I’ve had people ask how it’s going.

The beams are here.  Dan DeWeese and I cut the beam seats and the taper on the overhang with a honking big circular saw I rented.  Actually, we made Ken Howells cut one, too  There was some suggestion of cutting in from both sides with a smaller saw, but this was definitely the way to go.

The only drawback to a circular saw is that there’s an angle between the column seat and the overhang taper, and the circular saw cuts a circle. So cutting up to where the two lines meet leaves some uncut wood on the bottom.  We cut that away with a Sawzall, but since the kerf cut by the big saw was so much wider than the Sawzall blade, there was still some unevenness.

So Tom Morrison and I went out on Saturday, and used Gene Embree’s belt sander to flatten and square up the beam seats, and remove most of the saw marks from the overhang taper.

Jai Paul looked at it, and thinks it’s good enough, so the next step is to seal it.  We’re going to use two coats of  a catalyzed (two-part) polyurethane.  The 11 gallons we need should be here next week.

So that’s where it’s at today.  Say “Thanks” to the people above if you see them.

Tomorrow looks like a good day, so I’m going flying.