Pics of your shop or garage

[BMR Sales]

I don't have anything fancy (even though it was in Popular Mechanics after I Epoxy'd the Floor) & the pictures are on my Home Computer. Just a 1 Car Garage that used to be a CarPort. I walled it in, tore the old Flat Roof off, built my own trusses with a 12' center section & installed a Roll-Up Door. I put in a Rotary Revolution7 Lift so I can wrench & store. Big Snap-On box, Snap-On roll-around Cart with 4 Drawers, Fridge Full of Beer . I also have a 40' long Carport behind the House where I can store my Open Trailer & another car.

T.C.

[Panteracer]

My brother and I bought an old metal building a
few years back that was an x machine shop... t-bar
ceiling etc.. we did a matrix epoxy floor, painted the
walls, redid the front room with lounge area, kitchen etc

My home away from home.. whenever anyone calls the
house my wife says he is at his shop.. working on some
more cabinets and machine shop area in the back
It has a great Stereo, Ac and heat, two lifts

Panteracer Norcal Bob

[GregWeld]

Way too clean --- can't possibly be any real work being performed there!!!


LOL


Nice shed Bob!

[Ron in SoCal]

I'm diggin your TA Bob!

[Panteracer]

Shop really is not that clean.. I just put things
away in the drawers before someone comes over
then I can never find anything.. working on cleaning
and organizing. Matrix floor hides everything including
a bolt or nut you drop.. kinda of a pain

Rob.. yes the Firebird is my favorite.. its been
going thru a revamp lately.. new speedtech front end,
still has leafs but monos with spherical eyes, subframe
connectors and old Herb Adams style braces out front
Working on lightening things up now

Panteracer Norcal Bob

[jlwdvm]

Originally Posted by SSLance

My shop has been a 13 year long project, and is still evolving...I'm not sure it'll ever be done. I have in my mind what I want it to end up being, but life just keeps getting in the way so to speak.

It started off at a 36x50 full concrete foundation, stick framed outbuilding built back in 2001.



The first couple of years while I was absorbing the initial build costs, it was basically a boat and yard equipment storage facility.



I did use spray in foam insulation and hung a 4 ton heat pump from the trusses to heat and cool the space.

About 3 years ago now I guess I finally got to add a two post lift to the shop.



Then I had to change things up and built an apartment in the back of the shop for my Dad to live in.



I was able to put a loft up above the apartment to gain back some of the storage I lost by the addition. this picture was taken from up in the loft. What a mess...



I also had to move the lift back about 10 feet. did that project by myself without taking the lift apart. Yes, there were a couple of pucker moments...at one point my Dad went back into his apartment and said "I can't watch this".









I now have a lot of pictures of stuff I'm working on in the shop, but none show much of the actual shop itself. It's actually pretty clean right now and will take some updated pictures of it in it's current form soon.

What I'm struggling with now is finding and setting apart a "dirty work" space where I can put my welding, cutting and grinding tools and do my dirty work in to try to keep the rest of the shop halfway clean. The lift is a fantastic tool, I use it all the time. I don't think I'll ever be without one again. I need more cabinets to store away the parts and stuff I just can't part with and I need to pare down some of the yard equipment that I just don't use that much anymore to create more space. And lights...I need WAY more and better placed lights. Painting the walls white might help with light as well. Eventually I'll get it all set up like I want, but lately I've been doing more work in the shop...than on the shop...which is okay too.

I see that your lift is right over the seams in your concrete. I was under the impression that this wasn't a good thing? I had the same problem in my garage, so this weekend we cut out 2 4x4' sections of the 4" concrete and dug down 12-13" to pour some 5000psi concrete this week. Maybe your slab is thicker and you were able to use longer anchor bolts?

[SSLance]

Yeah, I went back and forth on that over and over again reading all of the experts on the internet saying it shouldn't be done while I was researching the lift install too. The more I looked and read, the more I realized that those saying you shouldn't span an expansion joint with the base of a two post lift were the same types that probably wouldn't ever even attempt to install a lift on their own because they were too afraid of everything.

I talked with the guys at Greg Smith Equipment about it...and a few construction guys I know and decided I'd be fine.

I've got 4,000 psi concrete somewhere around 5" thick with embedded rebar tied off both directions every 24" with a gravel base under the pour. To me, cutting sections out and pouring deeper didn't make sense because you'd lose or disturb the rebar reinforcement which I felt was as important if not more than the thickness of the concrete or where the expansion joints were.

I also read about the same people suggesting using epoxy to secure the anchors in the concrete which also didn't make sense to me. I used 3/4" anchors that went into holes I drilled 5-6" deep, some went through the bottom of the slab, others did not. After driving the anchors down into the holes and shimming the column bases plumb, I hand torqued each of the anchors down a little bit at a time. You could feel if and when they were biting and clamping the base of the column down onto the slab. I had one pull up and not bite, the anchor itself failed. I ended up driving it down into the gravel base and put a new anchor in it's place that bit and snugged up great.

This is a long explanation but in the end, the slab is stout and established (over 10 years old) and the bases of the columns are clamped down tight to the rebar reinforced slab, expansion joints or not with 3/4" anchors. Basically the anchors make the bases of the columns and the slab become one. The majority of the weight load goes straight down from the posts onto the slab with a little bit of the anchors job to keep the columns from tilting forward or back. With my truck all the way up on the lift, if you grab the back bumper and lift up or down on it, you will see the lift arms and the carriages twist and tweak back and forth a bit as the truck moves, but the columns do not budge. The lift itself is going to self destruct long before the slab will break or the anchors pull out of the floor.

[GregWeld]

I agree with you Lance.... The lift makes a square box... on a side to side basis.

People need to learn HOW to use a lift - and I think the real danger is front to back from an improperly positioned car. I have a Rotary 2 post asymmetric where a good portion of the car is offset to the rear. I was told by the lift people that the DASH should be parallel to the posts... and the front arms should be about 90* or perhaps ahead a bit. It's worked fine for me.

Just poking you here a bit -- but maybe that pickup could be used for a couple of runs to the dump... Looks like you're storing a lot of "stuff". That's supposed to be used for car stuff -- at least on this forum... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[jlwdvm]

I drilled a pilot hole and concrete thickness was barely 4" in the area that the posts needed to go and I wasn't sure what psi my concrete is. I am also using a base plate lift (probably a Direct Lift HR8000) due to 10.5' ceilings. I think that makes it a little more critical on the composition of your slab as well. we are using 1/2" rebar to tie the new footing into the slab. Sounds like you know a little bit more about the composition of your slab....which helps.

[SSLance]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Just poking you here a bit -- but maybe that pickup could be used for a couple of runs to the dump... Looks like you're storing a lot of "stuff". That's supposed to be used for car stuff -- at least on this forum... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

lol... That picture was taken at a bad time for me car shop wise. The tale end of a long construction project plus leftovers from two estates and a downsizing of my Dad's house.

Here's what the inside of the shop looks like today.













Well, maybe not that nice as I'm in the throws of a partial body off frame project right now so there's a few parts and tools strewn about currently...