1929 Trench build Tutukaka NZ

[Oor Wullie]

Got my sign box wood. Only problem is the shop cuts it to length for me so I was at the mercy of the staffer for his limited time. He intercepted me as I was digging my way through a pallet of 5m lengths so I had to hustle to get the cuts done while he had time.

My brain under pressure does funny math, so I said I needed 16 lengths, fished out of said brain from the window frame members, each dimension being 4 and 4x4 is 16.

Once cut, you've bought it, so I get to the till to find the total price much higher than my precalculation. Load it up, get it home, write out the purchase in my paper build journal and, BINGO, I only needed 8 pieces, plus one for some boxing behind the butt-end plates and the columns!

So I've double dipped. This could be said brain's stubborn attempt for my 90 mm roof tier 1 wood to be replaced by 140 mm. I can do that now. Plus I have some spare timber to build up some framing to support the roof pyramid panels.

This is not a cheap hobby. But still fun. I have to get the table saw humming now, a bit of fear resistance as I've watched too many safety videos about kickback, lost fingers and sleeves getting caught in the blade. Like the router fears, I'll carefully realise there was nothing to fear. Still gonna wear my polycarb chain-saw visor while cutting. Lots of cutting.

[Oor Wullie]

Spent two days levelling the base blocks and shaving dirt off the entrance slope high ground. Six wheelbarrows full and maybe another to go. Trying to get water draining off the site is tricky. Blocks are levelled on a pea gravel base and adjusted with a rubber mallet. Photo below plus a big block-raised garden I laid on the section a year ago. The TARDIS site seemed harder. Small jobs accrue more noticeable deviation.

That was grunt work and hard on the joints and muscles so today I meant to get cutting the base. But like all things TARDIS, what seems a simple job throws up a range of new considerations.

My home handyman table saw has a smallish table and fence. I noticed this when setting my blade height and fence width and feeling out how the 88x88 mm posts I'm using for the base feels on the saw. Bit clunky as it's a long member going onto a small saw table. I don't want to blow the cuts so may opt for using the good old plunge saw instead. The track will sit well on the other three posts. The only way the table saw will win is if I add a feed table to match the receiving table already set up. Gotta see if my other two sawhorses will meet the saw table height. All this will be worse for ripping the column wood, which are even longer.

One great use of the table saw will be for rabbeting a 12x12 mm cut out of 24x24 mm stock for the window frames. I'm going to build a jig where these multiple piece sit inside a 24x24 rabbet jig with an end push plate. Quick and zero chance of kickback arrows or pushsticks contacting the blade. Photos will come when I get it built and working.

Hopefully I'll get a feed table working. I'll have to build a feed and receiving table set in the long run.

For those that don't know about table saw safety, the riving knife sits at the far side of the blade to keep rip (through) cuts spread so they don't pinch the blade and come back at you. When you don't cut all the way through a member, just a groove, the riving knife is droppable to a level under the blade top height and the blade guard used in through cuts is removed.

Ok here are some site pics.





One last revelation. In checking the base cut dimensions, I had a general once over of the plan. Found a big difference in my column wood to his, each country having our own peculiar wood stock dimensions. My wood is 45 mm thick and his 35 mm. If I had blindly cut my roof teir wood. It would have been 20mm too big! What a save. I think I'll cut certain components as I construct, for this reason.

[fivefingeredstyre]

I do love watching this coming together slowly!

[Oor Wullie]

True Five, slowly but surely, between the southern hemisphere wet spring and overly hot summer.

Off to the hardware store (again). My second pair of sawhorses are 119mm below the table saw plane. So I found that fence rails are 100x50mm and half sheets of ply come in 18 mm thick with some 1 mm vinyl as a spacer. At first I was going to buy a full sheet, ripped lengthwise to 600x1200mm and use that as the surface for the saw feed table, but I woke thinking that a half sheet cut in four pieces and laid spaced along the 2m rails will do for the feed table, the piece to be cut still fully supported.

A 150x50mm plank screwed to the ply face, upright, provides a saw fence extension and allows more support for endcuts like the rabbeting on the colum corners which take quarter round moulding for that profile. The moulding was cheaper than a fat two-stepped roundover router bit. Also the grooves in the butt plates of the sign box. This cut has a safety solution. Instead of cutting the small butt plates and grooving each with fingers over the saw blade (never), I'll groove a long length and then cut them to size with a drop saw.

150 mm on the feed table fence being more sure than the saw's 50 mm fence height. Less wibbly wobbly.

To keep it true in line to the saw fence, I'll extend the rails to notch under the saw for clamping. 600mm width still lets me get to the kill switch on the saw if I get binding. You just kick it with your knee and the feed table forces me to stay to the left of the fence, well away from the saw line. The safe spot.

That is all. I'm getting to know the guys at Bunnings like family and they don't even charge the buck a cut extra cost when I mention my time machine. They may think I'm loony and in need of compassion.

[Oor Wullie]

Celebrating getting the table saw feed table built today with a nice cuppa tea.

I had a 119mm height from the sawhorses so I used 100 mm fence rails and 18mm skirting board mouldings with the extra 1 mm made up by screwing the nogs that sit on the horses 1 mm proud at the bottom.

The moulding is rounded at one end so I used that for the feed end to relieve friction.

The extended fence is some kiln dried 140 mm so I can groove the ends of board length while having a stable high fence.

Haven't used it yet but no reason why it shouldn't work fine.

[fivefingeredstyre]

Haven't used it yet but no reason why it shouldn't work fine.

You know that's famous last words, don't you...

[Oor Wullie]

The old girl has feet! The new in and out tables worked well, especially when I had the saw fence and feed table fence on either side of the stock. Three cuts for each post; the depth of the floorboard, the 20 degree angle  and then the long floorboard seat cut, in that order. Couple of hand plane or chisel tidy ups to do but nothing major. Tomorrow I'll cut the 45 degree corner angles to get these pieces to length, cut the joist and floorboard lengths.

Today was the table saw's christening and she did well.

Last photo is a magnetic digital inclinometer for ascertaining the angle of a cut compared to the saw's gauge. Near perfect true.

[Oor Wullie]

Too cold and windy today, the sawdust will go everywhere, so used the down time and made an adjustment to the receiving table feet to bring it level and in height alignment with the saw table. Using the handy out-cut panels from the walls and doors. Waste can become a new tool.

I'd noticed when cutting the base yesterday that even a slight dip off the saw tends to lift the wood being cut as it levers off the saw table. The push stick served to keep the shorter base wood down but the column lengths to be ripped and rabbet cut would be impossible to keep down at the end of the cut. So I've solved that issue.

I do my best thinking in a half asleep state, either night or morning. Amazing how the subconscious has greater access to problem solving that my normal dumb wakeful brain.

 

[Oor Wullie]

This may not look like much, but it's the finished milling of my columns. 190mm cut to 170 mm with the waste going to the strips that will take my hinges inside the door opening, and 140 mm ripped to 125mm. Plus each had an outer edge trim cut to take off the rounded edges that timber comes with. Won't bore you with the mistake since there was a save.

I still need to rabbet the 12 corners for the quarter round insets for that double fluted roundover profile. I'm choosing a 24 mm rabbet cut for an 18mm radius circle of the quarter round moulding since I want to fill the part behind the sign box turn with 24x24 mm moulding for the weather. That leaves a 6 mm flute. I measured some router bit photos and they have anywhere from 4-10mm flute but I wonder what the Met boxes used. Gotta search the files before I cut.

[Oor Wullie]

Yep my gut instinct pays off. Found a discussion on the moulding radius and fluting on this site by Bill Rudloff. If I stretch his 1.5" recommendation to scale on my phone, I get a 6 mm lip like I intended. I have a small clear ruler for measurements like this. His radius is 19 mm, mine 18 mm. But using that 24 mm filler will give me a snug fit for the sign box plate turns around the post. Research concluded.

[Oor Wullie]

Good days work cutting the 45 degree angles for the base, the joist length and the floorboard lengths. 20 mm gap to go in the flooring so I'll rip two boards, since I have a spare, to fit the gap with two partially wide boards.

I also trimmed the lengths of column wood to 2275 mm and it's all square. My wood guy at the shop is a rough cutter.

Only challenge is I took one length of base up to the site to compare it to the pavers I've levelled. The base will fit nicely centred on the pavers but I was planning on cementing stakes from the inside corners of the base into the ground for hurricane proofing. Gotta think this one through. 

Here's some pics of the base and floor.

[Oor Wullie]

Holy Moley! The column rabbet cuts are done. Long slog. A few little overcuts here and there, but these square recesses get filled with quarter round moulding, so no worries.

Joining each angle next and glue and tack for the moulding. Getting very near to primer painting the walls, base and columns.

Got visitors in a few days so time to down tools other than the joinery. Glad to have a few days away from toxic sawdust. 

Oh yeah, also cut the rabbet for the window frame jig. More on that later.

[Oor Wullie]

Our guests are back on the road touring NZ and my minor hangover is just about gone. Being 763 years old has its price.

But the wind is still here so table-sawing is out today, too much sawdust drift.

So I revisited the base blocks and brought the base frame pieces up to see how I could get my inner corner stakes concreted into the ground. I'd bought 16 bricks, the same material, height and length as the fuller blocks and worked out a pattern that fit perfectly, the corners now exposed for the augering.

The leftover blocks let me play with the idea of a path up to the front doors, since the clay, when wet, is a muddy mess.

So a bit more digging and levelling and more pavers and pea gravel to buy to finish the path.

Sometimes problems simply present new solutions. Must be how the Doctor operates. 

[Oor Wullie]

First column joined with a bit of struggle. Used the sawhorse clamps and my hip to get each screw into slightly warped wood, after gluing. Some screws stripped at the square bit and had to be cut by reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade. The other three will be easier since I learned that screwing at an angle gets a better result.

Might just add a belt sander to the gear.

[Oor Wullie]

Looks like organised chaos, doesn't it? But it's actually logical order.

Got the other three columns done, no sweat. Yesterday's one was a rapid learning curve.

Stacked in each is its quarter round moulding for tomorrow's task. Plus some 24x24 mm filler moulding for where the sign boxes sit and perhaps the stepped trim beneath it.

Resting on top is the jig to make table sawing a 12x12 mm rabbet out of the 24x24 mm window frames for glazing.

The plywood in the next photo is laid out for the circular cap of the lamp which my acrylic flanged dome will sit and where the Fresnel meets the solar remote light in the dome through a hole saw hole.

Feels good to be gobbling wood which has sat around for months.