The Poet Creek Express - Foamie Hybrid

[RandyG]

Looks good, I agree with Karl about the bezel. Black would be better than white but polished Al would be best. I think you of all people could mill some out of solid stock.

[KCStudly]

Thanks, RandyG. The tricky part would be getting the little clippy tabs on the back right that pop into the slots in the fixtures. No I am not considering this. Maybe someday I will spray the plastic bezels with some of that plastic compatible paint, but that would be one of those 5/ct never done tasks that I may never do.

If I were to try to make aluminum bezels, I would probably make a wooden buck and spin them out of soft 3003 aluminum disk's, conforming the aluminum over the buck on a lathe by levering a forming tool on a post. Here's a demonstration of the technique. When I worked for the lighting company this is how they made some of the alum. trims for some of the pendent light fixtures.

No, I'm not planning on doing this.

Nope.

[GPW]

They look SUPER !!!

[grantstew8]

Great quality finish on the lights and switches. I like the idea of a red night vision light.

[KCStudly]

Thank you gentlemen. I am very happy with the way it is turning out.

[tac422]

KC,
That looks great !
I wonder what it would like when the light is on with the bezel off ...
I think the clear plastic might glow around the edges ?
ambiance !

[KCStudly]

Thanks, Tac. Dunno about the base illuminating. Kind of raw looking w/o the bezel. Maybe cast a new bezel out of clear and put a matte finish on it would look okay. Too much effort for me, tho. I'm good with it the way it is.

[KCStudly]

Cross link to Lauren's 'Father Daughter' build and my explanation of TPCE's "Benroy/Bustle" profile.
http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?p=1061897#p1061897

[KCStudly]

Still very cold here. Single digits on my way to work, but there was sunshine when I left, so despite being sub freezing, I went to Mecca.

Futzed around with the switch blocks, checking how much clearance I need for the flag connectors and tried to work out a solution for the pillow light blocks where I do not have a pre-made pockets in the walls (like I have for the main switches near the doors).


Ripped and cross cut some scraps of maple; considered building up a spacer frame to space the switch block out from the wall panel (as mentioned previously, but is kind of late for that now). It is really amazing how hard it is to keep all of your (my) build thoughts in a coherrent mass. Think three steps ahead; weigh options; pick a method; work on other things leading up to that point; forget what you had decided; build on; realize that you did it one way, maybe you should have done it the other way; blah, blah, blah.

I keep preaching "plan, plan, plan". But, "eventually you have to shoot the engineer and go into production". I'm in that layer of detail where if I had planned better I would already have the solution, but I might still be planning and not building.


Only two hours of work tonight. I think I will just screw the switch blocks to the walls and hollow out a corresponding pocket for the backs of the switches to sink into.
That means cutting into the finished walls.

No pic's tonight, but I will catch you up next time.

[Mary C]

KC, you know how I feel about your work you could be a master woodworker/metal worker if given an inch. that is a saying from my friend woodworker. I am so pleased with your work. I am using these cold days and nights in planning. I am really working on some sketches. Planning, Row is going to help me with my wiley windows that I have even built half a mock up in foam, I need to glue it together tomorrow. so it is cold 2o+? degrees now so believe me I understand not getting a lot done. I hope Sunday it will get warm enough to varnish my wood shelves. suppose to be 60 something degrees I can't do it inside because I have a open flame gas heater and the fumes off the varnish and the heat make for unpleasant fumes. So thinking and planning really is work too.

Mary C.

[KCStudly]

Thank you for the very nice words of encouragement, Mary. I am looking forward to seeing your progress on the windows. (… and every time I read one of your posts I think of my mom’s puh-cawn pie!)

Well it almost seemed like a heat wave in the loft this evening. Karl had the wood stove going, and by the time I was done (about 2+ hrs) it was 50, and I was in short sleeves!

I should have put another coat of poly on the pillow light switch trim blocks, but got wrapped up installing the main light switches.

Here is the curb side trim block installed…


…and the street side.


You can see how I drilled countersunk holes for flat head screws offset from the trim plate screw holes to mount the blocks to the walls. My countersinking bit has a pilot drill for the screw, so I made sure to use a larger bit to drill the thru holes in the block so that the screw threads would not fetch up on the block, making sure that they would pull tight to the walls.

The curb side light switch wiring.


The middle orange wire is the hot and jumpers from the dome light switch (priority) to the porch/foot light using the larger gauge blue flag terminal (looks white in pic); it pulls double duty as a connector with two wires twisted together and crimped as one. The single orange wire on the right leaves the dome light switch using one of the smaller gauge red flag terminals and continues up to the dome light. The pair of purple with white stripe wires leave the porch/foot light switch; one goes up to the porch light, and the other goes down to the foot light. Just barely visible passing thru the back corner of the recess are the white ground wires that complete these circuits.

Here it is installed.


I suppose I should have tested the circuits before buttoning this up, but everything is accessible, and it will be a while before the fuse panel has anything to mount to, so…

Here is the start of the street side switch. Very similar to the curb side, except the orange hot also jumpers to the red night vision light where the black wire leaves back down and along to the bulkhead.


When I tried to push the terminal connector onto the porch/foot light switch terminal it folded over.

The terminal has a little “wink” now, suggesting that whatever plastic bridge there is inside of the switch that holds the blade into position broke; otherwise I would have just straightened the terminal and moved on. I will have to test this switch with a multi-meter (which I didn’t have with me at the shop) or get a replacement. (The switches aren’t expensive, and I will probably get a couple of spares because the shipping will likely cost 3x what the switch does.) The lesson learned is to rock the terminal gently into position along the flat axis of the blade, rather than trying to push it straight down.

In the meantime, I pulled another switch out of one of the other trim plates and finished the install at this location.





My good digital multi-meter is at work, but I have my old analog meter at the house so I will check that switch tomorrow. Also, need to refill the kerosene fuel can. Have been burning thru it lately.

The stair hatch for the loft uses a rope and pulley system with a counterweight and the rope is fairly worn, fetching up and giving me some trouble. The hatch is rather heavy and there is a bit of a safety issue if the rope were to fail while you are walking thru the hatch, so I need to spend some time mending that.

I have a lead on a “new” table saw. The electrician where I work moved in with his MIL after his FIL passed, and they have his saw that they are looking to move out of the garage, so I will investigate that soon and see if it is something that Karl and I would be interested in.

Hey Dave, if you are still tuning in, we’re in the market for a good functioning table saw; put your peepers on for us, would you? Things that I have been spoiled with on Ben’s saw: (1) nice smooth large stone top, (2) very solid Teflon lined fence with easy adjust and solid cam lockup, (3) accurate, and (4) relatively quiet in operation. Sears has a current model that is substantially similar (probably the same maker) that runs about $1200. On the used market I would like to at least cut that in half, and see if Karl would go Dutch on that. He gets to keep the saw and my contribution goes toward “use of the hall” (lord knows I am running his electric bill up at least some).

[atahoekid]

KC. Funny about shooting the engineer and getting into production. At some point, you gotta pull the trigger.... Your spectacular eye to detail has me wanting to start another of my own. Your work looks fantastic!!!! Can't wait to see you take it for a spin. Might be too nice to get dirty though...

[tac422]

Hi KC,
How do you crimp those right angle electrical connectors ?

[KCStudly]

Thanks Mel. I appreciate the kind words and am glad that you have been inspired by my work; a true compliment.

Tac, my wire strippers/crimping pliers have a mandrel for crimping insulated connectors at the very tip of the crimping jaws, very much like the pair shown here (click the pic for a larger view). Truth is I used the very tip of the mandrel to get a solid crimp. The plastic insulation on the terminals is very resilient and did not seem to crack or pierce. I gave each of them the "tug test" and if I felt any play at all I squeezed them again until they were solid.

Another great weather day to be in the shop! Sun was out, it was well above freezing. In fact, although I had the electric radiator going, I didn’t fire the kerosene heater until after the sun went down. Got the loft up to 55 F despite Karl moving vehicles in and out thru the big doors to do oil changes.

We started off by replacing the trap door pulleys and rope, then I gave Karl a hand moving a big piece of plate glass that he had left over from a railing job.

Anyway, I had decided to go ahead and cut out recesses for the pillow light switches, so that is what I did. I’m not super proud because it looks a little crude, but it won’t show in the end anyway and it is getting done. If I had made a router template for the trim blocks, I could have used the same template for the wall recesses, but since I used the jigsaw on the trim blocks the openings were a bit uneven.

I started by positioning the curb side pillow light block, pilot drilling and screwing it into position using the two upper screw holes under the light. (I forgot to take a pic, so am just holding in place for the picture here.)


I ran a sharpie around the inside to mark the outline of the recess, but I really needn’t have, because the next thing I did was use the four corners of the trim block recess as a drill guide, drilling out the corners with a 1/4 inch bit just thru the ply inner skin of the wall. Here I have removed the block and masked around the outside of the pilot holes.


Next I used the standard utility knife to score along the tape lines repeatedly. After a few passes I would make an angled cut inside the line to remove a little wedge, similar to how a chisel would, relieving some of the drag on the blade. Repeat until thru to the foam all around.


I thought that I might be able to just pop the plug out with a little prying action, but I am very happy to report a nice solid bond between ply and foam! Here I have used my wide chisel to get down to the last ply.


Chips, anyone?


Foam stuck very well.


Next I set the depth on the utility knife to about 1/2 inch and scoured the foam in a grid pattern (like dicing a mango from the inside out), then used the chisel as a scrapper to drag the little chunks out of the hole.


I was a little concerned because the two screws hidden under the light holding the trim block to the wall blocking (behind the skin) are more or less at the top end of the trim block, while the switch is lower where you will tend to touch and perhaps put leverage on the block near the bottom. Since I had just used pine for the internal wall blocking I wanted to hedge my bet and add a third mounting screw down under the lower edge of the switch plate. Unfortunately I had not planned ahead for this. So, taking someone’s idea from the big thrifty thread, I drilled a 5/8 inch hole about 3/4 inch deep using a Forstner bit. I used 5/8 because that was the size of dowel I already had on hand. Next I cut a piece of the dowel to length and dry fit.


In prep for glue, I masked off with a piece of the rosin paper.


Then I repeated all of these steps on the street side.

I hadn’t brought my GG with me today otherwise I would have glued the dowels in. Hmm, maybe I could have used GS which I think I left in the loft. Anyone know if it’s okay to store GS in freezing temperatures?

I finished up by scuffing and putting a second coat of poly on these switch blocks. In all about 4 more hrs of work.

Once home I set my bottle of GG out where I will be sure to remember it. It seems to have thickened up in the bottle and there may be some that has gelled in the bottom, but I think it will be fine.

[GPW]

KC, the Foamie plane guys are thinning “thickened” (old) GG with water and rubbing alcohol (50-50) , but thinned it fires off much quicker and foams more ... but is still usable ...