This was fill-in work during the week.  Squeaked in time before work, or after work, in between two weekends.

Posts

At this point, I had three walls standing for the 2nd floor.  Left, back and right.  When building the walls, I left spaces where my posts would go.   These posts will carry the load of the upper floors and roof down through the frame.  I could have used 4×8 hemlock posts, but 4 2×6′s nailed together seemed adequate and required less planning. (figuring out how many i would need and making a special trip to the sawmill).  I put in 4 posts around the garage, one in the left and right wall and two in the back wall.   I plan to bolt these posts together eventually, but for now, they are just nailed to within an inch of their lives.

New Tools!

After fiddling with my stupid saw horse setup for my mitre saw, I decided that I owed it to myself and this garage to buy a decent stand for my Dewalt 12″ Compound dual slide mitre saw.  
I actually bought this saw at a yard sale.  But it still works like a champ. So I picked up a dewalt made mitre saw stand, and my saw bolted right down to it.  It folds up somewhat compactly. Has a handle.  It also has nice adjustable outriggers with stops.  This makes it super easy to whip out a bunch of lumber at the same size, and also made the 2x12x16′s simple to cut.  I will say that I used a separate roller stand to suppor the 20 footers as I didn’t want to risk bending them.

The other new tool is a Rockwell JawHorse. Which is basically a super heavy duty clamping saw horse. It’s great for working alone, because it’s heavy enough and strong enough to hold something for you.  I also got the sheet jaws for it, which let me hold a full sheet of plywood and cut it.  Which if you’ve ever cut a piece of plywood alone before you know just how challenging it is.

Clean up

Well, this isn’t very exciting, but basically I cleaned my garage for the first time.  It felt great.  getting all the small bits of wood picked up, and organizing my tools.  It was a fresh start the following weekend.  Always a good thing to clean.

Watch the videos below.