Some good stuff happening

[BWR1953]

And this morning my old buddy gave me one of the tool chests that he promised me. Y'all should have seen these two old geezers moving the chest from my truck into the garage! We had to stop and wheeze and cough and catch our breath even though it's a pretty small and light unit. :lol: :facepalm:

The chest is as old and beat up as we are!

Dimensions: Top box 11.5?D x 22.5?W x 13.5?H, Bottom chest 17.5?D x 23.5?W x 26.5?H

 

[Watermann]

Sand, prime and paint will make that chest look good as new.

 

[BWR1953]

Sand, prime and paint will make that chest look good as new.

Great... more projects! :lol: :facepalm:

And until the concrete gets poured, I can't work on anything anyway! :doh:

 

[BWR1953]

One more thing... last week I stopped by the place where I bought the steel building and got a quote for adding a full length lean-to 10' wide along one side, plus another walk-thru door at the end that currently doesn't have one. Price was $1,300 which is reasonable.

Might just do that later on. That'll give me a place to put stuff like my tractor, etc. :friendly_wink: Oh, I'm down to just one tractor now. Sold the silver one over the weekend. layful:

 

[BWR1953]

I really need to get the electric stuff figured out.

I just know that my young bud will suddenly show up, finish the grading then immediately bug me about where the cables and such are! :biggrin-new:

 

[BWR1953]

I’m back. Got sick again. uke:

And I waited 5 weeks before seeing the doc. Well, at 3 weeks I saw a PA who prescribed something that didn’t help. I was effectively non-functional during that whole 5 week period.

Head cold turned into chest cold; which turned into acute bronchitis; which turned into “almost” pneumonia. Doc said it wasn’t pneumonia “per se” but was close enough for government work. The desk clerk, the nurse and the doc all asked me why I waited so long to seek treatment. And I replied “There’s a thin line between stoic… and stupid.” :facepalm: My new sig line! D’oh! Doing much better now but still not fully back to normal.

And yesterday I was in the ER again. Turned out to be a side effect of the meds I’m taking and not really harmful, so that was a relief.

Garage update:
My young buddy did come back a couple days later and finished grading the dirt around the building. But I couldn’t do anything about it due to my health.

Never heard back from the concrete guy at all. :yell: I guess he just didn't want my money. His loss!

So I chased down and got a recommendation for a different concrete guy. Danny. A very professional contractor. Licensed, bonded, insured, etc. He came out mid-week last week and gave me a verbal estimate, including pulling the required permit in the cost. Then he followed up that evening with a written proposal in a .pdf file. Good stuff.

I reviewed the proposal and realized that we needed to tweak a couple things. Did that the next day and came up with a final plan, which is shown in the pic below. And the new plan includes 4000psi concrete with a 6” slump, instead of 2500psi concrete with a 7” slump that the first guy offered. Cost was lower too. So I’m a happy camper! :eagerness:

Danny also said that he’ll run the electric conduit for me from the house meter to inside the building at no cost, so that we can get that out of the way before the pour. Just the conduit, not the wiring. That’s fine by me.

So yesterday I went to HD and bought the electrical conduit. Got 2” diameter Schedule 40 pipe and a couple of sweeps.

Now I wait once more. Could be a week or so before Danny gets back to me but I’m hopeful that I’m at least moving forward again.


Finalized concrete pour plan.



Conduit acquired.



The meter box. No 2" cutout but my buddy says that he has a 2" hole saw and that it'll be fine. I'm not sure about code requirements for such things but he said it doesn't matter, that the knockouts are for convenience not code. :noidea:


Inside the box.



Room for a 2" pipe on the lower right side of the case. Rear knockout is partially obstructed by the mounting post.



Rear of box.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I would move the lightning / surge protector to a knock out on the bottom of the box and run your conduit out the side of the box.

 

[BWR1953]

I would move the lightning / surge protector to a knock out on the bottom of the box and run your conduit out the side of the box.

Sounds good to me. What kind of connector would be needed to take the conduit out? Some kind of 90-degree thing?

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I know the part as a "Pulling elbow"

 

[jbcurt00]

I think the term you're looking for is a

90deg SWEEP

Its a much larger radius turn then a 'typical' 90 elbow

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

A pulling elbow is a 2 part elbow the back comes off to make pulling the cable easier.

 

[jbcurt00]

I was responding to BWR...

I've never heard it called a pulling elbow, but I have seen them before. They were also on larger then 1.5in conduit. Its much more compact then a sweep. A 2in sweep isnt remotely compact.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Look at Home depot web site and enter 709482

 

[BWR1953]

I know the part as a "Pulling elbow"

Okay, I did some research and am learning. Found out that there are several types of pulling elbow, but I think the one I should use is in the pix below. (Pix from the 'net.)


90 degree pulling elbow.

I think the term you're looking for is a

90deg SWEEP

Its a much larger radius turn then a 'typical' 90 elbow

Yah, I already bought a couple of 90 degree sweeps, as shown in Post #266 above. They look like giant elbow macaroni to me! :lol:

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

That's it.

 

[BWR1953]

That's it.

Cool.

 

[BWR1953]

So as I'm learning, it turns out that I'll need to bury the conduit about 24" below ground surface level. Since the ground slopes between the garage and the main electrical panel, the conduit will be deeper at the garage level than it is at the panel. See diagram below.




And I'm also learning that it's typical to put in a warning tape above the conduit as a safety measure for future digging.

Like this one.



And it's also typical in other areas where the soil is harder and denser, to add sand beneath the tape and above the conduit to provide additional warning.

In my case, sand is the "soil" and wouldn't be used as a warning buffer, so now I'm researching on where I can buy some rocks to act as that buffer!! ound::rofl:

 

[BWR1953]

Hey! Maybe this would be a good use for pool noodles! :lol:

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

You can have the conduit follow the slope. 24" deep at each end. In my part of the world I can use PVC under ground but where it comes above the ground it must be heavy wall conduit.

 

[BWR1953]

You can have the conduit follow the slope. 24" deep at each end. In my part of the world I can use PVC under ground but where it comes above the ground it must be heavy wall conduit.

So I guess we'd heat the sweeps to change the angle to follow the slope, yes?