I'm recovering nicely from last weekend's deck building exercise at my son's north Wisconsin cabin. With the good advice from you guys, we decided to build it on piers rather than attach to the cabin. This necessitated 18 notched posts sunk to 42 inches. We reserved a one-man auger but when we went to pick it up the shop jock couldn't get it started. Found a towable Little Beaver auger at the only other building goods store in town. When we got it to the site, discovered that the trigger that allows the bit to move to verticle was broken and spent a half hour futzing with it until we were able to put the bit in a usable position.

Never used one of these before so there was a bit of a learning curve, but we sunk the posts, secured them with Quikrete. Everything checked out level and square.

Had Menard's deliver the lumber -- 2x10s. Some 10s, some 16s and some 20s. They did get it relatively close to the construction zone, but man those long ones are heavy.

We're building about 400 sf. Finished the joist work on half of it and laid some temporary decking. Son is pleased and I may be off the hook for part 2, now that he knows what to do.

As for me, I'm going back to turning and small box work.

Larry

Gramps' shop wrote:
I'm recovering nicely from last weekend's deck building exercise at
my son's north Wisconsin cabin. With the good advice from you guys,
we decided to build it on piers rather than attach to the cabin.
This necessitated 18 notched posts sunk to 42 inches. We reserved a
one-man auger but when we went to pick it up the shop jock couldn't
get it started. Found a towable Little Beaver auger at the only other
building goods store in town. When we got it to the site, discovered
that the trigger that allows the bit to move to verticle was broken
and spent a half hour futzing with it until we were able to put the
bit in a usable position.

Never used one of these before so there was a bit of a learning
curve, but we sunk the posts, secured them with Quikrete. Everything
checked out level and square.

Had Menard's deliver the lumber -- 2x10s. Some 10s, some 16s and
some 20s. They did get it relatively close to the construction zone,
but man those long ones are heavy.

We're building about 400 sf. Finished the joist work on half of it
and laid some temporary decking. Son is pleased and I may be off the
hook for part 2, now that he knows what to do.

As for me, I'm going back to turning and small box work.


Good work! No pictures?

--

-Mike-

Gramps' shop wrote:
I'm recovering nicely from last weekend's deck building exercise at my son's north Wisconsin cabin. With the good advice from you guys, we decided to build it on piers rather than attach to the cabin. This necessitated 18 notched posts sunk to 42 inches. We reserved a one-man auger but when we went to pick it up the shop jock couldn't get it started. Found a towable Little Beaver auger at the only other building goods store in town. When we got it to the site, discovered that the trigger that allows the bit to move to verticle was broken and spent a half hour futzing with it until we were able to put the bit in a usable position.

Never used one of these before so there was a bit of a learning curve, but we sunk the posts, secured them with Quikrete. Everything checked out level and square.

Had Menard's deliver the lumber -- 2x10s. Some 10s, some 16s and some 20s. They did get it relatively close to the construction zone, but man those long ones are heavy.

We're building about 400 sf. Finished the joist work on half of it and laid some temporary decking. Son is pleased and I may be off the hook for part 2, now that he knows what to do.

As for me, I'm going back to turning and small box work.

Larry



When I lived in Texas I rented a post hole digger to put in fence
posts. The ground was so hard It got down 3 inches and stuck. Talk
about arm wrestling! I resorted to an old fashioned hole digger, dug
all the holes 3 inches and filled them with water. Next day I dug out
another inch of mud and refilled with water. Took me a week to get
all the holes dug.

Glad you got the hardest part done.

--
GW Ross

Nothing matters but everything counts.

On 6/3/15 10:25 AM, Gramps' shop wrote:
This necessitated 18 notched posts sunk to 42 inches. We reserved a
one-man auger but when we went to pick it up the shop jock couldn't
get it started. Found a towable Little Beaver auger at the only
other building goods store in town. When we got it to the site,
discovered that the trigger that allows the bit to move to verticle
was broken and spent a half hour futzing with it until we were able
to put the bit in a usable position.


I've rented power augers probably half a dozen times and have yet to get
one that worked properly. Last one leaked hydraulic fluid at rate of at
least a pint per hole. I got 1/2 off the rental fee for that one. I've
had ones with broken/missing teeth, bent shafts/augers. Man, do those
beat you up! I wish rental places would take some pride in what they do
and fix their machines. I know they have renters who abuse the gear,
but that's what security deposits are for.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

"Mike Marlow" writes:


Good work! No pictures?

Well, it's not "Gramp's son's cabin", but here's our
family retreat in west central wisconsin.

The deck looks out over the mississippi (600 ft
below the deck level).

http://www.lurndal.org/images/cabin_front.jpg

It's a big image, and a slow web site.

Scott Lurndal wrote:
"Mike Marlow" writes:


Good work! No pictures?

Well, it's not "Gramp's son's cabin", but here's our
family retreat in west central wisconsin.

The deck looks out over the mississippi (600 ft
below the deck level).

http://www.lurndal.org/images/cabin_front.jpg

It's a big image, and a slow web site.

Nice place!

--

-Mike-

"G. Ross" wrote in message
...

When I lived in Texas I rented a post hole digger to put in fence posts.
The ground was so hard It got down 3 inches and stuck. Talk about arm
wrestling! I resorted to an old fashioned hole digger, dug all the holes 3
inches and filled them with water. Next day I dug out another inch of mud
and refilled with water. Took me a week to get all the holes dug.

I recall running into that problem many years ago... the solution was found
in hydraulic mining, i.e., a monitor. On my scale I used a water hose with
a nozzle set to the tightest stream to drill holes into the ground... it
worked amazingly well even if it was messy. I did the same thing to drill a
hole under a walk by putting the hose inside a piece of PVC pipe and
advancing the pipe as the hole allowed.

John

On 6/3/2015 11:25 AM, Gramps' shop wrote:

We're building about 400 sf. Finished the joist work on half of it and laid some temporary decking. Son is pleased and I may be off the hook for part 2, now that he knows what to do.

As for me, I'm going back to turning and small box work.

Larry

That is a nice sized deck. Mine is half that size and a few years ago I
replaced the PT with Tigerwood decking and it was plenty of decking work
to last the rest of my life. Small boxes sound much better.

Pressure washer. A good reason to buy a gas model. Blast a trench
to put down a cable or place a pipe on the ground and blast out the
center - add a section and keep on going. All sorts of tricks.

The worst is to dig down and find you have 200' of limestone under the
house... Blast out a swimming pool.

When a rancher or farmer needs to do the task - PTO of a tractor to a
auger and away they go.

Martin

On 6/3/2015 1:30 PM, John Grossbohlin wrote:
"G. Ross" wrote in message
...

When I lived in Texas I rented a post hole digger to put in fence
posts. The ground was so hard It got down 3 inches and stuck. Talk
about arm wrestling! I resorted to an old fashioned hole digger, dug
all the holes 3 inches and filled them with water. Next day I dug out
another inch of mud and refilled with water. Took me a week to get
all the holes dug.

I recall running into that problem many years ago... the solution was
found in hydraulic mining, i.e., a monitor. On my scale I used a water
hose with a nozzle set to the tightest stream to drill holes into the
ground... it worked amazingly well even if it was messy. I did the same
thing to drill a hole under a walk by putting the hose inside a piece of
PVC pipe and advancing the pipe as the hole allowed.

John

On Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 12:10:12 PM UTC-4, G. Ross wrote:
Gramps' shop wrote:
I'm recovering nicely from last weekend's deck building exercise at my son's north Wisconsin cabin. With the good advice from you guys, we decided to build it on piers rather than attach to the cabin. This necessitated 18 notched posts sunk to 42 inches. We reserved a one-man auger but when we went to pick it up the shop jock couldn't get it started. Found a towable Little Beaver auger at the only other building goods store in town. When we got it to the site, discovered that the trigger that allows the bit to move to verticle was broken and spent a half hour futzing with it until we were able to put the bit in a usable position.

Never used one of these before so there was a bit of a learning curve, but we sunk the posts, secured them with Quikrete. Everything checked out level and square.

Had Menard's deliver the lumber -- 2x10s. Some 10s, some 16s and some 20s. They did get it relatively close to the construction zone, but man those long ones are heavy.

We're building about 400 sf. Finished the joist work on half of it and laid some temporary decking. Son is pleased and I may be off the hook for part 2, now that he knows what to do.

As for me, I'm going back to turning and small box work.

Larry



When I lived in Texas I rented a post hole digger to put in fence
posts. The ground was so hard It got down 3 inches and stuck. Talk
about arm wrestling! I resorted to an old fashioned hole digger, dug
all the holes 3 inches and filled them with water. Next day I dug out
another inch of mud and refilled with water. Took me a week to get
all the holes dug.

Glad you got the hardest part done.


I have the exact opposite conditions. I live on a hill about a mile from one of our Great Lakes and an attached bay. My property is pretty much all sand. Great for digging, sucks for lawns.

I can dig a hole 48" deep with a post hole digger in matter of minutes.

When I buried a 55 gallon drum for a dry well, I started with a shovel then switched to my shop vac. As you know, as a hole gets deeper, you need to go wider in order to get the shovel full of dirt out. By using my shop vac, I was able to "shave" the sides of the hole to keep it just wide enough to slide the barrel into the hole.

I did the same thing when I buried our Pug under our fire pit. With a couple of extensions on the shop vac hose, I can go pretty deep and keep the sides of the hole almost perfectly plumb.

On 6/4/15 10:51 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
When I buried a 55 gallon drum for a dry well, I started with a
shovel then switched to my shop vac. As you know, as a hole gets
deeper, you need to go wider in order to get the shovel full of dirt
out. By using my shop vac, I was able to "shave" the sides of the
hole to keep it just wide enough to slide the barrel into the hole.

I did the same thing when I buried our Pug under our fire pit. With a
couple of extensions on the shop vac hose, I can go pretty deep and
keep the sides of the hole almost perfectly plumb.


I thought I was the first to think of that!? :-)
My wife thought it was funny that I used the shop-vac to get the last
amounts of loose dirt out of the post holes for my Sharn.


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 1:20:06 PM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 6/4/15 10:51 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
When I buried a 55 gallon drum for a dry well, I started with a
shovel then switched to my shop vac. As you know, as a hole gets
deeper, you need to go wider in order to get the shovel full of dirt
out. By using my shop vac, I was able to "shave" the sides of the
hole to keep it just wide enough to slide the barrel into the hole.

I did the same thing when I buried our Pug under our fire pit. With a
couple of extensions on the shop vac hose, I can go pretty deep and
keep the sides of the hole almost perfectly plumb.


I thought I was the first to think of that!? :-)
My wife thought it was funny that I used the shop-vac to get the last
amounts of loose dirt out of the post holes for my Sharn.



What's a "Sharn"?

BTW...I also use my shop vac to clean the leaves from under and around the plants and bushes in SWMBO's gardens. It sure beats crawling around, picking them out by hand.

On 6/4/15 12:55 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 1:20:06 PM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 6/4/15 10:51 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
When I buried a 55 gallon drum for a dry well, I started with a
shovel then switched to my shop vac. As you know, as a hole gets
deeper, you need to go wider in order to get the shovel full of dirt
out. By using my shop vac, I was able to "shave" the sides of the
hole to keep it just wide enough to slide the barrel into the hole.

I did the same thing when I buried our Pug under our fire pit. With a
couple of extensions on the shop vac hose, I can go pretty deep and
keep the sides of the hole almost perfectly plumb.


I thought I was the first to think of that!? :-)
My wife thought it was funny that I used the shop-vac to get the last
amounts of loose dirt out of the post holes for my Sharn.



What's a "Sharn"?

BTW...I also use my shop vac to clean the leaves from under and
around the plants and bushes in SWMBO's gardens. It sure beats
crawling around, picking them out by hand.


Great idea on the leaves!
A Sharn is a building that's too big to be a shed and too small to be a
barn. :-)
Last Summer....
http://goo.gl/rq5v0r


--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply

On Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 2:23:28 PM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 6/4/15 12:55 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 1:20:06 PM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 6/4/15 10:51 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
When I buried a 55 gallon drum for a dry well, I started with a
shovel then switched to my shop vac. As you know, as a hole gets
deeper, you need to go wider in order to get the shovel full of dirt
out. By using my shop vac, I was able to "shave" the sides of the
hole to keep it just wide enough to slide the barrel into the hole.

I did the same thing when I buried our Pug under our fire pit. With a
couple of extensions on the shop vac hose, I can go pretty deep and
keep the sides of the hole almost perfectly plumb.


I thought I was the first to think of that!? :-)
My wife thought it was funny that I used the shop-vac to get the last
amounts of loose dirt out of the post holes for my Sharn.



What's a "Sharn"?

BTW...I also use my shop vac to clean the leaves from under and
around the plants and bushes in SWMBO's gardens. It sure beats
crawling around, picking them out by hand.


Great idea on the leaves!
A Sharn is a building that's too big to be a shed and too small to be a
barn. :-)
Last Summer....
http://goo.gl/rq5v0r


Well, I gotta admit your sharn sure doesn't look like this definition of sharn...

https://www.wordnik.com/words/sharn

On 6/4/15 5:03 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 2:23:28 PM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 6/4/15 12:55 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 1:20:06 PM UTC-4, -MIKE- wrote:
On 6/4/15 10:51 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
When I buried a 55 gallon drum for a dry well, I started with
a shovel then switched to my shop vac. As you know, as a hole
gets deeper, you need to go wider in order to get the shovel
full of dirt out. By using my shop vac, I was able to "shave"
the sides of the hole to keep it just wide enough to slide
the barrel into the hole.

I did the same thing when I buried our Pug under our fire
pit. With a couple of extensions on the shop vac hose, I can
go pretty deep and keep the sides of the hole almost
perfectly plumb.


I thought I was the first to think of that!? :-) My wife
thought it was funny that I used the shop-vac to get the last
amounts of loose dirt out of the post holes for my Sharn.



What's a "Sharn"?

BTW...I also use my shop vac to clean the leaves from under and
around the plants and bushes in SWMBO's gardens. It sure beats
crawling around, picking them out by hand.


Great idea on the leaves! A Sharn is a building that's too big to
be a shed and too small to be a barn. :-) Last Summer....
http://goo.gl/rq5v0r


Well, I gotta admit your sharn sure doesn't look like this definition
of sharn...

https://www.wordnik.com/words/sharn


WOW!! That's new to me. I had no idea it was an actual word.

Although it makes what my friend calls it even funnier. He says, "What
that short for again? ****ty barn?" :-D



--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

---remove "DOT" ^^^^ to reply