Decisions decisions

[Ken02busa]

I have just bought out a friend of mine, and some more equipment, looks like I am going into the fabrication business. I bought a turret lathe, milling machine, 10' 80 ton break, mig, tig, plasma cutter, bandsaw, and assorted tools to go with, and a 32' triple axle gooseneck trailer to haul it all. I already have the ski making company, so a ton of equipment there too.
Trouble is, I don't know if I should build a 30x60 or 40x50 shop. I need to wall off about 600 feet internally for the machine shop, the rest of it is for the toys; dually, car, sled, bike, quad, all my tools. 30x60 is ok, just, and seems to be the best layout for the business, 40x50 is more room by 200 sq feet, actually ruins less of my yard, but not as easy to set up to fit everything.
Next, I am hoping to put the pipes in the floor for in floor heating at a later date, anyone have any problems with in floor? Should a guy have a forced air or radiant heater as a backup? I have an old mobile home forced air furnace, that is paid for, might just use it.
Lastly, has anyone priced out the big styrofoam 'lego blocks' that you stack up and pour concrete in for walls? The 30x60x 12' with insulation, drywall, siding, doors and windows is about $18,000.00. 40x50 is likely 2000-4000 more.

 

[tinmann840]

If you can afford it the extra room will come in handy the more work you start getting .

 

[Revlis]

Radiant heat is OK, but I prefer moving Air for health reasons. Moving Air with a Filter or two.

I have radiant heat through out my place and while it is a nice even heat, and there are no cool spots and it's silent. The lack of moving Air has resulted in me purchasing over $800 in decent air Filters because there is no turn over. In a shop area where your going to have heat and smoke, plus any number of gases and such inside I'd highly recommend a decent Forced air system.

My .02

Oh and Yeah I am jealous as hell... I want a shop like you describe...

On and 40X50, If you go cutting corners now? It'll just piss ya off later.

 

[FastBusa]

If you can afford it build it as big as you can, trust me you will always grow into it! I build a 30X40 and had to enlarge it another 18 feet. Good luck.

 

[HRJR]

As the old adage says, "there is no replacement for displacement". I think it applies to shop sizes too.

Go with the 40x50 if you can afford it.

Good luck.