Saturday, December 06, 2008

Progress Report - Garage Door Opener

I have the old garage opener down, all of the mechanics of the new opener installed, and will work on the wiring for the sensors and the push-button tomorrow. We have guests coming over in a bit, so I need to get cleaned up and get ready so we can head out to dinner.

Scotopia - Eyes Adjusting to Twilight

I'm working in the garage again this weekend.

The bottom panel of one of our garage doors finally died of dry rot this fall. I'd applied mending plates to it some time ago, and it was serviceable, but the long board across the bottom finally split.

I had removed the lower panel, which measures a little over eight feet wide and about two feet tall, and used my wordworking skills and whatever tools we had on hand to replace the rotted wood. It was mainly getting a very strait two by four, cutting a groove along the length of one edge with a router, then rounding the corners along the length to fit into the rest of the door. Once that was done, it was a glue and screw project to attach it to the rest of the door panel, a little work with wood putty to smooth out the appearance, and then Julie primed and painted for me.

I finally installed the repaired panel last week end. I was relieved when I got the cable and springs working again, and the door opened easily along its tracks (while the panel was removed, I had to open the rest of the door by doing a 'clean and jerk'). The door only opens for projects, and to allow passage of the trash and recycling cans one day a week.

Today I'm working on replacing the garage door opener for the same door. It was broken when we moved into the house, and we just never got around to fixing it until now.

With the approaching holidays, I'm planning to use some vacation to take the last two weeks of the year off. My plan is to get some home repair projects done around the house, projects that have languished for years in some cases.

I also want to work on an sculpture project or two. I have a pair of rayguns that only need some hammer springs replaced to be completed, and another that needs a springs for its trigger and hammer, a paint touch up, and a finial added. Lastly, I have the parts for five rayguns, more along the lines of the Cinco de Mayo and Cereza Negra than the Honor of Coronado series that I want to do the design work and start fabrication. Our plan is to get some of my finished work up on our art site, and try to drum up a little business.

UPDATE:
I've added pictures of the raygun parts to my Flickr site.

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