Surely by now... (Eyeroll) ~ or Why DIY?

Every one I talk to knows about my wall project by now. Folks at the sailing club know I can't take the boat out because I am working on the wall. Folks at the office know I can't go out for drinks because of the wall. The kids know, the neighbours know, everyone knows that this wall is my everything. And the common comment is usually...

"Surely by NOW (eyeroll) you have that project finished??"

I'm not sure that I have the punctuation right, and I dunno if the stress is in the right spot but you know what I mean. This is the job that never ends. If SWMBO paid me by the hour, I could retire on the time I have into this sucker. It better not fall over. Ever.

So tonight I go to pick up another load of bricks. And if the rain breaks up long enough, I can shovel some gravel into the second walkway to the pool. I discovered on the weekend that the coping stones are too hard to cut with my little saw so I will have to rent a concrete saw to cut them with. And just like I did last week at this time, I am going to be bold and predict that by this time next week, I will have completed the wall.

I better have. I can't connect the pool until the wall is done.

Actually, I can't connect the pool until the walkway is dug out, and that's the project waiting for me after this project. Followed by the pool deck. Followed by a pool liner. I need to squeeze a fence in there someplace, and 2 arbours and maybe a patio and gazebo.

There is a 50% chance of rain today. That may push back the schedule. It seems like there is a 50% chance of rain every day.

SO you know what, the project isn't done yet, and it may.never.get.there. The backyard is going to eat me alive this summer. And that's what being a grownup means.

So why do we DIY? Why DIY a retaining wall of all things, and will this project bring me happiness in the end?

Why I DIY...

1. I'm cheap. By DIY-ing this project I was able to save myself some money on materials, and my time is cheaper than a contractor's.
2. I'm in control. If I DIY something and things don't turn out quite right or I decide to change the working plan, I can make changes on the fly without worrying about a contract or paying for 'extras' or what have you.
3. I love learning. Before this project I had no idea how to split blocks or level a base course. I had never used a tamper. Now I know how to do all those things.
4. I'm proud of my work. Its refreshing to have my coffee by the window and look out in the morning to see the wall that I built with my tools.
5. Doing is better than watching. I could sit and watch things get built on TV, or watch a contractor, or coach my neighbours on their projects, but for me, the feel of tools in my hands, and the sounds and smells of the worksite are satisfying, even if its just cleaning up or the scrape of the shovel against the gravel. There is satisfaction in that.
6. I want my kids to have an "I can do that" attitude. I believe that when my boys see me swinging hammers and shovelling gravel, they realise that they will have to care for their families one day too, and that this is what Dads do. It has already been pointed out to me that I build differently than Bob the builder. To me that is important. They're noticing.

I'll stop before this gets weird, but there it is. Yes, I am still working on this, and yes, I am giving up a lot of stuff to do it. But soon. (Very soon, I hope) this part of the job will be done. And then it will be time to play.

This weekend is Fiesta Week and next weekend is the Tall ships festival, so I may take a couple days off, but the project has to push on, and push on it will!

Whatzit? Itza Giveaway!

So I built a bunch of these and am now in the glue-up/sanding phase.

They are actually a pretty tricky little gizmo to build, with lots of angle cuts and a certain degree of precision needed. Without the crosscut sled I would have been at a loss!

Just one problem, I have no idea what they are, other than a nick-nak.

Anyways, give it a name, and you can have one - either in Red Oak or Poplar. I just ask that you cover shipping...

Brick shortage forces random post...

Dinner cooking. Mmmmmm (strip loin steaks, baked potatoes, and grilled sweet potatoes).

 I was all excited to get things finished on our wall this weekend, but it turns out we are short by about 50 bricks. That's OK - I'd rather be short than have too many, and I can pick up more bricks on Monday. its not like this is an international crisis or anything.

The brick shortage does make it hard to blog though, since I'm waiting on completion before going for the big reveal. Since I can't share progress, I'll share confusion. About 2 houses ago, I got concrete moulds to make a pedestal to mount our sundial on. I did the moulding, but never got around to the rest of the project.

 Having concrete adhesive on hand, I went ahead and glued together the bits to make the sundial stand, but now I can't remember which way is up.

I need someone versed in classic architecture to tell me if this is right side up:

Or if this is:

Let me know what you think in a comment. I am leaning towards the leafs going up right now.

Nothing to see here...

The blog has been actively idle for the past few days since I'm waiting for a big reveal on the wall. But its raining, so that means no new wall work. Ugh.

Last night I worked in the garage on small projects instead and sawed into my finger with a Fortsner bit in the drill press. Merely a flesh wound, but nearly more.

Its surprisingly hard to type without using your left third digit.

I did learn a lesson though, when cutting steep angles in the saw, if you trap your work below the blade the wood will burn. If you cut above the blade, it will slice. The garage was all smoky until I figured that one out!

The Brick Man Cometh

When I got home yesterday, I almost hit a skid of bricks sitting in the middle of the driveway. Then Cuppa came running to my truck and told me the brick man came in his big crane and put bricks in our driveway. Then Buddy ran over and told me there were bricks here when he got home from school. I guess that explains how the bricks got there.

Yup. Brooklin brick came through. You may remember back a while ago I went with a friend to Brooklin's yard in, well, Brooklin Ontario, and bought up a pile of seconds. Bricks that weren't perfect, and we placed them in the backyard. I haven't updated that project in about a week, but in the interim, we have finished our base course of brick, backfilled with gravel, and laid in drainage. One lunch hour last week, I returned to Brooklin and like a real customer, ordered full priced brick for the rest of the wall.

We have just gotten those bricks. When I went into the backyard, Chuck and Mama had already carted almost half the bricks back there, and laid them out ready to be set in place. In a couple hours I was able to lay almost all the bricks. Before leaving for work this morning I carted another 30 or so bricks back. We only have about 60 bricks left to move into the backyard, and I haven't gotten a picture of the delivery yet!

EDIT: I got a (bad) pic!

Our wall will be colonial buff standard split face design wall with barnboard coping. I think I'll wait for the big reveal until we get all the bricks in place and the gardens planted. Then we still won't have a lawn, but at least the framework for the landscaping will be in place. I am really pleased with how it looks so far though.

When I went into the backyard, Chuck and Mama had already carted almost half the bricks back there, and laid them out ready to be set in place. In a couple hours I was able to lay almost all the bricks. Before leaving for work this morning I carted another 30 or so bricks back.

In other news, a big surprise is waiting for the boys once all the brick is in place... Stay tuned.

Crosscut Sledding!

During our brief but frequent rain showers on the weekend, I took some time to build a crosscut sled for the table saw.

Most woodworkers have at least one crosscut sled around, and some have more. A large one for cutting big stuff, a small one for cutting - well, you probably already know - small stuff. I decided to try building a small sled first.

A crosscut sled allows you to cut stock square - right at 90° on the first try, and with greater accuracy than sliding a piece across the table of the saw. The science is pretty simple. On the bed of the saw, there are 2 slots. These slots act as a guide for the sled, and if you can find a way to hold your hunk of wood that is consistently 90° to the blade, then you have a sled that is super-fantastic. But wait - that's not all!

Knowing that he board is at 90° when held properly, you can insert shims to move the board off square to any angle you want quickly and easily - even easier than using a mitre gauge, and without having to fiddle with the mitre gauge settings every time.

The sled is actually pretty simple, with only 6 components and no moving parts. There are tonnes of crosscut sled plans on line, and a few tutorials on getting them square, but my favourite tutorial is this (incredibly boring) video that lays out the process pretty well:

Now, my sled is not as nice as his, and not as high tech either, but the five cut method was great for getting it accurate. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Lets start with making parts.

Since this is a small sled, it only takes small parts.

The work surface - 12" by 24" piece of 1/2" plywood
The runners - 2 pieces of hardwood measuring 3/4" X 12" X 1/2"
The fence and push rail - 2 pieces of hardwood measuring 2-1/2" X 24" X 1-1/4"
The guard - a piece of Plexiglas 1/4" thick by 4" wide by 12"

Start by cutting your plywood as square as possible. You can cheat and have the dude at home depot cut it on the panel saw if you want. Also, ask about pre-cut sheets of plywood at the lumber store. Mine has pieces 24" square, so I just had to cut a piece in half. Be sure your plywood is good on one side so you have a smooth surface for the top side.

Put a sheet of waxed paper on the saw, and groove it to sit down into the T-slots. Set your runners in the slots. Now put the board on top with the centre of the board aligned with the blade. It doesn't need to be exact. Push down hard so the runners bottom out in the slots.

Bring the fence over, so the end of the plywood is against the fence. This will make the plywood roughly square to the blade and slots. Now put glue on the runners, and place the top in position. Put a bunch of bricks or other heavy things on there to hold it in place while the glue dries. I also pre-drilled and set a couple screws.

Go to bed, and come back in the morning.

Attach the back push rail. This one doesn't have to be perfectly square, but of course its better if it's at least close. Now its time for the tricky part, the fence.

The fence needs to be 100% perfectly square to the blade, but this is tricky to accomplish. Here is how I did it using the 5 cut method above for measuring, and playing card shims to adjust.

1. Set the saw to a height to just clear the plywood and cut into the sled about 4"
2. Attach the fence using one screw in the far left corner. Measure the distance from the screw to the cut and write it down someplace.
3. Make a small wooden block
4. Using a square, set the fence to "as square as possible" to the cut you just made, and draw a line at the far right corner where you think the fence needs to be.
5. Hold a playing card or two against the side of the block, and set it in place so that the cards are in line with where the fence needs to go. Screw the block in place solidly. At this point you have a floppy fence, and a solid block. The block will be your adjustment surface, and the playing cards will be your shims to adjust the fence's position.
6. Using a C-clamp. Hold the fence in place against the block with no playing card shims. You should be out of square bythe thickness of the cards divided by two. At this point you want to be out of square, so you have a reference to build from.
7. Make a 5-sided test cut in some scrap material like in the video above. If things are to plan, your fence will be out of square by the half the thickness of the playing card shims at the cut line. Check it by measuring with the most accurate tool you have available (Vernier callipers are awesome!) Remember to divide the error by four like the video says.
8. Add playing card shims between the block and fence to reduce the out-of-squareness until everything is lined up. A normal playing card is about five thousandths of an inch thick. Printer paper is about three thousandths of an inch. Shim away until things are perfect.
9. Once everything is lined up, flip the sled over and screw the fence in place using a billion screws. You really don't want it to move when you undo the clamp.
10. Remove the clamp and block, and put on your Plexiglas guard

Yippee! you built yourself a crosscut sled!

Back-to-Back Gutter Planter

Due to our current backyard construction, I haven't been able to plant a veggie garden this spring. Part of it is a time thing (Every spare minute is spent on our landscaping project) and part of it is a space issue (Every square inch is being re-done in our landscaping project).

In a search for space-saving garden ideas I came a cross "Gutter Gardens" where folks are up-cycling the common rain gutter to make a garden box. Hmmm. Cheap, space efficient, easy, and most important - fast and off the ground. Me Likey!

The designs online all have a single gutter hung by a wire or chain from a doorframe or fence or wall. In our case I have a Wal-Mart Gazebo whose canvas cover is dead. We can easily hang our gutters from that, and allow our veggies to grow up and over the frame to provide shade.

Most of the online gutter planters that have the profile mine do are mounted on a wall or fence. This is because they need a bearing surface on the back of the gutters or they may go out of shape. I overcame that challenge by mounting the gutters back-to-back, which doubles the planting rows per level, and balances the forces acting on the gutter, allowing you to hang the wall mount gutters without a wall.

Today we went shopping and bought:

2 - 10ft lengths of gutter (Aluminium)............................... $20
8 - gutter end-caps (4 left hand, and 4 right hand)...............$10
4 - automotive upholstery clips (aka "Jesus clips")...............$ 3
6 - screws, washers, and nuts..........Scrounged from basement
1 - 4 foot length of cedar 2" X 4".....Free - I used scrap lumber   
chain....................................................................$2 per foot

Believe it or not the chain was the most expensive bit on the shopping list. I didn't need to get as much as I did. I got Fancy Brass chain rated to hold 300 pounds at $1.99 per foot. You could use rope or wire to hang the gutters if you want to save a few dollars.

My Goal was to build this for $25, apparently that was a bit ambitious, but $35 is quite reasonable, and I would challenge you to find a planter like this commercially available a lower price per foot!

Now that we have materials, here's how it was built...
Using the scrap 2x4 board cut to 48", I drilled a 1/2" hole, 4" down from the top so that I could pass the chain through the board. Below that, at 12" down from the top of the board, I drilled a 1/4" hole. Finally, at 36" down from the top, I drilled a second 1/4" hole.

 With the 3 holes drilled, I moved to the table saw and cut the board into 1/2" slices. 3 slices hold up a planter.

Now its time to build the gutters. Each planter will use two 10 foot lengths of eavestrough, and 8 end caps. Be sure you buy 4 left, and 4 right caps, or you will need to make a second trip to the store! We used aluminium gutters and caps.

You need to cut the gutters down to 5 foot lengths. There are a number of ways to do this. Some folks use tin snips, some use hack saws or grinders. I used a carbide blade in the compound mitre saw. Whichever way you cut the gutters, be careful, you may end up with a nasty gash from the sharp metal if you aren't careful.

 Now its time to put the end caps on the gutters. I used a dab of construction adhesive on the sides, and the fit the caps in place. holding a block against the back of the cap mash the tabs down until everything fits tight. Like this:

Now that your gutters are built, drill 1/4" holes through them for drainage, and drill 1/4" hanging holes through the backs of them. The Aluminium will allow your drill to wander, and th emetal will want to flex and bend. To get around that, put a scrap block of lumber behind the gutter before you drill through it, and us a nail as a centrepunch to dimple the metal where you want the hole to go.

For the hanging blocks, it is important that all 4 gutters have holes at the same locations, otherwise your wood supports will hang at crazy angles. Make the 3 holes located on dead centre, and in one foot from either end. Start with 2 gutters clamped back to back to each other, with a block of wood behind each hole location. Mark the locations, and drill through both gutters at once. Now remove one gutter, and replace it with another. Using the holes already in the first gutter as markers, drill the holes again, repeat for the final gutter. Using 1/4" bolts and washers attach the gutters to the wood slats.

Cut the chain to lengths appropriate for where you plan to hang this work of art, and everything starts to look like a planter.

Use the 'Jesus clips' to pin the ends of the rails together. These add a surprising amount of rigidity to the planters. I put the clips on, drilled the holes, and then attached them permanently.

Time to head outside! Hang your planter from whatever's handy by the chains. Fill with good soil, and put your plants in. We made 2 of these to replace the wall panels on our gazebo. Once the plants grow, we'll get the same shade, plus some veggies. We are trying growing cucumbers and zucchini over the gazebo to replace its roof. Our planters have:

strawberries
lettuce
kitchen herbs
tomatoes
zucchini
peppers
cucumbers
green onions, garlic, and onion sets

So hopefully we will have a decent kitchen garden this summer, in zero square feet. And we'll get shade, and we'll have use for the old gazebo frame.