ANN TUBBS POTTERY STUDIO: my father's T-square (cutting more cement board for tiles)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

my father's T-square (cutting more cement board for tiles)

marking the durock for the first cut (with my father's T-square)

This is a lot of visual reference for a fairly simple procedure, but since the earlier post about cutting cement board (durock, and other trade names) has had a number of views, I'm repeating the process, here. I also wanted to say a few things about my father's tools. Before he died, one month shy of 94, he had passed on to me his tools--he was a heating and cooling engineer, and also made beautiful wooden furniture and smaller wall pieces (out of orange crate). He had memory loss which began to affect his everyday work for about 10 years before he died; still, he was able to physically do a lot of different things, and was the main person helping me paint the old tables that I was tiling and taking to fairs to sell. Here, I'm using his T-square to cut up a thin sheet of handyboard or durock (a cement board with fiberglass thread reinforcement). I want to cut a circle, so I begin by cutting out a square, and then cutting off the 4 corners, and then nipping the extra with the old pair of pliers he gave to me. I think the yellow cutting knife was his, too. The cuts are made by scoring the surface of the board with the blade of the knife (fresh blades are good!)--pressing the blade against the metal ruler edge while dragging it across the surface of the board. Then I break open the cut by laying the cut along the edge of the table and whacking down on the part which hangs over the edge. It won't be cut all the way through, so you need to score the back side, as well-----along the inside of the now folded line. Once the cuts have made the circle round enough, able to fit into the chair circle, the circle of durock can then be glued down/or in to the chair form with some Liquid Nails. It's also held there by bolts that come in from the outside of the round metal form. I will post the final 'look' of the tiled chair on the next post.