My 50th construction post!
Saturday was spent outside in the sun dealing with other domestic chores, but the sudden drop in temperature on Sunday meant no-one else wanted to be outdoors for any longer than they absolutely had to be, so I gathered up some 4×2″ with a couple of offcuts of 6×2″ and 8×2″ to make up a frame for the external observatory door (a frame for the door, rather than a door frame 🙂 I used the 4×2 to make the stiles and top rail, the 8×2 for the middle rail and the 6×2 for the bottom rail. Much as I’d have loved to join them all using dowelled mortise and tenon joints, it would have taken an age, so I just went for glued and screwed lap joints in the end. That still took more than long enough.
Once the frame was made I decided I’d fit the hinges and hang it before I fitted any of the cladding, the door being much easier to support when I could put my arm all the way through it. I needed a small amount of work with the electric plane to get it to fit, and that’s as far as I got. I still have to fix on some membrane, add the cladding, line the inside, fit a lock and put the door stop on the inside of the frame. I’m sure I have several locks lying about somewhere if I can just remember what I did with them. I must remember not to try to put cladding nails where I need to mortise the frame for inserting the lock (or try to nail the cladding on through the lock if I install the lock first).
Tomorrow I’ll try to get some membrane fixed on the front. At least then it should mean that there’s no possibility of rain getting into the scope room through the opening, and after quite a long period of dry weather it appears that rain is once again forecast for midweek.
No photos of the new door yet. I worked right down to the wire and didn’t have time before it was dark.