Those seem to be more for tin or vinyl siding. Your siding would probably need a circular saw or band saw if it is that hard board. Maybe someone else will chime in if they know otherwise.

Looking good - Semper Fi Brother.

The 1100 s.f. cabin we are building now will stay that way for about the next 8 years, at which time we will expand it all on the ground level to include a large great room, master bedroom, master bath and garage.

We have a garden area already staked out under the power lines.

We have surprisingly good medical facilities in Rome, Ft. Payne and Gadsden.

We have several close friends who are already retired up there and are loving it.

Thanks for the comments.

They are made specifically for fiber cement board. Did you watch the video?

Thanks for the comments. I have used the ones for sheet metal as well. I was blown away that they made them for fiber cement board.

Thanks Bro. Semper Fi!

You can put a circular saw blade on backwards and use it that way. Cuts plexiglass without shattering it too.

I actually have the blades for my saw. The main thing I hate is all the dust and pieces of concrete flying all in my face and the sound of fingers on a chalkboard type thing. I just HATE sawing that chit.

These seem like a nice alternative and was wondering if anyone here had actual practical experience using them on fiber cement siding. I've read all the reviews on Amazon so I feel reasonably confident buying one.

Mrs. Irtish and I got to spend some time up on the mountain this weekend and had a very productive few days...

We pre-prepared some food for the long cabin weekend before we went up to Sand Mountain for her family's get together. Chicken soup and chili...


Sunset over Shinbone Valley Thanksgiving Day...


Nice breakfast Friday morning at Landmark Restaurant in Rome, Ga.


We hooked up a crock pot up at the little mini-cabin so we could work and not have to worry about cooking. Plus it warms up the little cabin inside, not to mention our bellies. Chicken soup with Kale, celery, carrots, onion and rice with toasted, buttered, French bread.


It wasn't all eating... We got to finish up the electrical rough in. Wired up the tornado shelter, under the deck and the stand-up crawl space. I put the wiring in conduit in areas that it may get hit or abraded.



I was also kind of dreading hooking up the breaker box, but like most things it turned up to be a no-brainer. Pretty simple. I wired it up nice and neat and logical and labeled all the wires so later on it would be easy to service if need be. Plus I have plenty of room for our addition later on.


After all that work we were hungry for Mrs. Irish's homemade chili...


After much deliberation and much research we finally decided on using natural cedar for the exterior trim in lieu of MDO, fiber cement, Miratech, PVC, etc... It may not be the best choice, but in the end we felt that it was right to use as much real wood on the cabin as possible. Plus I just like working with it. We bought a few boards and got a few windows done as an experiment. Mrs. Irish likes it, so we're good to go.

You can also see my relocated digital antenna so we were able to pick up the Alabama-Auburn game from the CBS affiliate out of Atlanta. Win!

Very cool

Two other things that deserve mention this weekend:

My two new RTIC coolers, a 20 and a 45, that I got on that one day sale for $250 including shipping worked great. This is a picture from this afternoon after putting ice and beer in it early Thursday morning. It still has nice ice in it and the beer and other stuff is still ice cold. Good coolers.



The other is my Porter Cable cordless tools. They ride around in the back of my truck all the time. I have abused the crap out of these. I have dropped them off ladders, ran them until they over heated and/or until they ran out of torque, ran the batteries dead, you name it... And they just keep on ticking and taking abuse. Going on two years now. I know they aren't professional grade, Makita, Dewalt, etc... but for the average Joe, they are great tools. I highly recommend them.

Awesome man! It's coming along beautifully.

Nice..combining work with fun. Looking good too...the food and the cabin!~

Hey man, just wanted to throw this out there. If you ever need some help, let me know. I have TONS of experience...taste testing delicious food. I can help make sure its good enough for you after you work on stuff all day...

You know the pisser was, I was going to do a little hunting early in the mornings, afternoons or whenever I felt like it, but after packing all the stuff the the weekend, including my guitar, we got halfway to her family's get together and I realized I forgot to pack my rifle... WTH? Oh well... At least the food was good.

Thanks. It's a lot like building a fort in the woods when you were a kid, but you have a bigger budget and girls are allowed.

Thanks. We are both like two kids up there.

I have used those shears. They work well but do crush the end a little so it's not as clean of a cut as a saw. I just set up a fan behind me and use a saw. It's quicker and the dust doesn't bother me. The shears work though.

It's coming along great and keep the updates coming. I've really enjoyed this thread. I can't imagine the time and energy y'all have put into this build but I know it must be gratifying. I'm ALMOST done with my hunting camp I've been working on for 2 years and still haven't completed it yet. It's 98.9% done though. I bought a portable shed and finished the inside with reclaimed wood from an old 1830's farmhouse that was on the property. I never thought it would be this time consuming from ripping the old wood out of the farmhouse, loading it up and bringing it to the camp site, cutting it down to size, sanding each board and nailing it up. It's nothing compared to what y'all have accomplished but it almost whipped me. I had a budget of 10k to buy the shed (14x28) have it delivered, wired, plumbed, insulated and finished out with the reclaimed wood and I'm about $250 under budget. Stayed in it for the first time this wknd with the fam and had a blast. It's primitive but that was the goal all along. Cheers to you and Mrs. Irish on a job well done.
I'll share my pics in a few weeks in another thread.

That's one heck of a cabin,,,, I'd be right proud of it if it was mine,,,

now pray tell,,, is there something going to happen in the near or not too distant future in this country or this world that you ought to be telling your brethren about,,,