My work shop build in progress

[Frank Surber]

I started construction on my shop now almost exactly a year ago, working on it when time allotted
first I planted 10 steel trees as my neighbor calls them because I gave them roots and planted them as much as 8 feet in the ground to get down to a hard sub layer of blue or whiteish yellow clay

This is the roots for the corner post on the S/W corner it had such a frame work because there will be a crane mounted on it later

Not using concrete to set them in but I used several bags or Portland in each layer as I back filled the hole adding just a little water as well

Each 6 to 8" layer was compacted with my plate packer
Trust me these columns are not going anywhere especially this one

setting the pedestal base for the crane

I had 11 trusses from an old building that I tore down many of them were damaged because the building collapsed from a heavy snow fall 10 years ago so I doubled them and I repaired them then modified my fork extension boom to handle them

A friend showed up with a skytrack to help set the trusses

Later I stripped the body off of a school bus the bus body will become an office or storage
I used the chassis to make a rolling scaffold platform
I used the forks on the backhoe to raise the school bus to the top of my container


Placing the platform on the rolling scaffold

I built a Gin pole rig with a hoist and snach blocks to fly the purlin
Next post

 

[Frank Surber]

I built a gin pole rig with a hoist and snatch blocks to fly the purlin
the pole mount is welded to the back of the fork carriage and not in the way of using my forks
the hoist pins on and can be removed when no longer needed

the pole is 4 1/2" pipe with a 1/2" wall thickness 26 feet long
the hoist is a roofing hoist with 4 to 500 lb rated cap electric brake to hold 1500 lbs on the cable at the drum
the cable hook is 1 1/2 ton the hook on the 6" snatch block I made is 5 ton

10 30 ft long 6" purlin on the hook



Half of the purlin on one side now in place

 

[EddieWalker]

Looking forward to following your build. Love how you think outside the box!!!!

 

[GeneV]

School bus storage, he says. Office or bust!

 

[Frank Surber]

It takes a while to build something this size by yourself the only help I had was 2 days hanging the 12" I beam top plate frame and setting 4 of the 5 trusses the rest has been completely by myself with my wife watching for fire or if I happened to get hurt she could call a neighbor to come assist her in getting me down or in the house or to drive me to town.

 

[Frank Surber]

Coming along slowly on the 11th of Jan. I managed to get the first sheet of metal up on the roof

then got the second one up on the 14th
Getting the first one laid meant having to work from scaffold on both ends the second was a little better because by then there was a way to walk up and down

yesterday was the first day I was able to get the winds to cooperate so I could fly a small bundle up making the count of sheets on the roof at 9 then flew up another load and finished out the day with a total of 15 sheets. Dragging and positioning 36 foot long 3 foot wide sheets by one's self makes for a lot of walking and dragging as they are somewhere between 80 & 100 lbs each and the area of each is half the area of a parachute or as much area as a competition sky divers chute so even a nearly calm wind of around 10 MPH is more than 1 person should be trying to struggle against

But at least there is over 1440 sq feet of coverage up there now

 

[ovrszd]

Great project Frank!!!

I work alone a lot. I think my wife has the hardest job as yours does.

Just imagine how many steps and how many times you crawl up/down each day when working alone!!!!

When I'm mentally into it I don't pay any attention to the physical stress. When I quit for the day it all comes crashing in.

 

[EddieWalker]

Really like how you get the metal roofing up there. That's a lot better then how I've done it!!!!

 

[ovrszd]

I've used a gin pole a few times. That really stresses the wife.

 

[Frank Surber]

I have always been about trying to come up with an easier less labor consuming method for most things I do and lifting heavy bulky objects rates the highest on my lists of getting it done with less work.
My gin pole functions almost as well as a stiff neck Pettibone crane just not as much lifting capacity. And probably just as good as a Lull construction forklift would since I am working by myself.

 

[ovrszd]

I agree Frank.

 

[monkeyduster]

Great job! Please keep us updated on your progress.

 

[Frank Surber]

Only had 8 more sheets to put down to finish the north side of the roof here is what it looks like now

Now I have a lot of stuff to move before I can get started installing the purlin on the south slope.

A little closer look , what this is, is a kaylin Siebert 50 by 102 with 3 sliding axles that I am working on right now I have close to $4,000.00 worth of new parts to install on it but want to do some modifying then sand blase and paint the axle group and trailer frame before I start re assembling it I may get it moved under the roof section tomorrow

 

[EddieWalker]

Nice seeing all those roof panels up there. That is some time consuming work!!!

 

[Frank Surber]

Getting closer to being ready to start on the South slope
Today I moved all of the no longer needed scaffold frames loaded the tires onto the trailer bed, moved the big A frame and moved the trailer bed plus so much other stuff it would be hard to list everything
But this is what it looks like now in the building

 

[redheelerdog]

Nice job Frank! How tall are the walls and roof peak? That looks **** high up there.

I'm diggin the gin pole, those design ideas are right my alley.

Be careful!

 

[Frank Surber]

Nice job Frank! How tall are the walls and roof peak? That looks **** high up there.

I'm diggin the gin pole, those design ideas are right my alley.

Be careful!

26 feet to the peak but eventually when there will be a slab it will be around 25 feet and 18 feet to the bottom of the trusses. I was wanting to have 20 feet clear under the trusses but I only had pipes that were 45 feet long to cut in half for the columns and had to go a couple feet deeper that I had wanted to get well into a hard strata with those big truck rims welded to the bottoms of them I could have gotten away with not going so deep, but what's done is done If it turns out not to be tall enough to suit me I'll build another building later or cut this one and jack it up a few feet I once had a 7000 sq ft shop with only 13 ft clear space back then I had 10 employees and one weekend I paid them double time and a half to help me raise the whole building walls and all up 8 feet the columns in it were made out of 6" pipe so we made a dozen column jacks out of 12 ft long H beams welded 4 along both sides and one at the each door column then winched it up. with the winches and the assistance of my 25,000 lb fork lift we had it raised column extensions welded in place and were adding sheet metal by midnight By late Sunday afternoon I had extended all of the electrical the guys were dog tired after a weekend marathon so I gave them Monday and Tuesday off but paid them of the 2 days anyway. To my way of thinking it wouldn't have been fair to work them nearly 40 hours straight then not pay them for the time they needed to recuperate

 

[redheelerdog]

I'm not happy unless I am building something! Keep up the good work and keep sending updates Frank. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Frank Surber]

Have a couple good days in on the building of course there are always a dozen other chores to do everyday to limit ones work on a project such as this.
but yesterday and the day before I managed to move lift stage move lift weld and move the bus scaffold again











today turned out to be another of those climb up climb down walk back and forth run the back hoe Armstrong the steering of the bus scaffold climb up over and over
I'm thinking I would get less of a work out in a Gould's GYM with a retired Drill sergeant as a trainer Almost any cardiologist will tell you that once you reach a certain age you absolutely need to walk a mile or 2 every day and climb several flights of stairs. But none of them have ever thought about doing this while clambering over steel trusses 20 odd feet in the air while pushing or dragging 3 to 6 80 lb purlin in place My cardiologist would have heart failure just thinking about it.
All purlin are on top of the building now




7 are welded in on 1 section and 3 welded in on the other section so I guess all in all I managed to get 5 welded in place today at times the wind did get bad enough to make me head for the ground but it mostly cooperated

 

[EddieWalker]

That bus scaffolding is pure genius!!!