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Tuesday 23rd 40-45F, heavy overcast, calm and dry.
The "woodworking project" continues. I can add cross braces lower down around the back of the building. Ladder access is from the ground outside the [self compacting] gravel pad. A few overhanging joists need to be trimmed back. I don't own a bayonet saw. So it will be a case of the jigsaw followed by a hand saw.
All the screw driving and drilling for bolts is having a toll on my hands and wrists. The DeWalt rechargeable drill/driver has no useful, higher torque settings. So it has to be set to "drill." With consequent fierce twisting at the end of driving every 6x100mm screw. I have now added 150mm to my armoury.
That said, it would have been impossible to use screws a few years back. It would have been hammer and nails only. Which means the destruction of everything which has gone before to make any changes. Not to mention the racket from all that hammering! Rechargeable drills are almost silent in use. The mitre saw is silenced by the shed and takes under a second per accurate 12° cut, per cross brace.
Alas, the 18V DeWalt batteries are of highly variable quality and need constant charging. Bordering on the absolutely pathetic and requiring several. So that they can be recharging while I drive a few more screws. Recharging takes mains electricity. So a remote site would require dozens of batteries to last a whole morning. These batteries are not remotely cheap! Nor backwards compatible it seems as new generations are released.
Today I cut back the overhanging veranda joists. Bolted the tops of the frames together. Then continued adding cross braces. Not many left to do higher up now. Then I can start on cross bracing the lower sections.
Most of the doubled cross bracing was completed during the day. Trimming the joists was extremely time consuming. There was no way to reach the cut with power tools. So most of it was done with an old, cheap, blunt and rusty, hand saw.
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