Australian and New Zealand Gardening: mini orb (mini corrugated iron) wall, 2 by weed_woman

weed_woman wrote:
Start by painting your timber dado rail and the picture frame with the varnish of your choice. You may need two coats, so if you apply one in the morning, you might be able to get the second done that afternoon.

Once dry, place the picture frame on top of the existing skirting board (that way, if you ever want to remove the mini orb, you still have the skirtings in place and can return it to standard)
we needed to mitre (cut to 45 degrees) the left hand, bottom corner and needed a join to add more to the length. (our wall is 3300 and the timber came in lengths of 2400mm)
Ensure, if you have something like a fireplace, or permanent fixture, to put the join behind it. Leave enough room at the other end for the timber you will use on the right hand edge, there. (We used the Dado rail, as we had a big offcut) Its a little bit of thinking required to work out what you need exactly, so measure twice, cut once!
Place a bead of liquid nails, the length of the picture framing and stick in place to the wall, on the top edge of the skirting board.

If you don't have a 'stud finder' tap your knuckle along the plaster. The deep hollow sound is empty space, and the higher dull thud is where a stud is.
You can mark these on the wall, bcause the cladding will cover it. Using the drill, drill a pilot hole into the timber where there is a stud underneath, then tap a panel pin in carefully. You can finish it off neatly with a nail punch later, but if you go carefully, you can get them in quite neatly. Our nails kept bending (chinese?) so we coated them with soap which made them go in easier. The reason for drilling pilot holes was to ensure the timber didn't split when the nail was inserted.
do not put the extra length up yet.

photo one shows the mitred corner

Measure from the inside lip of the bottom picture frame (the bit your mini orb will rest on) up 900mm (the length of the mini orb) and mark it. Then sit a piece of your Dado railing so that the lip is over hanging where the mini orb will be. (our overhang was about 30mm) so the measurement in our case was 870mm BUT! we wanted to mitre the bottom corner, so we needed to measure from the bottom of the existing piece of picture framing, (top of the skirting) to the 870mm mark and that is how long we needed our side piece, then mitre the bottom corner to fit the existing one. (check the orientation of your mitre, you really need to think about it)
Once measured (and checked twice) cut, liquid nail, pilot drill, and nail into place

ok, as you can see, we had a power point to go around. Wasn't that fun? Quite a few curse words had, but we sorted it in the end.
first, we sat the mini orb into the lip of the bottom picture frame, and put it next to the power outlet and marked where the top and bottom were,
then we sat the mini orb on top of the power outlet, with it tucked under the lip of the side picture frame to see which corrugation the power outlet started at, and finished at. we marked that too, then followed them up to the first marks and drew an outline. We took the cover off the power outlet and put it over our marks to make sure it was the same size.
Be careful with the next step, as the cut tin is very sharp.

Drill a large hole in the middle of the bit you want to cut out, then nibble it away with some tin snips. At this point, swear as often as you like! (unless small children are present) Keep checking, by putting the power outlet cover into the hole. You want a snug fit.
Once that is done, you can replace the cover on the outlet and slot the tin into place. You should find that the tin extends above the side picture frame, for us by 30mm
Photo two shows the finished corner and power outlet



This message was edited Aug 31, 2013 9:45 PM