Backyard Decked, Platform

[nailshooter41]

Finally we see the job supervisor! Good to see she is on the job!

Looks great, Karl. Like the planters, they add a nice "decorative" touch to the project.

Robert

[ChairMan]

with Cabot falling to the anti VOC crowd, what is yours and Karls go to sealer these days?

[Swingman]

Dead around here the last couple of days ...

Not much woodworking to share yet, do have a couple of cabinet jobs in progress.

Enjoyed having the time to install outdoor electrical (NOT), and low voltage lighting the past few days (and also wanted to test Google Photo's "Collections"):

(NOTE: becaise this is Google Photos, and not PicasWeb photos, so you apparently have to chose the "i" for INFO to get captions/descriptions for an individual photo)

Found low voltage lighting installation, except for waiting for dark, to be instant gratification.

Picked up a 300w, multi tap transformer, some 14awg low voltage cable, and LED lights from Lowe's, and in just a few hours had cable laid and lights connected.

Had enough fun to get a bit carried away in the process, but still subtracting here and there and moving around, so will wait to cover up the cable on the back two sides:

Linda wants to experiment with some colored lens gels ... will probably be glad I'm colorblind.

In any event, the weather has been perfect for coffee and breakfast in the morning on the contraption, and a swing and drink in the evening, AND, best of all, no more mud and bare dirt, and no interruptions.

Although I enjoy our front porch and balcony, it is nice to have a bit of privacy and relief from the "what would you do about this?" when folks see the only local neighbor who actually owns a hammer sitting out in full view of a evening.

[Leon]

Looks good! No I need to work up the appetite to do the same, sorta.

Was there suppose to be a second link? Both point to the same.

[Swingman]

Shop dummy was on duty this AM ...

[Martin Eastburn]

Nice. And well done.

I'm in the process of doing a deck in front of our Wood Yard Barn. We use it for storage and for yard tools and such. My shop is in another building.

The design I'm using 4x4's in the outside ring and across the center in one direction only. The squares are now 5'x5' with 2x6 slats.

Two of them side by side. Front side and back side tied with 2x6 cut down to be 2x4 or whatever the dimension I need since the 2x6 is on top of the 4x4 it makes 2x6 close. To be measured once built.

All of the wood is custom cut from logs I had on the property. Mostly Red Oak and some White Oak. Heavy stuff. I have 12 and 16 foot long

4x4's and they are a handful. Glad I have a tractor with forklifts.

The base material that they will sit upon is 6" of crushed granite. It is about 1/4" a 'grain' so water will flow down and through it easily.

I'll take pictures and consider putting them up as well. Should be pretty. I think one of mine might have been curly oak. I home to have that grain exposed on something.

Planning on a 4 x 12' arched bridge. That design is going to be interesting. I'm getting some bandsaw blades for that project!

Martin

[OFWW]

Looks VERY nice, well done.

I am surprised at how easy it is to view the info, the sharpness of the photo's all of them, and the night shot when zoomed in was very clear and sharp. Could even see the light coming through the back of the swing set.

May you have many years of enjoyment and relaxation there.

[Lee Michaels]

"Swingman" wrote .

I know exactly what you are talking about. Years ago, I worked for awhile at a small insurance agency. When I moved into the office, I built a couple cabinets and brought a toolbox with some basic tools in it. I helped assemble some furniture, etc. I suddenly became Mr. fixit for the entire office complex. A guy who builds things, assembles things, fixes things and actually owns TOOLS!!

You would have thought I was an old dinosaur who had been resurrected or something. Then I had to track down all the tools that were "borrowed". Because nobody wanted to return them. I quickly installed a locking tool cabinet. I started a formal tool checkout procedure. And started charging "professional" rates for anybody outside of my own office. Apparently I was some kind of throwback, an anachronism. When I grew up, everybody had tools and fixed or built things. Not so much any more.

[Swingman]

Thanks. Sounds like an interesting project especially with the wood you're using.

Do post links to photos if you can.

[Swingman]

Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback. Google has always been pretty good at making photos look good at monitor resolution despite their practice of reducing the original photo resolution for storage purposes.

Also, pretty hard to fault cell phone cameras these days, particularly the iPhone 6's camera. Paid more, in 1963 dollars, for my first SLR and now my phone takes better and more cost effective photos.

Certainly not fine woodworking, but the satisfaction of eating your own dogfood always runs just as deep. ;)

[Swingman]

Common thread in this upscale, full of young professionals, enclave I live in.

Just yesterday a young lady (Doctor) stopped by to see Linda about signing up her kids for music lessons.

As she walked through she was was apparently bowled over by the fact that someone's husband could actually be capable of making a house full of handmade furniture and cabinetry.

Linda brought her out to the shop to meet me, whereupon she proceeded to rain scorn upon her husband's lack of any ability to do anything that required self reliance, literally doing a damned good job of calling him a doofus.

Makes you wonder ... (except to appreciate why my youngest is not impressed with the current pool of potential husband material).

[Leon]

;~) These women talking about their husbands and how they don't know what to do with a screw driver..... You gotta wonder what our wives say about us!!! You know me, with my short thumb, you with your color issues. ;~)

Day before yesterday my, two houses down, neighbor came up while I was in my shop. She is the one from Canada. Oddly she cannot light a fireplace but will shoot up an extension ladder before you can hide your eyes while stabilizing the bottom, bottom of the ladder that is.

She laid out the forms and arranged for a concrete patio in her back yard and is learning to do her own yard work.

Anyway she came to borrow my electric hedge trimmer that I had offered to lend her. We walked into the store room and she spied my long handle bypass loppers. She reached out and caressed them. Ohhhh these work so well, I just bought a pair the other day...

Too early to show her my Festool tools? LOL

[Lee Michaels]

"Swingman" wrote

Well, the apple does not fall far from the tree. She is going to compare all potential suitors with dear old dad! It is difficult to find your way through a world with ever declining standards.

Hopefully she will eventually finds somebody who measures up.

[Kevin Miller]

It's funny how society demands that women be deemed equal to men but it's still a man's job to take out the garbage and fix things. LOL.

I always wonder about folk that run down their spouses. Makes you wonder why they married them if they such ditzes. My wife has her strengths and weaknesses just like all of us but in public I have nothing praise for her. Well, pretty much in private too. We'll be hitting 29 years this May so it must be a working strategy!

I'd have probably have asked this highly educated and intelligent women if she's ever made anything. Why is it just the husband that is incompetent? I've seen plenty of women that are quite skilled with tools. They're outnumbered by guys, no doubt, but if she can't do it why is it a demerit for her husband to not be able? I expect she'd probably think I'm a jerk for saying so. LOL.

...Kevin

[Puckdropper]

Kevin Miller wrote in news:K7adnZ4oHvoX4FrLnZ2dnUU7- [e-mail]:

There's good reason for that, with the fixing things:

Charlie was installing a new door and found that one of the hinges was missing.

He asked his wife Mary if she would go to the hardware store and pick up a hinge. Mary agreed to go. While she was waiting for the manager to finish serving a customer, her eye caught a beautiful bathroom faucet.

When the manager was finished, Mary asked him, ?How much is that faucet??

The manager replied, ?That?s a gold plated faucet and the price is $500.00.?

Mary exclaimed, ?My goodness, that is a very expensive faucet. It?s certainly out of my price bracket.?

She then proceeded to describe the hinge that Charlie had sent her to buy. The manager said that he had them in stock and went into the storeroom to get one.

From the storeroom the manager yelled.

?Ma?am, do you wanna screw for the hinge??

Mary paused for a moment and then shouted back, ?No, but I will for the faucet.?

Yeah... that kind of thing just doesn't seem to be on women's minds. After all, I can polish their brass and clean their clock and yet there's few takers... That's ok, though... I wouldn't want to marry someone who was only interested in my polishing and cleaning skills.

Puckdropper

[clare]

My youngest started out driving a stick shift car and I taught her to change her own tires - and even how to change her own oil (which she dir excatly ONCE!!! She found most of her male friends were intimidated by her. She ended up finding a heavy duty truck mechanic she didn't intimidate and they've been together for a few years now.

[clare]

My oldest sister (2 years my junior) married a charmer who talked a good talk, but was virtually useless in the real world - he litterally didn't know one end of a screwdriver from the other. Having grown up with a father who was a real handyman - a carpenter and electrician who could also lay bricks - she had caught on to what tools were used for what, and how - so she had a decent set of tools that enabled her to look after things like shaky chairs, dripping taps, plugged drains, loose cupboard hinges, etc without having to call one of her 5 brothers or her Dad . When she moved across the country following her hubby's dreams calling her brothers or her Dad wasn't an option.

[Kevin Miller]

Ah - it all becomes clear... :-)

...Kevin

[Martin Eastburn]

I'll try. Got the first square of 4x4's cut out. Used 3 4x4x12' to make the 4 frame members. Screw it together this weekend.

There were splits and some were to much to trust. So they are firewood and good chunks are for the wood shop for turning or making something.

2ea 5' and 2ea 5'subtract width of 2 '4x4s' Which turned out to be 3.25" on those two. The idea is to have a 5x5 square. (was 7x7 in old plan).

A 10' 4x4 is close to 100 pounds or more. I can lift 5' but 10 is heavy for something that long. The Oak is aging but came from very large logs. Glad to use it as lumber than burn it in a pile or compost...

The whole assembly will be washed or sprayed with bleach to kill nastiness that might be eating on the wood or dissolving it on the fly. After that, the plan is to paint it with a quality paint that matches the barn and the house. A dark red as a base material. I have 4 gallons of bleach for the cleaning. I'll let them dry for a while once built but they will continue while painted.

Mart> >> I'll take pictures and consider putting them up as well. Should be >> pretty. >

[Sonny]

I like it. Looks nice and cozy, especially with those low night lights. *I can hear some soft music in the background, also.

Yep, our recent warm weather makes for some nice mornings and evenings, relaxing outdoors.

Sonny