Took the first step towards building my shop

[Frank S]

I now have doors all the way round the shop so I can close it up to the worst of the wind.
the latest door is 17 ft by 17 ft to complete the 48 ft wide opening

[Toolmaker51]

Link opened with Day 1, a bare frame with a scant roof, 29 Nov 2018. [I]Everyone who knows me are probably familiar with my work shop or lack there of conditions.[/]

Who can say this isn't extraordinary accomplishment; occurring along with large quantity of tools, some connected to the construction, some not, and outside work taken on!

[metric_taper]

I enjoyed his build. Frank is so lucky to live in a FREE country, that does not have building authorities inhibiting his quality constructions as his methods are not in the International Building Code manual.

[Frank S]

I enjoyed his build. Frank is so lucky to live in a FREE country, that does not have building authorities inhibiting his quality constructions as his methods are not in the International Building Code manual.

One thing with the west doors being so huge and constructed of relatively lightweight materials as compared to most door of this size they are meant to have flex in high winds. Just like a sail sheet on a boat stretches in the wind but will remain effective. The other day my neighbor brought something over for me to machine for him he drove his truck inside and since the wind was blowing pretty good I closed the doors and secured them. Not long afterwards while he and I were standing in the shop talking there were a few huge wind gusts. Billy asked is my truck safe inside here with that door flexing like it does.
Sure I said part of the reason of the Latice design in the pipe work is to allow the door to bow in the wind but not fail We later learned that there had been a few 50+ MPH gusts directly out of the west Had the door not been secured it may have been some of a problem but a ridged door of that size would have been a problem if left unsecured as well. I have opened and closed the door in 30 MPH winds without problems

[mwmkravchenko]

Looking great Frank. You bring in full rigs I am guessing with that height. I know you have the length to do that. Although a tractor and trailer might not fit. I can't remember the other shop dimension.

You can get away with a lot different construction versus up here. You have to account for show load here to. Makes roofs a little more beefy. And frost. You have to sink supports deeper, about 5 feet for southern Ontario. Oh and heat! It gets cold here in the winter, although up till now we have had relatively warm weather above 32 up until today. High in the mid 40's.

You have a great shop. Basically a pole barn. A well made pole barn at that.

[Frank S]

Looking great Frank. You bring in full rigs I am guessing with that height. I know you have the length to do that. Although a tractor and trailer might not fit. I can't remember the other shop dimension.

You can get away with a lot different construction versus up here. You have to account for show load here to. Makes roofs a little more beefy. And frost. You have to sink supports deeper, about 5 feet for southern Ontario. Oh and heat! It gets cold here in the winter, although up till now we have had relatively warm weather above 32 up until today. High in the mid 40's.

You have a great shop. Basically a pole barn. A well made pole barn at that.

Yep it is a pole barn alright, the steel poles are buried in the ground to about 6 to 8 feet average all of them have at least 1 truck rim welded to their bottoms

[bimmer1980]

Just got done reading the whole thread. Lots of work here! I admire the level or repurposing of materials and the efforts. Curious if you have a current update on the shop?

[Frank S]

Just got done reading the whole thread. Lots of work here! I admire the level or repurposing of materials and the efforts. Curious if you have a current update on the shop?

Not really, I've just been using it Sometimes I get to thinking I need to add another 60 by 100 feet to the back of it and a 40 by 50 to the south of the big front doors but right now 3 things keep changing my mind Time materials and taxes well 4 when you get right down to it. Kind of hard to justify spending the money for the materials since my useable repurposed stock has dwindled to the point, I wouldn't have enough to add on a 20x30 addition

[bob47907]

Yeah, that!

[Frank S]

I have been receiving inquiries about what has been going on with my shop lately.
Life and work seem to take precedence over doing much to it. Although a few months ago I had a large motor Grader come in for some minor repairs late on a Friday afternoon the guy said he would pick it up on Monday And for me to use it if I needed.

So, I scraped off 12 inches of my parking lot Roughly 200ft by 120ft


Then on Monday when he came to pick it up, I ordered 180tons of gravel base
Pic of the first few loads

After spreading. 180 tons yielded roughly a 6" thick layer the fantastic thing was the night after I had finished spreading the base we had an extremely rare amount of rainfall. For the first time in what I am told over 30 years we received 5 inches of rain in under an hour and 7 inches total in 24 hours That is more than a third our average annual rainfall in 1 day.

MY south field under water for the first time in 30 years

First time water has ever flowed through this culvert

My parking lot after the rain

This garden tractor came in today

the disk plow needed a little work


Always crib things up when having to work around machinery