New Shop Construction

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Wowndeye

Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
88
Hey guys,

Sorry if this post is in the wrong spot. I was going to post it in the Around the Grinder section but couldn't post there so feel free to move it if needed.

Life's been busy so I haven't been out in the garage working on any new projects let alone been able to spend any time on here learning/participating. But things are slowing down for a bit here and I plan to continue the journey of learning how to make knives soon.

So on to my questions. If everything falls into place here, my wife and I will be getting some acreage and be building a new home. In addition I'm going to be building a detached shop. I'm curious if anyone had any input in regards to what kind of shops they've built, what kind of construction you used (stick frame, pole barn, cargo container, etc...), and how much it cost you and if you were happy with your choices or would you do anything different.

Also, for a one man show who wants do stock removal and eventually forge work, can anyone offer any advice for layout of equipment/tools. I want to make sure I get all the electrical all in place. I'm using some real beginner tools now but plan to add a 2x72 soon as well as a heat treat oven as well so want to make space for that as well. I want to set up a dedicated space for everything. Right now my setup is a little portable so I'm always moving stuff around.

Once I get my garage cleaned up a little here I'm going to go out and play with my space/tools and to try and make an efficient layout with everything but would appreciate any input for sure in regards to things to plan ahead for and whatnot...

Thanks for reading,

Josh
 
I'm i the Pacific NW. Definitely going to have a slab. Heated floors would be nice during the winter but I haven't looked into the cost for something like that.

Any reason why heated floor vs wall heater or other source?
 
I live in Spokane and built my garage (where my shop is). I put radiant tubes in the slab and had some finishers do the concrete work. Then I hooked up an electric on-demand hot water heater to it with a thermostat. I set the garage at 50 degrees F and let her rip. Always comfortable in the winter and no heating-related issues in ~15 years. Plus, with the slab heated, even if I open the garage door for a bit in cold wx, the temperature re-stabilizes very quickly...
 
Very cool ggoose! I'm over in Vancouver, WA. You guys get a lot colder and more snow in the winter I think than we do so that's awesome. Do you recall what the tubing and hot water heater ran? And how many square feet does your system cover?

As I've been thinking about this through the morning it's sounding like a better and better idea. I'm intending to set aside a space in the shop for knives as well as woodworking projects and maybe some future iron work. The other part of the space will be a garage space for working on cars. I'd eventually like to phase out a day or two from my current job so I can spend more time out there on projects, supplementing my income so making the space comfortable for the cooler months makes a lot of sense.
 
My garage is 24'x28' and I ran a single loop (zone). I used a DIY radiant heat website (this one). The water heater was around $6-700, and the rest of it was probably about the same, plus rigid foam under the slab. This was several years ago, but the site I mentioned will educate you how to install and give you prices for what you'll need. I had a great experience installing the system and have had no problems with it at all...
 
My Next project is to remodel with a fully functional bathroom plumbed into my septic system and just a stand alone urinal in the corner or just under the grinder that's still up in the air....
But the Bathroom with shower stall is a GO!!!! Getting too Old to run to the house when nature calls...:eek:
 
a got a dark infra red heater.
Uses a fraction of the electricity compared to normal electric heaters
 
100 amp subpanel at least... one big door at least, which since you'll be working on cars too must be a given. I like to have at least two rooms, one for clean machines and work and one for dirty machines and work. I've had just a grinding room in the past, but now the grinders and the whole smithing/welding shop are in one room, and the metal lathe and vertical mill are in the clean room with all of the finishing benches etc. I like how that's working.

30-50 amp 240V circuits down each wall with several outlets are nice to have. I have to switch plugs a lot for my single phase 220V equipment right now and that's annoying.

Tons of light helps so much, and an air filtration system is really nice to have- even just a box fan with a furnace filter on one side is a lot better than nothing.

The last shop I had was very workbench heavy, more than I needed for sure. They just gathered clutter and dust. I'm liking a more workstation-oriented flow in the hot shop right now, with shelving down the side and machines out in the middle of the floor with walking room past both sides of each one. The clean room is more bench oriented, with machines in the corners, and that seems to work well in there.

I'm in wood heat mode, although I just wheeled the stove outside for the warm season- now where the stove was, the coal forge hood is plugged into the stovepipe. My last shop was insulated pretty well, and wood heat worked better then- I've not been in the new shop long enough to insulate, so it gets pretty cold in there at night during the winter. My grinding bucket will freeze, with no additives.

I've found pole buildings to work well for shop space. My last two have been the same size roughly, 24x36, and IMO that's quite a reasonable amount of space as long as it's all dedicated to knife/metalwork. Mine's getting very crowded but that's because I'm a machine junkie...

Keep us posted on your progress! Good luck.
 
I built my shop in 2008 to build hotrods and choppers. It is a 40'x40' metal building with 14' ceiling height and two 10'x12' roll up bay doors. I just make knives now and the space is great but not ideal for a knife shop. If I were re-building it today, I would lower the ceiling to 10' and install one 8'x10' panel door. When I had it built, I wanted size over anything else and had no money left for insulation, plumbing, or a/c. Today, I would not do it that way. If you want to be able to focus for long periods of time and produce quality work, you've got to be comfortable. I am starting a addition project this month that will add another 20'x40' of insulated space and will include roughed in plumbing for a bathroom. Once the addition is done, I have to move almost everything out of my current shop space into the addition so I can get the rest spray-foam insulated and a/c installed. It will likely take me weeks to move everything. My point, comfort over square footage any day.

Also, if your doing all new construction, see if you can get 3-phase power pulled right from the beginning. When I built my shop, I had a separate meter run to it but, the transformer that supplied our house only had single phase. The electric company said there was 3-phase on the pole across the street but it would be $15k to run it now because of the underground lines. If it had been installed when the house was built, it would have only been a couple grand more which is less than what I have in my RPC.

Bob
 
Put electric plugs every 8 ft. I ran power drop out of the ceiling in many places. BUY good rubber floor mats in the beginning. Thank me later
 
i had plans on heated floors but ended up skipping it to save some $ (ended up with a shop dawg 45k BTU LP heater) keeps 45 at night and 60 during the day. the building is 16x24 and 2 floors one man door and one roll up. to keep things clean the grinding "room"/ dirty shop is cut off from the rest of the bottom floor by butchers curtain and its doing a good job at keeping the dust contained the upstairs will have all my clean room and offce stuff along with wifes leather working and daughters pottery wheel
the walls are 2x6 and have R19 and then drywall. since this is the first year runningn it im not sure what my LP and elect. costs will avg out to
 
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