The Beacon Hill Dollhouse Revisited Week 6

Finding Parts

Sometimes when you have many parts, quantities alone can not tell you what the parts are. This is especially true, if there is only one of a particular part. There can be other similar parts but they are all different sizes. If this occurs, you can easily figure out what part you're looking for by matching the wood grain of the sheet to known parts.

For example, trying to find the Bottom Support piece can be difficult when you have several similar pieces. But I can see in the schematics that the Bottom Support is found on Sheet 27 and on that sheet is also the Porch Foundation Front piece. All I did was find the two pieces that have the same wood grain running through them. The two pieces can only be the Bottom Support and the Porch Foundation Front pieces since they came from the same sheet. This lets me single them out from the others. The larger piece is the Porch Foundation Front, which means the other can only be the Bottom Support. This is a good tip for advanced assemblers that do not need to label their parts.

Warped Floor

When assembling your foundation it's a good idea to hold it flat to your table's surface with hand held weights. This straightens out any warp that it might have allowing for parts to fit flush to it.

Clamps

Plastic clamps hold tabs tightly in their slots and also hold the angles square. This pressure can also straighten any warps the Foundation Back piece might have. Masking tape can be used the clamp between the plastic clamps.

Warped Bottom Support

If you want your Bottom Support piece to sit straight across the bottom, use the hand held weights to push the piece straight as it dries. Sometimes this piece can warp and since it has no tabs to hold it in place, the only way to straighten it would be like this. Masking tape will not hold it. Mines was bowing in the center due to warping so I applied pressure with the weights at the ends on one side and pressure in the center on the other side, until the piece was held straight.

Keep In Mind

Remember to not block any slots with this piece. Since the floor is being held down flat by the weights, you do not need to apply any clamps to hold down the Bottom Support piece itself. Just keep it straight with the pressure of the weights on the sides.

Use tacky glue and then go over the joints with wood glue. Transferring your glues to smaller and easier to handle squeeze bottles can make the job simpler. These bottles are small enough to fit into tight places, are lightweight, have a smaller and more precise opening so glue is applied with more control and they have caps to close them with so glues do not dry out.

Keep a wet towel handy on a styrofoam plate, so you can wipe glue off your hands quickly and without having to walk away from your work area.

This foundation needs to dry thoroughly before you continue, preferably overnight if possible.