July 8 2007
The July LAMA meeting was held at Dave & Cindy Mudge's MAGIC HAMMER FORGE
This was to be a combination LAMA Meeting, Election of Officers and Roof Raising.
I had spent the last few months working after work, behind the machine shop, building the metal trusses for the roof.
Jim Perea, owner of Isabel Machine & Fabrication was gracious enough to allow me unrestricted use of the facility,
as well as helping to modify David Bernard's original design for the trusses to suit the material that I had.
Tony Gary & Dave McCarroll supplied me with more than enough pipe to build the five 26' long trusses and the 12' extension on the back of the new building. Then LAMA crew showed up in force to help with the erection of the trusses and purlins to form the structure for the roof. Joe Strain brought his heavy duty "Bob-Cat" for which he had made a boom to lift the trusses.
We were able to unload the trusses one at a time and carefully position them on top of the cinder block walls. I had rebar built into the voids of the cinder block as the walls were being constructed. I made 1/4" steel plates that fit the top of the blocks wherever the trusses were going to rest. I welded the plates to the rebar to make them solid with the walls.
Then as the trusses were set in place and plumed to level, we welded angle iron clips to the plates and to the trusses.
As the trusses went up we tied them together with the 2" x 4" steel purlins. David Bernard did a great job of heading up the crew that assembled the extension roof and wall, connecting that into the trusses and making the whole thing one solid roof.
I offer my deepest heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all of you that were able to show up and help me to achieve a major step in the rebuilding of my shop. This has been a very long road, but I now can see the light at the end and that light is a forge fire.
The main pipes are 3-1/2", 1/4" gusset, 2" diagonal
Gussets and clip for purlin
The whole truss before cleaning & painting
Unloading the first truss. It's hard to see because it's the same color as the trees
Jim & the ground crew guide the first truss into the shop.
Joe, inside the Bob-Cat, gently raises the truss.
Almost there.
The weather couldn't have been nicer.
A little more.
Keith and John getting it lined up just right.
That went well. Here comes truss number two.
Randy welding, Keith securing a purlin.
Keath guiding the truss. That's me under the welding shield.
Charlie doing a balancing act.
Welding the clips and truss together.
Randy welding.
Rachel was a very good helper.
Bella didn't help much but she enjoied lunch.
Purlins connecting the trusses.
My son, Noah came to help.
Be careful up there.
Here's Keath screwing the purlin to the clip.
Going to have a real nice overhang
on both sides.
That's me again.
Randy did a great job welding. He even brought his own machine.
What a beautiful site
The back side.
Trusses all done.
What can I say?
Here is the Mexican roofing crew.
Foil / Bubble / Bubble / Foil is the insulation that I used.
Three days later, just about done.
That is one fancy roof. (detail pictures yet to come)