floor finishes, garage/shop

304-dude wrote: Ah,  yes color output is sometimes difficult to get equalized with LED setups.  Depending on when the batch was created or a new setup from another maker.  I wish I would have bought 50 bags more of the specialty white LEDs when I had a chance.  At time a Chinese distributor had them from seconds or close outs on end of life products left undisclosed. They turned out to be white when you push them to max voltage.  Unfortunately they do not inform you what voltage they run at to produce white light. I kept upping the voltage and found 3.6v to be the voltage needed.  I think they were for 2x AA battery driven mini torches.  I did a post long ago about using them in my turn signal housings.  Unfortunately the lens is directional and requires a diffuser,  which I did get when I ordered them.  It seems your LED lighting needs a wee tweaking in power to drive them to proper color and brightness.  Donno,  if you thought about hot and cold mixed lighting or a few grow lamps for color accuracy,  though you probably don't need it as you work with the same materials to know unless you change paint products or plating companies. Had one issue, when temping for a company doing board level repair work with SMT components.  They had a weak bulb in my stereoscope. I did not realize it as everyone else was provided digital cam and monitor.  After a month my eyes got beat.  Out of the blue the area cleaner had bumped my scope and jostled it enough to drop the bulb.  When replaced,  it was like night and day.  Not just brighter,  but true white.

Fire retardant isn't a concern on a concrete floor - I do try to avoid setting my floor on fire LOL  ;-)

My concern is normal SHOP work. Not so much storing cars, although tires lifting the product can be a concern for paints and the cheaper products. But keeping with the epoxies or other products that BOND to the concrete, and assuming the grinding and cleaning process is correct and thorough, hot tires lifting it should not be a concern, as confirmed by a member a while back in this thread.

I'm not concerned about tracking things in - that's more a function of what I do outside, and that's covered. REmember, the whole outside concrete will be ripped out, the ground shaped and graded more correctly, and dual, overlapping drains put in which will span the whole width of the approach. The entry door is under cover, on the east, under the lean-to. Weather isn't an issue. I can stand outside the door in all but the very worst storms and stay dry, and snow doesn't seem to collect right next to the door, but it does tend to drift across the approach - but I shovel a path, or get the lawn tractor and blade out...

An engine may be pulled anywhere, an engine may be rebuilt on a stand anywhere. Think of what might go on in a repair shop involving cars - any shop, any sort or type of work, it's likely I already do it or will do it.  Welding, bending, heating, exhaust work, painting, grinding, powder coating, solvent tank, bead blasting, other media blasting as I have two cabinets, complete restoration or refurbishing, press work, lifting entire cars off the floor, all sorts of jack stands, multiple floor jacks, plating, so there will be acids, caustic solutions, water from rinsing, dichromate solutions, zinc, nickle, copper, eventually chrome brush plating, electric work like soldering, turning armatures and alternator rotors, soon a lathe and mill so steel shavings and chips, heavy-duty steel shelving holding many hundreds of pounds of parts, transfer case work, 6 or 7 transfer cases and multiple transmissions and engine blocks on one set of shelves, I have a 401, 360, 343, 258 on stands in the shop, Small plastic wheels on car dollies, small metal - steel or cast wheels on tools and equipment and engine stands, large steel wheels on jacks, etc., jack stands that have metal bases that will be on the floor with quite a bit of pressure. I'd suspect the biggest concerns are the jacks and the jack wheels - lift a car and move it using a floor jack, bet you've done that, right? You have how many pounds on those small steel or cast wheels of the floor jack and you are turning it and pulling or pushing a car to move it...... The gantry crane has very large casters that have a sort of rubber on the wheel so they'd be fine even if I put oak hardwood flooring down. NO, don't go there please! LOL

Since all of these things will be in any parts of the shop at one time or another, I can't have bumps or transitions or edges. That's one reason I'm spending bucks to get the floor leveled and the thing evened out. Creepers, hoists, engine stands can't move easily from here to there. Any mats, pads or different coatings that have different thicknesses sort of thwart any thought of having a floor where one could hold creeper races. I want to be able to roll a marble from one corner to another and not have it stopped by an uneven floor, except for the normal slopes for drainage, duh! but no bumps or tripping hazards!
I want to be able to sweep the whole thing and not have edges to catch on.

Here are some example photos, taken YEARS ago so there's a lot more STUFF in there now, but just for example - and hopefully these may help???





Slightly different topic, but this is the outside that has gone REALLY REALLY bad, shifted, lifted, settled, etc
It's really hard to tell but the area that is the lower left in the photo is an extreme drop or slope, and water cuts DEEEEEEEP ruts into that and has washed so much gravel and dirt down that the section of concrete in the lower left is mostly covered now - because the guy was an idiot and didn't put drains in like I wanted. NEW will have two long drains with steel grates - one that goes across and to the right, another slightly south that goes just part way from the right then all the way left and drains out under the little drive area to the left or east in this photo. So draining will be finally solved, TWO large long drains with grates that will support a heavy truck.

LOL  - I guess you don't understand plating......... it's got to be in a set place. The caustic chemicals, acids, rinses, etc. are't exactly something to be moving around plus you have multiple tanks, and power supplies, etc. It's not like portable welding. You setup and stay there for the most part, if you move you move it ALL. 

Welder, solvent tank, engine stand, rolling seat, tool box, shelving/benches, everything except a refrigerator. i'd say you have a "do it all here" shop. 

What can someone expect to pay for polishing? Let's say in a two  car garage floor? I have never seen this process.