Garden Structure - Build or Buy?

In message , RzB writes

I've been meaning to put up a detailed web page sometime, so give me a day or two and I'll get some more stuff up on t'web.

Design was done in Turbocad. Started in standard version playing with the 3D capabilities, then upgraded to the Pro version for more advanced

Costs. Hmm, ...oo-er, about £2000 including lining, insulation, electrics, but not pond and hard landscaping.

As per your post with Andy, it's a damn fine excuse to buy new tools, in my case a compressor and couple of air nailers.

Yes, yes - compressor too - ooooooo.... :-)

Just got to be done :-)

My wife says I'm not a woodworker as I claim. but a tool collector... :-)

The render looks ace! Looking foreward to the other CAD stuff... I shelled out for TurboCAD 9.00 about 12 months ago and have been promising myself I would find time to get to grips with it. This MUST be the excuse I have been waiting for... This "only 24 hours a day" thing is a real pain!!!

Many thanks, Roy

In message , RzB writes

Just updated the render, putting a proper panelled door on the shed drawing. Turbocad Pro is a dangerous tool, one can spend _hours_ tweaking render and material parameters in the quest for the perfect picture. I'm always impressed how it handles glass, I keep the greenhouse "in shot" for the most effective view with all the mixed reflections and transparencies. If you've not been to the Turbocad forum over at IMSI, it's well worth a visit to the stunning renders users post to the galleries. Mine are but a pale imitation of what is possible.

You should have said. I went yesterday afternoon and this morning. So did Grunff and Phil Addison.

A 16 gauge nailer is something like this - also known as a finish nailer.

Even smaller is the 23 ga pin nailer e.g.

All of the above have the nails in strips, stuck together rather like staples.

The framing nailer is a different proposition altogether.

There are also specific roofing nailers e.g.

For nailers and nails, I've quite often used a company called Top Gun in Blackpool. Corny name I know, but they specialise in pneumatic nailers and consumables, spares and service.

I guess that it goes wothout saying that these are useful tools if treated with respect and properly maintained. Finish nailers can cause a painful injury. A framing nailer can be lethal - it's quite capable of driving an 80mm nail into wood or you. Eye protection is obviously important.

None of these nailers require a large compressor as they are not big air users.

I wondered about that. One thing is that dealer and display places don't usually do a very good assembly job of their buildings because they will want to dismantle and replace with new models.

Nevertheless, when I looked at them, I asked for a hose to be squirted at the building to see what would happen. It didn't leak that we could see. I did the same test after building mine. For belt and braces, I treated the inside with clear Cuprinol. I suppose that one could add a sealer while assembling the corner joints if concerned.

In the normal layout, the roof overhangs a fair amount (even without verandah) so vertically falling rain doesn't reach the corners. In the worst case, with the rain horizontal and directly into a corner, it still has to penetrate a long way.

Hadn't really thought about it. The commercial products are normal Nordic softwood and selection is pretty good. There were no dead knots or structural defects in the pack I received. There's several hundred kg, BTW.

The construction is to slot the pieces together, but then there is a batten in each internal corner to strengthen further. These are slotted at one end to allow the timbers to have cross grain seasonal movement.

I think that it would be marginal at best.

Probably. Conceptually, there is nothing different about this from the traditional log cabin making methods except that machined parts are used.

I think there is an error in the url - it should be...

In message , RzB writes

Indeed, thanks. A new page has now gone up with many more photos of the construction phase.

Andy, Thanks for all the info re Nailers... yes they are a bit of a safety concern.

I thought they had some sort of mechanism whereby they only fired if you were putting weight onto the "muzzle" - if you know what I mean. Yes / No ?

Hmmm... - I suppose I could always use pocket holes for the frames !!! That would be safer :-)

Roy

in Lilliput?

Precisely. Huge garage occupying half the garden. It had to go. Mind, there were a few "by 'eck, its big" moments when the shed frame went up for the first time as well!

Yes they do.

The standard mechanism on all but the little pin nailers is an interlocked mechanism. Some manufacturers have a choice between two approaches or you can buy a retrofit kit.

The standard one is to have a plunger associated with the head. The sequence is that you have to put the nailer on the work (depressing the plunger) and then press the trigger. Then it fires. If you squeeze the trigger otherwise, nothing happens.

The alternate is a more additive function - in effect the opposite. You squeeze and hold the trigger and then the mechanism is fired by pushing the nailer onto the work area. For contractors this is much faster because they hold the trigger and dab the gun over the work.

For the better guns you can get an adaptor kit to go from one to the other. The basic ones only have the first method.

That's for girls :-)

-=#WHOOSH#=-

;^>

In message , Rob Morley writes

Ah, see. Dolls House Garage.

My (£99 inc the compressor) Screwfix 18g nailer has both functions.

Dave

OK. Please do treat it with great respect and wear the safety glasses.

What can happen, although very rare, is for the strip of nails to jam and the hammer to hit them. The end nail can be projected out of the gun, as can the hammer (it can shatter) at an unpredictable angle.

I did find it prone to jamming at first to be honest. At the suggestion of the folks at woodworkgalore (mainly Americans & used to these things) I started to lubricate it with 3-in-1 oil every time I used or reloaded it. Never jammed since.

Strangely, lubrication is only mentioned almost as an afterthought in the instructions, no great stress on what has to be the most important maintenance feature.

Dave

It's actually really important.

Senco, Porter Cable and others suggest a number of ways:

- a few drops of oil into the air inlet connector on the tool at the start of each session of use

- an in-line oiler (sometimes supplied). This is a little plastic accessory that screws into the air inlet and then the connector fits into that. There's a little screw in the side and oil can be squirted into a little reservoir inside. e.g. Axminster SA111

- a lubricator in the air line. You can get these and fit them on the compressor outlet. e.g. Axminster PUM2000F. These work by the air passing through creating a mist with the oil that then passes into the tool along the airline.

However, you do then need to have an alternative outlet upstream of the lubricator if you are going to do spraying etc. where oil is not wanted.