Another Baffle for the Home Studio

Earlier this year I had the priviledge of helping some clients convert part of their home into a home studio.  This was no ordinary conversion either- we vaulted ceilings, added lots of mineral wool insulation, and then built enough acoustical treatments to make a room inside the room.  It was a blast.  (See these posts).

Anyway, they called me again today to build a couple more baffles to stick in the corners to help absorb more of the low end frequencies in the control room downstairs. 

The majority of the baffles were made out of a wood frame around mineral wool insulation that is covered with acoustical fabric.  These are hung from the ceiling to absorb reflections and hopefully help the engineer get an accurate impression of the recording.

To fight those pesky low frequencies, I took 4" thick mineral wool insulation and built a small frame with some 1x2 that would go on the back.  This would offer some support, but mainly I needed a place to staple the fabric.  At this thickness, the insulation will basically stand on it's own in the corner.

I put these in each corner behind the baffles I had previously made.  I'm not an acoustic engineer, but my client tells me that the lower frequencies should get trapped in the airspace behind the new thick insulation and hopefully reduce the boomy low end and make it clearer.

Right.  I just built the baffles and installed them.  He says it sounds better.  That works for me!  :)

-Peter

http://www.carpentryguy.com/

Set A Post For A Birdhouse

This must be 'odd jobs' week... After doing some siding repairs on their sunroom, a homeowner wanted me to put a birdhouse in her backyard on a post. They have quite a bit of wildlife back there and the birds had been kicked out of the house... (remember this post?)

So I bought a 10' pressure treated 4x4 and dug a 2' hole that was probably 10" across or so. I leveled the post and braced it using some spare lumber and a couple 2x4 stakes that I made. This would hold it in place while the cement set up.

I used Quickrete's fast-setting concrete mix that you can use for posts without even mixing! You just pour the mix into the hole and add 1/2 gallon of water for each bag you use. My hole took 2 bags.

Next, I built a couple brackets to hold the birdhouses out of pressure treated 2x4 and attached them using some 3" and 2 1/2" deck screws. By the time I had these brackets cut and assembled the concrete was solid and ready to go! The bag said 20-40 minutes to set up and it was right.

I attached the brackets and the birdie's new home. Now it's ready for it's first residents...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Camera Platform for PBS Special

An unusual job came along this week. Some clients of mine, who are incredible musicians and performers, are preparing to record a live concert to be broadcast on PBS later this year. There's a lot that goes into production of such an event.

My job was to build a large platform that would hold the 'jib' camera. That's the camera that has a 30' boom arm on it to get those sweeping-long-angle shots. The platform would be 9' x 9' and need to support 1000 lbs. It would need to be extremely stable so that as the operator moved it would not bounce around. It would also need to span 3 rows of theater seats and be level even though the floor is sloped.

Whew! What an order, eh?

The basic plan was to build two 4.5' x 9' platforms that bolted together in the middle. I would make it using 2x6 lumber with 16" spacing covered with 3/4" plywood. The legs would be bolted as well to make it easier to take apart and move.

I started by building the basic platforms. I added some braces across the middle where I knew the plywood seams would be. Because of the large size, a single piece of plywood would not span the entire frame.

I built legs for each corner as well as two at either end of the middle joint where the two platforms were bolted together with 1/2" carriage bolts. These center legs would hold the majority of the weight.

This morning I painted it black and moved it to the venue. At this point, all the legs were the same length. However, once it was set up in the auditorium I had a couple of guys lift up the low edge and hold it level, while I 'sistered' each leg with another 2x6, making them the right length to level the top.

I added an extra brace under the middle to reduce the 'wiggle', but now it's ready for action.

If you're in the area, I hope you'll check out Annie Moses Band on July 9th at Lipscomb University's Collin's Auditorium (more info on their website). If you miss that, you can catch them on PBS this winter.

All brought to you by a special camera platform made with love...

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Keep the Birds Out of Your House!

Birds live in nests, right?

Well, not always...

At today's project, the birds had made their way into the walls of a client's sunroom. They seemed to have moved on for now, so it was time to do some repairs.

The exterior walls of the sunroom were covered in 8" cedar bevelled lap siding. It's just like the wood siding that you find on older homes, except that it's cedar and doesn't have to be painted. One drawback with cedar is that the boards can be somewhat brittle, meaning that they may split over time, and birds can dig their way through knot holes and make a home in the walls.

I started loosening the nails and removing siding when I saw into one of the nests and found that the animals had worn much of the insulation off of an electrical wire that supplies the outlets in the sunroom. There were bare wires showing! It's amazing that no birds got killed and the wire didn't short out... or worse!

Now my day of siding repair included some electrical repairs as I fished a new wire through the walls to replace the damaged one.

This is a prime example of why birds should stick to nests... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

An Unusual Job with a Nice View!

I get asked to do all kinds of work for people. I enjoy that kind of variety. Today, was certainly an unusual chore.

My dad has been diving into amateur, also known as ham, radio. As he gets more serious, he also gets more antennae! Today, he wanted me to take down the old TV antenna that hasn't been used for years and replace it with one that will broaden his radio reception.

The tower tops out around 32 feet high and I made sure to have a safety belt on. I could attach the belt to the tower, which allowed me the use of both hands. It took a few trips up and down, but I got the old one off and installed a new rotor and the new antenna that had a 20 foot span.

We also grouted some tile, but that didn't seem nearly as interesting... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com