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Thread: Yet another shop build.... McFarlane

  1. #1
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    Yet another shop build.... McFarlane

    After a 9 month battle with the local water district over an easement, we started clearing the land for my new shop today. It was amazing to watch these guys clear the land.

    We had three 80-100' pine trees removed and about a dozen smaller ones.

    One of the tall trees was 2 feet off my back porch. They didn't drop a single branch or even a pine cone on the porch.
    A 60 year old man trimmed his way up to the top of the 100' trees, then cut off 3'-4' sections from the top, working his way to the ground. Took him about 1:15 per tree. I posted a picture of the stump and porch to get a feel for how big this tree was.

    The dozen or so smaller trees (30-50') got chomped up by a guy in an an excavator. It was amazing to watch him strip the limbs, break the trunks into sections, pile them neatly, and load up the dumpster bins from his air conditioned cab.

    Rained off and on, didn't slow anyone down. I felt bad for the older guy 100' up in the tree with rain and wind but he wasn't going to climb the tree twice.

    My wife and I watched them work all day. I shot a bunch of video that someday I will edit and share.


    stump.jpgtree clearing.jpg

    Tomorrow the brick comes off the side of the house that abuts the shop ( I decided I didn't want a brick accent wall), then we dig for the slab. Should have a piered slab in another week or two.
    Mark McFarlane

  2. #2
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    One quick note, the big tree next to my porch didn't need to be removed for the shop. In fact, it wasn't on my land but my wife talked the owner of the golf course into letting us pay to cut it down. It was near our bedroom and if a hurricane blew the top off, as they do, we likely wouldn't survive.
    Mark McFarlane

  3. #3
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    Exciting! When will you move in?
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  4. #4
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    Last edited by mark mcfarlane; 03-07-2017 at 7:14 PM.
    Mark McFarlane

  5. #5
    Good luck with the build. How big is the new shop going to be? Too bad you couldn't have kept some of the large tree to mill and build something for the house or shop as a momento.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Page View Post
    Exciting! When will you move in?
    Hopefully early September, weather permitting,... If I'm real lucky, late July. Met with the electrician today for a few hours.
    Mark McFarlane

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bryan Lisowski View Post
    Good luck with the build. How big is the new shop going to be? Too bad you couldn't have kept some of the large tree to mill and build something for the house or shop as a momento.
    I kept a short branch, maybe 5" in diameter to make 'something'. The shop side is a hair over 1000 sq feet. No spray room, which I'll probably regret, but there is a dedicated machine room. I'm doing some electrical and DC ducting through the slab, so I won't have too much flexibility after I move in, unless I abandon the ducting and electrical.
    Mark McFarlane

  8. #8
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    I'm really glad you're "getting this show on the road"!! Very exciting!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #9
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    Here's a 4 minute look at the 1:30 that it took to cut down one of the 100' pine trees on our lot. This one wasn't in the way of the shop, but made me nervous (too close to the house) and dropped a LOT of sap and pollen on our porch.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGc6F2qOYsw
    Mark McFarlane

  10. #10
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    Thanks, that was a gas to watch! I don't know what kind of money he makes but it isn't enough!
    Please help support the Creek.


    "It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
    Andy Rooney



  11. #11
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    What a great video! Like my wife said, that is a well oiled team!

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bruce Page View Post
    Thanks, that was a gas to watch! I don't know what kind of money he makes but it isn't enough!
    We'll see when the invoice comes, but I'm expecting about $500-700 per tree for the big trees + hauling charges ($400 per bin, we filled 4 or 5 bins from the lot). The 'tree toppings crew' cleared 3 trees in my yard and ran off to do another job the same day. The 'excavator' spent 1.5 days clearing off other smaller trees but these 3 90' pine trees were too big to just drop, they had to be 'topped'.
    Last edited by mark mcfarlane; 03-11-2017 at 9:01 AM.
    Mark McFarlane

  13. #13
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    The slab was poured today. 7 truckloads of 3000 PSI cement. A crew of 12 working the cement, plus 4 others driving trucks and running the pumper truck. Lots of steel. 8' Bellbottomed piers. That's the good news.

    Unfortunately, walking the slab this evening I noticed something didn't look right. Turns out the plumbers misplaced my in-floor 6" DC pipe by 3 feet (to be used for a 5-combo machine), which throws a real monkey wrench in my current machine layout. The electrician did his placements correctly. It would have been better if they both made the same mistake.

    Moving the DC 3' requires shifting the combo machine 3', which now gets in the way of an aisle that was 4 feet, and will now be 1 foot when the 8' slider is all the way back on the infeed side. I suspect it will be rare that I cut 8', I am not a cabinet shop. That same 3' move puts the in-slab electrical feed for the combo machine underneath the machine, and puts the in-slab electrical feed for the stock feeder in a trip-hazard location.

    I am kicking myself for not measuring the plumbing before the pour. The plumbers made 2 other mistakes that were caught and rectified before the steel went in, they were measuring from the wrong reference, which would have put several walls about a foot off.

    Should have been a fabulous day but I feel like ****. Pics to come.
    Mark McFarlane

  14. #14
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    Mark McFarlane

  15. #15
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    Bummer, man. Sorry to hear that. But I bet you figure out a good solution!

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