Morning all,

Sunny and upper 70s here today.  A walk is on tap for later this morning.  Still working on the stairs on the FSM kit.  

Jeff

Excellent build and details. 

Jeff

Morning all.

Dropped the car off to be detailed and had a brisk 2 plus mile walk already this morning.  Sixty degrees headed to 77.  Most of yesterdays rain missed us to the north and south as usual.  Work on the FSM kit continues. 

Jeff

The brace under the stairs was added, It was a bit too tall and had to be trimmed down.  I think it would have looked better inside the stairs, but this is what the instructions show.  Looks like I'll need to trim off one of the lower stairs as well.

Jeff

The brace under the stairs was added, but was too tall.  I think it would look better if the legs were inside of the stairs, but this is what the instructions show.  Looks like I'll need to cut a step off the lower stairs as well.


Jeff

Started putting on the side pieces, and noticed that one of the original supports was upside down.  Removed it (the pieces all came apart and had to put it back on the template) and replaced it, then put on the side pieces.  This was again skewed, as one of the legs wasn't quite on right, trying to remove this leg caused what the rocket business calls a "rapid unplanned disassembly".  So I put it together for the fourth time.   It needs to be glued to the base, so I glued the top set of stairs on and positioned it and glued it to the base, I needed a couple of scale 1x4s under two legs to make it even.  

Jeff

Attached the upper platform and supports without issue.   Built the middle landing, but putting it together it got skewed and didn't sit straight.  Took it apart, and sanded the supports even (I should have done that to start with).  I couldn't assemble it and get it square.  I finally figured that if I glued the bottoms of the legs to something, I could straighten it out.  I cut out a paper copy of the landing template for this. Reassembled it and it was nice and straight and even.

Jeff

Thanks, guys.  I continue to make slow progress.  The next step is the rickety stairs.  Bob mentioned he remembered this as an issue, and it's coming close to being left off.  I started by building the appropriate parts on the template.

Jeff

Great looking kit.  I'll look forward to how you solve the corner issue, in case I need to get one of these in the future.  

Jeff

Morning all,

Supposed to rain here most of the day.  Unless I get out for a walk early that's off the table.  Maybe I'll be stuck inside all day.  Maybe I'll get to working on the FSM kit.  

Jeff

Morning all,

Gonna be a scorcher here today for early June as we're headed to 90 degrees.  Will take my walk later this morning before it gets too hot.  I will probably not go 4.25 miles like yesterday as I'm a bit sore today.  My stamina is improved as well, which is good as it's only five more days off before I have to go back to work.  

Jeff

Morning all,

Wow, June already.  Gonna be a warm one here, headed to 83 degrees.  Heading out for my walk while it's not too hot.

Jeff

Morning all,

A warm one here today headed to 85 degrees.  I'll be heading to the grocery store soon, then need to mow.  Neighbor has a graduation party this afternoon, so the docket looks pretty full for today.

Jeff

Morning all.

We'll break 80 degrees here later.  I need to take the car in for it's 30K mile service later today.  Will probably walk at least back to there after it's done to get my excercise in for the day.  My wife has an appointment with the back doctor today, I may need to take her as she's had some vertigo issues the last couple of days.  Her back is much better after getting her knees done, something I believe both the back doctor and I told her that the knees could be the cause of the back issues.   Working on the stairway for the FSM kit as well.  

Jeff

The next step is to build a large rickety stairway on the end over the loading dock.  I couldn't decide if I would just use stained wood or paint this the trim color.  Matching the metal stairs to the wood is tricky for me.  Here I sprayed this small one tan and used black oil wash and it's OK, but not quite perfect.  I think I'll paint the stairs and framing.  Also the top boards are done.  Normally, I'd add nail holes to this, but it's already so dark and fragile I think putting the holes in might break it and then overstaining make it even darker, so it will stay like this.  

Jeff