What did you do today?

[Willy]

Hey I'm impressed! Nice job.
Yes nothing like leaving a few tidbits like that on the coffee table, sure to start up an interesting conversation.Who knows, it could kindle the interests of another budding machinist.

[Tim The Grim]

Congrats wschoenbreck on your retirement !
I had a nice cake too. Totally unexpected and kinda choked me up.


A bottle of Oban signed by my fellow Area 3 Operators was really the kicker. They got me talking about Scotch in September and remembered what I said was my All time favorite.


While I didn’t break anything falling off my bicycle, I’m still in so much pain I’m hardly able to do anything.
Today would have been my next scheduled shift and I would have had to call in sick.
Not being able to take any nsaids really sucks.

[Arcane]

Today, is my last day at work. I’m retiring from Qualcomm after 30 years of being a staff engineering technician here. It’s been a great run and a wonderful place to work but at 66 it’s time for a new chapter. Hopefully I’ll get more shop time in (if the real boss allows 😉). I mainly lurk here but perhaps I’ll have some projects worth posting. In the meantime, have some cake.

Congratulations on your retirement!

[PStechPaul]

I laid the last blocks for the back of the shed foundation yesterday, as it was starting to rain. Today I was going to do more work on it, and found that they were not straight, so I had to redo them. The concrete seemed to crumble easily, which made the job easier, but I was concerned that it was not as strong as I had expected. Probably because it was near freezing overnight and only in the 40s today. Even lower temperatures are expected tonight, mid 20s, so I put a 4' x 8' piece of aluminized foam insulation over the blocks. Hopefully that will keep the concrete from freezing. I might spray a mist of water over the blocks tomorrow, to keep the mix from drying out as it slowly cures. Apparently it can take quite a few days to cure below 40F. Some info:

https://www.giatecscientific.com/edu...-temperatures/

The foundation at this point:

[wschoenbeck]

Thanks Tim and the same back to you. Thanks also to arcane. I’ll admit to getting a little misty when saying my final goodbyes today. The people I worked with are all terrific and I’m proud to say I was able to mentor some of them. I’m kind of partial to Laphroaig myself. 😎

[chip's]

Congratulations to both Tim and Wschoenbeck on their retirements, I look forward to the same in just a few short years.

[Joel]

Made a 5-layer turners cube on the lathe the other day. Took about 4 hours but could probably do another in 2. Looks nice and impresses non-machinists to no end.

They impress machinists too, when done well - as yours is.

[flathead4]

I laid the last blocks for the back of the shed foundation yesterday, as it was starting to rain. Today I was going to do more work on it, and found that they were not straight, so I had to redo them. The concrete seemed to crumble easily, which made the job easier, but I was concerned that it was not as strong as I had expected. Probably because it was near freezing overnight and only in the 40s today. Even lower temperatures are expected tonight, mid 20s, so I put a 4' x 8' piece of aluminized foam insulation over the blocks. Hopefully that will keep the concrete from freezing. I might spray a mist of water over the blocks tomorrow, to keep the mix from drying out as it slowly cures. Apparently it can take quite a few days to cure below 40F. Some info:

https://www.giatecscientific.com/edu...-temperatures/

The foundation at this point:

I am not a brick layer but are you really using concrete instead of mortar?

[PStechPaul]

This is the first (bottom) course of the foundation, essentially the footer. So I dig a trench down to solid earth, add some small rocks and gravel, pound them into the earth, and lay a couple inches of concrete. Then I lay the blocks on the concrete and get them level and true. I also pour some concrete into the hollows of the blocks, and into the voids between them. I also pound some rerod through the hollows into the earth to help with stability. This first course will be mostly below grade. It does not meet building code for footers, which would need to be at least 12" below grade and have a 12" bearing surface on the soil, but this is just a storage shed and being under 100 sf does not need permit or inspection. I have done similar footings and foundations in the past that have been fine for more than 20 years, so it'll be OK. Certainly much better than the old foundation!

MD building code: https://up.codes/viewer/maryland/irc.../foundations#4

[reggie_obe]

This is the first (bottom) course of the foundation, essentially the footer. So I dig a trench down to solid earth, add some small rocks and gravel, pound them into the earth, and lay a couple inches of concrete. Then I lay the blocks on the concrete and get them level and true. I also pour some concrete into the hollows of the blocks, and into the voids between them. I also pound some rerod through the hollows into the earth to help with stability. This first course will be mostly below grade. It does not meet building code for footers, which would need to be at least 12" below grade and have a 12" bearing surface on the soil, but this is just a storage shed and being under 100 sf does not need permit or inspection. I have done similar footings and foundations in the past that have been fine for more than 20 years, so it'll be OK. Certainly much better than the old foundation!

MD building code: https://up.codes/viewer/maryland/irc.../foundations#4

Unless your shed will exceed the square footage to still be consider a shed and not a permanent structure, will it matter? Have you pulled building permits and had inspections for any of the work you have had done?
You could have dug and poured piers and set your framing on that. Your shed would already be up.

[PStechPaul]

I had considered that, but because of the slope of the ground I need some sort of retaining wall. That will be accomplished by means of the rear foundation wall. There were already two rows of block that I had installed about 15 years ago for a 4' x 6' mower shed, so I figured I would leave that in place and add more blocks to form a foundation that is actually 96" x 128", with the floor to be a full 96" x 144". It will be cantilevered 8" out from the foundation walls on each end, and flush with the walls on the back and front sides. If I were starting from scratch I may have just dug and installed piers as you suggest, but I still would have needed to build the retaining wall, and excavate enough of the hill to provide access and a reasonable slope to avoid mudslides and drainage problems.

I found another source for building code requirements for Baltimore County, which seem to require footers only for structures over 400 square feet, with minimum depth of 30" below finished grade. But this is only 96 square feet, and the foundation will be similar to a slab which can be at grade with support only 12" below grade.

https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Ag..._bldginsp.html

Thanks for the observations and comments. This thing will probably be overbuilt, and I probably won't finish it until spring, but it's a good project and the work has helped me lose maybe 10 pounds of flab and gain 5 pounds of muscle

[kendall]

I finally started laying blocks for my shed foundation. Initial excavation:

Put down a layer of small rocks and dry tested with blocks. Ropes make it easier to lift in and out:

Poured a layer of concrete mix over the rocks, aligned the blocks, poured more concrete in and around the blocks, and pounded a piece of rerod in the corner:

Had to dig out and wrestle with a big rock in the second row of the foundation:

And... did you know that according to the HSUS calendar, Tuesday was October 39? Trick or treat !

Have you ever tried surface bond for blocks?
Here I have a high water table as well as having to deal with frost heave etc, unless you want to go with the expense of deep/poured foundations everything starts to warp after a while, tried surface bond on blocks a few years ago and the shed is still as square as when I built it

[PStechPaul]

I had never heard of it. It looks like more of a waterproofing coating, which might be important for basement walls and the like, but I don't think it would be useful for my application. Besides, concrete blocks are about 15.5" x 7.5" so that with a layer of mortar they will provide exact lengths of 4' and multiples thereof.

https://www.sakrete.com/products/surface-bonding-cement

[mattthegamer463]

Now I'm just being silly.

[PStechPaul]

A couple months ago, the guy (John) who has been helping me clear vines and overgrown brush from around my house, cut down a nice Japanese Maple tree that had been growing for a number of years. It's still alive, and will probably regrow again in the spring. In fact, it looks like it had been cut short once before:


So I checked at Lowes and they had two different Japanese Maples on clearance, about 75% off, $25 for one and $15 for the other. So last night I bought them:

They will look like this, eventually:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/2-25-Gallon...-L2657/3634318

https://www.lowes.com/pd/3-58-Gallon...L11472/4308045