Apartment House on Siding St.

 This was my first whole home siding replacement job and it came out very well, I will let the pictures speak for themselves and explain processes and steps I took along the way, enjoy!

These are the photos from the beginning of the job and the siding that was on there is a masonite-type hardboard. It's composition is very similar to medium density fiberboard. The siding was quiet popular when it first came out as it was supposed to be a "for life" siding but the ends of each siding piece eventually would swell and so after 30 years the siding did not look as good anymore.

On the back side of the homes addition there was a section of wall that slightly buried underground. The next set of photos are of what was found and house it was fixed. 

Very soft sill, 

Strong-back jacking member

New anchor bolts are now holding onto a new pressure treated sill plate and foam sill sealer.

New 5/8" OSB

Half my order of vinyl materials 

Making level lines!

 CMP came and wrapped where the power line ties on to the house and floated the meter boxes.

Very cold and slow moving carpenter ants.

This section of the building was almost touching the ground so naturally moist wet wood is going to attract destructive bug life. The old siding was touching the ground I brought the new siding up to expose the brick foundation and elevate the sheathing away from the ground.

Very cold lady bug cluster

Then the vinyl siding was underway.

This was the most challenging face of the home to install siding on.

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Adjustable Drafting Table with Mutoh Drafting Machine

This is the desk I have tailored the drawing table to fit onto.

This is an adjustable easel and board stand for a drafting machine. I was gifted a MUTOH brand drafting machine from my brother. I did not have the space for a second desk area and I researched some ideas for what others had constructed for tables. I found one that was within my budget and capability. In the photo above is my current working desk, an antique roll-top 66" long. Having that large of a desk encouraged me to find a way to make something that would co-operate with this drafting machine. What I constructed is an adjustable easel and it is only held in place on my roll top desk by gravity, no screws or nails in the desk. Initially I was worried the weight would pull the table forward off the desk but the triangular easel that forms the back bone of the table transfers the weight downward perfectly, created a great drawing station.  

This is the machine up close.

The material I started with, (1) sheet of 3/4" maple cabinet grade plywood, (2)  8' ft 1" x 4" Oak boards, (1) oak dowel, and a set of small hingles.

Here you can start to see what part of the table will sit on top of my desk and how its adjustable.

The lip on the bottom I added for catching pencils and holding papers and I cut out some wood were the machine could not reach on the left of the board and by doing that it granted me more access to the things behind the table on my desk, as well as more ease in adjusting the angle of the table. Excellent result and I have already used it for work and school. Thanks to the instructor of mine at CMCC for giving me the scale rules which are the vertical and horizontal rulers on the machine, I was able to completely assemble and use it.  

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Building Concepts II Course Final Week CMCC- 8' x 12' Bent Wall(s) Assembly Week 13

 With our last week of school for the fall semester, we managed to erect all of our bent walls. A bent wall is any timber frame wall or wall sections that are made up of vertical posts and horizontal beams with diagonal braces supporting the beams and transferring load to the posts. In the photo to the right is our example of a brace holding up a beam. There we laid out our bent wall and then pulled it tightly together using clamps. Then we mark where our corner braces we going to land. Clamping everything down insures that both mortise and tenon join properly during assembly.

Here is the mortise that has been cut!

Here is the mortise that has not been cut on the beam, so now its clear exactly where the mortise needs to be in order to fit securely.

Here is that same wall we layed out before assembled and upright. The joinery went very well using the technique we were shown.

 That is going to be all until the spring semester begins were we will pick where we left off and complete the roof system and finish the project!

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Building Concepts II Course CMCC- 8' x 12' Post and Beam Bent Walls and Knee Braces Week 12

 This week we invested much of our time in getting the wood to a usable condition. A lot of planing and jointing with the planer. Also we got introduced in electric hand planers. They produce quite a pile of chips afterwards just for your information. We used a 3 1/2" planer and a larger planer for 6" by 6" timbers. We would only plane 3 out of 4 sides because of side was going to be exterior faced and that one gets covered up! Check it out

 One the left you can see the start of our "Mortises" which will be bored out further with a chisel and wooden mallet. Below you can see the "tenon" being cut out of a 4" x 4" timber that will act as a knee brace. A knee brace is a support member that takes the load from the top sill or connecting girders and transfers it the post that its fitted too. Typically at a 45 degree angle also.

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