Shop In Progress

[Eric]

I've finally gotten my shop totally enclosed, and I have started to put the second floor into the shop.

This was before I installed the sliding door on the front of the building. Currently that's the only door to my shop but plan on adding two man doors, one on either end of the building.


Picture of 2 glulams that I have set to hold up the floor system of the second floor. The glulams are about 24' long and 5.25"x23.75".


I purchased a hoist from HF to raise the glulams into position. The hoist is sitting on 2 16' 2x12s that help distribute the weight across several of the trusses. It worked pretty slick and didn't have any problems. Only wish the remote for the hoist was longer so I wouldn't have to be in the rafters when I was raising the glulams.



Photos of the floor joists that we got installed on Saturday and Sunday.



This is the final area that I have to get floored. Need to cut the post to length and then I'll be ready to raise the final glulam.

The shop is 40x48, the first floor is going to be all open except for the two 6x6 posts that I've added and will be used for parking/storage. I've kind of inherited several vehicles this year after my father died unexpectedly, so my plans for the shop have changed.

Originally I was going to have my wood shop on the bottom floor with just a 24x24 area devoted to parking. Now I'm going to have my wood shop and storage on the second floor. Which will be kind of nice because of being able to run DC and wiring under the floor and being able to have access to it.

[pelligrini]

That's pretty cool.

I couldn't even imagine having a big space like that.

[dbhost]

Please tell me you are making a living woodworking. If not that is one expensive hobby! What a HUGE space!

[crokett]

How high off the ground are the gluelams? Are you going to do a 2nd floor across the whole building?


That is a big space. It is bigger than my house! I thought mine was big.

[LarryG]

Gentlemen, we have been trumped, killed dead, put on the trailer. Wowsers. That is one BIG building! My proposed new shop measures 26'x36' which means that TWO of them would fit inside this one, with room to spare. Again I say: wowsers!

I think having the wood shop on the second floor will work out nicely. Getting raw materials up there and finished projects down is one obvious problem, but there are ways to deal with that. (The same applies to the heavy tools, but they only have to be moved once.) The increased comfort that will come from having a resilient wood floor underfoot will go a long way toward offsetting a little inconvenience.

[Eric]

I don't make my living with woodworking, when I first started the building I knew I wanted something big enough that I wouldn't be wanting to expand right away.

The glulams are about 8'6" off the dirt right now. If and when I ever get concrete brought in to to the bottom floor I should still be able to park vehicles under them. There's quite a difference of grade from one end of the shop to the other.

It won't have a full second floor. I'll have a 24x24 area that will be open from the dirt to the rafters, which is 20'. The second floor with be roughly, 14x48 and then 24x24 so about 1248 sq foot upstairs. The ceiling upstairs will be about 10', I had that in my last 2 car garage and liked the height so I didn't have to worry about bumping the lights when moving longer boards around.

[Pappy]

Impressive!

[Eric]

Got some more work done.

Over the past week I built and setup some walls. These are some older pictures that were taken with a cell phone.

This was the first wall I put up. It's roughly 24' long and 10' tall. I started raising it with the hoist mostly just to get it up off the floor so I could start bracing and moving it over. The top plate is tight against the trusses, there was some finagling that had to be done to get it under the trusses and plumb. I left the bottom row of OSB off to save on some weight and give me room to walk it's on now though.



This wall is where I'll have the door to the wood shop. Still need to build and hang the doors which will be 2 4x8 doors. One of the 4x8 doors will be the "man" door and the other will be for when I use the hoist to raise and lower heavier things into the wood shop. Stairs are built and up (pictures coming soon) so I no longer have to run up and down the ladder.


Here I am while the wife takes a picture. She's standing in the southwest corner looking to the north. I have my 10" SCMS sitting on the BT3 here and cutting some 2x6s for something.


Here she's in the same corner but looking to the east. I've put up another wall across this area 16' from the eastern wall that will be my finishing room. That will be the first area that I get insulated and totally closed in, about 16x16. On the outside of that room I'll have a work bench for a sharpening station and such.


Another photo of the wall with the door. I'll have my jointer and planer setup against this wall.



Wednesday I received my new tablesaw which I've got setup and wired now. Thursday started building the stairs and got them setup and finished on Saturday. Sunday I spent getting supplies to wire the upstairs and started working on that. Put in a dedicated outlet for the hoist in the attic area and wired the wall with the door over to the finishing room with 12 outlets on 2 circuits. Alternating the circuit with ever other outlet.

Going to finish wiring the finishing room and the south wall in the next day or two and start putting in switched outlets into the ceiling so I can start hanging my shop lights.

[crokett]

Very very nice progress. I wish I had all the space you do. I don't know what I'd do with it, but I wish I had it.

[Uncle Cracker]

Coming along nicely...

[GregL]

Verry large shop. You can never have too much shop space because of all the tools you will accumulate

[toolguy1000]

eric..when the floor was poured, how did you get the post(s) that were supporting the second floor(s) up so they wouldn't be embedded in the concrete of the slab?

[cgallery]

eric..when the floor was poured, how did you get the post(s) that were supporting the second floor(s) up so they wouldn't be embedded in the concrete of the slab?

I'm going to guess that this is a "pole barn," with no poured floor but rather a dirt floor. I think (guessing) that the posts are sitting on poured footings.

[Shep]

You could always use that hoist to make a dummy elevator to get big things up and down, depending on the weight limits

[pelligrini]

eric..when the floor was poured, how did you get the post(s) that were supporting the second floor(s) up so they wouldn't be embedded in the concrete of the slab?

He didn't do a slab. It's been pretty intresting seeing it develop. I'm very envious of the amount of space.

Here's an older thread on it:

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=39449