Date: Fri, 23 Dec 1994 11:23:02 -1000 From: andrew@tug.com (Andrew Beattie) Message-Id: Organization: /usr/lib/news/organisation Subject: Kite loft A couple of days ago, I decided to make the Double Parasled in the latest issue of Kitelines. I got the fabric out and laid my 8'x4' cutting board down on the livingroom carpet. When I reached for the plans, I noticed that each panel was about 3m (10') long. If it were down to me, the livingroom would be a permanent kite workshop, but married life dictates that it must also double as a home, so the carpet must stay. Something had to be done! A few trips to the hardware store and a few hours heaving shoving and making noise and mess and I've now got a kite loft! Everything was done as cheaply and as quickly as possible, and I'm very pleased with the result. The biggest surprise was that I could do so much so cheaply. Here's what I did: You can buy proper tongue and groove floor panels, but they work out kinda expensive. I used six 8'x4' sheets, which they cut in half lengthways for me so that they would fit through the loft hatch at a total cost of 54 pounds (about $80). That was enough to do half of one eave so that I had somewhere to put all the junk that collects in the loft and all of the other eave for use as a cutting floor. Most of the middle of the loft is messed up with water tanks, but I collected sufficient wood as I did the eves to finish this off quite neatly, and enough scraps of carpet to make it quite comortable. The only tricky bit was being careful of the power cables that are laid over the lower joists to supply the lighting below, but they were dealt with simply by hollowing out the back of the chipboard with my router. I could have been posh and installed sockets and light fittings, but instead I just drilled a hole in the roof of the airing cupboard and plugged in a 4-gang extension lead. This is ample for wiring up a light, a hot-knife, a sewing machine or whatever else I need. All in all, a lot of floor space for very little effort or money. Andrew -- Kite FAQ's: ftp.hawaii.edu:/pub/rec/kites/faq) o /\ Kite Jumping For sale: 10' Flexis with std & UF Spars. |_ \/ is for andrew@tug.com AoXoMoXoA (_\ M O R O N S = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =