The $500 barn

[aart]

 

[yogifink]

Now its time to pin them in place. When building a house with 2x rafters, the rafters are toe-nailed to the sil and then hurricane strapped.
I can't really toenail, these are much to large. On log homes they use oak pins to hold the rafters in place, like a wood dolly sharpened to a point.

I'm trying to keep my spend down, so I don't want to by oak pins. Use what you have, right?

I've got some rebar laying around from when we poured the foundations for the house. So I've opted to make spikes from the scrap pieces of rebar.

I cut as many pieces as I can find down to 10 inches or so.

I do not have a metal cutting miter saw, so I use a grinder with a cutting wheel. In my opinion this is the most dangerous tool I own. and I have a lot of them. More dangerous than a chainsaw by far. The grinder will kick like no other tool and you have to hold it with one hand. My grinder does not have a protective cover to keep the blade from grabbing your hand should your grip loosen. And, the blades are know to shatter, often resulting in very serious injury or death to the operator.

So this is one tool I believe caution and safety is paramount. I wear thick welding gloves, a face shield that extends to my neck and long sleeves.

After I got them cut, I want to town with a bench grinder to get some points to make them easier to hammer in.

commence lots of hammering!

 

[pertnear09]

Now its time to pin them in place. When building a house with 2x rafters, the rafters are toe-nailed to the sil and then hurricane strapped.
I can't really toenail, these are much to large. On log homes they use oak pins to hold the rafters in place, like a wood dolly sharpened to a point.

I'm trying to keep my spend down, so I don't want to by oak pins. Use what you have, right?

I've got some rebar laying around from when we poured the foundations for the house. So I've opted to make spikes from the scrap pieces of rebar.

I cut as many pieces as I can find down to 10 inches or so.

View attachment 1121783

I do not have a metal cutting miter saw, so I use a grinder with a cutting wheel. In my opinion this is the most dangerous tool I own. and I have a lot of them. More dangerous than a chainsaw by far. The grinder will kick like no other tool and you have to hold it with one hand. My grinder does not have a protective cover to keep the blade from grabbing your hand should your grip loosen. And, the blades are know to shatter, often resulting in very serious injury or death to the operator.

So this is one tool I believe caution and safety is paramount. I wear thick welding gloves, a face shield that extends to my neck and long sleeves.

After I got them cut, I want to town with a bench grinder to get some points to make them easier to hammer in.

View attachment 1121790

commence lots of hammering!

Oh boy. Good luck with all that hammering.

 

[aart]

The grinder will kick like no other tool and you have to hold it with one hand. My grinder does not have a protective cover to keep the blade from grabbing your hand should your grip loosen

Correct! So....
Buy a d@mn guard!!
I never use it one handed(well very rarely) use quick clamp on a wooden sawhorse setup where sparks won't cause trouble.

 

[yogifink]

Correct! So....
Buy a d@mn guard!!
I never use it one handed(well very rarely) use quick clamp on a wooden sawhorse setup where sparks won't cause trouble.

lol, yes dear.

it's an old one, the guard and handle have been mia for some time, i tried to find replacements with no luck some time ago. Honestly i just need to replace it, but it's sentimental as it was the first electric tool I ever purchased about 20 years ago.

just got done with the pinning, I can barely feel my hands. that 10 lb sledge does a number on you! Had to do a little carb loading half way through to get the job done.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I would be more sentimental about my flesh than the tool. Hang it up on a wall and use one with a guard! Good for you, getting that work done.

 

[Elyrian1]

Well look at that, it's coming along nicely. And yes... buy a new grinder Better a new grinder than a new finger... oh wait... you can't get new fingers. This is kinda like me refusing to use the table saw until I build a sled for it, yup.

You are correct to use rebar. They use it in log home constructions sometimes, but mostly they use ten inch lag bolts I think. Yes, you can pre-drill for them, but you shouldn't have to if you've got a beefy drill. The only reason I know this is because I'm right smack on the fence between log home or in ground dwelling in the future, and I've done stupid amounts of research at this point.

 

[yogifink]

so I can barely move my arms this morning... My body is forcing me to delay a bit, if you couldn't tell. I'm setting here chatting on this drinking coffee at 9, usually im up and moving by six.

I thought about using lag screws, but I figure at around 5 bucks a hit times 27, the rebar was a no brainer. I also considered using metal banding like a bond beam in a straw house. And I still might go this route, and add a few extra anchor points. Using the metal I could go down and through the posts and tie it all together nicely. I have free access to strapping, so why not I suppose. Better over than under built. Thoughts?

So after all that pounding last night the barn is starting to rack a little bit towards to back. So first thing on my to-do-list is to go get it trued up and put in some more bracing. I thought the purlins should hold everything plum, but I was wrong. so now I've got to go back, fix it and do it the right way. Thank the heavens for my bobcat right now.

 

[CapricornFarm]

so I can barely move my arms this morning... My body is forcing me to delay a bit, if you couldn't tell. I'm setting here chatting on this drinking coffee at 9, usually im up and moving by six.

I thought about using lag screws, but I figure at around 5 bucks a hit times 27, the rebar was a no brainer. I also considered using metal banding like a bond beam in a straw house. And I still might go this route, and add a few extra anchor points. Using the metal I could go down and through the posts and tie it all together nicely. I have free access to strapping, so why not I suppose. Better over than under built. Thoughts?

So after all that pounding last night the barn is starting to rack a little bit towards to back. So first thing on my to-do-list is to go get it trued up and put in some more bracing. I thought the purlins should hold everything plum, but I was wrong. so now I've got to go back, fix it and do it the right way. Thank the heavens for my bobcat right now.

Wish i had a bobcat. I got my neighbors to help put my walls up since husband was away. He has a bad back anyways. But he did help me put the coop skylight up which was surprisingly heavy.

 

[aart]

I thought the purlins should hold everything plum,

Maybe should have angled those purlins instead of going horizontal?
2 diagonal braces at 90deg on each corner.
It's not how bad you ffffoul it up, but how well you fix it