Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

Everyone who knows me are probably familiar with my work shop or lack there of conditions.
For many years I have worked under my tent shop I've moved it around several times It is pretty good in the summer , great for providing shade and blocks much of the summer winds But it is horrible in cold wet dreary windy weather especially when the winds are out of the NE or east.

For the past several years life has always got in the way of my starting my shop so today I decided to at least take the first step.
So since life on a farm always has more things that need doing than can get done I finally decided that if I just get 1 column standing I will be able to say that I am starting on my shop. So today this happened
Of course first I had to pull some stumps that had been nagging me for a long time then remove a tree from a fence and remove the fence but those were not going to stop me from my goal. I removed a tire from an old 24.5" truck rim then welded it to the bottom of a 7" sch 80 pipe. the pipe was not long enough to suit me since it was only 12 ft long I welded a 10 ft section to it then dug the hole with my backhoe . I went down 6 feet deep before I struck hard pan. now my column is not long enough again I wanted 18 ft walls. I added another 4 ft to the pipe. then hefted it into the ground with my backhoe



I am not cementing these columns in the ground I prefer to have a large base on them then back fill with dirt & clay tossing in a bag of portland every few layers adding water and tamping
Tomorrow I will try to get my whacker packer running It should run just fine since it only has about 30 minutes of run time since brand new. but I've had it for several years I hope I drained the gas out.



Once I set up my scaffolding (I have enough to set up an 18 ft high run about 60 feet long so working from a ladder is never in my job description) I will fill each column with sand dirt gravel and used motor oil I have a concrete vibrator that I will strap to the columns to pack the dirt and oil inside of the columns.
There are a couple reasons for my doing this 1 is it makes them infinitely stiffer 2 it prevents them from ever rusting out from the inside and 3 it deadens any sound transmittal should I decide to add things to them like a thick plate for hammering on or mounting a bench grinder on. also by being stiffer if I weld a pull ring to them they won't have a tendency to bow, they wouldn't anyway since so much else will be welded to them in the form of building materials and bracing.

[Jon]

This is gonna be a great build. I had not heard of the scaffolding trick.

[Frank S]

I am hoping to be able to devote at least a couple days a week to the project Yesterday I dug out my plate compactor and as usual or I should say normal for me when I used it last I didn't take the little extra effort to completely drain the fuel then pour in a little of the $25.00 a gallon chain saw fuel and run it for a few minutes on that stuff to preserve the carburetor I just fille it with fresh gas and tried to run it.
Note the redimix 2cyl fuel has stabilizers and does not have the additives that pump gas has it will last a lot longer in storage not 2, 3 or 4 years but much longer than gasoline.
Anyway the compactor did start and kind of ran as long as I kept it 3/4 choked but it would not rev to full RPM I ran it for a while packing the hole around the column. It settled the fill over a foot and a half. Then I finally managed to get the packer moved out of the way added more fill packed some more added fill and kept packing until the packer decided to quit running. About this time I decided to bite the bullet and drain the tank pull the carb and clean it then life gets in the way once more.
But right now the column is as solid as a 100 year old OAK tree I just need to add another foot of fill then set up a section of scaffolding next to it and fill the inside. I'm already thinking that I may have wished that I would have made it taller in case I want to add a mezzanine floor later on but I'm never satisfied I probably wouldn't be satisfied if I had a shop with 50 ft tall side walls LOL

[Toolmaker51]

I have 15'6" walls...will lose 10" to trunk and branches of wireway directly above machines, 277v lighting conduits, and 110v receptacle conduit. Areas without big stuff below, can have small mezzanines for storage, reloading and a ''retreat'. Won't be ideal headroom unless joists are glue-lam, I-beam or stronger materials with less height than 2x10 lumber, and correspondingly thin built up flooring. Under the roof peak, above truss joists I'm saving the 13'odd height x 80' as an air rifle range...with target retrieval lines.
I cannot reasonably expect acquiring more square feet. In my mind, added square feet are even more expensive than what you
start out with, unless steps are taken first utilizing cubic space efficiently.

[Frank S]

When you work on equipment especially excavators you want all of the height you can get so 18 is about the minimum I can stand depending on where I wind up locating the bracing in the trusses right at the peak of the roof I will have 24 ft clear with the trusses being planned on either 15 or 20 ft CC spacing this will help out a lot. I told the wife I wished that I could make the walls much higher. She said if I had the NASA Apollo Assembly building I would want it to be taller. She has a point LOL

[Toolmaker51]

I had some tortuous hand-wringing on occasion to replace flat roof with trusses, and how desirable more height is. Few options with brick structure, even with original purchase less than a couple years rent or lease. I view roof cost versus repairs worthwhile, accepting height still better than any other affordable structure in town. Not sure height would increase market value in accordance that roof did [250%].
Now if I was rural like Frank S, those factors would be different. We originally considered rural, but dividing home from shop property seemed advantageous. Main consideration, wanting to sell one entangles both.

[Frank S]

Got started making my trusses out of the salvaged trusses I have had for 5 years
Piecing them back together and doubling them while I am at it. since the old building was 120 ft and mine will only be 60 ft I have enough to make the amount of trusses I need
Doubling them will make them almost 3 times stronger than they were before since I am adding more bracing and once installed there will be horizontal and diagonal bracing from truss to truss. plus I won't have a 70 ft span my span will be more like 60 ft much less by the time I add in corner bracing from the columns to the trusses the span will be reduced another 6 to 8 feet.

About half completed

Probably no work tomorrow , Life it going to get in the way have to go look for a new cook stove.

[Frank S]

Two trusses ready 3rd almost half 2 more to go after the one I'm working on now.
I only hope I'm going to have enough salvaged materials to complete all 5 without having to buy any new stock

[Frank S]

At the rate I'm going by the time I'm 90 I'll have my shop finished
I now have most of the trusses made no 2 are exactly the same for reasons which will not be apparent until the building is complete
this one will be 1 of the center trusses A full double truss that later I will be able to hang a beam on to become 1 rail of a bridge crane
It is 68 feet long 6 feet high and stiff enough to be carried while laying flat

This is the master corner column I will be mounting a crane on it which will be able to swing from outside to inside the building.
the crane is an old brick crane removed from 1 of the trailers I rebuilt Instead of sending the crane to scrap I figured I'd use it some day



The hole is almost 8 feet deep here I am filling the cavities in the wheels with a mixture of dry cement and clay the clay is moist so once I have them tamped full the cement will absorb the moisture

Now begins the filling and tamping clay rock and some cement is used in each 6 inch layer then packed down to 3 or 4 inches


The final layer is just clay and dirt since eventually when I get ready to pour a concrete floor I may have to remove some of the fill

Now for the crane pedestal
.
The next step will be to establish the 2 remaining corners see you in another 4 months LOL

[Frank S]

As tall as this shop is going to be setting the trusses when I get to that point is going to be a small challenge I own an Austin Western rough terrain crane but ther are 2 problems with it first it is still a couple hundred miles away and second it doesn't have an engine and needs a lot of work.
My forklift only goes up 12 feet it will not maneuver well on the soil here except for right in the shop area but I had to cut up the make shift scrap lattice boom height extension that I made to take down the old shop where these trusses came from
The boom was made out of parts of 2 of the trusses and I don't think I ever published it but I had a small 2500 lb winch mounted on the forklift to lower the trusses to the ground. It was a hoggy trashy thing but worked great for what I needed it for now I will have to do something different.



Also I could use the forklift boom that I made by putting it on the forks of the back hoe but it is not long enough even with the loader raised all the way up and tilted all the way back it will be about 6 feet too short
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/f...6137#post65975
So sitting here while it is raining I am studying my quickest options knowing that what ever I decide will be another use it and toss it when done unless I wait until my crane gets here and I get it running before hand