Steve's workshop - Painting the outside walls

[Steve Maskery]

I've decided that I shall make the frame proper and then a temporary set of doors.

 

[t0ne]

Wow, finally finished reading this awesome thread. Congrats on the build so far Steve and I think it's wonderful that there's been this friendly community around to help out, offer encouragement and advice.
I'm looking forward to seeing the completion of your workshop in real-time now

 

[Steve Maskery]

I didn't start very early today, and it was cold, and my mate Charlie arrived not long after I did finally get going, so not a great deal of progress, but there is some.

The first thing I did was to clean up my bandsaw a bit. I've not finished the job, but the fence is clean again and it all runs smoothly. The fine-adjuster rip fence looks a bit tired, as it is made from MDF and 2 years in a barn has not done it any favours, but it does still work.

I set up my Ultimate Bandsaw Tenon Jig. This one is a recent version, I made it at the Community Workshop. It has a fine adjuster built in. I had someone grumble that whilst the jig was on one DVD, the fine adjuster for it was on another. Well, true, I guess. So I thought I'd try to build a version that has a FA built in without taking up any more space horizontally. It works as it should, although in these photos it is still attached to my original fine-adjuster.

I've been given a nice piece of mahogany by my mate Julian from the CW. It was part of a door frame, but he's has some building work done and now the walls are thicker and the frame no longer fits. It has some hinge recesses which I have filled and I'm hoping that they will be completely hidden when I am finished. Anyway, I marked out for some mortices where the door jambs will fit into this cill.

The nice thing about the UBTJ is that not only can the tenon be any size, but because of the split back fence I can also use it to cut open mortices to create a bridle joint.

So with the fence closed up and the jig in the closed position too, I cut the outside face of the open mortise:

The I insert the spacer. This is a bit of planed-up roof lath, so it is about 20mm, but I don't need to know exactly. Note that it goes behind the top carriage, not behind the kerf compensation stop.

And when the workpiece is turned over to do the other end:

At this point Charlie turned up and I was already cold, so it all stopped, but tomorrow I shall cut and fit the rest of the frame.

 

[The Bear]

Steve
Do you even need doors at the moment. Looks like your big machines are in. I'd be tempted to make the frame but board up the hole as simply and cheaply as possible. Then when everything else is done make them my first project. Can you manage with the small door only until then?
Mark

 

[nanscombe]

...
Looks like your big machines are in. I'd be tempted to make the frame but board up the hole as simply ....

.. , cheaply but securely as possible.

You don't want to encourage unwanted visitors.

 

[dickm]

+1 for a quick and dirty, but SECURE filler for the hole. And if you REALLY want a door for now, why not get something nasty off Freegle or the local tip. But fill the hole, quick - style can come later.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I really do wish I could get going earlier. I didn't sleep last night. Well I did, for about 3/4 hour, then I woke and was still buzzing at nearly four. When I did finally conk out I was awakened by the postman.The result was that I didn't get as far as I had hoped, today, and not for the first time.

Now then, where were we? Ah, yes, we were cutting bridle joints on the bandsaw, weren't we?

I'd cut the open mortices but not chopped them out. So that was the first job. I used my jigsaw to remove most of the waste and a chisel to clean up the bottom. The blade is a cheap and nasty one, as someone, who shall remain nameless (but it was neither me nor Ray) broke my rather excellent Bosch one cutting up firewood in a dodgy manner. This blade goes where e'er it likes and I nicked the sides of my otherwise perfect open mortise. Still, it's a workshop door frame, not a dining chair, so let's keep things in proportion, shall we? No photos, sorry.

So to cut the corresponding tenon we start with the back fence open and the top carriage closed:

Then the same spacer is inserted, but this time it goes behind the kerf compensation stop, so that the workpiece is moved over by the size of the tenon plus the kerf of the blade.

The depth of the frame is such that some of it will protrude inwards more than the cill, so I have to account for that too, with another cut, but the end result is rather neat:

And of course I did the same on the other jamb.

Doing the top corners is straightforward as the jambs and the top are all the same width. Is there a special name for the top member of a door frame, or is it just the top?

edit - I think it's called the header. Am I right?

I cut the shoulders of the tenons by hand, as the jambs are a bit long for supporting cross-wise on the BS. I did think of trying the depth stop function on the SCMS, but it seemed easier just to cut them by hand. Plus, I've done so little proper woodwork over the last few years I really do need the practice.

I was very careful to mark my faces and edges and as a result the top bridle joints fit perfectly and flush. No cleaning up is required.

When I got the frame together and in the opening, one side was pretty much perfect

But the other wasn't

Now that looks a long way out. I don't really understand it as the cill registers as level and the jamb looks OK with a bubble. Not perfect, perhaps, but not 20mm out!

So I'm inclined to go with the bubble . I'm not going to trim anything important until I understand exactly what is out where. I suspect it is cummulative error, everything is nearly right, but altogether... I can tweak it a bit when I finally screw it into place.

 

[Steve Maskery]

So I've not got the frame totally finished, but I have given the man-door a coat of preservative and screwed a sheet of OSB over the big door. It should stop the rain from blowing in, if nothing else.

I've been sitting here drinking a pint whilst I've been typing this. It's Brakspear Triple III. Very nice indeed. But I've not yet finished the bottle and I feel like I've been on a bender. It's 6.7% ! I didn't realise that when I put it in my trolley.

Cheers. Hic.

 

[Bod]

If anybody deserves a beer, it's you!

Well done
Bod

 

[Steve Maskery]

Although I'd done the joinery for the door frame, I'd not finished shaping the cill, so the first job today was to get the TS in a proper state for use.

I vacuumed and brushed out everything I could and dismantled the rip fence and did my best to de-rust the locking lever.

I still have most of my accessories, my short fence (which contains the main spanner and spare arbor), but it's difficult to steam-clean MDF, so some bits look a bit sad.

But I did my best and whilst it does all look a bit well-worn, everything was operational.

Or so I thought. I switched it on and... nothing. Now I have had this running, so I know it does still works, but there was no sign of life. So I started from first principles. I switched everything except the lights off and opened up the switch box, the one that will be mounted on the floor, but is currently just trailing. The live wire was a bit loose, so Good, I thought, problem fixed. But no, it wasn't. So then I checked the connection box on the saw itself. It was getting that far. Bummer, that implies something in the saw itself. But then I replaced the cover, switched everything back on and hey presto, we had action. I have no idea what had changed, but it is now properly working and sounding smooth. The only part I don't have is the mitre fence. I haven't seen it yet, so I have to assume that is has gone. I rarely used it, so it's not a critical part, but it was useful for some jobs. But TBH I'm just glad to have the rest of it intact.

So I canted the blade to 7.5 degrees to match the man-door cill. Bevel ripping is much safer if the blade cants away from the fence, so that the offcut does not get trapped in the triangle of blade, table and fence. My saw is the older design, so to achieve this I have to ut the fence on the LH side. This in turn means I can't use my normal blade guard so my magnetic one comes into play.

So now I was set up for ripping the bevel, which I did, then restored the saw to its normal position to make a series of shallow cuts to cut the drip groove on the underside. I rounded off the front edge with a block plane and the end result looks like this.

Tomorrow at the Community Workshop I'm going to rout out for the hinges so when Ray next comes we can install the frame. I'd do it here, but I don't have an ordinary 1/4" router cutter, which I need to use my jig. I have been given a few router cutters, which I shall use, of course, but a 1/4 straight is not amongst them. I shall be glad to get the place properly secure, as it is a pain to have to drag everything walkable back up to the house every night.

All in all, quite a satisfying day.

 

[John Brown]

What is the name of that upside down y thing you are using to check the door frame for square, and how is it better than a standard square?
Just curious.

 

[wcndave]

If I recall correctly Steve calls it a square of Thales.

The theorem goes that if you join any point on a circle circumference to the ends of its diameter drawn in any direction you get a right angle.

Therefore I believe the moving middle leg of Steve's stick meets both ends of the larger piece and therefore as you rotate the smaller piece you describe a circle around the connector (naturally), but importantly with the larger length being a diameter.

Therefore the three points are always ninety degrees.

Benefits compared to a normal square? Buying a square with that size would be very expensive. This is cheap to make.

Also you can use in tall narrow spaces like a cd tower where a square would not fit, and in larger spaces and in very large ones.

I guess to make one you can fix the smaller piece roughly in middle, then saw/sand down both points at once at one end, then the other, being careful to only match the shorter piece when doing the second end. If you do go too far, say on a disc sander, just repeat on first end. If you take too many goes though it will end up quite short!

IIRC much fuller explanation on Steve's DVDs

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[John Brown]

Thanks.
I guess it's important to use straight and stable timber!
I only have the bandsaw CDs myself.

Strangely, I can find no reference to such a tool via Google. Maybe other folks call it by another name.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Have you searched on "upside down y thing"

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

 

[monkeybiter]

Strangely, I can find no reference to such a tool via Google. Maybe other folks call it by another name.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/64811

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/37087

 

[wcndave]

I thought I linked to that ;-) (The diagram)

The point being that you devise the tool with the long arm being AC and the short arm being OB where of course OB == OA == OC, hence easy to make!

 

[John Brown]

Have you searched on "upside down y thing"

No. I searched on back-to-front lambda thing. Stupid me.... The perils of a classical education, I suppose.

Actually I searched on "Square of Thales". All I got were references to the least hip person who works for some company providing defence systems.

 

[John Brown]

I also found a youtube video by the Maskery man, in which he claims not to know what it's called.
Thanks anyway for all the references and explanations, and apologies for the thread detour.

 

[wcndave]

I also found a youtube video by the Maskery man, in which he claims not to know what it's called.
Thanks anyway for all the references and explanations, and apologies for the thread detour.

Right, But in the comments he goes for Thales ;-)