cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm so Brilliant I'm Horny In the immortal words of Sifl and Olly: "I'm so brilliant, I'm horny!" Inexplicably, I managed to get the first piece of 4x9 plywood sheathing for the top course installed on the workshop yesterday before dark. To recap, I already have the whole lower course done and now I have to put the top and then middle courses up, which is difficult because the foundation is about 4 feet high and so the tops of the walls are 12 feet off the ground. Sheets of plywood are heavy, I have no real ladder and even if I did the material is too heavy and awkward to hold in place while I hammer it at the top of a 12 foot ladder. Here's what I did: I put the piece of plywood on it's long end on the ground and tightened a small C clamp at each end. Now I had handles on it. Then I took 2 long pieces of rope and tied one to each clamp. I tossed the ends of the ropes over the top of the wall and then I went inside of the workshop where the ends of the ropes now were. Then I tacked a couple of pieces of scrap 2x4 onto the middle of the studs right on the measured line where the bottom of the plywood needed to be. This would be my vertical guide for positioning it. I hauled on each rope in turn, winching up each end of the plywood. When I had each side just about in place, I tied the rope off to a stud on another wall. Then I took a couple of much larger clamps and used them to fasten each side of the plywood to the studs at each end. I could loosen them very slightly in order to tap the panel a bit to the right or left as I brought it into perfect alignment. Then I was able to remove the original C- clamps from the top so that the top edge could be brought flush with the side of the building. Voila! The plywood was exactly where I needed it to be, 12 feet off the ground. At that point it was a matter of monkeying all over the side of the building to hammer the nails in. This was a tremendously satisfying bit of work. I did the work of 3 men by myself using no specialized tools or equipment. Just the same sort of clamps that any carpenter has on hand, plus a few bits of rope that had been holding up a tarp against the rain the day before. I see no reason why this system cannot be duplicated again and again for the purpose of sheathing the entire building. There will be pictures of my great triumph on Facebook later today. In the unlikely event that anyone but me actually gives a shit. Oh, I *did* finally get some ass last night. 08:48 - 2008-04-02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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