Avadon

Gorgeous shop Kendall. Great build! Are you planning on insulating it? If not I think you might find out you have the same problem I do with my uninsulated building: hot as heck in the summer, cold as you can believe in the winter. Hard to work in such extreme temperatures. Actually the older I get the more I want my shop right around 65 year round. Right now it's 20dgs in the winter and 105dgs in the summer. I have to get my insulating going.

Not to change the subject to much but how do people exhaust their propane forges in tighter spaces. Do they use hoods over them or do some sort of point vacuum?

Selling them for years I tend to put both Hardy and Hardie in my descriptions. Seems like I see Hardy more than I see Hardie being used.

Sorry the ridiculously late reply. Thank you for your kind and generous compliments. I think one truth about the Brazeal Anvil style is that you learn so much about what an anvil and anvil stand really is that you can truly appreciate the fundamentals of blacksmithing. A lot of people throw an anvil on a stump and call it a day. But when you build an anvil from a block or weld pieces together you really do get a sense of the mass, improve your welding/fabrication skills and have something totally customized to your process. You can weld anything onto the anvil or stand that you think will help and you won't be frightened about damaging some really expensive anvil that was very difficult or expensive to acquire. If I put a ding in my Gladiator I want to hang a noose from my rafters. If I put a ding in my Brazeal anvil I just make a look of shock and then laugh a little bit because I know I can TIG weld that hole in for about 50cents of S-7 rod from MSC Industrial. That makes the anvil a great learning tool where you will not be scared to go crazy, make mistakes, miss with the sledge and dent the face or do any other manner of abuse that are common during your learning. One thing you might want to try is go to your local scrap yard. Most cities have one and if your on the outskirts it may be even worth an hours drive to get to one. They sometimes have giant chunks of steel that they are trying to get rid of at scrap prices. You'll pay far less at a scrap yard than you will at a steel yard. You may even be able to pick up materials for the anvil stand there as well. Oh and I should mention, though the hardened anvil face is nice, it certainly isn't necessary. The Brazeal Bro's anvils weren't face hardened so if you don't have access/time/money to do the face hardening don't sweat it. Plus you can always do it later if you want to. If you guys have any questions let me know. If I don't get back here soon enough just PM me with a nudge.

Looking good! That awning would only work/be permitted in warm climate. Where there is snow, building inspectors don't like to see the back of the awning merely connected to the side of the building. They like to see 4x4's not only in support of the front, but also in the back. I asked an inspector why once and he said it's so a snow load doesn't collapse the structure killing/crushing someone as they enter/exit the building. Just make sure the back of the awning has some some hurricane clips if it's the lumber itself isn't tied into the building. ;)

I hear yah. I've seen people just lay the rebar grid on the ground, right ontop of the insulation, before pouring the slab. What good does this do? Virtually none. I will insist on chairs and perhaps even something stronger if I think the guys are going to crush them during the poor. I saw those digital thermometers and they aren't terribly expensive. I'll probably pound some rebar behind the slab where the runs are. Then when the monolithic is poured. Transfer those rebar spots to chiseled lines/notches on the inside footer wall. I got to imagine that would probably land me with 1/2" of each line as far as accuracy.

I think you misunderstood what I was getting at. I don't want to have to plan out hard points or anchoring stations/positions. But I was curious though about anchors that you don't have to drill.. i.e you just glue to the floor. Maybe you were confused about that intention? The only thing I want to be concerned with during the slab is making sure I know exactly where the pex is. I think i'm going to make notches on the footer wall so that I can string line between and know exactly where the pex is. No pictures, no measuring, should be easy to know where that pex is at all times. Then I'll also make notches on the ends for where the loops will be and that whole area will be a no drill area. I agree that putting anchors in the concrete a head of time is huge amount of planning. I'm just not feeling that. Chances are it might not even light up exact. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. Those nelson studs look great, but I'm hoping to find an anchor that I don't even have to drill for.

Thanks for all the good advice everyone. I'll definitely be researching those simpson strong ties. :)

Yes this thread has more than convinced me to do the pex in the slab. As this is my last shop (I intend to die here on this property) it makes no sense not to do it. I don't want to be 65yrs old and kicking myself every winter for not having had it done and then desperately needing it because my circulation is totally shutting down. Ounce of prevention=pound of cure. In the last year or two I took a lot of my small stuff.. bench grinders, buffers, etc. and build a small box 2'x2' under the legs of the stand. Lined it with 6mil vapor barrier and poured it level with concrete. It's just light enough you can still move it easily with a hand truck but to heavy to move when it's operating. It's worked quite well so far. Of course things like vices, and tables probably need something more like the adhesive as there are prying/torsional forces on them.

Does anyone have links to the anchors that you don't have to drill for? I can't seem to find them.

Amazing! Well worst it could ever get here is down to -5 maybe -10 in a very extreme freak chill. We are a hardiness zone 5. And do you happen to know is that ethylene glycol or propolyene gylcol that they use?

is it impossible for that stuff to freeze?

Hey does anyone know how does one prevent underfloor pex heating from freezing and bursting? Do they put antifreeze in the lines? For example, what are the fail safes should your building heat fail and the floor heating be at a point where it is not circulating?

Thanks Sask Mark. I could definitely see where a heated ramp is not even a luxury but something mandatory. If you had even a small bit of ice you might not be able to get vehicles out and salting ramps is messy and throws the salt everywhere. Nice Drawing, very detailed. I doubt I'll bring many vehicles into this shop as I don't really work on cars. At most I may weld on a vehicle/trailer/etc for a customer but that's an extremely rare occurrence one that hasn't even happened so far. I'm going to build a garage for my vehicles on the other side of my property. A very small garage basically just big enough to fit two cars with little clearance. I'm a big "park the car outside kind of guy and live in the shop." I grew up working and basically spending tons of time in workshops so they are basically like living rooms to me with toys. :) Thank you for all the information.

Yah I'll see if my contractor can do this or if he subs it out. I wouldn't think it would be to expensive. Pex is pretty cheap. I saw 300' rolls all over ebay and they weren't that bad off. Even the largest regular was like $260.00. I'm guessing off the top of my head the whole thing could be done, at least material wise for under 1 grand even with labor. But I'll find out. Thanks for the help.

I heard about that stuff.. those adhesives really work that well? What are they called again and where do you find them?

Can anyone give me a rough cost basis for this? Or at the very least some comparables.

Thanks for the good info Chinobi. I was really hoping to not have to get into planning out the interior with exact detail of where things go. Not because I'm lazy, but because I have so many other projects, and even parts of this build planned to the exact nuance that I was hoping to not have to get that specific but I guess if I want the pex in the floors I just may have to do that. Has anyone ever installed shielding over the pex? I.E angle iron on it's 45dg. Or would this inhibit the heating too much?

Lets say worse case scenario you drill and hit the pex. How is this fixed. Will you even know you've hit it? Can you tell if there is a leak in the system after you pour? How much of a nightmare is it to fix it?

Can you provide some images of the way your describing the insulation. I get the insulation under the slab and a strip around the inside foundation wall. Are you saying to wrap insulation also around the outside of the footer wall? Can you help make more clear "I have seen designs where there is a skirt of insulation extending 4' outside of the grade beam as well." this part for me. Thanks, Av

Thanks for all the great information here. I'll definitely be printing this out and keeping it as I weigh the decision to pex or not. I'm North of Redmond, in a small warm pocket of Central oregon. Now that doesn't mean we can't dip down commonly into single digit temps at night in the winter, and even infrequently go below 0dgs. @Gmoore Sandy is west of the cascades, basically down in the Valley. You'll like it there. And no it doesn't get anywhere near as cold over there as it does where I am. I'm not even sure if you can get snow in the winter there, I think it's to low. It probably depends on your elevation. It's a totally different climate. We are in high desert so hot days/cold nights. Heat rarely stays in the earth. This area is like a giant block of aluminum, it can get hot and it can get cold and it is rarely in between that. lol If you keep the rebar rather straight and attach the pex to the rebar it shouldn't be to difficult to figure out where to and where not to drill. The problem though, from what I've seen is the edges of the slab, where people commonly bolt down grinders, buffers, sanders, etc. That's where the pexi makes half circles as it reverses direction for the next straight away. It's that area I'm concerned about. From everything I've read it does seem like it's more geared to living spaces or garages where vehicles are being maintained. Our local fire station apparently has a heated slab. This area 30x60' probably won't even have a window and will have a limited amount of doors as I'm preparing for a high STC value (sound suppression) I definitely will as a minimum insulate the slab heavily.

Looks like I sort of answered my own question on the insulated slab http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/AE_slab-on-grade_foundation_insulation.html However i'm still curious if anyone has heard of a way of a heated slab (with circulating water through pex) that is done in such a way that you can still drill and mount to the slab?

Does anyone here have any good ideas that I can pass onto my builder in regards to insulating/warming as we prepare to pour the monolithic slab for my new shop. I know concrete floors can be a major heat sink in a large shop and wick out the heat. My father was encouraging me to a contoured bed of pex set on chairs to run heated water through the concrete in order to warm the slab. I thought it was a great idea and would save a ton of money on heating the shop in the winter. That is until I realized that most of my machinery in my shop needs to be bolted with anchors into the concrete floor. Way to much risk hitting those water lines and if they are severed a huge ordeal to repair them. What other ideas can I do? I saw on a TV show they once put down rigid poly foam and then poured the slab over it. Do people do such a thing for outbuildings? And if so does this work to keep the shop from soaking up the cold from the ground?

Nice boards on the inside. That must be a spendy setup. The brick laid floor is also extremely nice. I'm too economical, I always just go concrete. Easier to repair. That shop is artwork.

For the weight of that anvil it's a good idea, but if you get much heavier you might not be able to correct it if it starts to go over on you. X_X You definitely wouldn't want the anvil and the stand falling over on you. I've moved anvils with a handtruck and tore a tendon in my thumb. The way you have those bars is the best way to do it. Handtruck bars are perpendicular which put stress on the wrists. Parallel to the load handling bars (like yours is built) allows you to use the pull of your arms. Much safer that way.