Over The Hump

We are now on the eleventh row of rebar which takes us over the North entrance arch.  This should make progress a little faster as it’s now a pretty straight run along the East/West axis.

pastedGraphic.pdf

Jeff holding the two sides of our house together.  Qui es mas macho?

 

pastedGraphic_1.pdf

One of many interesting view points.

Just Around The Bend

The farther along we get with the rebar, the better I get with the bending.  Just look at that nice radius.

We are now working above our heads, so ladders and scafolding are coming in handy.

pastedGraphic.pdf

 

pastedGraphic_1.pdf

We’ve put in a few of the vertical bars to help keep the arching shape in line.  Jeff would like you to notice the nicely painted rebar. (Rustoleum)

pastedGraphic_2.pdf

This picture shows 8 rows done.  By the end of the day, we finished half of the 9th row.

1 comment

Anonymous
Jeff and Steve, it was so much fun to see your house on Sunday!  Thanks for showing us around – it’ll be so interesting to watch your progress.
Jane
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 – 08:51 AM

The Shadow Knows

We had a relatively productive weekend with glorious weather.  It’s really cool how much more the house is taking shape with each successive row of rebar.  pastedGraphic.pdf

One challenge in attaching the rebar is that on the sloped retaining wall arches, the tabs don’t line up.  David Adamson stopped by with his mig welder to see if it would work to tack weld the ends of the rebar on the arches.  It worked perfectly and he is going to come back after we have all the rows up.

pastedGraphic_1.pdf

Meredith and Beckett came by on Sunday to lend a hand.   Beckett put his to good use testing the strength of vacuum in our shopvac.

pastedGraphic_2.pdf

By the end of the weekend we had 7 rows of  rebar up.  That doesn’t seem like a lot but there is a tremendous amount of bending and fiddling to get them in place so progress is slow.  Once we get to putting up the verticals, it should move along much quicker.

1 comment

Anonymous
I LOVE this blog!  I haven’t been out to the property for months but this is a great way to track the progress.  Thanks, Kay
Thursday, July 23, 2009 – 12:50 PM

On The Level ( or was that Plumb)

Jeff and I got a bit of a late start today but we did manage two more rows of rebar.  Unfortunately we don’t have use of the electric bender this weekend so it’s the all manual method.  Some of it has to be done manually anyway.  I made a jig to create the gentle curves around the retaining wall ends. (see below)  all the other “adjustments” are done with a Hickey Bar.

pastedGraphic.pdfpastedGraphic_1.pdf

With the rebar clamped to the end of the jig, Jeff stands on it, beginning at the end, while I pull on the rebar to create the curve.

pastedGraphic_2.pdf

As we go along tying the rebar to the tabs on the arches, we make sure they are plumb.  These handy magnetic inclinometers make it easy.  Sometimes Jeff just has to push or pull on the steel to get it plumb  but a few we have had to tie off with rope (Wally makes a convenient anchor), to get things in line.  Once we reach a certain level, the arches will be very rigid and we won’t need to make any adjustments.

pastedGraphic_3.pdf

Round One

We made our first step with the rebar for our “shell” today.  There are a lot of bends to get around the perimeter, but once we got started, it got easier.

We did have some help though.

pastedGraphic.pdf

Ryan Knott of RK Concrete, generously loaned us his bench rebar bender.  It makes accurate and repetitive bends with very little effort.  I can’t imagine making all the angles we need with a manual one.

Thanks Ryan!

We do need to make some manual adjustments with a “Hickey Bar” but it’s fairly simple and just takes a bit of muscle.  Who needs that gym membership anyway.

pastedGraphic_1.pdf

One of the perfect 90 degree bends done with the electric bender.

You may have noticed the green zip ties in the picture above.  In a previous posting I showed that I was making my own stainless steel ties out of discarded wire from the local utility company.  In theory, the idea of recycling the wire for this use is appealing. However, I did a little calculating and figured we would need around 5000 zip ties.  It takes me about 15 seconds to make one.  That’s 75,000 seconds, or 1,250 hours to make all I would need.  Though I will use the several hundred ties that I made,  It is much more practical to buy what we need.

2 comments
Anonymous
I agree on the ties!  It looks like a tedious job when you have so many corners that need bending.  How fortunate to have friends loan their equipment to help in this particular task.
One question I have.  What invention have you thought of using used pop cans which show in the top picture?  Or is that so you won’t get scratched with some upright rods?
Sure wish we lived closer so that we might be able to help in some way.
Mom
Monday, July 13, 2009 – 09:01 AM
Your Son
Hi Mom,
The pop cans are stuck on the upright rebar to help guard against someone getting impaled. (We could have bought rebar caps)  Once we have the second row of rebar up, that will no longer be a concern.
Monday, July 13, 2009 – 07:28 PM

Job Wel Ded, (Done Well)

Harry from Northwest Radiator was out again with his portable welding setup.  It was amazing to watch him freehand cut the Northwest corner leg in place and make a perfect match on the first try.

pastedGraphic.pdfpastedGraphic_1.pdf

Now with the West end arch welded, we can start putting up the rebar.

pastedGraphic_2.pdf

The west End Is Near

After moving the framework from the East end to the South, (Thank you David Adamson for the extra hands), we got it set up to support the West end retaining wall arch.

pastedGraphic.pdf

The nearby trees made handy anchors for the support lines.

pastedGraphic_1.pdf

Once again, Dozy’s homemade crane proved invaluable.

pastedGraphic_2.pdf

One of the more important jobs.

pastedGraphic_3.pdf

A little more adjusting, and we will be ready for the welder.

 

Two Down, One To Go

Today was a big day.  And pastedGraphic.pdf

quite a beautiful one at that.  Clear blue sky, warm temperature and just a few mozzies.

Harry from Northwest Radiator pulled up with his portable welding gear mounted on a trailer.  After taking careful measurements, he cut the ends of the  “legs” to match up with the angle of the arch.

pastedGraphic_1.pdf

 

pastedGraphic_2.pdf

Harry, welding on a gusset, (extra steel plate), for additional support.

 

pastedGraphic_3.pdf

We put scaffolding up on the North/West corner so Harry could get to where he needed to work.

 

pastedGraphic_4.pdf

Jeff, tidying up the lines after taking down the support framework.

 

pastedGraphic_5.pdf

Look Ma, No Hands.

Now we get to do this all over again on the West side.