A Racing Dog

Two things a well equipped shop needs are power and air.  Power I’ve done quite a bit of before but no so much for the air.  The power was pretty straight forward.  I had room in the existing panel and added the circuits as necessary, allowing room for expansion.  For around a couple hundred dollars I got all the wire, conduit, boxes, breakers and receptacles I needed for the project.  I mounted the conduit and air plumbing on unistrut anchored to the wall and for good measure painted the conduit and unistrut to match the shop.  I dropped 20 amp outlets for the drill press, chop saw, grinder and parts washer plus outlets for lighting and the workbench plus 220 volt circuits for the welder/plasma cutter station and another for the compressor.   Within a couple of days the electric was completed.

There are plenty of good sites for air plumbing tips.  I shopped TP Tools for piping systems, filters and fittings.  There is quite a bit of a debate regarding what to use for air plumbing.  Some swear by iron pipe, others by copper tubing.  At the gig we have thousands of feet of copper tubing feeding well over 100 air drops.  I used what we had at work with what I learned about air plumbing to decide to use copper tubing.  I used TP Tools for the flex hose and fittings to connect the tank to the plumbing.  I used Northern Tool for the filter/regulator.  I again used Lowes for the tubing, valves and fittings.  It turned out to be less than a kit from TP Tools though a bit more work to install as the joints has to be sweated.  The compressor I was able to get at Lowes on sale and with discount coupons they had been sending us since we bought the house and used them a few grand worth of things for the house.  A 60 gallon, 3.5 hp single stage compressor for under $350 out the door.  A compressor that size needs to be anchored to the floor with Redheads and vibration footing from Grainger.  Another trip to Ahern for a real Hilti roto hammer to sink the Redheads was required.  Air system complete just over $500.

With the electric and air system in place we are ready to install the tools and workbenches.  The goal of the shop is to be able to do all the fabrication, repair and tuning of a hobby stock level race car.  Here’s how we finished it off.  Now ready for the car.

After the grind and power wash, it’s time for the color coat and the patch coat.  These are the first two of coats for the floor.  I used the U Coat It system and it worked quite well.  Total cost once all was said and done was about US$600 for the materials and another couple hundred in diamond grinder and power washer rentals.  Total time was about 25 hours over 5 days to complete the entire project.

The last two steps are to apply the final color and flecks then after that the clear coat.  During each phase you allow for the previous phase to dry overnight.  The top coat is the coat that gives the floor the epoxy feel and protection.  And the shiny look.  The cats love hanging out in the shop and when the floor was dry, they rushed to go see what had been happening since they weren’t allowed in the space for the duration of the project.  As they ran to the door, they hit the brakes as they thought the shine of the floor was water.  After testing with their paws to make sure it was indeed cement, it took them a couple of days to get used the the floor.

Next up was adding 100 amp electrical with a couple of 30 amp 220 circuits, a 20 amp lighting circuit and to 20 amp shop circuits.  After that, the compressor plumbing.

Top Coat Gone

Originally uploaded by Dave Stevens

After removing the old covering. That grinder kicked my ass. It took a few hours but a well prepped surface is critical to an epoxy floor coating system.