Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

Having half the roof up, when you see how much more to go, and the worst of the winter is yet to come, I understand.
Do you have any concern about high winds and the columns racking over? I know you buried them deep and in Portland cement infused clay.

I do have some concerns enough so that I have some more bracing made up to weld in place and some cables installed for wind stabilization currently my biggest concern is the fact that the ends do not have any columns just the corner columns the North West and South West columns are hero columns the one on the south has the structure for the brick crane tied to it half way up so very little concern there. On the North side the Container stabilizes those but I can still detect more than movement than I felt there should have been when I was dragging the sheets across Probably just imagination and a combination of natural flex due to there being no walls in place. If the building were only 10 or 12 feet to the eves and it had that much movement I would have been really worried.
Today the winds are gusting close to 30 MPH and from the ground feeling the columns I don't detect any movement at all, That's not to say there is not any I just don't detect any.

[jdurand]

I was starting to make progress on cleaning up here, got to get everything not being packed sold, given away, or trashed.

until

My wife said she needed my help with the special cake she was making, it looks like it's made of bricks. It's for a sort of cook book that she's working on. I gave her some tinned steel to make separators for the cake pan...what now?

She said "I've got all the ingredients, I'll give them to you as you need."

oh

I'm making the cake. Can't I just have it and eat it too?

The looks aren't quite what she was going for, took some pictures and she'll think about revision 2. Anyway, tastes good, but then anything chocolate does.

[Frank S]

Only 3 purlin left to get welded in place

[metric_taper]

Looks like you got the next week planned out.

[Frank S]

Looks like you got the next week planned out.

Well I got the Masda engine back together and the little truck going so that was one project out of the way.
I have the tilt steering column in a 91 F250 scattered in a hundred pieces waiting parts to rebuild that.
I have the steering cylinder from my friends Prevost RV torn down waiting parts for that
And to top it off in moving the equipment trailer I put my old 93 F350 in a pretty hard pull and stacked the friction rings in the forward clutch pack so now it only had forward gears and even tries to move forward in neutral Reverse and park so going to have to pull that and rebuild the e4OD transmission. I've done enough of those transmissions to know exactly what parts are going to be needed before I pull it I might drive the Dodge 2500 under the covered area and go ahead and drop that transmission and install the front seal just to get it off of the list.
But before I do any of these if the weather and winds are even half way favorable I'm going to install some purlin tomorrow I hope.
added note with the masda this now makes the entire running gear having been rebuilt by me the diff, the tranny, u joints, new clutch and slave cylinder 4 new tires new shocks new brakes on the front the front bumper and a tow bar set up. tie rod ends and new battery so the only thing left mechanical that I have not done to it would be the ball joints and they are in good shape As I did an alignment on it when I did the tie rod ends.
the little truck should be good for another 200K now except it may need a muffler soon.

[Crusty]

That Mazda saga reminds me of my old axe - I've replaced the handle three times and the head once. It's been too useful to just retire it.

[Frank S]

That Mazda saga reminds me of my old axe - I've replaced the handle three times and the head once. It's been too useful to just retire it.

I had an axe like that.
The masda saga all started with my bud making a nuisance bid on an auction so low we thought it would be impossible to win. When he went to pick it up after winning the bid just for giggles and grins he tried to start it, it started but the starter didn't disengage and burned out the Bendix the little truck was straight body wise with still good paint and the interior was surprisingly like new inside. So he drove it up on the trailer and headed straight to see about getting it safety inspected and the starter replaced. after replacement of the starter and a couple emissions sensors it passed inspection He drove it around a few days and noticed the diff had a sound in it and the clutch felt weak so He brought it to me mainly because we wanted a little chase vehicle and one that could be towed behind an RV or a truck for a mode of transportation after delivery or to drive to pick up a truck. the rest so they say is history.
But my rebuilding the engine was because it overheated on me on my way back from inspecting the Prevost RV another friend was buying I could have gotten away with merely replacing a head gasket but with 220,000 miles I decided to pull the engine and go through it instead. it really didn't need the new rod and mains bearings the cam bearings the timing chain or new pistons wrist pins and rings but it got them anyway. I didn't bore it because there was less than 0.003" taper to any of the bores might as well still been a new block the same with not turning the crank as there was no appreciable or even noticeable wear to the old bearings I even saved the old bearings in case we wind up with another engine that just needs a patch job which is something that I would almost never do except for a stationary engine used on a pump or piece of aging equipment, that wouldn't justify the cost of a proper rebuild.
My dad would have done this in a Texas second but not me, he would have split a frog's hair 4 ways if it saved fifty cents, I draw the line on splitting frog's hairs to 3 ways

[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]

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.

[metric_taper]

Darn, the photos are not viewable Frank.