Trapped with nowhere to go - Compressor Installation part 7

 "No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity.  For he is not permitted to prove himself." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 We will be facing adversity pretty soon.  Most people seem able to deal with their personal troubles quietly, although there are always loud complainers.  I have a raft of personal troubles, but the public sphere isn't what I would consider a legitimate venue for airing them.  Irritating stuff, yes.  Big-time private issues, no.

 I finally had an opportunity to spend time in the shop yesterday.  I cranked the heater up to something reasonable - 60F - and did my best to *finally* install the door for the air compressor room.  It became a total shit-show of course, like most of my projects ;).   

 Still using the old portable Harbor Freight air compressor, because the Husky isn't quite ready for prime-time.  There are no fittings on the big one yet.

Before starting, I watched the video below:

Looks pretty easy right?  While I was in the middle of my own installation, I suddenly recalled how many video edits this jackass had made.  How long did it really take him to do this, and how many times did he do it over???  I have no idea.  Hinge side plumb.  Check!  Screw that guy, LOL.

 I did everything he said to do, and I still had to spend a lot of time sanding down door edges to eliminate rubs.  It wasn't going to be OK - right from the very beginning.  

 I drink a lot of sugar-free Monster energy drink.  I make no secret of this - it keeps my energy level about 10 years younger than it would otherwise be.  The down-side is that I have to pee frequently.  

I was just beginning to install the door latch mechanism, and had installed the striker plate on the frame.  After the earlier trouble I'd had aligning the door with the frame, I decided to check to verify that the door latch would align with the striker plate before installing the door knob. 

 I closed the door from the inside.  Amazingly, the door and frame were aligned, and the mechanism latched perfectly.  At that moment, I realized that it was going to take some time to get out of the room.  It wasn't obvious how to release the latch mechanism without a doorknob.  As I squatted down to figure out how to release the latch, I had a sudden and dire urge to piss.  I was trapped.  With nowhere to go.

The situation wasn't all that desperate, but it was a very uncomfortable couple of minutes, while I figured out how to release the latch.  The first thing I did after finally getting the door open was to pee, and the second thing was to install the damn door knobs.

At that point I was disgusted and covered in sawdust from sanding the door edges.  I decided to goof off on World of Warcraft for a little while, and to play with the pooch.  Yes the yard will get green, whenever the weather decides to warm up.  The weeds are already looking great!

Later on, when I was done being miffed, I went back out to the shop to finish the door trim.  That's when I realized that I'd never stained the trim.  I'd just bought it and set it aside, and begun applying polyurethane to the door itself.  So I had to break out the saw horses again to stain the trim.

After staining the door trim and leaving it to dry, I decided to run the electrical for the compressor.  Above this room is the 230V outlet this compressor plugs into.  I had bought a stick of 1 inch PVC conduit and a couple of end-fittings for it.  I drilled into the ceiling, and managed to hit a metal truss hanger that supports the mezzanine.  As a result, I had to move over a bit, leaving behind a ragged hole in the brand new drywall.  I made a bezel from 1/8 inch plywood to hide the screw-up.  And of course because I had to move the bottom hole over, the conduit now isn't straight up and down.

After powering up the compressor, I test ran it with the door shut.  It's still pretty loud, and rattles the shop a fair bit.  I'm glad it has its own room.

Previous episodes of this project:

Part 6

Part 5

Part 4

Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

Also the final completion - minus the door framing.