https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/02/17/its-not-my-fault-part-3/
The title of this section was carefully designed to get Stucky to at least open this post. He may not read it, but while NickelthroweR inspired me to get started, Stucky’s equally amazing DIY narratives encouraged me nearly as much.
So here begins the part where it gets really hard…really.
Just not this way: (Stucky at home reading TBP)
With the base essentially complete it is time to put up the interior walls. Normally this is pretty easy. Build out the wall sections, move them into place and then screw/nail them into the base, put up some temporary supports until the joists go in, and then remove the supports after they aren’t needed. This project follows the same general pattern up to a point, but since the inside can’t touch the outside greater care must be taken about how it all goes together. Moreover, square corners exist in exactly one spot (the pointy end opposite where the door goes. The corner that touches the floor is the only 90° corner in three axis. Each wall is angled slightly to avoid remaining parallel with the opposite wall, and the ceiling is angled to avoid a parallel relationship with the floor. The angles aren’t huge, but it means that every join is non standard which makes it hard for a novice like me to do quickly.
The base plates installed to the floating floor:
One of the challenges with attaching the base plates is the need to firmly attach them to the floating floor without penetrating to the bottom layer of ply. Even if only one or two screws made it all the way through to the bottom the floor essentially stops floating and stops isolating. To that end we pay careful attention to the length of the screw to ensure it is long enough to get a firm grip without being too long and poking through.
The screw depth was controlled by using small washers and significant trial and error to get the depth right (note the blue foam lives between the plate and the floor)
With the base plates in place (except for around the door…because I hadn’t figured out yet how to do the door) it was time for us to build the wall sections. Because the ceiling angled, each wall stud had to be square to the base plate at the bottom and slightly angled at the top. To make it fun the angle changed depending on which wall we were building because the slope of the ceiling ran from point to door and the walls closest to the point have a different angle relative to the slope than the walls closest to the door. In English that meant I spent a lot of time remembering my trigonometry and geometry. Incredibly math still works and despite being horrifically slow I got it right (within the limits of what I can reliably cut) more often than I got it wrong.
Here are the wall sections being built. Each stud has to be calculated, measured and cut individually:
Then I took each base plate off individually and attached them to the studs.
Then I took the whole panel over and carefully reattached it to the base plate. I probably over complicated it by doing this, but I didn’t want to have to get it right up on the ladder and re-screwing a couple decking screws is pretty easy even taking time to line up the holes. Rinse and Repeat.
Two walls up and braced:
Two is company; four is (almost) a room:
And of course no ‘building’ is complete without a building inspector…it took some convincing, but he signed off on the framing.
(Side note: if you don’t have active hearing protection you should check into it. The ability to hear people and still not be deafened by your tools is pretty schweet. Works good for shooting handguns too. Rifles not so much since they are bulky, but they make shooter’s versions that are slimmer and don’t interfere too badly with your cheek weld. Just sayin’.)
Now that we have the walls in place we can attach the ceiling joists. These are easier since they just sit up on top of the top plate. Once they are attached they will hold the walls in place and we can remove the temporary bracing.
A note on the bracing. My method was to take some scrap that was long enough and attach it to the x and y axis of each panel. First I would attach it with one screw, and then I would rotate the panel into place. After it was positioned the way I wanted I’d screw a second screw into the scrap so it wouldn’t rotate and it would hold its position. Once that was done I ran a diagonal scrap board across all the studs to keep it extra rigid. Once the walls were up I used more scrap to pin the corners at the top. There may be an easier way, but it seemed to work pretty well which was important since I was doing this by myself.
Because we’re leaving the door for later I opted to start the ceiling at the nose and work my way back to the tail (door). The only concern here was keeping the joists close enough that I could piece together sections of the ceiling by myself. I’m not a wimp, but neither am I a big man. Lifting a large section of 3/4″ MDF into position above my head and holding it there one handed while I screw it into place sounds as appealing as cleaning my teeth with a Dremel. Recognizing my own shortcoming I opt instead for smaller increments and smaller increments mean closer joist spacing. Also to save vertical space I have the joists as two by fours turned on their long side. This is weaker than the alternative, but more compact. Since I want the interior to be tall enough to be comfortable for a large human with an instrument, *and* I want the finished project to fit out the door every inch counts. The big thing is to trim the ends to match (at least roughly) the edge of the top plate so that the joists don’t accidentally stick out too far and, you guessed it, touch the outside wall.
Getting started with the ceiling framing. Note the small scrap in the corner holding the two wall sections together at the top.
And here it is largely complete:
Next up putting on the wall surface.
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/02/12/its-not-my-fault-part-1/ https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/02/17/its-not-my-fault-part-2/It’s not my fault…. (Part 3)
Reposted from: http://thesonicsingularity.com/a-fine-errection/
Nice work.
Why is it vital to control the depth of the GRK by using the washer? I don’t understand the significance either structurally or acoustically.
What is it and why is it being built so insanely cockeyed? I am a perfect symetry guy. Love to share my work ifn you wanted pics. I didnt take alot,but Iits my dream home. 24×28 with loft open to below. 17 below at times this winter. Spray foamed and heated with propane for 90 bucks for moste expensive month. 1.5 bath, gorgeous kitchen. Still got trim to do when the snow melts enuf I can get the tablesaw out of the shed. 14 years to save the money, four years to build. Debt free baby. And I learned a ton. Did every inch of plumbing, electric, cabinetry, siding, stain, windows doors. Its just worth more to me to do it myself, just as you seem.
@HSF I’m not sure what a GRK is, but if you mean why go to the trouble of making sure the screws holding down the base of the wall are at a particular depth then the answer is to ensure that they don’t penetrate the floating floor and attach to the decking beneath. If they do that then the floor no longer floats and any vibrations moving up through the base transmit directly into the interior via the floor. Depending on where you are and what the booth is sitting on top of it might not matter much. This is on a slab, and the slab is an excellent transmitter of sound. I want to be sure the direct path of that energy is disconnected (by foam in this case) if possible.
@Travis: Look at the first post…https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/02/12/its-not-my-fault-part-1/ It lays out what I’m up to. If you look at the second post it describes what the underlying forces are that I’m working with. https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/02/17/its-not-my-fault-part-2/
But to answer your question more directly I’m trying very hard not to have anything be square because square is very bad for this type of project.
GRK’s are the kind of screw you chose to use. They do come in different lengths and if you want to control depth you could always adjust the torque with your clutch setting-
http://diy.blogoverflow.com/2012/04/clutches-torque-and-you/
I can see the concept of the floating floor now, I didn’t really get it before- very clever.
This looks like a really interesting project and it’s good to see that you are encouraging hearing protection with your apprentice.
@Travis: you should share it. It sounds great. There are loads of talented people on this blog, and while the focus is government, economics, generational cycles, and doom porn the things people make are a good and positive break from the gloomy place our world is in.
But what is it?
I still haven’t been able to figure out what the heck you’re building. Where’s the end result?
Pretty sure it’s a masturbatorium. Those add a lot of value – especially if they look out over a high school cheerleading practice area.
It is a recording booth. You can use it for lots of things, but I’m building it because I signed a contract to narrate a book on Audible. Since I’m hoping that is the first of many, and because I know how (even if I haven’t ever done it before) to build one. It is also portable via a pallet jack or fork lift, so I can move it around my shop to get it out of the way or put it outside even if the weather is bad. It makes for an entertaining list of requirements.
1) Keep the bad sound out (STC)
2) Keep the good sound from hanging around inside long enough to become bad sound (NRC)
3) be big enough to be useful
4) be small enough not to take up too much of my shop
5) be portable
6) be weather proof
7) be able to heat and cool it quietly
8) be able to plug in all of the crap you need to do recordings
In other words, it is something Comet Pizza would special-order. Make sure there’s a handle on the inside and no lock on the outside.
No locks, and no pizza. And if that shit is really true then some fuckers need to die hard.
It wasn’t about masturbation, but you did say “penetrating”, so there’s that.
Well you could do just about anything in there and not much sound would get out. I suspect the NSA/CIA/etc have several of their own versions…
Hahaha on using “Errection” in your title. I’m embarrassed. People are gonna start thinking I’m some kind of fucking pervert.
Listen, pal, I ALWAYS read the articles submitted by our regulars, no exceptions.
You’re very talented … amazingly nice work on that traveling recording studio. It is much more than I could ever do. I took woodshop in 10th grade. Took me the entire year to make a shoe-box. Really.
BTW … who is that very very handsome inspector? He gonna be a chick magnet.
“who is that very very handsome inspector?” — Stucky
Sounds like Stucky may be a Comet Pizza customer.
Not funny at all. Actually, it is very UN-funny.
Yeah but you stepped right in it!
I’m off to Los Angeles North. The meltdown in the PNW has begun! As long as the bridge crossing the creek (now huge river) below my house doesn’t wash out in the next hour it should be a fine trip.
I’m headed south to fish with my father and apparently he wants to gamble so we’ll probably hit Reno or Vegas too. He’s supposed to be on hospice care but is still “repelling the vultures” as he calls them.
@Stucky: Thank you sir. Your kind words mean a lot. I admire your ability to describe your topics of choice with a casual excellence and a deliberate, thoughtful depth. As far as the building inspector goes, thank God he takes after his mama. I don’t have nearly as much to offer in the way of looks. As my favorite toast goes, “Thank the Lord for beautiful women with poor taste in men!”
@IS: I’m a big believer in free speech. I’m also a big fan of thinking through what you say before you say it. I really hope the Pizzagate stuff is not true. If it is true then the level of evil walking this world is hard to fathom. It also means that an unfathomable horror was and continues to be deliberately inflicted on children. For the most part children are the least deserving and most incapable of defending themselves from depredations. Putting that on someone here is, at best, a joke in very poor taste. Maybe you didn’t mean anything by it, but it is shitty just the same.
@HSF: I’m familiar with using a chuck to adjust for depth, but in thinking it through I realized that I have a mental block with leaving the head of the decking screw floating above the substrate. I tend to think in terms of bolts where if the bolt head is not flush to the material there is slop. I realized in walking through what you are saying that the attachment is the threads of the screw more so than the head of the screw. I’m going to have to play with that thought. In this context having the head lifted by a washer or by a torque adjustment seems like it would amount to the same thing, and so long as the head being lifted is OK (not good for a deck, but fine for inside a wall) it is something to file away. That is, of course, assuming that I understand correctly.
“@IS: I’m a big believer in free speech. I’m also a big fan of thinking through what you say before you say it.”
I’m a big fan of your right to be offended. It’s a natural consequence of free speech.
No one here is more offended by pizzagate than I am and I don’t even have kids. How and where I chose to find humor….in any situation….need not meet with anyone’s approval but my own.
Hell someone here seems to have taken offense to your article for reasons that escape me entirely as I’m enjoying your article so far. I once made a post on TBP about “grits” of all things and some assclown took offense to that. I guess there’s no accounting for taste huh?
For future reference, all of my comments come with a big warning label right above each and every one of them……..and in bold type no less…….it reads: “IndenturedServant”.
I’m not offended. I just think it was a dumbass comment. The beauty of TBP is it is one of the few places where trigger warnings and PC horseshit has no home. I, for one, fucking love the fact that I can read all kinds of stupid shit here. I don’t like that shit. I don’t agree with that shit. To have a place where people can say whatever stupid shit is on their minds and maybe collect some perspective along the way is golden.
My favorite troll is still “It’s a fucking blog not a textbook, ASSHOLE”. I’m still laughing about that one.
As far as Pizzagate goes, I don’t hate people as a general rule, but I reserve a place for people who deliberately torture kids. Given the opportunity and the certainty of their guilt I’d happily pull the trigger, swing the club, flip the switch or whatever else would see them dead. We can’t take back what is already done, but we can make damn sure they don’t get to do it again.
Are you a feckin engineer because you are making a federal case about building a shower stall/chicken coop. Start with a mailbox and send a letter to yourself to shut the fuxk up.
Sonic
I am finding all this interesting. Like you have pointed out stuff like this helps lift the doom. I haven’t finalized what my first woodworking project will be. I am leaning towards building a coffee table. I also need to repair cedar strip canoe.
Anyways keep posting!
Cheers
RiNS
@ Dennis: Fuck you yes I’m an engineer. I also have a degree in Physics. And you can just choose not to read the federal case I’m making, but that wouldn’t be any fun since your other choice is to just be an asshole. But wait! You could post your own shit. Oh yeah…you’re a feckin moran.
@Rins: A budy of mine teaches the college equivalent of shop class. It is straight up fucking ridiculous what this man can do with wood and metal. One of the classes he teaches is boat building, and he’s doing a session with my kids school. How freakin’ badass is it to see your eleven year old daughter laying strakes on a new boat?
FYI the chick in the boat is not my 11 year old daughter…lol