Dowelled floor

[Matt Green]

The construction is nearly structural in specification- could that room have been a library?

M.

 

[Penners]

Good thought, Matt. 1.5" flooring must have been specified so that it could carry a fair amount of weight.

 

[Pford75]

Matt - You may be right.....there was evidence under the lining paper of some kind of battening (shelving?) along two walls. All very interesting.

 

[Pford75]

Floor complete to Toby's usual high standards.

Have also now got the rads back in (at last)...sadly the fireplace won't be ready until after Christmas. But nice to get things back in. Wall lights are from Jim Lawrence (and thanks to the other thread) are now working

Small children can be remarkably useful when running cables under a floor

 

[Pford75]

 

[Pford75]

Recent acquisition from Diss auction - laundry basket for log storage

 

[Pford75]

Just need to save the pennies now for a piece of art for the chimney breast

http://www.thedripartist.com/

Might have to wait a bit - don't think Santa will stretch to the one I love

 

[Moo]

SNAP !!

Not only do we have the same radiators, but our woodwork is painted the same colour.

xxx M

 

[Nigel Watts]

Just read this thread. Good to see Toby is still getting work from members given how much free advice he has given us. He did my ground floor several years ago.

On subject of dowels I have long given up using wooden jigs as I find them insufficiently accurate. I last used dowels in conjunction with bolts to connect the plinth, verticals and tops of some library bookcases which needed to be capable of be being assembled and disassembled. I found that accurate marking out of the dowel positions on each surface with a marker gauge and ruler, then using a centre punch and pilot drill to ensure the final hole was drilled in the right place gave a better result.

 

[MatthewC]

I've been doing joists and floorboards as well.

Small children can be remarkably useful when running cables under a floor

Clearly that's where I am going wrong; my son is taller than me - I should have been doing this job twenty years ago! Or else wait six or seven years until my about-to-be-born first grandson is old enough.

Matthew
http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/

 

[Pford75]

Perhaps I could loan out my 'cable rat'? :wink:

I'm lucky in that I now have one son old and strong enough to help with the seriously physical jobs and the younger one for the tricky, inaccessible jobs.

Nigel - Toby has done 2 floors for us now and we are very pleased with the work on both. I would certainly recommend him to other PPUK'rs

 

[Penners]

On subject of dowels I have long given up using wooden jigs as I find them insufficiently accurate. ....I found that accurate marking out of the dowel positions on each surface with a marker gauge and ruler, then using a centre punch and pilot drill to ensure the final hole was drilled in the right place gave a better result.

I quite agree about wooden jigs, Nigel.

For anyone who uses dowels, here's a suggestion that you may find useful. Short of expensive jigs, dowel points are probably the best way of getting an accurate match between the holes in the two joining surfaces. Drill your dowel holes in one surface, insert the dowel points (of correct diameter) into the holes, align the two surfaces and then press the points against the other surface. Not only will you get accurate marks to align your holes, but the points also dot-punch the surface so that the your drill will go in accurately.

They're inexpensive and well worth the cost. Now, if only I could find mine.....

 

[Penners]

Perhaps I could loan out my 'cable rat'?

I thought you had him booked to go up the chimney, once you let him out from under the floor.

 

[MatthewC]

Perhaps I could loan out my 'cable rat'?

I thought you had him booked to go up the chimney, once you let him out from under the floor.

You must have been watching that programme last night on BBC with Ian Hislop talking about how the Victorians' attitudes to children changed, thanks to "do-gooders" such as Charles Kingsley (The Water Babies)

 

[Flyfisher]

On subject of dowels . . . .

Has anyone seen or, better still, used those disc-like dowel-marking gizmos with a small spike in their centre? I believe you drill a suitable hole in one piece of wood, then insert the disc/spike in the hole and offer up the other piece of wood. When in the correct position, push the two pieces of wood together and the spike makes an impression in the un-drilled wood and marks the precise position to drill the other hole.

I wonder how accurate this method would be?

 

[Moo]

Has anyone seen or, better still, used those disc-like dowel-marking gizmos with a small spike in their centre?

I think I've seen one somewhere. About three posts back, actually.

 

[Flyfisher]

:lol: :lol: :lol:
How could I have missed that photo? Has Penners perfected a time machine?

I think I must have made my post as soon as I read Nigel's one about dowels and then not read on to the next page. Either that or I'm losing my marbles.

 

[Penners]

...or I'm losing my marbles.

Er....

No, never mind. :wink:

 

[middi]

Isn't it amazing how we immediately refer to technical aids when we need to do some things very accurately, I am no different. ( we are spoilt and lazy!!!)

The reality is that craftmen of days gone by relied completely on their own ingenuity experience and skill to obtain perfect results. In most cases complicated dowel joints and " secret" mortice joints, such as those found in chippendale furniture, were hand made without the aid of pre-machined gauges, bisquit joiners or brass electric drill guides to get things aligned. Neither did they have monstrous sanders to achieve that uniform finish.

To get two boards to align perfectly if hand drilling for fitting dowels it could not be more simple and accurate than parallel scribe the boards with a simple home made gauge.A sharp pointed nail inserted and scribe a parallel line in the (approximate) centre of both boards from the same face.To get the longitudinal distance the boards a faced togheter and both face marked with a square to intersect the parallel lines .The rest is up to the man( or woman ) with the drill as to how accurate the job will be.
( I am just as lazy as the next person , I use a bisquit joiner)

Middi

 

[Flyfisher]

The reality is that craftmen of days gone by relied completely on their own ingenuity experience and skill to obtain perfect results. In most cases complicated dowel joints and " secret" mortice joints, such as those found in chippendale furniture, were hand made without the aid of pre-machined gauges, bisquit joiners or brass electric drill guides to get things aligned. Neither did they have monstrous sanders to achieve that uniform finish.

Quite right, of course. We are 'spoiled' by industrialisation that tends towards de-skilling and speeding things up. I suppose it all requires a different set of skills these days; a relatively few people to design complex and intricate machinery so that an object can be (mainly) produced automatically and repeatedly to very fine tolerances at a very low cost. The ingenuity, experience and skill now goes into creating the manufacturing process and associated machinery rather than the end product.