Spring cleaning the Machine-shop Van

[Frank S]

Last fall when we started packing up the shop van to get it moved it became near impossible to do much of anything in it.
Too much stuff to haul and too few trailers to haul things in so the shop van became a storage unit/ catch all.
After I moved it to our diggs we have been gradually unloading and relocating much of the materials that did not belong.
Finally yesterday we pretty much reached our goal of having 1 area strictly set up as a tool room and sheet metal processing work area
Right after the move

After a lot cleaning and rearranging

I can now get to each and every drawer in all of the tool boxes use the blast cabinet the Roper Whitney punch the English wheel and the hydraulic press without having to drag or move anything out of my way first The upper area seamed to be the best place to locate those things plus Ihave a couple of 2 ft deep shelves in the very end and a Mezzanine storage area overhead.
Also not shown in the pictures is a designated area for the Vertical American Knee mill and the small La Blond 16 by 40 lathe
There is still some arranging to do in the back end of the trailer in order for me to be able to rotate my Cleereman 30" index drill/ jig bore machine My 3 HP Enco bench mill and table is still slightly burred but there are only so many weather days which otherwise prevent us from working outside.

[C-Bag]

Looks good Frank, very tidy. I have nowhere near the tools you have but every time I go trying to organize I lose track of some specialty do dad I know I saw but couldn't categorize but put it in that mythical "good place".

I always love seeing others shops just because I love tools, but also to see how it's organized. So most of what is in the pix is in one trailer? How long is it? I ask because I'm still dreaming of putting a seatrain container with a side roll up door or one where the whole side opens up, in the back yard and moving all my shop into that and working under an awning.

[Frank S]

C-bag after I returned from Kuwait and realized that none of my tools or equipment was going to follow me I went into extreme tool acquisition syndrome. It is impossible to exactly replace some of the tools I had, as some of them were 1 off made by masters of the trades as long as a 100 years ago.
Many of my machines that I did not carry over there I had left with one of my employees who I had basically put in business wound up sold for pennies on the dollar when the bottom fell out of the economy in 08/09. I did manages to retrieve my Cleereman index drill / jig bore a couple of welding machines and a 50 year old band saw that is still in another trailer. The rest of what is shown in the pictures are the results of going to lots of auctions and Pawn shops
The trailer is a Household goods moving van 45 ft long by 8 ft wide with a 10 ft 6 inch ceiling height each of the tool boxes are crammed full to the point of being ridiculous most of them need emptying out sorted and re arranged but that is for rainy days and if I have nothing else to do or something for my wife to do while I am busy on a project.
I like the idea of a seatrain container I prefer the HIGH cube size and cutting out a section of 1 side for a door is good. Just remember the opening width of a door is dead space if anything is placed there it will always be in the way of something unless it is like my small 10 by 8 band saw that I have mounted so it swings out of the way Also jib cranes are a must

[C-Bag]

Frank as soon as I wrote it I realized those doors are dead spaces like you said. I guess my roll out benches and work stations could go in front of one when closed but that's a good case for not going out of my way to buy one of those that the whole side opens up. Funny how that had never occured to me until then. I guess it was just idea of the completely open space getting in the way of logic.

You are also right about high cube if nothing else just to ease the feeling of being in a hallway. I've seen a couple of trailer bodies too and wonder how that would work. The selling point is they are aluminum and won't rust, but they have not had the frame under them so wouldn't they be weaker than a Seatrain? It would seem to be a double edged sword, it would be lower(a good thing for me getting in and out) but it would be a pain to move for me as I don't have heavy equipment like you.

Having to start over with tools would be a real pain but it seems you were in the cat bird's seat being in the middle of the crash. It's been much the same here as Craigslist is full of contractor tools and ad's for machine shops going out of biz etc. But most of the day to day and certainly the stuff in pawn shops is late model junk compared to older hand tools. So it's definitely a mixed bag. You must have a helluva partner there in your wife as if my wife went through my tool boxes I'd never find anything again. And neither could she

[Frank S]

C-Bag here is my take on the frame-less box trailers. They receive their structural integrity by incorporating the top bottom and sides. Small doors can be cut into the sides up to about 8 to 10 feet wide, however to do so one must replace the gap in the structure with a full framed opening extending from floor to ceiling then add in a header over the door as well as under the floor This is do able with careful planning consider them to be similar to a house that you are removing a load bearing wall only instead of simply having to insure proper roof support you must consider floor support as well Particularly should at a later time the the unit should require relocation to another location..
I own 1 such trailer that I purchased on the cheap because it had been involved in a roll over accident and the top support was damaged on 1 side as well as part of the roof being torn I have it loaded and we did manage to transport it but to do so I installed several temporary braces. Once I decide exactly where I want to finalize its placement I will unpin and remove the tandems and the landing lags at which time it will then be sitting on a string of 16" by 16" by 4" thick concrete blocks then I will be removing about 20 ft of the damaged side wall and installing a steel beam and columns to support the roof. I'm not a devote of roll up or overhead doors as they either take up a lot of overhead interior space or are inherently flimsy excepting for the high end quality ones such as NASSAU made in Denmark or ISEA made in Italy Both are very high end and would be expensive here in the States .
I would probably build simple 10 ft panel sliding doors though Unlike overhead doors you only need to open them as wide as you need or whatever you are moving in or out plus they can be constructed to disappear between an inside wall panel and the outside skin or placed on the outside of the wall
r

[Toolmaker51]

YEPPERS, multi-affirmations and approvals. Roll-ups aren't the ticket for normal ceiling heights...unless mounted externally and above upper header...would need a hood to shield backside and door opening. Rolling barn doors superior and their hardware can be external as well. The door should have jambs encasing door edges to eliminate prying, and dual lock from inside.
On a high desert country lot, I excavated a hillside pit for 2 40' OSC [ocean shipping container] 10' feet apart, adjoined by a 10' in U configuration 26' x 40'. Junctions had dual interior fire doors, container on "right side" fitted with same barn doors mentioned above. Two pitched awnings spanned 10' open area plus overhang to shed rain. 4x4's and rollbacks entered fully, thanks to free span trussed awnings. The sight level [an early post of mine] was helpful in getting things set right. Used CMU [concrete masonry unit] foundation 6'' above grade and boxes are perfectly leveled on a single plane. Exteriors visqueened and backfilled with the excavated sandy soil.
Only detriment; plan for hi-cube boxes couldn't be fulfilled when needed.
New owner removed roof structure and supplanted I-beams and a portland concrete roof, but it is still a carport.

C-Bag mentions..."Right now containers are dropping in price and the dealers are having a hard time getting rid of them. Especially 40'. Van bodies seem to be around the same price."
Ocean containers are inspected and certified periodically; beyond economical repair they enter second hand market. Those remain serviceable for stationary use. Worth looking for are OSC's built to be stacked; basically 4 heavier load bearing walls, likely high cube boxes are such. Van containers don't get much examination and are re-used all the time, part of the value is in aluminum sheeting and occasionally frame. Rollup doors are usually shot. They have far less integrity in regards to strength of the walls, vs corrugations of OSC.
Sorry about lack of picks. No such a thing as digitals back then, or convenient means to share.

[C-Bag]

What, no pix TM51! I wish you had pix......you guys are probably right about the doors. Although I've seen the sectional type garage doors put in a container tiny house and it didn't look too bad, but it does foul overhead clearance. Being vertically challenged it's more about esthetics than actual need of vertical clearance.

[C-Bag]

C-Bag here is my take on the frame-less box trailers. They receive their structural integrity by incorporating the top bottom and sides. Small doors can be cut into the sides up to about 8 to 10 feet wide, however to do so one must replace the gap in the structure with a full framed opening extending from floor to ceiling then add in a header over the door as well as under the floor This is do able with careful planning consider them to be similar to a house that you are removing a load bearing wall only instead of simply having to insure proper roof support you must consider floor support as well Particularly should at a later time the the unit should require relocation to another location..
I own 1 such trailer that I purchased on the cheap because it had been involved in a roll over accident and the top support was damaged on 1 side as well as part of the roof being torn I have it loaded and we did manage to transport it but to do so I installed several temporary braces. Once I decide exactly where I want to finalize its placement I will unpin and remove the tandems and the landing lags at which time it will then be sitting on a string of 16" by 16" by 4" thick concrete blocks then I will be removing about 20 ft of the damaged side wall and installing a steel beam and columns to support the roof. I'm not a devote of roll up or overhead doors as they either take up a lot of overhead interior space or are inherently flimsy excepting for the high end quality ones such as NASSAU made in Denmark or ISEA made in Italy Both are very high end and would be expensive here in the States .
I would probably build simple 10 ft panel sliding doors though Unlike overhead doors you only need to open them as wide as you need or whatever you are moving in or out plus they can be constructed to disappear between an inside wall panel and the outside skin or placed on the outside of the wall
r

Thanks Frank for the detailed explaination. You know way more about trucks and engineering than I ever will. The ONLY drawback to the barn door idea is in my experience they are a little tricky to seal. If I was still in the badlands that would not be an issue, but here in paradise stuff rusts, bad. Fluidfilm has put the kibosh on most of it, but I keep finding things I've not gotten around to treating yet. This is all great info though. Right now containers are dropping in price and the dealers are having a hard time getting rid of them. Especially 40'. Van bodies seem to be around the same price.

[Frank S]

C-bag getting a weather tight seal on the rolling doors is simply a matter of planning. One way I have done it on multi sectional aircraft hanger doors was to set the top- track in such a way that the tracks are angular to the building face causing the door to gradually move closer to the header as it closes the last few inches the hollow puffed out seal came in contact the bottoms had a drop seal which effectively did the same thing only in a vertical plane the leading edge would be enveloped in a "U" with a double seal the trailing edge had an inward facing angle which made contact with an outward facing angle forming a near water tight seal all the way around each section. But we were not nearly as concerned with water tight as we were with dust you would be amassed at how easily a 15 micron dust particle can travel through something when propelled by a gentle 80 MPH desert wind