Bring In the Crane
I woke up this morning feeling much better after a long weekend of sleep and relaxation. I’m still coughing a little bit, but other than that I feel fine. We had to bring in a crane today to set some huge wooden beams so things were exciting.
The yard of the project slopes back from the street downwards into the back yard at a nice, steep, mountain angle. We are building a “driveway” from the street that will run level to the second level of the house. It is kind of hard to describe, so I’m thinking about snapping some digital pictures for the site.
The crane was scheduled to arrive at noon so we spent the morning installing the remainder of the steel brackets that tie the support posts to the main beams. We were running smoothly until we had to install one that required huge bolts through the beam rather than the nice lag screws we had been coasting with.
The FNG and I set to drill the holes through the massive wooden support beam with a short bit that would require drilling holes from both sides in an attempt to meet in the middle. We had everything marked and set, and even used a square next to the drill to try to get our holes nice and straight. Somehow, our (my, but we’re not admitting that right now) holes went in at angles on both sides and met with a nice hump in the middle of the hole.
Not long after we realized the discrepancy, our boss showed up to supervise the crane festivities. When he arrives, you have what are basically two FNG’s frantically trying to get the middle of the hole knocked down so that the bolts would feed through both sides of the beam bracket, thus removing the sudden air of stupidity currently surrounding our heroes.
We tried everything; a rasp, boring it with the drill, but a good old fashioned chisel proved to be the most effective route in the end. Incidentally, I recently bought a new set of chisels from a certain huge, orange store, so I was kind of excited to have an excuse to use them.
As we watched the last bolt finally wiggle its way through both sides of the bracket, we breathed a sigh of relief and did our best to look for other things we could prep before the crane showed up.
Shortly, the crane truck pulled up, stabilized its outriggers and swung the headache ball down to do some lifting. We set the beams pretty quickly and everyone agreed that it went about as smoothly as you could hope for.
At the end of the day, we went from having some dirt to having a recognizable, albeit basic structure. It was pretty rewarding to be honest. Now we get to look forward to framing in the rest of the structure and really making some progress.
I finished the day out at 175 pounds. I was kind of surprised because I ate like a pig this weekend. I couldn’t remember whether extra food or extra sleep would be better for a respiratory ailment, so I decided to go with both just to be safe.
The yard of the project slopes back from the street downwards into the back yard at a nice, steep, mountain angle. We are building a “driveway” from the street that will run level to the second level of the house. It is kind of hard to describe, so I’m thinking about snapping some digital pictures for the site.
The crane was scheduled to arrive at noon so we spent the morning installing the remainder of the steel brackets that tie the support posts to the main beams. We were running smoothly until we had to install one that required huge bolts through the beam rather than the nice lag screws we had been coasting with.
The FNG and I set to drill the holes through the massive wooden support beam with a short bit that would require drilling holes from both sides in an attempt to meet in the middle. We had everything marked and set, and even used a square next to the drill to try to get our holes nice and straight. Somehow, our (my, but we’re not admitting that right now) holes went in at angles on both sides and met with a nice hump in the middle of the hole.
Not long after we realized the discrepancy, our boss showed up to supervise the crane festivities. When he arrives, you have what are basically two FNG’s frantically trying to get the middle of the hole knocked down so that the bolts would feed through both sides of the beam bracket, thus removing the sudden air of stupidity currently surrounding our heroes.
We tried everything; a rasp, boring it with the drill, but a good old fashioned chisel proved to be the most effective route in the end. Incidentally, I recently bought a new set of chisels from a certain huge, orange store, so I was kind of excited to have an excuse to use them.
As we watched the last bolt finally wiggle its way through both sides of the bracket, we breathed a sigh of relief and did our best to look for other things we could prep before the crane showed up.
Shortly, the crane truck pulled up, stabilized its outriggers and swung the headache ball down to do some lifting. We set the beams pretty quickly and everyone agreed that it went about as smoothly as you could hope for.
At the end of the day, we went from having some dirt to having a recognizable, albeit basic structure. It was pretty rewarding to be honest. Now we get to look forward to framing in the rest of the structure and really making some progress.
I finished the day out at 175 pounds. I was kind of surprised because I ate like a pig this weekend. I couldn’t remember whether extra food or extra sleep would be better for a respiratory ailment, so I decided to go with both just to be safe.
posted by fuqstik @ 6:24 PM
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