The Valley Woodworker: June 2021

It has been pretty hot around here lately, we are currently in a heat wave. So we tend to get up early and go to bed early to get some work done before it gets too hot.

I have yet to manhandled the two window AC units, so I just bought this new one.

Much easier on my back :-)

Of course way too small to handle the whole house, but does a good job of dehumidifying the air and making it feel cooler. Diva likes it, Rudy not as much :-)

Rudy enjoying the sun, full breeze on.

Diva is inside, too hot for her.

We monitor temp and humidity inside the greenhouse.

I often reset the max/min readings so I know what it did the night before.

That is this AM after a hard rain.

Recorded on my back deck late in afternoon, around 4PM.

We hit 41C two days in a row now.

Meanwhile, inside her greenhouse...

She now has a full screened door installed to increase ventilation

The 3 speeds fan in the back was covered at night

when we still had the odd freeze warnings.

Will need to come up with a better solution than stapling's .

Its rain hood is keeping the rain out from it so far.

Power line to greenhouse is GFI protected.

I also installed a pedestal fan near the entrance door inside

in an effort to increase air circulation. So far so good.

The inside reading are in this corner of the wall frame,

the outside is reading the probe up the wall near ceiling.

Did a bunch of small projects in and around her greenhouse. Brought in water, replaced the drain line on the sink and ran line to a dry well for it.

The water point feeding the greenhouse and the vegetable garden.

The metal post bracket in the background was for a 4X4 post to hold the hose, but no longer required so I moved that post up front and need another tool station

Potting station beside the sink.

Doggies bed under table :-)

Had to deal with two flat tires this year. My new hose reel I bought last fall came out with a flat tire.

They ordered me a new wheel, got 4 new ones?

Yes, because my new ones are a bit smaller. Replaced two up front and pimped my hose cart :-)

Also bought a new one, to replaced two more plastic cart, one of which will be recycled to hold power cords.

New one in front is bigger but they both have same reel capacity.

About 350 to 400 ft of 5/8 hoses.

I used to hose cart strictly for storage, not running water thru them.

Her garden cart also had a flat tire, but in its case, it was a shredded tire.

So I simply replaced the wheel, same size this time.

Yes, you can buy tubes or some tire sizes, but it is faster,

and relatively cheaper to simply replaced the wheel

The fan in the back wall still need a screen to be installed and I got the material I need to make a winter plug for the fan opening. Yes, we are going to leave it up for the winter to see how she fare. So far it has survived some strong winds without flinching, but the only unknown in my mind is how is it going to handle the snow loads??

Its shape should promote the snow to easily slip down, but if it accumulate too fast, it may very well make pocket of heavy snow.

Worse case scenario, should be fine if I keep an eye on it and clear the snow as required. Time shall tell.

She now has running water/drain and power inside her greenhouse. A project for the fall is to built a warming table for seedlings. Will probably use the heating pads we have or a water line heater cable we used before to keep the cold off the ground inside her portable greenhouses.

She want a warming table for seedlings, on the one you see.

That meant, fixing it, making it water proof and some electrical work.

No rush until fall, phew :-)

Remember the garden tool box I built in 2017? Well this past winter I finally got around making a new door for it. During our COVID confinement she painted it and I finally put it back up. Now I need to make two more of those for the various garden plots/beds

From the back

Also added a more sophisticated closing system than I used previously :-)

I sandwich a piece of 3/4 in plywood between the two end strips of the door panel. Should stay flat.

What I previously used after the door quickly became a banana

The post drill? It has sat unloved for a while in the garage while I concentrated on the green house. I also needed a gear puller to continue. Got my puller and removed the fly wheel. That was a few pounds right there...

Set up a work station outside to cleaned it some more and started painting some of the parts.

Currently back on hold while I attend to the windows.

The stuff I used to clean the wood board and the metal parts

prior to painting with rust paint.

I thought that the back board was a construction 2X6, but oh no, it is some sort of dense heavy hardwood, it's a keeper.. Currently scraped, cleaned, oiled, waxed awaiting to be reunited.

looked pretty good under all that gunk

What is left currently of the post drill assembly.

Getting much easier to move. Every part I removed are heavy

My current priority is to fix the bottom outside wood trim on the two front facing windows.

These see the most sun and wind and it shows. About 20 years or so ago, previous owner replaced the window with an insert, but left the outside original trim. I caulked and paint it a few times since, but it is now too far gone, need surgery. I have to do it before my contractor's comes in to replaced my back entrance doors and they will clad these window trim's with aluminum. All I need to do is replaced the sill plate and a short piece of stiles on each sides, done it before, still looking good.

Setting up for my first patient.

I case you wondered, I had her put the bench in

so I did not damaged anything I should not :-)

Went digging with my wood chisel looking for the extent of the rot.

My chisel found all the nails all by itself.

Yes, its edge is totally destroyed now, oups.

Next stop grinder.

Sills came out in pieces, made sure to keep at least one section undamaged to get my required profile.

All three windows frame I done so far all had their sill plate secured inside a tongue and groove by copious amount of caulking and three nails, that's it. Add the caulking at installation and down the years, it is solidly attached. Easier to cut in smaller pieces to pry off.

As the sill plate comes off, the copious amount of caulking inside the T&G is evident

Salvaged a short piece with its profile intact

Need cleaning the window frame groove

Cleaned and sample gauge slides back and fort

My Unisaw is still power less in the garage, but Jean came with her own tools,

so I used her bench top table saw and ripped two blanks from a piece of 2X4

Then a quick run thru my planer to dimension.

But first I had to unfreeze my planer...

Years ago I made a dust collection cover for it, shown removed in this pic. It exhaust off the side.

Work great, but unless you hook up the dust collection to it, it will quickly choke on its own shavings and packed them good. No biggie when I do a quick run and too lazy to hook it up BUT, never leave it packed too long, rust set ins. It was frozen solid, motor trip breaker, cannot raise lower bed. Was looking up to replaced it with a new fangled segmented cutter head machine :-)

I took it apart, cleaned it and after about one month of daily and repeated soaking of WD 40, got it to move.

Now running smoothly as ever :-) It got its first work outside, its a bit hot also inside the garage

Now remain to cut my matching groove, before I start shaping the profile. Meanwhile, I need to make two more flat-ish spots in the yard. One for the soft top gazebo, the other for a small 12ft pool she just bought.