Building a Shop

[Huskerplowboy]

Back last November, my wife and I sold our acreage and moved to town, renting a house while we have a new home built on 2 acres. The house is underway finally, although not as far along as I'd like. The time without having a shop to tinker in has been tough, that's for sure.

So, begin my next big project. I have decided to build my pole building myself from moving dirt to driving nails and screws. Many would think I'm crazy, but that's what 7+ months without any "play time" in a shop will do to a guy!

About a week ago, I placed my order with Cleary for a materials only package for a 30x40 building with 12' ceiling height. First estimate is that the materials will show up around July 13th.

I'll be posting progress as I go...

Building specs:

30'x40' with 12' ceiling
poles and trusses 8' on center
1' overhangs on the roof (all sides)
18'x10' (or maybe 18'x11' if I have the headroom) overhead door on one end
Concrete slab throughout (probably late this year or first thing in the spring)
Wainscot around the perimeter
A few windows and a walkdoor

 

[Huskerplowboy]

I started on the dirt work a while back, over a month ago, can't remember exacty. 10 gallons of diesel later, and I have the 30x40 shop area plus about 10' on each side leveled out. Due to the natural slope of the land, I decided to cut the shop into the slope rather than build it up. I did so to avoid ending up with a tallish, steep approach in front of the overhead door. The deepest corner was 1.5-2' of cut, and the end for the door was mostly at grade level to about a 6" cut or less. The permeter will eventually be backfilled/graded to form a bit of a valley around the building to let water run away from the slab, even in the back. I finished roughing out the perimeter transitions this afternoon.

3 pics. One shows an overview of the shop location from what will be our garage. The other 2 show the dirt pile I've made with my little 2320. There's another smaller pile too.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

3 pics:

 

[mjncad]

OK, I'm curious as to your house foundation. It looks like poured concrete, yet it has texture like it's CMU or other block construction; but the proportions aren't correct for CMU.

Is it an ICF foundation? It doesn't look like it to me.

A 2-acre lot backing onto a corn field is quite the open space you have.

I'm looking forward to seeing your latest project come to fruition.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Yup, it's poured concrete but the outfit that did it has aluminum forms with a brick-look shape/texture to them. Makes it look a little different than just a plain/flat concrete wall.

 

[wedge40]

I have to ask.. What's the 2by on the box blade for?

Wedge

 

[Huskerplowboy]

The board is part of my laser leveling system I'm playing with. I have a dewalt rotary laser level and detector. I clamp the detector on that board so its the same height above the blade as the laser is above the desired grade. The detector has about a 3" window where it'll detect the laser line, so if I can keep it beeping, I'm within 3" of level.

First time I tried it, I just tried listening for the beeps by running at low rpms, but the 2320 would struggle as soon as it started cutting much without being rev'd up. This weekend, I duct taped an old Ipod ear bud over the speaker on the detector. If I plug the ear buds into the input jack on my Work Tunes radio earmuffs, I can hear the beeps over the engine even at full bore in a heavy cut.

 

[davo727]

Is that illinois? Beautiful field of corn. I grew up in a house next to a field like that in N Illinois. But had some rolling hills.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Nope, it's NE Iowa. I remember growing up in Nebraska back when "Knee high by the fourth of July" actually applied to corn!

 

[Duffster]

Nope, it's NE Iowa. I remember growing up in Nebraska back when "Knee high by the fourth of July" actually applied to corn!

Now it is knee high by the 4th of June and head high by the 4th of July

 

[davo727]

Nope, it's NE Iowa. I remember growing up in Nebraska back when "Knee high by the fourth of July" actually applied to corn!

Close enough Ex wife from near Dubuque, me out in the country N of Rockford IL.

Thanks for the pics. So now days by the 4th of July the corn is 6 feet tall?

 

[Huskerplowboy]

That field's a good 5 feet or better for sure. We've had a week of high 80's and high humidity, perfect weather for corn, not so perfect for a fat guy like me!

 

[mjncad]

Yup, it's poured concrete but the outfit that did it has aluminum forms with a brick-look shape/texture to them. Makes it look a little different than just a plain/flat concrete wall.

Pretty cool. Did that cost extra, or was that the foundation guy's everyday forms?

 

[mjncad]

The board is part of my laser leveling system I'm playing with. I have a dewalt rotary laser level and detector. I clamp the detector on that board so its the same height above the blade as the laser is above the desired grade. The detector has about a 3" window where it'll detect the laser line, so if I can keep it beeping, I'm within 3" of level.

First time I tried it, I just tried listening for the beeps by running at low rpms, but the 2320 would struggle as soon as it started cutting much without being rev'd up. This weekend, I duct taped an old Ipod ear bud over the speaker on the detector. If I plug the ear buds into the input jack on my Work Tunes radio earmuffs, I can hear the beeps over the engine even at full bore in a heavy cut.

Great idea!

 

[wedge40]

Could someone please provide some more detail on how this laser level and 2by works.. I'm a visual kind of guy so drawings will help, or a long detailed explanation. I'm asking becasue I will be leveling some ground soon, hopefully in the next week or two. I have an excavator coming Thursday, so over the 4th I'll get to dig up and move some stumps around.

Wedge

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Wedge40: I'll throw something together this evening. I might have a photo or may be out playing in the dirt after work and can take one quick.

The board on the box blade is just there to get the laser detector high enough to match the height of the tripod the laser level is on. I keep intending to bring out some square tubing or something better, but it's worked so far. If I was going to do this a lot, I'd weld or bolt a steel tube to the box blade more permanently.

In my case, I had a corner of the pad that was about the height I wanted it all to, so I parked the tractor there, set the blade down on the ground. Then I set up the rotary laser somewhere outside the area I'm working in and leveled it out. I then adjusted the clamp-on laser detector up and down on the board until it read the laser line as being dead-on the center of the detector's range. Then, any time the detector beeps solid (on-mark), I know my blade is at the same elevation as it was in that corner. The dewalt detector I have beeps fast if it's detecting the laser but is too high, and beeps slowly when it's seeing the laser but is too low, so I can hear which way I need to move the 3-point to get back to the solid beep (or as close as I can get) If you didn't already have a spot that was at the desired height, you could measure and adjust that way. Say the laser was 40" above the desired grade level. You could park the tractor anywhere and lower the blade to the ground, then measure up 40" off the ground and clamp the detector on at that point. Then as you cut down, eventually the detector will get low enough to see the laser and will beep to let you know you're close.

 

[wedge40]

Very good description.. I understand now.. I was thinking of only a laser transmitter and not a transimitter/receiver combo. Makes sense now.
Thank for providing the extra detail.
Which DeWalt are you using?

Wedge

 

[Huskerplowboy]

I picked up a Dewalt DW073KD from Amazon back in May. Uses cordless tool batteries from 9.6 to 18 volts. Came with the detector and a big ol' case. Not sure it's 100% accurate, but I figure for this kind of work, it's pretty close. I've been meaning to do some tests to see how accurate it is, but haven't had time.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

i've been looking at those and had a similar idea....i just wasn't sure about how to hear the beeping......good idea!!

do you wish you had went with the auto-leveling model? just curious as i watch the used market for one.....

...never thought about mounting one on a BB just always had it in my head using a dozer.....

be sure to keep us posted......i'm thinking of starting on mine next year...

I picked up a Dewalt DW073KD from Amazon back in May. Uses cordless tool batteries from 9.6 to 18 volts. Came with the detector and a big ol' case. Not sure it's 100% accurate, but I figure for this kind of work, it's pretty close. I've been meaning to do some tests to see how accurate it is, but haven't had time.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

do you wish you had went with the auto-leveling model? just curious as i watch the used market for one.....
...

So far, I haven't seen the need for the auto-leveling with what I've been doing. I could see if you were going to do projects where you'd be moving the level around and setting it up a lot, that the autolevel would be handy (like if you used it to shoot lines for drop ceiling tracks over a large area or something). I usually turn on the bump sensor and so far have never had it get off level. Get a good contractor style tripod and it'll stay set pretty well. For the occasional job or something like this where you'll set it once and then drive around for an hour or so, the manual level works fine IMHO.