LITTLE PROJECT

[Nat]

Here is a little project I'm working on.I picked up an old service station signpost from an old American Gas station that we ran when I was a teenager. My dad farmed, built houses, was a loom fixer in a local cotton mill, and he opened a gas station, and this signpost came from it. I took it down, wire brushed it, And primed and painted it. Vickie wanted it to go at the tractor shed/store building.
#1 is the post laying on the ground, notice my rigging?
#2 is the golf cart hooked to the trailer to haul off the excess dirt, my son has my dump trailer
#3 I'm ready to dig the footing
#4 is the boom pole on the FEL to get the post high enough as it's 20' tall and the arm sticks out 12'
#5 is a fuzzy pic of the hole which is 3'x3'x 2' deep
#6 is the anchor bolts. I used some scrap steel out of my scrap bucket to form an H then welded the anchor bolts to it. The anchor bolts are 3/4" X 24" threaded rod.
I poured the concrete and sat the anchors , now I need to wait for it to cure.
Anyone have an old American gas sign they want to donate to the cause? Later, Nat

[scott_vt]

Afternoon Nat,
Nice little project youve got goin there ! Im almost afraid to ask where the sign is ? Probablly long gone ? Kind of curious what your going to hang from it if the original sign is gone ?

BTW I noticed your wood pile is considerably smaller than any around these parts

Oh yeah, I think I know where you got that AC paint from

[Nat]

That woodpile is for looks only. I keep some wood there so we have some for a campfire when we go camping.
I told my son this story last week and he thought it was cool.
When Vickie and I first married, 1973, money was tight, so when the fuel crunch started I was working in Winston/Salem, the largest city around. Nobodt there had access to firewood, so I would come home from work and cut a pickup load and take it to work the next day. Someone would buy it before the day was over, so I'd unload it and go home and cut another. I had an old 64 Chevy 1 ton truck with a 12' bed. I got 40.00 per load. I bought a FEL off an H farmall for the hydraulic cylinders and a walkbehind fork lift and made a dump bed for it. I gave 400.00 for the old truck and cost me 65.00 to make it dump. I had a notepad in the clove compartmant and kept count till I made 1000.00 with it, than through the pad away.
Vickie had a yard sale and wanted to display her junk on the bed of that old truck and the first guy that came along bought the truck for 1200.00
I decided that my firewood career was over right then and still don't regret it yet.Later, Nat

[EddieWalker]

Hey Nat,

Looks like you got a fun project started. I'm looking forward to seeing it finished and in the air.

It also looks like you got some good weather there!!!!

Thanks,
Eddie

[Thomas]

Morning Nat.
Not sure but last Monday on ebay the was Esso gas up for bid....looks in good shape.

Not like puttering outside in the type of weather your having.

[BTDT]

Are you sure that hole is going to be big enough to support that? I would hate to see your hard work go to waste (post falling over and tearing up your future sign). How big was the sign, kind of hard to tell from where hardware was to hang it? Until you find an original to restore, could you make one out of plywood and paint and varnish? Maybe some thin sheetmetal?

[Nat]

I'm not an engineer, so can't show figures to back it up, but I put 2,000 pounds of concrete in the hole and the post weighs around 250 pounds, so I just used the "SWAG" method. Sicientific Wild Assed Guess, for anyone that doesn't know what a SWAG is.
I have looked at some origionals, and the owners are very proud of them. I expect that I'll make a sheet metal sign and Vickie will paint it.
I haven"t set the post yet, I wanted to give the base a couple weeks to cure first, maybe this weekend. later, Nat