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Building My Oregon Shop
#1
Home away from home
Home away from home

Packard Don
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In case it interests anyone, here is my Oregon shop over time. Of course, this is just the main structure built from a Miracle Truss system which I would NOT recommend. It would have been far less expensive and a better end result had it been stick-built! Using a pre-made kit, then paying a contractor to assemble it was very costly indeed and probably doubled the cost. I also had to hire someone to manage the project as I was in San Jose, California trying to move after having sold my house and had a very short window of time to get the cars out (I was up to 22) and the tons of parts packed and shipped. As I wasn't there, these photos were taken by my father who lived nearby.

Flatting the area
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The Erector Set arrived
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Slab poured
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Assembly begins
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Some heavy-duty help was needed
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Taking shape
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And finally done
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Posted on: Today 19:03
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Re: Building My Oregon Shop
#2
Home away from home
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Bob J
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It does interest me Don, and I am very envious. Looks like a great building to both store and work on your treasures. Well done! Building anything is always terribly stressful, hopefully you can now you can just enjoy the results.
Bob J.

Posted on: Today 19:09
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Re: Building My Oregon Shop
#3
Home away from home
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Packard Don
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Thank you, Bob. At that point, it was just a box so I still have to get everything up there and moved in so that meant that the insulation had to be done once it was filled up.

As it had no power, the first thing I did was to plan an off-grid solar power system so started with the roof mount rails. It sat tht way for over a decade as solar technology was changing too fast to be able to keep up but finally got the panels yo last month! The modern panels are double the power of the ones back then so I now have 450VCD coming in, waiting for my next visit to get the hybrid charge controller/inverter installed along with the batteries themselves.

The small panel up there in this photo is a 100W 12v put in to help keep car batteries charge but has since been replaced by a 24v 200W that keeps two lithium batteries charged and the security system with Internet and video cameras up and running. So far it's done a great job. The pink area on the ground were tiny wildflowers that appeared through the gravel and they are what I was actually photographing here.
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This was taken as I was leaving for the airport the last time I was there with workers waving goodbye. Due to the size of the modern panels, it was necessary to mount two separate as the six I had planned for each pair of rails would not fit. Each panel is about 75V and 435W. The little white think on the front wall picks up the nearby WiFi, then distributes it throughout the yard and inside the shop although the Internet speed itself is abysmal due to it being satellite. The device is powered by the 12V batteries inside.
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The 24V / 12V system . . .
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. . . and its batteries.
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Although there is no actual power yet, I run an extension cord to the nearby house and have installed receptacles throughout. Earlier this year I started installing the lighting and even with all these on, the cord to the house doesn’t even get warm as it’s all LED. These lights - there are four of them in one half of the shop - light it like daylight. Over the last year or two I also managed to get the insulation put in which meant moving things and doing it one quarter at a time, then moving everything including the cars so that the next quarter could be done. It was a lot of work! Not shown here but I also replaced all the full-up doors wit better insulated ones that have glass across the tops and high tracks to the ceiling as the old cheap ones were in the way.
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Posted on: Today 19:24
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