Construction Journal Entry Week of 6/19/16

6/20-22/16 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Monday through Wednesday.

My schedule was moved up a day this week because I was expecting a friend to visit on Monday. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 11:15. After having my lunch, I turned on the valve to water Brian and Paul and then I went into the woods to check on all the giant sequoia trees. They were all doing OK.

When I got back, I put on my work clothes and was about to start working on the back staircase. Just then, at about 1:30, Phil Geertgens drove up. He had been on an extensive road trip and was passing through on his way home.

We had a nice visit for the rest of the afternoon and then we had dinner together. He is a vegan so we had to make do with whatever we could find in the kitchen that was suitable for his diet. We took some pictures and he left about 8 PM in his RV to spend the night in the Nason Creek campground.

On Tuesday, I watered Brian and Paul again and then went to work on the back staircase. I started out by removing one more temporary plank tread. Then using a clamp-and-board structure, I mounted the tread blank over the stringers, aligned it, and leveled it so it was ready for scribing.

Next, I made a new vertical gauge board and used it to calibrate my scriber. Then I aligned the scriber using the crawlspace door jamb and then scribed the tread blank and the stringers.

Next, I made a slight modification to my method of locating the sixteen corner points for the rectangular interface in the notches in the stringers and the tread. One modification was to use a cardboard triangle instead of the flimsy paper ones I had used before. The cardboard one makes it much easier to level the triangle.

The next modification was one I had sort of used before and that was the sequence of locating the points themselves. I started by drawing a line on the surface of the tread parallel to the nose and exactly the tread width (9 5/16 inches) behind it. Then to locate the near points on the tread, I set the weapon (my big caliper) to the length of the shorter side of the cardboard triangle. The stiff cardboard made it easier to set the caliper.

Using the caliper with one tip on the tread nose and the other tip slung under the tread, I found where the bottom tip intersected the scribed mark and that established one of the forward points.

Using the same technique leaving he caliper setting alone, I established the other three forward points the same way.

Then, to establish the four forward points on the stringers, I used the scriber with the top pen on a forward tread point and the bottom pen then intersected the scribed line which located the forward point on the stringer. With those done I had established eight of the sixteen points.

Next I established the four rear points on the stringers, but I did it with the tread still mounted in the scribing position. Afterward I realized that I could have removed the tread and the support structure first and it would have been easier to establish the rear stringer points. I'll try to remember that for the rest of the treads.

To establish the rear points on the stringers, I put the level on the long side of the cardboard triangle with the third corner of the triangle undereath. Then I hold the triangle and level next to a forward point on a stringer so that the bottom corner is right on the point and the level bubble is centered. Then I mark the stringer where the far corner of the cardboard triangle touches the scribed mark on the stringer. Having it touch the scribed mark is a double check on the accuracy.

With those four rear points located, twelve of the sixteen points are established. The remaining four points are on the lines I had drawn on the surface of the tread so the points don't need to be marked. Those lines mark the limit of the notch and nothing more is needed.

After the tread is taken down, and the board and clamp structure is dismantled, then I use a straightedge and draw the lines between the points on both the tread and the stringers to mark the limit of the depth of the notches.

Then to make the last of the lines for cutting, I hung both plumb bobs in the notches for the nose of the next higher tread so that the plumb bobs were hanging rather low. Sighting across the two plumb bob strings, I scribed the lines over the tops of the stringers for the vertical planes between the nose of the next higher tread and the back of the tread I am currently working on.

With all the cutting lines ready, I started sawing the vertical kerfs in the stringers. I used the reciprocating saw to make a start and then I used the big crosscut saw to do the rest. The saw can reach all the way across the staircase so I was able to saw both kerfs at once. That made it easier to keep the saw in line. I got a pretty good start on the kerfs when I decided to stop for lunch.

Just then a couple of young dogs showed up. They are beautiful, well-behaved, slender dogs named Elvis and Sissy. I gave them each a dog biscuit before I went in and had my own lunch and a nap. I'm not sure but I think the dogs belong to my neighbor Stacy.

When I got up, I went back out and finished the vertical kerfs. I used the reciprocating saw to start on the kerfs at the front of the stringer notches, and I used a Skilsaw to cut the kerfs at the sides of the notches in the tread. Then I used the Bulldog with the wood chisel bit to cut the notches between the kerfs on the stringers and the tread.

After making all four notches, I tried the fit, cut some more, and tried it a second time. It was fairly close but still needed quite a bit more work. I was pretty tired and quit for the day.

On Wednesday morning, as I was finishing my breakfast, Dave called and we had a nice long conversation. When we hung up, I did the breakfast dishes, watered Brian and Paul, and went back to work chiseling the notches for the new tread. It got close, but still needed more work by the time I left for home. It will have to wait until next week. I left for home at 12:30.



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