Well... I decided to see if I could get the thin ply lettering to work before I ran around trying to get them laser cut again. It didn't work too bad. Some of the letters broke, but I was able to carefully get them back together. Here's what one side looks like. The "D" was the one I had to hand cut (it's on the end). It's a tiny bit more bold than the other D, but won't be noticed.
Both sides came out satisfactorily so I texted Andre and told him that he didn't need to cut new letters for this one. If we make more I'll be sure to include them with the cutting.
Next up was painting and finishing the vents, and then making the flashing and finally installing them. I again used the wine-bottle foil for the flashing and it works really well.
Before attaching the E-Z Line guy wires I installed the small wire eyes into the roof breaking two #77 carbide bits in the process. I then weathered the roof with Dr. Brown's powders (White, Grimy Black and Mildew Green). I used one of my wife's makeup sponges to apply the powder. It works better than brushing it on. I also added some rust stains before the eyes, and on the vents themselves. Here's the roof completed with the guys attached.
I.m going to dry brush some more rust in specific areas to highlight those areas. For those of you who haven't ever used it, Tamiya has a new color, "Burnt Iron" that is a very dark, slightly metallic brown, and it's terrific for exhaust pipes and any hot iron area. It looks great on the vents. I also did a base coat of rusty red in case I wanted to lightly sand off the dark coat, but the brown looked so good I left it alone and then smudged on some rusty red powders.
Those snow fences kept popping off all day. The CA doesn't hold to the chemically blackened brass. When they come off, I rough sanded the mating surface and re-glued them. This seems to have solved the problem.
The next thing was the gutters. I'm using a new approach which is closing the gutter ends by cutting the sides and folding up the ends. In this way I can close them without soldering or adding addition pieces. It worked in most cases. A couple of times the piece broke off as I attempted to hammer it into the place. So in this case I shaped a piece that fit into the space and soldered it with the RSU.
I also purchased a set of K-S tubing bending springs. I tried them on a same downspout and it worked pretty well. I annealed the brass with a torch first so it would bend without tearing and then bent the bottom curve around a mandrel. It will save me a bunch of cutting, bending and soldering steps.
I was able to make all six gutters today. I center-punched them to receive the 1/8" hole for the downspouts. These will be soldered. And I did the same for the brass wires that will be soldered it to serve as attachment points to the roof. I think that the bottom curve is a little broad, but it should work. There is also and "S" curve that spaces the pipe back toward the building. These will be chemically treated to darken them and then give them green patina.
Everyone have a nice weekend. I don't know about you, but as I age, the weeks are going by faster and faster. A week feels like 3 days. When I was working, some weeks felt like 9 days. Perhaps it's because, I have so much stuff to do that I really like. I can fill every minute of every day. It's a good way to be.
