Replacing Mom's window trim with dry rot
 

I swear that I made a post about this!

However, I cannot find anything.

So, I decided to surprise Mom for Mother's Day--2018. She didn't like the rough-hewn trim and the paint was peeling off. I pained the house in 2007 and had a horrible time with the trim. I could not just sand it without removing the trim texture, but when I used my random orbital sander on a piece of trim, it quickly gummed up the new sanding disc and hardly removed any paint.

It turns out that the answer is a planer. I ran the good boards through once or twice and it made short work of the bad paint and annoying texture.

Anyway, I thought that where possible I would flip the boards over, but about half of them had dry rot, so I decided to replace them. Unfortunately, the boards that I bought were a little too small, and the original pieces did not have rounded corners, so I bought a planer and turned 2x6es into 1x4s:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1588818660
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1588818691

Yeah, that took a while, and the price-per-board was ridiculous.

Today I saw this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l5q0xaQEf8
I could have cleaned out the rotted wood and used epoxy filler?!

That system costs $200!

I wished that I had seen this video before I bought the planer, but $200 for epoxy or $350 for a planer, although I would have used a coupon, and the more expensive the product, the harder that I would have looked for a coupon. It was $250 just a couple of weeks ago.

Someone commented that the epoxy cost $200, but the manufacturer sells it for $67. The special gun is $72. With shipping the total is $161.12.

However, I found other products for much less. Are they as good? I do not have any idea. Minwax has great reviews, but many people say that it is just Bondo with a different label and higher price tag.

Many people commented that they could have just used Bondo and saved tons of money.

Well, Mother's Day is coming up again, I should really finish this finally!

I hate water damage. Cut it out and do it right or pay dearly later.

Exactly. This started with a small section of rot on some trim I found before I started repainting the house. I took the trim off, then the sheeting, then had to cut out and replace some of the framing on the roof and chimney. The builders didn't install the flashing correctly between the chimney and roof on the upslope side of the chimney and water had been running down wall between the siding and sheeting for years.

This job calls for a table saw.

I had to do the same thing for the project above. I used a tile saw with a wood blade because that is what I had at the time but a table saw makes it much easier and safer.

Good news! I have a tablesaw! :D

So... making it work is yet another thing on my to-do list? :)

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...tml#post572812

Monday was supposed to be the first--and last--day in a while that would stay warm enough to paint, over 50° and not below freezing for two nights!

Then one night.

Then I couldn't find a paintbrush or white paint, so I ran to Family Dollar (and CAL Ranch next door). I couldn't find old uniform pants, just a top, and I wasn't wearing that by itself, so I bought a long-sleeve shirt and pants while I was there. Those were fluffy and I didn't see the brush or dropcloth that I grabbed while I was there--or the complete lack thereof.

I rushed home, changed my clothes, and then spent far too long looking through my car, retracing my steps, and searching the few places that I had been.

It was 40° and dropping when I went back and the lady apologized for not giving me all of my stuff.

Allegedly we will have 5 days of snow, so who knows when I will finally be able to paint?

I put a couple layers of primer on those boards and about five of CAL Ranch paint.
I finally had my brother help me move Dad's old treadmill into the garage and bring in my dresser.

For the first time in 3 years I have a dresser! :D

The "interesting mix of socks and books" that freebeard noted are properly stored! :)

I found the original paint I bought! :)

Hopefully that works better than the CAL Ranch stuff.

I used a speed square to mark the 45° cuts, but there is a gap on each outside edge. I read the best way to fill that is with caulk, but I couldn't find anything on-line that explained the best exterior caulk that can withstand freezing temperatures.

Having reread the thread (that Xist guy is hilarious!), I am thinking that I should buy a can of Bondo and write Minwax on it.

Well, these guys say to not use Bondo outside because the wood expands and contracts, but Bondo doesn't, so it will fail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHQCqnoTBXM

They say to use some epoxy. I cannot find anything specific. It is allegedly on this page somewhere.

What if, instead, I buy a router, and cut a V-groove on each corner, cut a piece to fit, glue it in place, and tack it with finishing nails?

I am sure that many people would say to redo it, but cutting V-grooves and replacement pieces sounds vastly easier than planing new boards dozens of times.

This is what it took to get the first four boards:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1588818660
This is what I did today:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1617252226
I forgot to leave a board for scale.

A 2x4 is 1.5" thick.
The rough-cut house trim is 1" thick.
The planed house trim is .75" thick.
A 1x4 is .5" thick.

However, the original trim is about 3.5" wide, so I planed 2x4s, 24 passes each board, but planing 2x6es would have required about another 64 runs.

24/88 = 27%, so I did about four times as work as I needed to the first time. Of course, as JSH mentioned, a table saw would have trimmed the sides in one pass, and would have made it thinner with two passes, although I would need to do four to square all four corners.

I should have been able to make a rig to trim 1.75" off of a 4x6, but I wouldn't try that for the faces.

You aren't supposed to measure trim per se, you just hold up each board to the window, and mark it that way. Honestly, that sounds easier and more accurate than using a measuring tape, but since I messed up the corners, I think that I will measure it, add 1/8", make sure that everything is square, nail the corners together, and then saw both pieces at the same time.

Even if I get the angle wrong, they will be complementary, so I should be good.

Missed that in January. So you bought new pants and shirts. Did you wear the new clothes to paint in, or your old ones?

I bought new clothes specifically for painting, but they were cheap sweats.

Only problem with your nail in place and cut it trick is that you will leave a kerf the width of the saw blade and thus have a gap in your trim in the very corners you are trying to hide the gaps.

An eighth of an inch isn't enough to compensate?

Width of the kerf depends on the set of the teeth. I used to build entire (geodesic dome) houses to 1/32".

@Xist - Why are you replacing your mom's window trim with dry rot ?
An April fools joke perhaps ?
Why not use wood instead ? Wood will last longer than dry rot.


( *joking ! )

I actually read the title that way though. :D

Yes, when I found the thread I realized the phrasing was weird.

That's totally how I read the title first as well; I thought "hey, this guy seems funny."
It was only about halfway down the thread when I realized it wasn't what the OP meant [facepalm]

Well he said he was nailing in place then cutting, he didn't say he was removing and reinstalling. Tooth thickness creates a minimum kerf, set increases it

How do you hold 1/32 over a couple of foot in wood in Oregon during a wet summer? Not critical, just amazed it could be done. I can't measure that accurate on a standard tape measure.

35ft geodesic dome. The shell was to that tolerance. The interior framing was regular carpentry so there was a questionable layer between the shell and the window trim.

I did the calculations to 1/100th inch, built the jig to 1/64th and produced panels to 1/32nd. We put the first one off the line up in the parking lot. I was very careful with leveling the plate and when the first ring of panels came together the tips of the triangles fell within 1/8 inch over 35ft.

Also it was kiln-dried lumber and we could go from a green field to done in 30 days. Flat concrete slab to erect shell in one working day, closed to weather in 2-3.

A lot of construction here proceeds through the rainy season and new houses get torn down because of black mold.

It sounds like they could use one of those fumigation tents to keep the rain off of the materials.

They could put a geodesic dome over the whole site and build their cramped little box underneath. :)

My wife complains that all my projects take too long because I try to hold machining tolerances with wood (which is true). I use a very fine tip sharpie for marking and generally measure once but cut 2 - 3 times. The first cut is intentionally long and then I "sneak up" on the dimensions with a test fit between each cut.

We don't have wet summers in Oregon. The wet season is Oct - April and the dry season is May - September.

You do have to be careful not to build things too tight in the summer and then watch them swell and buckle in the wet season. I had to buy a dehumidifier this winter because my bamboo floor I laid down 6 years ago was starting to buckle when the sun hit it through the sliding door. It is a floating floor with the correct spacing around the perimeter. However, it has shifted over the years and touches the walls in some places. I would never do a floating floor over a wood subfloor again - nothing but problems with this one. I did the same floor on a concrete slab in Alabama with no issues.

In theory you could position a lead balloon over your build site and use that like an umbrella.

The key is to laminate the lead, like mylar!

All I know about Oregon weather is from Grants pass, driving through the grass farms mid state where it always seems rainey and Portland where weather comes either warm and wet or cold and wet....

I built cabinets professionally, and didn't bother with tolerance. Just cut all the horizontals at the same time without changing the table setting.

Otoh, at the sheet metal place, with a 5 ton male pattern 9 foot diameter, 10 degrees of warmth would make almost .25" oversized parts.

You must have bad luck with weather. In the months of July and August Portland has an average of 7 days with rain with total accumulation of less than 1.5 inches. Even from June - September the average is only 4.6 inches.

The first year I moved here was an exceptionally good summer. I arrived May 20th and it might have rained once a month from then until September. Mild temperatures and no wildfires. So far that hasn't been replicated.

I recall one year with 60 days without rain. Don't remember which year or whether that's a record.

People started getting nervous, then relieved.

Want to buy jointer--and a time machine!
 

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1618420558
When I finished cutting the boards I realized two things: I needed to use a jointer first because none of the boards were straight laterally, and I could have cut them the same as last time, but a quarter-inch long, and trimmed the ends as necessary.

I put a nail in each end to see how I did. That lateral twist came back to haunt me. That bottom board is flush against the window, but an eighth of an inch away on both ends

Also, there are little things stuck to the frame, making the boards fit worse. I am sure that a sanding block would remedy that, but it is the smallest problem here.

I know what route I need to take!

Hire a professional?

The time machine would be a good investment. You could get clear fir for what you paid for the knotty cr*p.

Better use for the time machine would be to go back and install proper materials and better weatherproofing in this first place

Obviously the best use of time travel would be to go back to 1982 and take State--whatever that means. The State Science Fair? What would happen if I invented iPads in 1982? Would that be enough to win the science fair?

Then a few years later I could sneak into Show Low, remove the window trim, waterproof the back, and go on with my billionaire ways.

How about going back three years, buying a planer and a table saw in the first place, making the inside edge straight, and using that to cut a 45° angle?

Then I would have some hot stock tips for myself. I would also ask my employer "Can I put clients on probation if they miss three consecutive sessions without an illness?"

That would save a lot of problems.

Oh! Also replace the radiator in my Civic before I blow a head gasket and not park my Accord next to the house!

Ask Mom if my brother could pay me something for working with him. I am sure he would have benefited if I started earlier and somehow we aren't spending enough.

Find someone else to write me a letter of recommendation a year and a half ago, instead of wasting time with our old neighbor. Yes, maybe a letter from one of their teachers could have carried weight, but he wrote incomprehensibly, so that would count against me.

I wouldn't wait for my brother's SLP before applying to grad school last year, I would start as soon as they open, have the clearinghouse request a letter directly, and finish all of that much earlier.

I would also request official and unofficial transcripts from that community college that I attended in 2005 earlier.

One program never looked at my application because the clearinghouse didn't give me all of the instructions in-time. I needed to wait until U.S. business hours to talk to someone in India to once again be told that I didn't follow instructions that I had no way of knowing.

I don't remember exactly when I replaced my timing belt, but be extra-careful reinstalling the valve cover, and making sure that I don't pinch the spark plug seals. Then if I still start having Tuesday Troubles, replace the distributor.

Never drive to Tucson. I can't get stranded (or heartbroken) if I never drive to Tucson!

A joiner is a pretty big peice of kit, maybe a power hand plainer might do the trick.
I have one, it's the most efficient tool I have to make a really big mess really fast.

I kind of wish that I had seen this before I bought a tablesaw, but you are supposed to use a tablesaw to build it, and I am supposed to get a stand before I use the one I just bought:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOROlmd0Zn8

Were I to drop coin on something, it would probably be the Maslow CNC. https://www.maslowcnc.com/

The jointer is for facing lumber.

Or not having to rip to a thinner profile or make tapers or precision angles. I do like the DIY planer, but it looks useless for more than 2x4

I clamped a straight 2x6 to the tablesaw fence and trimmed the curved part of the inside edge, but it didn't seem like an 8' board was long enough, so I flipped it over, trimmed the offensive part of the other side, flipped it back, and straightened out that first side again.

It fit! :D

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1620359633

Mom claimed that it was an inch narrower than the other boards, but I measured it, and the difference was a whopping 1/16".

She was only off by a factor of 16!

Since everyone knows a layer of paint is 4 mil I put on one layer of primer and 7 of paint. Now it looks like it has been there 30 years and has been painted multiple times! :D

I haven't measured it again. I am not going to. Mom can do push-ups.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1620359237

I don't know what happened. I needed to carefully line up the top board and put a screw into the bottom left. The top is off-center by 1/4" and there is an 1/8" gap between the window and the top board, but I don't think it looks bad from... space.

I sanded down the high spots after 4 total coats, but not after I finished. There were some runs on the ends, but I don't think that created the gap, I needed to mess with the top board because there was originally a gap in one corner.

I need to cut, prime, and paint 3 more boards. I don't know if I already planed them. If I use the tablesaw instead of the planer, they will actually be flat, right?

Mom keeps ordering me to work on other projects--or drop what I am doing for dinner (I don't--there isn't enough daylight!). My sister keeps saying that she will bring Mom a larger freezer and haul off the current one. She announced that she was coming today, so I kept making time to organize the garage yet again.

Mom insists that she cannot close the freezer, not because she buys food faster than she uses it, or because my brother never tries to organize the food he puts there, he just throws it in, but because of all of my food.

I may have two bags of peas in there. Here is the crazy thing: If I had food in there I would eat it!

Of course, Mom claims that her garage is a mess, not because she refuses to clean it out, even when I finally managed to convince her to promise to, or because she has an entire carload of Christmas decorations, but because of all of my car parts.

My dash? Am I supposed to fix that car or work on all of her projects?!

My sister bailed, though, which means that we won't have anyone here in the immediate future with the capacity to transport a freezer--or unwanted mattresses wasting space in the garage.

It also means that I needed to put everything back, and now I will need to create a path if or when she finally visits.

Gaps and holes are what caulking are used for, also known as 1/2" paint.

Dunno, my wife can see 1/8" out of plumb over 8 ft and unless I break out my 6ft mason level, I can't measure it. Thank god I don't have a transit.

When I tried to look up what caulk could withstand subfreezing temperatures I got a headache, but I guess I need to figure it out!

Polyurethane Caulk


:turtle:

>

.

Looks good.

When you caulk leave the bottom of the bottom trim piece uncaulked. You need to give any water that sneaks in under the trim a place to drain out.

Melt down HDPE plastic bottles at 375 degrees F, until it is the consistency of [hot] bubble gum. Use a brayer [roller] and two strips the right thickness and roll out a slab. slice it to shape. let it cool, and hammer it into the slot.

It will outlast the rest of the house.

Ummm hot bubble gum? Which brand exhibits this characteristic un wetted by assorted liquid?
Obviously my bottle melt skills are insufficient.....

Any caulk manufactured in the last 50 years is freeze proof when cured/dried/solvent reduced. Continue to seal? That is a hard question.