A Fine Errection (NMF part 4)

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/

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hardscrabble farmer

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.

travis
travis

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.

iconoclast421
iconoclast421

But what is it?

Vic
Vic

I still haven’t been able to figure out what the heck you’re building. Where’s the end result?

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Pretty sure it’s a masturbatorium. Those add a lot of value – especially if they look out over a high school cheerleading practice area.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

It wasn’t about masturbation, but you did say “penetrating”, so there’s that.

Stucky

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.

Sinacle
Sinacle

“who is that very very handsome inspector?” — Stucky

Sounds like Stucky may be a Comet Pizza customer.

Stucky

Not funny at all. Actually, it is very UN-funny.

IndenturedServant

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.

Dennis Roe
Dennis Roe

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.

RiNS

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

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