10.19.2015

This was another first...but not generally one to celebrate.  We had a very hard frost over night - it was only 19 degrees when I woke up - and Jim had to officially break out the scraper for the first time to get the frost off the windows.  Oh well...at least the sun was shining.

However, for the times that we said a downfall of working with steel in the summer was that it got extremely hot to the touch - now we have the opposite issue.  Steel sitting outside in freezing temperatures gets really cold!

But Jim braved the elements and spent the morning making some more rafters.   He made two more dormer rafters...

These are all of the screws that Jim put in at the end of the day yesterday on the valley rafter...

 

 

We now have so much steel on the deck - from rafters to bracing - that now Jim has to take the scaffolding apart before he can move it into different positions.  He spent a chunk of time doing that today.

 



Jim started work on making the first rafters that go from the ridge to the valley rafter.  These are the first rafters that don't have the typical "tail" that attaches to a wall.  So they present a whole different challenge level.  Both sides have to fit precisely in order for all of the factors to work - everything has to be 2' on center for the sheathing to fit right, the valley rafter has to maintain its straightness so nothing can pull it out of alignment, etc.

Doing more measuring, which in itself isn't easy.  Because it's on the valley rafter, Jim can't measure distances the same way he can when the rafters sit on top of a wall.

Another issue was that now there is nothing to hold one end of the rafter in place while he can get the top to fit - as there was with all of the clip angles on the other rafters.  The whole process was pretty frustrating and Jim had to do quite a bit of tweaking until he was happy. 

But he eventually got it where he was happy with the fit.

Then it was time to take all of those lessons learned and make another rafter.  This one went a bit smoother.

Clamping it down at the top...

Yikes - standing on the very top of the scaffolding frame to fasten the top down...

Getting the bottom fastened...

Then one more made and put up...I helped Jim by holding the bottom of the rafter in place so no installation pictures!

Fastening it into place...

Another good day...got this new rafter design figured out.  Just three more rafters on this side to go!

 

Jim stayed up late last night doing another steel order...he talked to his rep and it could possibly be in tomorrow so that may be showing up in the next couple of days.  We certainly don't have a shortage of things to work on!

 

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