Rick and Ellen's Homestead

[rick91351]

I finished up with the barn lumber today.  That is    wainscot finished and last of the barn lumber going on.   (There was not much left there) Yet I miss calculated a couple things so when Ellen and I lifted the header into place it fit like oh oh big booo booo.  We tweaked and adjusted and shortened it.  Not once but twice.  Then we were about to punt and get the wonder bar and disassemble.  Ellen suggested we rip a fillet  tack it to face.  I had thought of that but it will never work not that thin I insisted.     She found a good clean piece of pine that would work.  I lowered the plainer down to as close as it would go.  I fed it through and ripped it.  Tacked it on and Ellen saved us both a lot of extra work.  That strip is just a little under 3/16





I still have a little trim to do there but wow it is starting to get to where we are checking off several things every day now.



I found the two knots in some 5/4 I had piled a couple years ago,  I secreted them away.  I have been waiting for something I could use them on.  They came from the same tree.  But were not together I just happened to remember Hey I seen one about like that one a while back so I went back and found its twin..........

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[Windpower]

Beautiful work, Rick

Those knots are a work of art.

[Danfish]

Fine work!  The character added by the knots and saw marks really adds to the overall beauty of your project.  Glad to hear you have a partner that managed to save the bacon.

[rick91351]

Fine work!  The character added by the knots and saw marks really adds to the overall beauty of your project.  Glad to hear you have a partner that managed to save the bacon.

Thanks - that lady I don't know what I would do without her.

[OlJarhead]

Nice!

[rick91351]

Just tossing this out.  A reminder please don't take life for granted. This vessel we sail this life in is not damage proof.  Roads traveled many many times in a year - spring and summer - fall and winter are never to be taken for granted.  Never assume that when someone is leaving to go somewhere that they are going to return home.  Never assume you will have a chance to talk to or met up later.   

Rest In Peace Wade............ Wished I would have taken time to know you.  Wished I would have taken time to stop in and said hello and bought some veggies when your sign was out just a few short weeks ago.  You will be missed....
           

[rick91351]

We have had company for a few day from our great friends from Washington State.  They have departed ....



So back to work......

We did get the final on the electrical - that went well.  Even though we lost our old inspector who is battling liver cancer.  The new guy seemed to be sort of tense and wired a little different then most we get up here who are pretty laid back in their demeanor not in there rules.    

We have the trim out pretty well done in the nook....

Those slabs from the sawmill planed down to an inch worked pretty in this application for window stools.





I just can't say enough good about this planer - all the floor, the wainscot and trim you see has been through it.  I wish I would have kept track of how many thousand feet have been planned.



We held the lines very well - here Ellen is plugging screw holes in the number three bed room.....





We got the floor down in the number two bedroom lastly Ellen was using it for her staining room...





We are running out of fir for the floor I have two large closets and the hallway left,



Laying out the hallway to make sure we had enough..... in the morning.....



As far as I got last night....





 

[Windpower]

I just can't say enough good about this planer - all the floor, the wainscot and trim you see has been through it.  I wish I would have kept track of how many thousand feet have been planned.




so how about a brand and model number.......

[dablack]

How about a run down on the floor system.  1x fur with screws, but what else.  Are you using a special drill bit to give the countersink?  What are you plugging the holes with?

Looks great!

[pmichelsen]

so how about a brand and model number.......

My words exactly, I'm in the market for something that size, it almost looks like the DeWALT I've seen but can't quite tell.

[rick91351]

OH Man I keep forgetting to get the model number but it is the three knife  - 13 inch DeWalt bench planer.  Weights in just under 100 pounds and comes with a spare set of knives.  Around Christmas time they run a special with the stand and the two removable tables for free most years.  The knives are reversible and not bad to change.  They are throw away but I think if you had a little time in the shop and a honing stone you could get them back in to shape once or twice barring nicks and gouges.  I have not tried.  One of those winter things when the house is done.     

Best place to buy knives I have found is the two bundle pack from Amazon.....  Or you can shell out more and get a set of non reversible carbide knives.  Me with all the soft woods just stuck with the regular knives.  Might have been better going with the carbide knives.   

[Patrick]

About that dewalt planer,  I took some cabinet making classes at a tech college and they had bought one to test to see what it could do ended up being the most used and reliable planer they had, they had put years on it already before I took the class. And they had some equipment a German made planer had to 50k machine,5 headed molding machine,they also had another massive planer. I bought mine after that class,really great machine.

[OlJarhead]

Not to take away from Dewalt but I've done thousands of BF with my Ryobi too   Haven't changed knives yet either and loaned it to a customer to plane 600 feet of pine when his Dewalt failed....

Nice looking floor!  What are doing to do next?  Plugging the screw holes with?  Going to use pour on floor?

[rick91351]

Not to take away from Dewalt but I've done thousands of BF with my Ryobi too   Haven't changed knives yet either and loaned it to a customer to plane 600 feet of pine when his Dewalt failed....

Nice looking floor!  What are doing to do next?  Plugging the screw holes with?  Going to use pour on floor?

I have changed knives a lot but I don't really mind that.  Have read a lot of con about the carbide knives,

We use a 1/2" plug cutter.  Will get some photos tomorrow or Wednesday.  Might even have a few already. 

We just cut plugs out of fir board ends and boards that do not trim well.

What am I going to do next?  Would like to go kill a deer....... not mad at it just would look good in the freezer.   

What are we going to use on the floor?  We were always Glitza fans but the now owner of my buddies old flooring company likes Bona.  Bona Mega couple coats with a topcoat of Bona Traffic.  We are not going to do that at all.  220 Volt sanders dig big divots .......  Next to the last sanding like 80 grit they will fill the cracks with wood flour with another product and either fresno it in or hand fill.  We have not gotten our final bid but it is in line with the house we did down in the valley...  adjusted....  That was like 20 years ago....  So about twice as much as we paid back then..... 

[rick91351]

Plug cutter on my fancy Harbor Freight floor drill press.  Actually not a bad machine for HF.....



Not near as neat now.  Now about the only thing I leave are the little wood chips...   



We cut two buckets one with light plugs and the other dark



Plugging away, few drops of Titebond II in the hole.  Find a plug that looks like that peace of wood.  Orient the grain of the plug to the wood.  Tap into place and trim off with a chisel....

   

[UK4X4]

looks really nice that floor ! 

can only think one thing....time consuming but you'll apreciate the quality of job for years to come

[pmichelsen]

I can really appreciate the amount of time that is going in to that floor, I hope everyone that steps foot on it will do the same 

[OlJarhead]

oh I remember seeing that!  I should get one of those.

Question:  when you screwed in the floor did you countersink holes for the plugs first?  How deep?

The reason you've piqued my interest so much is that I've been delaying my own floor until I settled on exactly what I wanted to do.  I was fighting between tongue and groove and just straight cut....looking at what you've done and considering I'm talking about a cabin I'm thinking I'm going to just true up my flooring best I can, plane it and screw it down.  Lots faster than T&G for one thing, and well, I like the look too.

[rick91351]

oh I remember seeing that!  I should get one of those.

Question:  when you screwed in the floor did you countersink holes for the plugs first?  How deep?

The reason you've piqued my interest so much is that I've been delaying my own floor until I settled on exactly what I wanted to do.  I was fighting between tongue and groove and just straight cut....looking at what you've done and considering I'm talking about a cabin I'm thinking I'm going to just true up my flooring best I can, plane it and screw it down.  Lots faster than T&G for one thing, and well, I like the look too.

I countersink them at 16" and about a half inch deep with a very good 1/2" brad point bit.  One inch margin on the sides inch and a quarter on the ends.   I am not anal about 16 inches between holes toward the end I sort of split the difference.  However never more than 16 inches between holes.  The magic 16 inch if carpentry seemed most logical.  I used the floor guys thing of no laps of less than six inches.  Notice the photo of the chisel and plugs on the floor there are three boards their with six or eight inch laps centered in the photo.     

I really don't know about quicker than T&G.  T&G is a lot more stable however we went sort of extra mile on that.  This was stickered last year and we had good winds and actually a few days of zero percent humidity and a month or two of like ten to twenty percent.  Then it went into the house and restickered in there.  Last batch we brought over from the mill this year had a couple wet spots in the pile and all dried very good stickered in the house and out side.  I could not bring the other over sooner because I was out of good stickers and soon as I worked my self back in to some that last bunch came over.

I could have had T&G down a lot quicker.  It goes so stinking quick once you get on to it.  Racking and nailing is real quick.  After while you never really ever grab or touch a board with you hands.  You are flipping boards around mostly with your flooring mallet and into place and seated in one move and then with the nailer bam - bam - bam every six inches or so.  Flip another on and in place and seeded check the lap on the board next to it and bam - bam - bam so long as the back and boards hold out.  This way is after they are edged which would be six and six time wise.  You go through the pile and find a board you like.  Trim the ends and then go to the drill press measure it all out and mark it and counter sink it.  Then screw some dead men down and wedge it over straight.  Then at the end your cutting and trimming to the wall regardless.  Most the time you can just force a warped tongue and groove board over with you nailer one nail and it is pretty well stuck then bam bam.   





                       

[Adam Roby]

Not to take away from Dewalt but I've done thousands of BF with my Ryobi too  

It is funny how hit and miss these tools can be.  I had purchased a Ryobi battery tool kit that included the circular saw and drill.  I was lucky if I could get through a full 4x8 sheet of plywood before the circular saw would die.  The drill was weak, would not hold it's charge and after 1 year (maybe less) it would no longer take its charge.  My Dewalt drill on the other hand I have had for several years and it is still going strong, even if it sits for months it will have the power to do the job I need it to.  I have gone through a couple of Mastercrafts as well and still the Dewalt has outlasted them all.

[rick91351]

I think my DeWalt Driver takes second on this job.  Especially with all the deck screws in the floor.....

I think in the opposite corner  ---  Tools that were not all that good.  The Kobalt Tile Saw.  Within a week it was shocking the heck out of me.  Took it back and got a full refund but dang I was sure getting punchy.      



Replaced it with a Rigid - love it.... 



Drum roll please  the last of the floor went down today!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last board was one I omitted in the master bath closet - very unceremonious and not very pretty even a can of OFF was rolling around down there from last spring and the mosquitos that never got put away......



So today I completed the master walkin closet



A hall closet



And the hatch cover for the crawl space.     Closet in the number two bedroom



Am I jacked or what.......

Thursday a guy is to be here to start prepping the floor for sanding and sealing and the Bona......

Measured out at 1330 sq ft of wood....  It will take a lot of filling and troweling a couple places but hey its a homemade floor.........  We - Ellen and I got it done..... Now it is unloading out of the house all the extra boards and tools and router cabinet and drill press and on and on.......   We may actually be sleeping in a real house again soon.....






 

[OlJarhead]

  love the floor!

In the topic o f effort I was referring to the time it takes to make the T&G vs just planing and laying.  Of course added time for creating the plugs and screwing vs nailing but for the nailing part I don't have a T&G floor hammer and am not sure how well it would work on a softwood floor.  By planing and laying, screwing and plugging etc I might save time.

I was more worried about the wood shrinking and leaving some gaps but as my wife says "it's a cabin" so perhaps this is the way for me to go.

[rick91351]

Key to good wood floor is inside and acclimatising.  Week or so even after it is dry from stickering or even a dry kiln.  The guy that is here right now is pretty happy with this floor and how it went down.  The owner of the company gave me good compliments.  Both said you have laid floor before.  Yep but never a floor like this...   May work may not.  We will see in a couple years.  The guy they sent up here.  I sort of knew him.  He ran a couple crews for R&R my buddies competitor...  but he and my buddy were friends.  He quit R&R and subs for my buddy's old company and another guy.   

You can set nails in softwood just the same with a nailer.  Where you are at it will gap in the winter especially if you are living there.  Winter and its almost zero % humidity when the weather goes dry up here is a factor for sure.  That will happen with fir or oak or maple or _____.  I think bamboo is the most stable.  Seen some hundred year old bamboo floors in China.  Wish I could find the photos...  So to fill or not to fill....  spent about an hour talking this morning....  we are filling he is not in favor.....  But as he says this has already been in the house some for a very long time so it may be good to fill.  I said the little lady wants it filled it will be filled. 

In a small cabin not so hard but you take 1330 sq ft.  The installer here right now says it would have taken him close to a month and I think that is about what I was a couple months total barring the other stuff like getting the electrical covered and people and drop that to do this......

       

[rick91351]

Floor guy got started good today!  Fist cut with the 220 V  machine.





Edging between the first cut and second....



He is so surprised that this fir is so hard.  Part of the reason it is because it is so knotty and part of the reason is this is all old growth fir.  This is not logged off a tree plantation this is the real thing.  He is sort of thinking it is like a hardwood taking way more time than he figured......

[rick91351]

We finally feeling that we may end up moving in sometime before winter.  That has become a real touchy subject with me and Ellen.  I so do not want to move in until it is all finished.  She has vision of another winter in the fifthwheel.  However seasons changing and I also do not want to have to get the fifthwheel ready for extreme cold weather again.  Plus this is another huge extra expense.  When I get the fifthwheel all ready for winter and I get all the heat tape plugged in and halogen lamp under there turned on to keep the black water tank warm.  Plus a Edenpure heater in the main part and a small heater in the bedroom going plus the fifthwheel furnace.  $$$$$ on the Idaho Power bill.  This is with it all skirted and sealed up.  We have found and others up here that have tried this it is liveable but extremely inefficient when the temps drop in to the low twenties and below for highs it is a real different life.  Plus having to heat the house.  But there is hope on the horizon......  There may be peace after all.

The sanding sealer went down on the master bedroom and the nook





Another plus is we have the all the trim cut and stained pretty much for all the doorways and to finish out the windows.  Well minus the base boards once the floor guy is gone.  Base boards are mostly rough sanded and sitting down in the shop....

We did find another whimsical board.....