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Thursday, February 17, 2022

Preparing the Air Compressor Room - Part 4

 "He who spares the wicked injures the good." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The problem is figuring out who is wicked and who is good!  It's probably best to ignore politicians and the media while making this determination.  They *are* the wicked, so don't listen to them :)

I rolled on the clear coat for the floor - two coats. 

Below:  The first coat, still wet.  The wet roller picked up a lot of that loose glitter.  It didn't really matter to me that it moved a handful of the specks elsewhere on the floor.  I had to be careful not to pour any of them back into the can from the roller tray afterwards though.


After four hours of drying time, the instructions said it could be walked on.  I installed the electrical face plates, and then rolled on the second coat of clear.  This time the roller did not pick up any of the glitter flakes.  It's still fresh and wet in the images below, but I expect that it will hold the gloss.

Below:  Final finish, dried, with two coats of gloss over two coats of color with the painter's tape removed.

Below:  Baseboards installed.  View into the room and out of the room


My next concern was how to get this top-heavy and bulky beast down off the pallet and into the room - without messing up the brand-new floor finish.  The installation video recommends four guys should move it, and use a pallet jack to move it around.  We have to "adapt, improvise and overcome", yes?  Can't let a lack of 3 other strong dudes hold up the project.  Worst that can happen is that it falls on the floor and becomes a pile of scrap, right?


 This is the approach I decided on:  Canvas drop cloth and plastic furniture sliders.  I took "before" photos so that if it fell over, at least I'd have a memento of when it looked nice and undamaged :)

This technique actually worked out pretty well.  The only scary moment happened once I got one foot of off the pallet and onto the concrete.  At that point, it tried to roll away from me and fall over onto the floor.  Fortunately I was able to wrangle it before it toppled.  After that one moment, the rest of the move was gravy.  The sliders went under each foot without having to tip it much.

It slid right across the room easily.  Once it was in position, I tipped each foot up in the air and kicked the drop cloth from underneath.  It looks so lonely and small in there, all by itself.  It's big though - and heavy. 



There is one last thing this room needs, and that is a door.  This compressor doesn't howl like a cheap direct drive one, but it still sounds like an unbalanced washing machine.  So I'm putting a door on the room.  Who needs to hear that racket over music? 

This will be a new experience.  I've never installed a door before, so there are probably some videos that I should watch before messing it up.


Yes, there is a doorknob in the bag on the floor.  One that doesn't lock, hahaha.

Below:  Door trim.  This hardwood cost nearly as much as the door itself.


Hopefully soon, I can finish this project up and quit having to walk around all the clutter of what was once stored in this room.  The compressor installation mechanical, electrical and pneumatic will get its own post.  I've put a bit of thought into that part. 

Part 5 is here.









2 comments:

Marc said...

Room looks great! Only thing I can suggest to have within reach, while installing the door, is pieces of wood to put under the door to hold it up just a little. Fairly certain you'll be pleased when it's all done.

Mark said...

Thanks for the compliment! I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out, but truth told, I'm getting tired of grinding through finishing this. It's time I'd rather be spending getting the tractor going or starting to work on that old truck. I can't even imagine doing this sort of thing for a living - well maybe as a young fella, but not at this point haha.

Thanks for the tip on the door. I've never installed one before, and I only want to do it once - correctly. Then again it's just a utility and storage room in a shop, so if it's messed up, not a big deal :)