Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

This explains lots of things...

The picture is actually quite fitting since if you look closely at my picture you will find the welding machine and behind it a diesel can, where the diesel can is sitting is almost exactly where the toilet will be located

[Toolmaker51]

Attachment 36695

Long ago, I recall stories of men building boats in their basement. Only later did chink in the plans appear; without means to extricate said project from under their house.
This is different, no-one recollects any bus on a shelf....

But it's one hell of a dual glazed set of windows! Terrific indirect and glare free lighting too. Or charge admission for tourists to see a real American shop in operation.
Last one not so unusual, I toured a woodworking furniture factory quite like that. It occupies a big abandoned but renovated church. The vaulted ceiling makes room for an elevated walkway, a balcony to see operations in their entirety.

[Frank S]

Long ago, I recall stories of men building boats in their basement. Only later did chink in the plans appear; without means to extricate said project from under their house.
This is different, no-one recollects any bus on a shelf....

But it's one hell of a dual glazed set of windows! Terrific indirect and glare free lighting too. Or charge admission for tourists to see a real American shop in operation.
Last one not so unusual, I toured a woodworking furniture factory quite like that. It occupies a big abandoned but renovated church. The vaulted ceiling makes room for an elevated walkway, a balcony to see operations in their entirety.

Back around 1980 while I was building an oil drill rig behind this guys shop he was building a natural gas sub station compressor inside his shop. To give a little perspective of his shop it was maybe all of a 40x40 concrete tilt wall building with 14 ft ceiling it had 2 garage doors only 8 feet wide and maybe all of 9 feet high. I walked in the shop one morning to find his guys welding a skid together that was 20 feet long and 12 feet wide. I'm thinking Houston you are going to have a problem but since at the time it was none of my concern I ignored it. A few hours later a cement truck showed up and they filled the skid with concrete.
This is really going to be interesting I was thinking.
weeks later they have this thing just about built and it is almost all the way to the ceiling as well.
Only then did the owner come to me and ask what I thought would be the best way to get it out of the building.
Well George, as I see it you have only 2 options well actually 3 but the 3rd one wouldn't suit your customer. plan A you knock down a section of the tilt wall and drag the thing out with a dozer, plan b you remove the roof and lift it out with a 100 ton crane. Plan A might mean the roof could collapse and plan B might mean you drop it
what's plan "C" he asked? you sell the place to the customer and they turn this shop into a natural gas substation by routing their pipeline through town.
He opted for plan A and wound up with a 16 ft wide 14 ft tall door

[Frank S]

Which is one of the reasons why I will have a 48ft wide door on the front it will be next to impossible to build anything inside that will be too large to get out of the building, that and the fact that lots of farm equipment can be 40 plus feet wide if it can not be folded up due to malfunctions the height plus the size makes this building worth 10 times more in an estate sale for after I'm gone

[Frank S]

With each passing day the building becomes more and more of a structure edging closer to being a closed in building. When I start thinking about the eventual population of equipment and projects it has started to make me wonder if I may not be coming claustrophobic already thinking of where I will score more materials from to increase the size of it.
NA Just kidding. Once it is completed and the eventual slab is poured, which will have to be after several good paying projects are run through it, I know it will be a tight squeeze for some of the projects to be brought in and they will have to be on a time in and time out basis to keep the clutter down but aside from a sand blasting shed and an environmentally stable paint booth large enough to fit something like a bus in the size of the shop is pretty much what it is.
Today we tackled the East wall and end cap I ran out of flashing and a friend is bringing me a roll in a couple of days other wise the East is ready for doors

[Toolmaker51]

Epic.
No other suitable term applies.

[Frank S]

Epic.
No other suitable term applies.

In the past few weeks we have watched pile after pile of materials diminish and in some cases completely disappear.
It is hard to believe or even imagine that at one time with the exception of 5 pipes 4 I beams and a stack of purlin all of the materials for this building was hauled here as salvaged materials. I would have barely been able to have built a bare bones 2 car garage for the amount of cash I've spent on this thing.

[metric_taper]

In the past few weeks we have watched pile after pile of materials diminish and in some cases completely disappear.
It is hard to believe or even imagine that at one time with the exception of 5 pipes 4 I beams and a stack of purlin all of the materials for this building was hauled here as salvaged materials. I would have barely been able to have built a bare bones 2 car garage for the amount of cash I've spent on this thing.

Being in the right place at the right time to harvest that original building helped.
But it's your sweat equity to do all the work to dismantle and haul away, and erect at your site, that enabled this.
Your support columns are clever in using scrap wheels and drill piping, and knowledge of clay subsoil mixed with cement.
Delivered concrete has gotten crazy over the years. That is a minor hurtle to you.

[Frank S]

Being in the right place at the right time to harvest that original building helped.
But it's your sweat equity to do all the work to dismantle and haul away, and erect at your site, that enabled this.
Your support columns are clever in using scrap wheels and drill piping, and knowledge of clay subsoil mixed with cement.
Delivered concrete has gotten crazy over the years. That is a minor hurtle to you.

I have been watching several different auctions again lately.
The thought of eventually needing well over 100 yards of concrete plus the distance to the nearest plant has started me thinking about the possibility of maybe finding an old but working portable batch plant. a screed, power trowels and all other needed article's then once the pour and any additional slabs are done sell everything.
My reckoning is I could probably cut the cost of my slab by 70% even with hiring labor. Plus who knows if folks within 10 to 15 miles of me knew I had a batch plant I could wind up needing to provide small amounts to them to be hauled in a 1 1/2 or 2 yard trailer. I used to rent them all the time and they are nothing to build

[metric_taper]

I have been watching several different auctions again lately.
The thought of eventually needing well over 100 yards of concrete plus the distance to the nearest plant has started me thinking about the possibility of maybe finding an old but working portable batch plant. a screed, power trowels and all other needed article's then once the pour and any additional slabs are done sell everything.
My reckoning is I could probably cut the cost of my slab by 70% even with hiring labor. Plus who knows if folks within 10 to 15 miles of me knew I had a batch plant I could wind up needing to provide small amounts to them to be hauled in a 1 1/2 or 2 yard trailer. I used to rent them all the time and they are nothing to build

You think big with getting your own batch plant!

At my local home supply, 1cuft bag of cement is ~$10. How much is that bulk I wonder. I think the current price of concrete delivered here locally is $160-$180/cu.yd. It was $48/yd in 1988 the last time I had it delivered. And that's made with crushed limestone aggregate, which is too soft in my opinion (and why the life cycle of roads here is short, as it is porous to the salt water in the winter, and freeze-thaw spalling is common). I paid extra to have washed river gravel from igneous rock used. But under the entire state is only limestone near the surface. The mix is a 6bag per yd of cement to make the strength yield using limestone.