Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Holy Commodity Prices Batman



STEEL!

Thats right! We heard from Harriet yesterday and I'm super psyched cus it looks like we are finally ready to order some steel! I thought it would never happen - but we're getting POs for two chunks - and as soon as Johnny finishes the the model we can order the big stuff. Man! How exciting is that.

Harriet only had a few changes - the over all scheme we gave her and 99% of the details were fine - she adjusted member sizes and bolts and such, but with a few minor tweaks we are good to go. So Johnny and I have been revising the drawings since we got the edits yesterday afternoon.

He is putting together a full Rhino model that we'll use to generate all our fabrication drawings. He's laying out every piece, every bolt and every cut - so we should be able to move pretty quick with this once we get the actual steel. We are having the small 4x3x1/2 angle shipped here (hopefully by friday!) so we can cut and drill all weekend - then the big stuff will be sent to the site, possibly as early as next week - although probably not until after the holiday weekend. I'm ordering the crazy footings tomorrow as well - we're getting those fabricated by Berkshire Bridge and Iron - they have been awesome and super helpful all along - but their bid for the full project was a lot higher than Roy's. Plus - Roy (Rapid Steel) can get us steel in like a week, BBI was going to be until mid July. Oh well - next time maybe guys.

Some of the revised details - the low roof steel beams need to be held by a beam seat with a welded stiffener.
I need to go back and re-model the low roof now. The addition of the channel on the interior as well as the new steel seat affect how the thing will get put together.

On the down side - the price of the steel structure skyrocketed from 15 Gs to $25,000 with this new version. Yeah - steel prices are going up almost every night - plus Harriet beefed up some of the sections and added some new members. But the steel prices are absolutely crazy right now; the last quote I got from BBI had a big stamp on the Bottom: "Price Only Valid for 10 Days." Yikes.

But, things keep trucking along here - no matter what the price of steel. Toolshed frames, PV brackets, and all sorts of other fun stuff have been gettin' built. You should see the steel dust fly.

Solveig. 21st century steel worker: Iced Coffee, Computer, and Steel grime as far as the eye can see.


Parts Margot and Paul have been milling for their Toolshed.


Tory. And no . . . that isn't shadow in that picture. Thats dirt. Good ol' fashioned Steel dirt.


Planters. Hmm . . . I don't remember seeing staging used like that during the OSHA course. Interesting . . .

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