I’m back and you’d better just get used to it. You see I’ve grown up
working metal. I don’t remember the first time I was exposed to serious
metal working and I remember some pretty early things around 3 yrs or
so.
Father was a metal spinner name of George Frost. I don’t know when he
got involved in metal spinning but I have an old union card of his with
a starting date in 1933. I suspect he took up the trade as a way out of
the depression.
This pic is Dad spinning hot. Sherrie is holding torch, one of the jobs
I did for years. We spun a lot of exotic alloys, including jet and
rocket engine alloys. Many exotics can’t be worked at all without
applying heat. I don’t know what alloy is being spun in the pic except
to say it’s a bear to spin.
Anyway, I’ve been involved in metal work of one sort or another all my life and since I was maybe 10 wanted a shop of my own. Unlike the brave
souls who actually try to make a living making art I went the coward’s
way and got a paycheck job. A job I’ve been doing for nearly 30 years
now. In fact I’m retiring the end of next july.
So it’s time and time past to have my shop. I’ve been planning and
designing the thing since I decided I didn’t like how Father laid his
shop out. Of course HE knew what he was doing. Even though I had access
to his shop it isn’t the same and Dad was likely to put me to work
instead of letting me do my own thing.
Another thing, Father was a high precision, high production metal
spinner, working in his shop was no fun. It was WORK, loud, dirty and
dangerous work. So, all through school as a small measure of rebellion
I took classes in anything not involving sheet metal. I’d setteled on
welding and fabrication as a career when I got out of school but my
first go at a trade school cured me of that notion. What I do now is
operate heavy equipment and occasionally do some fab work on the job.
At home is another matter all to gether I do light fab work and
blacksmith for fun. The home shop is a different matter in that I can
take the safety precautions my trade school instructer didn’t even know
about. This is a pic of Richard and I a few summers ago in what passed
for a smithy at the time, just in front of the connex, before the tarp
tent in the second pic down. I’m the old fart on the right.
Well, summer before last we sold some land at a nice profit and were
able to pay off everything but the mortgage and have some left over.
Enough to put up a shop, not complete it but get one weathered in and
if I were clever maybe even wired and insulated.
I found an outfit selling steel buildings locally and not only were
they reasonably priced they were on the ground about 25 miles from
here. The next best thing I’d found was about $4,000 more plus shipping
from Seattle. It was a nicer building but it was a budget killer.
So, I started making room in the forest for a 30′ x 40′ shop and shop
yard. For some reason Deb and I can’t find a single pic of me clearing
land. I’ve learned a thing or two in the past few years clearing land,
building the house, barn and such. I no longer cut down trees, limb,
buck and stack them. Now I push them over with an excavator while a
couple guys on the ground limb and cut them from the stump. then I
stack the logs, pile the slash and clean up the stumps with the
excavator. This is way safer, faster, and more efficient. The pic below
is a Google, satellite shot from a few years ago. The green rectangle
is a friend’s guess for the new shop, the blue rectangle is my guess
where it’s going. I check Google frequently for a new pic where the
shop yard is cleared and heck now the new shop would even be there. The
connex / tarp tent shop enclosure is labeled as well.
Unfortunately I can’t find a pic. I have to pick up after the clearing was done with a little slash fire we had.
It may not look it but this baby was about 60′ long x 25′ wide and 15′
high when we lit it off. Here it’s burned down considerably, heck you
can get within maybe 40′ without blistering exposed skin.
Not having much money to work with really slows things down and Father
passing away kind of put a halt on the 2004 building season for me. I
got the dirt work done and ready to form up the foundation but it was
too late in the season for my taste.
See my floor is almost the most complicated part of the whole thing.
Something I learned early about production work from Father is making
jigs for any repetitive work. Something I’ve always thought would be
really handy is a grid of floor sockets or gazintas. It isn’t MY idea
though I thought of it, others before me have as well. I’ve since met
more than one person who put floor sockets in their shop floor. A shop
floor with a grid of gazintas is like a large jig table.
Heck, a couple of them have even hooked the sockets up to a sub floor
exhaust system too. I didn’t want to leave green concrete with 46
sockets to collect water every time it gets above freezing over a long
cold winter.
Well, I didn’t quite get it weathered in this summer either so I’m
crossing my fingers about water not freezing in the floor sockets and
breaking up the concrete.
This pic shows the infloor heat tubing, rebar grid and floor sockets
while the concrete crew does their thing. That was a pretty exciting
day I have to tell you. It cost nearly $10,000 and came out beautiful.
I spent the next week keeping it good and wet.
Then a neighbor and I traded a little labor. He needed a good hitch
fabbed up for his motor coach and I needed an experienced hand standing
steel. I spent a day and built him a proper hitch and he spent a day
helping me stand steel.
This is what it looked like when we knocked off on Labor day 2005. I
rented a high lift all terrain forklift and it worked just fine for
almost everything. It doesn’t show in these pics but the grade is
pretty steep on the far side and the fork couldn’t get quite close
enough to put the purlins on. The darned forklift was too big to put
them up from the inside either. What I ended up doing was making
scaffolding. I can’t afford to rent or buy the things but I can make
them. They’re big, heavy and pretty clunky but they’re plenty stable
and strong. Using the things another friend and I got the purlins and
other things on.
Then I noticed a twisted column. This is a bad thing, if a steel
building isn’t plumb and square all round it’ll show up like a light in
a cave when you start putting the sheeting on the outside. I still
haven’t determined just how badly the twist is going to effect the
building. It’d be a piece of cake to straighten if I’d noticed it
before putting it up but with the roof arch on it it’s a real problem.
This next pic shows the twisted corner column and pressure warped girt.
Working mostly alone it takes a long time to pull the frame square with
the cross bracing, comealongs and whatever it takes. Once I get it as
traight and square as possible I’ll have a better idea of whether I’ll
need to replace the column or I can fudge it out invisibly.
So what’s with the floor socket thing you ask? The technical term for
these things is “Gazintas”. Each gazinta is 2 5/8″ x 1/4″ sq tubing.
Using receiver tubing would’ve provided a much tighter fit but cost is
prohibitive. These leave 1/8″ slack when 2″ sq is inserted. The
gazintas are set in a 4′ on center grid and connected electrically via
welded #4 rebar. This will allow me to get away with dragging only one
welding lead around the shop most of the time. If I have a high
amperage weld to make I’ll haul the ground lead over though, I don’t
want undue heating of the rebar to damage the concrete.
Below the finish grade under the 6″ slab lays a manifold of 3″ ABS
plastic pipe which connects to the bottom of the gazintas. This system
won’t completely replace a proper exhaust system but it will eliminate
all the smoke in most situations. This exhaust system is NOT a dust
collection system and it would be a quick road to ruining it to use it
as one.
To do this correctly requires a couple special pieces of shop furniture
of course. Cutting and welding tables will have bar grate tops and
hopper shaped closed plenum chamber beneath it. The plenum is then
connected to the exhaust system through the table’s legs and gazintas.
Scaffolding using gazintas for floor support will need caps to maintain
vacuum. Exhaust hoses will need ends to fit gazintas and scaffold
uprights, etc.
For open floor or other welding/cutting, running engines, etc. that
won’t fit on a table I can drop an exhaust hose in any convenient
gazinta. This includes using an upright on scaffolding using gazintas
for support as an exhaust hose connection.
There are some real advantages to having a downdraft exhaust system:
First, You aren’t exchanging all the air in the shop to get rid of a
few cubic feet of smoke, paint fumes, etc. Consequently you aren’t
exchanging all the WARM air too! Believe me I speak from experience, it
warmed up to 5f. today.
Second, It naturally draws the cold air off the floor rather than the
warm air out of the rafters, this alone keeps your feet warmer. Also,
as it draws all the air through a subfloor manifold the ground under
the shop ends up being a bit warmer than normal.
Third, downdraft exhaust is supreme for removing heavier than air fumes
like solvent and paint fumes. I avoid painting when I can but a few
hanging tarp curtains and I’ll have a decent paint booth.
The infloor heat is pretty self explainatory and is very popular around
here. I’m glad the problems infloor heat had in the early years got
worked out because the system works really well in cold country. It’ll
be a while before I can put a proper boiler in but I have plans for a
heat exchanger on the wood stove I’m building. It won’t be perfect but
it’ll do for a while.
I salvaged some 53″ of 24″ can pile, heavy wall steel pipe, with the
intention of making it into an upright wood stove for the shop. It’s
still carefully stored in the woods just off the shop yard awaiting my
touch so there’s not a lot to say about it. It’s heavier walled than
I’d prefer but being free goes a long way towards balancing things. I
have enough plate rems to make the floor, lid and hardware. I can
afford cheap right now.
What I’d really like is another piece of pipe about 20″ dia. to make a
long baffle. This would make it a double walled stove. The wood would
be held in the inner pipe, smoke, fumes, etc. would burn in the gap
between the pipes. Once lit and up to heat the wood would not burn
directly.
This way the wood will reduce to charcoal and gradually settle onto the
grate. Fresh air would be fed under the grate combustion would take
place directly on the grate and in the gap between pipes. This system
would not only burn very cleanly and efficiently it would be an
efficient semi-direct charcoal retort. Charcoal makes an excellent
forge fuel. I like things that do more than one thing as long as they
do them well.
I don’t think I’ll really end up building this fancy shmancy wood stove
but I’d like to, maybe next summer, with that in mind I’ll build what I
do so I can retrofit it without having to take a torch to it. What I
will be able to build regardless is the stack robber. A stack robber is
common term for a smoke stack heat exchanger or scavanger. In time
honored tradition a second barrel over a barrel stove is common. I made
an improved variation for a neighbor some years ago and I’ll make
another for my shop stove. I cut a 55 gl. drum down to about 24″ long
and welded a 15 gl. grease barrel through it. Stove jacks aligned on
opposite sides of the outer shell let the stove pipe carry off the
smoke and connect it to the combustion section in such a way it can be
aimed anywhere in the shop. A strong fan mounted in the 15 gl. inner
barrel blows warm air where needed. I’ve done this before and it works
very well.
Lighting and wiring in general on a limited buget is problematical. Of
all the components involved one of the only places I can save
significantly is the light fixtures. Being as the shop won’t be
permanantly heated, for now anyway, flourescents won’t work.
Incandescents aren’t very practical either, I’d need a boat load of
fixtures, elect boxes, etc. There’s always portable lighting but that’s
a pain in the butt for general lighting. What I’ve come up with is a
cheat but affordable. I’m going to hang four Dusk to Dawn yard lights
with the light sensor bypassed. They’ll be individually switched so I
can have it dim in the smithy when I want and Deb can do her copper
bench work with good light. I know it isn’t ideal but all four fixtures
will run about $120 and I won’t have a zillion elec boxes, etc. to buy
and wire. I can afford the set up. Of course I’ll be pulling an extra
wire to each fixture so I can upgrade at a later date.
One of the other standard axioms of shop building besides, “you can’t
have too much light” is, “you can’t have too many outlets.” I don’t
have a cheap way out of this one except to wire it all myself.
On the advice of a good and experienced friend I’d like to have a 120v
outlet every 4′ and a 240v outlet every 6-8′. While I don’t think I’ll
be able to go this far I’m going to give it a shot.
Another thing about power in the shop is 3 phase elec. It’s available
but would cost close to half a million dollars to get here. Have I
mentioned my tight budget? There are solutions of course, phase
converters being high on the list. Another solution I can afford is a
station engine.
I’m not talking about a generator though I have one of those as part of
my portable welder. What I’m going to build as a station engine will
drive a hydraulic donkey. The shop will be plumbed for hydraulics with
quick connects at regular intervals.
Not only will an inshop hydraulic system let me run some pretty heavy
duty machinery without 3 phase elec. it’ll let me do some heavy duty
shaping in conjunction with the gazintas.
All I need is a small diesel engine, which are pretty common, a
hydraulic pump which I’ve salvaged already, valves, rams, motors, etc.
Also already salvaged. I guess all I really need is the engine, res
tank and some piping, hoses, etc. VBG.
I just took a look at this in preview and think it’s probably about as
long as I can get away with. Besides I have a couple things I should
get done that don’t involve sitting on my butt in front of my computer.
Till next time.
Frosty
