Today we needed to get the plywood ends put on, as well as getting the side door framed in.
An aside; it’s interesting to me how adding one tool to the shop can turn what used to be an impossible task into something you don’t even think about. Without a table saw, cutting up a full sheet of plywood is a chancy maneuver (I absolutely detest hand-held circular saws; it always feels like I’m about to lose a limb when I use one). With a table saw (and the proper side tables and a helper — thanks, Kristi! — to catch the pieces coming out the other end, of course), it’s pretty straightforward. We cut the two endpieces in a few minutes, then spent several hours figuring out how they’d get installed. I also ripped several boards to a particular width I needed, something that I couldn’t even consider without a table saw. OK, really; back to the show.
The end nearest the roosts needed to become 2 doors. We thought a lot about hinge placement, swing direction, etc, and ended up having to cut some spacer blocks to make the hinges work properly. I really dislike the design of the coop — the legs being on the inside of the corners has been a constant source of irritation throughout the build. I also hate hitting my head on the rafters, but that’s another show. Spacers in, hinges installed (required a trip to Home Depot, of course, for more screws, and an extra quarter-sheet of ply), and I could concentrate on the opposite end.
The end opposite the roost has the chickens’ door. I decided during the build to make something that could be easily automated, so I spent some time putting together a track system that would allow the door to be hooked up to a pulley (to start) or a motor (at some point) to allow the coop door to be fairly securely shut and yet easily opened. That part was probably the most fun I’ve had on the whole build.
While Kristi was off getting supplies, I cut and built the frame for the side door. We are using repurposed wood for the door frame, and I was able to reuse some wood for the frame itself, too! Very satisfying. I went out on a limb and decided to miter the edges of the doorframe; it looks awesome, but of course my close-tolerance carpentry is not really up to snuff, so it didn’t fit… as well as you’d want. sigh. It went together.
I used Gorilla Glue to hold the corners of the door together, but at the last minute, I forgot to wear nitrile gloves while using the glue. That’s the sort of mistake you only make once; my fingertips are going to look like hell for several days now. oh well.
Installing the side door required some modification to one rafter to allow the door to swing. Something else that could have been called out in the design. hmph.
By the end of the day, I was pretty well fried on chicken coop building. All that’s left is to get the hardware cloth on, and the coop moved, and the build is done. The hardware cloth can’t take more than a few hours to complete, so hopefully we’ll have at least 4 chickens out of the shop (or at least out of the brooding box) before this weekend. w00t.
By the way, we had a near tragedy. The younger set of chicks knocked their heat lamp over, which started smouldering in the sawdust… The whole shop was filled with smoke. Luckily everyone lived, but that was Not Good. We need to get the chickens moved into a better living situation.