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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask Part 30!

So where was I yesterday for
 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Core Remodeling but Were Afraid to Ask!
?
I can explain.
 This is half of a car key.
The other half is in my door lock.
My spare key was useless, as it works in the door, which is where I tried it after having it cut,
but not in the ignition, which would have been nice.
Mobile Nissan Cube Locksmith Shoppe
I should have been wary when the chick running the key kiosk at the big box store
repeatedly asked me what make of car a Kia was.
WHAT?
Anyway, long story short (too late), I ended up sleeping at the remodel house,
the comfort of which has inspired me to hurry the heck up and get this finished.
 Okay, so the floor in the bathroom is in, as is our new
eco-friendly toilet.
 The cool feature on this is the split push button flush mechanism.
The I uses 1.1 gallons of water, and the II uses 1.6.
They, um, represent , you know...
did you go number one or number two?
Moving right along...
This is a chop box.
That's right, you get a new tool tute along with some moulding babble.
 Why is this so cool?
We're cutting hundreds of feet of moulding, and this makes quick work of it.
There's a guide in the back to butt your lumber against to keep it straight,
and you can set the saw to tons of angles.
 To frame this doorway, we first mark the top.
 This gives you a line to work off of.
 This little tool makes repeated measurements a no-brainer.
 You can set it to add 1/8 of an inch to your measurement...
...so placement is simple and precise.
 And there's a built in level to make sure you have everything straight.
 Measure the length of the door.
Write that down somewhere.
Mark writes this stuff down anywhere.
 
  Measure...
 ...mark...
 ... and cut the moulding.
 By marking the measurement on the work table,
since all the doors are the same 81" high,
we can make multiple cuts without having to stop.
Take the moulding strip over to your door. 
Perfect!
Shoot it in with pairs of finishing nails.
 That's what I mean by pairs.
 Now what?
We have 3" rosettes for the corners of the interior doors so they mirror 
the 4" rosettes for the framing of the exterior trim.
 Shoot that in, and then cut the top piece.
You just framed a door!
Wasn't that easy?
 Now about those angles...
 You can set the chop box to make mitered cuts, like a 45 degree angle.


 Why would we use this instead of our circular saw?
Because decorative moulding has contours that can be tricky.
 And the chop box has notches on the bottom for a lot of standard angles,
making it easy to lock them in.
But custom, unusual increments can be set and tightened too.
 The saw also tilts to make bevel cuts.
 This locks in as well so you can make multiple precision slices.
 Cut.
 Perfect.
 Cut again.
 Perfect again.
 Guess what?
Two 45 degree cuts make a 90 degree angle,
which adds up to a corner!
And you thought math class was a waste of time.
 We'll talk about that gap.
 Keep in mind that in carpentry, just like in life, creativity counts.
 Houses, even new ones, are rarely perfect.
 Sometimes, to make things fit, you have to take a little off the top.
Now...who wants to see what I've got in the box?

2 comments:

Jane @ The Borrowed Abode said...

I'm still stuck on the fact that there's a key . . . er, half a key, in your car door!!

Uvini Ranaweera said...

Grateful for sharing this post.