Railroad Clock Kit - Glass Install (2) - Finished

After breaking the first piece of glass I tried to install, it took me a few days to work up the courage to try this glass install again.

Rather than an 18ga stapler, I chose the 23ga pin nailer to nail in the rubber glass stop strip this time.


This time things went much smoother. I used scissors to cut the rubber glass stop to size, then used the pin nailer to tack it in place every 3" or so along the outside of the glass. Since the door has a rabbet around the outside, the rubber stop is not visible when the door is closed.



The last steps were to clean the glass well, stick on the decal and then mount the clock on the wall. There are two holes in the 1/4" back panel of the clock and it was easily mounted with a couple of drywall anchors.



This was a fun and pretty easy to build project. The instructions and clock kit from Lee Valley were good and I'll probably end up building another one for our upstairs. Though the next time I won't take a year to finish it!

Kids Table - Part 3

Not much to finish up this project. I smoothed out the joints in the top with a belt sander and a 100grit belt, than used a Random Orbital Sander to sand everything with 120 and 220 grit discs.

A few swipes with a 100 grit sanding block to ease over all of the sharp corners, and a few extra swipes to ease up the bottom edges of the legs.

The legs and stretchers were glued and clamped overnight, with a few screw blocks added to the stretchers. Before attaching the blocks, I drill oversize holes in them which will then be used to attach the top.

Once everything had a chance to dry I applied Watco Danish Oil, following the directions on the can. Wipe on and wipe off. Couldn't be easier.

Lastly the table was moved back into the house where it was immediately put to use.


Now I've got to make up some chairs to go with it...

Deck Replacement - Part 3

On the last deck I built I used a hidden deck fastener to attach the deck boards and was very happy with the results. It definitely took more time to do the install, but I feel that the end result was worth the extra time.

For this deck I picked up the same product that I'd used previously - it's from Peak Products and is available at my local Home Depot. The Peak website says that it is only available in Canada, but it seems to be the similar to a product called 'Deckmaster' [amazon link]from Grabber. At about $3 each they were not outside my budget for this deck.

The rails come in 45" lengths and cut easily to size with tin snips.


Installation is a piece of cake. Lay them on top of the joists and put a 1 1/2" galvanized nail into every other hole.


The installation instructions say to alternate joist sides for adjacent rails. If you have any joists where the deck boards will meet end to end, then install a rail on each side of the joist.


As you can see from the pictures I've pre-stained my deck boards. It's a pain to do but I like that all four sides get stained. I'll add another coat on top after the install is complete.

After the rails are in, it probably takes about twice as long as hand screwing a deck from the top and maybe four times longer than if you are using a drill with an auto screw feeder. Again, I feel it's worth it for to have no screws on top of the deck. I'm hoping this deck will be around for at least 10-15 years, so a bit of extra time spent on the install will be worth it to me.

Once the rails are in, it's time to install the deck boards. I think the display at Home Depot has a picture of a guy installing the under deck screws by kneeling on an already installed board and leaning over to install the screw like this :


In reality, your only chance to get the screw in the hole is to crouch over like this :


It's not really practical and pretty slow. You could also try coming at it from the uninstalled portion of the deck - like this :


Again I find this difficult to get the screw in the hole and keep pressure on the impact driver to get it into the deck board.

The best way that I found to install the decking boards was to clamp the board in place, then slide under the deck (on a piece of cardboard) and drive the screws up from underneath. Even with a bare minimum of clearance I was able to squeeze under and get the job done. Not fun, but it's doable.


The holes on the rails are space about 1" apart and the installation instructions say to install two screws per joist. Depending on where your deck boards end up, you can usually put in three or four to hold down a particularly warped joist.

I like this product and will likely use it again if I move and have to build a new deck :)

Railroad Clock Kit - Glass Install (1)

We've had the Railroad Clock in the house for the past few days and have really enjoyed it listening to it chime out the hours. It also chimes on every 15 minutes which is a little much, but we haven't grown tired of it yet. From reading the generic directions I don't think the 15 minute chime can be disabled, but the chime can be completely turned off.

The last thing I needed to finish up for the Railroad Clock was the glass install for the door. We made a trip out to our local Home Hardware to get a piece of glass cut ($8.99) and pick up a few drill bits I needed. The guy who cut it was a little unsure of his glass cutting abilities, but he got the job done. I had them pack it in some cardboard for the trip home.

After getting it home and bringing the clock and the glass out to the workshop for the install, I unpacked the glass only to find a big scratch across the glass. Argh. Back to Home Hardware to exchange the glass, this time I checked the glass before leaving the store.

Back home and into the workshop for the install. The instructions suggest using an 18g staple gun , so I pulled mine out, laid out the rubber glazing bead and blasted the first staple through the glass. Oops.

My $9 glass door has now become a $18. At least. I haven't got the replacement yet. I'm a little afraid to do it.

Deck Replacement - Part 2

After tearing out the deck, the next step was to get support piers installed for the posts. Rather than burying the posts directly in the ground, I opted to install cement piers and attach the posts to the cement, above the ground with simpson hardware.

Rather than renting an auger and hauling and mixing the cement myself, I opted to get someone out to dig the holes and pour the cement for me. At $30 a hole for 6 holes it was well worth the money.

Once the holes were in, it was time to move onto properly installing the ledger board. I snapped a chalk line about 1 inch below the patio door and ran the circular saw along the line to start the cutout for the ledger board. Since I have wood siding, the siding should be cut away before the ledger board is attached to the house.

After removing the wood siding I found the OSB sheathing behind seemed a little rotten, so I ran the saw over that line again and removed the OSB. Behind that - yep more rot. The joist and sill were rotted and in dire need of replacement. All the joist under the patio door as well as 1'on the left and 2' on the right needed replacement. The sill plate needed replacement as well.


Luckily the other floor joists run parallel to this one, so I did not have to worry about the other joists when replacing this rotted one. A quick trip to the hardware store to pick up a new joist, PT sill, OSB and 'smart siding' to replace the wood siding and then back to work.

The old joist and sill was removed with a sawzall, then the new joist and sill slipped in. I was very surprised that I was able to remove the sill anchor nuts and reuse them. A little bit of break-free and the impact wrench pulled them off without difficulty.

I slid some flashing up under the wood siding to prevent water from getting behind the new ledger board. After applying some tar paper to replace the housewrap, Joshua jumped in to help me bolt the ledger board in place. It was actually in good shape and I was able to reuse it and the attached joist-hangers.


After the ledger board was installed I installed the OSB 'smart siding' product that matched close enough to my original wood siding. It'll be hidden under the deck and if I finish up the deck with a skirt it'll never be seen.

The new deck will have just about the same footprint as the old one, just a few feet wider to make more room for furniture on the deck. I installed the outer joists which were all new wood, and to save a few bucks reused the joist hangers from the old deck - not much fun removing those. A cat's paw and wonder bar helped me get them out in a reasonable amount of time with no damage.


Eventually I had all the joists filled in and was ready to start with the decking.