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Thread: The Hall of the Mountain King Restrat

  1. #1

    The Hall of the Mountain King Restrat

    I had a thread going for a long time last year on my dream workshop which I modestly called the Hall of the Mountain King https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....+Mountain+King. It is turning out really wonderful. Progress slowed tremendously in late summer through the fall as the builder got busy with other projects and subs just failed to show up when they were needed and when they promised. Anyway, the shop is nearing completion now.

    Here are the finished beams. I used Heritage Natural Finishes Original Finish. It is a mixture of linseed oil, tung oil, beeswax, and pine rosin in a citrus solvent. It smells wonderful and is easy and forgiving in application.

    TheFinishedBeams.jpg

    The hardwood floors are going in right now. Axl Rose is helping.
    AxlRose.jpg

    The lighting is a mixture of warehouse lights, track lights, various barn lights and rustic style fans mainly for looks. The scheme is very versatile. With different dimming it can go from bright as daylight to romantic, if one is so inclined. I like the look.

    I built the first shop furnishing this week and I moved a couple of tools into the basement for the task. It is a wood rack in the basement so I have a place to put the good hardwood that I have saved over the the years. Some of the lumber is 50 years old. There is a story but I will spare you. The bandsaw, SCMS, and a radial arm saw are in the basement. They will be moved upstairs when the floor is down.
    WoodRack.jpg

    I will be making knotty white oak trim for the windows and doors in the main shop area so the tools will go in before the room is trimmed out. It will be finished in the same oil and wax finish as the beams. I also have a lot of shop furniture to build. I have hired a trim carpenter to help me. He is vastly overweight and has lots of health problems but he wants to work. He is knowledgable and accurate and has good judgement about what to do without being told. I can do the stuff that requires agility, climbing, or endurance. We will keep the pace slow. Only the shop will be trimmed with site-made molding. The apartment will be trimmed with commercial molding. He and I will do that first. The study in the apartment will have Williamsburg style crown, windows and door trim, chair rail and base moldings. The bedrooms will just have window and door trim and baseboard.

    The only setback this past week was that the chimney chase sprung a leak in the heavy rain. I presume it is the cap that is leaking but none of us working last week wanted to climb up there to inspect. Repairing the leak and drying out the subfloor will set back the work on flooring and trim in the study. I am expecting to replace the cap with a better design rather than caulking the current one. I would not recommend our fireplace contractor. He substituted a cheaper model fireplace insert than he charged for, charged for flue elbows that he did not use, installed the firebox out of square and not plumb, and now, we have a leak in the cap. It will get fixed. I wish I could get him to pay for all the problems but probably will just let it go. He is just a crook and I don't want to go to the trouble of taking him to court and then still not get paid back.

    There are a few other workshop threads starting up. Let me know if you have any questions about mine.

    TW
    Last edited by Thomas Wilson; 02-16-2020 at 2:41 PM. Reason: Pictures disappeared

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Trenton SC, in the CSRA
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    510
    Been missing the updates. Glad to see they're back.

  3. #3
    Thanks, Eugene. I thought I was posting too much and interest had diminished. Also I tried to fix the first two pictures. I don't know what happened to them.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,685
    Wow...that looks stellar! 'Hope you can get that leak issue fixed quickly. Bummer on the fireplace install. Sad that recourse would be so difficult...there are too many folks out there that take advantage.

    Suggest you consider keeping the SCMS downstairs where the lumber storage is so you can easily break things down before hauling material upstairs. Or keep an inexpensive one down there in addition to the one you have for the same purpose. I no longer have my CMS in the shop...it's upstairs in my lumber storage area and I don't miss it. Of course, I have a slider, so almost anything I would have used the CMS for back when I had a cabinet saw gets done on the slider for precision.

    BTW, you can NEVER post too much on threads like these! Don't think that lack of activity/comments from others means there isn't a lot of interest. That's just not true. Many folks just like to look and learn without commenting.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    ...

    Suggest you consider keeping the SCMS downstairs where the lumber storage is so you can easily break things down before hauling material upstairs. Or keep an inexpensive one down there in addition to the one you have for the same purpose. I no longer have my CMS in the shop...it's upstairs in my lumber storage area and I don't miss it. Of course, I have a slider, so almost anything I would have used the CMS for back when I had a cabinet saw gets done on the slider for precision.

    ...
    Thanks, Jim. I am very excited to finally see some progress. Since I will be doing much of the work now, I will be more in control. I will be doing handrails on the porch and stairs as well. I have a Craftsman-y style idea for the design. May give in to schedule pressure and use commercially available stair and handrail parts.

    As my builder says about me, "You don't do things the way other people do." I guess that is a compliment.

    I had planned to put the radial arm saw on the middle shelf of the wood rack a la Jim Tolpin. I am having second thoughts because I have a lot of lumber to store. The RAS can go other places in the basement. The SCMS will be a traveling companion. It is somewhat portable. I have used it in the Cave in Atlanta too. It can be where it is needed.

    The radial arm saw is less accurate than almost any saw except me operating a handsaw. I can keep the RAS running true if I never use it for anything but crosscuts. That is a good idea anyway.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,685
    If the RAS stays in the "dungeon", it can easily be used to break down boards. No worries about precision on the crosscut outside of your own personal safety. In fact, it might be a good machine for this because it can handle wide boards. I say this as someone that very rarely processes an actual long board for a project...your workflow may be different than mine. I break them down prior to processing them on the jointer/planer as they are easier to move around and work with that way.

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with "doing different". So yea...that WAS a compliment, IMHO.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Inkerman, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    1,389
    Beautiful job on the shop.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hennebury View Post
    Beautiful job on the shop.
    Thanks. I need to clean up some construction debris and then post pictures of the exterior.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    If the RAS stays in the "dungeon", it can easily be used to break down boards. No worries about precision on the crosscut outside of your own personal safety. In fact, it might be a good machine for this because it can handle wide boards. I say this as someone that very rarely processes an actual long board for a project...your workflow may be different than mine. I break them down prior to processing them on the jointer/planer as they are easier to move around and work with that way.

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with "doing different". So yea...that WAS a compliment, IMHO.
    I usually surface boards full length to see grain and checks. I mark pieces to cut in chalk then cross cut and rip as needed.

    The builder and I are long time friends. He has worried a lot about the project but it will turn out great. Problems with subs have cascaded. It is a mixture of drug problems, building boom, and my unusual project. We will get it done eventually and still be friends.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    8,973
    There are towable man lifts that rent pretty cheap, these days. If he didn't do any better job than that on the chimney to start with, I wouldn't trust him to know how to fix it, and I wouldn't trust caulking to keep water out.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Tom M King View Post
    There are towable man lifts that rent pretty cheap, these days. If he didn't do any better job than that on the chimney to start with, I wouldn't trust him to know how to fix it, and I wouldn't trust caulking to keep water out.
    The fireplace guy is history. A real solution is forthcoming. The problem for any sort of lift is that the lot is steep which makes safe access to the chimney challenging. We had scaffolding for the siding and fake stone of the chimney. I will probably rebuild that. The builder came out with a ladder attachment that hooks over the peak of the roof on Friday. I told him don’t you dare climb up there. He is a month or so older than I. We will get it done and not let anyone get hurt. I don’t want any fools or heroes solving the problem.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
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    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    If you have anywhere close to level to park, the lift I rented last week goes up 45 feet, and some combination of over 27 feet. The stabilizer feet are self-leveling. It'll work about anywhere you might park a car.

    We had it on the side of a hill, trimming high tree limbs, after I finished the job in the picture It cost $210 a day, and was much cheaper than paying us to set up scaffolding, and Many times less work. It will handle 550lb., so you can carry a bunch of tools with you too. You park it, unhitch it, turn a key, push some buttons, and you're up where you need to be. It's battery powered, so it's quiet too.

    I didn't install this roof, but it's the third time I've had to fix part of it. That upper boom can telescope out another 10', or so, than in the picture. That soffit is 26 to 27' off the ground.

    edited to add: I looked on your other thread. It looks to me like you could park it on that end of the house, in front, and be able to get to the top of the chimney from there. If you can get the swivel out past the edge of the roof, on that end, I know you can. This is a 4527. They also have a 5533, but I don't know what that one rents for. New, retail on them is 32k, and 42k.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Tom M King; 02-17-2020 at 3:49 PM.

  13. #13
    I have not seen one of those. It looks very useful for chimney work. It would be a challenge on my lot because of the slope on the chimney end of the house. I will convert the pictures I just took to jpeg and post them. The builder got a guy up there on a ladder and covered the chimney with a tarp.

  14. #14
    Join Date
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    Tom, if you browse the OP's original thread, you'll see that this beautiful structure is in the woods on a fairly heavy slope. If I recall, they only cut/leveled enough to accomodate the foundation and the natural slopes are pretty steep. I don't think even that kind of "spider leg" lift could safely get to where he needs it to go.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
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    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
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    Yes, I went back and looked at that thread. It doesn't have to be on level ground. The feet are self-leveling, or can individually be adjusted. We put it on the side of a hill that might have been 2' lower under the pads on the downhill side, than the other uphill side, to limb some trees on our point. I let the two feet on the downhill side down first, and then hit the self-leveling button. It can probably pick the trailer base up 4'. I know it has some limit, but I don't know what that is yet.

    As I said earlier, looking at the pictures in his other thread, there is plenty of room on the "front" side of his building-assuming you can drive to the front. If he can get the swivel past the roof edge, he can reach the top of the chimney from that side of the building with the 4527. It will go over to one side 27' from the base, and the 5333 will go 33 feet over from the base. The 5333 could raise the lower boom in front of the building, and then go across the roof to get to the chimney top.

    I put up new fascias on my mechanic shop building with it that day, and didn't move the unit. That building is 24' wide, with 2' roof overhang on each side, and ridge peak is probably 17'. I parked it straight in front of that shop, and out about 8', and that didn't tax its limits at all.

    My clients with that old house are considering buying a 5333. They have three old buildings that I look after. The company name is Haulotte, owned by Biljax. They're a Lot cheaper than the self contained lifts that have to be moved on a semi-trailer. I think that 4527 weighs about 3900 lbs. My dually didn't know it was back there, and I expect even a half-ton truck wouldn't have any trouble pulling one.

    From now on, we'll rent one just to set up the Alum-A-Pole scaffolding.
    Last edited by Tom M King; 02-17-2020 at 6:41 PM.

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