A new Folly at Full Moon Farm-- build thread

[rwiegand]

Yes, I love my shop! It's a 36 ft square barn from 1910 that I rescued -- major hole in the roof when we bought the place, another couple of years and it would have been compost. Having an above ground shop is one of life's great pleasures.

[UtahBeehiver]

Wow, that is quite a "man cave/wood working shop" you have there. Steel work is looking good.

[rwiegand]

Didn't quite get the roof sheathing on today, but made progress. Fabricated the gable overhangs yesterday and got them attached, built the chimney chase and got it fixed in position, not quite done, as I couldn't reach the back side to put the screws in. I'll be able to lean a ladder up that side when I get the roof sheathing attached. The screws I got to attach the sheathing are way too prone to strip out. I've had much better success using a construction screw in a pre-drilled hole than the fancy (and expensive) screws that are sold for the purpose.

Volunteer day at the museum tomorrow, so probably won't get anything done. Friday we'll drive up to Vermont to look for roofing slate.

[rwiegand]

Thanks! I've stuck an electric heater in there to see how that does for a couple of days. If it ever cools off a bit I'll go back to lighting fires.

[Lburou]

Very clean work! A great job. Congratulations on your first fire!

[rwiegand]

Big day today, finished up making most of my steel frame parts and got the house frame erected. To celebrate I made a fire in the oven! Kept it very small, the highest temp I saw with my nifty infrared thermometer gun was 230. It's still quite warm inside four hours later, so I guess that's a good sign. When the fire was slightly larger he chimney drew very well, as it burned down and got smokier there was quite abit of smoke coming out the front, as well as up the chimney. I'll begin the conditioning fires in earnest now. I need to make the front and back eaves tomorrow and then I can get some roof decking on. I decided to go with fire rated plywood for the roof deck to make nailing shingles easier. I ordered another section of stove pipe to get me to the required 2' over the roof.

[purplehaze]

I removed my facia board and took a photo of how I did it. Its not pretty but it works

[rwiegand]

Pictures after the first two layers of insulation were applied to the dome. I added three more on top of this, extending down to the concrete slab for the rest. I ran some metal hanger strap over the dome to hold everything in place, though it doesn't seem inclined to move. Construction of the "little house" out of steel studs is underway. What a pain (literally and figuratively) they are to work with. Despite gloves I have multiple cuts, and the methods I've come up with for attaching rafters to the walls seem pretty hokey. I have no good ideas for how you attach a facia board to the ends of the steel rafters.

The oven is ready for preliminary fires, with the temperature at 95 I didn't particularly feel like adding to the heat today. I always pick the best days to do insulation projects!

[rwiegand]

After a weekend away it was time to get back to work. Just as glad I skipped the 95 deg weather yesterday.

Not sure Brunelleschi would have been proud, but it's an arch. A couple more courses to make a platform for the chimney base and the bricklaying will be done. I figured I''d let the mortar set overnight before building on top of it.

[rwiegand]

A busy day cutting bricks today, and yet another trip to the stone yard for bricks and mortar. Wish I could estimate better! I hope this will be the last batch.

It's a bit of a struggle to make the vent area big enough. I think I'll come out with a vent of about 60 in² feeding a 50 in² pipe.

[agrasyuk]

It feels like milestone because it is quite a milestone. I'd say it thist point you are half way done. And there is a very noticeable dent in the pile of firebrick .

Joining steel is either rivet, weld or bolt. Unless you own a welder chances are you will be drilling and bolting things together. But honestly I feel like it would be way way of an overkill.

[rwiegand]

Yes, steel studs. In the trade the 25 ga ones they sell at the big box stores are referred to as non-structural, for use only in non-load-bearing construction. (They are used extensively for internal walls in commercial steel and concrete buildings.) The heavier gauges of steel studs (20 and 18 most commonly) are referred to as structural and can be used in a load bearing wall.

Since I'm planning on a slate roof and potential for substantial snow load I'll need a pretty beefy structure.

[UtahBeehiver]

Congrats on completing the dome. Are you talking about actual structural steel and not steel studs? There have been a number of builds on the forum who have used steel studs. One builder did suggest to use a higher gauge stud vs what you see the the big box stores. Do a search on the forum.

[rwiegand]

Lots of activity today. Closed in the dome, which feels like a major milestone. Began building the vent hearth. On to arches tomorrow.

Ordered stone to clad the exterior ("New England Blend Ledgestone) yesterday. Begun reading up on steel framing for construction of the enclosure. Lots of help on non-structural steel framing and from amateurs with more enthusiasm than sense building "little houses", but surprisingly difficult to find guidance on joining techniques for structural steel framing. I'll go visit someplace that sells the stuff this week and see what I can learn. Watched really scary videos of guys in Cambodia welding steel framing with no eye protection.

[rwiegand]

Forgot to mention, I ended up using only the IT to place the bricks in the final rings. Worked like a champ. I played with an exercise ball, but the shape was wrong, it was bouncy and kept moving, and didn't really keep the bricks where I wanted them. I had no problems with slippage using only the IT, just as Anton suggested.