Saturday, October 25, 2008

East Coast Relatives



While Jean and Uncle Ralph were in Wyoming, we took a road trip to Torrington and met our cousin, Don, and went to the cemetery.

Cousins


My cousin, Jean from Pennsylvania, came with her father, Uncle Ralph, and spent several days visiting in Cheyenne. We had a great time visiting, laughing, walking, eating, shopping,and catching up on life.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Preparing the Pad


We hired Graham and Sons to prepare the area so that a cement pad can be poured for the shop.

Spraying





1,000 gallons of water was used to aid in compacting the dirt around the foundation.

Raking


The worker is smoothing out the gravel that the bobcat is dumping.

Reinforcing the Concrete




Re bar and wire mesh were added to reinforce the concrete.

Pouring the Concrete


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Floating the Cement

Cement Pad


Cement Pad for the 30 X 40 metal building.

Set Up






The bolts, nuts, and tools are housed in these handy blue boxes. The metal pieces were placed around the cement before being erected.

First Column






Dan operated the bobcat and raised the first column while Karen guided it over the 4 anchor bolts. Next the girt was added.

Day 2


4 columns 2 girts

Center Rafters



The bobcat was used to help connect the two 250 pound rafters which will be placed on the two center columns.

Handy Ropes



Dan rigged up this rope system to help raise the East end girt.

Help




Our helpful neighbor, Curt Sorenson, is working on putting up a West end girt.

Columns Up




All 12 columns are bolted in place.

Level for Plumb Line



Checking for plumb.

Rope



We used a rope to align the rafter to the column while lifting the rafters.

Bobcat Helped


The bobcat aided in lifting the 500 pounds of the middle rafters. The roust about is connected to the chain in the middle. It is the yellow piece of equipment that we rented.

Roust About



We rented this roust about to help in raising the 500 pound rafters.

Rafters



Dan is putting in the bolts on the east end rafters. Notice the yellow piece of equipment that is attached to the chain on top of the rafter. We rented this "roust about" which was supposed to lift loads 15 feet. Actually it went up only about 14 ½ feet.

West End Rafters



All of the rafters are up. Here you can see 12 columns, 10 girts, 2 header, and 6 rafters. Day 5

Up and Down



Dan went up and down the scaffold and/or ladder about 8 times per purlin. Lots of exercise. But he says it probably won't help his golf game.

Cables





Detail of cable eye bolt.
8 cables were attached, four under the purlins on the east bay and 2 on the north and 2 on the south side, making an X.

Drilling



The electric drill had to be used to get those holes ready for the bolts.

Hard Hats



Hard hats are good protectors.

Overlapping



Overlapping the purlins and standing them up was tricky. 10 bolts were added to the purlins in the center attachments.

Table Full of Tools


This make shift table held tools that were used during the building process.

6 Purlins Up

Saturday, October 18, 2008

I See You!



I see you. The 80 pound purlin is resting on the scaffold and attached to the rope which is tied to the scaffold. Using a rope to haul it up to the top of the rafters helped.

Adding the Braces



The braces were bolted to the purlin and rafter.

Higher



Two pallets were used on top of the scaffold so that Dan could reach those HIGH places.

Above Head



Attaching the nut to the bolt above head is DIFFICULT. The black tool that looks like a microphone (next to Dan's right arm) helped in the aligning of the holes in the purlins so that the bolts would fit. It is pointy on one end. It is called a drift pin or punch.

Ropes



Holding the ropes while Dan lifted the purlins, helped raise them up above the rafters.

Checking the Level



One of my jobs was to use the magnetic level to check the columns. Finding the "bubble" in between the two lines on the level was a good sign.

Bolts



Dan, who is afraid of heights, faced this fear each time he climbed up on the scaffold.

Purlins Up



The 12 Purlins are finally up!