Shopsmith Forums

Below is a very rough sketch, made for my own use, of my woodshop.
The top of the picture is south. That may seem wrong to some but that is the way I visualize it in my mind. The south end is more for storage than active production. The two rooms at the right are 12' wide but my graph paper was not that wide. The north/south divider wall is 4' high north of the strong room and gets very heavy very clear vinyl plastic up to the ceiling to keep sawdust in the east room. The clear part is mostly to ease my pesky claustrophobia. I'm using vinyl since I figure that I will shove a board through it at least once. Glass breaks. Everything that makes sawdust is in the east room.
I only have a few things that are generally unmovable. The chimney I am pretty much married to. That also kind of controls the general location of the furnace. My bench needs to sit about where it is because I do not like a bench facing a wall at all and I insist on being able to work all of the way around it. My only window in the basement is a largish one in the door to the outside through the north wall. That is my only source of natural daylight.
I have not pictured any equipment except the table saw which has about a 4' x 6' footprint. I just found its current location to feel natural. Everything in the shop is on wheels, including the table saw, or is easily portable. The bench is not on wheels but can still be moved anytime with either furniture dollies or one a couple of old skateboards I find handy for moving stuff.
The shop is not empty like it looks here, in fact it is getting pretty crowded. It has 2 other smaller tablesaws, 6 Shopsmiths, my SS double drill-press, a 6" long bed jointer, a Foley/Belsaw 5 HP planer/molder/rip-saw, a small herd of SS SPT's and a batch of other hand and power tools. Sadly none of these items have a specific home. They just sit around mostly along the walls or next to a post. Recently the room has also filled up with various sets of shelves, cabinets etc. just waiting to be made over to suit me this winter while the wind is howling outside. I have very high hopes for the next 6 weeks or so. If it drops to 20 below zero for a week I can still work there in comfort.
The area north of the stairs is becoming the home of my commercial and leather sewing machines etc. Other plans are falling into place for that west side.
The project in the title is the removal of the post marked as an "X" between the bench and the tablesaw. It has been a constant thorn in the side since I moved this shop here. I have 2 steel jack post that will initially give it any needed additional support to start with but I expect to beef up the north south beam that sits on that row of post. The beam is currently 5 - 2"x10"s laminated into a beam with spike nails as is common. I plan to add another to each side of the beam and bolt all of the way through all of them with long bolts in a staggered pattern every 16". Getting rid of that post will be a major improvement in the functionality of the shop. While I can currently pivot the tablesaw to avoid interference I won't have to and I can much more easily use the bench as out-feed support. The rest of the post are not really in the way.

Farmer, I’m far from an expert on structural beams, but it struck me that increasing the width of the floor girder by 3” is unlikely to make up for doubling it’s span.

Google “girder span calculator” for lots of info. The top hit quickly lead me to the following girder span table, with good illustrations: http://www.southernpine.com/app/uploads/SS_13-14L.pdf

If you take out that one post, you’ll have a “clear opening” of 24’. That’s literally “off the charts” for a construction-lumber beam. I suspect that it’s in steel-beam territory.

A laminated beam will work. Not cheap, though.

Ken

I like the advice from BuckeyeDennis. I did that in a previous basement I had. I put in a steel I-beam instead of wood. Steel gives much more strength for the space it occupies compared to wood.

I appreciate everyone's concerns. I do need to point out a few things. First I am not new to this stuff, I have an adequate amount of experience over many years through farming and construction etc.
Next is a minor error in perceived dimensions. The post under that north/south beam are only 10' apart center to center not 12'. Allowing for the size of the post (16"x16") that brings down the span to around 19' with the X post gone.
Then comes the part that is my fault from not providing all of the information. I was getting tired and sleepy, OK... The post was already getting long so I left out the part about the posts still there each becoming a "work station" for a small machine. I'm sitting here trying to describe them in a way that makes sense and not having much luck, they are kind of hard to describe... Suffice it to say that the pilaster at the north wall will have a post under the beam 2' south of the pilaster and the post in the center of the room will have a post about 2' north of that post which will cut the span about another 4' leaving only about a 14' to 15' span. Picture the post work stations as about 3' wide walls on 2 sides of the post making an "L" and those walls being faced with 1/4" commercial pegboard. Each post already has an electrical outlet mounted to it. These stations are for tools like my Ridgid spindle/belt sander, my scroll saw etc. I hope that makes sense...
I have no fear of this change. On a side note, engineered laminated veneer lumber down in these smaller sizes (2" x 10") are not really all that much more than regular dimension lumber, at least not prohibitively so in a quantity of 2. There is also a herd of other ways to transfer load to other points.
I have a small collection of "I" beams and other structural steel but I am saving it for some other projects.


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Just my .02
what may get you by,, may not be your best final product.

just a couple questions to ask your self before deciding,,
what is above the load bearing beam? is this a 2 story or one floor plan?
it may help if you an calculate the load ,,,,then decide how to proceed , I like the idea of a steel beam , for one it will allow more head room .
it will be heavy but also strong,, my thoughts are even though adding to the sides of the beams all ready there ,,would you really be adding more support where you need it.

I am no expert on laminated beams but I think they end up being very deep .

I replaced a major beam in our old house 2 years ago it was 2 2x6 nailed together and span about 14 ft. I went back with 3 2x8 nailed together , ten doubled the floor joist , took out 2x6 and doubled 2x8 for floor joist ,,then added nearly 1/2 ton of granite counter tops in the kitchen,,,it works fine only now wish I had went with steel just for thee added head room in the basement.

Good luck .

I would prefer to take the "X" post out in one piece and reuse it but I'm not sure that will be practical.That thing is pretty heavy. Maybe I'll take it out in 2 pieces and use it as bases for a wrought iron arch I have stuck back for one of the patios. They did a pretty nice job when they built it and I would hate to just trash it.

I'm also removing an 8" round cold air return for a no longer used furnace as part of some other changes. Its location is going to become home for a "extra long lumber" storage rack hanging from the joist. It won't have all that much on it, I keep most longer stuff in a barn near the sawmill but somehow there are always a few stray extra long ones in the shop. Also somehow they are always in the way and there is never a home for them. You can't sit much very long stuff on end in a basement shop. Its ceilings are not bad at just under 8' but my old shop had a section of cathedral ceiling and I could sit fairly long stuff on end.
What I am losing by removing the duct pipe is what has been an ideal storage spot for my extra dust collector hoses. They hung just about right without kinking.
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I had a little time this morning (now that Christmas has passed) and decided to get a start on the "X" post removal project. Step one, dig out the temporary steel jack posts. OK, that took about a half hour... Exactly who put them on the floor behind all of that stuff.
I've used this same kind of post in several buildings without any problems but the first %#@& one I pulled out turned vicious. While setting it up it managed to pinch my fingers about 4 times...
As usual I spent most of my time getting sidetracked and doing other stuff like cleaning and working on my router setup etc. My wife and I both often find ourselves distracted by shiny objects these days. Spent the afternoon running errands.

Most of the woodshop stuff of any real consequence has been dragging for a while now... I started feeling bad about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving which was annoying because I just had a physical in October.
Not real specific symptoms, just "unwell". I would feel bad for a couple of weeks then feel better for a few days then back to feeling bad. Gave up and made an appointment with our GP a few weeks ago and started feeling better the day before the appointment (funny how that works). After an other physical and an office EKG, a hospital nuclear stress test and a 48 hour Holter EKG it appears that I may have been feeling bad... I have an early March appointment with my cardiologist, just a general thing...
On the upside I have felt fine ever since I first made the appointment. I've gotten more accomplished in the woodshop since then than I have in a couple of years.
The downside is that it is still kind of a mess... But it's getting there. As always a major part of the problem is "stuff" that is in there that does not belong there. More shelves and storage places for what does belong there will help a lot.
Another pesky thing is how you can lay something down and in 5 minutes it's gone.


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