I have an issue with my shop floor. When the cement was poured and finished, the person that leveled it did a crappy job. I had to learn this the hard way. I built my base for my S5 Pro 4x4 machine and checked level on the top railings as I was building it. I was able to get the base level across the whole top. Then I decided to add, in my shop, a wood rack that would take all of my wood laying around in my shop on the floor and put it into a rack that is 9 feet tall.
Where I decided to put the rack was closest to the big shop door for work flow purposes. This way the wood would come into the shop right at the door and be stacked right away out of the way. Well the issue was that my machine was in the same area as where this rack was going. So I had to move the machine over many feet to clear the location. Mind you, this was difficult because the machine and bench are pretty heavy.
Once I moved the machine, I noticed the bench had a wobble in it. That is when I started checking my floor surface for flatness and level. This floor is so unlevel that I wonder if the person that leveled it didn’t actually level the floor, and said he did so he could get paid for a crappy job. This was done before I got there on the property, so no, it wasn’t a job I had done. Now I am not sure what I can do with the floor to level it, if anything. I also found out that there is no moisture barrier under the concrete floor. I will be moving the machine again to an area in my shop that is sectioned off as a room. This will be the area for my machine when I can create a vacuum room to help pull dust out of the air and away from all the electronics. I will have to run grounding wires in that area so I can control static, but will not until I decide the exactly where my machine will stay. Don’t want to keep punching holes in my walls to run to a grounding rod outside.
Anyways, I was thinking about applying self-leveler on the top of the concrete, but am concerned about the missing moisture barrier and what that might mean for the leveler on top.
I was thinking about this idea, or putting on adjustable bolts with the acrylic heads, like we used on big heavy machines at the machine shop I used to work at. casters would probably work better because they would allow me to be able to move the whole machine and bench around if I need to, especially when running longer pieces of wood through the machine. I want to be able to pull the machine out enough to run a full sheet of plywood, or to be able to fully carve doors without hitting the back wall of my shop.
I like this idea with the retractable casters being inside the table design so they are not sticking out to be hit by my feet when walking around the machine for anything.
I still have to work on the sealing and leveling of my floor. I wish the moisture barrier was in place so I wouldnt have to worry so much about drawing moisture up into my shop through the concrete slab. I will get self lever to pour on the floor, but of course that will cost around $1500 for the whole floor to be completely leveled out. Then I worry about the floor leveling surface cracking a lot over time and chipping away, wasting the time and money on it and causing more of a problem then what it was worth.
Maybe I will just have to live with this floor being this way and just build all of my work benches and surfaces with the idea that they can either be leveled with levelers, or not be moved again once they are built.
If my floors were completely level then I would just install standard casters and leave them so the machine and bench are always moveable, but that is wishful thinking at this point. I have to deal with the issue as I have it, or completely tear out the floor and redo it the right way, costing me many thousands of dollars to do so. Don’t have that kind of money, so I will have to deal with it unless someone knows of anything else that can be done with the floor to help. But the idea of casters on my machine are appealing for sure. Just means that I will have to relevel the machine each time I move it.
The SP5 has some torque to it. My floor is pretty good. If I just used the caster and locked them, the table would go for a ride. The levelers solve that issue as well.
I coexist with life’s garage items, a 2004 Miata and my stuff.
All the tables are on casters. I can clear 95% of the floor space.
When I built my table (in my garage) I wanted mobility but it wouldn’t be often. I originally bought 4" locking casters to to mount under my 2 - 2x6 legs but even when locked the table would sway, I found these leveling machine casters on amazon and they are fantastic! They are a little more work because you have to crank them up/down to adjust (1/2" wrench works great) but when they’re down there is no movement, very solid. Another bonus there are no external mechanisms sticking out from your table legs.
From experience, the self leveler will crack, chip and turn to powder within a couple of years. It starts in the thinner places and spreads. There was self leveler on my shop floor when I moved in the house 4 years ago, and it is pretty much all turned to dust now. The vibration from the equipment is all it needs.
If you put a solid flooring, such as tile over it, it will last many years. But I know that’s a large expense for a shop.
I Went looking into these casters you posted and I actually like them. Yeah, they arent fast move casters, but the minimum footprint that these need on the machine are what I like.
I have my cnc table on 4" lockable casters. I do my leveling via torsion box. the cnc table is just a frame and the shapeoko itself sits on the inner “floating” torsion box which has a leveler to the frame in each corner which I can fine tune via an Allan key in a through hole from the top. I opted for this strategy since I had really nice large casters already and wanted it to be easily movable when I wanted
Well, I was wondering if that was going to be an issue with self-leveler. You did bring up a good idea with the tiling. Tiling would work on smaller scales as if just fixing smaller areas for dedicated machines in those areas. The only other thing would be to frame the floor up and then level it with wood. Not as appealing though.
*Dooryard Knox, that is also an idea. The price is what I am concerned about. Well, I don’t know much about these torsion boxes. So it looks like I am going researching a bit before heading over to my shop today.
to be clear, my torsion box is made from 2x4s with an mdf skin. so a pretty basic implementation, but has worked well for the last 3 years for the XXL. i’ll see if I can dig up some pictures
That would be great to see what it looks like. I went out and bought an mdf board to use as the top surface for my machine to use as material holding, but then I started making my own holders to fit my hybrid table instead. Now I have a 3/4 inch thick sheet of full 4x8 sheet of mdf to use somewhere. This would be a good place to use it.
A sheet of cabinet grade plywood here is $52 a sheet. The high grade cabinet plywood is $90 per sheet. Not rolling in the cash to purchase such material. I will figure something out. Thanks.
it greatly depends where you live, humidity levels etc. mine have been fine, but when I make signs (indoor) out of mdf I prime/seal it with Zinsser BIN Shellac primer. best I’ve found for mdf in the last few years.
I really don’t like using mdf because it always seems to get wet and swell and then crumble apart. I understand the concept for what it was made for and why it is used. But it always seems to be used in places where moisture or water is going to be present, like under sinks. MDF has a warning saying not to use where water or moisture is present, or going to be present, and yet here are all of these vanities and cabinet insides made from the stuff, which once a leak happens, causes wood swelling and degrading.
With this logic, one might as well make a bumper for their cars out of paper and call it good for absorbing collision impacts. Anyways, I digress. But I see that a good sealer for MDF would greatly help with the moisture issues one might have. Thanks for the info.
