Do you have a vibrator? (Let the jokes begin)
It would be good for those edges at the dado. HF has one for about $75 that might be worth a shot, no personal experience though.
Do you have a vibrator? (Let the jokes begin)
It would be good for those edges at the dado. HF has one for about $75 that might be worth a shot, no personal experience though.
pier5.jpg pier4.jpg pier6.jpg pier7.jpg
And with the power of time, here are the 3 completed concrete piers!
Concrete is not my favorite medium to work in. The one with the electrical box was the first and I had to go back and use some fast set stuff to fix corners and edges.
The other one with the Simpson bracket came out nicely (mixed a little wetter...jammed it in a little tighter...beat it a bit more with the hammer).
And the third one, the smallest, came out okay and good enough. It'll all be covered with ipe and should serve to support the 4x4s just fine.
Looks pretty darn good to me.
I hate working with concrete.
Please help support the Creek.
"It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone."
Andy Rooney
piertrim1.jpg
I'm gluing up some corners using poly GG glue. Ipe is strange stuff to work!
piertrim2.jpg
piertrim3.jpg
This was the nicer one...others weren't as good but I wasn't looking for perfection.
piertrim4.jpg
Ipe's sawdust is a powdery yellow yet is smells kind of sweet and I bet would smoke meat quite nicely. The poly, however, mixed with it turns red!
piertrim5.jpg
Here I'm plugging the screw holes. Notice this corner isn't the best but it looks fine from a distance and I'm cool with that. I just wanted the miters to stay somewhat closed. I have my landscaper adding ledge stone to the small concrete knee wall there. It took 3 drills to install the trim boards! One drill to make a 3/8" hole for the ipe plug, one drill to punch a 1/8" hole through that and into the support board behind it because pilot holes are an absolute must with this hard, dense wood. Every screw will break without one. The final drill was to drive the SS screws in. Then some GG and tap the plug home.
This is very nice looking project.
Did you fix any way support board in concrete block?
Ed.
Good progress Chris. I used Gorilla Glue to glue up the corners of the planter boxes on my new deck. It worked well, or at least none of the joints have let loose after a month or so. I drove 5+ boxes of those DeckMate SS screws, like shown in your picture. I pre drilled every hole and never broke one. I didn't find Ipe' as hard to work with as many claim. I made hundreds of cuts with my CMS on the same blade I've used for 5 years. It still cut fine after the job, though I got it sharpened out of respect. I also jointed and planed some with the straight HSS knives in both machines, and they are still fine, too. It's hard, but it's not the tool eating beast some make it out to be. But it sure is heavy. Man, is it heavy.
Look forward to more progress.
John
Drilling it, I'm finding the sawdust doesn't flow very well and sticks to the flutes so it is drill a few eighths...retract and clean...drill again...retract and clean.
It isn't too bad to work with but the powdery yellow sawdust is a bit strange and really coats things nicely. I still have more to go cutting with it but it seems my tools are doing all right.
Yeah, quite heavy. Now to the bench!
I suspect me lungs are coated like me CMS! But, yeah, I PROBABLY should be wearing a mask....
So I need to get some power to the top of the arbor because I have some cool colored LED strips that I will mount up there.
groove2.jpg
So out came my trusty Colt and I tossed a 1/8" router bit in there and cut me a groove 3/8" deep in one of the 4x4 posts. Those holes there are for the Simpson bracket. I'm planning to string #14 along there and 1/8" works nicely. The wires fit on top of each other.
groove1.jpg
To reseal the groove, I have some scrap ipe that I cut to 9/64" thick on the bandsaw and I will sand the edges slightly and with some GG, pound them home into the groove. This groove on the column will be facing the fence so it doesn't have to be perfect but we'll see how this turns out when I'm done.
groove3.jpg
So I pulled out about 15' of wire and stuffed it in the groove and started gluing and pounding in the fillers. I'm not too worried but I wonder if Gorilla Glue and THHN #14 wire are okay with each other? I guess I should have tested it ahead of time but I guess this is the test! LOL
groove4.jpg
groove5.jpg
Couple shots of the finished glue up. Tomorrow evening I'll sand everything down nice 'n smooth. I'm curious how it'll look.
I had the same issue drilling Ipe', Chris. It would plug up the flutes in just a few eigths and I'd have to pull it out and clean them before drilling more. I think the problem is because the wood is only partially air dried when shipped, meaning it's still pretty wet. When it's yellow or green inside, it's wet. The dry stuff is much browner. Even letting it sit stickered for 2 weeks before using it didn't appreciably lower the MC. Of course, after I put it down it dried over the next month or so, and all my carefully controlled gaps opened up. The stuff I used at the end of the project was definitely drier and clogged up drills much less. If anyone is planning a project with Ipe' I recommend you let it sit stickered for at least a month before using it, preferably somewhere where a breeze can freely flow through it.
John
My stuff's been drying for a good month or two by now and the flutes still get gummed up but I think you're right.
groove6.jpg
Here we are all cleaned and sanded up. Not bad...not bad.
groove8.jpg
This will be hidden behind the bracket so no big deal on how this looks.
groove7.jpg
The is the top and the most exposed for the wires. I need to do something about that just not quite sure what at this point.