Announcing our new announcement board ;-)

This week was a little slower than the last couple.  Mostly due the fact I only paint the pre-school exterior after school is out for the day so after lunch (my lunch at noon not the Tanzania lunch at 3 PM).

This week I had a DIY type project.  Yes I know I am doing them all myself except the concrete pours because they require a lot of people but I am referring to the type DIY project I used to do back in the states.  The pastor at the church asked if we could make an announcement board where they could pin items of interest or information.  So my memory search how I would normally do this and realized I actually had all those materials here on site.  I was not a big fan of the color choices I had extra to paint it with (silver and gold) but did not want to run out of the colors I need for the playground.

A finished project this week

I started with two of the old 1x8 boards used for some concrete work in the past.  After cleaning off all the concrete residue I sanded them down just to make sure we had a good surface for glue.  I glued the two boards together length wise and while they were in the bar clamps I went ahead and made the back pieces out of some scrap 1x4 boards I had made earlier.  Yes you make most of your lumber here either on site or at the local lumber dealer who has a “table saw”.

The top 1x4 I put a little higher than two 1x8 boards so when I install the cover it will have a downward slope. 

After that I had kept the cardboard boxes our plastic tables came in and laid the wood unit on top and drew an outline of the wood unit I made.  The part about these boxes are they are very large and it was easy to cut two pieces to size from the one marking.

I had purchased a medium size bottle of glue in town that is basically like white glue used in schools.  Using a 1” brush I applied it to the surface of one of the pieces of cardboard.  I applied it over the entire surface not just the edges because glue here tends to dry out completely and lose its adhesion during the dry season.  I had originally planned to use 2” binder clips to secure it to the board while the glue set, but you may remember I mentioned in an earlier post that a 1” board here is actually thicker than 1”.  It was too thick to keep the binder on so I simply set it down on the concrete face down to use the wood’s weight to help it set.

After that I covered the other piece of cardboard with glue the same way I had done before and then placed it on top of the first piece of cardboard and laid it all face down again to let the glue set.  While it was setting I brushed on glue along one edge and basically about a 2” strip on the back.  Then used one of the woven plastic bags that replaced burlap bags for carrying food around and placed it along the edge of the glue.  We use them on site for erosion control sandbags and cleaning the bat droppings out of the ceiling areas of the buildings.  After placing the bag in the glue I used tack nails to secure it to the wood while the glue set.  The hope is the glue will form a seal with the wood to keep insects out.

After the glue had set I wrapped the sack all the way around and folded it over at the glue joint.  Here I placed another layer of glue before tacking it down again.  At the top of the unit I folded the front side inside the back side and tacked it down with nails the folded the back side over to the front and tacked it down.  I had set the back originally so these two folds would only reach the top edges and not go back down the front.

Along the bottom I folded the edges the same way as the top but because there was more to fold this time I sealed the edges with glue and then rolled them to the back of the wood to tack down with nails.  After this I went along the bottom and side edge and put tack nails about every inch to make sure it was secure.

 

gluing the edges together as I fold them on the bottom

I then made the top board from the remainder of the scrap 1x4.  Again I had set the top connecting board a little higher than the two body boards so it would have a slight downward slope.  I used the large head 2” nails to secure it to both the body boards and the connecting board.

I then nailed a 2” nail on each side of the back about 2” from the edge bellow the top connecting board and used the wire we use for repairing the barbed wire fence to create a hanger strap wire along the back.  Spray painted the body silver and the top board gold.

After this was finished I stuck some pins in to spell Karibu which means welcome and hung it on the wall of the pre-school.

I also spray painted the slide handrails and the tire for the see saw yellow now that I had more yellow spray paint.  Fortunately the wind cooperated and remained around 10 mph instead of the normal 30 when I am trying to paint outside.