The biggest drag on productivity at the moment is the countersinking process.

In order to avoid break out I need to press very lightly and drill very slowly initially.

I am thinking that I might change over to some countersinking bits (ie 4 flutes, no helical drill) to see if I can work more quickly.

I will just have to wrap a piece of tape around as a gauge and work visually to achieve the correct depth.

I might also use my largest drill to achieve a bit of weight behind it (which I will need with this method).

I am not too fussed about today's progress as I am still setting up a lot of infrastructure.

When I arrived on site I raised the tarpaulin (37 degree day forecast) and then had to poke around through my discarded tarpaulins to attach a corner apron to it when the sun beats in at the acute angle of the early morning.

Next I had to carry up this week's load of floorboard pieces to provide a raw stock for the floorboard runs.

During the week I had purchased a single 5.4 metre length of pine to use as the compression beam and as a gauge for preparing the boards.

I marked up the centre line on all the joists, put the gauge piece in place and transferred these positions on to it, and then used a setsquare to transfer the positions to all sides of the beam.

Next I carried up my newly created mist sprayer.

This is an experiment of mine to see if I can cool down the environment under the tarpaulin during peak heat between 1.00 amd 3.00 pm.

Usually the heat chases me indoors for a while. The mist sprayer (with a fan positioned behind it) was a great success. Its effect could only be directly experienced when standing within a metre of it, but today it kept the entire volume of air under the tarpaulin at a tolerable temperature and I did not have to retreat because of heat at any point.

During the week I had also been working on creating various lengths of sash clamping.

As I mentioned last week, my suspicion that the pipe sash clamps were just using standard galvanised water pipe was confirmed.

I have a lot of 3/4 inch water pipe so I bought a tapered cutting die and a handle and went to work.

My first issue was finding a way to clamp the pipe while I was cutting the thread.

The forces needed are immense and I was working right at the limits of my strength while threading the pipe.

For starters, I did not even know the name of the clamping device that I needed (turns out it is called a pipe vice) and none of the plumbing outlets seemed to know what I was talking about or stocked this type of tool.

Eventually I found several vices advertised in Gumtree at quite affordable prices - but by then I had created an alternative method.

I have 4 sets of cast iron sash clamp fittings so I set about threading 4 x 900 mm and 4 x 2100 mm pipes.

I already have 2 x 2400 mm pipes so I will just add another two of these. I was also able to buy some brass couplings so that I can join various lengths up and eventually span 4.5 metres as I work my way across the floor.

Back on site - I also implemented my plan to avoid continuously squatting up and down as I made up each floorboard run.

This involved setting up carpentry horses to carry the raw pieces of floor board, horses to carry a 5.2 mm working surface and my cut off saw on its own stand.

Using this combination I was able to prepare 5 runs without much effort.

Placing and clamping the floorboards was also reasonably easy using a combination of my 4 sash clamps agains the compression beam and a few judicious blows with a 3 pound hammer.

As I mentioned before - the countersinking step really slowed me down, but all the other processes went reasonably quickly.

Packing up at the end of the day is still a problem.

I find that I need to make about 10 trips up and down the stair cases, and then when I am totally exhausted I need to cover up the work done to date and the raw floorboards with plastic and drop the overhead tarpaulin.