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| Friday, November 10, 2006 |
| Is this the half way mark? |
I dearly, dearly hope so.
Today we re-cut yesterday's pieces, painstakingly checking saw blade alignment, measuring carefully, and cutting even more carefully.
After doing all the long boards (making the centimetres vs. millimetres error only once) and beginning the shorter pieces, we discovered two things:
(a) the 290mm boards are not exactly 290mm all the way along
and
(b) the set square should be more accurately called a set not-quite-square.
There was snapping and short tempers and bad words spoken, mostly directed at the tools. If a bad workman blames his tools, I will gladly admit to being a terrible workman. I blamed my tools for an assortment of things all day, although I stopped short of accusing them of instigating the Twin Towers attack.
It was decided that as all the long boards were only un-square by a millimetre or less along the width of the boards, we would persist and not worry about them. However, we did take the precaution of developing a new measuring technique centered around the use of the large roofing set square rather than the little set not-quite-square.
We also managed to break the compound saw.
Okay, not all of the saw. Just the housing that the post of the vice used to clamp wood to the worktable of the saw fits into. It's made of cast aluminium, I think, and I turned the screw to hold the clamp steady, and it snapped off. Bugger. Fortunately there is enough left to brace the post, if one holds one's little finger in just the right position, so the clamp can still be operated. Next week we will see about returns or repairs.
We eventually got into a little routine, with Mr Ata relegated to measuring (because he is better at that than me), and me cutting. Cautiously. We were interrupted by the arrival of the pavers (Hooray!), a visit from the Home Theatre Installation Guru to give advice on the hanging of screens and speakers, and someone selling energy. But we eventually got all the pieces cut, with JUST enough lengths of wood. More little scrap pieces than we intended, but that's okay. At least we didn't have to go back to Mitre 10.
Having laid out all the pieces on the floor, Ata left Mr Ata to measure & mark up for drilling pilot holes. I went to the kitchen to cut out housing for some reinforcing sections. I couldn't use the compound saw as I was cutting long-ways, not across ways, and the timber was too long to safely mount on the saw. I couldn't use my jigsaw (purchased a few years back second-hand) because I couldn't find it. So I was forced to use the tenon saw, and then the rasp to neaten off. Now my hand and arm aaaaaache. I was shortly interrupted by Mr Ata insisting that we weren't going to be able to do what we wanted to do. He helped me finish the last housing instead, then we went to look at his practice-run of drilling and fastening pieces, using some scraps. He insisted they couldn't be held straight and square. He challenged Ata to demonstrate, if she was so sure. By the time he came back from a stop in the little boy's room, Ata had drilled three neat holes and asked him to hold the board steady while she screwed the two pieces together. I do not know what he was trying to do, really. I think he might have been trying to do something a little trickier than necessary, and the two scrap pieces - being smaller than what we would really be using - were little and light and difficult to handle. We also discovered that he had misread the screw packet, and was using a 2.5mm drill bit to drill pilot holes, when it should have been a 3mm bit.
The cats spent the entire day locked in the laundry, tucked up cosily in their box-beds where they were not too bothered by the noise of the saw. Not even Ata is game enough to have felines wandering about while a power saw is in operation.
So that leaves us now both tired, with holes in one long board, the reinforcing for the storage areas cut to fit and drilled, and another board marked. Mr Ata, during the marking stage, decided to deviate from his plan. As long as everything fits together, I don't care. It just has to be finished by Monday - that is the Paving Day. More excitement to come. Stay tuned. |
posted by Ata @ 8:50 pm  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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Hee, this is so epic. Are you going to post photos once you're done?
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Hee, this is so epic. Are you going to post photos once you're done?