Posting a Post on Posts

Happy Labor Day Everyone,

Windy and pleasant weekend.  Worked on finishing up a porch post.  Painted and striped it.  Then we put it up and took two more down to work on.  This has been a cumbersome job the way we were doing it.  We were taking them completely apart and Lynn came up with the idea that we would just take off one side and drop the solid core into the middle and put the piece back on top.  Now why didn’t I think of that?  The thought was to run it through the band saw and do it that way, but those are 8 foot posts and would be quite a job handling the bulky post.  If you remember from previous posts, no pun intended.  The posts were hollow and the original glue failed.  Well a picture is worth a thousand words, so here goes.

Taped and painted the colors on the turned post

Here comes the wind and the dust.

Dust storm headed this way.

Two more posts ready to take the top off and drop in a solid core.  We decided that it might be easier to do it with a skill saw than a band saw.  Well I don’t like handling the skill saw, so that little chore is all Lynn’s.  The band saw I would try as I feel more confident with a stationary piece rather that something I could actually drop on my toes.  Too clumsy for a skill saw.

Raw posts needing attention

As you can see there are a lot of cracks to be glued and Bondo’ed and primed and painted then striped and finished.  I bet someone could turn that into a country song.  🙂

Look at the cracks in the posts where the glue has failed

Hmm, even bigger cracks.  That large crack will be the top that we take off on this post.

Bigger crack

 

See what I mean by hollow?  There are actually two wide sides and two narrow sides.  We will be taking off one of the wide sides.

Hollow posts which had been glued with inferior glue.

Makes a nice trenched-out post.  Nice working outside when it is beautiful.

One with the top taken off

Another angle as you can see how the glue has failed.  We will be using construction Type II Elmers Carpenter Glue.  With our research, that is the glue that holds up better in exterior projects.  We used it on two previous post that we did 3 years ago and they are holding up really well.  With a good primer and paint, they will last for years.

This is the one where we will glue in a two piece solid core.

Clamped and drying.

One will be ready for putting Bondo on and sanding and more Bondo and more sanding.  I’m gonna be a busy girl this week.

Give the glue a chance to cure overnight.

Only six more to go.  Going to have burn some of the after-work oil.  No rest for the wicked as they say.  Just hope the weather holds along with my stamina.  They both have a good chance of wavering.

Annie, the novice post repair princess 🙂