Sunday, December 11, 2011

Giant Tears

Since my last update, I finished cutting out the second story walls and floor. It took about a week of nights in the garage after the kids were asleep to paint and add the windows.

Thursday night, I was finally ready to assemble. I glued and clamped up the ground floor. First problem - my sliding doors are 1/8" but the wood from the kit was just shy of 1/4" so the upper track I added to hold the doors in place, snapped off when the doors overlapped to open. I'm going to replace two of the four panels with 3/32" and that should give enough room for everything to move smoothly. The big disaster came the next morning. The glue didn't hold. It cracked when I moved it and one wall fell down and another was disconnected.

I assumed I didn't clamp well enough, so for the second floor, I clamped the heck out of it on Friday night. I used almost every clamp we had. But come Saturday, despite being super clamped, the long wall was only connected to the floor a quarter of the length. After some Giant tears, I read the back of the wood glue bottle, and it recommends 45 degrees or higher. It was definitely closer to 40 degrees in the garage, so I think it was too cold for the glue to set properly. Tonight, I brought both floors inside and am praying the warmer temperature will set the glue properly this time.
At this point I figured I would be a lot further along. I'm not sure I'll finish in time, but I haven't thrown in the towel yet.

8 comments:

  1. Despite the problems that you are describing I can see great progress.I can not wait to see it finished.

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  2. Bummer about the glue! I bet it is because of the temperature. It looks good despite the glue incident...and vaguely familiar. LOL! I can't wait to see the finished product!

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  3. I imagine without a roof or cross member to brace the walls, the glue is absorbing quite a bit of stress. Miniature structural engineer required?

    Despite the problems, the whole thing looks fabulous =0)

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  4. You can do it, Megan!! Keep it up! Looks AMAZING.

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  5. How frustrating! I never realized that the temperature would be of influence as I always work indoors, but yes, that must be it. I have heard of problems with glue setting due to high humidity as well.
    And I just remembered something which happened during a class I was teaching two years ago, one student's glue just would not set, whatever we did, it kept coming apart. I finally figured out she was using older glue. Yes! Glue has a shelf life as well. When she used my glue, it came together in half an hour.
    Keep going! I look forward to the progress.

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  6. It looks great so far, Megan. I love the wall of sliding windows/doors. You make me want to work on my Fascination Station. Ugh---I do need to get crafty. Someday...

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  7. I am sending encouraging thoughts your way! I seriously doubt I will be done in time. We need some one to represent for Modern Minis in the Creatin'Contest. :-)

    P.S. Thanks for the heads up about my non-working comments. All is fixed with a new theme.

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  8. Are you kidding that is one hot design! That alone should solidify that glue. We are designers... not Santa's workshop! (Ok don't tell the kids). xoxo CM

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