My father bought this saw around 25 years ago for $25. We think it was manufactured in the 1930's. It certainly did a lot of work for us. But, Jack needed to spend a lot of time adjusting and aligning the saw. And, ultimately, the fence would not hold it's adjustment for the fine cuts required for the interior finish work we were about to begin.

So.....

Then he removed the throat plate and constructed a throat plate that would accommodate the width of the blade plus a tiny tad. This is to prevent small pieces of cut wood from falling down inside the throat, striking the blade, and being kicked back at the person doing the sawing. Here, the original plate is on the left and Jack's is installed in the throat.

Jack is constantly thinking about safety.

Jack is by calling and skill a furniture maker. In order for the interior finish work to truly represent the type of craftsmanship he will bring to this project, we needed to have a jointer. So, here it is.

In the background is the door frame and door that goes from the concentric Yurt into the oval office.

Now, we have a fairly complete woodworking shop situated in the center of the concentric Yurt. Clockwise from the bottom left you'll see the jointer, the planer, the table saw, and the sliding compound miter saw.

Those are the dining area windows in the background.

The two top assemblies on the left are EPK units - expansion and purge kits. They came from the Radiant Floor Company of Vermont. Each assembly consists of a pressure relief valve, pressure gauge, air eliminator, expansion tank, and drain and fill valves. The top EPK is for the solar unit (not installed yet!) and the middle unit is for the backup heating source, the TK-JR, 130,000 BTU, on-demand heater mounted to the right on the wall.

The bottom assembly on the left is to divert hot water from the solar collectors to a heat dump when too much heat is being generated in the solar heat system.

These are the circulators for the five radiant floor heating zones - a zone for each of the three Yurts and a zone for each of the two connectors.

There's more work to do here!

This image was taken from the bottom of and looking up the door between the concentric Yurt and the oval office.

The plastic pipes are the hot and cold water lines to the kitchen. We used 7/8" PEX pipe, the same as we used in the floors. There are three lines to the kitchen: one for cold water and two for the hot (we installed re-circulating hot water loop, so there would always be hot water at the kitchen sink.

The flexible, 5/8" copper tubing is for the LP gas.

The water lines from the kitchen join the two radiant floor water lines from the concentric Yurt and head back to the utility space in the bathroom/utility Yurt. Above the pipes, you'll see the the electric feed to the subpanel in the concentric Yurt.

Jack constructed a rack to keep the ladders out of the way...and accessible.

Two pair (there's a supply and return line in each pair) of PEX radiant floor water lines on the left from the studio and gallery Yurts and one pair from the oval office converge and pass along the floor (under what will be a step) on into the bathroom/utility Yurt.

You've seen the "NET" sign before.

The PEX pipes all come into the bathroom/utility Yurt, running along the tops of two walls. Jack installed holders that keep the pipes organized and which sit above the wiring raceways.

It all does make a certain sense...

The PEX pipes from the the five zones connect up to 3/4" copper pipe directly above the supply and return manifolds.

In the background you can see the one of the pipe holders.

Here you see the supply (on the top with the circulators) and the return manifolds for the radiant floor heat. There's still more assembling to be done.

Rick cut and installed the PEX as well as cut and assembled all the copper. He likes things orderly. I did the sweating of the copper (I'm crossing my fingers!).

Next Posting

-Stanley