I’ve been working on converting 1950’s corncrib into my work shop and office.
I have about 1,000 sf of maple flooring from a basketball court in my high school gym.
Would you use maple flooring in your wood shop? What disadvantages would there be? Would the flooring get slippery with dust covering?
Replies
WmGalloway.
Go for it! your dropped tools will thank you, your back and feet will thank you, It will look cool and age well.
any floor can be made slippery, any floor can be solid underfoot..
Oh, that would be a horrible, horrible choice; I recommend that you send me all of that maple flooring so that I can dispose of it properly for you.
Seriously, a maple floor in a woodworking shop is ideal. If you find that it is too slippery, just rent a floor sander and give it a once-over (or wear basketball shoes...). I see no disadvantages whatsoever.
-Steve
The big problem with maple flooring for a woodshop is ....
uh, uh,
I'll think of something.
blew,
It'll end up looking like a short basketball court? Course if you are a Celtics fan then one could always make the boards into a parque pattern............
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
If I built a shop with maple gym flooring, I'd put some hoops on the end, so I toss in the failures. But how do you get a twelve foot dining room table through a hoop?
f you decide not to use the maple will you please ship it to me for my shop? Wow what a fantastic opportunity. Go for it!!!
This is my shop with pine floors. Work great.
Wow! How do you keep your shop so clean? :^)
Harry
Following the path of least resistance makes rivers and men crooked.
Harry,
LMAO!! I was thinking the same thing. No broom in sight in that picture, huh!
Jeff
Nice pile of shavings. How's about puttin' that lonely dust collector in the corner to work picking up all those shavings!!
<G>
Jeff
The part I don't understand is why the filename of the photo is Kitchen_table_3.jpg. Where exactly is the table in that photo? Maybe the shavings are piled even more deeply than they appear?
-Steve
In addition to being lazy about sweeping up shavings, I am also not very good about relabeling photos!
Steve,
It's right there - rear center. Those thangs on each end are to keep recalcitrant guests sittin up proper to the table. If one really gets out of hand the DC is fired up!
Shavings are for any spills that may occur.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Gee, so nice to see a shop that it looks like somebody actually works in it. Far to messy to be put in a magazine.
Greg
I don't get out there as much as I like, however, when I do, it does get ugly (but in a good way).
Love your reasoning!!!
Greg
I demand you ship the maple to me immediately!!!!
Sounds good but I would treat it for termites and powder post beetles. Also treat the ground under the floor.
With the winters we have, there ain't no stinkin' termites. We still have 8 ft. snow drifts out back.
I put recycled hickory flooring in my garage shop on top of concrete with wafer board and vapor barrier subfloor and it worked out great. Easy on tools, feet and back.
I put a pine floor down over underfloor heating sourced from a geothermal array which also heats my home, no problems. The shop is 16 ft. by 32ft. and pre-dust collector I did notice that actual dust vs. shavings did make the floor slippery to the point it could be used for waltzing; with dust collection installed the floor is never slick and is very comfortable to work on, plus it looks great. The maple should make a fine job of your floor. Best of luck. Jim
Would I use it? I'd F'n kill for it!
Now Boss Man,
Let's be carfeful there. If ya make it up here we got all kinds of hard maple. But keep your cottin pickin hands off my flame birch ya scallywag!
View Image
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 4/3/2008 11:12 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Having just gouged the pee out of a plane iron by dropping it on a concrete floor I'm soon going to carpet the shop with some sheets of A/C plywood. The maple would be quite a luxury.
Boss,
Maybe we should start a club. I dinged two chisels today. Grr
Ray
I hate it because I'm a klutz at the grinder. I despise the bleedin' things. I have a Delta 8" variable speed unit affectionately known as the buckin' bronco. I'll give kudos to FW - I did notice a grinding article by Joel M. in the new issue. I'm gonna try putting a little crown on my pink wheel. Normally, I'd grind it out with sandpaper on glass (and a jig!) but I broke my piece of glass moving a bunch of stuff around the shop the other day.
Edited 4/5/2008 9:02 am ET by BossCrunk
Boss,
It was an epiphany when I bought my first white wheel. (Angels singing, Hosannah! Deliverance has come!)I guess the pink ones are about the same. I never thought about crowning the thing, as it's so soft that mine never gets a corner, or I never bear down hard enough to get into it. One quibble I have with Joel's article, is that I hate to grind all the way up to the edge. I leave just a little (1/32" or so) of the "old" bevel from previous stoning. It dawned on me one day, that every time I ground all the way to the edge, I was grinding away usable steel.
Those old fashioned grey carborundum wheels are ok for mower blades or welding flash, but it's a real challenge to grind an edge without burning on one of them.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED! that you use glass and a jig. Oh! The humanity.
Ray
I prefer a flat grind so it's either the glass and sixty grit or a platen style grinder.
Boss,
Flat grinders are so out of touch. The Earth is round, bevels are hollow. Give it a try, you won't sail off the edge, or into a dragon.
Ray
Ray,
I have the absolute worst timing for dropping tools on concrete. A couple years, I participated in Skills Canada, where woodworkers gather and have 6 hours to build a project. Before the competition even started, I managed to drop my most used 3/4" chisel on the concrete floor and ruin the corner. A little time with a belt sanded helped restore the edge.
But yesterday, I dropped a chisel (the same one) and it landed HANDLE FIRST! Hooray!Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Chris,
"I have the absolute worst timing for dropping tools on concrete. "
You must tell me, when is it a good time to drop a tool on concrete?
I had a tool land handle first once. I think it was...1983. My jelly toast landed the same way that morning, at breakfast. My life has been in ruins, ever since. Beware. You may have used up your last bit of luck.
Ray
Ray, Chris & Boss,
Almost anything is better than concrete for a wodshop floor. What's up with you guys?
:>)
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
Maybe we'd rather hide an ungly concrete floor under wood shavings and sawdust than a gorgeous wooden floor.Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Bob,
Like Richard, I prefer to keep the concrete floor available as a last resort option for sharpening. Just doesn't work that well from 3' up :-((
Ray
Boss,
Your mention of "carpeting" your shop with plywood caught my eye. My shop actually is partially carpeted. No, I'm not insane.
When we were tearing the old carpet out of our house, I decided to lay some of the pad down on the concrete floor of my shop to take the chill off - and to ease the aching in my feet from standing on that hard stuff all day. The pad started to wear a bit, so I laid some of the old carpet down on the pad, and that's how it's been for about 10 years now.
It's only in areas where I stand a lot - in front of my bench mainly. But it sure does the trick. I don't vacuum it - ever. I just sweep off the shavings from time to time. It's my space and I don't need it to be as pristine as inside a house.
Right now I've also got carpet pad in other areas to act as insulation over the concrete, and I've got my eye peeled for a suitable discarded carpet to lay over it. Something in a blue perhaps. Though I won't rule out a deep maroon..
Zolton
If you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon
I've done the exact same thing in the first "real" shop I had - a 1 1/2 car detached garage at the first house I owned.
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