BillFitzmaurice.info

Here's my J10L build so far: I didn't think to take any pictures up to this point, but here's where I'm at now:



The bending panel on the right was the first time I've tackled this technique, and the errant and haphazard stapling was the result.



It was pretty stressful and it ended going in a little crooked, but not so bad that PL couldn't fill in the gab visible on the bottom. A bit of Bondo should clean it up nicely. The panel on the left went a lot better.



The plans call for clamping or screwing the guide board to the baffle. I figured out that I could just shoot four 5/8" brads through the guide board into the baffle, and it held well. I confess I was a little nervous about the brads holding the stress from the bending panel. A couple light hits with a hammer popped the guide board right off.

Here's the look from the inside:



I'm doing the J10L for two reasons: To lighten the tailgate rig, and as a practice for learning the techniques before I start putting the J115L together (I'm going to start another thread for that one so I'll won't mix up pictures). I'll keep posting as I go along and remember to take pictures.

And a helpful hint: Along with wearing safety glasses while using the nail guns, I learned pretty quick it's a good idea to throw on the ear protection too. Those things are loud.

-Nathan

I'm glad to see someone else staples like me!! Nice looking build so far.

Thanks Chris. It's fun learning these new techniques. Even though it's higher on the BFM difficulty scale, I like working with the 1/4" and 1/8" ply more than the 1/2". It's much easier on the jigsaw. It's also been fun getting new toys. I'm using a Bostitch 18g brad gun and a Bostitch 18g narrow crown stapler. They were not the cheapest options, but they have worked very well so far, and hopefully will last for a while.

I've made some progress on the build, and snapped a few pictures. Hats off to the guys who take the time to thoroughly document their builds. I'm much too impatient to stop and take pictures at every step, and I don't have an assistant to snap action shots. But back to the building:

The duct braces ended up a little bit too big to slide under the baffle:


No problem though, I just taped them together and hit them with the orbital sander (sorry, no sanding action shots)



Once the duct braces were slimmed down a bit, they fit right under. I glued them down and shot a few brads through the top/bottom. Only missed with two brads, so that was a bonus. I don't have any pictures of installing the duct, but it fit right in with only a little bit of trimming. I found that a cheap four-sided rasp works really well for getting these pieces to fit. A few brads into the duct braces, and through the baffle secured the ducts in place. I found that the hot-gluing of the sheath braces to be one of the most difficult parts (even though any kindergartner could have done it expertly). I've become accustomed to having as much time as I want to position pieces using PL. The hot glue set faster than I anticipated, but I got parts where they needed to be. The hot glue holds surprisingly well.

Got one of the duct sheaths installed.



It wasn't too difficult. Space is pretty tight in there, though. I couldn't figure out a good way to get the staple gun positioned to get the staples parallel to the duct, so I ended up shooting them perpendicular to the duct. I didn't shoot any staples through my fingers, and the sheath stayed tacked in place, so I'm going to call it a success. The staples didn't seat very well in the 1/8" ply, so now I have to figure out if I want to drive the staples in with a punch, or pull them. I'm leaning towards pulling, but any advice would be much welcome.

So here's where I am right now. Getting close, but I've figured out that the last quarter takes as long as the first three when doing these things. Still, it's a good time.

If you let the PL set for a few days you can take a Dremel with the sanding drum attachment and grind the staples down. Make sure you wear your safety glasses because it will throw sparks and pieces of staples in your face. After you have them all ground out you will have small depressions where the sanding drum was working. These are ready made for filling with body filler or glazing putty and hand sanding till smooth.
This is the easiest method that I have found to deal with exposed staples.

biggerrigger wrote:If you let the PL set for a few days you can take a Dremel with the sanding drum attachment and grind the staples down. Make sure you wear your safety glasses because it will throw sparks and pieces of staples in your face. After you have them all ground out you will have small depressions where the sanding drum was working. These are ready made for filling with body filler or glazing putty and hand sanding till smooth.
This is the easiest method that I have found to deal with exposed staples.

Can't you just give the staples a hit with a hammer before the PL sets? This is what I did when building cabinets for the shop.

lowsound

ncgrove wrote:The staples didn't seat very well in the 1/8" ply, so now I have to figure out if I want to drive the staples in with a punch, or pull them.

Seating them is a lot less work than pulling them.

iamlowsound wrote:

biggerrigger wrote:If you let the PL set for a few days you can take a Dremel with the sanding drum attachment and grind the staples down. Make sure you wear your safety glasses because it will throw sparks and pieces of staples in your face. After you have them all ground out you will have small depressions where the sanding drum was working. These are ready made for filling with body filler or glazing putty and hand sanding till smooth.
This is the easiest method that I have found to deal with exposed staples.

Can't you just give the staples a hit with a hammer before the PL sets? This is what I did when building cabinets for the shop.

lowsound

Yes you could do it that way. But I bet I can grind down 50 staples at 35,000rpm faster than you can smack 50 of them with a hammer and punch. Plus I would have not hit my cab with a hammer 50 times.

I found the operating pressure of the gun affected staple depth, but also gun handling/positioning technique (i.e. staple exit hole pushed hard up) and in this case actually getting the gun on the job and curvature of the sheath are factors, the former being dependent on gun shape and geometry. Got to do my minor horn sheaths next - let's see how well i do.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Just like first using PL, I probably used twice the number of staples than were required. I'm sure I'll be a staple finishing expert by the time I'm done. My guess is that I'll start out punching them, get frustrated and break out the Dremmel, and after almost boring a hole through the sheath, get extra frustrated and go back to the punch.

The Bostitch stapler isn't too big, but the space inside the horn sheathes is a little tight in the J10L. It gets even more crowded with one hand bending the sheet, and me trying to avoid stapling a finger to the cab. That's why I shot the staples perpendicular to the duct. Oh well. Luckily, there are two legs to a staple, and you only need one of them to hit.

Got the other throat sheath installed today. Went better than the first, but I probably ended up using too many staples again. Oh well.



I decided it was a good time to assemble the back since I had the air compressor filled up and the brad nailer ready to go. Here's aligning and securing one of the braces before tacking it in place:



Repeat a few times, and the back is ready to go, minus a hole for a jack terminal:



I laid out the driver spacer on some Auraco scraps that I glued together and sanded down pretty smooth. Just need to get a few minutes to spend quality time with the jigsaw. That's my compass full of drywall screws. When making circles or arcs, I like to score the wood first, then go over the groove with the pencil. It makes some pretty good lines. And after discovering the mechanical pencil, I can't imagine going back to a normal pencil. No sharpening is a huge bonus.



It's coming together really nice.

-Nathan

While noting that I haven't built a Jack Lite, but I think that you are using double the staples that you need. One every 2 inches should be lots.

lowsound

iamlowsound wrote:While noting that I haven't built a Jack Lite, but I think that you are using double the staples that you need. One every 2 inches should be lots.

lowsound

He's just doing what every Texan has been taught..... if you gotta' shoot it - might as well empty the whole magazine!

Bruce Weldy wrote:He's just doing what every Texan has been taught..... if you gotta' shoot it - might as well empty the whole magazine!

Amen to that! Testify, Brother Bruce!