STEP 1
Begin by cutting the lower board and batten
siding section of the main structure from the 1/8" scribed. These
should be 33" tall.
Four pieces should be enough. What you see above was cut on a
modified Dremel table saw using a 16 tooth/inch, .057" thick Thurston
metal cutting
blade, but a razor blade and straight edge will work just as well
(these pieces form the visible bottom of the structure that will sit on
the foundation, and we don't want the rounded shoulders on the cut
edges that an Xacto blade can give).
Next cut out and glue the rest of the wall templates to the back of the
appropriate siding with rubber cement. Use a square to make
certain the templates are mounted square. Double check the alignment in
several places, as it's very important that the templates are in
perfect alignment. You'll notice in the above photograph that the
templates are aligned with the bottome edge of the siding, instead of a
more economical use of the wood by stacking the templates at the edge.
All four walls are attached along the bottom edge, so that edge
can be used as an aid in square alignment. It also ensures that the all
the clapboards align precisely at the corners when the building is
assembled.
An additional aid to mounting the ends squarely is to not cut the roof
angle when cutting the templates from the template sheet, but cut it as
a rectangle. This allowa a longer side edge for more precise alignment
when attaching to the siding.
In this instance, after the front and back walls were cut from the
siding, the end of the siding was trued up using a square, and then
an
end template was attached. The bottom of the template (the vertical
board & batten section of the wall) has not been trimmed yet, as
the printed line was used in conjunction with the square for an
additional alignment check. The next step is to trim off this piece of
template.
After cutting out this end wall, true up the siding end once again, and
repeat the process in attaching second end template.
Next attach the templates for the small board and batten addition to
the rear of the 1/8" scribed siding, making sure that you attach them
so the boards will run vertically on the structure (don't ask why I
offer this caution...). But first, make sure that the edge
of the siding you will align the vertical edges of the
templates to ends in a full 1/8" board width. If not, use a straight
edge and
razor blade to trim off the narrow end board.
Since the doors and window of the board and batten addition are fairly
close to the edges of the walls, I'd suggest cutting out the window and
door openings first, and then cut the wall itself free from the siding.
After cutting out the window and door openings, check the castings fit.
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You may notice that there
is a slight texture to the window frames in
the photos.
This was done with the coarse side of the emory board, making one or
two slow, deliberate, vertical passes with the emory board held at an
angle, so
just the very edge of the emory paper made contact, and drawing the
casting across the edge of the board in a straight line, so the "grain"
added runs straight. A straight edge and #11 blade was used to scribe
in the joint where the vertical frame pieces meet the top piece. The
grain in the top piece was made by making several passes with the #11
blade kept in alignment by a straight edge. This added grain should be
very, very light, as painted surfaces like window components generally
do not have visible grain. However, if the castings were left
completely smooth, it would not match the slight natural texture of the
surrounding wood siding.
The window on the left is the casting as it comes off the sprue.
Notice that the top piece of the frame is a wider board than the side
boards. I used the emory board to file this down to the same width as
the sides.
Next, cut the 33" tall board and batten siding to width. The end walls
are of a width that is not evenly divisible by 1/8", so the vertical
boards of the board and batten siding will have at least one board
narrower than the others. Split this difference so there is one narrow
board one each end, both the same width, as shown below.
Trim the excess width from both ends as shown below.
Trim the board and batten edges for the front and rear walls in the
same manner, always splitting the odd board lengths so you end up with
shorter but even width boards on the ends.
The exception is the smallest section of board and batten next to the
large door opening. Do not even out the widths of the end boards, but
place the most narrow board next to the freight door as below.
Finally, add a 45 degree bevel to all but four edges.
Two edges of the board and batten addition that butt against the main
building do not get a bevel. (These would be the walls with
templates labeled "Front" and "Rear", and the edges that get a bevel
are the edges closest to the windows.) Also, the two ends of the 33"
tall board and batten that align with the freight door are not beveled.
Use the coarse side of
the emory board to make the bevels, and check the mating edges often as
you go.
That's it for cutting the walls, head for step 2
to continue.
Ron Hildebrand
July 2004
Photographs made with Nikon D1x and Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2.8
Copyright 2004, Ron Hildebrand
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