7.10.2015

They're rare, but this was one of those very frustrating and overwhelming days where nothing seemed to go right.

Jim worked a little bit in the morning and got the fourth scaffolding tower all down.  The space looks so big and open every time another tower comes down.

Jim also redid the door header and  frame to accommodate the oversized door that he has decided to get for this space.  He's already put in a quote for the doors.

He also finished the blocking on this side to bring everything to the right height once the trusses are installed.

Working on more blocking in the front...

Working with steel always involves a lot of cutting!

After lunch, this is when things started to go bad.  Temperatures were really warm and the sun was bright - so it was pretty draining while working.  Jim wanted to set up scaffolding in the front to work on the strapping that goes on the outside.  If you remember, we had quality problems with the new scaffolding we bought.  All of that came into play as Jim is trying to get this tower put together 20 feet up in the air.

Bringing up side pieces.  Pins which were supposed to be interchangeable with all the scaffolding didn't fit, which isn't what you want to discover when you are high up in the air lugging heavy pieces of steel.  The safety rails he put on looked anything but safe because, again, things didn't fit well.

Part of our cold-formed steel order we picked up included the gusset plates and heavier-duty steel strapping.  But all that heavy-duty steel means it's really tough to get screws through all the layers.  So up on 20 feet of not-quite-so-stable scaffolding, breaking drill bits, screws not working - not a good situation.

Putting the strapping into place...

Everything is finally in place - it was a big struggle and took way too many hours.  Here Jim is using the grinder to cut off the excess.

 

So at the end of the work day with the prospect of having a dozen or so more strapping pieces to put it, it was quite discouraging to have had it not go so well.  These are the times when things can become very overwhelming.  You just have to look around and see all that needs to be done - and all by one person.  Jim is normally very good and short-term focusing and not letting everything that needs to be done get to him, but today was tough.

 

But, in typical Jim fashion, by the time he got done cleaning up and came home, he had come up with another plan to attack the strapping that he thought would work better.  No more mentioning of dynamiting the building - ha!

 

Kyle and Julia are coming in late tonight to spend the weekend - it will be good to see them. 

 

High 84/Low 61