I'm building a Metal Shop

This will be fun to follow, when you said you were building a metal shop it didn't cross my mind you meant literally stick building & welding it until i got to the photos

If I built a shop like that I'd move into it, old lady could have the house.

I like your trusses. I made mine out of 2 7/8 oil pipe. Had to make sure I got plenty of weld into the angle brackets for the purlins. Square tubing would have been so much faster and I wouldn’t have had to use the coping calculator from metalgeek.com

Just for clarity….do you mean that you are building a shop out of metal, or a shop to fabricate things or metal within?


Either way, it is a hell of an undertaking to do yourself!

Well done. Awesome project

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is there a reason you didn’t go with pre engineered?

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Mostly because I wanted the challenge. I've built some smaller structures. The 12X24 shed in the background was a test run of sorts on some of the trim pieces. Also have built a 400 sq ft pavilion at a previous house out by our pool. Nothing this size.

I'm pretty big on the bartering system. I have buddies in all of the trades. Had a guy who was a master plumber come out and make sure I wasn't fubar'ing the plumbing, and I was. I had originally set the septic tank about 18" too high. Didn't have enough drop. So I had to pull it then dig it deeper then re-set it. I actually set it, then didn't fill it with water, then it rained and it floated up. So, that was fun to deal with.

On the bartering system, I have a buddy that runs a roofing business and he has a telehandler. They trusses are about 6 to 800 lbs a piece if I were guessing. I've repaired trailers for him and repaired his pipe fence at his house. He's a really good dude and was offering to let me use his telehandler for free, and while I don't like paying for that kind of stuff, I will make good on doing what I can for people around me whether they have something to offer me or not.

The business I referenced in the last post, we originally started as a "concrete company" and long story short, we became a fence company. That's a thread all in itself. Ties a little bit of outdoor board, money board, and home/garden all into one. It was a rodeo because of the business partner. But that is behind me now. But, my concrete slab is the only "concrete" job we did. And I went a little overboard on the beams around it. Wanted 18X24" beams but they got a little blown out and in some places they're 36" wide. I also went with 4,000 PSI concrete instead of 3000 or 3500. And I'm sitting on a heavy rock shelf just under the surface of the yard. Feel pretty good about the foundation.

I've invested a ton of money in tools over the last 10 years as I've gotten more into welding. One of the tools is a hypertherm plasma cutter. Depending on what is going on with the cut, I'll either use an angle grinder or the plasma to cut. When I first got into the "hobby" I found an estate type of sale that had all sorts of clamps and metal tools that I got a steal on.

I recently replaced the wood on this little 4X8 trailer with some leftover creosote wood from our last job and it is now my rig I pull out when I get to work on the shop. My truck was overloaded with all the equipment I use regularly and got tired of that. This is the perfect little mobile unit for my property.

I am building the metal shop, so that I can fabricate things in the metal shop. Haha. I am physically doing all of the labor on building the shop with help from time to time when needed. It's mostly a one man job unless someone else has a welder and can come out and see what needs to be done and jump in and help. I don't have anyone like that unfortunately. There is a high school kid down the street that is taking welding classes in high school and he has come over to get some experience lately. He somewhat slows the process down though because I'm watching him weld and he blows holes in shite and then I get to fix it. But I'm happy to give him some experience and teach him some stuff I've learned. In a world of kids eager to look at their phones and play video games, it's nice to know there are kids interested in getting dirty and being productive. I'm not educated in what I'm doing for full disclosure, but I know people who are and when I have a question I call and ask.

The trusses were my design with input from a family friend who does commercial structural steel work. Or he did. Passed away earlier this year. He was such a good dude and is who originally got me interested in welding when I was in high school.

My dad was a navy electrician back in the day and now he does low voltage work. We've done everything when it comes to fixing houses so framing, plumbing, electrical isn't anything new to me.

I still have a ton of unworked through details but I'll make decisions as I go.

Lastly, sorry for the wordy responses, but I truly feel blessed that the wife is good with me doing this, and that we have the means to do it, and this is my passion in life. I'm not financing any of this project. The labor quote for constructing the metal shop alone (no material, finishout, electrical or insulation) came in at $40k and I can do a lot of cool shite for $40k and I'm not on anyone's timeframe other than mine so I'll keep my $40k and buy some cool tools or something. $40k is a very fair market price for this, but I just don't want to pay it and I like the work.

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Septic system is a 2 compartment 2000 gallon tank on a leech field. Hoping this works.

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With a tank that big you oughta be able to drink straight out of the tail line.

Cool project. As someone else said, this is refreshing to see vs the "who's the best contractor to change my door knob" threads on here.

To you and your "wordy responses":