Meanwhile, Art conscripted Murphy (Yes, Really!) to help, especially with the heavy work on a project too long put off.
The rec room downstairs has a 14 ft wide and 9 ft high wall just begging for something. The entire room has a somewhat Mexican theme so he thought a large dimension timber shelving unit would suit. It would hold a new flat screen TV, old tech turn table, stereo and a 1970s Super 8 movie projector as well as a selection of Mexican artwork and nicnacks that we have collected over the years. And all, or most, of Art's library. Finally get the books out of the boxes. That will make Gillian happy!
The timbers came from a neighbour who had milled some reasonably large fir trees from his property some into 16 foot lengths and stacked to air dry for a few years. A couple of strong teenagers moved them to our rec room where they were again stickerd to further dry and acclimatise. Been there for years!
The first job was to one trim edge of each plank to be more or less straight. Murphy's power hand plane and Art's very sharp 14" jack plane took care of that, then the hard work:
Put each plank though the thickness planer several times. The verticals were all planed to a uniform thickness which would make it easier to notch the shelves. The shelf planks were each planed just enough to make the surfaces parallel and fairly flat. That was a job!Each plank went through at least three times on each side, taking very small cuts.
The barrel collecting the shavings was filled three times! Several bags went to the 12 year old neighbours daughter as bedding for her ducks! Yes, we do get a few eggs now and then--Good trade!
We decided that it was most important to make all the vertical supports the same thickness as they and the shelves were to be notched and rabbeted to form rabbet and dodo joints. There would be no nails or screws holding the whole thing together. Since we live in an earthquake zone, the shelves will be secured to the wall with steel brackets and screws. The shelves were planed just enough to make both sides of top and bottom parallel
The joints were/will be cut with between 1/16th and 1/8th inch over to allow for twisting and cupping of the planks. That and a large hammer should get it all to fit!
The verticals started as 10' to 15' X 15", cut to just under 9 feet and then tapered from 40 inches at up from the bottom to 12 inches at the floor, then from the 40 inch mark cut to 6 inches at about the 8 foot level. The tapers were cut with circular saw using a strip of plywood screwed to the plank as a fence. A pattern was cut from a piece of shelving.
Masking tape roughed out where vertical supports and shelves were to go
Here one of the roughly trimmed verticals is propped in the corner.
The slots and dados in the vertical supports were cut with Murphy's Porter Cable router which makes mine look like a toy. A jig was made for each slot. The lowest slot was cut in each support, then the jug was reset for the next and so on. It took much longer than expected but worked well.
Two slots done, the rest tomorrow. That's one of the handicaps of having Post Polio Syndrome: Avoid muscle fatigue. Limits the amount that can be done in a day.
The shelf planks will vary in depth as the verticals taper. The lowest shelf will be its rough sawn width of 11 1/2 inches. The widest will be the second up from the floor, adding approximately 3 1/2 inches cut from what will be the top shelf, which will be 7 inches, making the second shelf about 15 to 15 1/2 . The third one up will be ripped to about 10 inches. What to do with the approximately 1 1/2 inches cut off remains to be seen. May add it to the bottom shelf.
The verticals were finally done, now to start on the shelf boards.
First we ripped the top shelf to width using a circular saw and the same plyood fence used to taper the verticals, leaving a 3 1/2 piece to use to widen the second shelf.
Here Murphy is routering a slot into the edge of a 11 1/2 inch plank. A matching slot was grooved into the 3 1/2 inch piece mentioned above as well, both were joined with glue and biscuits. The finished joint turned out fairly well---remember, this is rough country carpentry, not fine joinery!
Murphy had to head off to the Yukon to do some Wood Mizer instruction so Art is on his own for several weeks. Visitors arrive next week for three weeks so for the next month not a lot will be done. All of the planks have some good sized knots and some cracks that need to be stabilised. Cold Cure Epoxy should do the trick but is is a long tedious job. Could do it faster but it would be messy!
Art also used this time to notch the top shelf which he then stained, along with the four uprights.
At the moment 2nd of August) he is working on the wide second shelf. The notches are cut but there are lots of knots and cracks to fill as well as some belt sander work to be done.
More as it occurs if Art remembers to bring the camera down stairs!
Somehow I deleted an hour of entry! AAAAGH. Back later
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