Night at Paul's - Hanging Benchwork

It is almost not fair for the guys for me to show up on Friday nights. I'd been up since 4:00 am and have traveled half way across the country to get there and could hardly keep my eyes open. The guys must think I'm not much help. My family asked me to stay home, but hey, its my birthday and I want to play with trains.

Tonight: Packrat Paul's house - building mushroom benchwork.

In attendance:
Packrat Paul
Gator Scott
Coalfinger Ken
Glue Bob
Popsicle Rick

Steve-bay got a pass since he was marrying his daughter off.

All photos courtesy of Popsicle Rick and his handy dandy new pocket camera which I will steal from him as soon as he's not looking. I want one!

Paul knew how he wanted to build the upper deck of the mushroom as he'd been designing it for a few weeks. We did have a discussion about eye level and the height of the openings, but all decided it was "go".



Using 1x4's mounted to an L-girder screwed to the ceiling, we hung the lower L-girder which will be the top of the mushroom deck.


We turned the L-girders sideways and Bob screwed them in.

Bob's is the tallest of the team, so he gets a lot of the high altitude work.

Using a ladder, Scott puts in more supports and Paul (who still has a brace on one leg) hands up tools and screws.

Since this was the first of a lot of tricky benchwork, we often sat back and made sure that things were going the right way. So far...looks good!

We carefully checked the boards to make sure they were straight. Perfect!

Then each was fastened on to the L-girder with three 1 5/8" screws.

Yes, Scott was tired. He banned himself from even using the saws that night. Paul was rarin' to go!

The place where Scott, Ken and Paul is standing is the upper deck of the mushroom, and Bob is standing in the lower deck.

We took our time building the decks, but we wanted to make sure they were strong and straight.

Measure twice, cut once, throw in the scrap wood bin, get another piece, measure again, then cut.

Yes, that was my thumb that the screw just went into!

I don't even remember what we were doing here.

Just to check to see how the scenery might look, Scott and Paul mocked up a mountain with cardboard. It looked great!

Ken worked the lower deck where most of the tools were. Since it requires people on both sides, mushroom construction really does take a team effort.

Thanks guys for a great evening! It cheered me up after a really long and terrible day.

Thanks Popsicle Rick for the great birthday present! The clamps and weights will really come in handy! Also, thanks Rick for the pictures.

I'll see if I can get Paul to send me a picture of the finished benchwork.