Today I worked on a cedar shake roof on a barn. I’ve done some cedar shakes before, but never a full roof.

I’m not sure about Anderson, but I know at least Larson storms come with a z-bar extension. I just did a few this past week. Not only do they have a z-bar extension, but they also have little pieces of felt/brush that stick on to cover any gap on that bottom corner.

I’m guessing you missed a step or were shorted material. I’d suggest to see if…[Read more]

wbembrid wrote:I am trying my hand at some simple marquetry – inlaying a purpleheart “grape cluster” into some birch.

Interesting. I’ve never tried anything like that. What are you going to do for the leaf?

theamcguy wrote:Craftsman is coming out with a new toolbox that you can lock and unlock via your cell phone. Every day more tools are becoming the IoT.

That’s just a dumb gimmick. Why anyone would need that is beyond me. And what happens in 10-15 years when the technology changes and your new phone is no longer compatible with your toolbox?…[Read more]

A lot of times it seems that the manufactures print one of set of instructions for several models, and it’s up to you to find the differences.

We started a roof job today. It’s one of these old houses with two layers of asphalt and a layer of wood shakes. What a pain to strip. We only did a few sections today, there’s still a lot left to do.

Today we finished (for now) a window/door job: 16 windows 2 doors, plus interior and exterior trim. We still have large bay window to put in, but it came damage. There’s also a door left to do, but that one came handed the wrong way.

I think we should keep the thread going. The idea of the thread is not fluff, but I does seem to easily digress into fluff.

Sometimes I learn new stuff here; I had never heard of a hinge bender until this thread.

Last week I bought a Makita 18v OMT. I had been looking for an excuse to buy one for a while now, and a situation arose, so I got…[Read more]

smallerstick wrote:

BeardedCarpenter wrote:
A few months ago I made a set of toy wooden blocks for my son, but I didn’t have a place for them except a cardboard box. So I decided to build a wooden box. The design was a little more complex than it need to be considering it’s just for toy blocks, but I had fun making it, and I like the way it loo…

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A few months ago I made a set of toy wooden blocks for my son, but I didn’t have a place for them except a cardboard box. So I decided to build a wooden box. The design was a little more complex than it need to be considering it’s just for toy blocks, but I had fun making it, and I like the way it looks. It’s red oak, about 20″x13″x13″. There’s…[Read more]

I never take pics during work hours; my boss hates it. But I will sometimes take a few pics at the end of the work day. As far as posting pics online I follow a few self imposed guidelines: 1) I see no problem posting a pic taken from the same point of view as the public can see. 2) If it’s something less than public, I simply make sure that it…[Read more]

I can’t remember ever using MDF for any interior trim. I Always pine for paint grade. For stain grade it’s what ever the customer wants.

Do you use a bonding agent? I haven’t done much re-pointing, just once really, but we used a bonding agent.

I was not aware of a special tuckpointing grinder wheel. It looks faster and easier than a regular masonry wheel.

Good write up, thanks.

Interesting, I’ve never even heard of using a bag to squeeze in the mortar, shows how little I know. For the little brick repair I have done, I’ve just used a trowel and pointer. It is tedious, especially for the vertical joints, so I can see how the bag method would be faster.

However, I suspect you would need your mortar to be pretty wet to…[Read more]

After being with my boss for a year as an apprentice, he gave me cash and a gift card to a tool store for a Christmas bonus. The cash was more than the gift card, but the gift card still got me 2/3 of the way to cordless kit.

My advice is first cash, second would be gift card and cash. I would not buy tools for them unless you know for sure what…[Read more]

I’ve used the the Cortex system before, it does take extra time to go back and plug the holes, but it does a good job hidden the holes. I’ve never used the collated plugs, but I bet it’s a lot easier and faster. Sometimes I just use siding nails on PVC trim. At $100 a box, the Cortex are not always necessary.

Up here in New England we’ve been in a drought all summer. It’s rained a few times but nothing significant.

There’s a local lake that’s down to an all time low. The lake is controlled by a dam, but they’ve never needed to let it get this low. The bridge in the photos is a relic from the small town that used to be where the lake is now. The…[Read more]

I did a rare side job today. I went with my foreman to his parents house to install a sliding door. We knew there was some rot under the door, but you how that goes: rot, rot, and more rot. We got the rotten stuff replaced, but still need to put back siding, replace deck boards, and install the door.

@RonW, the man lift is new to us, but not new. It was dented when we got it.

redwood wrote:

BeardedCarpenter wrote:
The cupolas went up today. They went up quickly; the crane was there for probably less than hour. We put eight long threaded rods in each cupola; from the plates in the cupola down through the roof into blocks on the rafters.

I found out a little background to these things. The building was built around 1900…

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