I will build a simple utility Shed. I have chosen a thin piece of shale from Walton, NS as the bedrock. While I build the foundation, I’ll cut more boards and load them on a BC Rail 60’ bulkhead flatcar used by one of the trackside industries. This car and a second with different road number, were made by Roundhouse Products. I bought them used but they’re in great shape.
It takes 40 minutes to bake my own plaster of Paris. While that is happening right now, I just cut another log by hand in 20 minutes. When I get my band saw set up, this hard part will only take 5 minutes.
Hey, what about…“I have an RC aircraft to turn into an air-driven catamaran.”
That sounds like an interesting project. What size motor is in there? Is it 3 or 4 channels? I wonder if Kalmbach has a forum for planes and/or watercraft. If they do, and you follow thru and post, let us know!
I’ll post some info tomorrow when I have breakfast at the Diner If you are interested.
Two 4" logs cut and loaded on the flat car. It is a lot of building wood considering it’s only from half of one of the pieces of driftwood I collected. Be much faster and neater when I use a band saw.
To make a concrete-stone-looking foundation, I am going to use gypsum in its satin spar form from a beach on the Minas Basin near Cheverie, Nova Scotia. Gypsum is hydrated calcium sulphate. What I will do is drive the water out of the crystaline structures by baking this piece in the oven at 450 degrees for about 40 minutes.
After baking (calcining is the thermodynamic term) the gypsum has turned a powder white colour.
And it easily crumbles into plaster basically. Tomorrow I’ll make my special concrete formula and build a foundation on the shale bedrock.
Dehydrated a second piece of satin spar gypsum, crushed, and then sifted into two grades: powder and particulate.
Using fast drying wood glue as a binder I start to build a base layer that adheres well to the shale bedrock.
Continuing to build the base using various spatula tools to shape and level. Keeping this base 2"x2".
Just noticed that a lot of pictures have disappeared from my imgbb account. I’ll have another look in the morning. DJ
My former intelligence community are afraid of what I can do with pictures. They should worry more about text -even better than pictures. Lol
Yea! Pictures are back. Go figure. Must have been a solar flare. DJ
One more application should do it. I use 1 g of gypsum powder, 1 g gypsum particulate, and 2 g wood glue.
This is the mixture. I give it a few minutes for the quick-drying glue to get a little firmer, then apply with a curved, pointed, stainless-steel spatula - an excellent tool for this work.
Tools and tray clean up easily with hot water. Will let this foundation dry outside in the sunshine and heat of the day.
Once this foundation has dried, I will lightly sand it smoother on top and then paint it a gray cement colour. In the meantime, I will draw the four wooden walls and begin to build them. Should be able to start this later today.
Recognizing the OP’s penchant for doing things “prototypically” with methods and materials, I don’t understand why the foundation/base/slab isn’t done in the same mode.
In example…
First I would put in forms, using stripwood or in the OP’s case, some of those driftwood boards.
Having formed the level perimeter of the structure’s base, I would mix up the secret formula and then pour it into the form.
Using any of various “trowel-like” tools, I would smooth out the surface, leveling it with the tops of the form boards
Lastly, I would let it set, and once done, remove the form boards.
Now I recognize that the preceeding methodology may not have been followed in the OP’s timeframe or area, but it sure beats out the example given.
Another log cut in record time. 52 boards from one 4" log.
