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some landfills won’t take them. How to utilize them was no problem.
My sister-in-law had been beggingnfor a stool or bench she could sitnon while weeding her wildflower garden,none which would withstand allnkinds of weather and damp soil. It was in a perfect use for treated or pressurized lumber since it’s guaranteed to withstand decay, insects, and fungus attack—forever. For my plans I turned to a small, yellow pine bench crafted by my Czech grandfather long before the
First World War.
I concluded if it could last through nearly 90 years of use and abuse, it had to be well designed. In order to create the bench top and ends, the deck boards have to be edge glued. Ordinary wood glue is not totally waterproof but it will hold the treated boards together long enough to machine them. Given the conditions the bench has to endure, I prefer to use such glues as Contech’s PL 500 Deck and Treated Lumber Adhesive.
Establish one straight working edge on each deck board with a tablesaw and/or jointer. However, a careful craftsman can make the entire bench using nothing but hand tools. The idea is to preserve the rounded edges for the outside surfaces. Saw the scraps in such a way that when glued together you have a board 7 inches wide. Glue and clamp. Saw all parts to size. Lay out and drill a series of 1-inch overlapping holes to make the hand hold in the top’s center. Lay out and cut the joints and curves.
I’ve found a bandsaw is best for cutting all the joints and the scroll work. Lightly sand all pieces and check for fit, correcting where needed. The original bench was nailed together but I decided to fasten the stool together using ¼-inch pegs made from the treated lumber. The 2-inch long pegs are made by simply driving small split billets through a ¼-inch hole drilled through a ½-inch thick steel plate. They could also be turned on a lathe or roughly whittled to shape with a pocket knife.
If you decide to use nails (or screws) use galvanized (stainless steel is better)
and pre-drill the holes. For accuracy I drilled all the holes on my drill press after clamping a ¾- inch thick piece of plywood to its table to expand the working surface. The parts can be held in position by hand or clamps. Join bottom brace to ends (one peg at each end). Join side braces to ends (one peg to each lower corner —position the hole so the peg that will be driven from above will not sever the dowel.
Fasten top to frame (three pegs along ends and three pegs along each side). Sand or file pegs flush with surface. For added beauty or protection the bench can be stained or treated with a preservative such as Thompson's wood protector after it has aged 6 to 12 months.
Posted on 2:41 AM by JohnS0N and filed under
Considering the high price of lumber nowadays it seems wasteful to throw away any piece of wood—no matter how small. Recently, after completing a 26-foot by 6-foot deck at a lakeside cabin, I wound up with a wide variety of scrap 6" x 5/4" radius edge pressure treated deck board sliding about in the back of the pickup. It’s almost impossible to properly dispose of such scraps—they can’t be burned, andsome landfills won’t take them. How to utilize them was no problem.
My sister-in-law had been beggingnfor a stool or bench she could sitnon while weeding her wildflower garden,none which would withstand allnkinds of weather and damp soil. It was in a perfect use for treated or pressurized lumber since it’s guaranteed to withstand decay, insects, and fungus attack—forever. For my plans I turned to a small, yellow pine bench crafted by my Czech grandfather long before the
First World War.
I concluded if it could last through nearly 90 years of use and abuse, it had to be well designed. In order to create the bench top and ends, the deck boards have to be edge glued. Ordinary wood glue is not totally waterproof but it will hold the treated boards together long enough to machine them. Given the conditions the bench has to endure, I prefer to use such glues as Contech’s PL 500 Deck and Treated Lumber Adhesive.
Establish one straight working edge on each deck board with a tablesaw and/or jointer. However, a careful craftsman can make the entire bench using nothing but hand tools. The idea is to preserve the rounded edges for the outside surfaces. Saw the scraps in such a way that when glued together you have a board 7 inches wide. Glue and clamp. Saw all parts to size. Lay out and drill a series of 1-inch overlapping holes to make the hand hold in the top’s center. Lay out and cut the joints and curves.
I’ve found a bandsaw is best for cutting all the joints and the scroll work. Lightly sand all pieces and check for fit, correcting where needed. The original bench was nailed together but I decided to fasten the stool together using ¼-inch pegs made from the treated lumber. The 2-inch long pegs are made by simply driving small split billets through a ¼-inch hole drilled through a ½-inch thick steel plate. They could also be turned on a lathe or roughly whittled to shape with a pocket knife.
If you decide to use nails (or screws) use galvanized (stainless steel is better)
and pre-drill the holes. For accuracy I drilled all the holes on my drill press after clamping a ¾- inch thick piece of plywood to its table to expand the working surface. The parts can be held in position by hand or clamps. Join bottom brace to ends (one peg at each end). Join side braces to ends (one peg to each lower corner —position the hole so the peg that will be driven from above will not sever the dowel.
Fasten top to frame (three pegs along ends and three pegs along each side). Sand or file pegs flush with surface. For added beauty or protection the bench can be stained or treated with a preservative such as Thompson's wood protector after it has aged 6 to 12 months.
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The solar policy landscape in the United States has been haphazard and fragmented by comparison. Because of the nearly complete absence of federal, top-down leadership, legislative efforts focused on interconnection and billing standards for solar-electric systems have been sidelined to the state level, creating inconsistencies, anomalies, and unnecessary redundancy in the efforts of solar policy developers. However slow on the uptake, Congress now appears to be entering the game.
Not only is the much-celebrated federal solar tax incentive up for an eight-year extension (visit www.seia.org to register your support), but legislators have finally drafted a national solar energy bill aimed at stripping several barriers to the widespread adoption of solar-electric generation.Major provisions of the proposed Solar Opportunity and Local Access Rights (SOLAR) Act:
• Establish net metering at retail electric rates for customer-owned, grid-tied
solar-electric systems up to 2 megawatts (MW).
• Designate customer ownership of any renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by the installed system.
• Prohibit any private covenant, contract or lease provision, or homeowners’ association rule or bylaw from limiting a homeowner’s ability to install a solar energy system.
• Specify maximum permitting and licensing fees for both residential and commercial installations.
Many nations worldwide have come up hard against energy resource constraints and the impact unrestrained fossil fuel use has on the local (and global) environment. We need strong and coordinated federal leadership when it comes to renewable energy generation. Only this will allow us to begin to close the gap between the lagging solar energy programs stateside and the experience that has been gained by energy progressive nations abroad. Fortunately, there’s a tangible shift underway in Congress, and many of our representatives are ready to run with legislation that supports clean energy, and puts us back on the global solar playing field.
Posted on 1:59 AM by JohnS0N and filed under
Renewable energy advocates like us tend to stare enviously across the ocean at the great success and widespread adoption of solar electricity abroad. But we’re not sitting on the bench, scratching our heads, and wondering how they’re doing it. The governments of countries like Germany and Japan have put more than sound bites behind their support for clean energy technologies. Instead, they have established well-coordinated incentive programs and interconnection standards for solar energy at the federal level.The solar policy landscape in the United States has been haphazard and fragmented by comparison. Because of the nearly complete absence of federal, top-down leadership, legislative efforts focused on interconnection and billing standards for solar-electric systems have been sidelined to the state level, creating inconsistencies, anomalies, and unnecessary redundancy in the efforts of solar policy developers. However slow on the uptake, Congress now appears to be entering the game.
Not only is the much-celebrated federal solar tax incentive up for an eight-year extension (visit www.seia.org to register your support), but legislators have finally drafted a national solar energy bill aimed at stripping several barriers to the widespread adoption of solar-electric generation.Major provisions of the proposed Solar Opportunity and Local Access Rights (SOLAR) Act:
• Establish net metering at retail electric rates for customer-owned, grid-tied
solar-electric systems up to 2 megawatts (MW).
• Designate customer ownership of any renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by the installed system.
• Prohibit any private covenant, contract or lease provision, or homeowners’ association rule or bylaw from limiting a homeowner’s ability to install a solar energy system.
• Specify maximum permitting and licensing fees for both residential and commercial installations.
Many nations worldwide have come up hard against energy resource constraints and the impact unrestrained fossil fuel use has on the local (and global) environment. We need strong and coordinated federal leadership when it comes to renewable energy generation. Only this will allow us to begin to close the gap between the lagging solar energy programs stateside and the experience that has been gained by energy progressive nations abroad. Fortunately, there’s a tangible shift underway in Congress, and many of our representatives are ready to run with legislation that supports clean energy, and puts us back on the global solar playing field.