Another day of screwing the deck

     A beautiful day of winter sunshine and some more decking drilled.

     The moment the smoke came out of the hole was captured, it looks like a smoking gun!

     I figured out that if I give the screw a 'bang' into the wood before I start screwing, it stops the screw dancing around and makes it easier to put the screw exactly where I want it. Two more lines of screws finished, each one neater than the last.

     I also measured and sawed a plank of merbau to length to help finish off the end of the deck. I had to go through about 7 planks before I found one which was not bent out of shape. The planks are all a bit out of whack so getting them to line up against each other without big gaps will be a bit of jigsaw puzzle!

     I put the measurement line underneath the plank, and so turned it over to cut it. This unfortunately meant that the messy side of the cut was uppermost at the end.

     Next time I suppose I should turn the plank over and then draw the line, so that I can saw from the top. I will just have to make sure that none of the line is left showing at the end as it would be a bit unsightly.

Screwing the Decking

     The decking has been nearly half screwed in now, looking good...

     It is so lovely to finally have somewhere on this 17 acres that I can comfortably walk barefoot - pure bliss!

     I was given a demo on how to screw in the screws, a bit more tricky than it may seem at first. The screw has to screw through the wood first, and then through the metal underneath.

     The hole in the wood is a little oversized due to the wings on the bottom part of the screw, so it is a little difficult to stop it from wiggling around sideways. And as the screws are heavily galvanised to protect from rust, they are not very sharp for cutting through wood. This means that it generates a lot of heat as it spins around quickly while very slowly moving downward, so some lovely wood smoke comes out of the hole and the sawdust comes out looking a bit black and singed. (Don't worry, it is not a bushfire hazard.)

     When the screw finally hits the metal it suddenly screws downwards very quickly. The wrists get a bit sore as it requires a fair bit of downward pressure, unfortunately the screw cannot be relied on to do the work for us.
     After doing a couple of rows I thought my screw lines looked a bit wiggly, as there were being lined up by sight from a plank layed down beside them. I fetched the chalk line from the shed and had a go at using that instead.

     It is a very pretty blue line, so that was nice, but not sure if it made much of a difference to my straight screwing! The screws always do a little dance at the start and end up a fraction of a millimetre all over the place. After only 2 hours of screwing the cordless drill battery was completely flat, and the wrists were a bit sore. The generator has blown up so we are without electricity for recharging batteries at the moment. Next step is to cut the rest of the merbau to length.

    * Oh and I forgot to mention in the last update - also the 3rd post of the verandah had been erected! Did anyone notice it in the photos?

Verandah Joists

     The verandah joists have been put in, looking very nice.

     The merbah decking has also started being cut to size, leaving some cute little short bits to make castles with.