|
|
|
stiff upper rail
Friday, November 21 2008
Today I focused most of my greenhouse carpentry efforts on the task of building the wooden structure that will one day support the top edges of the heavy pieces of insulated glass that I will be installing as a south wall. There are three of these panels, each 76 by 46 inches in size. They weigh over a hundred pounds each, and most of their weight will rest on a forty inch-high concrete block knee wall beneath them. But they will be tilted back (northward) thirty degrees from vertical, and the weight resting against whatever runs across the top of the greenhouse won't be trivial. I found a seventy six inch long piece of lumber to use as a stand-in for the glass panels and carefully figured out where the top of the glass would be. Then, atop both the east and west wall, I made wooden structures to support a stiff wooden rail that would run between them. Such a rail would have to resist bending from the weight of all that glass. I decided to make the rail from two fourteen foot two by sixes screwed together so that they formed a "T" in cross section. To keep it straight during the fabrication, I assembled it on the ground and then raised it up and screwed it into place.
The weather was even colder today than it had been yesterday, but I found it wasn't difficult to stay comfortable so long as I stayed busy. My hands suffered the most, but even they didn't get too numb so long as I kept them away from cold metal surfaces.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?081121 feedback
previous | next |
