Solar Power: Day 8

The solar crew didn’t show up again today, but at least now I know why: they are waiting on a utility survey before beginning the trench from the Enphase box to the pergola. I was actually informed about this Friday last week when the crew was last here, but with that was information overload even by my standards, so this particular detail got lost in my mental ether. But that said I was told that the survey would be completed no later than tomorrow morning and to look for flags to indicate the survey was completed.

On the pergola side of things I was back in the shop again with the same crew member from yesterday and this time we have pictures of the milling.

First step was to cut a 45-degree miter in the 6x6. This brought each piece down to about 54”.

Second step was cutting each timber down to 4x6 dimensions. I was cutting each piece to 3 3/4” on the bandsaw.

This was my first time using the Laguna 1 1/4” Resaw King blade. It chewed through each timber in under a minute and left barely any saw marks.

The third step was planing each timber down to final thickness. This is where my machine really got to shine since the powered bed lift for the planer allowed us to dial in thicknesses to .005” and, like with all construction, there was some variance between the openings where the braces would be mounted.

This guy was an instant fan of the machine and couldn’t help but feel how smooth each timber was as it came out of the planer. I don’t blame him, each timber felt as smooth as glass.

Once the remainder of the notching was done with a circular saw each brace was fitted to mortises in each post that were done via forstner drill bit and Jim Carrey AKA the Milwaukee Multi-tool.

The braces were intentionally left long at the top so that each brace would be cut to an exact fit. Once in place two lag screws (these were either 3/8” or 1/2”) with washer were fastened through the tenon of each corner brace to lock them in place permanently.

With the long term plan of covering each pressure treated post with Douglas Fir planks these bolts will be hidden, but as they stand right now everything is looking better than I expected.

In an earlier version of my plans the tenon for each corner brace was to be at least three inches long with the tenons potentially meeting in the center of the post (each tenon would be mitered) and then a lag bolt going through each tenon at the center of the post. But this would require ordering 4x8’s with a lot of that wood being wasted bringing the brace down to a 4x6 overall dimension, so I shortened it to two which was still more than enough to lag through with no issues and nobody believed there would be any loss in support.

By the end of the day all of the corner braces had been installed and lagged, although one final brace still needed trimming at the top. All of the 2x6’s were installed as well, though this took a bit longer than everyone anticipated because a couple of them decided to split horizontally. We think this happened because the notches at the center created a stress point, and with each 2x6 being twenty feet long they certainly shook while being pounded into place with rubber mallets. A small setback for wrapping things up for the day, but with some glue, clamps, and 3 1/2” long screws (pre-drilled of course), the damage was quickly repaired and is nearly invisible.

The 2x6 in the clamps at the lower right split almost entirely from the center to the far end

At this point the framework for the pergola is 98% complete. The lead worker did opt to use double-stacked 2x12’s as a temporary support for the 2x6’s, to which I had no objection as this would absolutely guarantee that none of them would sag before the 4x12 arrives in a month. So tomorrow the final corner brace will be cut flush with the top of the 4x12 beams and then the 2x12’s will be mounted. We’re so close to the finish line, at least for this phase of the construction. See you tomorrow.