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Finishing my Buick Shop


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Hello and Greetings from beautiful Oklahoma, a place I've called home for almost all of my 53 years. 

 

I want to share with you my journey of building a shop.  It's a project started about 8 months ago and like most of my other projects, far from being done.

 

Just to jump ahead a bit, I'll tell you that the concrete is poured and the steel is about 90% complete.  With winter upon us, slowing progress is imminent.

 

It started with clearing a piece of wooded and brushy land, and subsequently removing the topsoil and preparing for a sound base.  The shop will be 96' x 69' and with a peak height of about 27'.

 

The pics below show the beginning and where it is now.  On a subsequent posting I will fill in the 8 months with some more pics and description.

 

Thanks for watching,

Joel

 

PS - That's my 10 year old boy in the first pic.

 

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Edited by JoelsBuicks
Change title to reflect progress (see edit history)
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I have a lot of Buicks and I wanted a place to be able to spread out several projects at one time.  This shop will allow for that and it's not all open space.  Out of about 6,600 ft2 there will be about 450 ft2 of living space with office area, bed, kitchen, bath and shower.  Next to that will be a climate controlled room of about 450 ft2 with work areas.  The space above this will be a mezzanine for parts storage and for that stuff we all have - we'll probably never use - but we can't bring ourselves to get rid of it.

 

I will have a car lift in here somewhere and in the southwest corner will be a 14' x 26' paint booth with downdraft air flow.  This space will be waterproofed and double as a car wash / buffing area.

 

There is some porch to this building.  Approximately 600 ft2 will be under roof but exposed on one side.  I am wanting this area to be used in the summer for the many dusty sanding activities.

 

I'll talk more about all of this in subsequent posts.  For now, I thought I'd share some drawings.  Much to my chagrin, I guess you have to know where you're going before you can get there - but still, I like to adjust my course as I go along.

 

The pics aren't good but it gives you an idea of what I'm thinking.

 

More to come,

Joel

 

 

 

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Ten acres of this farm was given to me by my parents.  My Dad grew up on this property - having moved here in about 1944.  The farm was left to him by his parents but the old farmhouse is long gone.  This place means something to me for many reasons.  I recall a moment in time, nearly 50 years ago, sitting next to my Grandpa while he cracked and cursed those black walnuts for me to eat.

 

Dad's old 1957 Cat D6 made short work of clearing the space for this shop.  The backhoe helped as well.  We needed to remove about 8 inches of overburden before getting something on which to build a pad.

 

Back in the late 30's and 40's, this farm hosted a commercial gravel mine that was used to gravel the local roads.  In certain places on this property, you can take away the top soil and you'll find several feet of mud rock gravel mixed into a clay matrix.  It's probably 65% gravel and when the moisture is right, it will compact to tight, you'll have to use a pick to dig through it.  It is excellent fill material.

 

So, we created our own borrow pit and after hauling about 110 truck loads, we had enough to start.  We used a 2 ton truck with about 7 yards to wheel roll the material in lifts of about 4".  On the shallow end, the gravel depth is about 8" and on the deep end, the gravel is about 30" deep.  It takes just a sentence or two to talk about this but it took us a couple months.

 

 

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When you try to do nearly everything yourself, you should be prepared for the long haul.  Life has many other great events and I don't want to miss any of them.  I've attached some pics, not of my shop, but of other worthy activities that keep shop progress in its rightful place.

 

Among many other things, a train ride in the Black Hills, my peach orchard and of course, some fishing time with the boy - the shop can't compete. 

 

Thanks,

Joel

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You have only one chance to get plumbing in your building - before you pour the floor.  It forces you to do some planning and to know some particular dimensions - especially if it's going to be coming up through an internal wall.

 

No permits apply here.  It's not a residence and the zoning is agriculture.  I'll use an existing septic system on the property that is so old it's "great-grandfathered."

 

 

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There's actually many parts of this project that will have to be contracted.  There's about 90 yards of concrete that goes into this floor.  The floor has thickened edges and will be 4" thick with 3500# concrete.  The rebar is 24" on center and is #4 (1/2").  There is additional rebar in the thickened edges.  I supposed that a highly motivated individual could pour this in sections but this is where I grit my teeth and reach for the checkbook.

 

The floor man did a final leveling of the pad and set the forms using corners that I had measured and staked and prepared the floor for concrete.

 

This building will utilize a combination wood and steel structure.  There will be eight 4" pipe poles that will be on the interior of the building.  These poles will be set and concreted to a depth of 4 feet - AFTER THE FLOOR IS POURED.  To accomplish this, I needed to have these locations "plugged" with something that I could remove, after curing, and then drill through to set the pole.  So, I sawed off the bottom of 5-gallon buckets and then carefully located them within the floor, staked them down and filled them with gravel.  It worked like a charm.

 

In case I forget, the concrete guys raised the rebar and put it on 2" high chairs.

 

   

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Edited by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)
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It has always been my desire to have shop that didn't have any internal support poles.  I always viewed them as breaking up a large space into several small spaces.  I guess I still feel that way but to get the area I wanted without a very expensive structure, I chose the poles.  

 

It does rule out the aircraft hangar idea <_<.

 

joel

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As part of my childhood development, my Dad found many opportunities to get me involved in pouring concrete.  It was nothing short of genius.  When you're the low man on the concrete crew, you get the finest opportunities to participate in the most back-breaking activities known to even teenagers.  And, you are the default faulterer of everything not right.  At the end of a long day, if you can get your mind off of the body aches, you can put it to work figuring out how not to do this for a living.  That was me.

 

So, I'll contend that there is not a good time to pour concrete but there are many bad times.  In short, you need some cooperative weather.  In this case, the cooperative weather came when I was out of town for a week on business.  I relied heavily on my 82 year old Dad to oversee all of this and true to good form, he did this I'm sure with more grace than usual, and saw that it was done right.

 

The finish on this floor was specified as a "ringing trowel" finish which is as smooth and slick as possible.  It was saw cut in sections no larger than about 14' x 19' and strategically with the pole locations. 

 

Very soon afterwards, I put two coats of a clear concrete topping that gets very hard and durable.  It's also glossy and cleans easily.  Water beads on it.  There's in excess of $1K worth on this floor.

 

So, some have suggested a dance floor.  Can I suggest a skating rink? 

 

Thanks for the kind words,

Joel

  

   

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I need to go back in time about three years and tell you about a bunch of large electric poles that I acquired for almost nothing.  A contractor replaced the wooden poles on a nearby high voltage transmission line with new steel structures.  I couldn't pass them up.  Some were as much as 22" in diameter and 90 feet long.

 

Now what does this have to do with my shop?

 

Stay tuned!

 

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I've often thought that 'how we choose to do something' is much more closely related to our capability than necessarily doing it the best way.  But I've always hoped that those two aren't too far apart.  Setting the internal poles for this building is a good example and what I'm really saying is that I'm sure the best way to do this was beyond my capability.

 

The top of each pole needed to be a finite height above that finished floor.  And, each pole needed to be set almost exactly at a certain position in the floor.  Of course they needed to be plumbed - and kept that way until the concrete hardened.  To accomplish this within our capabilities, we decided to do this after the floor was poured.  We used a tractor mounted auger to drill to about 50" with a diameter of about 9".  Then, we placed the clamp on the pipe (see pic) at the right height and moved the pole into position and then braced the pole in two directions to hold plumb.  Keep in mind that the pole was sitting on nothing - the clamp was all that was holding up the pole.  If the bottom of the pole was sitting on the bottom of the hole, it would be difficult to maneuver the pole into its correct position and expect it to stay whilst plumbing it. 

 

Each pole was concreted with a nearly dry mix of concrete and tamped with a blunt rod every 3 or 4 inches until full.  The poles located at the edge of this concrete slab are anchored into the concrete at the thickened edge.  Why?  Because drilling into the thickened edge would take away the strength of that footing. 

 

I'll comment a little later about the materials I used for this but I'm pretty sure most all of them are post-war.

 

Thanks again,

Joel

      

  

   

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Although the supporting structure is steel I-Beam, there will be a tremendous amount of wood in this building.  The trusses, rafters, sheathing, and walls will all be wood, primarily 2x6 and 2x8.  The skin will be painted R-Panel - I've yet to select the colors.

 

When it comes to wood, there is the easy way and then there's my way.  The wood in this building will all be sawed on my sawmill and it will come from those electric power poles shown in a previous posting.  In fact, I've got about 80% of the wood already sawed. 

Joel

    

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The boards that come from these power poles are very nice but you have to work for them.  First you get all the steel out, else you'll end up spending a half hour re-filing the teeth.  These poles are not creosote but they do have some sort of bad chemical treatment.  I wear a mask.  The wood is very well cured and so it stays very straight.  Most of the boards are sawn to 16 feet in length but I have sawn quite a few 20 footers for this building.  Anything longer than that gets unstable on the carriage.

 

I'm saving a lot of money doing this or else I wouldn't do it.  The value of the nostalgia of sawing your own lumber goes away pretty quickly when it's near 100F.

 

Each board will be later cut to exact length as needed according to the plan.  The idea here is to save on labor for the framers.  I can't frame this building myself.

 

Thanks again,

Joel

 

 

 

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Before Buicks came wood.  As a teenager, my best friend's uncle had a sawmill in Arkansas.  He actually ran his mill off of an old Buick engine, but I wasn't paying much attention back then.  I was fascinated by his ability to reduce a log into just about any dimension and the beauty of that wood was amazing.  I decided then that I'd like to have a mill someday.

 

Nearly 25 years ago I found myself on a special assignment to rural southwest Missouri.  The company had a big problem and I was sent there to manage the TV and newsprint media (it's a long story).  I met gentleman who was moderately crippled when he sawed a tree and it fell on him.  He owned a sawmill but couldn't run it with his disability.  I bought the mill and moved it to Oklahoma.  It's about an early 20's mill and I replaced all of the wood structure with steel I-Beam and channel.  I built it back with a concrete footing and then built an open building above it.  I've been operating it as a hobby for over twenty years. 

 

The mill is powered by a 1950 6-cylinder International combine engine.  The saw is 48-inch diameter and inserted tooth.  The carriage is a three headblock design. 

 

Long ago I sawed up and kiln dried enough wood to last me a dozen lifetimes.  It's all in that barn shown in the background.

 

       

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This posting brings us up to date with the progress of my shop.  With the exception of a few door headers to weld up, my work on the I-Beam steel is finished. 

 

Growing up rural, Dad went to many auctions and when it came to structural steel, very few really good bargains got away.  Over the years he ended up with a few hundred feet of I-Beam, 6", 7", 8" and 10".  Both wide flange and narrow flange; long and short pieces, a few with crap welded to them.  Same thing with pipe, especially 2" and 4".  I am now grateful that he did this and with his strong encouragement, I designed this building to use much of what he accumulated.  Again, this is certainly low cost but high labor.  My job for a couple months was to clean these beams up and weld them together in preparation for use.  I am sick of welding I-Beams!

 

The last structural beam is a 10" beam about 38 feet long.  I sawed boards to fit in the web and on top of one edge.  This beam will span the two internal rooms and allow for 2x8 joists to be used to support an upper level that will be decked with plywood and used for storage.  The beam was set this past Friday, just before the weather got nasty.

 

Joel

    

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This building will have 4 overhead doors.  Three will be 16 x 7 and one will be 12x12.  Each of the 16's will have an 8-inch I-Beam header and the 12 footer will have a 10-inch I-Beam (I won't explain other than to say it's a local supply and demand limitation).

 

I have to stretch two of those 8" pieces to make the correct length.  Ugh, don't put up the welder just yet.

 

The old building in the background was first built by my Dad in 1952.  It is 24 x 48.  About 18 years ago, Dad and I completely rebuilt this building and used only the walls.  We added a concrete floor, roof and trusses, and insulation.  For years, it was Dad's woodshop.  Then, 4 years ago, I added another shop area behind this building - tieing into it.  The addition is 30 x 54 and is where I rewood my cars.

 

I'll try to post regularly.  Thanks again for watching and have a great Christmas Holiday.

Joel

 

(Sorry, the pics are out of order)

 

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Edited by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)
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I've been told that 75 years ago there were many of these sawmills around and that is how people got lumber to build barns, fences, and chicken houses.  I think they have gone the way of the blacksmith.  In recent years we've seen a resurgence of these portable bandsaw mills for the furniture hobbiests.  

 

There's nothing like opening up a straight walnut log and revealing the faces and colors of finest wood in this country.  

 

I'll never regret this part of my past.

 

Thank You,

Joel

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

To get the most out of a good snow or ice storm, one only needs to have a few brush piles to burn.  Any other time, around here you've got a grass fire that will burn half way to Kansas.

 

A sawmill makes lumber but in doing so, it makes slabs and sawdust and both build up to remarkable amounts.  With about 95% of my lumber now sawed and the right weather conditions, we call the local fire dept. and then let the burning begin.

 

By the way, the sawdust pile doesn't get lit unless you have a week to watch it.  It's just left to rot.

 

Shop progress is slow but not stopped.  Take care, Joel.

 

P.S.  I'll list my Buicks in a forthcoming post.  I have 19 of them from '31 to '74.  Four or five of them have little hope of getting back on the road.

 

 

 

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Hey Gary, 

 

Long boards in the pile but not much good at all.  The outer couple inches and sometimes much more than that are full of cracks and gouges.  You're only seeing one face.

 

All that being said, I think I've wasted some boards for the sake of time.  Not too many I'm sure but sometimes you cut a slab a little fat so that you have plenty of flat side to turn down on the carriage.  

 

Another problem is that with 20ft logs, you get at least 2 inches change in diameter.  Ultimately, you're aiming for a rectangular cant and that means you waste more on the fat end.

 

The nice thing about this wood is that once you saw a board, it stays straight as an arrow.

 

Thanks again,

Joel

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I came up short on 8" I-beam for my door headers and so I improvised.  I turned some 6" I-beam into 8" I-beam and will soon act like a Ronco toaster oven and  set it and forget it.  

 

I've got four overhead doors planned for the shop.  Three 16' and one 12'.  This is the last of the steel and it didn't come any too soon.  I'm using about 360 feet of beam in this building and the scrap I have left over would fit in a wheelbarrow.  The welding is over.

 

Thanks,

Joel

 

edit to add disclaimer:  the method illustrated to "stretch" I-beams idoes not provide equivalent structural strength.  This and any other examples of Ozark Engineering presented by the author should not be misconstrued as acceptable for any intents and purposes.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by JoelsBuicks (see edit history)
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  • 2 weeks later...

The I-beams that make up the door headers need to have wood bolted on three sides to allow for finishing out the door opening and eapecially to attach the overhead door track and for anchoring the lifting spring.  

 

Affixing the wood to the beams has been one of those little projects that I don't like to do but I really don't want to pay a contractor a small fortune to do it either.  At these moments, Dad used to tell me, "Boy, just grit your teeth and do it."

 

So I did and I'm off to the next thing.

 

Take care,

Jo

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Just now, JoelsBuicks said:

The I-beams that make up the door headers need to have wood bolted on three sides to allow for finishing out the door opening and eapecially to attach the overhead door track and for anchoring the lifting spring.  

 

Affixing the wood to the beams has been one of those little projects that I don't like to do but I really don't want to pay a contractor a small fortune to do it either.  At these moments, Dad used to tell me, "Boy, just grit your teeth and do it."

 

So I did and I'm off to the next thing.

 

Take care,

Jo

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Tha's a lot of drilling! What did you use to drill and how? They look awesome! I never have a problem doing mundane work when it is going to show and look good, it's the stuff that gets covered up like insulation and wiring that I despise. 

They look great man!  Those old power pole beams are awesome!

 

 

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