1st coop construction progress

[jthornton]

@Skellington DeWalt does not change the battery configuration for the same voltage. IIRC some tools can use multiple voltage battery packs. If you have 20v DeWalt tools then all 20v batteries fit, I have a 20v drill from years ago when they first came out and my latest is the circular saw I got a few months ago and it's the same 20v battery. I don't know about other brands...

JT

 

[aart]

<smackshead> shoulda bought a Dewalt!

 

[Skellington]

@jthornton Now, THAT is good to know! Moves DeWalt right up the list for me, for sure. I have Porter Cable tools and experienced what @aart did -- batteries give out, and the company no longer makes batteries that fit. Dad said that of all the battery tools he's had, Hitachi is the one that doesn't change batteries, so i I decide to buy new cordless tools those are the two companies I'll be looking at (and I'll only buy from ONE, because being able to swap batteries back and forth is great).

I didn't get any work on the coop done last weekend, but we've got an unseasonable run of dry weather this weekend, so I'm trying to figure out what to tackle. Thinking out loud here --

• Cut purlins, paint, and roof the run. Requires using a friend's table saw and picking up the roofing material across town. Unlikely, because I don't think we're going to get warm enough for latex paint. ...which means that's probably stuck until February.
• Bite the bullet and start building the actual coop bit. Have to pick up some new lumber, and have to get the structure done all the way up to rafters or I end up with a weird shape that'll give me a swimming pool when I tarp it over. Since I've got a crazy plan for two different rooflines (no way like the hard way!) it'll end up a two-tarp job, but that's alright.
• Do little jobs like angle braces and the one missing vertical that are nessecary but can be done pretty much any time.

...seeing it all written out like that, Option 2 seems like the only sensible way to spend a 3 day weekend!

...if I can just get this job application and this freelance work done first...

 

[Chad Oftedal]

Just a couple things to add about the DeWalt batteries - in addition to everything that has been mentioned so far.

For the older 18 volt tools, they make an adapter that takes the 20v battery. So, even when they do move forward, they let you keep your investment by offering (technically, you do still have to buy it) you a "bridge" adapter so to speak so you can keep using those older tools on the new battery technology. This was the case that my dad ran in to, but with the adapter, he's off and running again. I like those touches in a company.

Also, with the newer FlexVolt (successor to the 20v), they've done another nice thing. For instance, the double bevel sliding compound mitre saw comes with two FlexVolt 60v batteries. Those FlexVolt batteries have the same connection as the 20v tools. So, you can slide a 60v battery on to the 20v tool, and get loads of runtime. I ended up using the corded adapter that comes with the mitre saw, and that allowed me to use the FlexVolt batteries on my hand tools.

 

[Skellington]

That's good to know, @Chad Oftedal. It certainly speaks well of the company. (Also, hello up in Woodinville!).

At this point I may cave to the cables and get a corded circular saw, because I'm just asking too much of the battery powered ones, but I'm still going to upgrade other battery tools. Turns out no one's battery powered saws really want to cut 12 inches through a 2x4 to make pretty rafter tapers.

...which leads me to the weekend's progress (sans pictures because it was dark out when I finally gave up). I got all the six uprights, two beams, and six rafters cut for the 'coop' part of my combined coop-and-run. I didn't quite get the rafters installed. If I'd been smart and borrowed the corded saw from the beginning, maybe I could've, but as it was... well, I was tired and it's Washington in November, so at the point where I realized I was out of screws and I'd just attached a rafter backwards in the dark I decided to down tools for the weekend.

I should be able to get the backwards rafters removed and all six firmly and correctly fastened next Friday. Then I can share pictures of the coop-tower on my chicken palalace.

(The neighbor who loaned me the saw ducked to check out the run. "Dude, you don't have to duck! You can stand up inside if you're 6'6, even though I'm only 5'4"!" This thing is taller than the attic bedroom I had as a kid. I feel... slightly embarrassed about the scope of my chicken project.

...I hope I like keeping chickens.)

 

[aart]

and I'd just attached a rafter backwards in the dark I decided to down tools for the weekend.

Yeah, that's good time to stop to stop screw-ing around, let alone running a saw.
Looking forward to your next installment!

 

[Skellington]

Here we are! Got out today and fixed the coop rafters. Now you can see the whole overly complicated outline.

 

[aart]

That's Sweet!

 

[Cryss]

 

[Skellington]

There was a long hiatus (rain! Holidays! Illness! Totally unexpected record snowstorm!), but yesterday I had a mini work party. My folks and a stonemason/carpenter friend came over, my sweetheart manned the galley, and we got it roofed!

Having recently experienced an atypical, record snowfall, we didn't skimp on blocking. I cut, dad and Tom installed and measured (and notched, in a few places). They managed the sheetstock, and used it to square up the higher roof a bit. I tar-papered, fastened the roll roofing, and got covered in sticky roofing tar... because as the lightest person there, I was the safest on the roof. Kinda fun to see my yard from that vantage point!

We left one of the corrugated panels off so I have access to the high part of the coop roof for painting.

As usual, this all would have been MUCH SIMPLER if I'd gone the Wichita-cabin everything-under-one-shed-roof route, or if I'd used standard lumber dimensions (I chose to base it off not cutting hardware cloth any more than necessary, instead). Oops. I'm an artist, I've gotta make everything hard.

My next step is to finish the coop part, because I have chicks in the laundry room that will need a place to be within the next few weeks. Too bad, because I know what the next step is on the run and I'm not 100% sure what the next step is on the coop. I might have to make more of the back wall solid CDX because it really wants to rack that way. Hrmph.