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anyone turning in a yurt?

Concrete piles, at least for some of the foundation, could save considerable cost. Depends on seismic concerns in your area whether they are sn option at all, however.

You do wanna try to have heavy equipment on slab-on-grade as much as possible, however. OTOH, wooden sub-floor is much kinder to the human skeleton and supporting structure. A half and half shop would be ideal, IMO, if you can have machines on concrete and operator positioned just over the line standing on wood. The bouncier the floor, the better. I *rarely* say that, but your skeleton would likely agree.
 
Geography dictated footings anchored to bedrock for the foundation - same as the house. Our property is situated on a rock knob on the side of a mountain that rises directly out of the Salish Sea - about 180 feet from sea level. The shop is located on a side slope that leads to a ravine for a creek. The benefit of footings is, as pointed out, wood floors are much easier on the skeleton than a slab. Having workable storage and space for under floor dust collection and compressor in the crawlspace is also nice. Electrical to mid-floor equipment is also run under the floor. I was advised that footings also require significantly less concrete than a slab in our case - important when you live on an island with access only via small ferry - the cost of concrete is twice that in any other part of the county.
The floor joists for the front part where the lathe resides are all doubled up 2x12’s on 12” centers perpendicular to the lathe bed. I also added two 6x12 beams directly under the legs of the lathe and jacked them using jack posts from below just for a little extra dampening. The largest unbalanced blanks on my 25” Robust AB have not, so far (5 years now) resulted in the lathe moving more than fractions of an inch - but then I’m pretty careful to slow down and get things in balance before running the speed up. I’m in no hurry.
 
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One of the reasons I asked how this shook out is I’ve been researching fun options to build a small turning studio. I’ve outgrown the garage space, and I think making round stuff in a round space would be fun.

I started looking at building a geodesic dome, with a bunch of natural light. I haven’t found one being used as a workshop yet, but I’m sure it’s out there!
 
I still like the idea of a yurt. They’re used as accommodations in some of the State Parks in Oregon and seem to hold up well and are comfortable spaces. In the environment in which I live - forested area with Doug Fir, maple and Madrone most common and a long rainy/wet period most years, the upkeep of the vinyl and keeping the mold and algae at bay (judging by the several examples on our island) is daunting. While simplicity of just erecting a platform and building the yurt from there is appealing.
One of my neighbors has built a tree house platform spanning five Douglas Fir trees and has begun assembling a geodesic dome kit on it. It is planned for an Air bnb, not a shop, but could work as one.

Circular spaces and domes can certainly work, but I do like being able to put large windows pretty much wherever I want without concerns. I also like having access on opposite ends of the space. Both things are possible, but need to be fully designed before the shells are kitted out.
 
A geodesic dome might be a fun project. One other building shape that comes to mind I discovered during my days as a concrete finisher. They would inflate a hemispheric balloon shape, and then spray gunite, a concrete mix more for swimming pools, to 3 or so inches thick, put a bunch of rebar on top of that, then spray more gunite on that. Most of the time these are dug half way into a hill side and then covered with dirt, and lots of sealers to prevent water leaks. I thought it was a new idea, but my dad told me about 'Brassiere Village' in the Washington DC area prior to 1952 when we moved from there. A rounded shape like that would be ideal for high wind areas. Funny thing about them was that while finishing the slab inside, the boss was talking and it sounded like he was right next to me, but he was in another of the 3 connected domes..... Side note, a guy I worked for once came to work with a hat his wife gave him. It said, "Boss spelled backwards is double SOB!" We all thought it was pretty funny. He was a good guy to work for, but I did have a couple of the double SOBs I worked for......

robo hippy
 
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