As far as shop space, I went to a friend's house who did fab work on race
cars, roll cages and such. He had a 24 foot 2 car garage with a plasma
cutter, welder, bender, and a four post lift in there. I asked him where his
other fab tools were. He pointed to a rear corner walk door and said "In
there". He opened the door, and at first, I thought I was looking down a
long tunnel. Turned out that he had bought a trailer for a $1000, removed
the road gear and sold it back to the dealer for $500, and had placed the
front of the trailer on supports up to the rear of his shop, cutting a walk
door to match the one in his shop. Shelves for parts and such went all the
way down the left side, and on the right side was a metal rack, loaded
through the rear doors at delivery time. He pulled stock off the rack
through his cut-off saw, then through his coping rig on his drill press,
then out into the main shop to be welded. Other tools like sanders and such
were lined up along the rest of the wall, used while heading out the door
with the cut parts. It was very efficient in method. I had not toticed the
"trailer" when I came up due to some tall redtip shrubs planted
strategically in the line of sight.
Another guy in the area took two containers, placed them about 20 feet
apart on a concrete pad. He then built a roof using pre-made trusses over
the whole setup, which gave him a central drive-through shelter for his
wheeled equipment and such. One container room contains a workshop. The
other (get this) contains a re-created 50's era diner, right down to the
checkered tablecloths. That's where his family holds their gatherings and
cookouts. He ended up with a nice operation and a heck of a conversation
piece.

RJ

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:31:25 -0500, Backlash
wrote:
I live in Eastern NC, and 40 foot seaworthy containers can be had for
$1,800. Rent on one here is $80 a month. $75 local delivery. I did not
go
this route, due to the tilting required for moving the containers. Not
good
for tall machine tools. They also sell trailers for $800 to $!,400, for
shoddy to decent condition.

OK, so a semi trailer is cheaper, _and_ more portable than a shipping
container, am I getting this right? So, should I just buy a trailer or
two for shop space? Other than the height issue of getting things in
there,
is there a drawback?