Solar Power Day 23

The pergola crew returned around 10 this morning with the same three workers as yesterday. I mentioned in my last post we needed a replacement 2x2 after we drilled one in the wrong places, so today we started off by milling one from one of the extra Douglas Fir 2x4’s. One nice bonus was that we all got to work in the shop for a while since this task involved either hand tools or my own power tools. As much as I love the snow, it was a touch icy outside so the less back-and-forth and potentially slipping on concrete the better.

My shop is a MESS, but that didn’t stop us from getting the job done

Once the 2x4 was milled into a pair of 2x2’s we selected one, marked it up carefully, and drilled all of the countersink holes on the drill press.

With all of the 2x2’s drilled to spec, a quick sanding to remove the pencil marks and any dirt and grime was all that was needed for the batch to be ready for installation.

The final step before fitting the 2x4 slats was to put a 45° chamfer on the top of the center posts that divide each section of the fence. We started off using a router with a chamfering bit since this seemed to be easier and more accurate than using a circular saw. But alas, my chamfering bit didn’t quite put a big enough chamfer on top, so it was up to the circular saw and a random orbit sander to dial in the final look.

The router still made very clean cuts

With the chamfering done the slats for the fence could now be test fit and secured.

*The inner set of 2x2’s are installed last since the screws securing the slats only secure them to the outside 2x2’s.

We had all hoped to at least start on the second fence section, but the extra milling time and especially the sanding put us behind schedule. Oh well, can’t win them all, and ultimately I’m not complaining. At least we have just about everything ready to hit the ground running tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m gonna clean my planer. This is gonna take a while…