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Next pageI paint the bases a little, glue them down, and cut them out.
The three boards have different colored bases, so I do some painting before
I glue on the deck. I want to put a strip of paint
down on the circle where the deck meets the base because if I do it after I
glue, it will be difficult getting complete coverage without getting paint on
the deck. I lay the deck onto the base and draw pencil line
around the deck circle. This is "Mount Doom", so I painted a swath of gold
over the pencil line. (I use a special tool that I made to help me position
the deck on the base. I will show it to you in a moment.)
If I am staining the base, I stain now before I glue down the deck. I also stain the inner side of two rails. I do this because wood does not absorb stain if the wood has been touched by glue. It is much easier if I stain parts before I glue them together.
I glue the decks to their bases, which I can do even before I have completely
finished the decks. First I need to position them so that
they are 2" from the edge on all sides. (The ditch will be 2" wide.) I have
made a tool to help me do this. I cut a piece of scrap wood down to 2" minus
the radius of the pencil, which I then taped to the pencil. By holding the tool
against the deck, I can draw a circle around the deck, which will give
me a line 2" out where the rails will be glued. For now I use it to center the
deck by making sure the pencil touches wood on all sides.
When I have the deck centered, I carefully stick tape on the base with a tape edge
aligned to the deck. The inside edge of the tape is a marker that tells me where I
should put the deck after I have picked it up to apply glue. It also gives me a
line so I know where I should apply glue on the deck and where I need to sand
(removing some paint in this case). I use tape as a marker instead of a pencil
so that I do not have to erase pencil marks at the joint.
I clamp the deck to the base, and I wipe off any squeezed-out glue.
I use scrap wood on the surface so that I do not mark it.
I won’t have problems with the glue messing up the base’s unfinished wood because
I painted it before I glued.
After the glue has dried, I use my pencil tool to draw a circle around the deck,
which marks the boundaries for the rails. If the pencil won’t mark paint,
I put down some masking tape and run the pencil over it.
I then carefully cut the outside circle in my band saw or jigsaw.
I finish by sanding down spots I missed.