We are full blast into another cool project... this time an Adventure Golf with a nautical, seaside theme.
The shiney new shop is a pleasure to work in. I haven't had this much fun in ages!
Currently I am welding up the armatures for the sculptures, with the crew putting on the diamond lath before we add concrete and paint - all in the comfort of the new shop.
One of the bigger pieces was ready for mud this morning... but looked heavy, even without the concrete on it. The crane and lift beam are inside the shop, so I decided it was a good idea to put the piece on the trailer BEFORE we mudded it.
Everything worked like a charm... I even put the piece on the trailer solo without breaking into a sweat.
I unhooked the truck and as I closed the doors we stood back to admire the fine work we accomplished thus far...
And then I noticed that the piece looked awfully tall sitting on the trailer... maybe even a little too tall.
We first measured the height of the door opening and then the height of the scultpure... YUP four inches too tall.
We went ahead and started adding the concrete anyway as the piece is way too heavy to consider any other alternative unless I want to hire a crane to lift it onto the trailer after we take it out of the shop. With the driveway not yet paved this would be difficult once we cleared the short apron just outside the garage doors. And I don't want to incur the cost of a crane until we get to the customer's site in any case.
While we mudded I pondered some creative solutions to our dilema. I've come up with three scenerios so far...
One we lower things by letting the air out of the tires on the trailer until the piece clears the door. Might just work.
Or the second idea is to move the piece to the front of the trailer and then lower the hitch with my rolling jack and drag the trailer out of the shop.
Third... it just might take both ideas together to get the piece low enough to clear the door frame.
I have no doubt that we will get the piece out of the shop... intact and totally finished.
Tomorrow I have to take some pics for the customer's progress report... and I'll post some here too.
-dan
Posted by SteveDefibaugh (Member # 2245) on :
Do what I did when I spent a winter buildig an old 1949 Harley Trike in my kitchen. CHAINSAW !!!
Posted by TransLab (Member # 470) on :
What you need there Dan is a flip top roof and a #4 skyhook ;p
good luck with it...
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
Well, today I took another look at the piece... and the doorway. Almost everyone agrees that the door is the right size, and the piece maybe a little too tall.
The picture makes it look even taller than it really is. The work is coming along nicely and I'm still pretty sure we can get it out in one piece.
Hopefully I will never build another shop but if I did the shop would open up like the new GMC SUV's with the retractible roof and opening doors. It would be the way to go without a doubt.
-dan
[ December 17, 2003, 11:28 PM: Message edited by: Dan Sawatzky ]
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