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building a new heavy equipment shop?

earthscratcher

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2008
Messages
336
Location
iowa
Occupation
excavating contractor
looking for things that you installed in your shop that you could not live without
 

Junkyard

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2016
Messages
3,621
Location
Claremore, OK
Occupation
Field Mechanic
Aprons sure help keep crap out of the shop and provide a solid place to work if you can’t get a machine inside. Tons of light. Never seems to be enough. Even some part way down the wall. Plenty of outlets along the walls. Air line plumbed in steel pipe with proper drip legs etc. A separate room for the compressor to keep the noise out helps too.

Clean room or an area away from the high traffic portion to do component work. I’ve got a small room but should have done a bigger door to get in there. I’ve slowly been improving mine over the last 10 years and it’s still not close to my vision. If I only had piles of cash!!
 

Wes J

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2016
Messages
649
Location
Peoria, IL
When I build my shop, it's going to have windows. As many as I can afford. I've worked in a lot of shops and they were all dark and dreary. I get seasonal depression every year. I need natural light.

One other thing is outdoor outlets for power (110, 220, etc), air, and water. I can't tell you how many times I have to run a cord or hose out the door to something.

On that note, out door lighting is a must have.
 

terex herder

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2017
Messages
1,778
Location
Kansas
I hate stairs, so rather than a split level/mezzanine I put a lean-to on the side with a 10' sidewall. Not an afterthought, incorporated into the original construction.

I have 22' Eve height. 24' would have been better for the crane. It stunned me how fast height under hook disappeared.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
When I build my shop, it's going to have windows. As many as I can afford. I've worked in a lot of shops and they were all dark and dreary. I get seasonal depression every year. I need natural light.

One other thing is outdoor outlets for power (110, 220, etc), air, and water. I can't tell you how many times I have to run a cord or hose out the door to something.

On that note, out door lighting is a must have.

More dreary than the filthy cobweb windows with iron bars that shops tend to wind up with?

We are spoiled here in California, even in bad weather we do most work with the bay doors open.
 

Wes J

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2016
Messages
649
Location
Peoria, IL
Well around here there's at least 5 months out of the year that the doors are closed.

Most industrial buildings in the US are very poorly insulated and poorly lit (including natural light). It's about slamming the thing together as quickly and cheaply as possible. But it doesn't have to be that way.
 

check

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
800
Location
in the mail
I painted all the walls and ceiling white for light refraction. I worked in shops with white sheet metal but all the framework, cees and zees were dark red....they robbed the light.
I plumbed the air lines with 1" PVC, seems good enough. In the North, you want heat and insulation too. My doors are insulated too.
 

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,257
Location
Canada
If you put in a concrete floor, make a thicker section where you can have a tie down ring in the floor. Make it below the service and have a steel cover so you can keep the floor level when not using it. It can come in real handy for holding things or straightening things etc.
 

Junkyard

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2016
Messages
3,621
Location
Claremore, OK
Occupation
Field Mechanic
A little oil in a PVC air line makes it brittle. Add some sore of impact and it’s like a grenade when it pops. One cheaper easier method I’ve seen used is plastic airline used on trucks. I’ve run it a few places in my shop to run my oil pump and a few other stationary items.
 

crane operator

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
8,273
Location
sw missouri
Don't use PVC. I have personally been in a shop when a 3/4 or 1" line let go up in the rafters for no reason. Nobody hurt but we thought something had gone horribly wrong with the oxy/acteylene we were using. I would not have want to been near the shards it let go, though.

My shop when I bought it had pvc, it was the first thing I replaced to black pipe. Money well spent.

I'm for the tie downs in the floor, if you can make a decent cover for them. I used to work in a shop that had them, one tie arm was broken, the other ones the lids were constantly getting tilted off, and you would drop a forklift wheel in them, or the caster on a toolbox or rolling cart, and they were a pain much more than we ever used them.

That same shop had a center section that had a sloped floor to a drain, that was covered with a pipe welded together grate. It was kind of nice if you pulled in something covered with snow, it could melt off and run all in the drain. But any time you would drop any tool, or a special bolt or fitting, etc. You know exactly where it rolled- right in between the grates. And the sloped floor was a pain to weld up anything big, it was tough to build it because the floor wasn't flat- So I wouldn't recommend a sloped to center drain floor.

I have debated a overhead or jib, but I really don't have room. Plus I have a roll around gantry/a frame and forklifts so that kind of eliminates the need, and the post and arm type seem to never be in the right place, or they won't quite reach where I want to work.

I have a big apron out in front of my shop, and its really nice.

Big doors, tall and wide.

Plenty of benches, even though I have probably 50' of bench space in my shop, I still work in a 4'x 2' spot, I still like having a lot of bench space.

I like having a separate room with shelves for manual's, filters,small spare parts, etc, that is separate from the main shop.

My shop doesn't have eave troughs, which is nice, because its got trees down one side, so I don't have to clean them out. But I did spring for a 8' piece of gutter right above the walk door, so when I have to stand in the rain fumbling with my keys, now I don't get wet.

I like the pictures I've seen of the big bifold doors for ag machine sheds, and I think it would be nice to have a apron, that the open door created a shade for.
 

Ct Farmer

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
322
Location
Connecticut
There are so many things that once I did them I say I can't live without but here are some that really help or hurt.
Light - lots of it. You can,t work if you can't see. We got a lot of HID lights free from a car dealership, put 18 of them in a 1800 sqft area. It's adequate. Also a lot 4' tubes a pass lights and over benches.

Compressed air - ringed the shop with drops every 10'. Lots of reels and plug in points. Filters at every point.

Insulation and heat - we burn waste oil. Why give thousands of $ worth of free heat away? I like it warm for n there.
Got some surplus vidmar type cabinets for tools etc. well worth it to be able to find what you need.
Wish I had bigger doors. Only went 12' high and that was a mistake.

Need a bridge crame. Trolley on the beams is nice but limited. Rarely use the jib. Maybe it is in the wrong place.

Should have put in a toilet but didn't want to add a septic system to the cost. Dumb move.

Never enough bench space or welding/fab tables.

And get good door mats to keep the crap out. Make people use them. Amazes me how many people walk in and say how nice the shop is and the stamp their muddy feet inthe middle of the floor!
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,424
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Cannot EVER get enough light, even if have to add breakers and separate switches install as many as think you need then add another 20% more. Being blind is not any help but more light does add to assistance. HUGE doors where you can get what you need in and out without frustrating multiple adjustment trips. Worked in shops with door zone floor drains, central floor drain, drains at corners none seemed to be much effect other than grabbing loose tools and losing small parts to. Aprons at doors(I have NOT and regret immensely) pour the floors extra thick with tie downs and good sub grade support at least 1" clean rock leveled, compacted and sheet plastic covered. If had to do over would install air piping thru the floor concrete, to stanchions I can add air couplings as well electrical outlets to, possibly a low divider wall to one bay for bench support and electrical/air supply to run along. Will need one section of floor good and level as well smooth for welding and aligning for welding. Toilet, wash sink, shower if have room for those days get drenched in something, a place for extra clothes and maybe to sit to take a break away from the work. Sammitches even beer taste so much better if not suffocating in diesel or oil fumes.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
I don't know if you can really install air lines through the floor, seems they would condense full of water terribly bad.

I always pitch air lines to drains, in the direction of flow, if possible.
 
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