Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

That's exactly what I'd have done.
If I had a backhoe, 100' of chain, an observer, plus a few other necessities....Still trying to graduate beyond Egyptian rollers and pinch bars.

I had to do my own observing pull a few feet or a few inches as sometimes the case happened to be didn't want Jane inside the container trying to give me hand signals which I probably wouldn't have been able to see anyway, while trying to move a 3 ton obtrusively shaped object past an equally obtrusive unveiling object of the same weight, with less than a couple inches of clearance for one to pass the other. The possibility of rendering bodily harm would have been astronomical.

[Frank S]

I have a couple of tools that I thankfully don't need very often, but that doesn't take away from them being extremely valuable when I do need them.
The problem with both of them is they lay flat on the floor taking up lots of space not that I mind that so much as my shop and storage areas are large anyway. However since they are only around 7 inches tall they either get shoved under something but still stick way out in the way or I am constantly having to find a more suitable place to store them hopefully out of the way. most places in a shop that is out of the way winds up being a repository for anything and everything that needs stored out of the way meaning these tools wind up on the bottom of a stack of somethings.
Well I think I solved that issue today once and for all I hung them up like pictures on the wall 1 weighs around 200 lbs while the other weighs around 75 lbs

The only bad thing I can think of now is everyone who visits my shop will see a pair of transmission jacks hanging on the wall and will assume that I am willing to repair their transmission

[metric_taper]

The only bad thing I can think of now is everyone who visits my shop will see a pair of transmission jacks hanging on the wall and will assume that I am willing to repair their transmission

Or they'll want to borrow them. And then you have to fetch them when needed, and might forget where they went. Worse, they come back broken, as that's been my experience.
But you know where they are at now.

[Frank S]

Or they'll want to borrow them. And then you have to fetch them when needed, and might forget where they went. Worse, they come back broken, as that's been my experience.
But you know where they are at now.

Not many around me who would even know what to do with one of them if they did ask to borrow.
There are only 2 guys in the whole county who I would lend them to anyway. 1 is a car mechanic in town he runs the only state and DOT inspection place in the county. he has seen them and thought if ever he needed to pull a transmission that required the larger of the 2 the truck was going tob e delivered to me instead of his place
The other guy lives about a mile from me he and I often trade hours with each other he is a diesel mechanic /welder / sometime machinist so we have a few things in common I borrowed his transmission jack once then built my own large one for the next time I needed to use a jack he somehow over loaded his jack and blew the seals so I let him borrow mine as mine is also larger by capacity than his, his jack being only 2000 lb and mine will lift 4000 easy.

[Frank S]

Got the end cap on the west wall finished except for the flashing

Since the west wall will be a 48 ft wide roll up curtain door there is not a lot left to do to it maybe 20 ft and the remainder of the stairway

[Toolmaker51]

That's exactly what I'd have done.
If I had a backhoe, 100' of chain, an observer, plus a few other necessities....Still trying to graduate beyond Egyptian rollers and pinch bars.

Amended. Because mere rollers and pinch bars, in reality are less then bare minimal; 1/2 ton A-frame gantry & hoist, smaller lever and chain hoists, jacks, 7' Johnson lever dolly, 20, 16 and 10 gauge shims, metal and wood cribbing, pallet jacks, flat carts, bottle jacks...
and no Barney, whether fife, piccolo, trombone or alto sax.

[Frank S]

the East wall is coming along nicely actually except for continuing to complete the full height of it the wall is as far as it is going to be since the entire remaining area will be a pair of 22 ft wide doors I am thinking that as soon as I finish the repairs on the trailer in the shop I will build the west wall which will be 20 feet of wall and a single 48 ft wide door.
To most the size of the doors I am wanting is probably mind boggling but you have to remember I live in farm country more importantly cotton and Hay are the principal crops the equipment can be huge. Just today 3 tractors drove by with their attachments folded they still took up the entire road and part of the easement on both sides and were bout 15 feet tall. try to imagine needing a place to work on one of those inside during the winter that is why the front door is going to be 48 feet wide and 17 feet high

[Frank S]

Getting a few more things done while I have a helper
yesterday we got half of the drop roof installed between the shop and the Machine shop van then this morning we completed that section
I had another 8ft by 25 ft gate that was just begging to be used on the shop
This also used up all but 2 ft of the remaining standing seam panel I had by welding short sections together to make a gutter

then after that we moved back to the North side of the building and worked on the stairway enclosure

[Crusty]

Ditto what TM said. I end up doing things like Fred and Barney* did them too, except that I have a chainfall hoist and a High Lift jack which often come into play.

Horror Freight has about the cheapest transport grade chains that I've found and every time I get a little extra money I order another 20'er.


*Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble

[Toolmaker51]

Lol. I'm a Fred.
Who's Barney? That numbnutts forever absent with work to do.
One thing about jacks and rollers, aside from minding fingers it's very safe.
Going to be a lot soon, shipping some 'arn home accumulated during this CA stay.