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New shop question


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I am building a new shop on my property, 25'x36' I have the foundation poured and am about to pour the floor. I was thinking of embedding some items in the floor and was wondering if anyone else has done this and is it worth the effort ? The items I was going to embed into the floor are a socket for a 5x5 post and 6 plates with threaded holes and a four way slot to insert a chain. The latter embeds would be for pulling objects.

brad

Pull embed.PDF

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Looks over engineered to me........I simply welded 4 chunks of 6'' x 5/8 re bar to a 6x6'' x 1/2'' on the corners and they were bomb proof.....I'd weld stuff to em and when I was done I'd cut the ''project'' loose and grind em flush again. One of the things I did with em was to tie big square knots,out of 1'' round, I'd weld a ring on one end, weld the other to the imbed and pull up with a 2 ton hoist while I was heating at the same time......never pulled one out.

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I had access to some old "I" Beams that were 5" tall and around 4' long. I welded them end to end and made a box more or less to embed in my floor. ( a box that is around 26' square) I welded just about anything I could find as far as scrap goes to keep it from being pulled out of the floor. Then I measured 2' from the outside edge and set them on top of the gravel before I poured the floor. With the smooth edge facing up that is. Once I got them set to where they would be flush with the top of the floor,I poured the concrete up to the top of them. Once it was set, you can weld anything you want to them. If I need to pull something I'll weld me a hook or a eye down to the beams and hook my come-a-long to it. Has worked very well for me over the past 11 years. I don't use them that often but, it's worth its weight in gold when I do have to have it.

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before you pour think about electric power, I have 1 inch PVC lines, turning into EMT above ground, to distribute from the panel rather than have
conduit all over the ceiling and walls. (think corners and conduit) also may want to think about a floor drain

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I worked in a shop that had 1/2"x6'x12' HRFB spaced every 4' for about 25' with Nelson studs welded to the backside of them. They were set flush with the top of the floor and level from on to the next. They were very handy for fabing on. You good weld right to the floor for stability or anything you needed to do. Jacking, bracing or what ever.

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I have 2" sq. ID eceiver tube gazintas on a 2' grid in my floor, welded to the rebar and connected under the slab with 3" ABS tubing in it's own grid. The gazintas allow me to anchor all kinds of useful things as solidly as you please including down draft exhaust so I can suck all the smoke out without replacing all the warm air in the shop to clean the air. I've put 2" solid in and used it to straighten wide flange with a porta power. All the sockets are grounded so I have one less cable to trip on in the shop. Lastly, because it's under the slab I can use the exhaust system to remove the exhaust gasses from my gas forge and draw it under the floor for toasty toes.

The last thing is hydronic Pex tubing on a 1' grid for infloor heat. Toasty toes are high on my list of good winter working conditions.

I was going to lay a steel tubing grid under the floor for a compressed air res but didn't want to spend the money on new pipe and didn't find any salvage so I didn't lay it. The idea for the sub-floor compressed air res was infloor heat and a large res. Did I mention how much I like warm toes?

I have a couple detail things too, like the thick double rebared section for the power hammer and the area that's clear of Pex tubing so I can anchor the jib boom hoist.

I'm thinking that's as complicated as I was able to get on the floor.

Frosty the Lucky.

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  • 4 weeks later...

As you are in BC Canada, why not put some tubing under the concrete so you can pump hot water through it and heat the floor? I am sure that you can find recoverable waste heat in the shop somewhere and working on a warm floor will make a large difference.

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And if you were ( which i doubt you are as it is a British thing ) using a side blast water cooled tue iron, you could use the method of pumping cool water through it so it doesn't all evaporate out of the tank ( once it has passed through it will be hot ) at the rear and once the water has passed through, you could have that as the hot water under ground.
just expanding on glenn's thoughts

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Two things I`d change about my shop would be to inbed tubing in the floor (do you see a pattern developing here?) and to add a few I beams I would pick up at the scrap yard flush with the floor as anchor points. If you have the anchor points spaced properly for the type of work you want to be capable of then it`s a simple task to just temp weld any jig configuration you need and build off the floor. Once the job is done you can cut the jig loose and move on to the next task. Think of you floor as a heat source and work surface and make that floor as versatile and adaptable as possible. For me the most useful thing was stout I beams tied into the rebar net and flush with the floor. Advice from one fabricator to another (I checked you profile).

I also have 3 drains in the floor and wish I had pitched the floor toward the corners and added a fourth drain. When you bring those snow and ice covered jobs in the door the run off is going to want to go wherever you have stacked all the stuff you wanted out of the way. Trust me on this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Take it from someone that did'nt put anything in his shop floor :<( !! years ago
reason for that was concret man rushed me and the hole job a day after X Mass
I regreat not having weld plats & pull rings in floor ever since !!! DO IT !
I Beam good for running cats in shop to work on -- know one said anything about pull rings in floor I would
also like Idea of exhust pipe in floor for eqt exhust ,we work on cars to - and a few foor plug in for stuff like
hosfeld benders , leg vices and other stuff --Also would put a good size conduit from one side of shop to other !
so come the day you have to run elec or whatever to other side of shop you wont have to go up the wall and
through the celling

GOOD LUCK LOL Steves Welding PS-- Make it BIGGER LOL :<)

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Thanks all for the ideas. I have decided to use a hybrid of my original design and gazintas. There are four in a grid pattern. I welded them to the rebar so they are mutually grounded.

Frosty the down draft idea is stellar! and I would have loved to implement it but I am dealing with a time constraint ... next time :)

Brad

post-2703-0-13043800-1315755783_thumb.jp

post-2703-0-78865200-1315755811_thumb.jp

Pull embed.PDF

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Back in the Age of Dinosaurs, ... the guy who taught me to weld, built an addition onto his shop.

He imbedded 16" lengths of 4x4 box tube, with flush, 1/2" plate covers in his floor.

There was a 2' length of 3/8" chain anchored in the bottom of each tube.

You could stick a post into these "sockets", as needed, ... or pull the end of the chain up out of it's "well", and hook into it, from any direction.

Simple, ... cheap, ... and effective.

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