Morning: errands. Home Depot for a couple of 2" diameter, 4' long dowels, no prize for guessing the intended use, and Walmart, for sundry supplies. Things were reasonably normal, if expensive.
Afternoon: start actually working on the chicken coop. Export some dimensions from CAD to scribbles on paper. Draw lines, check against fixed objects (mainly the litter tray), discover that the base should be 32" wide rather than 33", mark again, and cut. Cut some made-in-Sweden 1x6es (børk, børk, børk?) to length for reinforcements, try to tack one in place with Gorilla Glue and some old car batteries piled on top, and come to the conclusion that Go-rilla Goo ain't the right tool for the job. Attach instead with a few screws going in the wood-to-OSB direction rather than the other way around as I'd planned. Discover that the wood is so soft that the impact driver will drive the heads of the #8 screws deep into the wood without slowing down, and the points end up poking out the back. Adjust the process: switch to the drill/driver, turn the clutch down... and down... and down... and end up using the lowest torque setting, low speed, and caution.
Oh, and along the way I noticed that my circular saw currently has rather a fine-toothed blade on it. I seem to recall that's a blade I bought long ago for cutting aluminum plate. Cuts OSB kinda slowly, but does give a good finish. I'm not sure where the proper general-purpose blade is, so time to order a couple of suitable blades for laters. Also, the miter saw still had the metal-cutting blade on it. The blade was easily found, but I had to dig around for the manual to find how to move the blade guard out of the way so's the blade could be removed.
It's all slow going. Well, mostly slow going. Between the summer weather and the work being at floor level, ugh. Many rest & rehydration breaks. Cutting lumber to length takes hardly any time, using the miter saw.
Anyway, some progress. Things keep not quite lining up, despite the dimensions clearly being right. I'm reminded that wood isn't metal, and CAD models of carpentry projects don't translate well into reality. I guess it'll be good enough for chickens, even if they do identify as pygmy dinosaurs. I mean, what do dinosaurs know about construction work, anyway?
Oh, yes: I think I have the design and print parameters tweaked to the point that my 3D-printable mini vent louvers should come out OK in PETG. Good enough for a chicken coop, anyway. Surprising what a lick of paint'll do. (Paint is mandatory for UV resistance.)
Update: I just found one reason things hadn't lined up so good. The very second cut on the OSB was cattywumpus, with one side of the base piece 53½" long and the other 53" long. Measure once, cut twice... that also means the other piece, destined to be an of the structure, is also wonky. Methinks the situation is remediable, especially as I ponder the construction of the planned front porch.
A miter saw is one of those tools that I wondered what I did before I had it!
Posted by: Rob | Saturday, 02 July 2022 at 18:15
Yup! I had a basic manual-type miter box back in California, and when I was here in spring of 2019 planting the flag I needed something similar for a minor task - turns out they've gone out of fashion, but I did find a cheapie with a plastic jig that does a fixed set of commonly-used angles.
During moving-in time, a power-type sliding compound miter saw was on the equipment list, and Hazard Fraught had one on sale that was getting good reviews, so I grabbed one and haven't regretted it a bit.
Posted by: Eric Wilner | Saturday, 02 July 2022 at 19:17