Quick update on the roof raise that I am now postponing until the Spring. I finished the farm jack raising jigs ala Millicent (THANKS again dood!) that I thought you might find interesting.
This is the top-most fitting that will attach to the ribs. My welds are getting better. Note the crisp edge penetration and flatter dimes on the beads. They're a little crooked I know, more than usual, I think because these are two pieces of 2" tube steel joined at the rounded edges. I put in a small filler bead first and then came back over it with these two wider beads.
The four complete assemblies:
Top-most fitting attached to the vertical lifting 2" tube steel:
Here is the top of the assembled jig (might be kind of hard to make out with everything in the background, sorry). I did it a little differently than Millicent. I used 2"x1/4" angle to connect it to the top of the jack (vs the two pieces of tube steel that he used), using the same bolt and hole that came on the jack when I bought them.
The one concern I have is how good the top connection at the ribs will be. As you can see I drilled out the top flange of the top fitting twice and plan to use a two sheet metal screws on each side to connect it to the ribs, for a total of four at each of the four locations. Will that be strong enough?
I studied Millicent's closely and just can't quite tell exactly how he made this top connection at the rib. I could weld it and screw it but since I am doing a two level raise (with the rear ~6"-12" lower than the front) I will do it in two stages, meaning I will have to reuse each jack and rig so I don't want to attach it in such a way on the first raise that I'll ruin it when taking it off for the second raise.
Thoughts?