My new shop

[Martin Wasner]

Must be something genetic in overhead door retailers....

I GC'd my own house 6-years ago. Custom-ordered, pre-paid overhead door (x3) install got pushed out from Thursday to Monday by a delay from one of the other trades. "No big deal. Keep them in your warehouse so I don't risk theft over the weekend", says me. Looked for them Monday and they were a no-show, so called that afternoon. "We filed for bankruptcy Friday."

Bankruptcy court is going to rule on whether I own the doors any day now. Oh, and last crime in my neighborhood was in 1961.

...Maybe you should store your doors on-site???

I would've just gone and taken my doors had that happened to me.

[Martin Wasner]

luckily the weather is supposed to break next week here in MN so it will get better. Great post to follow!

And back into the freezer we go after Christmas.

My plan for this week and last week

Mon. Install doors
Tues. Install doors
Wed. Put heat to it
Thu. Nothing.
Friday. Final grade and foam
Sat. Nothing
Sun. Nothing
Mon. Radiant pipe install
Tue. Radiant pipe install
Wed. Pour first half
Thu. Cut and seal first half
Fri. Pour second half
Sat (xmas eve). Cut and seal second half.


Next week the weather would've been as good as you're going to get for pouring concrete in December. I'm a little hot over the whole deal. If those guys aren't there on Tuesday, poop is gonna hit the proverbial fan and I will be on their door step ready to chew someone a new orifice.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I would've just gone and taken my doors had that happened to me.

Considered it, but the Sheriff convinced me otherwise.

[Martin Wasner]

Well, the overhead door guys did show up, and they did install the doors. All four of the overheads are installed. The carpenters also got the passage doors installed. They wait on getting the opener's installed until after the floor is in place.






and my electrician buddy and I hung the temporary lights last night. My little Honda suitcase generator is being pushed to it's max to run the five that are up there. There's supposed to be six, but we forgot one at his employer's shop. We ran the everything so tonight I just have to run the scissor lift up and hook the final one up.








I'm still a bit cranky about the overhead doors. That really botched my plans. The concrete guy doesn't want to pour until things warm up. He knows I'll be really picky about the floor, and it's going to be too cold to reliably get the finish I want on the floor. Which sucks. I still won't be able to get electricity back there until probably March, but it would be nice to get the floor in, sheet inside of the walls, and get everything wired. That's not going to happen without concrete. I need the floor, so I can build the mechanical room, so I can build the service inside the building, so I can wire. I'm also not going to sheet the walls until the floor as done because the concrete guys are going to do a number on that as well with splatter. The top row of sheets could go up though. The upside is that there is really nothing left to do inside at the moment until the floor is done. The siding needs to start going on. The tyvek has been exposed long enough on the exterior.


I also need to do some serious policing of garbage. Little bits of trash everywhere needs to be picked up. Then there's plenty of big trash that needs to be removed as well.


I also found another Omga chop saw to go on the third bench for here. So that's pretty sweet.

[Frederick Skelly]

Looking good Martin! Glad to see those doors in.

It's probably good news that your cement man understands your expectations on that floor, even though he's screwing you up. If he wasn't paying attention to you, you'd have a devil of a time after the fact.

[Martin Wasner]

Looking good Martin! Glad to see those doors in.

It's probably good news that your cement man understands your expectations on that floor, even though he's screwing you up. If he wasn't paying attention to you, you'd have a devil of a time after the fact.

I couldn't agree more. He knows what I want, and knows that he can't deliver that under the conditions he's got to deal with. It sucks, but I respect it. I'm hoping we get some weird warm streak mid-february and it's nice enough to make it happen. We shall see though.

The other thing about putting calcium chloride in the mix is that when they are putting the final troweling to it, it will turn black. Not consistently black either. I don't want that. I'd rather have a nice even concrete grey.

[Gregory Stahl]

Tyvek is good for 4-months of exposure. Not certain about the other brands.

[Martin Wasner]

Tyvek is good for 4-months of exposure. Not certain about the other brands.

I'm not sure what brand this is. I'll have to take a look. It's from the lumberyard and has their logo on it, but that doesn't mean anything, just that they are paying a little bit for advertising before the siding goes on.

How's your nightmare going? I've been meaning to bump your thread.

[Gregory Stahl]

Not a good week here. At least the snow is melting.

[Tim Bueler]

Tyvek is good for 4-months of exposure. Not certain about the other brands.

Tyvek, et. al. is a permanent siding here in Idaho. Would it be possible to get just the mechanical room portion of your floor poured so you could keep going on electrical. If it's a separate room all to itself maybe a different finish wouldn't bother you too much??? Just a thought.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Look's like some good progress and you'll be in before you know it. ...And your door man is clearly NOT related to mine!

[Michael Dye]

C'mon, Martin. We need updates. I live for your ongoing battles and especially the ones involving concrete. Hope you had a great Christmas.

[Martin Wasner]

C'mon, Martin. We need updates. I live for your ongoing battles and especially the ones involving concrete. Hope you had a great Christmas.

HA! I'm glad my suffering brings joy to you.


I was hoping the carpenters would get going on the siding this week, but they've got another shed small shed going up somewhere else that they've been trying to get a roof on so they can split up and keep both projects rolling. I guess the other guy is getting cranky at the delays. I'm not upset about the siding not going on, but it would be nice to get it covered and protected. They might be up there today, but I kinda doubt it. The wind is bloody howling out there right now.

One small update I guess. A bunch of the parts for the electrical service were dropped off at the current shop this morning. I'm running out of places to store stuff though. The electricians bought a new transformer for the 208/120 stuff. I'm both happy and sad at that. Happy that I won't be looking at some rust bucket while listening to it hum at a soothing billion decibels. Sad that I'll have to pay for it. I'm not sure what else they'll need to build the service. There's the transformer obviously, looks like a CT can, a disconnect, and a bunch of smaller boxes. I don't really want to know how much money is sitting there on those two pallets and one skid.






I did get a happy email from the electric provider this morning though. Unfortunately not the one about getting my service trenched in tomorrow, but good news all the same. They've got a $100 per hp rebate on air compressors running right now. I'm looking at a 15hp compressor, so that would give me $1500 off of that hombre. Plus, they company I'm buying it through has a special running 3% off, and free shipping. My notes are a little fuzzy, but I think the compressor I'm looking at is $8450, plus $300 shipping. So right there is about $550 off, and with the rebate it's a bit over $2k off. $6400 for a pretty awesome compressor makes me happy. I might have to make a phone call today and get that ordered up.


I'm going to check into if there is anything available that applies to what I currently have in the building, or for what I've bought recently and when the cutoff for that is. I bought my widebelt a bit over two years ago, it's 47hp in total, and if the same math applies I might be able to get $4700 back? Might be dreaming, but worth checking into. I also need to see what is available for lighting. If I can get the cost of LED down to T8 cost, it's a no brainer to go LED. 60,000hr lamp life being the main reason. 2080 working hours in a year, (40hr weeks 52 weeks a year), they should just about last me the rest of my career.



We're butt deep in winter, working outside is rather unpleasant right now. I'm hoping the carpenters get the exterior buttoned up so when the floor does get poured they can haul the mail on the interior. There's about 190 sheets that need to go up on the exterior walls, plus the nightmare of building the firewalls, and then walls for the mechanical/head/office and mezzanine above them.


(edit)- One addition. One of my contractor buddies is/was looking for a tablesaw. I've been shooting him links to Powermatic 66's as they pop up that I think are reasonable deals, but he hadn't been able to make anything happen. A mid-70's Northfield #4 popped up on Craigslist a while ago. I didn't have anywhere to store it, and it doesn't fit his needs as he wants to be able to weld up a mobil base and if the need arises bring it to a jobsite. The #4 at 1700 pounds doesn't work to well for that. But, I sent him the link and told him if he buys it, and stores it for me until this little tradgedy is over with and I can move in, I'll trade him straight up for one of my 66's. He'll be getting a lightly used 66, (for the last six years it's cut nothing but sheet stock), and I'll be getting a forty year old tank.

Okay, 2-1/2 additions. I'm also taking a look at a used SAC jointer tomorrow morning. They want $3k for it. I'm hoping to get it closer to $2k. Also tomorrow, my third and final OMGA 12" mitre saw should be showing up via UPS. That's been a year long hunt for those three. I'm curious what I will get for the single phase one that is on my bench and currently in use.

[Brian Holcombe]

Looks nice Martin, I'm sure you cannot wait to get that place buzzing!

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks for the update Martin - was wondering how things were going. Glad there's been SOME good news! Hang in there man.
Fred