Is there a Tunnel and a Light at the End?

If I was on a roller coaster I believe it would be on the down hill slide. Regular unleaded is over 4 bucks now and diesel is pushing 5. Work has been the downer of late. I have been devloping a very economical manual control levers system for the last year and some folks uninvolved with the project have tanked the thing. So now I have to pursue 3 solutions instead on one and get it done in an extremely short amount of time.

The one bright thing on the horizon is the boys and I are heading out on Safari to Eastern Oregon next week. We will be camping, fishing and shooting varmints. What could be better than that?

I have the shop as done as it can be. I have to order a few pieces of metal to finish it up. Electrical is the next major hurdle.

The geese are 2/3 of full grown size now. They are starting to have their voices change. Peep, Peep, Peep, Little honk, Peep, Peep. It is pretty funny. I have a 12 year old that is experiencing the same thing. He does say, "Peep" much though.

Speaking of the 12 year old, he completed and passed his Hunter's Safety course. So that is a milestone for him. The 8 year old wishes it was him instead.

I am going to build a small room in the shop that will become the reloading room. I will make the roof structure real strong so it can be used for storage on top. Now I'll can have a room with male decore. DMP

Thank Heaven for Spring

I have been working on things in between spring showers and other life schedule altering events. I about have the deck on the flat bed of the Ford. I have to get creative with the fuel fillers then I can put on the last boards. We made the first try at passing DEQ to get our unlicensed daily driver legalized. We didn't pass the CO levels. I talked to a friend at work that wrenches on cars and he had picked up lots of tricks from the engine guys at work. We have to certify our lift trucks for Cali emissions so we have a couple experts to make that happen. For mine to pass, the trick is to have the idle turned up as far as possible without getting an engine code.

We got a couple loads of gravel the other day. One load was spread and one dumped. I have to get the starter in the track loader so I can smooth some areas out then I can spread the pile of rock. This will make it look like the shop is actually part of the plan.

I have put in the windows for the south wall of the shop and started putting up the metal.So now I have one and a half walls. I have started getting quotes on doors.

A couple weeks ago I help bury my friend. He died of lung cancer and had never smoked a day in his life. I had helped him with the dirt work when he built his house. He help on the shop a bit when I was doing the concrete prep. He was sick then, but insisted on helping. He was a very kind person. I had only known him for a couple years but we had a lot in common and just hit it off.

Last Sunday I flew to Greenville, NC for work. I only stayed for a couple days and headed back to get some work moving quickly.

Baseball has started for the youngest C. The oldest C is starting Hunter's Safety soon. He is twelve now and can start pursuing the game animals. He is a little apprehensive about it. Little bro wishes he could slay something right now. They are definitely different people.

So that is why there has been a gap in the blogging. Life has been getting in the way. DMP

Stuff

Quick update. Saturday after Christmas the sun finally deceided to shine. The shop now has a complete roof and the north wall is complete. It was a good thing I got that much done as New Years Eve and New Years was a blow. A big blow, like 50 mph gusts. I haven't had an inspection in a long while so I am trying to get little framing odds and ends done for that.

I have used the shop for its intended purpose and tried to fix an exhaust leak on the '94 Ford PU. Anybody know what to do? The manifolds have a taper cast into them and the pipe has a bell formed on them. I took both sides loose and gradually tightened them together and applied a little hydraulic jack force here and there to the pipe. I though I had it whupped. It still leaks just the same. I wonder if I need to cut the one side of the pipe loose with the sawzall, get it nicely fit up and tightened, then weld the pipe back together. The Y pipe is really stiff and I think it is the problem.

I have been working on the neighbor's Ford tractor rebuilding the lower end of the engine. I have the front end off the tractor and thought I could change all the bearings. Of course not, I had to pull it the rest of the way. I don't have a hoist to lift the engine in his shop so I bolted some angle iron to the bottom of the block, positioned a HD steel dolly underneath and welded angle between those on the engine and the frame of the dolly. It worked really well. Maybe the easiest engine pull I've done. I had to call around to figure out how to install some new fangled side seals on the rear main bearing cap. You slide the rubber seal strip in then pound in the steel rod, next to the cap, to "energize" the seal. The rods are supposed to have a pointed/rounded end so they don't tear things up too much. I am putting in some hours to get this tractor rebuild behind me.

After the inspection and weather permitting I will put up the other walls. The remaining ones require lots of cutting and fitting. I bought a shear attachment for a drill, off Ebay, to do all the cutting.

We had a great Christmas and a good new years. Both lads had oral surgery over the holidays for various extra teeth and extra gums. Not long in the tooth but long in the gums... DMP

Shop 13: Roof Framing is Done

I took Friday off from work as the sun was shining and Dad was available to help. It is pretty tough working with 10 to 14 foot 2x8's anywhere from 14 to 19 feet off of the ground. So Friday we got the fascia boards on, the blocking done between the purlins at the front and rear walls, and one corner of the eaves completed. It doesn't sound like much by it takes awhile for every little step. The blocking was the worst. Each one was a slightly different length and one had to be installed before the next one could be measured. The Mrs. was on the ground cutting and Dad and I were nailing and measuring. The fascia boards required us to snap a chaulk line and trim the purlins before installation. Then we had to hoist a 14 foot 2x8 up there and mark it and cut it.


Saturday turned out to be a bit windy. A bit windy in Corbett is 40 MPH gusts. We kept at it though and we finished all of the roof framing. We worked on putting up the angle braces. The braces go between the steel trusses and adjacent purlins or girts. I ran short on some of those pieces so I have to harass the company to send me some more. So now depending on the wind I can put roof on! Whoopee

For the interest of the mechanics in the family I have included a picture of the flatbed framing on the Ford. I need to take it off and do some more welding and get it painted. The taillights are LED's from scrapped forklifts... DMP

Shop 11: Constructive Family Time

Last Saturday we got the wall girts all on except two above the large door opening. We put in the X brace cables. One pair on each of the 4 walls. The cables took a lot of time. There was the learning curve of how to assemble them. The way they are design requires drilling an angled hole through each of the girts at an angle.

I have the basic framing done around the 12' x 12' door opeing and around the man door opening.

Hopefully this Saturday we'll get the purlins up for the roof. It will take a little extra time to frame the over hangs on all 4 sides. DMP

Shop 10: The Iron is Hung

We started out Saturday planning on putting up the rest of the steel with the farm modified lift device for the TD9 loader. Even with this apparatus we just had enough height to put up the trusses with a 19 foot peak. As we were getting going the neighbor came over and asked if we need help as he had a telescopic forklift at his disposal. Holy smokes, yes! That would be great!

We used the loader to move the pieces around and get the trusses bolted together.

Using the tele and the neighbor's experience as a full-time crane operator putting up the rest of the roof structure went really well. It took alot less time and we didn't feel like we could die at any second. We got all of the wall girts on except the north wall as well. It was another really productive day. The weather even cooperated and it didn't rain all day. Dad was a great help. DMP

Shop 7

I finally made the inspector happy. Well not really. I had to go to Gresham City Hall and get the city structural engineer to sign off on the changes I had made. After getting approval to pour concrete I had to get a pump, finishers and concrete trucks all lined up for Saturday. It is Wednesday when I got the inspection approved. The hardest part was getting the concrete. The ready mix companies are really independent and charge like there is no competition. Most of the batch plants have to have 100 or even 200 cubic yards minimum before they will run on a Saturday. I ended up having to go with a "mobile mix" company. The only batch plant that was running wanted $75 per truck extra for Saturday.

Mobile mix is a truck that has a hopper of sand, one of gravel and one of cement. There is a big water tank too. The concrete is mixed in the shoot by an auger. Lesson learned: If you are pouring more that 8 yards make sure to get ready mix. The mix on site is not consistent and isn't well mixed. The finishers hated it. The other problem is the trucks are not back to back. The finishers left at 8 PM! We started pouring at a theoretical 10 AM, with the first truck being 35 minutes late.

With all of the troubles it still turned out pretty good. I am working on stripping forms right now. I have to do a little leveling work where the posts bolt down.

My Uncle Greg is coming home from a job in Minnesota and is going to help me haul the building kit from Sandy, OR to my place. That should happen next week. Onward and upward. DMP