Unless it just happens to be the perfect od to press something out on your press! But I have a lathe now, so...
I live in a very wet area, and I don't just mean rain fall. Our water table is high! When I bought my lot I had an engineer come out with a 6 foot fence board with a point on one end and a board across the top that served as a handle. He proceeded to push the entire apparatus into the ground all the way to the hilt, pulled it back out of the muck and said "seen worse". After scraping away the bad soil, 30 dump truck loads of rock, sand and fill dirt were added to bring my foundation up just over the street level. My crawlspace is dry but most my neighbors run sump pumps during the rainy season (October through June). I couldn't imagine digging a 6 foot hole in the floor, even in the middle of summer, it would be a garage mud pool.
This pic makes me laugh... My pit is extra deep (66") as I'm 6' tall and don't want to be constantly ducking. It's also 24' long, allowing access from either end depending on where the car is set. Working width was 40", with a 2.5"W x 1.5" H lip cast on each side for a cover. I lucked into some 1.5" thick heavy-duty plywood that I cut into 28.5" X 45" strips for a full cover when not in use. I wouldn't drive a car onto the cover, but it would hold my weight with zero deflection. Each piece was heavy (35 lbs?) and a chore to remove, even for me. The funny part is when my boys were little, if one (or all three, sometimes it was hard to sort out just who the ringleader had been... LOL) misbehaved, I'd threaten them with 'to the pit!'. I never actually intended to carry out that threat (but they didn't know that), although the two older boys swore they could get out. I took them up on that, pulled the ladder out and let them stew for about an hour. They never went into it again if I wasn't there... LOLOL And it does fill with water in the rainy season sometimes. My shop is about 60' from the Dechutes river and a heavy rain will raise the water table enough to get up to 4' of water in it.
First two and a half years of mixing gas and alcohol, the shop I worked in had a double wide pit. Toward dinner time ( if they were empty ) I'd entertain the guys with a stumble fake balance dance on the rails ) My garage now has a small one in the middle of one bay, with a heavy iron grate cover. It's been occupied til last month. I figure if We get a Tornado warning I'll be glad of it A delivery route of mine had the city bus,/trolley line service garage on it Very Impressive
When I was 18, I worked at my dads body shop in the summer and learned early on, the dangers of gasoline fumes. One morning there was a loud explosion and the transmission shop across the alley blew up. They had a large pit in an old two bay gas station building with the air compressor in it. The owner went in, flipped the switch for the compressor and the building blew up. Apparently, a car was leaking gas overnight and the fumes settled in the pit. Blew out the front wall of the building and the owner onto the street. Needless to say the owner survived, but most of his skin on his arms and head were gone. Had to demolish the rest of the building. There are more dangers to a pit than just falling in it Bill
Another safety concern is if you are working in a 2 stall shop with a pit. If a car is running in the other stall the pit can fill up with carbon monoxide and kill the guy working in the pit.
Just used my pit again yesterday to begin disassembly of an exhaust system, header, etc. I understand all of the potential disadvantages, but it is so much easier to wield tools standing under a car than it is while laying under a car on jackstands.
I worked in one place that had an entire recessed area to stand in while doing alignments. The rack stood into the abyss like a loading dock ledge. This was amazingly handy.
The Jalopy Journal
