Studio Build 10

Ok, on Saturday I was involved in a film project where I was dressed as "The Monster"  His name was Bogomil, your basic run of the mill bogeyman created by a lifetime of items that fell under the bed.

Then on Sunday we had some yard work to do, busting out the chain saw and cleaning up the mess that the power company left behind.  And then!  work on the door and studio!

So, here are the layers of the door, you have the base of the firedoor, a layer of GreenGlue, a 3/8" layer of masonite, and then a layer of 3/4" Australian Cypress left over from a flooring job in the downstairs apartment.

The door will have three seals, two of them are rubber gaskets, (GM Trunk Seal) and the third is a magnetic refrigerator type of seal.  So in order for the magnetic seal to work, it needs something metal.  So we put in a metal strip.

The metal strip sits in a routed out groove.

And the wood panel is now flush with the drop seal.  The panel is screwed to the fire door and the screw heads are covered over with bungs.  The bungs will dry for a day, and then I'll sand the door face, and give it another coat of poly.

The plan is to use a latch from a walk in cooler, that should hold things tight enough against the seals.

Stay tuned!

Studio Build 9

Life just gets crazy busy!  As soon as I landed after my trip to Ventura Beach CA for FaffCon4, and a visit to some great friends at Sony Studios in Albuquerque, I was straight into rehearsals for "Broken no. 2", Hector Rivera's amazing student thesis work.

But we put on our play clothes on Sunday and GOT BUSY!

So the threshold is in.

It is raised up off the floor leaving room for the floating floor to tuck underneath it.  We had to lean the door back slightly, as the room has a crown to it, and the door was going to drag on the floor, since it's a metal door and we want a tight seal, there was no reshaping the door.

We have the first layer of door gasket in, (there will be 3)

On the exterior face of the door will be another layer of material, initially I was going to use some 3/4" cabinet grade plywood I had laying around, however I evidently used that on the shed project.  SO I tore into a bundle of Australian Cypress I had left over from the in-law apartment flooring.  Might as well use it!

It's 3/4" and bonded now to a piece of 3/8 masonite.

Here's how it looks as I test fit it to the door.  Note that it's stepped in from the edge of the door, that's due to the need to create a step for the second layer of gasket.  Think bank vault door.

So, the next step is to router in a groove for a strip of steel.  Why you ask?  because the third layer of gasket is a magnetic seal, just like your refrigerator.  The steel strip will provide something for the magnet to stick too.  I also have to find a decent door handle and latch.  The fire door has a standard size hole for a commercial handle set, but paying over $300 isn't in the budget.  So we're going to get creative, (I'm not cheap!  I'm thrifty!)

Stay tuned...

Becoming a Superhero

I was on my way south from L.A. after FaffCon4 and the thought occurred to me, I like being a hero.  I like helping people, using my skills, no matter how mundane or silly to solve a problem or give someone a hand.  Helping other really makes me happy.

Being a hero doesn't take much when you think about it.  I don't have xray vision... although, ya have to admit, that would be cool.  I can't fly without an airplane, neither could Batman.  I'm strong and can lift things but a school bus is out of the question without a forklift.  But if you need a hand carrying something, let me get that for you.  Need a ride downtown?  sure!  Do you have any ideas on how to fix this?  Let me look.

I can't help it, I have an overwhelming desire to see others succeed.  I hold open doors, say bless you when people sneeze and offer people a pen if they need one. 

I carry this mentality into my working life.  Doing voice work or giving it my all on stage.  It all follows the same idea, helping someone out with one of my talents.  That can be a client or someone who needs a hand moving to a new apartment or fixing a bike.

Modern technology has even give us the Dick Tracy style phone.  I can be reached anywhere and almost anytime by people. I need to work on a logo or a battle cry!  "Spoon!!" is already taken, (damn you Tick!)

I like it.  How can I help? 

Ok, preaching over, back to work on the studio, but I wanted to share the idea...

Studio Build 8

Calculating the door dimensions.

There's a bit of detail missing from books about how to physically build the door, so I figured I would give some insight as to my process.

It started with the door.  It's a steel door with fixed dimensions.  Since I was framing out the space in which it would live, I could work from the door out.  Verses trying to squeeze a door into a pre-existing space.

So, lets work with a hypothetical door and walk through the dimensions I chose.  The door is 36" wide, I want a gap on both sides of 3/16", then a heavy duty frame of dimensional lumber which is 1.5" thick then a 1/4" gap on both sides.
so from the door, we have 36+(3/16+3/16)+(1.5+1.5)+(1/4+1/4)  and doing some addition we come up with 36+3/4+3+1/2= 39 1/4 for a rough opening.  so as long as the world is perfectly plumb and wonderful, that would work.  I gave myself an additional 1/4 inch for breathing room  So I framed out my rough opening to be 39 1/2" wide.

Easy right?

Now for the height there were a few things to figure.  The room just had a raw plywood subfloor.  I have some leftover floating floor from the living room project.  So I needed to calculate how high off the floor I wanted things and still end up with a tight seal on the threshold.

Here's what I drew up.

  

So from the subfloor working up.  We have underlayment felt that is 1/8" thick, flooring that is 1/4" thick, a 1/2" threshold and a door gap of 3/16".  Then the door, another 3/16" gap, a 1.5" top door frame then a 1/4" gap between the door frame and the roughed out wall framing.

The floating floor will not be physically joined to the spacer under the threshold, a small bead of silent seal will act as a cushion.  It will have some movement as people walk on the floor but for me the main priority was that it wasn't going to transmit vibrations from the other side of the door.  The caulk will be hidden from view as the flooring will tuck under the threshold.

The door will also have a drop seal installed, so once it closes, there will be two seals on the bottom of the door and then the seals around the edges.

 

Studio Build 7

Wonderful weather!  it's time to get the big scary door built.  The studio door can make or break a space.  It has to be solid, and have an tight seal.  So I started out with a salvaged fire door.

It had been sitting in a barn for a couple of decades, and had some surface rust.  So I hit the rusty areas with the palm sander and some 80 grit paper.  Then wiped down the surface with some paint thinner.

 There will be a panen of 3/4 inch cabinet grade plywood added to the door, to create another layer to seal against, so I painted all of the edges with Rustoleum Hammer finish in a dark bronze and painted only an inch or two into the face of the door.

The hinges are heavy duty commercial hinges from McMaster Carr, and what's cool is that the bolt pattern matches perfectly with the fire door!  and the screws fit perfectly as well!  WOOO!  love industry standards!

The hinge side of the door frame is 6x2 routed out to accept the hinges.

Then with the help of my wife Cathy, we muscled that bad boy into place with a 1/4" gap on either side.  That gap will be stuffed with some felt then caulked with some SilentSeal before the trim goes up.

This is the inner face of the door, it will get a coat of green glue, an sheet of Luan and then stained.  Next up is finishing the threshold, the drop seal and making the jam/gasket/jam/gasket combination.  But with the door hung and in place, that should be a breeze!

Stay tuned...

Studio Build 6

Why do these things take so long!  I've said it in other stories that I have written and even in a few sermons that I delivered.  Life happens.  I wanted this to be done by the end of January... ok, February... sheesh here it is March and I'm just finishing painting!

Walls and ceiling are painted!  it's not the best drywall work in the world, there's little areas here and there if you look close.  So don't look.  A good friend of mine, Michael Nathan (of Nathan Sports) told me that he wouldn't hire an A+ type.  They're never satisfied and take forever to get things done.  He would rather the B student.  Good job, turned in on time.

Get it done.

So here are the colors of the studio.  The red wall is where the mix console is going.

and here is a quick shot of the mass that is three layers of drywall.

I have to touch up a few paint spots but then I can clean up the drywall mess and paint mess and bring in the material to build the door.

Once the door is built, the floor goes in.  Once the floor is in, the trim can happen.  Once the trim happens the acoustic panels get built and hung.  Once the panels are hung, we move in gear and get busy!

Studio Build 5

Ok, with the show Urinetown, The Musical all wrapped up for me, and the New York International Toy Show behind us, we can get back to work!

While we were down in NYC, the 61 sheets of Roxul Rockboard 60, 2" thick arrived from Herrington's building supply.

That and the material to build the frames as well.  I had to special order it, and it came in quicker than expected but we'll get to it soon.  First we just finished the sanding of the drywall.

We actually have already primed the walls as well, we'll finish priming and get the first coat of paint up on Wednesday evening if all goes well.  Then, we'll build the door!

WOOO