Steve's workshop - Painting the outside walls

[Steve Maskery]

We have a couple of those in the Community Workshop. But I think that they are there mainly for the teacher to shut everything down if he sees something dodgy being done. I don't see how that would hep me on my own. Plus, the power tower will be fairly enclose by the TS and the PT (ooh, that's confusing - is a PT a Planer/Thicknesser or a Power Tower?).

It might well have been a good idea to have one or two as part of the original wiring but I think it's a bit late now.

Might be something for others to consider on future builds?

 

[xy mosian]

a couple of those in the Community Workshop. But I think that they are there mainly for the teacher to shut everything down if he sees something dodgy being done. I don't see how that would hep me on my own. Plus, the power tower will be fairly enclose by the TS and the PT (ooh, that's confusing - is a PT a Planer/Thicknessrer or a Power Tower?).

It might well have been a good idea to have one or two as part of the original wiring but I think it's a bit late now.

Might be something for others to consider on future builds?

Fair enough Steve.
xy

 

[deema]

Rather late suggestion apologies. Power sockets on the roof are I believe the best solution with trailing leads down to the machines clipped to rigid poles. Easy to relocate when the Workshop needs a move around after a new machine purchase and cuts down in trip hazards. My power normally follows the extraction down from the ceiling. The extraction pipe makes a great place for leading the power around the shop, and will always go to a machine.

 

[Noggsy]

If you had a South American working with you and he built one, it would be Jésus' WEPT.

I'll get me coat...

 

[Steve Maskery]

Indeed. And in fact, a bloke called Jesus recently subscribed to me on YouTube!

 

[Steve Maskery]

Ray came today to help shift a large pile of over-bought timber that was sitting in the middle of the garden, where we need to create a soakaway. The weather was miserable, butt freezing, but cold and wet. I asked him to give me a hand with the extenal door lining first. It's not difficult, but an extra pair of hands makes it much easier, especially for the top. I have lots of cladding, so it made sense to use some of it.

This is a jolly good way of keeping my panel pins to hand

The double doors don't have a rebate onto which they can close, yet, so it was time to rip some. That very nice man RogerS has sent me some draught excluder strip stuff, but it is designed to fit into a 1/8" groove. Someone has relieved me of all my 1/8" saw blades, but I do still have a thin kerf Freud. So we just had to take two passes instead of one.

We have left the pin a bit proud so that they are easy to remove when I make the doors proper. I have discovered that, whilst the doorway is nice and vertical, it is a bit skew-whiff in the aperture of the building. The result is that the trim along the top needs to be tapered by about 8mm along its length if it is to be flush all along the front. I've had this problem on both the inside and the outside, naturally enough. A bit of careless work, I'm afraid. But it will look OK once it is painted, I'm sure.

So that took us to lunch. We then shifted everything that was here

to here

So now we have access to the garden if we ever get in the mood for digging a long trench and a very big hole.....

 

[Max Power]

Hope your sub-soils not clay Steve. I ended up digging down ten ft and it still filled up with water. Installed a pump in the end to empty the soak-way which does a great job , but of coarse you then need somewhere to run the pipe from the pump to

 

[lurker]

Indeed. And in fact, a bloke called Jesus recently subscribed to me on YouTube!

You would think after all this time ( must be coming up to 2000 years assuming he started his apprenticeship at 15) he would know all he needs to know about carpentry, just goes to show you never stop learning.

 

[AES]

Nah, that's his (virtually unknown) son Lurker!

After his Dad's unfortunate demise he carried on the family business alone but he was always rather pineappled off that he never got all the media attention that his Dad got. So he's signed up for Steve's Youtube channel (knowing that Steve definitely IS media-savvy) hoping to pick up a few tricks - woodwork or video, who knows - from an acknowledged master!

:lol:

AES

 

[Steve Maskery]

Today I put up the first lengths of French cleats along the west wall. I'd ripped them the last time Ray was here, but not yet put them up. The are ripped to produce a 30 deg bevel. Most people would have done it at 45 deg, but I have the 5/8" arbor installed and it is longer than the standard 30mm arbor. The result is that it fouls the underside of the insert plate, preventing it from being tilted a full 45 deg. I can't understand it, as this is a US-style saw, and 5/8" has been a standard arbor size for years. But I can only get a full 45 deg tilt if I lower the blade or use the shorter 30mm arbor. I do still have the arbor, but all my 30mm saw blades were taken in the raid, so I have only the blade that was on the machine.

It would be easier with two, but I managed by using a stick to fix its position up the wall. Once the middle screw is in it's easy to do the others.

Prompted by phaedrus' thread about his tablesaw, I ferreted about in the log cabin for the remains of the kick-board that used to be on mine. It was rather scruffy after 2 years in a barn, but it cleaned up surprising well. The original red hand was broken, but the hinges weren't rusty and the board itself was OK. It was mounted on the wheel-base, but as the TS is now sitting firmly on the floor I had to find a way of mounting it directly onto the front of the saw.

I started with a piece of plywood and drew round my hand. Then I sawed it out. Yes I do know that that is nowhere near the right sized blade for the job. I just nibbled away,

and painted it red

Because the switch is mounted on the front of the saw and is quite deep, the kick-board needs to be mounted quite a way off the cabinet base, so I found a piece of pallet wood. I've no idea what it is, but it cleaned up surprisingly nicely. You can see the difference between the original and the prepped piece at the back, which is screwed to hinges of the kick-board itself.

I notched out the ends and drilled mounting holes. I then drilled through them

and drilled and tapped two M6 holes in the cabinet. Because they are so close to the floor, I had to remove one arm of the tap wrench and turn it like you would a nut with a spanner.

Although the tapped holes were fine I made a mess of the position of them. Somehow I got them about 2mm too close together, so I had to enlarge the holes in the wood to make up for it. Fortunately I could lay my hands on a couple of penny washers, so all the evidence of engineering incompetence is hidden

So with the kick-board screwed on, I fixed a piece of string through the kick-board and through a screw-eye which is attached to the front panel of the cabinet. This stops the kick-board from falling forward.

Then the Hand is screwed on so that it covers, but does not interfere with the operation of, the stop button.

So now I can switch off my saw with by knee or my foot

.

I'd still got another hour or so of useable daylight, so I finished trimming the doorway outside and painted the power tower ready for installation next time Ray comes.

I wanted to continue working for as long as possible, mainly because I have entered into a pact with Akram. He smokes and I complain about that. I drink too much and he complains about that. So we are having an indulgence-free weekend, no **** for him and no booze for me, from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday. I'm sitting here with OJ and soda. It really isn't the same, is it? It's going to be a loooong evening.

 

[lurker]

Clever!
I will make myself one of those (hammer)

 

[Steve Maskery]

I've been busy at the Community Workshop today. It was packed and my expertise, such as it is, was in great demand. However, there was someone else there to help out today, so I did have a bit of time to do something for myself.

My vice was looking very sorry for itself having spent two years in the barn and it was seized up. I had managed to open it up a bit by squirting in a load of WD40, but it was hardly useable. I took these pictures with my phone and they make it look not too bad. I assure you it was a mess. The flash hides a lot of the rust.

BUt I did get it apart and spent an hour with emery cloth, wire wool and a polishing wheel.

I now slides beautifully and I am very pleased. Ray's here tomorrow.

 

[Racers]

Nice work Steve, weren't you tempted to swap it for the one in the background ;-)

Pete

 

[Steve Maskery]

Absolutely not! The vices in the CW are old, worn, small and generally useless! This one is new, or at least I bought it new some time in the last 20 years. I had my granddad's Parkinson before that, but it was old and worn and everything seemed to slip in it, no matter how tightly I tried to grip anything.

 

[Philbo]

Hi Steve,

Long time reader, first time poster, I just wanted to say that I finally finished reading through this entire thread last week and it has been a joy to read!

Thanks for taking the time to share it, you must be well chuffed! =D>

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Philbo, welcome to the forum and I'm delighted you have enjoyed reading this thread. It's been good for me too.

Ray turned up this morning armed with shovels and mattock. Before I knew it he was digging up my back yard. It's not posh enough to call a patio and as it never ever gets the sun you wouldn't really want to sit out there anyway. At the mo the electricity supply is temporarily tapped off the log cabin, but I want it to come directly off the main distribution board in the house. I'm going to take water down there whilst we are at it.

Ray did the digging, I carried the stuff away in buckets. We had 4 piles, sand, M1 stone, soil, and brick rubble. There were bricks because we were digging through what was originally the outside privvy. Some of my neighbours still have the buildings standing, but mine has been demolished before my time. I don't understand why, but we dug up not only original bricks, but a number of modern bricks as well as some bits of modern stone, the reconstituted stuff, bits of breeze block and big round stones such as you might find on the beach. And of course, there was the obligatory ration of plastic, carpet and bits of child's bike.

We have to go down between 400 and 700mm:

Whilst Ray was digging, I wasn't just standing around with the camera, I shifted a pile of the green rocks from the head of what was once a waterfall, which we are going to have to dig right through, and made three trips to the tip with rubble and clay. There is not a lot of clay here, it is good soil with sand underneath, but there was a pond and that has been lined with clay. So as the light was beginning to go, and even Ray had had enough, we measured up. 9m of trench, out of 24 needed.

S

 

[NickWelford]

Wow! Looks like a good days work there.

 

[Graham Orm]

You'll both sleep tonight! I'll be following this bit with more interest than usual. You're doing what I did last summer but haven't run a new cable through the duct yet. I have pipe and ducting poking up at both ends of the garden.......You first Steve!

PS. In case you hadn't thought of it, I used a ring spanner tied to the end of the rope to drop it down each piece of duct (rainwater pipe). I ran 2 ropes through with the intention of leaving one there for later requirements.

 

[Halo Jones]

Hi Steve,

I hate digging trenches! If I remember water pipe and cat 5 are meant to be buried a certain distance from swa (300mm?). Also if swa is in a conduit (ie plastic pipe) then it is down rated (I assume because it cannot dissipate heat as easily into surrounding soil). Maybe worth looking this up just now before you fill everything in?

Making superb progress.

H.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Thank you for that, I'll check tomorrow. I got the 400 - 700mm figure from my tame plumber, but he may not have taken into consideration the three together. I'll ring the BCO.
TVM
Steve