Deck Replacement - Part 1

When we moved into our house two years ago, I knew that the deck was in need of replacement. Though not in any real danger of falling off the house, there were rotted boards all over the place, and individual board replacement would not be enough to salvage this deck.

Age was part of the problem, the rest was due poor design and construction that left gaps for leaves, needles and keys from nearby trees to collect in. The gutters high above the deck also clogged with these same leaves and after clogging dumped the water directly onto the deck from two stories up.

We picked the wood up a few months ahead of when I would start the project, then stacked and stickered it in the garage to dry out a little. For outdoor projects I prefer to stain them before installation, letting me easily get all four sides of the wood and so I wanted to give the wood a chance to dry before staining. The 10% off sale was another good reason to buy the wood early.

The only part of the deck I planned on saving were the joists under the deck, as I figured everything else was too rotten to reuse. As I tore the deck apart I could see that I was right. The more I took out the more I could see how rotten it was.





Even the support posts were rotting out - having been buried directly in the ground a few snapped off at ground level when I tried to pull them out.


Eventually I ended up with a large pile of rotten wood and a much smaller pile of usable wood. Though the tops of most joists had some rot, I planned to flip them over to reuse them so only two of the joists were completely unusable.

After pulling the ledger board from the house I found the worst rot. The ledger was bolted directly to the house, against the wood siding. I'm glad it was at least bolted with galvanized bolts into the joist and not decking screws, but the siding was ruined behind and below the ledger board. Parts of it were so rotted that it crumbled when I touched it.

Franklin Step-Stool

I managed to get another project finished off that's been hanging around the workshop. I'm not sure when I started this one, I'd guess probably about 10 months ago. It's from a plan in Canadian Home Workshop magazine.

Two coats of Minwax provincial, followed by two coats of Minwax Satin Polyurethane was the finishing schedule for this project. After that it was a simple matter to attach the two hinges and the chair/step-stool combo is ready for use.

Joshua and Lauren tested it out for me and pronounced it good. Though shortly after trying it out Joshua said we should cut it up and build it again - lately he's been playing with Lego's a lot.

Craftsman Mailbox - Step 6 - Completed!

Finally. After three coats of Minwax Helsman Spar Urethane (applied with a throw-away foam brush) the mailbox was done. Well, almost.

This was the first time I've used the Spar Urethane. It went on just like the polyurethane I usually use. I had a few runs from applying it too thickly but for the most part they sanded out in between coats - a few I left for character :)

I added added two hinges and two rubber pads that came with the hinges to prevent the top from making a racket when dropped shut.

I secured it to the house with two 2" decking screws through countersunk holes inside the mailbox and am now waiting for the mailman to drop off our first mail in the new mailbox :)

Before


After

Kids Table - Part 2

After all legs and table top dried overnight, they were ready to be finished off.

After scraping the excess glue off the tabletop with an old chisel, I squared it up using the sliding table on the table saw at 24".

The legs had little or no excess glue so they went directly over to the planer where they were all dimensioned to 1 7/8". Next the miter saw was used to trim them all down to 21".

It's best to cut mortises before tenons when using a fixed mortise size, so it was time to cut the mortises in the legs that would receive the tenons on the end of the stretchers. In the past I've made up a custom jig for my router and then use a spiral bit and a template guide to cut the mortise. I decided to try just using the router table this time and skip the custom jig to save time - I'm glad I did.

With a 1 7/8" leg, the center point of the leg would be 1/2" + 7/16" = 15/16". Subtract half of the spiral bit of 3/8, 15/16" - 3/16" = 12/16" = 3/4". That's the distance I set the edge of the bit from the router table fence. After testing on an offcut from one of the legs to make sure the mortise was centered I was ready to go. I marked the stop location on the fence to give me a 2" mortise and went to work. I set the bit at about 3/8" in height for the first pass and 3/4" for the second. I slid each leg into the bit along the fence and easily cut the mortises. Since the leg was pressed up against the fence where the dust collection is I clamped a shop vac to the fence in line with the bit to catch the shavings to save on cleanup.

The stretchers were next up. Over to the table saw where used the end of one of my still too long stretchers to set the height of the blade. I use my normal combination blade (Delta 35-7640) to make the first cuts for the tenons, then switch to a dado blade to clean out the rest. After getting the height set I sized down the stretchers on the miter saw and then it was quick work to cut the tenons on the stretchers.


After all the cutting was complete - a quick check to make sure everything fit properly.

Railroad Clock Kit - Finished?

I got up early this morning to finish off the railroad clock kit that I started a long time ago. I applied the oil and poly about two months ago so it was high time that I install the hardware and get this clock completed!

The mortises for the hinges should have been cut before I applied the finish to the clock. Since I waited until after I was extra careful cutting them as there would be no finish to cover my mistakes. I don't cut many hinge mortises but I took my time to cut these and am pleased with out they turned out.


I traced around the outside of the hinges with an sharp utility knife, then followed with a 1/2" chisel to clearly define the outside edges of the mortise. A 1/4" chisel was used to cut diagonally across the corners, which were cut round after the rest of the mortise was completed. The 1/2" chisel was used to cut out the mortise to the line that it had just cut.

The hinge was test fit and any extra material was removed to until it was flush.


Next I needed to drill the hole for the magnetic catch and metal disk for the door. Both called for a odd sized drill bit that I didn't have (13/32s maybe?). I used a 1/2" bit as that was my smallest larger sized bit. The magnetic catch is 1/2" in height and was too loose in the hole so I secured it with some plastic cement - if that doesn't hold I'll use some epoxy. The metal disk had a nail on the back so it held in place in the 1/2" hole without any problem.

After mounting the clock mechanism I added the clock face, secured with double-sided tape. Shortly after adding the hands I noted a small problem - the clock face was 180 degrees off. Oops. I peeled it back and slid a ruler under to get the very effective tape unstuck, then mounted it correctly with more double sided tape.


Now it's done - except for the glass. After I get the glass cut, it should be an easy install and then hang it up.