Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

4 more purlin in place enough purlin on top to complete that section
the scaffold relocated and 4 more purlin on top ready for the next time.
Only purlin remain on the ground

[Frank S]

today turned out to be another of those climb up climb down walk back and forth run the back hoe Armstrong the steering of the bus scaffold climb up over and over
I'm thinking I would get less of a work out in a Gould's GYM with a retired Drill sergeant as a trainer Almost any cardiologist will tell you that once you reach a certain age you absolutely need to walk a mile or 2 every day and climb several flights of stairs. But none of them have ever thought about doing this while clambering over steel trusses 20 odd feet in the air while pushing or dragging 3 to 6 80 lb purlin in place My cardiologist would have heart failure just thinking about it.
All purlin are on top of the building now
7 are welded in on 1 section and 3 welded in on the other section so I guess all in all I managed to get 5 welded in place today at times the wind did get bad enough to make me head for the ground but it mostly cooperated

[metric_taper]

It is the best exercise method. I can't work out in a gym, or on my wife's tread mill. But put a push mower or some human labor project at my hands (snow removal) and I see the benefit to my life (and I want to do it).
I bet your tired at the end of each day.

[Frank S]

Only 3 purlin left to get welded in place

[Frank S]

I'm preparing the base for the beam column that will be in the east wall. Later on more steel will be added to the column to make it the head piece for a rotisserie , which will also double as a weld positioner and an anchor post for frame pulling it will also the door stop for the double sliding 26 ft. door that will be on that side
But I wanted to have an extremely solid embedded base under the column so I started by excavating a hole just over 6 feet deep or about a foot and a half into blueish white clay
.
then dropped in 3 truck rims and used my plate packer to vibrate them into the floor


The worst thing was before I could even get started compacting I had to pull the carb off the engine and clean it as the last time I used it I forgot yo drain the gas and pour in a small amount of $30.00 a gallon stabilized chainsaw fuel then run the compactor a couple minutes on that stuff



As you might see the gin pole set up is proving to be quite the asset



dirt back filled and packed


scrapped away to expose the rims for welding a connecting beam to them



The connecting beam welding in place, more wheels and beams to be added tomorrow

[metric_taper]

Darn, the photos are not viewable Frank.

[Frank S]

Darn, the photos are not viewable Frank.

Try them now I deleted them and re loaded them

[metric_taper]

So is there any end of the depth of clay? Looks like your well below any frost depth. But I'm guessing you want to get below where rain/surface water can enable the clay to cold flow with the intended load your planning on this 'foundation'. I assume you've mix Portland in to solidify the plastic nature of the clay, as you did with your columns.
I don't understand what this rotisserie is. I think of a rail road engine rotisserie at a maintenance facility, but I can't think of a semi-trailer repair analog. I'm sure you'll post photos when you get to this.
Looks like more roofing to install when the winds are right.

[Frank S]

Maybe if I had called it a spit as in bbq. the column will eventually have more vertical steel added to it to beef it up and to hold a carriage with a spindle on this a rotating assembly will be added which can be used as a welding positioner or the head piece to attach one end of a semi trailer or truck frame to in order to turn it on its side or upside down. As you can imagine this will require some substantial amount of steel as the rotator will have to elevate up and down to a certain degree.
What I am calling bluish white clay is almost a shale like substance. hard enough that if you want to dig it by hand a pick is helpful. If I was only concerned with moisture inclusion, frost heave or settling due to weight loading I could have stopped digging at a foot possibly 2 feet deep. I have all of the columns in the building embedded between 6 and 8 feet to make them have roots more like a giant redwood than those of a palm tree

[metric_taper]

I didn't think of a rotisserie to rotate a huge trailer. But that makes too much sense to get to places without straining yourself.