Oxy-Acetylene Storage Cage

[awemawson]

'cos I only had one 100 mm roller, was painting 50 mm wide box and needed two coats, so first half of roller was used and binned, then when paint dry second half was used.

Were I to have used the Matthew approach I would have been forced to immerse the one and only roller in water betwixt coats to prevent it setting solid which I know from using this fast drying enamel before is not entirely satisfactory (works well for normal glosses and varnish)

. . . .the finish still looks atrocious !

[awemawson]

Hasp and Staple arrived today, so they got cut to size and fitted.

[BillTodd]

. . . .the finish still looks atrocious !

War finish !

[awemawson]

So now I'm ready for the 'wet work' laying concrete.

Wickes delivered the ballast and cement thankfully in these days of lock down, so I was able to 'blind' the hard core with a couple of barrow fulls of ballast and lay some heavy gauge plastic sheeting. Note this is not really to act as a damp proof course (although it will) but more to prevent the moisture from the wet concrete on top being drawn out and the cement being dried before it has set.

I also gathered together some odds and sods to act as reinforcing - not really necessary but it has the side benefit of getting rid of stuff that I keep tripping over !

Time to go and put my Welly Boots on !

[awemawson]

So concrete slab now laid and will need leaving alone for a few days before I can plonk the cage onto it, so meanwhile I can get on with cladding the cage.

The base and cage are ridiculously over engineered ! The base took most of a full jumbo of ballast.

[awemawson]

By a bit of jiggling with various pallets of 'stuff' to make room I realised that I could move the cage over the rough concrete in the 'stable' with the Forklift whereas the pallet truck would not have made it with this weight on board being pulled by hand.

So I was able to drop the cage on the smoother concrete running down from the foundry roller shutter door, and having already placed the pallet truck there (otherwise it wouldn't pass the cage!) pull it up to next to where it will finally live.

A bit of judicious tilting onto blocks while my wife pulled the pallet way from under got it down to ground level ready for cladding. But that will have to wait - it's far too close to uncured concrete - just too easy in a moment of drifting concentration to place my foot in it 

Still at least now it's nearly where it will eventually stay

[awemawson]

Well apart from shoving it into position and bolting it down it's finished 

Today I had an intensive session making the cladding panels and fixing them. All pretty straightforward, but the pair of rear panels were a bit of a pain. About 750 mm wide and just shy of 2 metres tall they were too long to cut on the guillotine from a 1 x 2 metre sheet, so they involved 4 metres of angle grinder cutting. The other panels, even the side ones where the top slopes, all could be cut on the guillotine so were much easier.

If it doesn't rain (as threatened) tomorrow I'll roll it into place on a bit of scaffold pole

[awemawson]

So a bit of levering and rolling and she's in her final resting place.

Not bolted down yet as the concrete base is still very fresh.

Duly labelled just in case anyone gets the idea it's for geese / chicken / lambs etc 

[Spurry]

Nice job, Andrew...... as usual.
Pete