Blog

It was a lovely day with virtually no wind out there and very nice sunshine! We continued with our task of getting up our Steel I beams up on top of the legs, this time, it was I Beam’s Four and Five to go on Leg’s Five, Six and Seven.

But first, we had to drill new holes to correct the position error we discovered yesterday (both I Beams Two and Four have the same error!), this is for fixing it down on Leg 5. We also drilled 4 extra holes on the other side of the I beam (number Four again) to provide a mounting point for our fake chimney to be attached to the roof, located about half way along the section of the sky light going towards the extension , on the back slope of the roof.

We got everything ready (moving the crane legs, towers and getting the winch machinery all sorted) and stopped for lunch.

After lunch, we went back and just simply hoisted up the big and heavy I beam (number 5) for Leg 7 and Leg 6 and plonked it on and all holes lined up so we bolted it down – job done!

Then, we unhooked and moved everything over to the next I beam, number 4, the lighter one, and set up everything ready for winching. It is a multipart job setting up the crane and scaffolding towers with the machinery in place and it takes quite a while to do this, making sure it is all correct and safe to go. Then the actual lifting process only takes minutes – smile!!

The second I beam of the day, went up smoothly and got it up on Leg 6 and Leg 5 and all the holes .. again .. lined up!! Hurray!!! So we quickly bolted everything together before it decides to change shape or something! Grin!

This means that we have all the big heavy and long I beams up now!! Yippee!

The final task of the day was to try to get up the shorter  I beam, number 3, which is only 2480mm long, going across the end of I beam’s Two and  Four to close off the framework box. We lifted it up with just one winch as it is only 60 kg in weight and move it up to the top of Leg 4 but we discovered that the two side I beams (numbers 2 and 4) were drooping down under their own weight by about 20mm so we couldn’t fit it into place. So we lowered the I beam back to the ground and closed the day off by undoing all the electrics, taking the winches indoors and tidying up. It was dark by now!!

We will think on the problem of getting the two side I beams to be “lifted” up so we can slot everything together and land on top of the final leg, all in one go!! Phew!

In a very nice bath of warm sunshine, we started this morning with the task of lifting up the first of our huge steel I beams. We got our two towers in place around Leg 1 and Leg 2 and then hauled and wiggled the tall crane wooden legs into position at the outer ends of the I beam. Then installed the two hoist machine up on top of the cranes and lowered the wire and hook down.

The I beam weigh 420kg so each hoist is lifting 210kg which is well within its advertised limit of 250kg! This steel I beam is 300mm high by 140mm wide (the flanges are 8mm thick) and the webbing is 6mm thick and the length is 7535 mm long!!

We also attached pieces of soft geotextile material, folded up several times over and put it on the edge of the flange where it would run up against the legs during the lifting stage, thus avoid scratching off the protective paint. Secondly, we attached some split plastic pipes (4 inches long of standard water 22mm pipe) and put them on the edge of the bottom flange where the thick rope is tied around to make sure the sharp edge of the flange won’t cut into the rope when the rope is under the maximum strain.

So after all this preparation work, we finally got to start lifting the I beam, stopping almost immediately to double check everything looks good, the wires are not twisted and are going into the winch drum correctly and everything else is correct. We continued with the lifting operation, and finally arrived near the top of the legs. The suspended I beam was quite easy to move on the wires so we could move it out a few inches to clear the heads of the clamps that are holding the wooden temporary struts and got the I beam the rest of the way to above the plates on top of the legs. We could swing the I beam over and lower down to plonk it, with a clang, on the legs!!

Then it was the moment to find out whether all the bolts holes lined up or not!!

And they did!!

Grin!

That was I beam number 1 in place!!

We moved the tower from Leg 1 to Leg 3 position and rearranged the crane poles and wooden leg ready for Beam number 2 and stopped for lunch.

After lunch, we repeated the whole process for Beam number 2 (which is a lighter and smaller at only 100m wide flanges (these being 6mm thick and the webbing only 5mm thick) and the same height of 300mm but actually a bit longer at 8192mm long. We lifted it up and got it up on top of the legs but this time, we had a 10mm thick plate which joins the two I beams together already loosely attached to this second I beam so we can bring together the two ends of the I beams and line up the holes.

We could line up the bolt holes on Leg 2 and also the webbing plate joining the beams together .. but .. we discovered that the holes drilled in the bottom flange of the I beam didn’t line up with the holes drilled in the plate welded on top of Leg 3!! Oh dear (and a few more choice words or five!) eeekk!

After checking that we had the correct I beam for this section of the framework, and measuring everything again and checking the drawings, it was a simple case of the original holes were not drilled in the correct place by some mischance of reading the tape measure or something.

So we had to lower the I Beam back to the ground, but we hadn’t unhooked anything at this stage as we hadn’t bolted anything and we don’t release the hooks off the rope until we have ALL the bolts in their holes and fully tightened up – just in case!!

After careful measuring, it turned out that we needed to drill 4 more new holes 31mm further along the I beams so after careful marking and punching the steel, we drilled the initial 5mm pilot holes and then drilled out the holes to the required 13mm but at least we tried too! The 5mm pilot holes were fine and cut through the steel fine but when we tried doing the 13mm holes, it only did so far and just stopped boring through. It just blunted the drill bits!! We did manage to use a 10mm drill bit to cut the holes wider but still wouldn’t drill the final 13mm holes. We did manage to do 2 of them but the last 2 just wouldn’t go so we ended up filing the last holes by hand! What a Palava! It was dark by this time and we were working under our floodlights!! Grin!

We put everything back together again and this time, we lifted the I beam up and plonked with another nice clang and the bolt holes all lined up! Hurray!!

We did all the bolts (6 on the webbing plate, 2 on Leg 2 and 4 on Leg 3), all is tightened up and locked down!

We finished off by undoing our hoist machinery and brought them indoors just in case it rains overnight. And that concluded our day of lifting 2 I beams into place!! Phew!

We finished off the crane this morning with the insertion of the metal socket plate at the top of the wooden crane leg. Then we attached a long arm at ground level with two feet at each end and diagonal struts from these ends and screwed to the vertical section of the crane.

Then, we went to finish off the Steel leg number 3 (our sixth leg we are bolting down) and try to understand why this leg has a slight tilt on it. we went to the top of the scaffolding tower (oh yes, we also attached our long extending ladders to the towers and it is much much easier and safer to climb up to the top now!) and measured the distances between Leg 1 and Leg 2 (4775mm – correct!), at the bottom (4775mm – correct) and then between Leg 2 and Leg 3 at the top (3714mm – correct) and at the bottom (3710 – oops!!!). We have found the error and it is nothing we can do about it as we have already drilled the 4 holes into the concrete so we cannot move the bottom of the leg the required 4mm northwards to straighten up the leg. We will have to live with it and but the slight offset is so small (thanks goodness) and by the time the whole house is constructed, bracing everything together, it would not be a problem and will not show.

We stopped early because of the strong winds out there as we have a heavy storm thundering pass somewhere else hundreds of miles away but tomorrow, it may be much calmer so we will begin the task of raising the big steel I beams and plonking it on top of the legs!

With only half of the work force in the morning and normal strength for the afternoon, we constructed the second wooden Crane leg we will need when we are lifting the long steel I beams.

The various metal collars, sockets and the main upright arm were cut, drilled and have pieces welded onto them.

Then, the long wooden leg was put together, using similar timber pieces as last time, but we added extra reinforcing pieces to overlap the joints. This was all glued and screwed together and left overnight to set and cure, hence why we were late finishing at 6:40pm!!

So tomorrow, the last little job is to bore a large hole at the top of the leg to fit the socket with the plate on it to form the holder for the vertical pole that holds the hoist machinery on that makes our homemade crane.

We continued the work of setting the legs to be in their absolutely correct positions and bolting them down.

We are using a special bolts which ‘self tap’ into concrete, see below

The ones we are using are 12mm in diameter and 90mm long. We use a masonry SDS drill with a 10mm drill bit to bore down into the concrete and then blast out the rubbish using compressed air.

We started at the Great Room end at Leg 7, doing the holes etc. and then sliding thin metal strips under the edge of the foot plate as needed to adjust the leg to be straight up and then tightened down the four bolts to lock down that leg.

We then continued onto leg 1 and did the same set of tasks there, and then proceeded to leg 2 and leg 6. We measured the direct distances between the legs in all directions plus also the two diagonals to make sure the whole structure is at right angles and following a straight line (as we got very long I beams crossing along the top of these legs). We didn’t have to do very much adjustment to the absolute position which was rather rewarding for us and reflects on our effort last week when we first installed the legs.

So leg 2 and leg 6 were similarly bolted down and adjusted for verticality and we then moved to the final pair of legs, number 3 and number 5. We did our distance checking again and with a bit more adjustment this time (but only approximately 15mm movement) we got these two legs into position too. It was now getting dark and we got leg 5 all bolted down and balanced with the leg set vertical but we couldn’t finish leg 3 as it was too dark to see the bubble on the spirit level and also there was a slight odd situation where this leg is not very vertical and is leaning a little too far towards the garage end of the house. the bottom distance is correct at 3714mm apart and we know the previous leg (number 2) is vertical but something is wrong. We will check the temporary horizontal wooden strut between the legs at the top to see if it is the same distance and try to find the answer .. but tomorrow in the daylight after lunch – grin!

So in conclusion, we managed to bolt down all six legs and check five of them to be proudly  standing upright, just the final leg to finish off and then we will be ready to start lifting the huge steel I beams on top of them!!!!

In the morning, we spent making 7 wooden struts with metal tabs on the ends to control and bring together the distances at the top of the six legs that are having the four giant I beams placed on top of them.

We made right angled metal brackets using 3mm steel plate, cut into 35mm wide by 120mm long and bent 30mm in from one end. Two screw holes were drilled so we can fix it down on the ends of the 63mm CLS timber pieces.

This took all morning to do.

 

After lunch, we went around .. and around .. and around .. putting up each of the seven struts, one by one, by climbing the scaffold tower each time. Phew!

It was the case of moving each scaffolding tower around all the six legs so each strut could be reached and clamped using gluing screw clamps or squeezy racket clamps to grip the struts at the top of each leg.

What a merry dance around the two scaffolding towers had!

We finished in the dark, at last, and so each of the six legs and the connections to their neighbours are now controlled, with the distance is set correctly according to the drawings.

Tomorrow, we will check the verticality of each leg and make adjustments to ensure each leg is fully vertical by sliding thin pieces of steel strips under the foot and then drill the holes down into the concrete and drive self tapping concrete bolts, and that will stiffen up the movement of the legs significantly .. we hope!! – Grin!

 

On a rather warmer day, we got the seventh and final steel leg hoisted and positioned in the required place.

We prepared for this operation by making two bracing beams using a couple of 63mm CLS timber pieces with metal strips screwed on each end to provide the anchorage. These bracing beams are only temporary to hold this leg in place while we make further precise measurements to each and every leg before we bolt them all down into the concrete.

This final leg is our third heavy duty version (weighing 160kg) and it all went just fine with no signs of tension or trouble with our repaired crane wooden leg.

We verified the position of the previous pair of legs (number 3 and 5) to make sure they were in the correct location (only needing a slight adjustment) and then we were able to put on our bracing beams from those legs to our final leg to secure it and hold it stable. But we were concerned with a potential mishap if we had any strong winds and it may have caused  a possibility of pushing this leg (number 4 it is) over sideways so we tied two lengths of rope and anchored back to the concrete wall (just like tying down a tent with guy ropes).

We then went back to the first pair of legs to start the exact process of measuring distances and angles to confirm the positions of the legs against the drawings. We used a laser beam to project right across from the Kitchen front wall, skimming pass the two steel legs and reaching the other side of the Great Room. We then measured from each corner of the Great Room to the laser beam and both were very, very similar (5564mm) and the gap between the laser beam to the side wall of the extension was 40 to 50mm which conforms very closely to the plans – phew thank goodness for that!

We then made sure that the distance between the legs (number 1 and number 7) were the same at the bottom and at the steel lintel (measuring 2327mm) which is within 1mm of the precise number off of the drawings.

But we were concerned about the verticality nature and our digital spirit level was saying 89.85° for these legs and we wanted to make sure that both were 90°. For every 0.05° out, then there would be an offset of almost 5mm (precisely 4.8mm) at the top compared with the bottom, therefore that 89.85° value would indicate that the top of the leg would be over 14mm further apart compared  with it’s neighbouring leg and our steel cross struts wouldn’t connect together and allow our bolts to go into the holes!!

After some discussion, we came up with the idea of clamping pieces of timber between the legs at the top at the exact distances so that we can be reassured that the bolt holes will line up with the I beams and the cross struts when they get hoisted into place.

All this careful considerations was needed because we want to drill the mounting holes into the concrete to bolt down the foot plates of our legs and have them much more secure and stable before we haul up the very heavy I beams on top of them! But of course, if we bolt down the legs and then find that the tops are NOT in the correct positions and we couldn’t line up the bolt holes and locked the pieces together .. we would be rather annoyed! Hence why the deep thinking and discussion session we had to solve this problem. We will implement our solution on Monday – Phew!