The Shop



6/25/2017
This is a really late update, but the shop is done (or mostly).  The vast majority was done last October when I insulated and sheet rocked the downstairs area.  I also installed a 100 amp circuit and wired up 20 outlets.  No more 300 foot extension cord from the house!  I built a bunch of benches and a dedicated miter saw station and proceeded to make a huge mess building a Campion Apple 16.  The only reason I'm updating this now is that I finally got around to building a proper ramp into the shop after I put the Campion on a trailer.






























9/23/2016
Picking away at the siding over the past few weeks and I am finally about done with hanging all the boards. This weekend I will be picking up another 300 board feet of rough cut lumber so I can get started on the trim and ripping battens to hold the boards down.  Hopefully this will be enough to finish the job.

With the considerable help of my neighbor and his bulldozer, I was also able to get a bunch of stone put in place to keep erosion at bay and to provide a step for the door.  His son is a stone mason and gave us a bunch of nice square granite stones and a door step that he salvaged from a building that was torn down in Concord.  It turned out really nice and given that each of the stones probably weighs somewhere in the vicinity of 3-500 pounds and had to be moved with a bulldozer and chain, I think they will stay put.




























9/5/2016
I took a few weeks off to get the Force 5 back together and now that it's finished, I had to get going on the shop again.  I finished up the roof and installed all the windows and side door and then moved onto the barn board siding.  I bought the Eastern White Pine barn board in 14" widths from a local guy with a wood mizer sawmill and have had them stickered up for about a month.  I didn't have to dry them before putting them up, but it doesn't hurt.

Installing wide boards like this you have to work with the moisture in the wood, so some nail only on one edge, others choose 2 nails in the middle 2-3" apart.  I chose the latter; the reasoning is that when the board shrinks, you only have a small section attached so it won't split.  If you nail across the entire face, the wood will tear itself apart as it dries.  Once all the boards are up, battens will be nailed in between the boards to keep the edges from lifting.

Anyway, over the weekend I got the front and part of one side done along with the soffit installed.  The nice thing about this task is that I do a little or a lot at a time. Each board on the sides only takes about 10 minutes to cut and nail up, so I can plug away at it without needing a ton of time.


























8/20/2016
This shop has been a long time coming.  For 5 years I worked in the Stimson shed that I built specifically for Magic, my 1962 Alberg 35.  It served its purpose to keep the boat dry, but it was pretty much unusable in the winter (Central NH winters are not generally warm), and the shrink wrap was starting to get brittle.  I knew it was time for it to go. Once Magic sold this past spring (2016), I dismantled the shed and sold the frames on craigslist to someone local who was embarking on a similar project that I had done.

Originally, I planned on building a post and pier foundation because it would save on concrete costs, but after doing the load calculations, the carrying beams required quickly ate up any savings so I ended up contracting out and had a 16x28 monolithic slap poured on the site of the old boat shed. I spent a few weeks on vacation once that was complete and laid down the first sill plate on July 17th.

I spent the next three weeks spending every waking moment working on the shop when I wasn't at my real job.  My days went like this: Up at 4:50, go to real job and get as much done as possible until 1 or 2.  Go home and work until dark on the shop.  There were lots of trips to home centers (planned and unplanned), but my original framing estimates came in really close.  I was spot on with plywood and off by only by a few 2x6s.  I won't go into all the gory details but here are the specs followed with photos of progress to date:
  • 16 x 28 on monolithic slab
  • 2x6 framing
  • 10 foot sidewalls, ballon framed to give second floor kneewall
  • 2x10 joists for second floor
  • 2x8 rafters (9/12 pitch)
  • metal roof































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