Just a day after the roof was on, I rigged up some temporary lighting using a trio of LED high bay lights I had laying around.
I pulled Ol Yeller in to take a couple pictures.
This was the most room the shop would ever have, as from this point on, it would slowly fill up-first with construction materials to finish the building, then with tools, parts, and equipment.
Throughout the following months, the roll up bay doors got installed, I ran all the water lines in the shop, and generally got everything ready to install the interior sheet metal.
By February, about half the interior sheet metal and second layer of insulation was installed and it was time to start putting some real electrical in the place.
Here’s part of the first batch of conduit and electrical parts. It’s a lot. 😬
At some point, I coaxed Joel back into a scissor lift-but only because this was our better, more stable one. 😄
By March 2021, a good portion of the conduit was ran for the first 200A panel, which is outside the building opposite the gutter in this picture.
Steel buildings are always a bit of a challenge to run conduit and make it look nice.
By the end of April, the real lighting had been fully installed, and I had the majority of the electrical completed.
One last exterior item remained to be done, and it was too cold to do all winter-besides, we were plenty busy with everything the inside needed.
By July, the inside was complete enough that we could move back outside to address something that really need to happen before monsoon season really hit full stride-the missing rain gutters.
And so, over the course of several hot and humid summer days, Denise and I tackled installing the rain gutters.
We managed to get all the gutters up, and the rear down spouts before the first big monsoon.
But just as we finished the front gutters-with no cutouts yet for the down spouts-the first big monsoon hit-and it was a monster!
The problem was, that rain gutter was going to fill up and likely collapse because there was no drains on it.
In a frenzy, I hopped on the rickety scissor lift in a torrential downpour, with lightning touching off all around close-REALLY close-to us and the deafening roar of thunder constantly in my ears.
Up I went, barely able to see in all the rain, and started making holes with the cordless DeWalt drill and tin snips.
Somehow I jammed through the first three holes without incident, and even managed to get the size and shape of the holes good enough to accept the downspouts later.
On the forth and final hole, the trusty DeWalt drill finally died -it gave its last breath as the last hole punched through. It was a miracle it lasted that long-it was pretty much drilling under water the whole time.
With the holes in the gutter and disaster averted, Denise and I-soaking wet-hid in the shop while the storm grew in intensity and then finally blew itself out.
By August, the second 200A panel was up and I was mostly done with its conduit and wiring. Here’s the phase converter all wired up and ready to run our machines.
By the end of August, the building was just about as done as it was going to be, somewhere in there we got our final inspection, and it was time to start moving tools and equipment in.
Here’s how it looked.
The next thing I want to show you, is a very special vehicle that got to move into the shop after being locked up in a shipping container for five years.
It was an exciting thing to drag it out into the light of day and see it again.
I think many of you here will dig it, and if I’m not mistaken, get your attention.