Author: way0utwest

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

Today was my first construction effort with Habitat for Humanity. I signed up to participate on a build off 6th Ave in Denver, unsure of what the day would bring. The reminder email I got noted that this was an 8-4:30 commitment, so I planned on working all day, getting dinner, and then class at night. I left early, worried about traffic, and not wanting to be late.

I wasn’t. In fact. I was the first person to pull up to the houses. It’s a duplex build, and is mostly done.

I sat in the car, reading a bit and relaxing with coffee, slightly worried as the clock got closer to 8. Finally at 7:55, a truck pulled up and a guy got out with a toolbox. Another guy a minute later and I walked over to introduce myself. Apparently I was really early as 9 is when the safety briefing is and most people arrive. I helped get things set up and chatted with the two men. One is an Americorp worker who’s spent a year working in Denver with Habitat. The other is a supervisor, working for Habitat full time and managing the build.

People started to arrive, and I talked with a few before we grouped up for a short talk on the history of Habitat and what the mission is, most of which I’d had covered in the orientation for the affiliate and the ReStore. Then a safety briefing, intended to ensure people work hard, accomplish something, but stay safe.

At the conclusion, the supervisor asked people what their experience was. I’d done some woodworking, so he grouped me with 3 accountants that were out in a group of 10 or 11 for the day. Neat that their company donated a day of work. Two were young girls, and I think the gentleman was the boss, and we were doing a cleat and trim for the closet track. It seemed like 4 people was overkill, and maybe a little, but we moved slow, two people measuring and getting ahead by figuring out which pieces of 2×2 and trim would fit and then two of us putting them up.

We finished before lunch and then split us up. I worked with a new guy doing window trim below the sill and the others did baseboard. I was glad as I didn’t want to work on the floor. I also did some caulking around the windows, though not great. I suspect they’ll not use me for that again. At the end of the day, they moved me to trim around the kitchen counter, and I managed to get half the “L” done before we quit at 4.

All in all, it was a good experience, and while it didn’t feel like I did much for the house, I know that it helps keep the costs low for families that will move in.

I left as we finished and made my way over to Lakewood for dinner and class. After eating, I was thirty minutes early, and went in to sharpen my plane and get ready.to work on my boards. The beginning of class was explaining how to get the edge of our board done, square it, and then plane it. We looked at how the planer works, and also the bandsaw, though none of us got to bandsaw.

I tried to get my apron board ready for the planer, getting it close to parallel on both sides. Lots of shavings, and I think I was close.

Then it was back to squaring my leg. It was once again tough. I’d get really close, but have a spot on one end or the other and it was slightly off. Finally the teacher looked at my face and said I had a small spot that was off there.

So I flattened a third side and then worked on the fourth side to square. I kept tipping things, and the teacher watched me, noting that I was working left handed on a right handed workbench. Who knew such things existed?

I continued on and got it square, finally.

Near the end of the night I planed both boards, and sure enough the apron board was close, but definitely a large section on one corner was off. Still, it felt good to get close.

With both boards planed, I then worked on the edge of the apron board. I think it was fairly square, but I was too tired to bother cutting it on the bandsaw. I cleaned up and headed home. Tired.

A good day.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

The weather is wrecking havoc with my flagpole. Usually it’s really dry in Denver, and I hadn’t been worried about setting up outside and building a flagpole. However rain is in the forecast far too many days, and we’ve had light showers or heavy thunderstorms too often. The jig I built is trash, so scrap $30 and a few hours of work there. Add in the volunteering on Tue/Thur and my plans are slightly wrecked.

I need to rethink things and also plan better moving forward.

First, I think that to taper the flagpole with the jig, I need to get that done in fairly short order. I’m thinking 2 days max to set things up, measure and align the jig, and then cut the posts. If I can do that, then I can always store the pieces inside for a few days until the next step.

Second, that means I need to plan for a couple days of work around the volunteering. I’m scheduled for Tue/Thur, this week and next, which messes things up a bit. I’m thinking I need to move or cancel next Tue’s shift and try to get this moving. Then I can pick up more volunteer shifts after that.

Last, I need to re-examine exactly what I need to do for the tapering and get prepared. Today’s plans, being tired, and having a speaking engagement tonight, mean that I’m going to re-watch the video, plan out the work, write it down, and also order a few other supplies. I’m also thinking to start moving some rocks where the base will go and get that prepped while I have a few half days.

I’m also going to buy a new miter saw. This project, Father’s Day, and a little drooling are giving me a good excuse.

Those are the plans early in the morning.

The Results

How did the day go?

Bad. As soon as I got back from PT, I was doing some planning on paper when the thunder started. I thought I might do a touch of stuff outside, but no go. I iced the knee a bit and watched the DVD for the flagpole again, making some notes so that I understood exactly what I needed to do. I have a better idea of how to get the jig set up and cut things quickly.

It was sprinkling outside as I measured some space in the garage to see if I could store wood. I could, so I went shopping. First I ordered the glue from Amazon. I’m not sure how quickly I’ll need it, but I will need it and I don’t want more delays.

Next I packed up and went to Lowes. I’ve been eyeing miter saws, trying to decide between a 12” saw, a 10” slider, or splurge on a 12” slider. On one hand I’d like to invest in some nice tools. On the other hand, I don’t know if I need to. I’m still an amatuer, and not sure how mich “fine” work I’ll do. I was really thinking the Hitachi C12FCH 12” saw, after seeing some good reviews. However it doesn’t have indent adjustments and that worries me if it’s not square. I can adjust things, but I’d like to have it easy.

The DeWalt 12” is pricey (the slider is crazy), but then I was wondering if I needed 12”, and if I spent $250 on the DeWalt, should I just go $400 for the Hitachi slider. Part of my concern was that most of these are large, needing 24”x24” in some cases. Most space than I want to give up.

Then I saw a few nice reviews on 10” sliders, including the Kobalt Lowes brand. At $200, that’s hard to pass up, and width often matters more to me than height. So I decided to hit Lowes and grab one, along with the flagpole wood. I spent a few minutes looking thought the 16’ and 12’ boards to get some that were quartersawn, hoping to prevent some movement.

I got back, and in sprinkling rain, I unloaded wood. That was about it for the sabbatical. I had an engagement at the Denver Women in Technology group, and that was my evening.

Tomorrow is up early for my first Habitat Build.

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

Yesterday was a very long day. I left the house at 8am and didn’t get home until after 10:30pm. I was beat, and I realize how easy life is for my most days.

The day started with a shift at the ReStore. I arrived, walked right in, signed in and grabbed gloves and was immediately given a project.

There are lots of faucets for sale, and more coming in all the time. They are displayed on wooden pieces that have 3 holes cut in them for the faucet to fit inside. The display area was about half full and the manager showed me the large pile of faucets in the back and asked if I’d mount and them them ready.

One thing I’ve noticed is that quite a few people volunteering seem to be doing it for some Community Service hours. I think a lot are either seniors in high school that need hours to graduate, or court ordered volunteers. Most of the people need hours tracked and forms signed. I’ve also seen a lot of them not be familiar with tools.

It was a quiet day, and I enjoyed the first 3 hours. My task was to grab some scrap wood, mark out the places for holes, and then drill them out. Once they were done, I mounted the faucet inside, got a price on it and put it out on the display. Easy, necessary work. I ran through the wood I had, found a few more pieces, got permission to cut them, and continued on, eventually emptying the pile of faucets from the bins. There were plenty more that needed to be checked, but there are certain volunteers that do that.

I unloaded a delivery truck and helped a few people load their purchases as well, all good breaks from the constant drilling and cutting work I was doing. I took a short break to grab some food and then came back to ask what else I could do. I almost wish I’d found something because the guy asked me to look at the tile aisle and clean it up. Apparently people are stacking partial boxes of tiles on top of others when there are slots to display the tiles like records. Small on a long shelf, big on a lower set of pallets with rails.

Moving tile is hard work, and most of the work was with big tiles on the lower shelves. I arranged things, cleaned up areas, and managed to make the aisle look good before I left at 2. I had to take a few breaks and sit down a few times and my knee was aching a bit during the day. A hard day.

And only half over. I also had class. I’d arranged my shift on the same day as class to limit driving, which was good. However it made for a long day. I had 3 hours between work and class, so I grabbed lunch (a protein bar wasn’t enough), read some homework I had, sat in the student lounge for an hour and tried to relax, and then went early to do some sharpening.

I managed to get my chisels sharp, removing the machine marks from the back, and also getting the back flat. I finished just after class started, and was happy. That put me behind on sharpening a plane iron, but since my board was flat, and others hadn’t done that, I wasn’t worried. In fact, since my board looked good, I then flattened the other side. Either I’m getting good, got an easy board, or others aren’t doing well, because I showed the instructor both sides. He then challenged me to make the sides parallel.

Hmmm. I knew a planer would do this, but how to do it by hand? He actually showed me that using a marking tool and then a pencil, you can find a parallel thickness. We marked my board and one corner was the low spot, with the other three, and most of the board, high. I’d actually build some sort of trapezoid. I went to work getting it close, but didn’t finish before we moved on to learning to square a board. We learned how to flatten a side and then get the next edge parallel.

That was a challenge and much harder. I got one side flat fairly easily, but the second side was almost angled away. I marked it, planed, checked, and struggled. At one point I either went too far, or I had the board backwards, but by the end of class, 3 hours later, I almost had it square. Just a little off.

However I was tired, so I called it a day.