To start off with I work for a company that has bout total of 10 guys and we have tractors and pull pans and 2 excavators 3 graders and rm500 and 4 water trucks and 3 on road trucks. And during the wet and cold times when we cant move dirt the operators come to the shop. right now we have a round top that we use for a shop it is 45x96 and we are looking at building a new shop I think the size is 80x120x20. My question is what have you done in your shop that you would do again or not do again and if you were building a shop what would you put in it? How do you distribute oil to all the bays? How do you take care of waste oil without making to big of a mess? (yes I know that is difficult and a problem) Do you put air hose reels all over the shop? How many workbenches do you have? We are planning on have a separate room for parts storage so that it is enclosed and doesn't get all dirty. and I was hoping for an overhead crane but the boss says we can make provisions but might not get done right now. Is a pit for working on trucks and all a must? Some say yes and have heard one person say they filled theirs back in. Where is the metal rack and blade rack so it doesn't take up precious bay space? Oh so many more I could put down. I guess the long and the short is I'm trying to figure out how to organize shop the most efficient way with the size and floor layout that I will have. If you have pics of how your shop is layed out that would be very interesting! Thanks Jerry
1 thing I have saw that I like & would do is make 1 bay for welding/fab work.. you don't have to worry bout blowing sparks on anything or anyone. think about in floor/radiant heat, its nice to lay on a nice warm floor hose reels in each bay is nice.
We was thinking the enclosed parts storage would be at one end of the shop and the weld bay would be at the other end! If putting hose reels at each bay do you run air supply up and over or run a supply line all the way around and then have ports so can be plugged into wher ther isn't a hose reel if need be? Thanks Jerry
I am a much smaller scale, but here is what I have learned. Put your air compressors, generators, and any other big noisy appliances outside in an adjoining shed. Smartest thing I did in my shop! Air plumbed throughout the entire shop is great. I haven't done hanging hose reals, just plug into the fittings as needed. I worked in one shop that had a pit, if it were up to me, given a choice, I would swap the pit for a hoist or lift. Problem is you cannot move the pit, its always there, safety hazard, and it really hurts when you fall in. Hoist/Crane - Highly reccomended. May not need one in every bay, but have at least one rigged with one. Can make jobs an awful lot easier. Run LOTS of power, I keep adding more circuits and more outlets in my shop. You may not need 240 volt, 208/3 phase today, but at least run the conduit so you can add it later. I can't comment on waste oil heat, the local landfill building has there furnace in an attached shed, and the heat plumbed into there building. I like the idea, but I use propane for heat in my shop, so I can't help you there. Make sure you have enough room to park a rig, taken apart, waiting for parts, meanwhile you can start on another rig while waiting for parts (I made this mistake) A water hose real with a drain in the floor would be really nice when working on the dirty machines (I forgot this also) Make sure you have a restroom Make sure you have a separate, insulated office area. Doesn't have to be big, just enough to make phone calls for parts, make notes, etc... Oh, and probably most important (to me at least) keep an open floor plan. If possible, make it so everything can be moved (Benches, cabinets, tool boxes, etc...) That way the shop is more versatile, when X shows up that is taller/longer/wider then what you are used to, you can move some stuff around to make it fit.
The last dealership I worked for was an 8 bay shop. One bay was a wash bay. Between each bay we had a bench with vise, air hose reel, power cord reel, and power washer wand. Power washer and air comp had its own room so we didn't go deaf, and it had a hole in the floor to drain waste oil in which went to an outside storage tank. It had a 10k lb overhead crane, infloor heat and tons of lighting. Hands down the nicest shop I've ever worked in. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We are planning to go with floor heat and we have a waste oil furnace if we need to all sudden heat it up or something! We have a 30x40 with office break room and bathroom in it already so that is staying and the shop will be adjoined to that. Mike how did the hole in the floor for waste oil work? Did it have a lid to cover I suppose and did you hafta park the engine drain plug over that or did you just pour buckets into it? I don't always get done what I would like but we have a sage oil vac trailer and so we have some of our equip made so we can quick tach a hose on and suck the oil out of it and I would like to either make a cart with that on it to roll around the shop or make a hose reel with a diaphragm pump to have vacuum. Thanks for the replies keep them coming! Jerry
We had a drain wagon on wheels that held prob 20 gallons with a ball valve on it. We would wheel it over to the hole in the floor which was in the compressor room and open the valve. The oil drained through a cloth filter of some kind for catching chunks of whatever and it drained into a tank. Not sure if it went to a waste oil burner or if it got hauled off Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have a pit and an in floor hoist in my shop. I seldom use the pit, but the hoist is undoubtedly the handiest tool in the shop. Also, I worked in a shop one time that had been a welding fab shop previously. It had an overhead bridge crane that when we first saw it thought it would never get used. Extremely handy! I won't say we used it daily, but we certainly used it 3 or 4 times a week.
We have a pit in our shop I can put anything from a half ton pick up to our 336 excavator over it it has a pan that holds about 40 gallons on tracks that run the full length when it's filled you just put it at one end there's a pump in the pit that pumps the oil out of the tank underground to outside tank so you never have to touch the oil. We use the pit almost daily.
My suggestion would be to think about where the lights are installed when fitting out the shop. Every shop I work in has the lights installed down the middle of the bay so when you park a machine in the bay it casts a shadow that makes it hard to see when working on the side of the machine. This gets worse with taller machines or trucks. If I was building a shop I think I would run the lights down between the bays even put some lights halfway down the walls. Air Compressors outside is a must nothing worse then having to wait for the compressor to cut out to finish a conversation. Bench space would be a the other biggest issue make sure they get plenty of benches. Keeping them clean of junk is another problem.
Yair . . . around here it seems pits are things of the past . . . these are very common even in small shops. Folks have light duty ones at home just to lift the car. http://www.endurequip.com.au/Endurequip_Portalift_for_Trucks.htm It has already been mentioned up thread but I believe all benches, storage racks, cupboards and so on should be modular and furnished with adjustable feet . . . just an inch nut and bolt on the bottom of the legs works fine. Cheers.
Check into the new style fluorescent lights (the small bulbs) they are awesome. And don't mount them in the center of the bay.
I put 300watt equivalent cfls in my shed and price comparison wise wwway better then four bulb fluorescents. The bulb and fixture cost is less then 25$. I put three in to where I'd put 1 4-bulb fixture which is about 225$ for bulbs/fixture. Be sure to get higher temp bulb though mine r a lil on the yellow side but that's a all they had and I didn't want to wait