Building my shop

[Lou Stags]

Looks awesome!

[David A Anderson]

Today, (Saturday) I worked by myself all day. I plumbed the columns with my laser level. This is done by adjusting the wind bracing cables. There was a 1.5" bow in the last rafter set at the peak which carried all the way through the frame to the opposite gable end. A few cranks on the cables and I got her dead on.

For some reason our overhead door columns did not fit. I had to cut them off 1.5". I don't know if Mueller messed up or I did. Anyway the wall girts don't match the bolt holes now, so I'm going to weld them in place instead of redrilling all those holes. Yuk. They were not plumb top to bottom either. I had to torch out the floor flange 1/2" to get the door jamb plumb. It may have been in the slab. Anyway, it is all fixable. Everything really looks good. I'm happy with my results.

[David A Anderson]

attaching the bottom drip edge and peeling that pesky plastic coating off of the trim pieces. Took 2.5 hours. yuk

[David A Anderson]

Had to take off to help my son load these logs to the sawmill. They are from the Bastrop TX fire. Millions are available for the taking. He is cutting them up into big beams for his house he will build this year. One of these was 30" diameter a the base. It was so heavy he bent my fork on the backhoe, had to take it off, cut it, straighten it, and weld it back with extra gussets to prevent re-bending.

He cut it into an 8"x14"x20' beam.

[David A Anderson]

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Got the walls up. Hung the windows. I didn't even make window returns on the back side, just riveted them through the skin. It sure slows down the wall hanging, though. Don't like this metal work much. I know now I prefer wood better

[David A Anderson]

Yippee, finished all the skin. Now installing trim pieces. I've got tendonitis in my left arm from dragging those 20' panels up to the rooftop. On the trim, the corners are installed 1st, then I mate the gutter to the rake box trim. It has really been slow on this phase. It took me 3 hours to do one corner this morning. I must have gone up/down that lift 25 times to get some tool or part, then the brand new GFCI plug failed on my electric panel. It was not tripped, but when I pushed the test button it clicked and I could not get it to reset. I pulled it out and put in a regular plug. All these things take so much time to get anything done.

I had that corner finished at noon and was frustrated enough that I didn't want to work on it after lunch, so I just cleaned up the building site the rest of the day. I was sick of being on that lift.

I'll start fresh on Monday.

[Sam Layton]

David,

The shop is sure looking good. Your truck looks like a toy. Really shows the size of the shop... Keep the photo's coming.

Sam

[David A Anderson]

No pics today, but I finished hanging the rake trim, gutters and downspouts on one side. Took all day. I'm sure guys that do this daily could do in an hour what is taking me 8. It is just frustratingly slow to get the gutter and rake trim to mate up and look good. Lots of grinding, trimming, etc. If I ever build another one, I would not get the gutters. The main reason I bought the gutter package is because it does give a more professional look. I'm in a residential area, and I really wanted this building to look good in the neighborhood. If I'd known the difficulty, I would have deleted it.

[Gregg Williams]

Very cool updates! It is coming along fast and well! Love to see it when it is finished!

[David A Anderson]

Finished all the trim and gutters today, but I backed the lift into the wall and bent a panel all up Fortunately, it's under a window and I have a spare long enough to cover it. I'll replace it tomorrow. It just won't end

[David A Anderson]

Finished all the trim and gutters today, but I backed the lift into the wall and bent a panel all up Fortunately, it's under a window and I have a spare long enough to cover it. I'll replace it tomorrow. It just won't end

Here is my oopsy, and the gutters and trim corner. Those 4 corners took forrrever.

[David A Anderson]

Hanging the doors. Got her done

[David A Anderson]

Since this is a metal frame building all electric has to be in conduit. No romex allowed. I hung electric boxes and EMT all day on the 8th. Pulled nearly all the wire in the pipe today. To make circuit identification easy from any junction box, I used red for lights. Black for 120v circuits. Orange for all my 240v circuits. I used 600' of orange wire for all my 240v circuits. Need to accommodate the table saw, planer, and cyclone, plus a couple of extra in case I move tools around. Since this is considered a "garage" code requires all 120v plugs to be GFCI. I'll make the GFCI plug the lead plug in each circuit and daisy chain off of it with the rest.

I have to buy some #6 for the 50a plug for the RV and some for my Lincoln welder. I'm trying to get all the plugs done, so I can pull up the extension cords from outside. I'll get the light fixtures up next week.

It's nice to have the building secure. I can leave my tools now.

[Mike Heidrick]

Thanks so much for this thread!!

Now is the time for a 3ph converter install and ductwwork install!!

[David A Anderson]

Boy do I have a mess now. I bought some clear floor sealer to seal the floor and understood from the seller is was a one step process. My son picked up the product, so he got first hand instructions, not me. I called the salesman for application instructions, and nowhere did I hear the word primer. He made clear to stay off of the floor 24 hours after finished. I had 12 cans of "A" and 12 cans of "B". I called a helper and away we went. I did the rolling, he did the mixing. It was going down beautifully. Man, this is easy. When he mixed cans 7 & 8, he said this looks different. I poured some down and began rolling. Suddenly it turned to contact cement consistency. "What is going on?", I said. He looked at the can and it said "crack sealer". It was different from the other cans. I stopped and looked. I had 6 kits of primer/crack sealer and 6 kits of top coat. The boxes looked identical and so did the cans. Both said mix A and B.

I called the salesman and he said you have to prime the floor first. "But the lady I talked to yesterday said this was one step, and you never mentioned primer." "I explained all this to your son when he picked it up", he said. "Maybe so, but there are no instructions," I said. "They're on the can". It just says mix A and B.

This went on for a few minutes, but it's not getting fixed. Fortunately, after he called the mfg, they said the top coat will dry, but no warranty. Phooey, big deal. These warranties usually amount to nothing anyway. However, the problem is the primer that overlapped the wet top coat. It will not dry. It's about an area of 10x12. I kept rolling hoping it would level out, but I should have stopped as soon as I saw the inconsistency. That would have been about 2'x8'. I went down about 2 hours later and scraped it with a 12" sheetrock knife. It peeled up like wet glue. Hopefully, the base of it will dry. If not I may have to put a paint stripper on it. Xylene wouldn't touch it. Paint thinner did nothing.

I sent my wife up to get six more top coat kits. She saw the boxes and said, "they do look alike." The guy said, "yea this happens some time". Blah, blah. My wife told him they should be labeled A, B, C, D. Mix A with B and C with D.

I spent $1400 on this stuff, and may have to spend a lot more if that area doesn't dry. I'm pissed, and sure wish I hadn't done this.

The picture on the right is where I scraped up the primer that came in contact with the top coat.