The “close up” team returned yesterday after yet another weather-shortened trip…a theme that permeated the season more than usual this year.
Here’s the 1867 light before things were closed up.
…and a view from the water
Photos courtesy volunteer Tom McBride
The seasonal wrap is tentatively planned for this coming week end, with a plan to head out Saturday, returning Monday. As with all trips, weather will be a determining factor. We’ll try to provide an update if things change, but otherwise Sunday will be the last day buildings are open for visiting boaters. The grounds remain open year round. This signage next to the workshop provides a brief history of the station for those arriving pre- or post-season.
The team of Jack, Tom, Jim & Chris will do this season’s close up.
Last week’s repair of the water-damaged floor joists in the Assistant Keeper’s quarters started us on planning for next year….restoring the damaged flooring and baseboard above the repair.
In a day before plywood, diagonal planks were laid across the joists. We’ll need true dimension lumber to repair properly. The hardwood flooring will similarly need to be “right-sized.” One of our volunteers has black locust and connections with a local mill; that’s a potential avenue for replicating the needed wood.
Another challenge will be to replace this section of damaged baseboard.
Reproducing the exact trim design may be difficult without commissioning a custom tool, which is likely to be prohibitively expensive with only a small section to do. If we can come close to replicating but not exact, would it be better to replace the entire section along this wall to make any difference less obvious?
Fortunately, we have a sample of the material so will run this past some of our “winter” carpentry volunteers to determine an appropriate approach.
Here’s a sample of the molding from one of the apartments where the woodwork remains natural. It’s quite elegant!
This raises another issue for the project at hand. The woodwork originally had a shellac/varnish finish. This apartment, however, had its woodwork painted over. Should we finish the wood with varnish? Varnish, then paint over? If we paint directly, it will, of course, be difficult to reverse should we later decide to return to a natural wood finish.
Here’s an image of the parlor. Interestingly, the floor is natural in the center of the room where it was likely covered by a rug/carpet and painted only around the exterior.
Any thoughts?
There are several openings built into the 1867 tower stairway. Two were clearly built to access the weights used by the clockwork that rotated the lens. One contained a cabinet whose use is unknown. Its door has long been missing. Skilled carpenter Doug Noren rebuilt it this past winter. It is curved tongue and groove with a kerf next to each seam. This past week’s team installed it.
A “before” image is shown below. While details like this aren’t critical path, they need to be addressed eventually. We pick off such things situationally as we have volunteers available with interest and skills.
Jim (shown below) & Ben also reinstalled one of the smaller original doors that had brought back as a construction sample. It was stripped, primed & painted by volunteers John & Karen while it was ashore.
The frames will need work by a future team.
Many people come together to get these projects done.
The carpenter crew of Jim G. and Ben E. have been busy this week with some much-needed repair to the island structures, despite the “wicked” storm that blew through.
As you can see, the job was challenging, but the guys worked their magic on a rotting window in the cellar of the 1867 Lighthouse. Not only did they repair the window, but they made a screen for it as well!
Their other focus this week has been on repairing the floor joist in the Assistant Keepers Quarters. Note the floor jack at Ben’s feet—the joist needed some help!
The Indiana-based carpentry team of Ben Eichorst & Jim Greenwell headed out on Monday after a two-day weather delay. When reinstalling the restored basement windows last year, they discovered one of the frames was rotten — that’s among their projects this week, along with a floor joist in the Assistant Keeper’s that is failing due to a long-ago water infiltration issue.
Scaffolding needed to do lighthouse soffit repair didn’t arrive in time, so that project will need to wait until next year. The logistics for doing these projects is daunting….coordinating materials, equipments, boats and people!
The team is scheduled to be “on island” through Saturday.
The team accomplished their goal of installing five acrylic panels in the 1867 lantern room. It looks terrific!
Marty Rosalik photo
This involved a lot preparation, problem-solving and hard work. The posts over the last several days highlight Marty, Tom, Barb & Jeff’s work. Many thanks to this team!
This photo was taken yesterday, but seems appropriate today. Happy 4th of July!
Barb Falkenhagen photo.
The team is scheduled to be extracted this afternoon….they’ve had a weather-shortened trip both coming and going but still accomplished this major objective as well as several smaller, but important projects.
Volunteer Barb Falkenhagen provides an excellent log on her Facebook page. Here are some selections from her July 3 entry:
“It rained heavy during the night and I kept hearing one of the shutters on the lighthouse tower banging, so I finally got up and latched it shut. Tom also latched a shutter on one of the windows in his room.”
“This morning we worked in the tower again fitting new screws, and placing the painted glass stops to the corresponding astragal. We learned that the parts painted yesterday were also marked for placement with little punch marks. After all the proper placements were made we removed them so we could paint. We are letting the paint dry the rest of today and will set the panes of plexiglass and caulk tomorrow.”
Note the four small punch marks in Barb’s photo
Painting the lantern room. Barb Falkenhagen photo.
We’ve separately reported on today’s major accomplishment in a News post. It was truly an historic day with the first of nine panels restored in the 1867 lighthouse lantern room.
Lots of preparation was required to make this happen. Planning in 2023 along with removal of corroded sheet metal at the base of the lantern room. Experimental removal of a couple of screws holding astragals on a trip back in May. Preparing for less than cooperative screws (there were several.) Developing tools & fixtures (as shown below.) Bringing Heli-Coils to repair damaged threads.
Drilling out a broken screw using their magnetic drill press fixture.
After removing screws, rust and dried putty had to be ground out, with stops and frames prepped and painted.
Tom built temporary wood supports for the bottom of each frame as the existing ones were no longer usable. New ones will be made off site and installed at a later date. Each plexi panel was cut and fitted. Ultimately, it would be nice to upgrade to glass consistent with the historic panels but this interim step provided more flexibility in addressing the not unexpected challenges.
Three panels were completed today, with two more planned for tomorrow. Phil’s original 2006 wood panels were called into service overnight to protect against forecast wind and rain.
This is a very talented team. We’ve thankful for their work.
Left to right, Barb, Tom, Marty & Jeff.
Volunteers Marty Rosalik, Tom McBride, Barb Falkenhagen and Jeff Brearley arrived today. A key project is working on the 1867 lantern room…. As Marty says “The shop has a view.”
Detroit Locomotive Works built our lantern room and those of many other lights.
The firm went bankrupt years ago. Marty has resurrected the name.
This is a complicated project…on their first afternoon, they’ve already removed a number of the Astragal glass stop screws….complications include this broken screw.
This doesn’t happen by magic…it requires lots of knowledge and equipment.
