Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

suther51; everyone knows I am all for multipurposing machines by making something do what it was never designed for. When I was contemplating adding forks to by 755 At first I was simply going to add a bar to the top of the bucket and buy a pair of forks to hang off of that leaving the bucket in place then when I needed th bucket I could just remove the forks or flip them over backwards. the Geometry and shape of the bucket looked to me like I would be limited in what I could carry and as you mentioned would not be able to see anything. My bucket is 84 inches wide 64 inches deep and almost five feet tall it is called a 1 3/4 yard bucket but I have scooped up 2 full yards several times with it a little 6 yard dump truck cannot hold 3 full buckets of material.
I thought about the pin on forks to attach to the cutting edge of the bucket as well but I quickly 86'd that idea due to my knowing how I have a tendency of demanding the last lb of capacity from a piece of equipment I figured the first thing that would happen would be I would rip the cutting edge right off the bucket or the connection of the forks would break. additionally I already owned the class 3 forks and a pile of caterpillar excavator rock guards that were just laying around the carriage was born out of them and I couldn't be happier with how things have turned out especially now that I have the removeable gin pole and hoist set up on it. One day I will build a gin pole that is half as long as the one I have and get a heavier duty hoist for it.
Also like you mentioned about your friend being new to the game and experience being a good teacher, the rest of that statement could be learning from the experiences of others can be a money and a life saver.
In my case for building the things that I do, I have over 55 years under my belt of doing the things that I do but each new construct is still an unknown until it is put to use almost everything works nearly as planned but many times needs some tweaking to become viable

[Frank S]

Fill in and packed then packed some more then more fill and packed again and again until I had the hole filled right up to where the last subterranean brace was to be welded in now all bracing is in I finished filling the hole but haven't packet it down yet as my plate packer began acting up there is probably trash in the carb as ther is no inline filter on the machine

No explanation needed here we all know what this picture means

[Frank S]

The morning went well I now have 9 sheets up and have completely used up 1ne pile of sheet metal now I have to dig a lot of shorter sheets off of another stack before I can lift anymore to the roof

[Frank S]

From now on it will be piece meal for the roof the longest sheets I have left are under 25 feet long This would be just about right as the old building I tore down was 68 feet by 120 feet a large part of the roof had caved in due to Ice and snow there was only about 100 feet of one side that the sheet metal was not bent up due to the collapse of the roof I have used 22 sheets on the north side and 9 on the south so that would just about account for the full length sheets I had.
I managed to get 2 sheets down to make a full length run and 2 more for a partial before the cold front started to come in kicking the wind up to some 25 MPH gusts maybe the wind will be more favorable tomorrow.

[metric_taper]

I hope your doing OK Frank. I've not seen an update in 11 days.

[Frank S]

I hope your doing OK Frank. I've not seen an update in 11 days.

Thanks for checking on me. I've been doing boring things for the past several days like completely rebuilding the tilt steering column on a 91 F250 extended cab Diesel pickup I bought for $350.00 to get it ready to be inspected so I could put tags on it and other boring things like replacing the hub seals on a low bed semi trailer and tuning up a 15 year old 029 Sthil chain saw so it would start on 1 pull because it had been too windy to get on the roof to lay the last couple of sheets.
Got the pickup inspected and registered today the chain saw running 3 or 4 days ago, parts came in for the semi trailer and finished it yesterday rebuilt the carburetor on my ingersol rand club car carry all II cut a load of fire wood Monday. This afternoon the wind died so I finished the roof on the building
.
Might be a while before I get much more done to it can't decide if I want to start on the North wall or start making columns for the lean to extension. But in the mean time it is that time of year to clean out the chicken house and till up the garden.
There is never a dull moment around the Frank house

[metric_taper]

All is good, you have a completed roof. Days are getting longer. Task list gets longer......

[Frank S]

All is good, you have a completed roof. Days are getting longer. Task list gets longer......

Yep and along with a completed roof it opens up my willingness to work on some things that I would normally put off until I am fairly certain the weather won't dump something out of the sky when I am only half way through the project.
There again once I have the additional 33 by 61 feet of roof area of the lean to completed I can remove the gin pole rig and the fork carriage then put my loader bucket back on to hauled the 200 cubic yards of select fill and clay base I have partially excavated and stock piled to get the floor leveled up and packed But that also means Some of the projects if I start on them will have to be completed and out of the way.
Like I keep telling the wife we worked out of a container and a trailer with nothing but a canvas tent now for 6 years at least now we have more than 10 times the covered area than we had even if it take us another year to get the walls and doors and 3 years to get a slab every weld every screw every bolt and nut and hunk of metal is like adding embroidery pipping to a hat for decorations the HAT is there already. and it can be worn plain just as well as dressed to the 9's

[Frank S]

hard to believe I haven't posted to this page in a month.
But can't say that I have done a whole lot to the building I spent some time getting my old Cab over Freightliner running then removed the pair of 150 gal. fuel tanks and mounted a small 70 gallon square tank on the frame behind the cab. Since the old truck is only ever going to be used as a yard donkey there is no need for the massive tanks plus with them hanging off the sides of the frame they were a little too close to the ground for my liking That and I didn't want to get them damaged since they are in good shape.
After completing the roof I wanted to get my machine shop van moved into position before adding the lean to roof extension This meant that I needed to mine a lot of select clay fill to pad up a hard area for the trailer to rest on. and to prevent getting stuck trying to move it meaning the gin pole and the fork carriage had to come off and the bucket be installed so I could transport materials from the pit I am mining them from about 100 yards down hill from the shop. Before it is all said and done I will need to move between 400 and 600 cubic yards of material this will take a while as the old backhoe is really in need of some majorly expensive work if I wanted to have full power available. But one step at a time either spend tons of cash on it that is needed on the building or nurse it along at reduced power and get the job done
I can carry about a yard and a half full bucket but can only climb the hill in low range at a creep or a yard at a time still in low range but twice as fast So far on my click counter I have climbed that hill 95 times 50 times before I could locate the trailer
Hooked up ready to roll

First attempt proved not enough pad build up

After another 10 loads

The trailer is in place within about 6 inches from where I wanted it ,close enough

After another several trips up the hill I still don't have the pad completely ready for the parts trailer because after I get it in place I am planning on removing the axles and dropping it close to the ground
the parts trailer is behind the freightliner

Digging the trench for the electrical conduit

By the time I have all of the fill in the shop the conduit will be almost 3 feet below the surface of the eventual slab

Conduit connected to the homemade 6x8x4 J box

[metric_taper]

By the time I have all of the fill in the shop the conduit will be almost 3 feet below the surface of the eventual slab

Conduit connected to the homemade 6x8x4 J box

What is the plastic pipe you used for the buried conduit? Looks like 3". I assume you have the wires installed already, unless you have some Greenlee power puller, and a helper to feed the wires.
Looks like your doing all the details toward the next big task of building walls.