New Tractor Shed

[awemawson]

Hmmm ..... chaps it REALLY is a tractor shed, with maybe the occasional barn dance when the need arises

[PekkaNF]

Barn daces are fine. As long as no Morris dacers are not allowed into premises!

Pekka

[awemawson]

So yesterday afternoon Darren returned to spread load #13  and start forming the shape of the base. He sculpted the ramp that will be needed to gain access to the scrap of land behind the shed, battered all the edges and hollowed the centre of the site, building up and compacting the edges where the  pits will be sunk for the concrete pads for the steel work to sit on.

It's still slightly softer than we want, so later today he's bringing his twin vibrating roller to compact it some more before digging the pits.

[SwarfnStuff]

Seems like a real civil engineering joby this 'ere shed.
      Still, tractors need homes too. No need for aircon tho, just keep the rain and snow off em. Protection from the elements makes economic sense to me. Rust may be free but replacement of rust affected machines kinda ruins the play money account.
 
John B

[Pete W.]

Pete,

It's pretty clayey - I'll post you a sample for your delight and delectation

 

Hi there, Andrew,

Thank you for the envelope that arrived here in this morning's Post.  At least, most of it arrived!  Together with most (??) of the contents!
All enclosed in a polythene bag printed with Royal Mail's apologies.          

I fear that I shall be unable to conduct a rigorous quantitative analysis as the integrity of the sample has been breached.
                   

As soon as I can find a Windows 7 compatible software driver for our microscope camera (or soon thereafter) I'll post some photomicrographs. 

(But not hosted on Photobucket!)                   

[Pete W.]

Hi there, again, Andrew,

I've re-read my previous post and realised that it's too much about damage in the Post and not enough about 'thank you'.  As I wrote in an earlier post, it's very kind of you to make time among all your projects and caring for your livestock and guests (not necessarily in that order!) to gather, pack and post the sample to indulge one of my hobby interests.  So, thank you very much.

       

(Currently typing with difficulty and excluded from the workshop!  While tidying the workshop on Tuesday, heaving boxes of come_in_handium hither and yon, I've damaged my wrist.  The Minor Injuries Unit guy diagnosed tendonitis and gave me a wrist brace to wear.  My lovely but shy assistant has refused to feed me my breakfast muesli or to cut up my dinner!!!  On the plus side, I did find the ½" BSP tap which was the target of the tidy.)

[awemawson]

Pete, glad most of it arrived and I wish you well with your injuries - mend soon 

Talking of mending, Darren wasn't able to come as planned as his vibrating twin roller ceased vibrating on one drum - internal drive shaft sheared off that joined the hydraulic motor and the eccentric weight. However a bit of fetling and he came today .

The idea is to compact the periphery where the pits will be sunk for the concrete pads, but actually he went over the whole thing, and it has certainly made a difference.

Then he went round putting up the 'profiles' to give the building outline in string lines, to mark the centre of each vertical beam. As there is the possibility of rain in the next day or so, and as the concrete is ordered  for noon on Tuesday, he's going to return on Monday and dig the pits then, so that they are not left open too long.

Concrete coming from a firm called Woolycrete, which is appropriate as we had an unexpected lamb born last night by one of the Jacobs Tegs who shouldn't be breeding until next year - so I suppose that Harold the Ram is going to be done for child molesting 

What wasn't unexpected was that five bull calves arrived - a friend is short of grass and we have too much so here they are. This is the first time that there have been cattle here for probably twenty years 

[AdeV]

Nice to see your small workshop tractor shed progressing I thought you were going for a big building? 

Speaking of animals, you do at least have the perfect surname for a farmer: Oooh arrrrr Farrrrrmer Maaawson. 

[charadam]

Andrew,

I'm curious about what class of deadweight roller you would need to give the same effect as the vibratory?

[awemawson]

Well the deadweight of that roller is about 3 tonnes but I reckon you can treble or even quadruple that for a vibrating roller

[NormanV]

I was once responsible (unqualified)for the casting of a reinforced concrete roof. I watched the man using a vibrator to compact the concrete. It still left voids, and it cracked, and I got the sack.
I won't accept that responsibility again!
At least there is nothing for your floor to fall on!

[awemawson]

I used to have two concrete vibrators.

One was an eccentric weight in a housing on the end of a long flexible drive driven by an electric motor. The other was pneumatic and had a reciprocating weight. Both were frighteningly effective.

You could fill a cavity to the brim with fairly wet concrete and start vibrating - it would drop the level to perhaps two-thirds. The resulting concrete was amazingly solid.

[PK]

I don't have any pics, But I once built a concrete vibrator for a guy making concrete tables and benchtops.
Nothing special about my work, a length of 1" stainless with a few bearings and an eccentric weight at  one end and an adapter to a big drill at the other.

His work was pretty impressive though, http://www.mapleart.net.au/ChrisMaple/
He used massive wooden molds with many sash clamps, and his workshop was  like a chem lab for concrete when he was trying out different mixes to get the effects....

All of which is particularly relevant to your tractor shed Andrew. So pay attention..
 

[Pete.]

A 3 tonne vibro roller will make ground easily firm enough to use as a road. Usual spec for a piling mat is roll every 300mm but that's gotta ho!d a 60 ton piling rig - and pass a plate test which is something you don't wanna fail coz you'll have to dig it all out and do it again.

I've also seen people pop a shutter by over-hunting a vibrating poker. It can build up a lot of pressure and lift the shutter up if it's not pinned down enough or simply burst it if it's not built sturdily enough.

[awemawson]

So as the structural bits are on hold until the concrete is poured hopefully on Tuesday, I thought that I had better get some of the infrastructure brought forward ready.

Between each of my buildings I have laid 110 mm underground drain pipes as ducting, and this has proved very useful over the years as bits have been added to telephone and Ethernet networks. My main workshop is connected to my Woodwork shop by such a duct, but it has never been used. As the Tractor Shed will derive it's services from the Woodwork Shop it was time to pull some cables through. Already it was connected to water and compressed air via 25 mm blue MDPE pipe, and had a heavyish 3 phase feed, all of which were laid in a separate trench when the building was built. But I want Ethernet in the Tractor Shed so that wired security cameras can be put up, and while I was at it I may as well pull a telephone cable through.

Each end of most of these inter-building ducts are terminated in a plastic box housing a Cat5 (or 6) Patch Panel and at least one Krone telephone connection block. Several have an adjacent ethernet hub to fan out to local connections.

So I pulled through a 6 pair telephone cable and two Cat 5e ethernet cables, leaving a pull through rope in the duct for next time.

While I was about it, I wired in an extra socket close to the termination cabinet, ready for the associated hub, which this time is so small it will fit in the cabinet itself - far neater.

[awemawson]

Then I wired up a double Ethernet socket placed close to where I want a camera pointing at the building works. The idea is that one of the two Cat5e cables coming from the main workshop will be patched through to the Tractor Shed, and the other feeds the Hub which services local needs like this camera.

Having run basic tests on the wiring using my handy two part cable tester I then crammed in the tiny hub and patched things ready for the camera.

From the Woodwork Shop there is a 4" corrugated duct going under the rammed base for the Tractor Shed. This will be intercepted when the concrete pads have gone off, and brought up via large radius bends into the shed itself. This will take the full works (Water & Air in 25 mm MDPE, a 50 amp 3 phase feed, and 6 pair telephone cable and two Cat5E ethernet cables

So the next job is to prepare the cabinet to terminate the start of this duct in the workshop. Anything further will have to wait until the shed is up.

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Andrew,

When I last posted I hadn't actually opened the soil sample paper envelope.  When I did so, I was pleased to discover that your inner plastic bag was un-breached.  There was some material in the Royal Mail outer bag and in the paper envelope but it didn't seem to have come from the main sample.

I had a quick look (Mk 1 eyeball, no microscope) and my first impression is that the sample is very fine-grained.  The standard definition of 'sand' is that sand particle sizes range from 1/16 mm up to 2 mm.  I think the particle size in your sample is toward the bottom end of that range.  (2 mm and above is gravel while < 1/16 mm is 'silt' or clay.)

That's all I've done on that topic today - I've been preoccupied with trying to remember where I saw the post from someone wanting a redundant surface plate.
Maybe I dreamed it!!!                     

[philf]

That's all I've done on that topic today - I've been preoccupied with trying to remember where I saw the post from someone wanting a redundant surface plate.
Maybe I dreamed it!!!                  

Pete,

See the last post in:

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,12186.msg144933.html#msg144933

Phil.

[awemawson]

Pete don't worry about loosing your marbles, I had an encounter with BT today that at least confirmed that I've retained mine.

I got an email from them saying that my 'Broadband discount' was coming to an end, so I tried to log on to the BT site to see what the discount was, but couldn't. No paper bills as they went paperless so no joy there, so I went to my bank account to at least find what I was paying, and found that they have been DD'ing £98.45 every month since September.  Looked on the web, saw I should be paying around £30 for unlimited calls and broadband, so called them and poked them with a stick. Ah yes there's an accounting error - you have a credit of £377. Well pay it back says I - no they say we can only pay £220 back  This went down like a lead balloon and did wonders for my temper. Official complaint, then I get put though to 'Account Retention' who say they can do me a renewal for £27.99 pm for a 12 month contract. OK says I. Complaints department rings up this afternoon to confirm complaint closed (I've had the refund) and new account starting at £37.99 per month. No says I that WASN'T what was agreed, it was  £27.99. Oh no we had it in 'Emma's Notes on our system' and that's what she says was agreed. No problem says I, you say you record all calls, play it back 

Chap rings back with his tail between his legs and has to agree that my memory is better than their system - there IS a god 

[SwarfnStuff]

Good for you Andrew, a win for the consumer at last.
      You just demonstrated why I will not sign up to any DD (Direct Debit). Don't trust anyone to not mess up or worse, rip me off. I fight to retain paper billing too, electronic stuff way easier to lose - up in the ether someplace? OR my very vigilant spam filter may gobble it.
     Hope the rest of the build goes smoothly. (I was going to say swimmingly) but given the "fun" so far thought better of it.

John B

[Pete W.]

That's all I've done on that topic today - I've been preoccupied with trying to remember where I saw the post from someone wanting a redundant surface plate.
Maybe I dreamed it!!!                  

Pete,

See the last post in:

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,12186.msg144933.html#msg144933

Phil.

 

Thank you, Phil,          

I've found the post and sent Andrew (Wildman) a PM. 

[awemawson]

Just a foot note on the BT saga: Because I couldn't log in to my account, their data security chap decided it was best to delete my existing account and for me to re-create another, for which I would need my BT account Number. Not having paper bills and not being able to log in, I did not have the account number so asked him for it. Rather snootily he said he couldn't give it over the 'phone but would post it to me. Well his letter arrived today WITH ALL BUT THE LAST FOUR DIGITS REPLACED BY Asterisk's 

As it happens the changes in my account prompted their system to put out one paper bill showing the £377 credit and this had the account number, but what planet are these people on 

//rant mode off//

[pycoed]

I had a similar sort of issue with them: just keep an eye on how long your £27.99 rate lasts! Mine ( I negotiated a reduction because my BT Infinity install was only 1/2 the speed of my previous ADSL, so they had to revert me to ADSL which was somehow still slower than it had been )
They tried to tell me after 6 months that was as long as they promised the reduction. My recollection was that it was for the remaining length of the contract (another 12 months). Ended up telling them to stuff it & changed suppliers. BT then tried to stiff me for breaking the contract & levied a charge of IIRC £150 odd. My reply (copied to my MP) indicated that THEY had broken the contract by failing to provide the service promised. (Promised 17Mb/s : delivered 3 Mb/s). They finally agreed with me.
I moved to SSE with whom I have an electricity & Feed In Tariff account for my solar panels & they managed to get me up to 4 - 5 Mb/s if the wind is right.
BT are now a complete shower

[hermetic]

 BT really are a bunch of useless CU next Tuesdays! Last Thursday my cousins phone went off, and as his mobile is also bust, he comes down to the workshop to get me to contact BT. His wife has a heart defibrilator/monito fitted, which uses the phone line to update it, check on the battery etc, so getting the phone back on is VERY urgent, as she has just started on some new, and quite iffy drugs, prior to an 8 hour operation, and they are actively monitoring her hourly...................They send an engineer, he says "there is a fault 13M from the test point, which is up that pole outside, but I can't ladder it, because it is cracked, has trees round it, and also carries the electricity cables, I will have to book the cherry picker for tuesday morning (3 days later). He also informs him that despite all the above being communicated to BT, the breakdown is listed on the enginners instructions as "low priority" . He also tells them he has been down to the exchange in the village, and despite him loggin previous requests for a major upgrade of the exchange, "it is still bodged up with bits of fag packet"The cherry picker doesnt show, and I ring again to complain, and again explain the urgency! We are promised a fix on thursday. I get a call from BT to tell me they have been, but the man can't climb the pole because............ etc etc! I tell him they knew all this a week ago, and he promises a fix for Friday. No one shows. I get a call Saturday morning asking me where the property is ( I am six miles away, at home) I give him directions, and my cousinn tells me he arrives, and starts the "I can't ladder the pole " story all over again! Cousin goes into meltdown, and he calls up a cherry picker, which arrives in 20 minutes, to find a very corroded wire in the box, which " fell to bits when I touched it" Ten minutes later , the phone is back on. and he gets a mass of panicked messages from the hospital asking if his wife is ok because they have lost the monitoring feed! I always thought that BT was a Communications company.......................silly old me!

[awemawson]

Phil, now that really is a major reason for complaint 

Today I finished the last link in the chain to get Telephones and Ethernet into the Tractor Shed, or at least close to a duct that will lead to it !

Just pulling cables into existing trunking, making up yet another termination box with a Telephone Krone block and a CAT5 Patch Panel, wiring them up and testing.


.... all I need now is to put a Tractor Shed on the end of that last duct