Birth of a shop

[Joe Blankshain]

Marty,

We are all watching for the delivery. Can't come down tommorrow as I have Honey Do's. Will try again next week.

[Marty Walsh]

Special midday update - Part One of Three...

Well, a little after 9am, this appeared in my driveway:

Attachment 47719

That's what I was doing in Florida on Wednesday...trying to decide what to load that tractor trailer with...

As you can see, my buddy's fork equipped tractor came to the rescue once again. Although, it was pretty nerve wracking. I spent a few years while in college operating a fork lift at a major lumberyard, so I'm not a novice (rusty perhaps, but not a novice). Well let me tell you, that tractor is SO not a forklift!!! The forks don't go straight up and down, they tilt as they raise as well as moving slightly backward while raising. To further complicate things, the terrain sure ain't blacktop next to the shop! Add to that the monster Ag tires on the tractor, and I was putting on quite a show for the truck driver.

Oh, and to make matters even WORSE, the tractor had a HARD time lifting those units. Because of the way the truck was loaded, I went after the 14'-16' unit of Cypress first. Once I FINALLY got the forks into position and moved in ready to lift, the tractor didn't want any part of the wood. The hydraulics moaned, and the forks didn't lift. I revved the engine a little and tried again. Nothing...wouldn't even budge. I'm getting pretty worried at this point, since there's a LOT of wood on that truck to have to hand unload. Not to mention, that driver wasn't going to be thrilled to have to sit and watch me for a few hours...

So, I decided to go after one of the smaller bundles (more on those in a subsequent post... ). Same thing...couldn't lift it a bit. I'm panicking at this point, as is the driver. I look over and he's on his cell phone, with an expression on his face that told me he wasn't having fun! I called my buddy that owns the tractor and asked if I'm missing something, a booster switch, proper methodology, something. He's at a loss, since he was SURE the tractor wouldn't have a problem. Without any advice to help me along, I ask if any of his excavators were available. They would have been a royal PITA to use, but it would have been better than unloading all that by hand. Much to my chagrin, all his equipment was on jobs, so I was pretty much on my own...

Armed with this bad news, I decide to give the tractor one more try before I grab a gatorade and climb up on the trailer with cutters for the bands. I approach one of the smaller units, get it forked and try to lift. Nothing! I decided to REALLY REV the engine and see if that helped. Voila! Up it went...groaning and moaning, but up it went.

One other problem I had the first few attempts is that the forks on the tractor are really long, and I think I was getting hung up on the lumber on the other side of the trailer when I was trying to lift...essentially lifting two units at once. Regardless, after about an hour of really slow tractor work, I had the trailer empty and the driver was on his way home.

Here's where I dumped everything, just looking to get the trailer empty and get the driver on his way:

Attachment 47720 Attachment 47721

Among other things, it brought me my Cypress siding. There are three units...two are mixed 10'-12' and one is mixed 14-16'. It's rough sawn, kiln dried and a generous 4/4.

Oh, and you can in that one picture something yellow near the loading dock door. That's a generator that my tractor buddy lent me last night. I was relaying to him how I was planning to saw my battens with a jig I was going to make for my Skilsaw. He asked me why I didn't just use one of my table saws. I explained that I didn't have sufficient power to the shop to run any of them. His response...? "Why not just go up to my house and borrow one of the three "little generators" I have in my pump house? I'm not using them..."

So now I have power...7.8Kw of it in fact!

(Oh, and he told me that he has a big generator if I needed more power...an 80kw monster on a trailer! I think not!!! )

Ok, I have more pictures to post, so let me get another post going...
- Marty -

[Marty Walsh]

Special midday update - Part Two of Three...

Once I got the truck unloaded, I decided it would be advantagous to get the Cypress to where I need it since I had the tractor. Since I plan to spray it outside, (weather permitting...fingers crossed), I put one of the 10-12' units on the front and back of the shop:

Attachment 47722 Attachment 47723

And then I put the mixed 14-16 unit on the west gable end, since it has much more wall to cover:

Attachment 47724

I'll still have to tote boards around to the other side, but this way at least the larger of the two gable walls will be a little easier.

Ok, more pictures, so part three is coming next...
- Marty -

[Steve Clardy]

Looking good Marty.
Yes. Typical farm, industrial tractors rely on RPM to get their needed hydraulic pressure with that type of scenario, unlike forklifts.

[Marty Walsh]

Special midday update - Part Three of Three...

It's official....

I need a BIGGER SHOP!

Attachment 47725 Attachment 47726 Attachment 47727

What you see there is White Oak T&G flooring for the shop. The price was MORE than right, and I just couldn't say no.

Oh yeah, and that one picture with the smaller bundle is a few hundred bd/ft of Mahagony, with a few hundred bd/ft of really nicley figured Paduak under it. Oh and those are two 16' long, 13" wide boards of Bubinga.

Now you can see that my recent acquisition of the pallet jack was well timed. All I did was lift the units of flooring up onto the loading dock, placing them right on the forks of the jack, and pulled/shoved/man-handled them to where I put them.

But now I'm out of room!

But, it'll be well worth having to move stuff around once I get that floor down. Not only will it look nice, it'll be tough, and add to the overall strength of the floor. It's way more work than I intended, but sometimes you just have to do what you just have to do.

Now it's back outside and up on the ladder for me. I have soffit and fascia to finish so I can get going on that siding.

Thanks...
- Marty -

[tod evans]

cool! i give you `till monday to have stuff stacked on the "flat surfaces" of the units of flooring .........bet you`re chompin` at the bit to start nailing cypress? darn ladder work anyway!...tod

[Marty Walsh]

cool! i give you `till monday to have stuff stacked on the "flat surfaces" of the units of flooring .........bet you`re chompin` at the bit to start nailing cypress? darn ladder work anyway!...tod

tod,

LOL! You're probably right...although it might be before Monday. In fact, now that you mention it, I can use those flats to stage the soffit material while I'm cutting it...

Reluctantly heading out to the ladders...
- Marty -

[Matt Meiser]

What you see there is White Oak T&G flooring for the shop. The price was MORE than right, and I just couldn't say no.

OK, I'm starting to feel inadequate. And I have a big, dedicated shop. I can't wait to see what you are going to put in this shop once it is done.

[Jim O'Dell]

Now that's a haul of wood! WOW! Could be interesting staging the wood to stain it...I kinda thought you might spread it all out on the floor of the shop and spray, then when dry, turn it over and spray the other side, but not with the oak flooring in there, no way!
We know what you have ahead of you. At least you don't have to worry about what to do next. May be hard what to want to do next....Get that soffit material up and out of the way. Jim.

[Marty Walsh]

OK, I'm starting to feel inadequate. And I have a big, dedicated shop. I can't wait to see what you are going to put in this shop once it is done.

Matt,

Sorry...

And let the Technomax slider be an indication of what goes inside...

- Marty -

[Marty Walsh]

Now that's a haul of wood! WOW! Could be interesting staging the wood to stain it...I kinda thought you might spread it all out on the floor of the shop and spray, then when dry, turn it over and spray the other side, but not with the oak flooring in there, no way!
We know what you have ahead of you. At least you don't have to worry about what to do next. May be hard what to want to do next....Get that soffit material up and out of the way. Jim.

Jim,

I'm hoping I can get away with spraying outside. At least that's the plan. If I have to, I can move stuff around inside the shop to spray. It would just be a pain.

And you're all too correct about not having to worry about what to do next. I'm doing everything I can to get that soffit and fascia done so I can move onto siding. And I'm doing small stuff between ladder trips too.

And now it's tough, since I now have power out there if I want to use it. I have some stuff to do in the house tonight, or I'd be out there right now getting some work done.

I'm about to make a post to show that I continued working after I got done unloading/loading that lumber.

- Marty -

[Marty Walsh]

New Modified Haymow Door re-installed...

After I got done moving all that lumber around, I got a call from the local machine shop letting me know my modification to the haymow doors was done. So, I went into town and picked them up. They did a great job on my latest creation. I designed a system where I could support the doors in the open position, keeping them from getting away from me in a strong wind, and keeping them propped open while I'm doing something up there:

Attachment 47734 Attachment 47735

I have to go back to them on Monday to give them measurements for the 1" steel tubing that will be used as the sliding mechanism in those channels that are bolted to the trusses. I had to wait to mount them to see exactly how long the bars had to be. (The piece you see in that one picture is actually the lock bar that runs across the doors when they're closed. I was using it to check my mounting of the brackets on the trusses.)

Once I have the 1" bars cut to size, the corners rounded to allow them to swing in the channel, and a hole drilled on both ends, I'll get a few clevis pins to drop in the holes. The clevis pins will be all the way in towards the shop when the doors are in the closed position, and all the way out towards to doors when they're being held open. I think it's going to work out fine. Thanks again to Sketchup for letting me design and prototype stuff before having it built...


Oh, and then when I got done hauling those doors up and re-mounting them and the new brackets, I went back to soffit and fascia. I got all the soffit done on that one gable end, and then moved onto the fascia. I'm almost done with the "bird box" too. All I lack is a small strip of vinyl coil to finish it:

Attachment 47736

It's a little tough to see details in that picture, mainly because it was gettin pretty dark out. Even photoshop couldn't clear the picture up much. I'll get a better shot tomorrow when I finish it.

The plan for tomorrow is to run the soffit and fascia down the other end of that gable end wall and continue onto the porch. That should take a while, since there's a LOT of soffit to install under the porch roof!

Thanks for following...
- Marty -

[Jim Becker]

Yes. Typical farm, industrial tractors rely on RPM to get their needed hydraulic pressure with that type of scenario, unlike forklifts.

So does my little Kubota BX-22. If I'm lifting "a lot" (like big rocks or a bucket of stone) or using the backhoe to rip rocks and roots, the throttle has to be at or neat max to get max hydraulic pressure.

And yes, forks on a tractor loader front end work REALLY different than a true forklift! There are some with an "auto-level" feature, but they are not common.

Looking good, Marty. You once again have a lot of heavy work cut out for you!!

Yum-yum on that lumber haul, too. The floor is going to be GREAT!

[Don Baer]

Marty,
It looks like you got enough material to keep you busy for a while. I look forward to see your progress from here on.

[Art Mulder]

OK, I'm starting to feel inadequate. And I have a big, dedicated shop.

You and me both, Matt.

How am I supposed to post a gloat about scoring an $80 sawblade on sale for $20, when I show up here and .... oh look, Marty's going to be putting white oak flooring in his shop.

Never mind.