[Superiorwelding]

We are expanding the shop and I want to get some input. We have a 20' x 50' finished side and are adding an additional 20' x 50'. This means new concrete, walls, electrical, etc. The shop has no power at all so basically this in "new" construction.

They will be doing the concrete soon and I have them poring thinker spots (for lack of better term) where our shear and break press will go. We are also having them embed a I beam so the flange will be level with the floor. I've seen this done in other welding shops and feel it will come in handy. We are also embedding weld plates/base plates for a future overhead crane. And last, will be running conduit in/under the concrete for electrical/air/water. Is there anything else I can consider before we poor? I am also having them poor a 10' x 12' pad on the side of the new addition for a mechanical room. The electrical panels, air compressor, 3 phase converter and some solar stuff will be in there.

Concerning tools and equipment, I would like to hear what you would purchase if you were basically starting a new shop. Some items under consideration are shear, break press, plasma table, cnc pipe bender for handrail and roll cages. We already have welders, two saws and welding tables. More wanting to see what other machines others would recommend. We have a decent budget but not limitless.

Last our welding company will/does focus on sanitary (SS in general), structural steel, mobile welding, handrail/stairs, HP pipe and general repairs.
-Jonathan Lewis

[cj737]

You definitely need a decent sized IronWorker. And the CNC Plasma/Oxy table. Invaluable for structural steel work.

[tweake]

one thing on my wish list is a decent wash bay and sand blasting area. getting work clean without messing up the shop.
for tools one thing i've seen others have is a heap of linishers all setup with different belts.
i think these days you really need cnc plasma or water cutter for production of parts. i would also get a 2nd hand lathe and mill. nothing to fancy but good enough to make parts with with reasonable tolerances quickly.

what do you guys do for keeping the sheds cool?

[Gdarc21]

Sometimes you may want to degrease ans hose out floor, so designing a fall so water drain out of shed etc. You find out why they are called concreaturez when you go to hose and make lakes.
Also I have found that if a slight fall is in the plan it tends to make them pay more attention to what they leave. A place for a vehicle hoist pay divs later when you want to fix simple but hard to get to stuff. Cnc plasmas can make enough money on cutting jobs for others to make profit, if your local market isnt drenched with options already.
Anyways congrats on the expansion Johnathan

[BugHunter]

one thing on my wish list is a decent wash bay and sand blasting area. getting work clean without messing up the shop.
for tools one thing i've seen others have is a heap of linishers all setup with different belts.
i think these days you really need cnc plasma or water cutter for production of parts. i would also get a 2nd hand lathe and mill. nothing to fancy but good enough to make parts with with reasonable tolerances quickly.

what do you guys do for keeping the sheds cool?

One of my friends has a powder coat business and he's got a shed for sandblasting. Bought one of the pre-made sheds that just drops on a prepared stone base ready to use. The compressor is in the main building adjacent to it so that isn't sucking in sand. Then a hose runs to the blast building. I'd say it's 8x12 if I had to guess. Just a regular yard implement shed. Then he just sweeps up the sand and screens it before sticking it back in the blaster to have at it some more. It's a pretty serious blaster. I'd bet it has a 1/4" orifice on it and a handle that's 5' long.

[Superiorwelding]

A iron worker and a lathe are good ideas. I also would like to be able to sand blast smaller parts so will look into a solution for that as well.

The thing with the plasma table is yes, most around me have one. We are mostly going to focus on making parts for our clients and some products we have wanted to make. Might even dabble in the art stuff you can cut out and sell to make a quick buck and mostly an opportunity to make some money and learn.

What are everyone's thoughts on co-bots? We have no direct work that could justify the cost as of now but would like to get into this field as we can see this is the future, like it or not.
-Jonathan

[tweake]

What are everyone's thoughts on co-bots? We have no direct work that could justify the cost as of now but would like to get into this field as we can see this is the future, like it or not.
-Jonathan

i actually had to look that up.
it still looks like something for production runs, much like CNC machines.
one thing to keep in mind is your not going to compete on large scale production, but being able to quickly turn around small production runs is a good model.
having equipment that can be quickly programmed to do other tasks, have a wide range of tooling, is the key.
scanning tech and rapid prototyping is a growing field.

one of the problems from customers perspective is you can easily cheaply get parts say for a common muscle car, but you have a not so common make/model that parts are hard to find and the few available are custom made and very expensive. thats where small manufactures that can do small production runs efficiently can have a good market.
i've had the problem here where manufactures refuse to make gear they advertise for sale until they get enough sales lined up. most likely due to antiquated production methods which are only good for big production runs.

what do you think of the robotic welders?

[Superiorwelding]

In my opinion they are great. I say that partly because I see a lot of jobs being "taken" by a cobot because of a lack of those willing to work and partly from an employers perspective. I can have a person with little welding experience running one a lot of times quicker than training the person to learn to weld. Regardless, I don't think I will get one just yet, as they are still pretty expensive, but would love to play around with one in the shop one day.

[sbaker56]

Seems like if you have a plasma table EVERYONE is interested, at least that's been my perspective of seeing shops occasionally stop by the school hoping to make a deal to get parts cut out. If it's set right the cut quality is good enough no finishing is necessary for many things other than to prep for welding.

An ironworker likewise would be very much up there on the list, being about to punch holes, notch angle iron and flat bar and bend things all with one machine comes really handy even if you're not going to be shearing plate or flat bar super often. If you have inexperienced employees it's going to cut down on the skill threshold to do certain tasks a LOT.

[Oscar]

I'm with tweak. Lathe and Mill. Perhaps a separate heavy-duty drill press as well.

[BugHunter]

I'm with tweak. Lathe and Mill. Perhaps a separate heavy-duty drill press as well.

Might be a little overkill for some shops, but I have one of these.