especially a table saw you should look into doing some floor outlets. Cuts down on cords from the ceilings or laying on the floor.
 
Thanks, don't believe I will add outlets to the floor, but I do plan on adding them to the ceiling and false walls.

Thanks again.
 
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