Home Improvement Today?

Nice work oz. is that quarter sawn doug fir? Wheres your steambox?

 

Clear vertical grain , old growth Douglas Fir

No steam used

 

Verticle grain is quarter sawn correct? I guess quarter sawn is more of a hardwood term. I would love to get my hands on some old growth. I might have some questions for you soon. Im building some slight radius archway panels in a few weeks.

 

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OZ ... did you personally do that trim work (or your trim man) ? That is difficult stuff to do and looks like it was very well done too.

SUPER kudos to whomever did it ... very nice work. Hard to find that kind of craftsmanship here in Atlanta.
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Not necessarily quarter sawn , but the logs are cut to have the vertical grain rather than the flat grain presented across the width of the board

Pm me anytime

 

.... ^^^ ... Love this setup (windows & trim & colors) .... would like to copy it exactly if I had a place t do it.
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Yes

 

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WOW ... very impressed ... You only see that kind of quality here in $3 mill and up houses and maybe not even then.

You remind me of my buddy, John (he was like a brother) who was helping me on my 15 year house project here. He could do everything well. He fell off a ladder 2 years ago on another job (2 weeks before his 50th birthday) on a hot summer day, hit his head on an outdoor A/C unit and died on the spot. Very sad day it was.

Since then I have had to do everything myself with the help of my mexican helper buddy that I have trained from a superb painter to a carpenter and trim man. It takes us 3 times as long and the quality is not 100% of what John did, but we try.

As I have gotten older, my hands are not as good as they used to be ... but I have to finish this job in the next 12 months to move on when my wife retires.

Its a shame you don't live closer as I have a lot of super quality tools (all types) that I need to dispose of when I am finished here.

You do excellent work (craftsman quality) my friend ...
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Thanks

Sorry to hear about your friend

 

I think OZ needs a build thread consisting of his carpentry work

 

I appreciate the kind words but keep in mind I've been paid to practice this stuff for the last 25 years , I'm more impressed by the great results shown in this thread from guys taking these projects on during weekends

 

Lamination 2 of 7 clamped up

 

Blown away man! That's all we do here in Austin(window crap,3rd generation carpenter), your work is exceptional. The average fellow has no idea what goes into that type of finish. Kudos.

 

So, we want to have our outside front lights to come on whenever the sun goes down. Currently all 3 are wired to one switch by the front door. Is there a way to do this? Anyone have suggestions for a sensor of sorts?

 

I use one of these for my front porch. You can just set it up for sunrise and sunset on/off times.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-3-Way-Sunsmart-In-Wall-Digital-Timer-15312/202788253#.UizMEMbbOSo


Or depending what kind of lights you have you may be able to just get one of those add on photo cells

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Westek-1...Control-Black-SLC4CB-4/202260319#.UizOZsbbOSo

 

Try this. Cheap and easy.

$10 Woods 59405 59405WD PHOTOCELL, in/Out Socket Gray, 1 Count (Pack of 1), 0

http://www.amazon.com/Woods-59405-Outdoor-Screw-In-Automatic/dp/B003Z4IDXE

 

how does that plywood clamp system work? I've never seen that before.

 

I used this photocell to control my low voltage transformer.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_6311-30209-...&currentURL=?Ntt=utilitec+photocell&facetInfo=

 

It's really pretty basic , it's just some 3/4" plywood strips , in this case 2" wide x 4 " long , with a 3" screw through the middle , when you tighten the screw it pulls the plywood in , compressing whatever is between it and the wall .

The material to be clamped is on the top side of the screw , and below the screw I insert a block that is the thickness of the material I am clamping so that the clamping force is straight in the direction of the screw .

The fender washers on each clamp block are there so the screw head will not suck into the plywood so I can re-use the blocks multiple times

This system is also how I clamp the pieces when I attach them with the biscuit joiner to the window liners

In this particular application there are also some plywood L's holding the trims being laminated at the correct height to pull against the curved window liner

There is also a strip of wax paper between the lamination and the liners and L's to keep it from all bonding together