Walking my dog, taking a shower, and working on an assembly line (when I did that) were all great times for thinking (by not thinking).  My brain would just kind of idle and solutions to things would just pop in there.  It is a kind of cool ability to have. 

True Volpone. The zen technique of No Mind is the best way to think.

Day two of seven on and off rainy squalls, predicted. A subtropical low pressure system from the north.

Or I could just consider this my creative roof design and call it a day.

Rather, I hope to get to work on the sign boxes in the garage, rather than working on the box fittings out in the wild.





Kitchen wrap has more than one use.

No new work to report. Our next door neighbour's house caught fire four nights ago and me and Susie were the first to discover it, flames 30 feet in the air and singeing our mutual bush. No one was home or hurt but we thought they were in there. Harrowing experience.

Tonight starts the arrival of a downgraded cyclone/hurricane. Will be big rain and wind over the next day and a half. Glad I anchored the half built box down well.

Back to the tools on Thursday. Eager to do the sign boxes.

Wow.
That sounds terrifying.
Glad no one was hurt.

Russell

The Dalek ship was obviously aiming for the box and missed.

But I did go into town today to do a few things and popped into a rubber and plastic shop we're lucky to have. I was looking for a seal which can sit in the grooves to be cut for the sign box acrylic panels. Found this one. I'm assuming there will be a tiny bit of gap to slot the straight part into, leaving the round beading around the edge of the acrylic. I could use silicone but that weathers. I'll give this trim a go. I'll be making sign boxes over the next few sunny days. I found a band saw for $385. Good cutting height of 115 mm for the angled rain trim on the sign box tops. And the right angle cuts in the top and bottom plates would be perfect. Would I feel guilty buying it? Nope. But it would take up to 5 days to get here.

Really had to get my head out of the fire funk so I glued/bonded the opal and vinyl stencilled acrylic sheets to the clear acrylic outer sheets.

I used SciGrip 16 Fastset, a clear, medium bodied, solvent cement, specific to acrylic. Had to work fast as it seemed to be drying fast. Clamped some crossboards to hold them together as they chemically bond. You can move them in 15 mins but I'll give it an hour. Fully dry in 24 hours.

Several unwarranted concerns. Would the clamping and capillary action touch the stencil and eat it? Doesn't look like it. Second photo.

Are the fumes super toxic? Probably and also highly flammable, but I got far less whiff than in the old model airplane days of youth.

Looks like there may be a few bubbly gaps in the bead. I'll check it why dry. Anyway, this will stop rainwater capillary action, I hope.

I might have some time for ripping the ends of the sign box boards which need to be square edged.

Lethargy broken. Feeling a bit better. Might be the glue. Do this work outdoors like I have.



And this one showing glue spread under clamp.

Ah! The smell of polystyrene cement! I love it! Your box really is looking great.

  Andrew

Bit of work done yesterday and today. Ripping the pesky rounded edges off the sign box and Tier 1 roof timber so I have crisp 90 degree edges. Intending on grooving the sign box plates, I instead gor stuck into tier 1. A 26.6 degree bevel and the 45 degree mitre corner joints. I had to test the 1280 mm lenths to make sure they would fit into the column corners. Glad I did as a mm needed to come off. Haven't glued it up yet but will soon, allowing for tier 2 and 3, based on the exact inside dimension of the lower tier. My wood is 32 mm and the plan used 35 mm so my roof pyramid will need to be adjusted.

Hoping to get back to sign boxes tomorrow.

Time has been taken up looking after three puppies my partner is fostering for SPCA. Happiness is a warm puppy even though they smell of pee. So no, K9 has not been a randy boy.

.

Teir 1 roofing, unglued



Eight sign box plates, crisp edged



Puppy TARDIS distraction

Now he's posting cute puppy pictures!
For a minute I thought I was back on YouTube!!
😉

Russell

Funny meme Andrew.

Today I did the dado grooves for the sign boxes. I was wondering how to get my table saw blade the perfect height as the plate is deeper than the table. The answer is a piece of bridge wood which spans the table, marked in pencil with the desired height. Easy way to raise it to the mark.

My grooves are 22 mm to capture the signs to the black edge. My blade kerf is between 2 and 3 mm so I made four passes to make the 10mm groove for the laminated signs. It turned out just loose enough to accept that beaded rubber stripping. Please as punch.

The setback of the signs is 13 mm as per plan, even though some show props look deeper.

Tomorrow I'll mill down the 45 mm stock and end dado that for the butt ends of the sign box face. Around 11.2 mm from top to bottom plate to fill.

I'll need to fit each square cut specific to each side of the box as there is a bit of variation between columns. Plus cut some 32mm boxing for inside, perpendicular to the butts and sitting along side the columns to hold the plates equidistant and support the roof.

Good day of progress. I'll be sweating over the roof before you know it.

I'm also going to rehang the doors. I have two spare hinges which will take each door to four hinges each. These two way cabinet hinges are cool as you get in and out opening, but they are tinny for the weight. Plus the doors are a little too close to the floor and I need an extra 2 mm for the lino flooring. In the future I can replace the hinge plate strip as I only screwed, not glued, if it starts getting to too many hole from hinge adjustment.



Dado groove and blade height bridge, reference marked



Dado ends to be filled with wood later



Test fit of sign



Test fit of rubber beaded stripping, black on black looks good

Ah, now I see how that rubber seal works! Couldn't get my head round it before - not being particularly good/knowledgeable about carpentry means this isn't the first time I've needed the pictures to spell it out for me!
It's a neat solution that looks like it will be almost invisible once it's all put together and painted.

Couple of days off the build. Town yesterday to food shop so I slipped into Bunnings and got a wet and dry shop vac on sale. It's a Ryobi. A few good and bad features. On the good side, 30 L is good capacity. It has a power take off plug which lets me plug a saw or sander into it and the vac only goes when the tool is in use. It's great for a sander port using the power tool adapter. Good range of attachments. I noticed that the table saw was getting a build up of saw dust and shavings building up under the plate and clogging the out port to the catch bag. If the blade gets heavy and long use, the saw dust can begin to burn. The vac gave it an easy clean out which a screwdriver poked around couldn't do.

What I like less is the stuff vacuumed up goes into a paper bag like on a hoover. I'll have to buy a stack of them. I'll still need to sweep and pan up the big heaps of sawdust and use the vac for fine particle tidy up. Safer work environment, that dust is from treated wood, bad for the lungs. I wear an N95 mask when I work, plenty stocked up for covid.

Today I mowed the lawns and it's hot so I'm spent. Laying about, I bit the bullet and bought that band saw online. Hoping it arrives just in time to cut the sign box plate squares where it wraps around the columns and for the 90 mm wide sloped wood I'm gluing to the tops of the boxes. The table saw only cuts 80 mm at a right angle, less for a 10 degree angle. The band saw does up to 115 mm.

The band saw will be great for work on the console and a K9 which will be my next project.

Tomorrow, I'm back to it. Or I might get my US tax data together for my accountant - The Master.

I had an obsolete hoover once which used paper bags to collect all the shite I was hoovering up. I could not get any replacement bags so I emptied out the one that it had out all the time. If its only saw dust, and therefore wood, you could use it as compost in your garden, or chuck it the fire if you have one.
I once used saw dust and PVA glue as a filler on a building job, and it is a good mix for dioramas.
  Just a thought.
 Good luck with the Master. He can be a total rotter! Dont let him look into your eyes....

  Andrew