I don’t think that’s what’s happening. They look like eyebolts threaded through with a washer and nut at the top.
Ah, you are right. I didn’t seen the detail photo.
Drilling straight holes for the 3/8 inch eye-bolts through the height of two pieces of 2 x 6 was a bit of a challenge with my relatively short Forstner drill bits. I had to carefully mark the middle of the top and bottom edges and drill from both sides, hoping to meet square in the middle. The result was half of each hole in each 2 x 6. I’d thought about using a router to cut semi-circular groves on the inside faces of the boards, but didn’t trust that I could make straight cuts with my budget router table.
The 1/4 inch brass plates top and bottom are a bit of overkill, but as a friend of mine is fond of saying “Anything that’s worth doing is worth overdoing.”
When you do this the next time (you know your neighbors are all going to want one), clamp a short board to use as a fence for a handheld router. Easier to control than trying to feed that long board across a router table.
That did occur to me, but only after I’d cut the cross pieces. They’re only 5 5/8 inches long so I would have had to make an out-board jig for the guide rail due to the diameter of my router’s base plate. Doable, but the drill press was easier.
I used a try square to keep the cross blocks vertical as I drilled into each side and the results were adequate, I used a 7/16 inch drill bit just in case I didn’t get perfect alignment at the meeting point but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.
Oh, of course. I was visualizing the long beams for some reason.
Wow, that’s really nice. I am envious of your woodworking skills. Might I suggest smearing some epoxy on the end grains? (It’s a trick my father showed me along time ago.)
I’m always hesitant to start a home DIY project because I worry that I’ll screw something up. I tend to point and laugh at people who watch YouTube videos and then proclaim that they’re experts (or at least competent) in whatever new endeavor they’re trying. I’ve longed thought that hiring real experts is the way to go when it comes to home repairs.
After meeting several “experts” that opinion has changed. I’ll still hire out some big jobs but I’m going to try to do much of what needs done around my house. And I guess I’ll become competent by watching YouTube videos.
Which brings me to the point of this post. In the three years we’ve lived in this house it’s become apparent that we need to replace our gutters. I noted in another thread that cleaning my gutters is pretty easy but they’re old and full of holes and, well, they need replaced.
I decided to start on the back of the house. This gutter collects about 900 sq. ft. of roof runoff. The previous gutter had one downspout which was, of course, insufficient. It would constantly run over and, this being SW Oregon it rained so much so often that the gutter was running over onto the patio constantly. So a few weeks I decided to tackle my first-ever gutter replacement.
The final result:
(We had a windstorm last night so forgive all the leaves and debris that blew all over creation. I’ll get it raked up when the rain stops. Also forgive the messy porch.)
I installed the gutter with a slight bow to it: it’s about 2” higher in the center than at the ends. The gutter install “experts” on YouTube noted that a gutter should be flat or have a almost imperceptible slope; I decided that’s hogwash. Water flows downhill and the entire point of doing this was to collect water and send it away from the house, not collect water in a trough and hope that it might flow to the downspout if the level gets high enough. I’m convinced that the gutter guys install them nearly level is for aesthetic reasons.
I had to learn how to rivet:
The sealant I used to seal each section works great but I got a bit messy with this one; there’s a bit oozing out of the seam on the bottom. But it is watertight and that’s the important thing.
I had to give some thought to downspout placement. I did not want the downspout to terminate at the ground and allow water to eventually erode a hole in the flower bed. I did not want one of those cheap garbage looking plastic tubes diverting the water from the terminus of the downspout across the yard. Burying a pipe and terminating it in a sump pit likewise wasn’t an option. Since the discharge was off the back porch I didn’t have to worry about water entering the crawlspace. So… what to do…
I settled on having the downspout terminate in a flowerpot filled with gravel. Here:
The flower pot is sitting on a large paver stone that is sitting at a slight angle away from the house. The stone itself is sitting on a wide bed of gravel – the same river gravel that’s in the pot – to help prevent erosion. I chose river gravel as I thought that would reduce the amount of splashing as the water hit it. The water is collected in the pot and then drains down and out. The pot is elevated a bit so the water can flow freely under the pot, across the paver stone, and onto the ground and away from the house.
As you can see from the first pic the corner of our porch is enclosed with louvered glass windows that have a wide sill around the bottom. I needed a way to thread the downspout around that protrusion. The guy at HD recommended a sort of plastic flexible downspout. I scoffed, knowing that it would not only look stupid but also be weak and have a rather short lifespan.
I settled on this configuration:
I’m particularly proud of this side. The original gutter had only one downspout so I added another on this end, hence the need to elevate the gutter in the center of the run.
I cut the end piece at an angle. I thought it would make clean-out a bit easier plus I like the look. It also reduces splashing that’s directed back toward the house. However, the edges were now razor-sharp so I smeared a bit of the seam sealant around the edge to prevent dogs or kids from cutting themselves. I would’ve preferred a cleaner look there but, oh well. You do what you gotta do.
My only screw-up is I cut the final piece of gutter a bit too long and didn’t notice it until I was installing it, when the endcaps were already riveted in place. The gutter is about 3” longer than the span of the roof. Of well. It works. We had a torrential rain a few days ago and the gutter was flowing like a champ, the downspouts were gushing water into the pots that was then running away from the house, and my porch was dry. Now I just need to do the rest of the house.
It’s probably too late for me to try that. I bought a rather expensive oil finish that is advertised as preventing wood from darkening due to weathering and UV exposure. It’s linseed oil based, with other oils derived from plants, and now that I’ve applied it I don’t think that epoxy would adhere properly.
I do have another much smaller project where I want to mount three small but interestingly shaped pieces of limestone into a hardwood plate to hang on a wall. I was planning to cut holes through the hardwood slightly larger that the three pieces of stone and then pour casting epoxy into the gaps to “float” the stones.
@Lancia that looks great, good job. I’ve never installed eaves-trough but when I had someone re-do our house about a decade ago the installer told me that the previous troughs had been attached too level which is one of the reasons they didn’t drain properly and had to be cleaned out more often than I liked.
Did you install leaf guards on top? These are thin flat metal panels with many holes or slots that snap into the gutters. They let water through but keep leaves, twigs and other windblown detritus from filling the gutters, or clogging the downspouts.
Added about 300 square feet of storage to the garage. The shelves hanging down from the top needed 4x6s which I didn’t have, so I added the 4x4s. the other shelving was just concrete screws.
hopefully it all doesn’t fall onto my car.
[Moderator Note - PDF uploads removed]
I don’t think I did the photo thing right.
I don’t think so either. But now I have a lovely upside down picture of your garage on my hard drive, so that’s nice.
Moderator Note
You somehow managed to upload pdf files of the images directly to the SDMB. You’re not supposed to be able to do that, so it looks like I need to go through our site settings.
I have removed these files from your post.
Please note that we are not a hosting site. We do not allow users to upload images of any sort into their posts. The proper way to post images here is to upload them to some other hosting site (I use IMGUR, there are plenty of others available) and then link to those images in your post. If you put the link on a line by itself the image will show up inline with your post.
I see that you created a thread in ATMB asking about the proper way to do this. Please follow the advice that you receive there.
I encourage you to repost the images that I removed, but do make sure that you host them somewhere else and do not try to upload them to this site. We do not allow user uploads here.
I should probably start a thread on my absolute stupidity but I’ll mention it here for laughs.
Many years ago I decided it was a good idea to hot glue pictures and little wooden crafty bits to my kitchen wall and the walls in my office at work.
I recently thought I should repaint my kitchen and discovered this unholy mess.
I did find out that strong alcohol and a plastic paint scraper should do the trick.
I can’t be the only one whose idea of DIY included hot glue.
Hot glue to walls, no. Hot glue to craft things, all the time. There are still Xmas presents in the family I helped my daughter make when she was 7. The hot glue has held up great.
My first house, the builders had wallpapered without priming the sheetrock. Everything failed against 1970 textured wallpaper. Steamers, shredder/ripper tools, wall paper stripper sprays, etc. Worst DIY job ever I think.
I ended up putting 1/4" sheet rock over one wall. Paneling over another and in the hallway, did a lot of spackling and then primed and put up neutral wallpaper.
You need to do the “open image in new tab” thing for each image separately.
https://i.imgur.com/V4uOQKf.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/4e12VW0.jpeg
Decades ago, my mom was depressed because my sister took her angel Christmas tree topper for her own household tree, so for Christmas, I made her a new angel. I used fabric and clothes-hanger wire and cardboard and a styrene foam ball and I can’t even remember what else. And, yes, lots and lots of hot glue.
The worst use of hot glue I ever saw was helping a student with his truck out in the school parking lot. His air intake filter had come loose, and he had tried to fix it with hot glue, with predictable results. I was able to figure out how to attach it properly with a big hose clamp.