PEP Badge: Oddball

I just got done with my "heat of the summer" job - Tiling the basement.  It had crappy carpet laid on an unflat concrete floor.  The missus removed the carpet so I don't get any credit for that.  The things I did (and am requesting points for) were:

"Surveyed" the flatness of the floor to sort out the high and low areas

Ground down the high spots with a diamond wheel (by the door required removing 1/2")

Filling in the low spots

Tiling the room (14' x 27' = 378 sq ft)

Grouting the tile

The biggest thing I learned on this project is that you should NEVER DO A HERRINGBONE PATTERN!!!   If you don't heed this advice, be sure to lay out the pattern every few feet to make sure you stay 90 degrees and that everything is in line.  Otherwise the mistakes compound more than you'd expect.  Halfway across the floor we were going to do a pattern change anyway and I was able to switch to a brick laid pattern which was much easier.

D.W.,  

Looks good so far.  You sure were correct about the rocks in the ground.

Eric

Eric Hanson wrote:D.W.,  

Looks good so far.  You sure were correct about the rocks in the ground.

Eric

RIGHT!?!?!?

*Edited to move the primary build to Homesteading but keep the siding manufacturing here in Oddball*

I'd like to submit making siding for my sugar shack (place where you boil maple sap).  This structure is a 14' by 34' pole building.

For the wood siding, my first plan was to just screw it onto the building and cover the gaps from the inside with pallet boards.  Per the picture below, the gaps were excessive so I had to change plans.  I needed to cut straight edges on both sides of the slabs and they needed to be similar widths so the boards could run down the building in rows without jogging up and down.  So I screwed a piece of plywood to the flat side of the slab with an even overhang and cut that off on the table saw.  That gave me one straight edge.  Then I could flip it and cut the slab to the maximum width.  I used increments of 6.5", 7.5", 8.5" and 9.5".  I tried to keep one edge thin and the other thick so that I could have a bit of overhang as I installed the boards so that rain would shed off of them.  I made 55+ boards and needed all of them.  Once I did the siding I covered the trusses on the ends as well and trimmed the doors and corner posts with them.

So this submission covers making/milling and installing the slab wood siding.  The rest of the build is in another BB.

Here is a 8'x4.5' ramp that I built for my patio. I'm posting it to Oddball rather than trying to fit it in Dimensional because of treated wood & painting.

Kevin Harbin wrote:Here is a 8'x4.5' ramp that I built for my patio. I'm posting it to Oddball rather than trying to fit it in Dimensional because of treated wood & painting.

Kevin, did you add anything to the paint on the decking to stop it from getting slippery when wet? (I tend to push safety first due to my history and my friends who have balance issues at times!)

Jay Angler wrote:

Kevin Harbin wrote:Here is a 8'x4.5' ramp that I built for my patio. I'm posting it to Oddball rather than trying to fit it in Dimensional because of treated wood & painting.

Kevin, did you add anything to the paint on the decking to stop it from getting slippery when wet? (I tend to push safety first due to my history and my friends who have balance issues at times!)

Yes! The paint I chose was decking paint with grit in it. Even dry, the boards were too slick.

Here are my photos for your review for the Oddball PEP project.  For this project, I learned an entirely new to me (and little known) form of strap making and basket weaving.  It is called Ply-Split Braiding and you can learn more here.

I learned:

how to make 4-ply cords using a drill, a Tibetan twister, and a Leonardo rope maker.

how to fashion the tool (a gripfid) out of old knitting needles using a hand grinder.

how to Ply-Split Darn.

how to Ply-Split Braid using two methods/techniques to make belts, bands, and straps.

how to use Ply-Split techniques to make open weave baskets and bags.

Things I made:

over a dozen gripfids.

several thousand feet of cords out of paper raffia, cotton thread, wool yarn, and plastic grocery bags.

A Ply-Split basket out of cotton cords  - I discovered that the cords did not have enough structure/stiffness so it became a beach bag.

Two Ply-Split "Garlic Baskets" out of plastic grocery bags.

Ply-Split basket out of paper raffia.

I've included many picute below and these blog articles I wrote:

Making cords with a drill

Ply-Split Basketry

For reference, I spent at least as much time making each basket as it took to "weave a cotton hand towel" BB and about half that long to make the cords for each.

Opalyn Rose wrote:Here are my photos for your review for the Oddball PEP project.  For this project, I learned an entirely new to me (and little known) form of strap making and basket weaving.  It is called Ply-Split Braiding and you can learn more here
....

Wow, a new textile technique to learn! Thank you Opalyn.