Blog Archives

Step Van

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

If you’re a professional framer, organizing your tools helps keep them in good condition and helps you find them when you need them— saving valuable time on the job.

Lumber

Step Van

Saw blade

 

Check to make sure tape ‘ end is not bent and that it moves on the end rivets.

 

Saw upside – down

 

Step VanStep VanStep Van

Step Van

Accuracy in measuring, marking, and cutting lumber is a very important framing skill to master. Periodic checks should be made of the condition of tape measures and the squareness of saw tables and blades.

A typical saw blade removes a channel of wood approximately 1/8" wide, called a kerf. This must be taken into consideration when you make a cut.

Suppose you want to cut a board 25" long. Measure and make a mark at 25", then square a line through
the mark with a s...

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Definitions of Reliability and Risk

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

In view of the lack of generally accepted rigorous definitions for risk and reliability, it will be helpful to define these two terms in a manner amenable to mathematical formulation for their quantitative evaluation for engineering systems. The unabridged Webster’s Third New World International Dictionary gives the following four definitions of risk:

1. “the possibility of loss, injury, disadvantage, or destruction,…;

2. someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard or adverse chance: a dangerous element or factor;

3. a: (i) the chance of loss or the perils to the subject matter of insurance

covered by a contract, (ii) the degree of probability of such loss; b: amount at risk;

c: a person or thing judged as a (specified) hazard to an insurer; d: … (insure…);

4...

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Federal Requirements Protecting Disadvantaged and Minority Populations

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of1964 (42 USC 2000d et seq.). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was arguably the most instrumental piece of legislation in providing an opportunity voice for minorities to participate in the review of federal capital programs. The Act pro­hibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in projects or programs receiving federal financial assistance.

The Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-646). The Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act provides benefits and protection for persons whose real property is acquired or who would be displaced from acquired property because of a project or program that receives federal funds...

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Federal Requirements Protecting Significant Historical and Cultural Resources

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The purpose of the NHPA is to protect the historical and cultural foundations of the nation. The NHPA created the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and provides for the review of federal projects that may affect a significant historic site. Section 106 of the NHPA requires all federal agencies to take into account the effects of their actions on significant historic properties. In the Section 106 process, a federal agency must identify affected historic properties, evaluate the effects of an action on such properties, and explore ways to avoid or mitigate those effects.

The NHPA established a partnership with the states, as administered through State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPOs) appointed by the governor of each state, to ...

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Knives

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

Подпись:Knives have their places in a carpenter’s toolkit. Most every carpenter has a utility knife, and many also carry a pocket knife. A utility knife can be used to open packages, to cut building paper, fiber­glass insulation, composition shingles, linoleum, and drywall, as well as to

Safety for cutting tools

• When using a cutting tool, don’t force it. Just like people, every tool has its own pace.

• When working with sharp tools, pay close attention; don’t allow yourself to be distracted.

Подпись:

sharpen pencils. The most common util­ity knife has a retractable blade, so it’s easy to carry it in a nail apron or on your toolbelt without fear of accidentally cut­ting yourself. Extra blades are stored in a compartment in the handle.

A pocket knife with a good carbon-steel blade is another ...

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Pavement Materials – Geotechnical Behaviour

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

The upper, bound layers in a pavement are little affected by pavement moisture. “Stripping” can occur in repeated wet weather when the traffic loading causes pulses of pressure of water which has seeped into cracks in the bound materials. Exploiting micro-cracks this water can separate the binder from the aggregate it is supposed to bind, leading to ravelling of the bound material. Similarly, water may cause delamination of one bound layer from another, thereby reducing pavement load-carrying capacity, by exploiting inter-layer cracks.

A whole book could be written on this aspect alone, but this volume only devotes part of Chapter 5 to this topic as its focus is on the lower unbound and subgrade soil layers...

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A Drainage Classification of Pavements

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

It is conventional to classify pavements according to their construction – flexible (i. e. principally made of asphalt or only granular), rigid (i. e. concrete) and semi-rigid (i. e. made of both concrete and asphalt layers). From the point of view of water movements these classifications are not very relevant. Instead, pavements may be classified by the way in which water enters and moves in the pavement. On this basis the following classification is more appropriate:

A. Impermeable throughout the construction

B. Impermeable surface and structural layers

C. Permeable surface over impermeable structural layers

D. Permeable throughout with water storage capacity within the structure

E. Permeable throughout without water storage capacity

F...

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California

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

In 2005, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. I had heard a lot of horror stories about the price of properties in the region, so I sold Tumbleweed and built myself an even smaller house to take with me. I figured I had better have something I could parallel park, in case I had to live on the street for a while.

Подпись: 15Tumbleweed’s desk (left) and gas heater (above)

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Tumbleweed’s ladder (above), kitchen (opposite) and exteior (page 18)

• ^

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XS exterior (page 19), loft (above)…

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… and downstairs. 20

I called my next home XS-House (as in, “extra small”). It measured about 7’ x 10’...

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. DEFINITION OF AN SMA SKELETON ACCORDING

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

to the original german method

The original German approach (by Dr. Zichner) to designing SMA aggregate blends is based on having adequate ratios of various aggregate fractions. In that context, the stone-to-stone contact is neither specifically analyzed nor controlled.

Since the beginning of the SMA concept, the ratios established by Dr. Zichner have been only slightly changed. Thus we may emphasize clearly that Dr. Zichner’s mixture is a really genuine SMA. The contemporary weight ratios of coarse aggre­gate fractions preferred in Germany (Druschner and Schafer, 2000) are shown in Table 2.1.

In the German design of the SMA coarse aggregate skeleton, all fractions of aggregate bigger than 2 mm are used...

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Federal Requirements Governing Use of Farmland Recreation Lands and the Coastal Zone

Posted by on 11/ 11/ 15

Farmland Protection Policy Act (FPPA). The Farmland Protection Policy Act of 1981 (73 USC §4201 et seq.) requires that a federal agency evaluate the effects a project may have on prime farmland before that agency can approve any action that may result in the conversion of farmland from agricultural use to nonagricultural use. The FFPA requires that before any federal action that would result in conversion of prime farmland is approved, the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must examine the effects of the action using criteria set forth in the FFPA. If it is determined that there are adverse effects, alternatives to lessen them must be considered. This process requires an inventory, description, and classification of affected farmlands be completed in consultation with the U. S...

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