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Gulf Island Building.

1M views 8K replies 149 participants last post by  Katie Cabana 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi all:
Since the summer of 1997, I have been building a cabin and house on our 1/2 acre lot here. Before I dive into that part, I am going to show a few photos to set the stage a bit. We are remote here. No services of any kind, except that which we provide for ourselves. So don't expect to see any paved roads with big trucks delivering any materials.
We live at the head of a small bay, which is both a blessing and a curse.
When the tide goes out, we have to clamber over hundreds of yards of rocks to get to our boat. When it is in, I can float logs right up to my little railway to move them onto the log deck. Well, not any more, but more about that later.
This is the bay in front of us.
 

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#2,824 ·
Right after that I had a short coffee break and wandered out to the bank to see what was happening. Not much, except for this dead jellyfish floating by.

I promised Jim I would try to get a pic, and this is the first one I have seen of the bigger type so far this year. The tentacles are all gone and it wasn't a particularly large one. About 13 to 14 inches across I would guess.
 

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#2,829 ·
I see that last photo shows a good use for the benchtop. :thumbsup:

That nice thick top makes a terrific clamping surface. When the door gets glued up, it is my hope that it will be nice and flat, and the bench top itself will be a major contributing factor to that.

Just remember to use some scrap wood under your clamps. :yes:
 
#2,831 ·
During my archaeological excavations - don't laugh - I was finally able to uncover the 10" dob.

This is the reflector style telescope of the type used by all the major observatories in the world. Some of the reflectors are so big that the mirrors are made up in sections.

In case you aren't aware, the expression "Dob" is short for Dobsonian. John Dobson is rightfully credited for bringing large aperture telescopes to the masses.

This scope can easily see the Andromeda galaxy along with the two much smaller galaxies that appear with it. Andromeda is about 2.7 million light years away from us (depending on who you talk to) - compared to only 8 1/4 light minutes for our sun.

Andromeda is on a collision course with our galaxy...but there's no hurry to spend your life savings right away...it's going to be awhile.
 

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#2,835 ·
My stars, sorry about that,:) that is one heck of an instrument. Since talking to you I have become interested in the stars and planets, they are really very very interesting. Can you take pictures through that one? Some of the pictures online are fantastic.
 
#2,834 ·
Buddy, being a land lubber and only seeing the ocean from the top of a carrier or the beach, I only saw the small jelly fish and I thought that was how they all looked like. That is just unreal a jelly fish that size and color, I never knew they existed like that. Thanks for the photo Keith, I do appreciate that.

I got to tell you, that is a workbench any man would love to have. I would be afraid to do any work on it it is so pretty.

Seeing how you are building your door makes me say to myself, why didn't you think about that. I would have never thought to build a door that way. I can for sure tell you one thing, your door will be a lot stronger and less chance of it moving, twisting or warping the way you build yours than the way I built mine.

I used solid wood and used shaper cutters to make my rail and stiles and put them together like a cabinet door except I used dowels through my stiles into my rails for strength. I wish I had seen how to build a door like you are way back when, that just makes good sense.

I guess one is never too old to learn. Thanks buddy for showing us so far.
 
#2,838 ·
You know, usually, there are loads of those jellyfish around. I haven't even seen one in the bay this year, which is very unusual. Maybe the hot weather we have had for the last 5 days is doing some damage, I don't know.

The main reason I am making the door that way is because I can! How's that for a dumb answer. I don't have a shaper or the cutters to go with it. I do have a slew of router bits, but I'm none too sure if there is anything suitable.

Once I get things glued up - after I make the panels of course - I think it might be a good idea to leave it clamped to the bench for a couple of days.

That way it shouldn't get any ideas about moving after the glue is well set up.
 
#2,845 ·
I seem to have a habit of buying tools just because they are on sale and then the box never gets opened.

Yesterday I found a box with a brand new Bosch jigsaw, it's the top handle kind with the variable speed trigger. I have been used to using the barrel type for 25 years and didn't know what a treat this new one would be until I used it last night. I think I bought it last year sometime.

And many months ago I got an oscillating spindle sander, supposedly for the wife to use for her stained glass. Little did I know at the time that she needed a wet diamond type for that.

Finally opened the box this morning and assembled the little guy - well, maybe not so little, it's pretty heavy. Looks like it's going to come in useful after all.

Late last night the design for the panels came to me and I will need the sander to finish some of the ends of the boards. Much easier to show you a pic when I start doing that.
 

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#2,849 ·
I love the Bosch top handle, I have worn 2 of them out and the one I have now I tore the shoe up when I dropped it. I made another shoe for it and it is still going strong. What sold me on the Bosch was a fellow demonstrating one at a supply store one day, he took the saw and while it was running he plunged the saw blade all the way through a board and just went to cutting, I was sold and still am.

I had the chance to buy one of the spindle sanders several years ago but didn't, I wish I had a bunch of times since then. One other tool I passed up was a Williams and Hussey molder and I still to this day hate that I passed that one up.

I love the dust on your roller stand, it just looks natural.
 
#2,846 ·
I just happened to wander by the (almost empty) tub and spotted a few thousand mosquito larvae enjoying a swim.

I should have remembered to put the lid back on after it stopped raining last time. As Jim says...old timers.
 

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#2,847 ·
You might have to look carefully, but trust me...they are there.

My neighbour's dad has a farm up near Penticton and uses this cornmeal like stuff to wipe out the larvae. So he very kindly got me an ice cream pail full about five years ago. It has lasted us until this past summer when he once again very kindly got me another pail full.

You only need a small amount for the job, maybe a tablespoon for a barrel.

There isn't much water in the tub so this small handful should work.
 

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#2,848 ·
By tomorrow morning, they will be toast. Then I will need to get in there and clean the whole shebang out.

Just sprinkle this small amount on the water - that's all. It has no effect whatsoever on anything except mozzie larvae.
 

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#2,850 ·
That is better than putting a few drops of oil in there. I was going to ask you how the Moskeets were up you way. At one time I thought they were our state bird down here.:whistling2: Your friend should market that stuff, it is by far better than poison.
 
#2,853 ·
I spent the entire afternoon milling up just over 100 pieces of clear cedar for the two panels to go in the door.

The plan is to have alternating pieces of 5/8" square stock and 5/8" x 1 5/16" stock. The wider stock will be perpendicular to the door face.

In order to make it a little easier for the panel glue up, I machined two very shallow grooves - one in each side - in the wider stock. This is to allow the square stock to snuggle in to this shallow groove and hopefully remain square.
 

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#2,854 ·
The next step was to add some relief to the ends of the wide stock.

A combination of the dado blade followed by sanding on the spindle sander did the trick.

Here is the dado setup for cutting the board ends. Four cuts per board, two of which were a little deeper. I want the raised portion of the panels to be higher on one side of the door than the other.

To facilitate this, I made the two shallow grooves slightly offset from center.
 

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#2,855 ·
The destructions with the spindle sander caution you to bolt the sander down with through bolts or lags. Failing that, you must attach the machine to some thick plywood and then clamp that securely to the work bench.

Naturally, I was expecting this thing to head off in all directions once I hit the go switch, but it just sat there spinning calmly away. No vibrations...nothing. It seems to me that it has more than enough mass to prevent such untoward behavior.

And one other thing, sitting it on the workbench brings the sander to the perfect height for working on.
 

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#2,856 ·
It still never fails to amaze me when the camera stops the action. I assure you, the machine is running in that pic.

After completing the sanding - a very rapid operation with this machine by the way - I put a few pieces together for a test fit.

Since everything seems to be in order, next up will be the actual panel glue up.
 

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#2,857 ·
Hmmm...I see in that pic that the ends of the panel appear to be touching the center rail. Once the panels are glued, that will be remedied with some judicious trimming. There needs to be some room for the panels to float in the event of seasonal wood movement.

In this case the wood will be mounted vertically, which will have the least movement. The side gaps will need to be larger in anticipation of the greater horizontal movement.
 
#2,862 ·
Last night I glued up a small test section of one panel and it proved to be a little slower than I thought as well as trying to turn itself into a very minor curve.

After checking on some of the other non-glued pieces this morning, it may have been that the dado blade was not cutting a perfectly square bottom in the groove. So I ran the boards through the dado again this morning, but reversed from last nights' cut. It appears that it may work.

The short piece I glued last night was clamped down to the end of the bench, so it did come out flat this morning. Count another point for a good strong benchtop.

I had quite a time trying to glue and nail the pieces last night, so I decided that I would make a panel buck (like a door buck only smaller) to assemble the panels with. Really just a big jig.
 

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#2,864 ·
The small piece was the test done last night. One other thing I found handy was that I was able to sand the ends of the small panel on the oscillating sander all at once. Can't go any higher than that small panel though, that's as far as the sander reaches.

I guess I could maybe glue up half a dozen pieces at a time, then sand them gang style, then glue those small sections together. I'll give that some thought.
 

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#2,866 ·
Merci beaucoup!

I'm about 2/3 the way through gluing and nailing the first section. The boards are sitting loose in that pic. As soon as that one is done, I can pull it out and re-set the one side for the larger top section.

I should manage to be able to get them both done by suppertime. A few other things are on the list today as well.
 
#2,868 ·
....and if I could get as much work done in a day as I should, then I'd be a happy camper too! :)

Just going to give the first panel another half hour in the clamps and then do the second one.
 

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