WWA Info Exchange

After years of disagreements with a friend as to whether my outdoor temperature gauge was adequately sheltered, I made this Stevenson screen.
Here it is before paint, with the extra corner piece showing the grooves:



And here it is in the backyard with a wireless remote rain gauge on a bracket:

Hey drstrip,

Very cool . So have you noticed any difference? Have you compared screened versus unscreened?

Cheers,
Tom

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"There is no path to peace, peace is the path."
Mohandas K. Ghandi

I installed mine under a porch roof on the north side of the house. Seems to be pretty well sheltered and accurate. They do have to be out of the direct sun.

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Nullum Gratuitum Prandium

Cheers - Dennis

The challenge to an unscreened thermometer has been getting adequate shading. Since it's pretty much always sunny here, and the thermometer is far from any shading by the house or trees, it's been hard to shade it for the entire day without a complete enclosure. It's easy to tell when the sun hits it - the temperature skyrockets.



The north side of our house does provide shade, but it's much colder on the north side because of that shading. The snow is gone on the south side of the house, the snow on the north won't be gone until May or so. In addition, the house is rammed earth and has huge thermal mass, impacting temperature readings.

Besides, I needed an excuse to make something "official".

I like to keep an eye on the outside temp too. Living in Kansas the temp changes by the hour. But, I don't think I'm going to build a box for my thermometer! Very good job on yours however.
We have two remote digital thermometers, one in the kitchen and one in the shop. They have both their outside units on the north side of the house and I've noticed that the shading does make a difference as the sun moves throughout the year. The kitchen one changes more than the shop one because it is right over the concrete patio and the reflection of the sun/heat makes a bigger difference. We installed two retractable awnings over the patio about three years ago and they helped a lot with the reflection in the summer (as long as the wind stays below 20 MPH )
Kansas temp's example...Friday at 6:00 AM it was 7* and Saturday afternoon it was 62*. Not to mention the "wind chill" effect from Fridays 30 MPH north breeze and Saturdays 7 MPH south wind. And this is in FEBUARY!

Rog

_________________
Dont badmouth no strangers, they just friends you aint met yet.

An ounce of responsibility is worth a pound of State and Federal laws.

I spent most of my money on woodworking
tools and beer, the rest I just wasted.

I suspect that in Kansas this big temperature swing was due to a front coming through. I've had temperature swings that big (or bigger) just due to the normal diurnal swing. In fact, I've had temperature swings of 50 degrees or more three days in a row. Our house is located in a broad canyon bottom that is known locally for it's distinctive micro-climate which causes large temperature swings. Just driving from our mailbox in the next valley over (4 miles as the crow flies, 8 miles by road), the temperature can drop 10* if it's night time. Our highs are the same as everyone else, though.
Today was the same as the past few days - crystal clear skies which make for a cold morning and warm afternoon. My sheltered thermometer shows 16° for the morning low (around 6AM), high of 60°, and it's 25° at 8:20PM. (Edit: Back down to 16° 7AM next morning) Just a normal temperature swing for us. We were in Taos on Wednesday and the morning low was about 15°. At 2PM I saw someone skiing barechested- his jacket was tied around his waist. It was warm, but not that warm!

It's because of these huge temperature swings and extremely low night-time temperatures that I'm obsessive about getting them right, just for bragging rights

Did you make it with the cnc? I would think stuff like that would be right up its alley!
Also if you did how long did it take?
Thanks,
eric

I used the CNC router to make the slotted corner posts. I suppose it would be possible to do so by some sort of step-and-repeat manual setup, but I know that at least for me I'd ruin at least half the attempts. It took about 15 minutes to program the cut, then probably another 15 minutes clamp the pieces to the table and watch the machine cut them.

The slats, on the other hand, were a tedious labor intensive process. Ripping the strips, planing them to thickness, rounding over the edges with a quarter-round bit since I don't have the tambour bit that creates a rounded edge. A couple of hours got sucked into that.

The glueup was curious. I did a dry run and it was a bitch, holding slats in place while trying to add new ones. It turned out to be much easier with glue for once. The glue kept the slats from slipping out of the grooves once they were put in. I glued up two panels, then glued the panels together. Probably another hour or so there.

I brushed on Kilz as a primer, then spray painted the final coat. Add another hour or two for that.

But who keeps track? I already know I can't make money doing woodworking

I know exactly what you mean about gluing the slats. I had to do that on a rocking chair that I built.
The plans called for every other slat to be glued on one end only alternating the ends/slats in the seating and lower back area to give a bit more spring with wood movement. It worked but, it was a real pain to accomplish and I had only one set to do compared to the four sets you had!



Rog

_________________
Dont badmouth no strangers, they just friends you aint met yet.

An ounce of responsibility is worth a pound of State and Federal laws.

I spent most of my money on woodworking
tools and beer, the rest I just wasted.