Good for you
As an old carpenter I knew said: We ain't building a piano, ya know

I am not an entertainer or performer.....so I don't allow anyone to watch me work. The last time a customer took issue with my methods, I said nothing.. packed up my tools....never went back:wavey:

Here is a handy calculator app for finding angles...I use it a lot when doing stair work. I set it to side / angle / side and put in the rise and run of my stairway. It gives me both the level and verticle angles of all the cuts... I can set my saw to the given angles with confidence.
https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calcu...e-theorems.php

I think they tried to teach me all that in high school :deadhorse:

Catholic grammar school had us doing square root, long-hand in fifth grade....not that I remember how...:shocked:
A pitch block is an old school method of getting the angles and has other important uses.... including getting newel post the correct height for any given location.

Bob, you use the sure-tite hardware?

I'm using the ones in this video....when the situation allows. Some of my posts are teneoned down through into the floor framing.
https://youtu.be/uNMy2FdlW-M
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These new houses all have a lot of prefinished hardwood flooring.
No more sand in place for now. Upside for me is we have to hookup and run the AC to keep the humidity low...also dehumidifiers in basement ......otherwise the flooring may absorb too much moisture and start cupping.

#^&#^&#^&#^&stains framing a house across the street wearing hooded sweatshirts..... with temps in the low 90's.:huh:
Co-worker of mine couldn't find his four foot level he was just using after looking everywhere he had been....I said "check with the framers they "borrow stuff" without asking".....Bingo.

Developer I'm working for is going all-out to build as many homes as possible in this booming economy. Demand is incredible for these smaller homes on ridiculously small lots, all pre-sold before construction begins. Current subdivision of 54 lots all sold and finished. Already breaking ground on another large tract of land, with no slowdown in sight. Sales people have told me that their job is easy, largely due to quality of interior finish materials and workmanship in comparison to other builders. Also our homes are Energy Star certified, which means they meet standards beyond the current building codes for energy efficiency.

When my ex hired some guys she had worked with before to build us a nice deck years ago I had to calculate the baluster spacing for them and they still managed to forget to subtract for the top riser so that tread was 3/4 off. And I've never built a set of stairs in my life.

I went to a small Catholic school where we were drilled relentlessly ...while the nun teacher walked the ailes ...slamming a ruler on the desks of students slow to respond.
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Bob, you and I now have the luxury of working with top grade materials and doing the job right the first time. Many clients are looking for the cheap route, which ends up costing more in the end. You are in the build end. I am in the remodeling end, so I get to see a lot of crappy work... and crappy or sometimes incorrect materials they used. (Many of these homes are hundreds of years old. It is the more recent work that is crappy.) Fortunately I am now at a point where I can choose my jobs for the most part and definitely choose who I want to work for, or not. I will not do band aids. Period. Do it right, or call someone else.
I used to charge the same across the board, but when I do get into a situation now, I will tack a difficulty tax into the estimate.... Life is short from this vantage point and there are way too many hacks putting their names on trucks and getting work that they have no business doing....

News reports seem to suggest people don't event want to get into construction jobs these days...I wonder of the finer aspects of the trade will just die off or become so expensive only the wealthy can afford them. It might already be this way now.

My master stairs are almost 160 years old and aside from a few tweaks needed looks as good as new. Neighbor's was made by the same guy a few years earlier and looks even better.

Spence...both of my sons... who are grown men with good jobs, never showed any interest in going into the carpentry or building trades. I remember someone asking my youngest if he wanted to be a carpenter like his dad. His response was "no"and when asked why not? he said "My dad always comes home from work dirty and tired and his back hurts"

Yeah Ross...our industry has no qualifying standards.....nowadays anybody who straps on a tool belt calls themselves a carpenter.
I think you are right to tack on a difficulty tax........some customers you can tell going in that they will be difficult....I use to add money to cover something I call the ashhole quotient.

Kind of like canal fishing :laugha:

Three sons got a hammer in their hands around age 14, it stuck on one...
Best thing I coulda done...
all four of us on the same frame a couple times, I was on cloud nine...

That's great Ray!

Both of my boys chose a profession that will take good care of them and their families. Youngest is a bar manager at a private country club....some weeks makes as much or more than a master carpenter. The other is a land surveyor and cad operator for an established engineering company with opportunity to advance

The construction trade I went into as an 18 year old 45 years ago has changed dramatically. Over time it has become the bastion of illegal immigrants......wages are suppressed......their shoddy work has become acceptable.......they pay no taxes, workmans comp, unemployment insurance, health ins....sick days holidays...etc.

Many days I dont hear or see another english speaking worker

A once proud profession has been ruined...sadly I wont be missing it when I retire in a few years. Glad that my boys dont have to compete on this out of level playing field.

Got to know one of the coyotes who smuggles these workers up here. When they hit the ground here they owe the man $3,000...which means they work for nothing until it's paid off. Then he can fire them or keep them on at less than minimum wage.....and if they get hurt...they are on their own and disappear.

there's a special place in hell for that guy:af::splat:


I have to meet you someday soon, maybe we can go fishing

Slip....c'mon down..... maybe after work sometime.... I'm always happy to show off my homemade boat...hang out in the man cave.. have a cold one...tell some fishing tales...etc.

At age 17, before my high school graduation ceremony, I got a job with a construction company run by two hard-XXX red neck brothers. The crew would meet up at 5 am and make the drive to cape cod where we framed condominiums.

Every Friday, the boss would point to a load of lumber and tell me to load it on the truck. Didn't think nothing about it and did as I was told. Now these two guys were always talking about a camp they had up in Maine, and all the hell raising and drinking that went on up there. Eventually they invited me to go up with them for some R&R. When we arrived there I commented about the fine looking cottage they had built. Thats when I realized it had been built with all the lumber they were stealing.......and I was loading on the truck!

Sure thing, not sure when as I have not had much free time lately at all
Would love to see the boat

For accuracy and good fitting crown moulding joints, I make a block of wood that represents the wall and ceiling coverage...then mark the wall, ceiling and miter saw so that the moulding is cut and then nailed at the same angle. Without these marks you are just guessing. In this case I'm installing crown moulding on a fireplace mantle that I am building.

Great illustration of how to make repetitive cuts of the correct spring angle. Many DIYers assume the spring angle is 45 degrees. It is not, normally.
I also make idiot blocks of miter cuts and mark them for left inside, right inside, left outside and right outside. This helps me avoid errors in setting up the saw and cutting the wrong end of the stock, which can be costly. Also helps avoiding cutting upside down.

It is worth noting that I back cut the inside joints whenever possible.

I have been a craftsman for 30 years, mostly working with glass, but also in metal, wood and occasionally composites and I have to say... crown molding Was the most frustrating project I have ever worked on. That’s where I learned the saying “putty and paint makes it what it ain’t”.
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Nebe....i love doing crown moulding....its one of my favorite jobs and ive installed miles of it...mostly by myself ...very simple really and if you try the technique i showed, i think you would see much better results. As far as installing it in large rooms solo....i have found methods that make it a cinch.
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Simple mantel for gas fireplace will all be painted white. I like working with poplar....tile guys will do 6" border.

Do you lap those or just stick them in?

I do similar with crown around a room. First I make up short lengths of a examples of inside corner and an outside corner if there are any. I use those to pencil mark the ceiling and walls. Then when nailing a piece going into a corner just hold back with the last couple nails so the cope piece fits perfect, then get the last 2 nails nailed. Of course sometimes you have to cram a putty knife in the joint for a while til glues sets up. There are so many tricks I can't even describe them all as I am sure it just comes second nature to you too Bob.

Nice looking mantle!

Bruce...excellent tip in there about leaving out the last few nails of the first piece so that the coped end can control and improve the fit of the joint. I do that .....there are ways of doing things that we are sometimes taught by others....and other times it is born out of trial and error.:smash: