Adirondack Chairs

So someone at work got it in my head that I needed to make some outdoor furniture, the plan was to make 6 chairs, 2 for each of 3 of us. After looking over a bunch of chairs and reviewing several online sets of plans, I decided to go with Norm Abram's plans (available here) from the New Yankee Workshop.


If you have a look at the picture I'll point out a few things I like about them. First, the seat curves. A lot of the plans I looked at had flat seats and that is not the shape of my butt. Second, no vertical support in the rear of the chair. A lot of plans I looked at have a support for the back of the arm rests and this one uses the seat back to support the rear of the arm rests. This set of plans also included a little table and leg rest, so off I sent for them.

For some reason I was expecting full sized plans, so was a little disappointed when I discovered that I would have to blow them up myself. After a couple failed attempts at scanning them and projecting them at work, tracing onto large paper, but couldn't ever get them scanned well enough to work out. So we were stuck with the manual method of drawing a grid on the boards and matching the lines within the grid on the plans at a larger size on the boards. We did this onto masonite so we would have a nice template to trace onto the boards. I think this part of the job took longer than the rest combined. Drawing the one inch grid on the boards was very tedious.

By the time we got the template cut out it was getting pretty hot but we decided to press on a bit longer. We cut the main supports, front legs, arms and arm supports before calling it quits for the day, more on that in a sec...

Here I am demonstrating to Narasimhan the proper way to squat (or hunker down, depending on where you're from, it's very technical) while working on any project. He is a fast learner.

Narasimhan is cutting the arm rest supports on the scroll saw, does my renter's insurance cover personal liability suits?

I'm cutting the front legs on the ShopSmith table saw. A good all purpose tool if you don't have a lot of space, but I'll be getting a real tablesaw as soon as I have some space.

And here we have the lower portion of the chair complete. This seemed to go pretty slow up to this point and it was hot and miserable.

This was my breaking point for the day. After cutting this out and routing the edges I don't pre counter-sink the wood and treat it like green pine, figuring the screw head will stuff into it fine. Nope, cracked on the last screw, and after a few choice words I sent it across the garage and quit for the day.



After resuming work (and getting a nice countersink drill bit) things moved along smoothly. I used liquid nails on most of the joints, though it got a bit tedious after a while. The arms went on fine, though I didn't get them on perfectly strait, it was good enough.


And the back support. This is bolted on pretty nicely, though it was kind of a pain keeping everything still while drilling through the (mounted) arm rests and the back support at the same time.

Hooray! Cutting out the back rest slats. Getting close to sitting down :-D.

Back supports are on! If you look at the gaps and tops of the slats you can see they don't line up quite right. The gaps are off because I didn't get the arm rests strait, and the tops are off because I was freehanding that part.

I'm routing the back seat piece. It is curved to match the curve of the back rest, fancy...

I had been screwing most things down, but by the time I got to the seat I figured some 2" brad nails would do the trick for them, as they don't get many lateral forces.


And here is the completed chair, well, almost. It still took a bit of time sealing it up with some wipe on polyurethane. I'm debating making the back rest a little taller on the next one so I can lean my head back to fall asleep, but I'm pretty happy with the way this one came out. It feels pretty solid though I wonder if I would have been better off using 2x4s for the front legs.

This was the only chair we ended up completing, though assuming the house purchase goes through I'll need some more seats near the pool. Pat (who tricked me into this project) pretends that he'll make some too, and of course Narasimhan wants his. A nice easy wood project, everyone should make a few.

Here's a quick snap of it at night all sealed:

How I got rid of my mother

My mom came down in the middle of March to see her grand kids (and not just mine anymore!), and while stopping by my house before heading home to Flagstaff locked her keys in the car. It was a Sunday so I was reluctant to call a locksmith, both for their Weekend rates as well as requiring someone to work on the Sabbath.

She had mentioned just staying the night and getting it taken care of in the morning, but I would have none of it :-D. I was determined to get rid of my mom get into that car! I couldn't find any metal bands they use for holding 2x4s together on pallets, so I tried the trusty old coat hanger (though it was a trick to find a wire one, most of mine are plastic). I cut a little wedge out of wood to hold the window seal away from the glass like the one I used in the pro slim jim kit I have used in the past. No luck, the coat hanger didn't have enough rigidity to get a feel for the part I was looking for and after half an hour at it I gave up on that approach. Back when I had my Blazer (and frequently locked myself out) I kept a coat hanger between the leaf springs and could jimmy the door in under a minute! Not sure if I should feel smart for getting in or dumb for locking myself out so often (once out in the desert with Jenny, had to search for 20 minutes to find a coat hanger, thus the truck mounted one :-S).

There was a glimmer of hope still, as the key was on the seat. I remember reading about the diebold voting machines easily broken into by filing the key they had a picture of on their website, so I figured I would give it a shot.

I took a picture of the key and got a blank at the Home Depot (yeah, I know, shopping on Sunday...oxen in mire, trust me...). Out came my files, the one for my chainsaw was the fastest with the triangular one finishing up the edges.



It took a few attempts to get it open, filing, trying it, more filing. I started on one side of the key because most lock tumbers are only on one side of the lock mechanism, but filed the other side after I thought I had filed the first too much. I don't know which side I eventually got working because it only worked one way when I got it, and also only opened the worn mechanism in the driver's door.


Hopefully you won't have to do this one yourself, it got kind of frustrating jiggling the key around without it turning the lock.

Old Projects: 55 Gallon Smokers

Back when I was in my old house I started to make some smokers for and with some friends. This was all before I had done any smoking myself, and I was mostly just helping out and providing some shop space.

We though we had it planned out pretty well. We had a full size barrel for the smoking and a barrel cut down to 1/3rd for the fire box. We were then cutting lids out of another barrel so they could be oversized and overlap the opening in the smoking barren and fire box.

I ended up moving out of the house before we could finish the project and sending the unfinished barrels and frames to Jason's house, so no finished project here, I do have some nice pictures (old low res) of the process :-).

Jason cutting an opening in the fire box.

The two fire boxes ready to have ends welded on and doors attached.

Mock up of how we'd like them layed out when complete.

Jason cutting frame pieces.

Ahh, gotta love the way the welding looks on camera :-)

Frame ready to be welded into one piece.

Tada! The barrels are just resting on the frames, we didn't make it much further after this step, maybe I'll try another time, but bigger! :-D

Buying a house!

Jenny and I are in escrow on a new 1988 vintage house! As mentioned in my super fun Home AC Service post, we're in the inspection period. Neither of us can wait to close on it and get moved in! Here are some pics:

Here she is. The grass isn't looking quite as nice as it was the day these pictures were taken, but still pretty good. Can't wait to take the sign down.

Yeah, that's a 3 car garage and a RV gate!

Not a huge fan of the flooring, the wood is a little light and the carpet is a little dark, but it'll work. The paint on the other hand, has to go.

Should be fun painting the walls with the vaulted ceilings. We're debating scraping the popcorn from the ceilings while we're at it.

My TV room! Perfect shape and nice size. Can't wait to fill it up.

Appliances still in place, and look, nice ceiling fans! Corian counter tops, nice looking layout, and my favorite, maple cabinets. Hooray, not ugly!

We were hoping the house we bought would have gas, so it'll take some getting used to the electric stove, at least it looks good.

Ahh, the wonderful crap collection counter, where everything without a place goes.

Hidden buttons on the dishwasher. Now Blake won't start it when it's empty, stop it when it's full and change all the settings every day (or at least until he figures out how to open it)

Looking from the master bedroom, across the entryway and into the TV room. That closet on the right is under the stairs and unfinished inside, super cool.

That's the same cool closet with a view into the master bath.

This is where I will be brushing my teeth. Maybe I'll even get my own sink so I can have one free from toothpaste :-D.

Looking down the stairs, not a bad view, hopefully the bars for the banister will keep the kids on the stairs when they tumble down!

Another shot of the kitchen looking into the TV room. Not sure what to do with the niche, the girls think our hamster Spotty should reside there.

Hrm, a little tuscany in my house? I've never been a big fan of those types of sinks, but the faucet got me hooked, watching water fall over the spillway on the faucet and imagining wier calculations in my head.

The upstairs bathroom. Sure to be the subject of time sharing issues when the girls get older.

The back porch and view of grassy area. Wow, the grass is still alive, I'm sure to fix that problem with my greenish thumb!

The piece de resistance, the saltwater diving pool, diving board and all. I've been hoping for *a* pool, and a few houses we bid on actually had diving pools, but saltwater? Am I dreaming?

Funny rocky area. That's the 3rd bay of the garage sticking out (or, in it's present state, studio apartment). Not sure what to do with this area, more grass, garden, ash tree. We're going to have to do something to shade that wall from the afternoon sun.

That's the play area in the back. Nice slide and swing set. I think it is about a year and a half old but looks like the sprinklers are taking their toll.

Overall the house is excellent. The upgrades are very nice (hello ceiling fans) and for the most part in line with what I would have liked to do myself. I think the most disconcerting thing about the house is that the previous homeowners were unable to keep it. They did a lot of very nice things to the house, and must have been good people because unlike many of the foreclosures we have seen they kept the interior of the house in excellent condition. A few homes we have looked at were completely trashed and/or stripped by the previous owners. Hopefully they will be able to find an equally nice house when they are ready to purchase again, I know the pain of moving from a nice house into less than ideal conditions. I'm happy to finally be moving back into a nice house, it's been ages! :-D

I can't get no satisfaction Part 3: Home AC Service

So Jenny and I made an offer (and it was accepted) on a house recently. At the time of the offer, there were no thermostats in the house so we were unable to check the AC units functionality. This wasn't a big deal I thought, I can wire those up without much hassle, so off to the Home Depot to pick up a couple programmable thermostats so I could check out the AC units during the inspection period and not have to wait for the bank to get it done. (As a side note, we've made many offers and this is the first one accepted, we're trying to get it done as smoothly and quickly as possible so didn't want to go back to the bank to install them).

I had no luck on the install. The wires weren't labeled and I couldn't figure them out when I looked in the units on the roof. We were having an AC tech come out and evaluate the units, and had no idea how much we were about to get raped. I attached my letter to the company, I think it explains it all well enough:

Hi Susan,

Yesterday Rafael came out to a house I am in the process of purchasing to evaluate the 2 AC units and install thermostats for both of them. The service went find and I think Rafael did a good job of determining the state of the units and letting me know what needed repair on them.

While at the house he also installed thermostats for both units, a pretty minor job by most accounts. When my wife called, she was unable to get an estimate on the installation of these as it can vary depending on the thermostat the tech has on hand, or that was the reason she was given. Despite this, we decided to go ahead and have Mears AC install them anyway, as Thermostats typically range from $30 to $50 and take 15 minutes or so to install. Were we ever wrong in our assumptions on cost, or more precisely, how Mears would bills us for the costs. Rafael installed two Honeywell Pro 5000 thermostats at a cost of $188.46 each. When doing research online I found that this is typically a $50 thermostat, the most expensive I could find it for was $80.

As a customer, I don't like to have to shop around and when I find a company that provides good service at a fair price I stick with them. I also have no problem paying more to get better service, and don't have a problem with that. I do however, know when I am being taken advantage of and will not return to a company that participates in those types of practices.

With new parts for the existing AC units needed within the next few months I was disappointed with the extremely high markup on the thermostats, as now I will have to get another estimate on the repairs to determine if the cost provided was reasonable. My wife and I had also budgeted to replace both units within the first year of living at the house, and what could have been a certain sale for Mears is now almost entirely out of the question.

And that's about that. I shall wait for their response, should they have one. If I don't hear anything I'll find out who owns the place and make sure they hear my venting :-|.

I can't get no satisfaction (Update: maybe some satisfaction) Part 2: Steering Parts

Update: I took my car back to Big O and had a talk with the manager who was very helpful and got my boots all fixed up for me. He apologized for the inconvenience and gave me a free oil change for my troubles. Car is fixed, hooray! Perhaps I am getting some satisfaction :-).

Now on to my wife's car, lots of fun times there. The CV Halfshaft boots have been torn for a while, and the tires wearing unevenly in addition to some leaks from somewhere under the hood. I knew it would need some steering stuff replaced before an alignment could be done so I had her take it to Big O Tires for an assessment. They told us the passenger side inner tie rod needed replacement, when I got it home and had a look it certainly did need replacement, as it was pretty loose and popped back and forth when pulled on. I figured I would replace that along with the cv halfshafts and whatever was leaking all at once, so pulled everything apart to get it done.

As it was late and I needed a trip to the store to continue, I figured I would have a look at the EGR system as it was causing the engine to throw codes. So Jenny got in the car and started it up while I tested the vacuum solenoids, egr valve, etc under the hood. As I'm playing with this I hear the power steering pump start to whine...Blake had cranked the steering wheel all the way to one side and kept pulling! Well, lucky me, with the outer tie rod ends disconnected from the steering knuckles, the rack in the the rack and pinion steering overextended and the whole thing started pumping power steering fluid everywhere.

With the cost of seals and boots for the halfshaft being about what it would cost to get a reman unit online, I figured Jenny could drive the truck for a week while we waited for the part. We got the pretty new rack and pinion in about a week and I put it back in with a few hours work, I put on the outer tie rod ends and was pretty happy with my work, everything looked nice.

Everything seemed to go well. Jenny got the alignment done, a transmission flush (it was pretty dirty) and a set of new front tires. I was happy to not have to worry about the car anymore and she was happy knowing she isn't likely to get a flat from the worn-down-to-the-steel-belts front tire.

Then I got home. Being the loving vehicle owner that I am, I wanted to go have a look at the tie rods and see how far off I was in my alignment guess and notice this:


A Twisted boot! So I had put on a reman rack and pinion with brand new boots and they twisted them! I was not happy. So I jack up the car, take of the tire and proceed to straiten the boot. I put a zip tie on it for good measure when I was done, though it didn't really need it:



On to the next side, I could see it was also twisted when I glanced at it but didn't realize the full extent of the problem:


A TORN boot! Now I'm angry! I was willing to accept their poor service, straiten the boots and take my car somewhere else for any service next time, but this is too much. They tore my brand new beautiful boots! Now I have to take it back and hope they play nice on fixing their screwup, oh how I wish I could have done the alignment myself! This is why I do all my own work!

I'll post an update later with the results of my attempt to get it fixed.