Bifold Door Puts New Life Into Old Quonset

Bifold Door Puts New Life Into Old Quonset BUILDINGS New Techniques 12-3-4 "With the large bifold door it may look like an airplane hangar. But, for working on large machinery, you can't beat it," says Larry Mensen, Manchester, Iowa, about the slick workshop he built into an old Quonset hut. The bifold door, which measures 14 x 16 ft., allows the shop to accommodate today's larger equipment. Mensen built the door by hinging two 7 x 16 ft. garage doors together. The Quonset hut, built in 1940, measures 24 ft. wide, 40 ft. long and 8 ft. high. Originally, it had two 12 x 8 ft. sliding doors in the center. Mensen replaced them with the shop. "When my dad built the Quonset, it worked great for pulling in his W-D tractor with a 3-bottom plow. But the doors were too small for me to bring in anything wider than a small tractor or wagon. And the roof was too low for bringing in a combine or tractor with a cab," says Mensen. The shop measures 20 ft. wide and 18 ft. high in front, with the roof, built from 2 x 6 in. beams covered with corrugated steel, sloping down toward the Quonset's roof. It's big enough that Mensen can bring in any of his implements and move them anywhere within the Quonset. He can also get most of his combine into the new shop. A beam hoist lets him work on any equipment. To build the shop, Mensen used a cutting torch to remove a 20-ft. wide section of the Quonset's wall, cutting halfway back into the roof. Then he set 4 x 6 in. steel poles, 18 ft. high, into the ground as a frame for the shop. To support the shop's roof, he laid a 6 in. beam perpendicular to, and over, the Quonset's roof beams. To support the shop's bifold door, he installed a header, made of three 2 x 12 in. beams with 1/8 in. plate between them, across the top of the poles. To build the bifold door, Mensen set the two 7 x 16 ft. garage doors inside an angle iron frame. The doors are bolted together and hinged in the middle. Mensen opens them by turning a crank in 1 corner of the shed. Use of scrap materials - used steel, posts and garage doors - held construction costs below $1,000, says Mensen. He picked up 18 x20 ft. sections of corrugated galvanized steel from a neighbor whose shed roof had blown away. The sides were still in good shape. But Mensen isn't through with the shop yet. "I plan to add a solar panel in front which will provide hot water to heat the floor." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Larry Mensen, Rt. 2, Manchester, Iowa 52057 (ph 319 927-2618).

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