Adding On To My Shop

David Freed · October 23, 2016, 06:14:21 AM

Thanks for the HB's.

I've been around Amish my entire life. I could fill 2 or 3 pages in this thread with Amish stories. I've even helped a crew a few times. I felt like a turtle in a herd of rabbits.

When I delivered pole barn packages, it was usually Amish crews that put them up. They traveled up to 400 miles to put up the buildings. I could give the customers a real close estimate on how long it would take the crew to get it built, whether it was a 24'x24' or a 40'x60'. A simple 24x24 could go from bare ground to finished in a long day.

thecfarm · October 23, 2016, 09:33:02 AM

I can not get over the bird's nests. That's ALOT of hay.
The word is work good together. That is the key word,together. Have been around Grange suppers,fairs,craftshows,events. Take note of when things are going good and bad. Get 10 together,be it men or women and only about 6 knows what the others want them to do and the other 4 need help every inch of the way,things can fall apart.
At one job I had,equipment was taken apart and moved. They brought in a Crane and Rigging crew. Those guys knew what they was doing. And they worked. Wasn't 4 guys doing the work and 2 standing there watching and 2 more pretending they was working. ;D They could get the job done.

David Freed · October 23, 2016, 02:35:53 PM

Quote from: thecfarm on October 23, 2016, 09:33:02 AM
I can not get over the bird's nests. That's ALOT of hay.
The word is work good together. That is the key word,together.

I was dumbfounded when I saw the nests.

I have installed cabinets dozens of times with these guys. We make a real good team.

David Freed · October 27, 2016, 03:01:14 AM

A little more progress. I got my "crew" to help on the roof joists today. Their 2 hours of work saved me 2 or 3 days.

Roxie · October 27, 2016, 06:55:11 AM

8)

David Freed · November 04, 2016, 07:54:58 PM

Another days work. To get the bubble insulation over the roof, I tied a string to a small block of wood, wrapped the end of the insulation around a 5' long 1/2" x 1 1/2", and c-clamped that to the other end of the string. I would throw the block over the building and then go up on top and pull the string up.

I used my flatbed trailer to work from to be able to reach better.

David Freed · November 05, 2016, 08:49:00 PM

I started today building a wall. I didn't want to be on the roof with frost on everything with the thermometer at 34*. I built it in 2 sections for easier handling.

First pic is how I start every day. Second is a brain fart I discovered when I laid out the pieces; The bottom plate needs to be 104 - 37.75 = 64.25.

66.25 worked better in the third pic of the finished wall.

Got the roof finished and called it a day.

Carson-saws · November 05, 2016, 10:32:44 PM

WOW....lookin REAL nice......maybe not as much as you but...I can't wait to see the finished project.

David Freed · November 08, 2016, 02:43:08 AM

Another day. One of the things I did was put some metal on the long wall. First pic shows 2x6's holding the studs straight while I put metal on.

Second & third pics show how I held one end up of a 16' sheet of metal up while I lifted the other end and put a screw in. That is a bungee hook I saved from a broken bungee. I have a tin can with several of them. I don't throw anything away.

Fourth pic is a string with a weight to keep screws lined up.

thecfarm · November 08, 2016, 06:48:15 AM

All good ideas. I know waht's it like to work alone.
Ever put trim boards up alone? :

GRANITEstateMP · November 18, 2016, 02:26:11 PM

Looks good. I love progress pictures! So nice to have more room, means more "projects"...

David Freed · November 18, 2016, 06:54:12 PM

I look at these pictures and think "this is all I got done?" I do realize I was doing some small jobs that don't really show, but it just looks like I didn't do much.

Saturday I built a wall and stripped the old wall and doors; pic 1 &2.

Monday I built a door framework, installed the track, and hung the door; pic3.

I had three 17 hour days in a row at work. Today was an easy day. Tomorrow, back to work on my building.

David Freed · November 20, 2016, 05:34:49 AM

I bought 2 damaged windows a couple years ago at a greatly reduced price. I had brought them home and put them in storage. Yesterday I got out the one that was going in the west wall and took it to the local glass shop to see about replacing the broken pane. That is also when I found out that they were side sliders instead of up and down; after I framed the the wall wrong.

Luckily there was a 1 1/2" difference between width and height on this window so it was an easy fix. The other window will require a little more work, but still not too bad.

I installed the window, put more metal on the walls and did a few other minor jobs. I put a treated 2x10 at the bottom of the door frame and had to trim it with my hand planer on one end so it was flush with the upright.

It was so windy when I started that my step ladder kept blowing over. It calmed down to extremely annoying by noon.

I'm reusing all the metal I can and found a little note from the employee I had building the original shop dated almost 11 years ago. Same weather as today; windy and cold.

David Freed · November 23, 2016, 06:34:40 PM

I have been reusing the metal I pulled off of the building. I have 1 end and 1 side on except for the sliding door. Just a small pile of metal left. The ugly looking spot by the window is a temporary patch over the hole I framed in the wall for A/C. I won't buy and install that til next summer.

I am going to pull the old metal off the end of the building facing the road, use part of it to finish the door, and put new metal across that entire end. The sliding door on that end will be 2/3 in the old part and 1/3 in the new. The header will be supporting the roof as well as the door.

I measured the wall sections this morning before I went to work, called the lengths in at 7 am when GPB opened, and brought home the new metal late this afternoon.

I'll have several pics for this wall. I have to jack up the header holding the roof peak, take out the corner post, and put the header in the end wall to hold up the roof header. I'd like to get that wall covered by Sat pm. We'll see if that happens.

David Freed · November 27, 2016, 02:33:29 PM

I made quite a bit of progress on the east wall. I worked from 3 am to 11 am Thursday and 4 am to 2 pm Friday before I had to make a short run.

The dark pic shows how I had the window opening framed wrong. It took about an hour to fix this one. I used my hammer drill and Tapcon bolts to anchor the wall to the concrete block wall under it. I moved the light switch to a temporary spot for now.

When I got back from work, I temporarily fastened some tin over the doorway (2 pcs, 4 screws) and stuck in the walk door with a couple screws. I was wore out and called it a day.

David Freed · November 27, 2016, 02:40:46 PM

Yesterday I started working on the shop at 2:30 am. Went to work for a couple hours at 7 am, took an hour for lunch,and worked til 6 pm. There is still a full day of work to build and cover the left upper wall and finish up the several details on the outside, but I was able to lock up a full size shop instead of a half of one. 8)

Now I don't have to drag out and put away tools every time I work on it. 8)

David Freed · January 29, 2017, 12:55:58 PM

I am slowly making progress.

samandothers · January 29, 2017, 01:49:38 PM

Wow ! Lots accomplished looks nice!

Ox · January 29, 2017, 01:56:21 PM

Kicking butt and taking names - nice job!

David Freed · February 07, 2017, 10:24:21 AM

Construction mess cleaned up and ready to paint as soon as I get home around noon.

Farmerjw · February 07, 2017, 10:57:31 AM

David, just read through your whole post. WOW!! Doubling the space! Odon, is that a little North and West of West Lafayette? I think I remember going through Odon a few times while I was at Purdue in the early '80's. Wood shop? The squirrel cage blower on the wall, exhaust fan?

Picked a great day to paint, supposed to be in the high 50's today! Thursday we are to be in the low 20's!! >:(

David Freed · February 07, 2017, 06:45:23 PM

Odon is halfway between Indy and Evansville. It was 65* here. I opened both sliding doors and had plenty of ventilation. The squirrel cage fan is going to be the exhaust for my spray booth.

Watching someone else use a power painter makes it look easy. Just imagine tying 20 lb weights to your wrists and then holding them out in front of you for a few hours. I'm exhausted.

It is a crappy paint job, but it's brighter now.