transition pieces - All done!

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Central (upstate) NY
Well, back in May :eek: my wife and I replaced the carpeting in the bedroom hallway with laminate flooring. The place we got the flooring from didn't have the right color transition pieces and due to a spatial transposition reality - brain disconnect (a goof) one of the transition pieces needs to be a bit wider than the commercially available bits are.

Last night, Ned stopped by to play with the lathe and I spent the evening fiddling with the router table finding the right height and fence stop to get the elliptically rounded over profile I wanted from a friend's bit (part of a Holbren raised panel set - I had to fiddle to get only the 1/3 of the profile that I wanted).

Among other things, I either learned or relearned that if I lock the router (a PC8529) in the "freely plunge" setting and use the above table adjustment know dealie that it is much easier to find a consistent height rather than monkeying around with trying to plunge the router up to a fixed height and locking it down with the plunge lock control. :doh: At any event, I now have the router setup to give the profile I want.

My goal for the weekend is to have, at a minimum, the transition pieces all ready for finishing. I'll check back later and post pics to let you all know if I've met my goal.
 
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Ok, the first one is ready to be finished.

This is the gap that needed to be filled (the transition is in the background).

first.gap.jpg

Here it is in place.

first.in.place.jpg

As you can see, Samantha (the dog) is happily providing "pneumatic assistance" for the project. :huh: :eek:

Here is the basic profile. The strange shadowing is from me taking the pic upside down.

profile.JPG

My wife arrived home from work while I was writing this post and was happy to see it sitting in place (I was waiting for her to get home - she didn't notice at first, I had to point it out) and was happy. Then she picked it up and was really impressed with the (to use our English friends' words) rebate work to account for the variable height surfaces.

Now I need to make 3 more, but my wife says she wants to go to lunch first. :wave:

A quick synopsis of what is left: 2 to carpeting, 1 to tile to the bathroom. One of the carpet pieces is the too wide of a gap piece. The bathroom piece will be a bit of a challenge - the whole transition has to live under where the door closes. After construction, finishing with Bush Oil will occur (a 1/3 each tung oil, boiled linseed oil and urethane mix), but I may wait until next weekend to finish. Oh, before finishing, I'll be pre-drilling two holes in each piece (each ~6" from the wall) to put in a coule finish screws to anchor them to the floorboards.

Hope to have more pics later today!
 
Pretty darn good stuff there !

If you really want a cheap thrill get yourself a Stanley # 289 to do the other ones. OOPs, wrong message board. Those do look nice though. Straight " rebates " ( I LOVE that one ! ) or did you have to ease the backs to fit the floor ?
 
Nice work,Mark.

I had to do exactly the same thing earlier this year when I fitted solid oak flooring thoughout our house. In a couple of doorways I'd left a gap wider than commercially available solutions, and in a couple of others I had different levels to resolve.

I'm delighted that the English word 'rebate' is becoming widespread throughout America! :) Here's another one for you;

We call such 'transition pieces' 'thresholds'.
 
Looking good Mark

Regarding the bathroom piece, don't forget you can always cut the door to get more swing clearance :eek:

Jay
 
Nice work,Mark.

I had to do exactly the same thing earlier this year when I fitted solid oak flooring thoughout our house. In a couple of doorways I'd left a gap wider than commercially available solutions, and in a couple of others I had different levels to resolve.

I'm delighted that the English word 'rebate' is becoming widespread throughout America! :) Here's another one for you;

We call such 'transition pieces' 'thresholds'.

For what its worth, most people here call those thresholds too. Still there is no way you are going to get this guy to stop saying truck. I think my Great Grandfather ten times removed fought hard against the British in 1776 just so he did not have to call a truck a lorry :rofl:

(I'm just teasing you of course Duncan. I actually love how different countries have different terms for the same thing.)
 
At the risk of hijacking my own thread, don't you guys call minivans "people-movers"?

And I may finish and install the one I've made today instead of going forward with construction of the others. I lost a couple hours of milling time yesterday due to the insect infestation that I discovered in one of the pieces of wood I was planning to use for the project and my wife has said that she'd rather have a little extra help with household chores this weekend than the rest get done right now.

Steve, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "ease". I just took measurement from front and back as to where I wanted to place the threshold, this left me with 1" and 1 1/4" wide rebates to be made. I then very carefully and cleverly used my digital calipers to determine that the 1 1/4" rebate needed to be 4 mm deep and the 1" wide rebate needed to be 7.6 mm deep (I got to use the step measurement mode - I'm really glad that my machinist friend took the time once to show me the 800 or so different ways to get measurements with calipers). My jointer (and planer fwiw) have English and metric rules on them, although I confirmed the rebate depth as I got close to the end with the calipers. I also have one tape measure that has both English and metric. When it is a job that needs the calipers, I'll generally do it in metric, as I am not good enough with fractional hexadecimal to know what 0.6030" translates to in x/8 or x/16.
 
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At the risk of hijacking my own thread, don't you guys call minivans "people-movers"?

Depends what you mean by a 'minivan'!

To me a minivan was the van version of the old Mini car - the first vehicle I ever owned was a Mini Van!

I think you mean however, something like this http://www.chrysler.co.uk/grand_voyager/


We would call this an MPV or a 'People Carrier'

But don't all you guys drive pick-up trucks?

And wear baseball caps?
 
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I drive a pick-'em-up truck :thumb:, but only wear a cap when it's raining out - need to keep the acid rain off my head. Even then, I paid extra for my cap to be plain Khaki, with no sports or corporate logos.

Ok, back on track, I just applied the first coat of finish to the first threshold, carefully following the directions on the can of Bush Oil - "Liberally apply a coat with a brush or poly-brush, applying enough so that the oil can soak in to the wood." Well, it said something like that - what I did was to carefully wipe on a decent layer on the one half of the work and then just spill a bit :eek: onto the other half and quickly wipe it all over. I was able to get the bottom of the work done too. And the jaws of my vise and part of my work table. How's that for efficiency? :huh: :doh:
 
Ok, here is the first one totally finished. All it needs is to be anchored in place after the finish is dry as per the bottle (it feels dry now, good enough for pic, but maybe not good enough for the poochers to walk on it and sniff at it and lick it, etc., etc.). My wife was very happy with the color matching to the laminate flooring.

The shadow in this picture is real - this is how the sun comes in the house on a regular basis due to the wall part of the living room - dining room / kitchen archway. Will this cause my poor threshold to darken irregularly?

first.finished.in.place2.jpg

I have also gotten one other threshold constructed. This is the extra-wide one to fill the big gap. Here it is laid down where it will live with the bedroom door closed and open.

second.in.place.door.jpg

second.in.place.jpg

The cutouts for the molding aren't perfect, but it will take a kid or someone getting down on their hands and knees to notice. Here are pictures of the end profiles. I haven't sanded the ends - will this interfere with the ends taking finish? They won't be visible, but I am going to put one (or two) coat of finish on the not visible surfaces to minimize moisture changes.

profile.cutout1.JPG

profile.cutout2.JPG

I'm going to vacuum the shop today, leave the air cleaner on for a long time and then maybe tomorrow I'll apply the finish to the second piece. Then Tuesday I can drill the holes to screw both fully completed thresholds in place and I will then begin working on the remaining two.

Thanks for letting me post my progress!
 
Thanks for the compliments!

I got impatient and set the air cleaner to run for an extra hour after the wife sent me to bring home dinner. About an hour after the air cleaner shut down I started applying the finish for the second threshold.

The Bush Oil label says it should be ready to go (on the first one that I finished this morning) in about an hour from now, so I went ahead an installed it as it felt dry to the touch.

What I did was to place two finishing screws (black, fine thread, using a #1 square drive, 1 5/8") in each threshold (well, it will be each threashold even though only one is installed at the moment). Each screw is centered relative to the width of the threshold and is 6" from the doorway wall part (help me out with the special word here please). Each threshold will be installed with this 6" distance, even though each threshold is a different length (2 might be the same, but that's it). I figure that the distance from the screw to the fixed point of reference (the wall) would make the screw less noticeable than a fixed difference from screw to centerpoint. It's also less work to just keep them at 6". Each screw hole was predrilled in the threshold using a (1/8" - 1/32" = 4/32 - 1/32) 3/32" drill bit - the hole is slightly bigger than the shank of the screw, but small enough that the threads engaged. I briefly thought about drilling for the countersink but decided not to, as the finishing screws have a small countersink dimension. No splitting occurred! :thumb:

I drilled from the visible surface so as not to have tearout on the visible surface. Even though I was countersinking the screws, I figured that I should make sure that Murphy stayed out of my shop and thus prevented that 6" long splinter from occurring on the visible face.

The second threshold felt dry on top, but a little sticky on the bottom so I drilled, but did not yet install that one.

As for pics, well, you've had enough pics in this thread today, you'll just have to wait 'til later! <raspberries> Nananana-booboo! :rofl:

Things I've learned during this project so far:

It's always easier if you know how to properly use your tools (in this case, locking the router to freely plunge and using the above-table bit height adjustment instead of horsing around trying to get a fine adjustment by manually plunging up from under the table. :doh:

I love Bush Oil! I get good results with a minimum of preparation. The stuff really brings out the grain, adds a little amber color and leaves a nice satin finish - not to shiny and not to dull!

Having recently moved the benchtop planer and benchtop oscillating spindle / belt sander to mobile bases has helped alot! I used all of these tools (including the bench / router table) for this project and there would have been a major irritation factor if I had to move tools from bench to shelf, back to bench ....

My next tool purchase may well be the General 2" vertical belt sander / grinder. I was planning to get this for sharpening, but it would have been helpful for this project. I know, I tend to backwards with tool purchases - buying would would have been helpful instead of what will be helpful.

I really enjoy using Bush Oil! It is pretty forgiving and makes the piece look nice too!

When I make my traditional woodworker's workbench next year, I'd like to invest in a pattern maker's vise to use as the front vise. Until then, I think that it will behoove me to make a set of wood jaws for my machinist's vise to hold wokpieces to allow for better access during finishing.

Actually doing stuff makes the wife feel better about the garage full of tools. :rolleyes: :dunno: :rofl:
 
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Mark,
First - by law there must be something else left undone on your project since it's against all things manly to finish it with-in the year.:D

Second, the thresholds look great!

Wes
 
But don't all you guys drive pick-up trucks?

And wear baseball caps?

Yup


Garry:wave:

Thought so!

On my only trip to the USA in 1990 I stayed for a few days with a friend in Heber Springs, Arkansas. The only place to get a beer was at the VFW.

Let me tell you, EVERYBODY drove a pick-up truck and EVERYBODY wore a baseball cap. So I know what I'm talking about!

:rofl:
 
The thresholds are looking real nice, Mark. :thumb:
...On my only trip to the USA in 1990 I stayed for a few days with a friend in Heber Springs, Arkansas. The only place to get a beer was at the VFW.

Let me tell you, EVERYBODY drove a pick-up truck and EVERYBODY wore a baseball cap. So I know what I'm talking about!

:rofl:
Oh man, he's using Heber Springs, Arkansas as his benchmark of what all of the USA is like. :eek: Don't anybody tell him he's been to one of the most civilized (or should I say civilised?) and cultured communities in the States. Those fine folks in Heber Springs make the rest of us look like country bumpkins. :p
 
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