What's under you? (Floor question)

I went to Shanghai China to look at some Gleason Gear Cutting Machines 20 years ago. A new looking Buick Lasabre passed our Taxi on the Highway and I said to my interpreter said GM and our government built a factory over here to build them from scratch. I heard later, GM closed a plant in the USA and moved all of the machines to China via containers. I stopped but GM cars at that moment. I'm old school and that seemed a real blow to our work force and country. They had asked me to rebuild some machines over there, but I said...I thought they wanted to ship them back to the states to rebuild them. Now I figure I was lucky to not have been put in prison over there after I said that.
 
vtcnc said:
Concrete.

Reason: durability, cost. At the time, with fill, rebar and concrete - total cost to pour a 14x24 slab was about $1,200. We provided the labor.

What would I change? I would have done a smoother finish and epoxied the floor. But as you may have surmised, cost was an issue.

I totaled up my costs to build my shop that I started three years ago and stopped tallying at $7,400.
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$7.400 is very reasonable
 
Concrete floor with spaced wooden pallet for chips to fall through. But a bit of PITA to sweep and clean under every so often,but it works for me and not slippery if wet.
 
Janderso said:
$7.400 is very reasonable
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I agree. My shop is 12 x 20, 6” concrete pad. Metal building, insulated. After wiring it, plumbing it for air and installing a mini spit heating/cooling system I’m at 15K. And I dug the foundation, did the wiring, plumbing and installed the mini split myself. Only outside costs were pouring and finishing the pad and the building itself.

Oh yea…. I use cheap Harbor Freight foam pads for cushion with a thin, tough rubber mat on top in front of each machine.
 
Concrete floor poured and finished by yours truly, then painted with a grey epoxy paint and cleared with a sand mix for grip. Honestly still a little slick with wet shoes. Wife has a carpet business and got surplus carpet squares 2x2 and covered the floor except around machines. Then a friend got large lengths of rubber matting from a job they were throwing out. The nice stuff that’s 3’ wide diamond plate texture top with a ramped yellow stripe on one edge and with a dense 1” foam. I have those around all my machines and along the work benches
I feel the carpet keeps the chill out of the concrete here in the winter, and the matting makes it soft on the feet.
7500 isn’t bad especially if done in the past year chaos. Did a 24x36 10yrs ago for right around 10k insulated and dry walled. But have friends in every trade that gave a helping hand.
Went to a auction last year old machine shop in Chicago. When I walked in I was amazed the whole floor of this place was 4x4 squares on edge grain side up. It gave this place a reel feel of nostalgic. Noises were dampened and it was just a beautiful sight and feeling being in there. When talking with the old fella that apparently owned the place I kept imagining how the place looked with all the workers and machines in the height of its day.
 
matthewsx said:
4 x 4's would probably be fine, probably 6" or more deep is what the ones I've seen are.

The biggest problem you'd have is environmental. 100 years ago these shops would have been flooded with oil from the machines, don't think you can get away with that today.

I'm sure there are old books that cover how it was done and it would be a good use for all those ash trees killed by ash borer disease.

John
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Im thinking 2 inch deep, they'll be set on flat concrete so well supported. The asphalt should bond them to the concrete. Can't afford to loose 6 inch of head room. As for oil, Im pretty messy lol oil saturation could happen pretty quick

Greg
 
Richard King 2 said:
I went to Shanghai China to look at some Gleason Gear Cutting Machines 20 years ago. A new looking Buick Lasabre passed our Taxi on the Highway and I said to my interpreter said GM and our government built a factory over here to build them from scratch. I heard later, GM closed a plant in the USA and moved all of the machines to China via containers. I stopped but GM cars at that moment. I'm old school and that seemed a real blow to our work force and country. They had asked me to rebuild some machines over there, but I said...I thought they wanted to ship them back to the states to rebuild them. Now I figure I was lucky to not have been put in prison over there after I said that.
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I always had a bit of a soft spot for GM since my dad worked there for 25 years and I worked there while going to school. We always made sure that at least one of our vehicles was made by them. That all changed when they declared bankruptcy in 2008. We had just purchased a 2008 Lucerne and were having problems with things not working right and falling off. One time when I took it to the dealer (5th time for the same problem) they started giving me grief saying they didn't think they would be able to cover the problems under warranty since it was built by "the old GM" meaning before the bankruptcy. That's when I gave them a piece of my mind. After the taxpayers bailed them out they had the gall to think they could leave all their mistakes and shoddy workmanship in the past.

That bankruptcy has always been a sore spot with me. We lost a ton of money when the stock became worthless, and several people we know who worked for them in salaried positions lost between 1/3 and 1/2 of their pensions and their health insurance. This was after they were forced to retire.
 
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@f350ca Hey Greg, do you remember Waddington Alley from when you were in Victoria? It was originally paved (and still is) with wood block paving. I remembered an article in the local paper about it and some restorative efforts that the city was doing on it a while back, so I tried to find the article and amazingly did! Anyway, kind of an interesting read if you're into stuff like this. I haven't been down there for a while but I'm assuming it's still the same paving now. I'll have to try to check it out sometime next time I'm downtown.

www.timescolonist.com

Preserving Victoria history: the wooden blocks of Waddington Alley

As pothole repairs go, this one ranks among the most complicated the city has ever undertaken.
www.timescolonist.com www.timescolonist.com

-frank
 
My Machinery's Handbook has a section on shop floors. They say "Probably there is no floor for the machine shop as good as one made of selected hard maple, properly laid and supported, as it wears smoothly and evenly." They do go on talking about the pros and cons of different floors and the health aspect of wood vs. concrete.

When I was an apprentice, one of the old timers told me one additional benefit of wood is that if you drop a work piece or tool on wood, it is less likely to get damaged! By the way, that shop had laminate 12" x 12" tile floors, much more comfortable than concrete and easy to replace worn tiles.

Richard
 
frank, I vaguely recall it, haven't been to Victoria in probably 20 years. The only city I kind of like lol.
Interesting story, can see putting them in untreated would have been a recipe for disaster.
Wonder what they finally used for a finish?
Im thinking maybe thinned linseed oil. Defiantly a penetrating finish rather than a surface coating.
The asphalt they adhere commercial floor tiles with should hold them and block any moisture from the concrete. The slab has a layer of foil backed bubble wrap, with the joints all taped on top of 4 feet of coarse pit run gravel, so moisture shouldn't be an issue.
If I go with 4x4 blocks it should only take 7776 blocks to do it. lol

Greg
 
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