Register Plate

The register plate is - almost - done now....




On the left is the big wooden beam holding up the chimney breast. The framework is filled with Rockwool Firerock panels, which is supposed to be pretty well heat-proof, and the aluminium tape is the special high-temperature stuff too. 

The frame is mortared to the rough stones of the chimney - as well as being screwed to the sides. Without the mortar there were quite substantial gaps were the stones weren't level.

The centre panel is just sheet steel: I cut the hole with a jigsaw. But the final (top) bit of the chimney is still just a bit temporary. I was short about half a meter of stainless pipe in 150mm, and I have ordered that from the builders' merchants in Aurillac. In the meantime there's a short section of 140mm pipe there instead. Later in the year I hope to put the flexible flue liner in too, but for the moment the fire will do very well as it is - in fact, what there is now is simply an improved version of what has been there for the last 50 years.

Hopefully though it will be a lot less drafty. I am waiting for a cold day so I can light the fire.


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Chimney work

The chimney in the farmhouse has a very ill-fitting "register plate" - this is also known as a "throat plate", basically something to stop all the heat from the fire going straight up the chimney instead of out into the room. The present one is an old bit of galvanised iron, cut very roughly to the right shape, then pushed up the chimney until it jams. It has a round hole in it for the flue pipe. But as the old flue was 125mm and the new one will be 150mm, there were several good reasons to change it.

I salvaged from Pigeon house the old framework that once supported the heating oil tank - fairly substantial angle iron, possibly welded up by my father-in-law forty or more years ago when the the heating was converted to oil. I had to cut it up to get it into the car, but in any event it was the wrong size: too short for the fireplace, which is nearly 2.5m wide. I cut the old framework into two "L"-shaped pieces, on the basis that this would save me the job of making anew all four corners. I then had to extend each of the long legs of the L, by welding on extra pieces of angle - the former legs of the framework were just about the right length.

Some of my welds were better than others.....



..... I'm afraid that is one of the better ones. Best not to ask about the worse ones. Though I think I am beginning to get the hang of it. It's a bit tricky where the two pieces of metal are different thicknesses because of extensive rusting. But the new register plate framework only has to support a couple of sheets of insulation board, and as long as it stays together it'll do.

Here's the finished framework before I painted it:



I've gone over it all with a wire brush on the angle-grinder, and smoothed off the rough edges. Then I gave it a coat of black paint that is supposed to contain a rust-inhibitor - another one tomorrow and by Friday I should be able to start sticking it up the chimney. The intermediate cross-pieces were part of the original structure: I only had to cut them to length and weld them into place at one end. The middle ones - where the chimney will go, through a metal plate - were a bit short and had to be extended.

I had to get thicker wire for the MIG welder - 0.8mm - as the original wire at 0.6mm just wasn't forceful enough to penetrate the metal.

Holdfasts

I have been looking for an affordable pair of holdfasts for a while now, until I discovered that a German tool company imports these ones from the USA:



They are made by Gramercy Tools, and carry a US patent number - though what they can have found to patent about a tool that's been around for as long as these have, I don't know.

But they really do what they are supposed to. 



This picture shows them with the special tool for tightening and releasing them. Just one clout does it, instantly, and almost nothing will shake them loose. They are better than the cheap versions from Axminster, partly because they are much better made, partly because they really are designed for 3/4 inch holes (the Axminster ones are loose in that size hole), and above all because they will last for ever. Well, they will outlast me, anyway! The manufacturers say they are made out of "wire" (to distinguish them from blacksmith-forged equivalents, probably) but I'd love to see how you roll up a wire of that diameter.

Finally, here's a view of the shelves and desk, with the final shelves in place:



There won't be any spare shelf space - there is still a roomful of books back in the UK.....

Just need a shelf or two ...

I put the carved panel together with the rest of the desk, and this is the result:



You might be able to see the extra fillet glued on the right hand side, to make up for the fact that the pillar next to it isn't quite straight. While finishing off these last bits I found that a few parts of the panel had flaked off some time in the (very distant) past, and had been glued back on. The glue had reached its sell-by date, so I had to re-glue them.

The hole in the middle has been filled with a small piece of newer oak, and the screw-holes with a tinted wax.



From further off it blends in well with the other wood. We treated the panel with linseed oil, which has slightly darkened the wood, but it is a very nice finish and easy to do. 

And here's a more distant shot (from halfway up the stairs) of the new arrangements:



As you can see, I have yet to go out and get the last few chestnut planks that are needed for the top two shelves over the desk on the right. But that is pretty straightforward and with a bit of luck they will be up there pretty soon.

Old Oak

I'm planning to finish off the new desk with a suitable flourish.

Sitting around in sheds and workshops for the last twenty-five years, this old piece of carving has just been gathering dust. But now I'm making a frame for it - there in the background:

This "endless knot" is one of a number of Flemish pew-ends, dating from the early 16th century. My dad recovered them from a house being demolished in SE London, but unlike the other 40 or so panels, this one had been maltreated and had been removed from its (Victorian) framing.

It has split into four pieces, and right in the middle there's a hole which shows some signs of having been there quite a while:

Perhaps for a Victorian bell-pull? Worse - and suspiciously - in each of the four corners there's a countersunk hole for a screw:

The other panels were quite nicely set into their surrounds (they formed three sides of a fully panelled room), without any evidence of screws. About the only thing to be said in favour of this one is that it doesn't appear to have been given a dark stain: the oak is still the original colour.

I've glued the splits back together as best I can, and (surprisingly difficult) cut a small piece of oak to fit the hole in the middle - the countersunk holes will either get modern woodfiller or wax. Right now it's all clamped up while the glue for its new surround sets. The surround is made from a plank I found in one of the sheds here - very dirty at first, and a wood I can't quite identify (it's not oak, though). With luck tomorrow I'll be able to get it put into place at the end of my desk.

Annoyingly where it is going to be put, the wooden pillar it will set against is not at all vertical, so I'll be cutting a small triangular fillet to go in between the panel and the post - I decided it was better than cutting a narrow sliver off the newly made surround.

Le bureau de Lessal

I've finally got around to replacing the temporary computer desk. It was only about five years old, and as it had been made of the highest quality recycled pallets and almost new recycled lino it had lasted well. But it also wasn't very convenient. This shows it just before it was replaced by the new arrangements behind it:

 

When it was actually leaning against the wall it was a bit less wobbly, but also much more of a dust and cobweb trap.

Using bits of wood left over from other jobs - there's chestnut from the shed doors, and the last four large oak planks from making the bedroom doors downstairs - I was able to make this:



The legs were supposed to have a slightly arts and crafts air - they taper towards the top. I have also tried to keep them to what I hope will be the minimum size needed for the distinctly heavy work-surface. Altogether it's two and a half square meters of 30mm thick oak, and that is quite a weight. Each board was hand-planed, and I eventually discovered that using one of my old wooden coffin planes diagonally across the surface produced the best results. It is more than twice the size of the desk it replaced, but the "L" shape wastes less space. It doesn't wobble - it's fastened to both the walls it abuts. The shelves above are a work in progress: I have run out of suitable chestnut planks. And there is a final end section to go where the side of the grey filing cabinet shows. So more later - watch this space....

And finally - with knobs on!

The cupboards in the washing machine room ("buanderie") have now been given a coat of my special formula linseed oil treatment ("denish oil") and I've put the knobs on too. I'll now think about catches for the doors - but they do seem to stay shut without any......



Perhaps I now need to something about the bit of old concrete showing where the "step up" is on the left - even if it's only a coat of paint?

The "to do" list gets a little shorter ....

The corner of the barn with the washing machine and freezer has been a little neglected. It's very nearly three years (!) since I put in the framework for the worksurface and cupboards, but somehow I hadn't quite got around to making the last doors and drawers. This casual attitude seemed to rub off on the users:

The main reason for the delay was my aversion to dovetail joints: they have always seemed to be just a little more difficult than they ought to be, and never turn out quite how they should. Drawers absolutely have to be dovetailed: it's what stops you pulling the front off when you try to pull out a heavy drawer. But Jay had kindly made me some dovetail gauges and I'd recently cleaned up and sharpened an old dovetail saw of Tad's, so there was nothing to stop me. And in the event some of the joints at least came out quite tight when they were glued and clamped:

What I did realise was that if the wood was warped (which this was, quite badly, despite running it through the planer to remove the worst of the dishing) the drawer needed to be clamped up with at least four sash clamps, and I have only three. So a bit of improvisation was called for -

This held reasonably well, though the "pump action" clamps with the rope do not ever get very tight.

A further issue with the final drawer was that I hadn't built anything to support it inside the cupboard where it is supposed to go -

This was partly because all the pipes made fixing a framework to the wall a bit tricky. But I had a large sheet of waterproof chipboard, and some oak offcuts, so putting them all together gave me this:

Now I can't quite yet say that it is all finished, as there's always a catch - or, in my case, a complete absence of catches and door/drawer knobs. But I hope to get the catches done soon - I have some small brass ones that are OK, and I've ordered some china knobs from e-bay that should do. In the meantime it already looks a lot better:

I have slightly cheated by tidying up first: but I'm pretty sure it will be back to normal quite soon. The colours of the wood are it's true a little miscellaneous. The wood that is visible is all oak. The framework is new oak bought from the merchant in Aurillac, as is the dummy panel under the sink, while all the rest is re-cycled floor-boards from the barn's original floor, complete with nice woodworm holes in some places to make it look authentic. I must say I prefer the old wood, though there's almost no difference in working it.

Finishing the year?

Starting with a reminder about how nice the weather was in October (this picture was taken on the 7th October), here's the last bits of fencing that I made, and which, with a bit of luck, should keep the cows out for a bit. I found a better kind of wood treatment - at least, a less offensively coloured one. Whether it's effective we'll have to wait and see.

 

I've now finished off the doors to my workshop. Previously they looked pretty much like this - though I have to say there is a certain charm about this decayed object:



Now they are all finished, and I've also done an interior wooden case to reduce draughts, as well as having a bit of a go at repointing around the edges. I don't really like the rather startling white colour from the lime mortar, so I started experimenting with a bit of brownish dye. My first attempts used perhaps a bit too much, but it's probably better than the white. It would be visible round the middle door if you could see it.



I've also been having a go at skirting boards around the house. Some places really did need to have them done - gaps like this:



The hole is larger enough for a family of mice to come and go. The skirting board is described as "American Oak", and although it is very good wood - fine-grained and very hard - it's also very expensive, just under €10 a metre. Gulp.

Here's the finished version. I've also managed to do something about the "expansion" gap in the floorboards by the door, though what will happen when the wood expands and contracts I don't know.



The main problem with longer sections of board was pushing them up against the walls while the glue sets. Regrettably, not all the walls were as straight as they might have been. Even plasterboard ones seem to bulge a bit at corners where they have been smoothed over the top of the corner reinforcements. In the picture above, I had to plane the back of the skirting board at each end to make it sit flat against the wall (that's better than trying to shave the plaster off). The mitres aren't quite as good as the pictures make them seem, but they are good enough.

Sometimes I was lucky, and I had a bit of heavy furniture to wedge against. Other times I found a way of clamping, but that was the exception. There are a few gaps at the top of the slirting boards in places, but these can be filled with a bit of white mastic, as they aren't more than about a quarter of an inch.

 

It's odd how this picture shows up the way that the electrical conduit was chased out from the nearby plug point horizontally to the one on the other side of the room. I'm fairly sure that good practice in the UK says you don't do that.

Right now, after a coupkle of weeks of really good sunny weather, it's pouring with rain, so it's a good thing that the outdoor work is finished. I don't think I'll be doing much now before Christmas (except sitting in front of the fire - plenty of offcuts to burn!)

Next door

The weather is still good - dry and sunny, so it was the right time to have a go at the next door in my workshop - this one:



I think when we first arrived the door was held shut either with a heavy prop or a bit of string: the sliding bar (a bit of bent reinforcing rod) and its guides were an early improvement of my own. But although they are still fairly solid, the door is visibly falling apart.

The new one was a bit quicker to do than the first as I'd found it was easier to use the router table to make the lapped sections of the board, rather than the hand-held router, and that I could do the whole cut in one pass without tearing the wood excessively. So here it is:




It's not yet entirely finshed. It will have an interior bolt too, so I can keep it shut from the inside when it's cold or wet. And I've put up an inner wooden casing, just glued to the stonework, to reduce draughts. I've used mastic round the edges to fill the gaps between the wood and the stone on the inside: I'll use a lime mortar on the outside for cosmetic purposes.

I hope eventually to put a third hinge on, but the upper hinge pintle is missing. I'll need to cut away a bit of stone before I can cement it in, as it needs to be in line with the other two, and the pin there previously (for the upper section of the door) wasn't - you might be able to see that the unused pin is about an inch to the left of line of the bottom ones.

Back to work

After a quiet summer (with the grandchildren - that kind of quiet) I've started to get my workshop a bit more comfortable, or at least a bit less draughty - and secure - for the winter.

The doors were very much on their last legs, despite some temporary repairs that I did - oooh - about six years ago. These are visible on the back of the open door. I appreciate that they have a well-used look about them, but practical? No.





I thought I'd start with a door that I don't use very often, the one in the middle. It's normally got my table-mounted mitre-saw ("chop-saw") behind it so even when it's open it's not much use. But at present it does have one advantage: because the top of the stable door is missing, it lets in a lot of light. So the new doors will need to have some kind of glazing.

Here's the old door:



About the only thing that can be said for it (apart from its rustic appearance) is that it can be opened and shut. But if you were able to see the hinges properly, it would be clear that they have been put on effectively back to front: the door should go right into the opening and be flush with outer side of the wall, not sit so that it is a little larger than the opening and touching the outside part of the wall at the edges.

I bought a quantity (about €200) of chestnut planks, 20mm thick and about 2m long, from the timber merchant in Aurillac. And I ordered some twinwall polycarbonate sheet cut to 50cm by 40cm: I didn't think actual glass would survive very long in a workshop. 

Et voila!




The planks are lapped rather than tongued and grooved: they overlap about a centimetre so any shrinkage shouldn't let in the draughts too much. I've cut the bottom of the door to fit the v-shaped threshhold, but I might sometime level that up with cement and cut the door straight afterwards. The door is only held shut with wedges at the edge. I plan to make an interior doorcase to give a slightly more airtight fit, and that will take an interior bolt. This door doesn't need to be opened from the outside.

I've used a waterproofer on the timber, which has darkened it a little, and I'm pleased with the results. Now just the other two to do.

Summer's lease

Results have been a little thin on the ground during the summer, though I have been working on the fence panels that I can't install until I can find a satisfactory wood treatment. 

However, I've done a rotating door for our chickens - these ones and their less attractive friends:


 

The new door was needed as Jean-Pierre's dog Champion was finding his way into the henhouse and eating the eggs. I can't complain too much as I am pretty sure that the dog keeps the foxes away quite effectively.

Here's the new door open



and shut:

 

The drop-down bar on the right locks the door in the "shut" position, and I have every hope that it is fox-proof.

I've consolidated the top of the wall in the hangar. Before, leaning a ladder against it was sure to dislodge a stone or two at the top.




It's annoying that the cement-based mortar is a different colour from the old lime mortar, but at least it holds the stones together. And hopefully it will keep some of the draughts out of my workshop on the other side of the wall.

I also had a go at a short stretch of the wall separating us from Jean-Pierre's field. Before, it didn't even look much like a wall:



I think it had been used as way through from the field by various animals, ranging from cats, dogs and chickens up to full-sized cows.

I took it down as much as possible and cut out some of the roots of the ash tree, and now it looks like this:



The picture doesn't do it justice, as it isn't just a loose pile of stones. It's pretty vertical, quite stable, and makes a fairly regular line. With a bit of luck it'll stay that way. I think you can see that it is sitting on a bit of the bedrock, so it has a good enough foundation. 

En Garde!

as people say when they are fencing .....

As part of the ongoing  campaign to keep cows out of the garden (and the larger dogs, too), I'm starting to replace the temporary fencing - this bit -



  - with something a bit more robust.

The top bar - split just below the mailbox - obviously didn't survive being climbed over by the grandchildren, so a cow would have found it easy to push through:



I bought a quantity of cheap wood which had one (apparent) advantage - it had been pressure treated against woodworm and other boring insects. I then chopped it up and rebuilt it into a fence panel that was supposed to look much the same as Mr Jackson Fencing's gates. The colour was not intended, and I hope it will fade: on the tin it said "incoloré" and what it would have looked like if it had said "bright orange" I dread to think. But it is supposed to keep the wood weatherproof but breathable. I guess we'll see.

Here's the result:



The edges have been chamfered to match the gates (though perhaps not a very close match), and the back edges of the uprights have been planed down to fit flat against the railway sleepers, which aren't at rightangles to the panel. The next ones to be done are a bit bigger, but fit in between the other sleepers, so they won't need so much planing to fit.

Despite the colour I'm pleased with the result -



- and it is certainly robust enough to keep out the local cattle. All the mortices are pegged and glued, and where the middle uprights cross the lower four bars they are bolted through. The gaps between the five horizontal bars are copied from the gates. Curiously, from the top down, each gap is slightly smaller than the one above. Either aesthetics or to keep out smaller animals?

We didn't have to wait long .....

...... before our new gates and fences started to prove that they were useful:




Jean-Pierre and a friend then played hide-and-seek with the cows in the wood, and got all but one back into his own field.

The elusive one (possibly this one) succeeded in jumping a fence into the field below the house, and joining some elderly relations of hers belonging to Jean-Louis Carrière. Then, as evening approached, she jumped out and made her own way back to her own field - which she got into "sans rien demolir". Nobody saw her in the act, so this is all speculation: but next stop the moon?

Topping out

I've been building a wall to keep the cows out. This bit is in local stone - schist - because it butts up against the end of the farmhouse and I thought it would look better than the wooden fence I plan to have elsewhere.

It's been going up slowly for the last fortnight, as I have been using a lime-only mortar (NHL 3.5) that takes a day or two to harden, so it's easiest to build it up a couple of inches, then let it harden properly before adding any more stones. We've had some sunny days so I have had to put wet sacking on top to prevent it drying too quickly.

The last stones, to top it off, are very heavy. The lightest one I managed to get up to the top of the wall unaided. The next one I had Tony to help with (our combined ages - 140 years or a little more). The last was the heaviest of the lot, and it had to go into a corner where it would be difficult for two people to handle it.

So out with the Black and Decker Workmates and a length of alloy scaffolding:



I didn't think of taking pictures immediately: I started with the scaffold board virtually on the ground, and made sure that the stone was slid to one end before lifting the other: first to the footstep on the righthand Workmate, then to the crossbar, lifting the other end appropriately in between. Thank you, Archimedes.



Up at this level it was all a little wobbly: mostly because the ground here slopes in two directions. I had moved the stone fully onto the righthand Workmate before moving the lefthand one in and up.

Here it is about to be slid onto the wall:



And this last picture shows it in its final place. Not mortared in, of course, as it is pouring with rain today and the mortar would just wash out.



It fitted into the gap I had left with a millimetre to spare. Now I just have to level it and get some mortar underneath, and the wall will be done. Though I may decide to grout the joints a bit more to get a smoother result.

Few words

Et voila!



Below is the old bench. Just a little bit warped, but at least the new surface is flat.





And I think there ought to be a smile: