Issues making install disk for SSD upgrade in mid 2011 27" iMac

I have tried everything to make a USB install disk but it is a pain in my bootay! Need an install disk for macOS High Seirra or anything that will work to boot this new drive then I can upgrade, lol. I have tried 'command + R' and 'command + option + R' but nothing was successful for the new drive. Tried downloading the patch and install this and install that and nothing worked. Then I had viewed one site that said 'shift + option + command + R' was a way to go back to the beginning OS for the system and it was about to work..... but when it came time to choose a drive to install Lion on, lol, it does not read the SSD. Although, in disk utility I can see it, so the system knows it is installed. I get a message on start up about the drive not readable and it gives an option to initialize or erase or ignore. I chose initialize and it opens disk management, there is only options to erase, restore or first aid. OWC says it is an Apple issue even though I just dropped $600 to them, guess business is that good to not want to help potential life customers. Apple has been great but was thinking there is a guru floating the realms of the world wide web who might want to astonish a rookie! Actually, just a high school special education math teacher but I like to fix my own ****! Yes, that is a mathematical term for broken technology.